Alexa Weik von Mossner

Alexa Weik von Mossner is an Associate Professor of American Studies in the Department of English at the University of Klagenfurt. Her research focuses on environmental culture, affect, emotion, and cognitive approaches to literature, film, and digital media. She holds a PhD in Literature from the University of California, San Diego (2008) and previously worked in the German film and television industry. She curated the Green Visions Documentary Film Series (2011–2014), screening global environmental documentaries. Currently, she leads the FWF-funded project 'Narrative Encounters with Ethnic American Literatures,' exploring empathy and emotion in literary mediation of cultural difference. She co-develops 'Empirical Ecocriticism' as an interdisciplinary field in environmental humanities. She serves on the Executive Board of the European Association for the Study of Literature, Culture, and Environment (EASLCE), and editorial boards of Journal of Environmental Media and Media+Environment.

• Education:
• PhD in Literature, University of California, San Diego (2008)

Her research interests bridge cognitive literary studies, ecocriticism, and transnational cultural studies. She investigates how affect and emotion mediate environmental and ethnic-cultural narratives. Her work emphasizes interdisciplinary methodologies and the intersection between media, ecology, and cognition.

Her publications include Affective Ecologies (2017), Cosmopolitan Minds (2014), and edited volumes on film and environmental risk. Her current projects explore empathy's role in transcultural literary engagement and empirical approaches to ecocritical analysis.

• Grants/Projects:
• Principal Investigator: 'Narrative Encounters with Ethnic American Literatures' (FWF, 2018–2021)

She collaborates internationally on emerging fields like Empirical Ecocriticism and maintains active roles in academic associations, fostering dialogue between environmental humanities and cultural studies.