Dr. Amy Cimini

Biography

Amy Cimini is an Associate Professor in the Integrative Studies Area at the University of California, San Diego. She is a musicologist and educator whose work explores power, community, and technology within 20th and 21st-century experimental music and sound art. Her research methods combine archival research, oral history, and experimental writing performance to interrogate how musical performance and technological mediation shape collective knowledge and practices. Cimini focuses on marginalized figures in U.S. auditory culture since 1945, analyzing the implications of gender, race, and class in her scholarly inquiries. She has published works on the composer Maryanne Amacher, notably her book, "Wild Sound: Maryanne Amacher Tenses Audible Life" (Oxford 2021), which examines Amacher's unique approach to auditory experience. Cimini also edits and contributes to various publications related to music theory and feminist perspectives, most recently co-editing "Maryanne Amacher: Selected Writings Interviews" (Blank Forms Editions 2020). Her commitment to collaboration and site-specificity reflects her dedication to demystifying knowledge production in music research. Cimini teaches undergraduate courses on music history and culture while also conducting graduate-level courses focusing on gender in experimental music and the intersection of sound with biopolitics.

Research Interests