Celebrating Please Please Me at 60: An International Beatles Symposium

March 25-26, 2023
Hosted by Liverpool Hope University
School of Creative and Performing Arts
As part of the Angel Field Festival

The Music Team members at Liverpool Hope University are delighted to announce an interdisciplinary, international Beatles symposium that will be held on March 25-26, 2023 at the School of Creative and Performing Arts, located in the heart of Liverpool’s vibrant city centre. This academic symposium is in honour of the 60^th anniversary of the release of Beatles’ debut album, Please Please Me, and will feature a keynote address from Professor Kenneth Womack, one of the world’s leading authorities on the Beatles and their enduring cultural influence.

You are cordially invited to submit abstracts for individual, 20-minutes presentations or for panel presentations focusing on scholarly explorations of the musical, cultural, historical, political, and/or social contexts of the Beatles’ and solo Beatles’ works. We welcome in particular proposals regarding:

• The creation, influences and legacy of Please Please Me
• The works of George Harrison (in honour of the 80^th anniversary of his birth)
• The creation and legacy of George Harrison’s Living in the Material World, of Paul McCartney & Wings’ Red Rose Speedway and Band on The Run, of Ringo Starr’s Ringo, or of John Lennon’s Mind Games (in celebration of the 50^th anniversaries of those albums)

We also welcome proposals for scholarly explorations of the Beatles or solo Beatles works, including but not limited to presentations concerning the Beatles and:

• Composition
• Diversity
• Education
• Film
• Fandom
• Gender
• Global approaches
• Inclusion
• Influences
• Language
• Legacy
• Literature
• Lyrics
• Music production
• Music theory
• Musicianship
• Nostalgia
• Parodies
• Poetry
• Race
• Social media
• Television
• Text
• Tourism

Abstracts for individual presentations should be no more than 300 words in length. Panel presentation submissions must include a panel title, along with abstracts from each of the participants. In addition to the abstract of no more than 300 words, please include 1) a list of any required equipment (e.g., piano, sound system, projector) for the presentation and 2) the presenter’s name, contact information, affiliation, and a short biography (100 words max). Please submit the proposal as a .docx or .pdf file to [email protected]

Abstracts submission are due 11:59pm GMT Dec. 23rd, 2022

Applicants will be notified by Jan. 6^th, 2023 regarding acceptance of their presentation proposal.