Historians and scholars are best known for digging through dusty old papers and faded photographs.

	Dave Gatley Emily Thompson, a professor at the University of California in San Diego and Shaler Area graduate. Click photo for larger image.

Emily Thompson is part of a small but growing cadre of prominent researchers who are breaking new ground in uncovering the history of sound.

"The challenge is to really try to recover what the past sounded like," Dr. Thompson said. "I want to find out what kinds of sounds did people hear and how they understood those sounds."

The Shaler Area graduate is one of 25 people who recently won prestigious MacArthur Foundation "genius grants," which come with a $500,000 no-strings cash award.

Dr. Thompson, 43, is an associate professor of history at the University of California in San Diego whose work focuses on the often overlooked subject of sound and fills an important gap in contemporary American history.

"Knowing the sound of a car engine in 1920 makes me understand what people's lives were like then, and how people responded to these sounds," Dr. Thompson said. "That tells you a lot about their culture."

The advent of jazz, she said, is a clear illustration of how sounds can be interpreted differently by people at various times in history.

"In the 1920s, jazz was a new kind of music and many people thought it was noise, which is hard to believe today," Dr. Thompson said. "It invites you to consider the people who were complaining and those who were making the noise. In this case, it was racism. The jazz musicians were African American.

"You can learn more considering the way the music was criticized. A lot of the criticism was that it sounded like machinery or riveters or a subway. That kind of language criticized the urban environment itself."

Dr. Thompson will use the award money for travel and research on her next book, which describes the transition from silent to sound motion pictures, which also occurred in the 1920s. She's not focusing on famous movie stars, but the people who worked as technicians behind the scenes.

The money also will help her restore old films that she's interested in.

The MacArthur Fellows grants are paid over five years and can be used for anything the award winners desire. The awards are intended to nurture geniuses with new ideas and the courage to challenge the status quo and take intellectual, scientific and cultural risks.

Growing up in Shaler as a middle child with two sisters, Dr. Thompson played flute and piccolo in the school band. But her interest in working with sound and sound technology was inspired during an internship at WQED-FM in Pittsburgh.

"Nobody gets paid to work at WQED as an intern, so they really have to want to work here," said Jim Cunningham, a senior executive producer. "She would edit tape in the days before computers, which meant she had to slice tape with a razor blade.

"She got interested in the acoustics of concert halls because we went to concert halls to record."

Retired Shaler Area social studies teacher Joan Triglia taught Dr. Thompson in seventh grade.

"There are things I remember about particular students, and about Emily I'd say she was extremely conscientious. She questioned everything and loved to learn,'' Ms. Triglia said.