Katja Mellmann is reserch associate (Heisenberg Fellowship) at the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. After her study of German and French languages and literatures in Munich, she was affiliated to several universities, including Munich (2000-2008), Göttingen (2010-2018, Dilthey Fellowship), Bielefeld (2019/20), Bochum (2021/22), and Darmstadt (2022/23). Her major research interests are 18th- and 19th-century German literature, the psychology of reception (emotional effects of literature), narrative theory, poetic meter, and evolutionary literary theory.