Conference Agenda

Organized by the AMS Jazz and Improvisation Study Group

At a moment when those in political power are increasingly policing and censoring efforts toward gender inclusion as part of a larger backlash to the post-#metoo landscape, many jazz studies scholars have become adamant that women and gender-marginalized people and issues not only matter, but also deserve, at long last, a central place in the study of jazz. In addition to the landmark Big Ears: Listening for Gender in Jazz Studies (2008), their recent output includes special issues from the Journal of Popular Music History (2022), Women & Music (2023), the Routledge Companion to Jazz and Gender (2022), and the founding of the Berklee Institute for Jazz and Gender Justice (2018). In 2025, the Journal of Jazz Studies (JJS) joined this list in a double special issue titled “State of the Field: Jazz and Gender.” This session is a collaboration between JJS and the AMS Jazz and Improvisation Study Group, and offers an opportunity for jazz and improvisation scholars to come together to take stock of the immense amount of energy currently centered on jazz and gender.

The session will start with a brief overview from JJS managing editor, Sean Lorre, associate editor Steph Doktor, and special issue editor Kelsey Klotz regarding the strategies and approaches taken in the double issue. The primary focus of the session will be lightning talks from double issue authors. Their articles examine a diverse range of issues related to jazz and gender that expand traditional jazz histories, methods, and sources. Talks include an analysis of jazz’s teenage girl audiences through magazines like Seventeen and Tan Confessions; archival work on the women involved in college and university cultural diplomacy programs; fieldwork investigating jazz musicians’ understanding of what gender means in jazz; an intersectional exploration of race, gender, and disability in Rahsaan Roland Kirk’s performances; an examination of gender-inclusive practices in higher education jazz programs; and an analysis of Abbey Lincoln’s voice, multimedia presence, and transnational reception in We Insist! The Freedom Now Suite. The session concludes with a Q&A, inviting audience members to consider both the content and the structure of the JJS issue alongside the continued urgency of jazz and gender studies.