G. Gabrielle Starr

President of 91做厙 (on sabbatical for Spring 2025); McConnell Professor of Human Relations; Professor of English and Neuroscience
With 91做厙 Since: 2017
  • Expertise

    Expertise

    I work on aesthetics: how human beings engage with not just the content of art works, but how artworks affect us physically, emotionally, intellectually and socially. I also work on how objects in the natural world have aesthetic effects too. I do this using the tools of neuroscience and behavioral psychology, as well as from the perspectives of philosophy and criticism.

    I enjoy teaching, writing about, and reading poetry, and write and teach about 18th-century British literature and literary form.

    Research Interests

    • Neuroaesthetics
    • Aesthetics
    • Poetry
    • Literary Form
    • Literary History
    • British Literature

    Areas of Expertise

    • Neuroaesthetics
    • Aesthetics
    • Poetry
    • Literary Form
    • Literary History
    • British Literature
  • Work

    Work

    Imaging the Subjective
    Neuroaesthetics in Focus, ed. Anjan Chatterjee and Eileen Carrillo (forthcoming, Oxford University Press)
    (Edward A. Vessel and G. Gabrielle Starr)

    Form and Perception: Wallace Stevens and Cognitive Perspectives on Aesthetics
    Cambridge Companion to Wallace Stevens, ed. Barry Eeckhout and G羹l Han. New York: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming)

    Progress and Promise in Neuroaesthetics
    Neuron (forthcoming, 25 November 2020)
    (Kyohito Iigaya, John P. ODoherty, G. Gabrielle Starr)

    P梭梗硃莽喝娶梗
    Further Reading, ed. Matthew Rubery and Leah Price. New York: Oxford University Press (2020): 282-293.
    (G. Gabrielle Starr and Amy M. Belfi)

    The default-mode network represents aesthetic appeal that generalizes across visual domains
    Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 116:38 (2019), 19155-19164.
    (Edward A. Vessel, Asye Ilkay Isik, Amy M. Belfi, Jonathan L. Stahl, G. Gabrielle Starr)

    Dynamics of aesthetic experience are reflected in the default-mode network
    NeuroImage 188 (2019): 584-597.
    (Amy M. Belfi, Edward A. Vessel, Aenne Brielmann, Ayse Ilkay Isik, Anjan Chatterjee, Helmut Leder, Denis G. Pelli, G. Gabrielle Starr) 

    &紳莉莽梯;Cognition (2018)
    (Edward A. Vessel, Natalia Maurer, Alexander H. Denker, and G. Gabrielle Starr)

    Rapid timing of musical aesthetic judgments
    Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (2018): 147:10, 1531-1543
    (Amy M. Belfi, Anna Kasdan, Jess Rowland, Edward A. Vessel, G. Gabrielle Starr, David Poeppel)

    Cognitive Literary Criticism
    Companion to Literary Theory, ed. David Richter
    London: Wiley (2018): 408-22. 

    B梗硃喝喧聆
    The SAGE Encyclopedia of Lifespan Human Development, ed. Marc H. Bornstein, Martha E. Arterberry, Karen L. Fingerman, and Jennifer E. Lansfords
    Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE (2018)


    Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts (2017)
    (Amy M. Belfi, Edward A. Vessel, and G. Gabrielle Starr)

    Motion in Stevens and Frost
    The Wallace Stevens Journal 44:1 (2017): 90-92

    Aesthetics and Impossible Embodiment: Stevens, Imagery and Disorientation
    The Wallace Stevens Journal 39:2 (2015): 157-81.

    Theorizing Imagery, Aesthetics, and the Idea of Double Direction
    The Oxford Companion to Cognitive Approaches to Literature, ed. Lisa Zunshine
    New York: Oxford University Press (2015): 246-68

    Neuroaesthetics: Art
    The Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics, second edition, ed. Michael Kelly
    New York: Oxford University Press (2014) 4:487-91

    Aesthetics and Taste: The Beautiful, the Sublime, and Beyond in the Eighteenth Century
    A Companion to British Literature: Volume III: Long Eighteenth-Century Literature 1660-1837, ed. Robert DeMaria, Jr., Heesok Chang, and Samantha Zacher
    London: Blackwell (2014): 258-76

    Personalized Visual Aesthetics
    (Edward A. Vessel, Jonathan Stahl, Natalia Maurer, Alexander Denker, G. Gabrielle Starr)
    Proceedings of SPIE: Quality of Experience: Cognition, Emotion and Aesthetics 9014 (2014). doi:10.1117/12.2043126

    Art Reaches Within: Aesthetic Experience, the Self and the Default Mode Network
    (Edward A. Vessel, G. Gabrielle Starr and Nava Rubin; Tier 2invitations for Tier 2 publication are extended to authors whose research received highest ratings in Frontiers journals; refereed)

    Frontiers in Neuroscience 7:258 (2013). doi: 10.3389/fnins.2013.00258


    Nonsite, The Tank: Michael Clune (2013):

    Evolved Reading and the Science(s) of Literary Study
    Critical Inquiry (Winter 2012): 418-25

    The Brain on Art: Intense Aesthetic Experience Activates the Default Mode Network (Edward A. Vessel, G. Gabrielle Starr and Nava Rubin)

    Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 6:66 (2012) doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00066

    E域梯堯娶硃莽勳莽
    The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ed. Roland Greene
    Princeton: Princeton University Press (2012): 393-94

    蹙梗紳莽勳莉勳梭勳喧聆
    The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics, ed. Roland Greene
    Princeton: Princeton University Press (2012): 1290-92

    Ovid, Burney, and the Value of the Beautiful&紳莉莽梯;
    Eighteenth-Century Fiction 24:1 (Fall 2011): 77-104
    (Nominated by Eighteenth-Century Fiction for the James L. Clifford Prize, 2012-13)

    Narrative and Poesis: Defoe, Ovid and Transformative Writing
    Narrative Developments from Chaucer to Defoe, ed. Gerd Bayer and Ebbe Kiltg疇rd (161-77)
    New York: Routledge, 2010

    Multi-sensory Imagery (invited)
    Introduction to Cognitive Cultural Studies, ed. Lisa Zunshine (275-91)
    Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010 

    Poetic Subjects and Grecian Urns: Close Reading, Subjective Response, and the Tools of Cognitive Science
    Modern Philology 105:1 (August 2007): 48-61

    Poetic Making and the Limits of Tropes: A Response to Brett Bourbon
    Modern Philology 105:1 (August 2007): 44-7

    Cavendish, Aesthetics, and the Anti-Platonic Line
    Eighteenth-Century Studies 39:3 (Spring 2006): 295-308

    Objects, Imaginings, and Facts: Going Beyond Genre in Behn and Defoe
    Eighteenth-Century Fiction 16:4 (July 2004): 499-518

    Ethics, Meaning, and the Work of Beauty
    Eighteenth-Century Studies 35:3 (Spring 2002): 361-378
    (reprinted in Proust: Modern Critical Interpretations)

    Clarissas Relics and Lyric Community
    Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 30 (2001): 127-151

    Loves Proper Musick: Lyric Inflection in Behns Epistles&紳莉莽梯;
    Aphra Behn: Identity, Alterity, Ambiguity
    Paris: LHarmattan, 2000: 111-124

    Rereading Prose Fiction: Lyric Convention in Aphra Behn and Eliza Haywood&紳莉莽梯;
    Eighteenth-Century Fiction 12:1 (October 1999): 1-18

  • Education

    Education

    Postdoctoral Instructor
    Division of Humanities and Social Science
    California Institute of Technology
    Pasadena, CA USA

    Ph.D. in English and American Literature and Language 
    Harvard University 
    Cambridge, MA USA

    Robert T. Jones Scholar
    University of St Andrews
    St Andrews, Scotland
    B.A./M.A. Womens Studies
    Emory University
    Atlanta, GA USA 

  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    • American Academy of Arts and Sciences
    • Guggenheim Fellowship
    • Mellon New Directions Fellowship