Call for paper Intellectica special issue

Deafnesses and Musical Experiences

Over the past several decades, a growing body of scientific research, artistic practices, and cultural initiatives related to music has sought to explore new perceptual dimensions of the art of sound, grounded in a multisensory experience, encouraging a redefinition of its conventional understanding as an art primarily situated within the audible realm. In this context, the relationship between musics and deafnesses – expressed in the plural to encompass the diverse categorizations and realities – reveals a particularly rich and dynamic field of research and artistic experimentation.

This issue of Intellectica therefore aims to examine the relationships between music and deafnesses, drawing on a plurality of theoretical and methodological frameworks from disciplines such as musicology, linguistics, anthropology, cognitive sciences, and Deaf Studies, in order to document, analyze, and problematize this field of research from various angles:

• visual-gestural prosody and shared musicality
• philosophical and cultural frameworks for thinking about music and deafness together
• the embodiment of musicality and the performative practice of musicianship
• the teaching and professional practice of signed music
• the musical properties of sign languages and their articulation with music
• modalities of perceiving and appreciating music beyond hearing
• critical approaches in musicology and metamusicological perspectives
• the influence of Deaf musical practices on audio-centered practices
• the study of the tactile-kinesthetic (haptic) perception of music in relation to audiotactile, vibrotactile, and more broadly pallesthesic technologies
• the comparative study of verbalization to Musical Listening (Deaf vs Hearing people)

All contributions exploring music through the lens of deafnesses and deafhood are welcome, whether they focus on musical practices developed by Deaf artists, on alternative sensory experiences (pallesthesic, visual), or on the ways in which perception, cognition, and musicality are constructed beyond hearing.

The issue also invites reflection on theoretical and epistemological models that allow us to conceptualize music beyond its aural reception. In this sense, multidisciplinary approaches that offer valuable perspectives for questioning listening norms and the conceptual frameworks of music are particularly encouraged, as are contributions exploring the social, collective, and cultural dimensions of musical experience along with the normative and political issues associated with the inclusion and recognition of Deaf musical practices in the field of musicology.

Proposals may therefore focus on collaborative dynamics, technological or bodily mediation, the transmission and circulation of musical practices, or any methodological or conceptual reflection that allows musicality to be considered from a shared, multisensory, and extended perspective.

Contributors are invited to explore – without being limited to - the following themes (non-exhaustive list):

• artistic and performative practices developed by Deaf artists and their communities
• sensory experiences of music (visual, tactile, bodily, and pallesthesic)
• the modalities and challenges of cultural and sensory accessibility
• methodological and epistemological approaches that examine music from a multisensory and shared perspective
• normative, political, and critical issues related to the recognition and inclusion of Deaf musical practices within musicology.

Contributions may draw on experimental, theoretical, critical, or methodological perspectives. Interdisciplinary perspectives are particularly encouraged.

Submission guidelines:

Contributors are invited to submit their proposals by April 15, 2026, in French or English, Submissions should be include a title, a 500-word abstract with a short bibliography, and a brief biographical note.

Proposals should be sent in PDF format to the issue coordinators: Sylvain Brétéché (sylvain.breteche@univ-amu.fr), Alban Briceno (alban.briceno@univ-lille.fr), and Octavia Rioual (octavia.rioual@gmail.com).

If accepted by the editorial committee (notification to authors no later than May 02), full articles will have to be submitted to soumission@intellectica.org before June 30, 2026.

Guidelines and recommendations for authors are available on the journal's website: https://intellectica.org/en/authors

The issue is scheduled for publication in June 2027.

Issue coordinators:

• Sylvain Brétéché, PRAG-LRU/PhD., Département Arts, Aix-Marseille Université, France. sylvain.breteche@univ-amu.fr
• Alban Briceno, PhD., Centre d'Étude des Arts Contemporains (CEAC), ULR 3587, Université de Lille, France. alban.briceno@univ-lille.fr
• Octavia Rioual, PhD., Laboratoire Arts : Pratiques et Poétiques (APP), EA 3208, Université Rennes 2, France. octavia.rioual@gmail.com