Professor Susan Rankin

Susan Rankin is a Life Fellow, having taught at Emmanuel and at the University of Cambridge during most of her academic career. She was elected to a Research Fellowship at the College in 1981, becoming an Official Fellow in 1984. 

Biography

Susan studied for a BA in Music at Newnham College, University of Cambridge and then for an MMus at King's College, London, returning to Cambridge for her PhD: most of the doctoral study period was spent in Paris.  After the Research Fellowship, she was a Special College Lecturer between 1984–1990. She has been Tutor to Graduate Students (1987–98), Admissions Tutor in Arts (1987–95), Advisor to Women Students (1987–2008), Director of Studies in Music (1984–2018) and Director of Music (1984–2007). She is now Emeritus Professor of Medieval Music at the University's Faculty of Music.  She has held Fellowships at the École normale supérieure in Paris, at the IAS in Princeton, and at the Universities of Harvard and Chicago.  She is a Fellow of the British Academy, and of the Academia Europea, as well as Corresponding Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America and of the American Musicological Society.

Research

Susan's research is in the area of medieval music, especially early medieval music books and notations, and liturgy. Recent monographs include two studies of Carolingian music: Writing Sounds in Carolingian Europe. The Invention of Musical Notation (Cambridge, 2018) and Sounding the Word of God: Carolingian Books for Singers (Notre Dame, 2022).