Ruxandra Marinescu studied Musicology at the National University of Music in Bucharest (BA degree in Musicology, 2005) and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg (2002-2003). She holds a Research MA degree in Medieval Studies from Utrecht University (2007). She was awarded the Faculty MA Thesis Prize (Facultaire Scriptieprijs) for her MA thesis “The Medieval 'Lai Mortel' and Guillaume de Machaut: From the 'Roman de Tristan en prose' to Christine de Pizan” in 2008. She obtained her PhD degree (cum laude) at Utrecht University in 2014 under the supervision of Prof. Karl Kügle with the dissertation "The Politics of Deception and the French Lais in the Roman de Fauvel, Manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français 146". At the moment, she is preparing her dissertation for publication. In 2008-2009 she studied for six months as a visiting student at the Faculty of Music of the University of Cambridge (Prof. Susan Rankin).

Her research focuses on transmission and reception of monophony in French court culture ca. 1250-1400, musical lyrics interpolated into narratives, and the palaeography of fourteenth-century music sources.