This year, Feminist Theory and Music received an unprecedented 146 proposals for papers, some for individual presentations and some for two- to four-paper panels. Additionally, we received 25 proposals for performances. Faced with an embarrassment of riches we had not anticipated, we engaged first in a long discussion about the number of concurrent sessions we thought we could schedule. Our concern was to ensure that everyone presenting had a sufficient audience to provide useful discussion and exchange of ideas: in the end, we decided to create 15 sessions of 4 papers each, for a total of 60 papers.

Paper and panel proposals were removed of information that identified the authors, and circulated electronically to the entire Program Committee. Committee members assigned ratings from 1 (highest) to 5 (lowest) to each, and kept notes about each paper to serve in discussion. All Committee members recused themselves from the evaluation of proposals submitted by their students, and some chose to recuse themselves, as well, from evaluating proposals they recognized as authored by colleagues and/or friends. Scores were sent to the Committee’s co-chairs, who arranged for them to be tabulated and averaged. On March 11, the Committee met to discuss the results: after several hours, the identities of proposal authors were revealed, prompting more discussion as we worked to create a program that balanced the range of interests represented by this year’s submissions, and to form panels.

Proposals for performances were first evaluated by a subcommittee appointed by the Program Committee’s co-chairs. The subcommittee reported its recommendations electronically to the entire Committee prior to our March 11 meeting, at which we devoted several hours to discussing those recommendations. As in our discussion of paper proposals, we worked toward the creation of as balanced and inclusive a program as constraints of time, available performance spaces, and logistics would allow.

We very much hope that the work we were unable to program at this year’s Feminist Theory and Music conference will be presented at other conferences and meetings of professional societies.