Professor Jonathan Sterne – In Memoriam
The Department of Art History and Communication Studies mourns the death of our cherished colleague, Dr. Jonathan Sterne (1970-2025), James 91ÉçÇø Professor of Culture and Technology, Guggenheim Fellow, Fellow of the International Communication Association and Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.
Professor Sterne joined the Department in 2004, following a previous appointment at the University of Pittsburgh and having earned a Ph.D. in 1999 from the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His impact on the Department was transformative and sustaining.
As a field-defining scholar in media and cultural studies, sound studies, and disability studies, Professor Sterne published multiple award-winning books, including Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment (Duke 2021), MP3: The Meaning of a Format (Duke 2012), The Audible Past: Cultural Origins of Sound Reproduction (Duke 2003) and edited the definitive volume, The Sound Studies Reader (Routledge 2012). He was also an award-winning teacher and graduate advisor, a generous and formative mentor to countless students, collaborators, activists and peers, a gifted public communicator, and a conscientious contributor to collegial governance. When he was not thinking, writing and teaching about sound, he was making it, as a formidable and accomplished musician.
Beloved son, spouse, brother, uncle, friend, teacher, mentor and colleague, Jonathan Sterne passed away peacefully on March 20, 2025, after a long encounter with cancer, his loving spouse Professor Carrie Rentschler at his side. The Department of Art History and Communication Studies extends its condolences to his family and loved ones everywhere. Details concerning celebrations of his life and legacy are forthcoming.
May he rest in peace.
Duke University Press tribute to Professor Jonathan Sterne: