Assistant Professor
JC3_147
(852) 3411-7333
Liila Taruffi is an Assistant Professor at the Academy of Music of Hong Kong Baptist University. Her academic background spans both humanities and sciences. For her undergraduate and master's degrees, Liila studied Theoretical Philosophy and Aesthetics at the University of Florence (Italy). She then pursued an MSc in Music, Mind & Brain from Goldsmiths, University of London (UK), and a PhD in Psychology and Neuroscience of Music from the Free University of Berlin (Germany), where she was affiliated with the Cluster of Excellence "Languages of Emotion”. Her doctoral work examined emotional and cognitive experiences evoked by sad-sounding music, addressing the supposed paradox of why people deliberately choose to listen to sad music given that sadness is inherently a negative emotion usually avoided in everyday life. Subsequently, Liila held a postdoctoral fellowship at the Health Psychology Division of the Free University of Berlin, working on a mobile experience sampling project exploring the relationship between music, spontaneous thought, and well-being in daily life. After her postdoc, she worked as a Lecturer in Music Psychology at the Music Department of Durham University (UK).
Liila is an interdisciplinary music researcher working at the intersection of psychology, neuroscience, and aesthetics. Her recent work focuses on music's capability to influence emotion and consciousness (specifically, internally oriented mental states such as mind-wandering and imagination), as well as their relationship to health and well-being. Liila has co-edited the volume "Music and Mental Imagery" (Routledge, 2022). Ultimately, her research is driven by the goal of practical applications of music for therapeutic practices and for enhancing well-being in daily life. To achieve this aim, she employs the tools of affective and cognitive psychology, as well as neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI. Additionally, she uses ecologically valid methodologies, including mobile experience sampling in daily life, psychophysiology, and qualitative data analysis.