Martin Scherzinger

Martin Scherzinger is Associate Professor in the Department of Media, Culture and Communication at New York University. His academic journey includes a PhD in music theory from Columbia University (2000) and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Princeton University Society of Fellows (2004-2007).

Dr. Scherzinger's research focuses on sound, music, media, and politics of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, with particular emphasis on:

• Global biographies of sound and ephemera circulating in geographically remote regions
• Poetics of intellectual property in diverse sociotechnical environments
• Relations between aesthetics and censorship
• Mathematical geometries of musical time
• History of sound in philosophy
• Links between political economy and digital sound technologies

His scholarly work reveals significant interdisciplinary connections between musicology, philosophy, media studies, and political economy, demonstrating how sound functions as both cultural artifact and political instrument across diverse geographical contexts, particularly examining African musical traditions and their mathematical structures.

Dr. Scherzinger has received prestigious fellowships including:

• AMS50 Fellowship
• ACLS Fellowship

As an educator, Scherzinger has taught courses such as Introduction to Media, Culture and Communication; Sound Studies; Sounds In and Out of Africa; Rhythm and Repetition; Software, Labor, Affect; Media and Music; and Music, Networks, and Law. He serves on the editorial boards of various music journals and has presented at numerous institutions including Stanford University, University of Delaware, and the Library of Congress.

Beyond academia, Scherzinger is a widely performed composer whose work 'African Math' was released by New Focus Recordings, and who created a composition for Nelson Mandela's Centennial performed in Cape Town in May 2018.