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Prof. Dr. Robert Mitchell

Portrait
21335 Lüneburg, Universitätsallee 1, C5.209
Fon +49.4131.677-2515, robert.mitchell@leuphana.de
Professor, Professur für Literaturwissenschaft und Kulturtheorie

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Vita

Academic Positions
2018 - 2022: Chair, Department of English
2013 -          : Full Professor, Department of English, Duke University Affiliated Faculty, Women’s Studies, Duke University
2011 - 2023: Director, Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of Science and Cultural Theory, Duke University
2008 - 2013: Associate Professor, Department of English, Duke University Affiliated Faculty, Women’s Studies, Duke University
Faculty member, Institute of Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University
Faculty Associate, Center for Genomics and Society, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
2002 - 2008: Assistant Professor, Department of English, Duke University Affiliated Faculty, Women’s Studies, Duke University 
Faculty member, Institute of Genome Sciences and Policy, Duke University
Faculty Associate, Center for Genomics and Society, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
2002: Acting Instructor, Department of English, University of Washington

Publications

Books and anthologies

  1. Infectious liberty: Biopolitics between romanticism and liberalism
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 2021 , 324 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Book › Research

  2. Experimental life: Vitalism in Romantic science and literature
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 2013 , 309 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Book › Research

  3. Sympathy and the state in the romantic era: Systems, state finance, and the shadows of futurity
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 2007 , 266 p.

    Research output: Books and anthologies › Book › Research

View all publications

Journal contributions

  1. The Planetary Experiment: A History and Theory of Science at Scale
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , Orit Halpern (Author) , Henning Schmidgen (Author) , 01.01.2026 , in: Critical Inquiry, 52, 2 , p. 242-265 , 24 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

  2. Recovering Character’s Science
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 01.05.2024 , in: Novel, 57, 1 , p. 138-144 , 7 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Scientific review articles › Research

  3. Frankenstein and the sciences of self-regulation
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 01.12.2020 , in: Huntington Library Quarterly, 53, 4 , p. 749-770 , 22 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research

  4. Enlightenment biopolitics: Population and the growth of genius
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 01.12.2018 , in: Eighteenth Century, 59, 4 , p. 405-427 , 23 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research

  5. Regulating Life: Romanticism, Science, and the Liberal Imagination<sup>*</sup>
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 04.05.2018 , in: European Romantic Review, 29, 3 , p. 275-293 , 19 p.

    Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review

View all publications

Contributions to collected editions/anthologies

  1. May Flies and Horseshoe Crabs: Romantic and Post-Romantic Consciousness, Institutions, and Populations
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 01.01.2022 , p. 285-308 , 24 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

  2. Immunisation and the Natural Sciences: Esposito on Disciplines, Deconstruction and Equilibrium
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 01.01.2021 , p. 85-117 , 33 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

  3. Population aesthetics in romantic and post-romantic literature
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 01.01.2016 , p. 267-289 , 23 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

  4. Global Flows: Romantic-Era Terraforming
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 01.01.2014 , p. 199-218 , 20 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Chapter › Research › peer-review

  5. MELANCHOLY
    Robert Mitchell (Author) , 01.01.2013 , p. 722-723 , 2 p.

    Research output: Contributions to collected editions/anthologies › Articles for encyclopedia › Research

View all publications

Courses

Introduction to English literature
Robert Mitchell
This lecture course introduces students to the field of English literary and cultural studies. We consider the basics of literary studies, including literary history, literary criticism, literary genres (from poetry to drama to prose), literary periods (from the early modern period to the present), and theories, methods, and strategies of interpreting literary texts in a scholarly manner. At the same time, we consider these basics of literary studies in the light of a guiding question: namely, how and why did the language and literature of a very small island country (England) came to have global and planetary sway by the twentieth-first century? This lecture will be accompanied by a tutorial (‘Übung’) in which students will further develop their practical skills.

Readings: many of the shorter reading are available on Moodle. Students should purchase their own copy of Shakespeare’s The Tempest (any academic edition is fine, but the Norton edition is a great choice), and copies of at least two of the novels discussed in the course (but check with your Übung instructor before making your choice of novels).
Next appointment:
Tuesday, 2026-10-20 at 12:15
Room: C HS 3
Planetary Experiments
Robert Mitchell
This course focuses on the history, theory, and literary and artistic representations of “planetary experimentation.” The Anthropocene is itself a concept of planetary experimentation, having been described as a condition that is the result of “a large-scale geophysical experiment of a kind that could not have happened in the past nor be reproduced in the future,” or as an “unintended experiment of humankind on its own life support system.” Alternative terms such as the Capitalocene or Plantationocene stress that a small subset of humans, rather than “humankind,” are responsible for this experiment, yet also present phenomena such as global warming and rapid species extinction as signs of irresponsible planetary experimentation. This course focuses on theories of “planetarity,” considering especially the role of concepts of experimentation in these theories. We will also draw on work in science and technology studies (STS), while keeping in mind that planetary experiments tend not to fit easily into usual understandings of experimentation as lab-based, replicable, etc. In addition, we consider non-scientific theories of experimentation, and explore ways in which different literary genres and artistic projects understand planetary experimentation (for example, via fictions about explicit planetary experiments, such as geoengineering or the intentional global spread of nanotechnologies, as well as fictions about responses to unintentional planetary experiments, such as accidental release and global spread of a technology or virus). We will focus especially on how literature and art projects imagine or instantiate agency, expertise, and responsibility, and consider how these accounts compare to science and technology studies accounts of planetary experiments. The guiding premise of the course is that the history and language of planetary experimentation can open up contemporary discussions of engineering and technical solutionism to a critical history of politics, truth, and aesthetics.
Next appointment:
Monday, 2026-10-19 at 10:15
Room: C 16.203 Seminarraum