Daniel Shanahan

Daniel Shanahan is an Associate Professor at the Bienen School of Music, Northwestern University, where he coordinates the Music Theory and Cognition program and directs the Music Cognition Lab. He holds a PhD from the University of Dublin, Trinity College.

His research integrates music-analytic, computational, and experimental methodologies to investigate cognitive and communicative constraints in music. Key themes include corpus studies, music and emotion, oral transmission of musical traditions, computational analysis of jazz and folk music, and the application of machine learning and generative AI to musicology. Shanahan has served as co-editor of Empirical Musicology Review (2016–2022) and sits on editorial boards of multiple journals.

His work appears in Music Perception, The Journal of New Music Research, Musicae Scientiae, and Frontiers in Psychology, with chapters in Routledge Companions and the Oxford Handbook of Music and Corpus Studies. Recent projects include an NSF grant studying sound's impact on learning (2023) and co-editing the Oxford Handbook. He currently serves as treasurer for the Society for Music Perception and Cognition.

• Mentorship Award (Society for Music Perception and Cognition, 2024)
• Outstanding Multi-Author Collection Award (Society for Music Theory, 2023)
• Distinguished Scholar Award (Ohio State University)
• Rising Faculty Research & Undergraduate Teaching Awards (Louisiana State University)

His publications demonstrate expertise in music cognition, computational analysis, emotional expression, and oral/embodied transmission, with trends showing interdisciplinary applications of AI and cross-cultural studies.

Shanahan's mentorship emphasizes student well-being, empathetic guidance, and fostering academic potential. He has hosted global open lab meetings during the pandemic and cultivated mentees who now contribute to service roles in academic committees.