What is IMSEA

International Musicological Society, Regional Association for East Asia

• Founding of the IMSEA in Seoul, South Korea, in September 2011.
• ​​Tilman Seebass, “The Foundation of the IMSEA,” Musica Humana 3, no. 2 (2011): 239–50.

The International Musicological Society (IMS) was founded in 1927  in order to “further musicological research in its broadest sense among all peoples.” The aim of the IMS Regional Association for East Asia (IMSEA) is to provide a forum for exchanges among music researchers in the region, regardless of their areas of specializations and subjects of studies. IMSEA was founded at the Western Music Research Institute, Seoul National University, Korea (16–18 September 2011), and has held meetings every two years: National Taiwan University (2013), The University of Hong Kong (2015), Tokyo University of the Arts (2017), Soochow University, China (2019), Jeonbuk National University, Korea (2022), Tainan National University (2023), and Yunnan University (2025). The nineth IMSEA conference will be held at Kyushu University in Japan from 5 to 7 March 2027.