Therese Shire earned a M.A. in Music Education at the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna as well as a degree in German Literature at the Universities of Karlsruhe and Vienna. She is highly interested in the workings of language, in metaphorology and music in literature, particularly in the verbalization of aural impressions. Her diploma thesis dealt with forms of musical description and was titled "Musik in Sprache gefasst. Formen der Musikbeschreibung bei E. T. A. Hoffmann".

Other research interest of hers are corporeal topics (with H. v. Kleist’s œuvre as a specialized field) and canon formation, especially regarding the female participation within; she is mostly drawn to literature of fin-de-siècle Vienna, German and Austrian literature between 1918-1945 and literature of the 18th and 19th century, momentarily with a special focus on exile literature and female authors of these periods such as Mascha Kaléko, Anna Seghers, Marta Karlweis, Maria Lazar and Veza Canetti.

She taught at the University of Karlsruhe and at Rutgers University, NJ, as a German language instructor. 

Since 2013, Therese worked as a pianist, director and performance artist under the artist name Cafasso. As a member of the music theater ensemble Schlüterwerke, she researched as well as performed a variety of rare works. 

At Harvard, she will do research on forgotten or yet undiscovered works of writers and composers, especially those afflicted by emigration or suppressed (Jewish or other writers/composers of the 20th century, female writers/composers).