Christiana Werner

Official Contact and Teaching Details

​Christiana Werner PhEELMy research focuses on the philosophy of mind, epistemology, and aesthetics. In particular, I’m interested in the role of empathy and emotions in various processes of understanding. More recently, I have developed an interest in the topics of epistemic and affective injustice. Unsurprisingly, I believe that empathy can play a crucial role in addressing cases of epistemic and affective injustice.

Since 2020, I have held a postdoctoral research position at the University of Duisburg-Essen as part of the AHRC/DFG project "How Does It Feel? Interpersonal Understanding and Affective Empathy." In this context, I am working on my project titled "Interpersonal and Phenomenal Understanding."

​From November 2022 to December 2023, I paused my work at Duisburg-Essen to join the project "Mind and Imagination" at Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, collaborating with Gerson Reuter and Matthias Vogel.

Before starting my project at the University of Duisburg-Essen, I spent a year at the Philosophical Seminar at the University of Göttingen. From 2013 to 2019, I held a postdoctoral position and was a member of the Junior Research Group "Language, Cognition, and Text" at the Graduate School of Humanities at the University of Göttingen.

From 2018, to 2023 I coordinated the interdisciplinary research network "Feeling and Understanding: The Role of Empathy in Understanding People and Literature," funded by the DFG, together with Thomas Petraschka (University of Regensburg).

I received my doctoral degree from the University of Regensburg in 2012 for my thesis on fictional speech and fictional characters.

Publications

Books

​Werner (2015) Wie man mit Worten Dinge erschafft

Christiana Werner. Wie man mit Worten Dinge erschafft, V&R unipress, Göttingen: 2015

 

​Werner (2024) Imagination and Experience

Íngrid Vendrell Ferran​, Christiana Werner. Imagination and Experience. Philosophical Explorations. Routledge: 2024
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​Werner (2023) Empathy’s Role in Understanding Persons, Literature, and Art

​Thomas Petraschka, Christiana Werner (Hg.). Empathy's Role in Understanding Persons, Literature, and Art. Routledge: 2023 - Open Access

​Werner (2023) Geist und Imagination

Serena Gregorio, Gerson Reuter, Matthias Vogel, Christiana Werner (Hg.). Geist und Imagination. Zur Bedeutung der Vorstellungskraft für Denken und Handeln. Suhrkamp: 2023 - Learn more

Further Books

  • “Empathy and Literature” Symposium, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 2021, 79 (2) (with T. Petraschka)

  • “The Paradox of Fiction”, Special Issue of Journal in Literary Theory, 2018, Nr. 12/2 (with E. Konrad, T. Petraschka)

Articles, Reviews, Blog-Entries

Articles:

  • (forthcoming) „Simulation, Imagination and Justification“, In: Analysis, DOI 10.1093/analys/anae075

  • (forthcoming) “Empathic Scaffolding: How Literary ways of Writing About Experiences Improves Reader’s Empathy”, Texas Studies in Literature and Language (TSLL). Special Issue Empathy and the Aesthetics of Language, 66 (5) 2024, Guest Editors: Vittorio Gallese, Hannah C. Wojciehowski and David Romand. DOI: 10.7560/TSLL66405

  • (2024) "Simulating Experiences: Unjust Credibility Deficits without Identity Prejudices". In: Philosophical Explorations. (Open Access)

  • (2024) "Der Ort sinnlicher Vorstellungen in unserem Geist". In: Geist und Imagination.

  • (2024) "On Mary's colour perception and soldiers at war – the knowledge we gain from complex experiences". In: Íngrid Vendrell Ferran, Christiana Werner (eds.). Imagination and Experience. Philosophical Explorations. Routledge.

  • (2024) "Imagination and Experience. An Introduction" (with Í. Vendrell Ferran). In: Íngrid Vendrell Ferran​, Christiana Werner (eds.). Imagination and Experience. Philosophical Explorations. Routledge.

  • (2023) "Concurring Emotions, Affective Empathy, and Phenomenal Understanding". In: Passion. Journal of the European Society for the Study of Emotions. (Open Access)

  • (2023) "'Tell me, how does it feel?' Learning what it is like through literature". In: Petraschka and Werner (eds.): Empathy’s Role in Understanding Persons, Literature, and Art. Routledge. (Open Access)

  • (2023) "Empathic understanding: historical and recent perspectives on empathy's role in social cognition and aesthetics" (with T. Petraschka). In: Petraschka and Werner (eds.): Empathy’s Role in Understanding Persons, Literature, and Art. Routledge. (Open Access)

  • (2021) "Empathy’s Role in Different Levels of Understanding Literature: Empirical and Philosophical Perspectives" (with Jana Lüdtke). In: Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 79(2): 239–244. – DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jaac/kpab019

  • (2020) "Emotions, Actions and Action Tendencies". In: Erkenntnis. – DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10670-020-00316-2

  • (2020) "Fiktion und Pragmatik". In: Ralf Schneider, Lut Missinne and Beatrix van Dam (eds.): Fiktionalität. Grundthemen der Literaturwissenschaft. DeGuyter.

  • (2019) "'See Me, Feel Me': Two Modes of Affect Recognition for Real and Fictional Targets". In: Topoi 39(4): 827–834. – DOI: 10.1007/s11245-019-09634-9; TOPO-D-18-00084.1

  • (2019) "The Role of Emotions in Understanding Literature" (with T. Petraschka and E.-M. Konrad). In: Debates in Aesthetics, Winter/Spring 14(1).

  • (2018) "The Paradox of Fiction – A Brief Introduction into Recent Developments, Open Questions, and Current Areas of Research, including a Comprehensive Bibliography from 1975 to 2018" (with T. Petraschka and E.-M. Konrad). In: Journal of Literary Theory 12(2): 193–203. – DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jlt-2018-0011

  • (2014) "Just My Imagination? – Creation for Creationists". In: Journal for Literary Theory 8(2): 292–311.

  • (2013) "Making the Fictional World – Fiktionale Äußerungen als deklarative Sprechakte". In: Daiber et al. (eds.): Fiktion, Wahrheit, Interpretation. Philologische und philosophische Perspektiven. Mentis, 171–188.

  • (2012) "On referring to Ferraris. The Act of Reference and Predication in Fictional Discourse". In: Daiber et al. (eds.): Understanding Fiction. Mentis.

Reviews:

  • Philosophical Perspecitives on Memory and Imagination. Seit Februar 2023 online bei The Junkyard. A scholarly blog devoted to the study of imagination. (von A. Kind)

  • Die Vielfalt der Erkenntnis. Eine Analyse des kognitiven Werts der Literatur. In: Zeitschrift für Philosophische Literatur, Issue Spring 2019.

  • „Fiktive Geschichten – Echte Emotionen. Der Einfluss von Romanen auf das Gefühlsleben. Mentis 2015. In: Journal for Literary Theory Online 2017-07-15: http://www.jltonline.de/index.php/reviews/article/view/907/2074

Blog-Entries: