Featured Work

Book cover of Sounding Human by Deirdre Loughridge next to headphones.
Sounding Human by Deirdre Loughridge.

Faculty Work

Sounding Human: Music and Machines, 1740/2020

Associate Professor of Music Deirdre Loughridge is the author of the new book Sounding Human: Music and Machines, 1740/2020, published by The University of Chicago Press. In her new work, Dr. Loughridge explores how the human-machine relationship has been “continually renegotiated over the centuries.” Loughridge told Northeastern Global News, “The book is trying to get out of this binary bifurcation of human and machine to explore how they have been entangled, how they relate to each other, and what it opens up for us to think about those relationships rather than get stuck on a human or machine question.”

Read more about Sounding Human       

Our Creative Faculty

The music faculty at Northeastern maintains a distinguished record of global research initiatives, publications, presentations at national and international conferences, performances and of newly composed works.

Recent books by our faculty have been published by the University of Chicago Press and Oxford University Press, along with composition premieres and scholarly presentations throughout Europe, Asia, and North America—and with many more upcoming.

The distinctive feature of our faculty’s work is its unique embrace of transdisciplinary scholarship and creative output, with projects and publications that transcend boundaries between history, ethnography, music technology, music industry, social justice, and individual psychology.

Faculty Work

In the News

Music

Music can improve focus for people with ADHD

New research from Northeastern music professor Psyche Loui and Brain.fm pinpoints the musical characteristics that can help concentration, especially for individuals who might benefit most.

January 14, 2026

Music

Is the music from “Sinners” a modern classic?

Music is the backbone of Ryan Coogler’s vampire movie. Northeastern expert James Gutierrez explains how the film and Ludwig Göransson’s score push the boundaries of what music can do in a film.

May 7, 2025

Music

Is your pet actually watching TV with you?

It may seem like Fido is following along with your latest TV show obsession. But is he? Assistant professor of music Rebecca Kleinberger looks closer at whether or not our pets watch TV with us.

March 20, 2025