Holly Yanacek

Dr. Holly Yanacek is an Associate Professor of German at James Madison University (JMU), specializing in 19th–21st-century Germanophone literature and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in German Studies from the University of Pittsburgh, with a certificate in Cultural Studies. Her research focuses on posthumanism, care ethics, gender studies, and the representation of emotions in literature. She has published widely in peer-reviewed journals such as Feminist German Studies and German Life and Letters, and co-edited volumes like Animals, Machines, and AI: On Human and Non-Human Emotions (DeGruyter, 2021).

Education:

• Ph.D. German Studies (University of Pittsburgh)
• M.A. German Studies (University of Pittsburgh)
• B.A. German (Heidelberg University)

Research Interests: Her work explores themes such as AI in fiction, animal studies, and historical semantics. She investigates how literature interrogates boundaries between humans and non-humans, particularly through posthumanist and feminist frameworks. Recent projects include a monograph on emotion representation in fin-de-siècle German novels and a Keywords Project exploring contemporary vocabulary in collaboration with Oxford University Press.

Grants and Awards: Supported by Fulbright, the German Historical Institute, and DAAD, she has conducted research in Germany at Heidelberg University and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development.

Labs/Teams: Member of the Keywords Project, a transatlantic initiative analyzing modern vocabulary and cultural shifts.