Deirdre Loughridge completed her Ph.D. in music history at the University of Pennsylvania in 2011. Her thesis, "Technologies of the Invisible: Optical Instruments and Musical Romanticism," examined late eighteenth-century audiovisual media in entertainment and scientific contexts, and their impact on early Romantic music aesthetics and listening practices. Her current book project further develops this research, focusing on how technological changes in the eighteenth century made possible the romantic metaphysics of music. Dr. Loughridge's interdisciplinary approach to music history draws on the history of science and media studies in order offer new perspectives on works by Haydn, Beethoven, and other eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century composers. Her work also demonstrates the importance of sound to the understanding of media that have been studied primarily as optical phenomena.