About
Laura Brown holds the John Wendell Anderson Professorship in the Department of Literatures in English within Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences. She has served in significant leadership roles including chair of the Department of Literatures in English, director of the English PhD program, and Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education. Additionally, she is President of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies.
Her research focuses on posthumanism and the 'counterhuman,' examining other-than-human beings, species difference, and environmental and geological forces within eighteenth-century literary culture. Professor Brown's work bridges traditional literary scholarship with contemporary theoretical concerns about humanity's relationship to the non-human world.
Her recent publications explore the impact of the other-than-human on human creativity, with particular attention to how eighteenth-century literature engages with animals, environmental forces, and alternative conceptions of being. This research represents a significant contribution to both eighteenth-century studies and emerging fields in posthuman theory.
- President, American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies
- John Wendell Anderson Professor of English
- Former Senior Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education
Research fields
