معرفی
Gary Tomlinson is the Sterling Professor of Music & the Humanities at Yale University, holding the John Hay Whitney Chair. He is a leading figure in interdisciplinary scholarship, bridging musicology, evolutionary studies, and cultural theory. His research explores European classical music, indigenous music traditions, jazz, and the role of cultural evolution in human development. He previously served as Annenberg Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania before joining Yale in 2010.
Tomlinson holds a BA from Dartmouth College and a PhD from UC Berkeley. His major works include A Million Years of Music (2015) and Culture and the Course of Human Evolution (in press), which integrate evolutionary science with humanities perspectives. Earlier contributions include studies on Monteverdi, Renaissance magic, and indigenous New World music.
His research interests span semiotics of music, affect theory, and posthumanist frameworks. Recent work focuses on evolutionary mechanisms shaping cultural systems and the prehistoric origins of musical behavior. He co-authored the widely used Listen music appreciation textbook with Joseph Kerman.
- Key Awards: MacArthur Fellowship, Guggenheim Fellowship, American Academy of Arts and Sciences membership
- Teaching: Graduate and undergraduate instruction in music history and interdisciplinary humanities
Tomlinson’s scholarship challenges disciplinary boundaries, emphasizing dialogues between musicology, anthropology, and evolutionary studies. His articles explore topics like transspecies semiotics, posthumanist lineages, and the philosophical implications of cultural evolution.
