Laura S. Brown

Laura S. Brown is the John Wendell Anderson Professor of English at Cornell University, specializing in eighteenth-century British literature and interdisciplinary critical theory. Her research explores the 'counterhuman imaginary,' examining how nonhuman forces—such as natural disasters, animals, and inanimate objects—influence human creativity, subjectivity, and history. She bridges literary studies with animal studies, ecocriticism, and new materialism.

• Affiliations: Cornell University Department of English

Research Focus

Brown's work analyzes texts by authors like Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, and Alexander Pope, alongside lapdog lyrics and circulation narratives, to interrogate the entanglement of human and nonhuman realms. Her methodologies integrate affect theory, thing theory, and science studies, challenging anthropocentric frameworks in literary analysis.

Key Contributions

Her monograph The Counterhuman Imaginary: Earthquakes, Lapdogs, and Traveling Coinage in Eighteenth-Century Literature (2023) proposes a new analytical framework for understanding the inseparability of human and nonhuman forces in literary culture. This work has garnered praise for its interdisciplinary approach and rethinking of human authority over the nonhuman.