Prof. Dr. Laura Otis
CV
Laura Otis is a Professor of English Emerita at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Her interdisciplinary research compares the creative thinking of scientific and literary writers, especially in their uses of metaphor. Otis holds a BS in Biochemistry, an MA in Neuroscience, a PhD in Comparative Literature, and an MFA in Fiction. She is the author of the academic books Banned Emotions, Rethinking Thought, Müller’s Lab, Networking, Membranes, and Organic Memory; of the novels Clean, Refiner’s Fire, Lacking in Substance, The Memory Hive, Auf Wiedersehen, and The Tantalus Letters; and of the story collection D Minor. Her research has been supported by MacArthur, Guggenheim, Fulbright, and Humboldt Fellowships, and she was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Her current project, Cognitive Craft, investigates techniques used by fiction-writers to awaken and blend senses in readers' imaginations.
Personal website: www.lauraotis.com
Psychology Today Blog: www.psychologytoday.com/intl/contributors/laura-c-otis-phd
Fellowships
Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin: Nov. 2024-Juli 2025
Geschichte der Gefühle, Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung, Berlin: Okt. 2014-Juni 2024
Leibniz-Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung, Berlin: Mai-Aug. 2013
Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin, Okt. 2000-Aug. 2012
Jury, Council, and Board Memberships
Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts
Modern Language Association: Transdisciplinary Connections Cognitive and Affect Studies
Research Interests
- Literature and Science
- Cognitive Literary Studies
- Literature and the Senses
- Literature and Emotion
- 19th-, 20th-, and 21st-Century Literature in English, German, Spanish, and French
- History of Neuroscience, Physiology, and Biology
Publications
Academic Books
Banned Emotions: How Metaphors Can Shape What People Feel. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019.
Rethinking Thought: Inside the Minds of Creative Scientists and Artists. Narrative Psychology Series. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Müller’s Lab. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007.
Networking: Communicating with Bodies and Machines in the Nineteenth Century. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2001.
Membranes: Metaphors of Invasion in Nineteenth-Century Literature, Science, and Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Organic Memory: History and the Body in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1994.
Edited Book
Literature and Science in the Nineteenth Century: An Anthology. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Fiction
D Minor: Stories. iUniverse, 2024.
The Memory Hive: A Novel. iUniverse, 2020.
The Tantalus Letters: A Novel. iUniverse, 2020.
Auf Wiedersehen: A Novel. iUniverse, 2020.
Lacking in Substance: A Novel. iUniverse, 2020.
Refiner’s Fire: A Novel. iUniverse, 2019.
Clean: A Novel. iUniverse, 2019.
Recent Articles:
“Reading as a Rambunctious Boy-Girl.” In Readers for Life: How Reading and Listening in Childhood Shapes Us. Edited by Heta M. Pyrhönen and Sander Gilman. London: Reaktion Books, 2024, pp. 144-52.
“Feeling Environments: Emotions beyond Human Interiority.” By Frederik Schröer and Laura Otis. Geschichte und Gesellschaft vol. 49, 2023, pp. 138-58.
“Creative Writing: Embracing Unfamiliar Knowledge.” Configurations vol., 31, no. 4, 2023, pp. 343-50.
“Whose Spirit? Literature, Appropriation, and the Responsibilities of Artists.” Deutsche Vierteljahrsschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte vol. 97, 2023, pp. 217-22.
“The Role of Multimodal Imagery in Life Writing.” SubStance vol. 51, no. 3, 2022, pp. 115-31.
“Affective Neuroscience: The Symbiosis of Scientific and Literary Knowledge.” The Routledge Companion to Literature and Emotion. Edited by Patrick Colm Hogan, Bradley J. Irish, and Lalita Pandit Hogan. Routledge, 2022, pp. 15-25.
Blog Posts:
“Learning by Touching.” Psychology Today. November 21, 2024.
“What’s White about White Noise? We Can Learn from the Synesthesia of Everyday Language,” Psychology Today. September 1, 2024.
“Readers Need Description to Believe a Story.” Psychology Today. June 19, 2024.
“The Sound of Genocide: We Hear the Truths We Deny.” Psychology Today. March 13, 2024.
Lectures
“Input from Literary Studies.” Writers, Scholars, Scientists: Experimental Encounters with Literary Depictions of Science: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler. Fiction Meets Science. Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg. November, 2024.
“Merging Scientific and Literary Craft Knowledge: The Case of Multimodal Imagery.” University of Regensburg English Research Colloquium. May 2024.