Laurie Johnson is Professor of German at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she also directs the Campus Honors Program. She holds affiliate appointments in Comparative and World Literature, Criticism and Interpretive Theory, and the European Union Center.
Her books are Forgotten Dreams: Revisiting Romanticism in the Cinema of Werner Herzog (Camden House, 2016, 2019), Aesthetic Anxiety (Rodopi, 2010), and The Art of Recollection in Jena Romanticism (Niemeyer, 2002). Recently Johnson edited the volume Germany from the Outside: Rethinking German Cultural History in an Age of Displacement (Bloomsbury, 2022, 2024). She has edited special issues of The German Quarterly and of Seminar, and has published numerous articles on topics ranging from the prevalence of psychology in Kant's philosophy to aspects of the Harry Potter series.
At the University of Illinois, she regularly teaches courses on Romanticism and its afterlives, on the Grimms' Fairy Tales, on Freud-Nietzsche-Kafka, and on German cultural history, among other topics. Prior to her current role with the Campus Honors Program, Johnson held administrative positions including Acting Head of the Germanic Department, Chair of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences' Working Group on Enhancing the Student Experience, and Associate Director of the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics.
Her books are Forgotten Dreams: Revisiting Romanticism in the Cinema of Werner Herzog (Camden House, 2016, 2019), Aesthetic Anxiety (Rodopi, 2010), and The Art of Recollection in Jena Romanticism (Niemeyer, 2002). Recently Johnson edited the volume Germany from the Outside: Rethinking German Cultural History in an Age of Displacement (Bloomsbury, 2022, 2024). She has edited special issues of The German Quarterly and of Seminar, and has published numerous articles on topics ranging from the prevalence of psychology in Kant's philosophy to aspects of the Harry Potter series.
At the University of Illinois, she regularly teaches courses on Romanticism and its afterlives, on the Grimms' Fairy Tales, on Freud-Nietzsche-Kafka, and on German cultural history, among other topics. Prior to her current role with the Campus Honors Program, Johnson held administrative positions including Acting Head of the Germanic Department, Chair of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences' Working Group on Enhancing the Student Experience, and Associate Director of the School of Literatures, Cultures & Linguistics.