Cynthia R. Nielsen is an American philosopher and Professor of Philosophy at the University of Dallas.^[1] She is known for her expertise in the field of hermeneutics (focusing especially on Hans-Georg Gadamer), the philosophy of music, aesthetics, ethics, and social philosophy.^[2][3][4] Since 2015 she has taught at the University of Dallas. Prior to her appointment at the University of Dallas, she taught at Villanova University as a Catherine of Sienna Fellow in the Ethics Program Archived 2018-12-19 at the Wayback Machine. Nielsen serves on the executive committee of the North American Society for Philosophical Hermeneutics.^[5]

Nielsen's work engages a wide range of theorists, philosophers, and topics.^[6][7] A common thread in her work is a "hermeneutics of the other," an attempt to enter into dialogue with various "others" (racialized and gendered subjects, artworks, jazz improvisations, literary texts, etc.) in order to listen attentively to the other's "voice" and incite a transformative understanding of self, world, and other. Through her integration of Gadamerian hermeneutics, social and critical philosophy, and the philosophy of music, she has developed the notion of hermeneutics as a communal improvisational practice.^[8][9]

Nielsen earned a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies at the University of North Florida,^[10] where she studied jazz guitar with renowned jazz guitarist Jack Petersen.^[11] She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Dallas,^[1] where she studied with Professor Philipp W. Rosemann.^[12]

Nielsen's early research (from 2009–2013) focuses primarily on how subjects, on the one hand, are socially constructed, and on the other, actively resist sociopolitical, economic, cultural, and other forces in order to shape their subjectivities. For example, her work on Frederick Douglass and Frantz Fanon analyzes how racialized and colonized subjectivities are constructed and highlights how agents employ various strategies in order to resist, reconfigure, and subvert dehumanizing structures, discourses, and practices.^[4][13] Her work on Foucault and Douglass shows how Douglass was cognizant of the disciplinary power at work in Covey's panoptic gaze.^[14][15]

In light of her background and experience as a jazz musician, Nielsen frequently brings music, and jazz in particular, into conversation with philosophy, discussing not only the philosophical and theoretical aspects of music, but also the ethical and sociopolitical dimensions. Her second book, Interstitial Soundings: Philosophical Reflections on Improvisation, Practice, and Self-Making (2015), which is largely a collection of essays, continues the theme of resistance but is concerned with how social, political, and cultural discourses and practices shape musical subjectivities, musical content, and musical practices.^[16]

Because Nielsen's work is interdisciplinary and explores a wide range of cultural, ethical, sociopolitical, and hermeneutical issues, her work has been appropriated by scholars in multiple disciplines including not only philosophy but also sociology, psychology, theology, postcolonial studies, ethnomusicology, critical race theory, literary theory, and political theory.^[17][18] For example, in her review of Nielsen's book, Foucault, Douglass, Fanon, and Scotus in Dialogue, Dr. Renee Harrison, describes Nielsen's work as "a significant interdisciplinary contribution to the fields of philosophy, religion, history, and African American studies."^[6]

Her current research (since 2014) concentrates on Hans-Georg Gadamer's hermeneutical philosophy with a special interest in his hermeneutical aesthetics and reflections on the ontology of art as a communicative and communal event.^[2]