MMDer Joe Berman writes that the American Musical Instrument Society
(AMIS) is asking for papers to be delivered in person at the 40th
Annual AMIS Meeting to be held at The Musical Instrument Museum (MIM)
in Phoenix, Arizona, May 18-22, 2011.  The AMIS announcement states

> The program committee ... welcomes proposals for papers,
> lecture-demonstrations, performances, and panel discussions on topics
> relating to the history, design, use, care, and acoustics of musical
> instruments from all cultures and time periods.  The theme of the
> Conference is "Musical Intersections in Time, Place and Culture". ...

The deadline for proposals is December 1, 2010, but maybe that can
be extended.  The Society's web site is  http://www.amis.org/ 
For additional information contact:

  arrice@rocketmail.com (Albert R. Rice - program chair)  or
  christina.linsenmeye@themim.org (Christina Linsenmeyer - MIM)

I could find mention of only one formal paper at the AMIS web site
about self-playing musical instruments.  The one paper, which was
awarded the best student paper of 2007, was by Edmond Johnson who
wrote "Who's Playing the Player Piano -- and Can the Talking Machine
Sing?: Shifting Perceptions of Musical Agency in Mechanical
Instruments, 1890-1910."

A good topic for a paper (one that John Tuttle has mentioned
before) would be the role of mechanical musical instruments in
the social center of the home -- the "home entertainment center" --
before they were replaced by the radio and electric phonograph.

Ref.  http://www.amis.org/awards/selch/index.html  and
http://www.amis.org/publications/newsletter/2007/36.2-2007.pdf 

Robbie Rhodes - Editor
Mechanical Music Digest