Center for Sound Studies at Aarhus University is a network for sound researchers to share, discuss and qualify their research and form new partnerships and research projects. Our joint mission is to contribute to a deeper understanding of how we live with - and in a shared sonic culture.

Since 2009 the center has functioned as a playful interdisciplinary environment where researchers have developed national and international networks, new research projects, events, conferences and a sound studies journal (Sound Effects), amongst other things. The center provides a platform for its researchers, to reach out to other sound communities nationally and internationally, and to form collaborations with varied external partners.

Sound studies refers to the humanistic study of sound, and to an interdisciplinary academic field that has grown out of artistic and cultural explorations of our shared sonic world, since the 1970’s. While sound studies is an established academic field, it also to some extent remains emerging, as it continues to expand and branch out to other fields. We, in the Center for Sound Studies, all work within the broad humanistic approach to sound that is sound studies, but also with very different research questions and methodologies. We focus on questions of inclusion in communal singing; the role of sound in museums and cultural heritage contexts; sound design at public healthcare institutions; how sound is transforming literature and media culture; the role of sound in the global environmental crisis, and many other perspectives. The researchers affiliated with the center come from a broad range of research fields and departments, mainly situated at the School of Communication and Culture at Aarhus University, including musicology, audio design, media studies, art history, literature, museology, and aesthetics and culture.

In recent years, we have collectively been focused on the topic of Sonic Citizenship as a shared developmental project encompassing both design and theory. Further, we have collaborated closely with Sound Art Lab, Struer Museum and the National Museum of Denmark, on developing a brand new (2024) National Center for Sonic Cultural Heritage. More information about these and our other projects can be found in the Projects section, at this site.

We are always interested in learning about and possibly collaborating with other sound communities or researchers within the expanded field of sound studies, including young researchers working on research ideas and applications. More information on each of our members can be found in the participant section.