Dr. Holly Yanacek is the Research Development Associate for the College of Arts & Letters and a tenured Associate Professor of German in the Department of World Languages & Cultures. Her research focuses on 19th- to 21st-century German-language literature and culture, emotion studies, narrative theory, gender studies, care ethics, animal studies, and posthumanism. Her publications include the monograph Rethinking Feeling (Bloomsbury, 2026) and the co-edited volumes Animals, Machines, and AI (DeGruyter, 2021) and Keywords for Today (Oxford UP, 2018). Holly is also a published literary translator from German to English.

Holly’s research has been supported by Fulbright, the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), the German Historical Institute, the JMU College of Arts & Letters, and the Madison Caucus for Gender Equality. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to help CAL colleagues secure grants to pursue their research, scholarship, and creative work.