David Suisman

David Suisman is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Delaware, affiliated with the College of Arts & Sciences. He specializes in cultural history, war & society, music history, and sound studies. Suisman holds a B.A. from Yale University and a Ph.D. from Columbia University, where his dissertation won the Bancroft Dissertation Prize. His scholarship includes award-winning books such as Selling Sounds: The Commercial Revolution in American Music (2009) and the forthcoming Instrument of War: Music and the Making of America's Soldiers (2024). His research explores intersections between capitalism, sensory experience, and media, with a focus on the historical roles of music and sound in military contexts, consumer culture, and technological innovation. Suisman has served as associate editor of the Journal of Popular Music Studies and held fellowships at the Mellon Regional Faculty Program, the University of California Berkeley, and the Headlands Center for the Arts. His work has been recognized with multiple awards, including the Hagley Prize and DeSantis Book Prize.

• Education: B.A., Yale University; Ph.D., Columbia University
• Editorial Roles: Co-editor of Capitalism and the Senses (2023) and Sound in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (2010)
• Fellowships: National Endowment for the Humanities, Mellon, and Penn Humanities Forum

His research interests span the history of music, sound studies, capitalism, media technology, and the senses, with recent projects analyzing the role of music in military training and the socio-economic dimensions of sonic experimentation. Suisman’s interdisciplinary approach bridges history, anthropology, and geography, emphasizing how commercial and technological forces shape sensory experiences.