Melanie Unseld is Professor of Musicology at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She studied historical musicology, literature, philosophy and applied cultural studies in Karlsruhe and Hamburg. In 1999 she received her doctorate from the University of Hamburg. From 2002-2004 she was a scholarship holder of the Lise Meitner University Special Programme. 2005-2008 research assistant at the University of Music and Drama Hannover.She was co-initiator of the structured doctoral programme "Remembrance - Perception - Meaning. Musicology as Part of the Humanities" (2009-2012). In 2011/12 she represented the professorship for historical musicology at the University of Music, Theatre and Media Hanover. In 2013 she habilitated there with a thesis on "Biography and Music History". 2008-2016 she held the professorship for Cultural History of Music at the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, where she was also director of the Interdisciplinary Centre for Women's and Gender Studies (ZFG) from 2009-2015. From 2013-2015 she was Vice Dean of Faculty III of the Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg, and from 2015-2016 Dean of the same faculty. Since 2016 she has been Professor of Historical Musicology at the Institute for Musicology and Interpretation Research of the mdw. In 2019 she was elected Corresponding Member of the Austrian Academy of Sciences.