Suzanne G. Cusick

Suzanne G. Cusick
Name	Suzanne G. Cusick
Occupation	Musicologist, Professor
Employer	New York University
Alma mater	Brown University, Indiana University

Suzanne G. Cusick is an American musicologist and professor known for her scholarship on music, gender, and sexuality, and for contributions to studies of war, trauma, and sound. She has held faculty positions at New York University and contributed to interdisciplinary discourse intersecting musicology, gender studies, and cultural studies. Her work engages with institutions and debates across academia, activism, and media.

Early life and education

Cusick completed undergraduate and graduate studies that positioned her within networks around prominent institutions such as Brown University, Indiana University Bloomington, Juilliard School, Columbia University, and New York University. During her doctoral training she interacted with scholars affiliated with Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University, Yale University, and Princeton University, reflecting a transatlantic orientation common among scholars who bridge musicology and gender studies. Her academic formation included exposure to archives and special collections linked to Library of Congress, Smithsonian Institution, and regional conservatories that shaped her methodological approaches.

Academic career and positions

Cusick has held appointments at New York University within departments and programs tied to Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, Gallatin School of Individualized Study, and interdisciplinary centers connected to Institute for Public Knowledge and Center for the Humanities. She has served on committees and editorial boards alongside faculty from University of California, Berkeley, University of Chicago, Columbia University, University of Pennsylvania, and Rutgers University. Her teaching and administrative roles involved collaborations with programs at European Graduate School, King's College London, Goldsmiths, University of London, and research networks spanning Smith College, Barnard College, and Sarah Lawrence College.

Research and scholarship

Cusick’s scholarship addresses intersections of musical practice and sociopolitical phenomena involving figures and events such as World War II, Vietnam War, War on Terror, and discourses surrounding sexuality and gender as debated at venues like American Musicological Society, Society for Ethnomusicology, and International Association for the Study of Popular Music. She has analyzed repertoires and performances connected to composers and performers including Ludwig van Beethoven, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, Aretha Franklin, and Nina Simone to interrogate how sonic practices relate to experiences of trauma, memory, and identity within institutions such as Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carnegie Hall, and Theater an der Wien. Her approaches draw on theoretical frameworks developed by scholars from Michel Foucault, Judith Butler, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Theodor Adorno, and Pierre Bourdieu and engage archival materials from collections like Rijksmuseum, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and Vatican Library.

Publications and notable works

Cusick is author or editor of monographs, chapters, and articles published in venues such as Journal of the American Musicological Society, Ethnomusicology, Signs (journal), and edited volumes with presses like Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press, and Duke University Press. Her essays have appeared alongside contributions by scholars from University of California Press, Routledge, Bloomsbury Academic, and Princeton University Press. Notable works have addressed themes related to music and sexual politics, sonic dimensions of warfare, and queer musicology, placing her in conversation with authors such as Susan McClary, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Anahid Kassabian, Kofi Agawu, and Tia DeNora.

Awards and honors

Cusick’s recognition includes fellowships and grants from organizations like the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, New York Foundation for the Arts, and university awards associated with New York University. She has been invited to lecture at institutions such as Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, University of Oxford, and University of Cambridge, and has participated in funded projects supported by entities including Ford Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and Fulbright Program.

Public engagement and influence

Beyond academia, Cusick has contributed to public conversations through presentations at cultural venues including Museum of Modern Art, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and media outlets linked to BBC Radio, NPR, The New York Times, and The Guardian. She has collaborated with advocacy groups and NGOs that focus on arts, human rights, and veterans' issues, aligning with organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Veterans for Peace, and Center for Constitutional Rights. Her work has influenced curricular developments at conservatories and universities including Royal College of Music, Conservatoire de Paris, and Curtis Institute of Music.

Category:American musicologists Category:Women musicologists