Michael Sy
Associate Professor of Musicology • Director, American Music Research Center
Musicology • American Music Research Center

Michael Sy Uy (he/him) is associate professor of musicology and director of the American Music Research Center. His main areas of scholarly research are on philanthropy, patronage, arts education, cultural policy, expertise and connoisseurship. His first book—Ask the Experts: How Ford, Rockefeller and the NEA Changed American Music—was published by Oxford University Press in 2020. He is currently working on his second book—Endowing Equity: The NEA, Minority Artists and the Battle for Arts Funding—which has been supported by an American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) fellowship. He is co-editor of the volume Musical Capital: Sound and Power in Washington, D.C. (Dumbarton Oaks: Harvard University Press, under contract) and co-series editor of Arts in Context: Critical Performance Infrastructures (University of Texas Press). His other published work appears in American Music, Journal of the Society for American Music, Journal of Musicology and Music and Arts in Action.

Prior to CU Boulder, Uy was assistant dean of Harvard College and the Allston Burr Resident Dean of Dunster House (2017-23), as well as a lecturer in the music department. He completed his BA at UC Berkeley, MPhil at Oxford University and PhD at Harvard University. He is the recipient of several teaching awards including the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship’s Curricular Innovation Award, the Derek Bok Center Excellence in Teaching Award and the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Harvard Foundation.

Uy (pronounced like the first person plural, “we”) welcomes any and all students to reach out to him!

MusicologyAmerican Music Research Center