Miranda Anderson

Dr Miranda Anderson is an Honorary Fellow in History, Classics and Archaeology at the University of Edinburgh, Anniversary Fellow in Philosophy and Literature at the University of Stirling (2018-2021), and Associate Lecturer at the Open University. She is also a member of the New School of the Anthropocene's Teaching Ensemble and previously served as an Elected Member of The Royal Society of Edinburgh's Young Academy of Scotland (2018-2024).

Dr Anderson completed her BA (Hons) in History at University College London, followed by MSc and PhD in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Her academic journey includes several years in Japan as a Monbukagakusho research scholar and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) fellow.

Her research spans distributed cognition, extended mind theory, Renaissance literature, philosophy of mind, cognitive science, digital humanities, and art curation. She has pioneered interdisciplinary approaches that bridge cognitive science with the arts and humanities, exploring how cognition extends beyond the brain into the body, objects, language, and social environments. Her work examines these themes across historical periods from classical antiquity to contemporary culture.

Her research output reveals a consistent focus on how cognitive processes are distributed across brain, body, and world. She has examined these themes through Renaissance literature, Victorian studies, Enlightenment thought, and contemporary art practices, demonstrating how different historical periods conceptualized mind-world relations. Her recent work develops the 'fission-fusion' concept as a framework for understanding cognition as a dynamic process that periodically merges and divides across individuals and contexts.

• Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship
• Elected Member of The Royal Society of Edinburgh's Young Academy of Scotland (2018-2024)
• JSPS London JBUK Collaboration Prize (2017)
• Royal Society of Edinburgh Public Engagement Advisory Group appointment (2022)
• European Crucible: Scottish Cohort (2021)
• British Library Labs 2015 Award for Research

Dr Anderson has received significant research funding including AHRC grants for the 'Art of Distributed Cognition' project (£98,886) and 'A History of Distributed Cognition' project. She initiated and served as Principal Investigator on the Art of Distributed Cognition project, which resulted in the 'The Extended Mind' contemporary art exhibition at Talbot Rice Gallery. Her knowledge exchange activities include the Palimpsest project (now LitLong), which enables users to access literary texts set in Edinburgh through an interactive website and mobile application. She has collaborated with numerous community organizations, museums, and galleries, contributing to REF 2021 impact case studies.

Dr Anderson has established significant research networks including the History of Distributed Cognition project team, the Mind & Cognition group in Edinburgh's Philosophy department, and international collaborations with Japanese institutions through JSPS. Her work with Talbot Rice Gallery demonstrates her commitment to translating academic research into public-facing cultural experiences.