Curriculum Vitae
Francis F. Steen

3131 Hershey Hall
Communication Studies
University of California
Los Angeles, CA 90095
tel. (310) 825-3147
steen at commstds dot ucla dot edu

Academic Appointments

2008-present: Associate Professor, Communication Studies, UCLA
2001-2008: Assistant Professor, Communication Studies, UCLA
(cf. UCLA Inquiry, "A Revolution in Communication," Spring 2002)

Education

Ph.D. in English, 2002, University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A. in English, 1989, University of Oslo, Norway
B.A. in English and History of Ideas, 1986, University of Oslo, Norway

Dissertation

Cognitive Play: The Work of Fiction in British Print Culture, 1656-1725
Co-chairs: Paul Hernadi and William Warner
Committee: Charles Bazerman, John Tooby, Mark Turner

Teaching

Acquisition of Language and Culture Through Play. Applied Linguistics 291
Decoding Media Strategies. Communication Studies 133
Entertainment as Implicit Pedagogy. Communication Studies 128
Social Communication and the New Technologies. Communication Studies 154
The Gaming Mind. Communication Studies 129

Publications

Vorderer, Peter, Francis F. Steen, and Elaine Chan (2006). “Motivation.” In  Bryant Jennings and Peter Vorderer (eds.). The Psychology of Entertainment. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 3-17.

Steen, Francis F. (2006). “A Cognitive Account of Aesthetics.” Mark Turner (ed.). The Artful Mind: Cognitive Science and the Riddle of Human Creativity. Oxford University Press. 57-71.

Steen, Francis F., Mari-Sian Davies, Brendesha Tynes, and Patricia M. Greenfield (2006). “Digital Dystopia: Player Control and Strategic Innovation in The Sims Online.” In Ralph Schroeder and Ann-Sofie Axelsson (eds.) Avatars at Work and Play. London, UK: Springer. 237-273.

Steen, Francis F., Patricia M. Greenfield, Mari-Sian Davies, and Brendesha Tynes (2006). “What Went Wrong with The Sims Online: Cultural Learning and Barriers to Identification in a MMOG.” In Peter Vorderer and Bryant Jennings (eds.). Playing Video Games – Motives, Responses, and Consequences. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. 307-323.

Steen, Francis F. (2005). "The Paradox of Narrative Thinking." Journal of Cultural and Evolutionary Psychology 3. 1: 87-105.

Steen, Francis F. (2004). “Aphra Behn's Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and his Sister.” Helen Ostovich et al. (ed.). Early Modern Women Writing: An Anthology of Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1550-1700. London, UK: Routledge. 404-5.

Steen, Francis F. (2004). “Aphra Behn’s Young Jemmy.” Helen Ostovich et al. (ed.). Early Modern Women Writing: An Anthology of Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1550-1700. London, UK: Routledge. 308-9.

Richardson, Alan, and Francis F. Steen (2003). “Reframing the Adjustment: A Response to Adler and Gross.” Poetics Today 24. 2: 151-159.

Steen, Francis F.  (2002).  "A Story to Kill For: The Death of Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex." 1650-1850: Ideas, Aesthetics, and Inquiries in the Early Modern Era VII: 117-142. Edited by Kevin Cope, Theodore Braun, and John Radner.

Richardson, Alan, and Steen, Francis F.   (2002).  Editor and introduction. Special issue, "Literature and the Cognitive Revolution."  Poetics Today 23. 1: 1-8.

Steen, Francis F.  (2002). "The Politics of Love: Propaganda and Structural Learning in Aphra Behn’s Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister." Poetics Today 23. 1: 91-122.

Steen, Francis F.  and Stephanie Owens (2001). "Evolution’s Pedagogy: An Adaptationist Model of Pretense and Entertainment."  Journal of Cognition and Culture 1. 4: 289-321. Draft text.

Steen, Francis F.  and Tord Østberg (2000). "Nemine contra dicente: The Sponsors of the Popish Plot, 1678-1681." Special issue, "The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories." Clio’s Psyche 7. 3: 122-4.

Steen, Francis F. (2000). "Grasping Philosophy by the Roots." Philosophy and Literature 24. 1: 197-201.

Hernadi, Paul, and Francis F. Steen (1999). “The Tropical Landscapes of Proverbia: A Crossdisciplinary Travelogue.” Style 33. 1: 1-20. Republished in Mieder, Wolfgang (ed.) (2003). Cognition, Comprehension, and Communication: A Decade of North American Proverb Studies (1990-2000). Baltmannsweiler, Germany: Schneider.

teen, Francis F. (1999). "The Tropical Landscapes of Proverbia: A Crossdisciplinary Travelogue." With Paul Hernadi. Style 33. 1: 1-20. 

Steen, Francis F. (1999). "Robert Higbie, Dickens and the Imagination." Review. New Books in Nineteenth Century Studies. University of Southern California. http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/english/19c/ books/rev-0-8130-1593-6.html (May 1999).

Steen, Francis F. (1998). "‘The Time of Unrememberable Being’: Wordsworth’s Autobiography of the Imagination." Auto/Biography Studies, special issue on autobiography and neuroscience, 13.1: 7-38.

Conference Presentations

"Insight and metacognition: How to survive the simulating brain." Presentation at the conference "The Self and the Sacred" in the series "Awe-inspiring Experiences." UCLA, November 2002.

"The Pleasures of Simulation in Aurignatian Art." Presentation at the First First International Conference on Neuroesthetics, "The Pleasure of Art as Sensed by the Brain," UC Berkeley, California, January 2002. News report (Financial Times).

"Cognitive and Social Dimensions of Collective Communication." Presentation in the Behavior, Evolution, and Culture speaker series. UCLA, October 2001.

"An Adaptationist Framework for a Cognitive Theory of Art." Two presentations for the Getty Special Project on Cognition, Brain, and Art at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Stanford University, California, September 2001.

"‘It’s just for pretend’: Towards a Communicational Theory of Entertainment." Guest speaker, International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley, California, January 2001.

"The Evolutionary Psychology of Political Propaganda: Hobbes and the Problem of Collective Action." Presentation at the conference "The New Biopolitics." UCLA, November 2000.

"Richardson and His Female Predecessors." Presentation on the panel "Richardson and Women Novelists." Annual meeting of the American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, University of Pennsylvania, April 2000.

"Implicit Pedagogy: From Chase Play to Collaborative Worldmaking." Guest speaker, with Stephanie Owens, UC Santa Barbara, March 2000.

"Caught Unawares by Love: Restoration Portrayals of the Erotic Unconscious." Presentation. Organizer of the Special Session "Cognition, Narrative, and the Psychology of Love." Organizer and chair of the session "Gender and Cognitive Theory" for the Discussion Group "Cognitive Approaches to Literature." Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, Chicago, December 1999.

"Amorous Absolutism: Aphra Behn’s Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister" and "Death and the Limits of the Literary: Political Fictions of the Exclusion Crisis." Presentation and research report. Annual Meeting of the East-Central American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Washington, Pennsylvania, October 1999.

"The Learning-Mode Hypothesis of the Literary Imagination." Presentation. Crossdisciplinary conference, "Imagination and the Adapted Mind," UC Santa Barbara, August 1999.

"The Politics of Love: Propaganda and Subversion in Aphra Behn’s Love-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister." Presentation on the panel "Literary History and the Brain." Organizer, with Lisa Zunshine, of the Forum "Historicizing Cognition: Literature and the Cognitive Revolution" (3 panels, 15 participants from 12 institutions). Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, San Francisco, December 1998.

"The Growth of the Imagination in Wordsworth’s Goslar Manuscripts." Presentation on the panel "Romanticism and Cognitive Neuroscience." Annual Meeting of the American Conference on Romanticism, UC Santa Barbara, October 1998.

"Catching a Serpent with Another’s Hand: The Tropical Landscapes of Proverbia." Presentation, with Paul Hernadi, for the Office of Research project "Evolution and the Social Mind." UC Santa Barbara, February 1998.

"The Moral Impact of Fictional Language: Lennox vs. Johnson." Presentation. Tenth Annual Conference on Linguistics and Literature, University of North Texas, Denton, January 1998. 

"Evolved benevolence: Hutcheson and the moral engines of community." Presentation. Organizer of the Special Session "Evolutionary Psychology and Literature: The Significance of Evolved Cognitive Structures for the Study of Early Modern Culture." Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association, Toronto, December 1997.

"Negotiating Darwin." Presentation. Organizer of the panel "Cognitive Cultural Studies." Annual Convention of the Society for Literature and Science, Pittsburgh, November 1997.

"How Do Evolved Cognitive Abilities Help Us Understand Early Modern Culture?" Presentation, with Laurence Fiddick. Annual Conference of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, Tucson, Arizona, June 1997.

"The Aboriginal Wordsworth." Presentation. Conference on Literature and the Natural Environment, University of Wales Swansea, United Kingdom, March 1997.

"Literature as a Social Accounting System." Presentation. Ninth Annual Conference on Linguistics and Literature, University of North Texas, Denton, February 1997.

Internet Projects

Editor, CogWeb: Cognitive Cultural Studies. 2,000 documents, around 10% my own text. Twenty thousand hits per month. URL: cogweb.ucla.edu. 1996 - present.

Editor, Restoration Print Culture. 300 documents, images, and sounds. URL: cogweb.ucla.edu/Restoration. 1998 - present.

Editor, Evolution and the Social Mind. 100 documents. Two thousand hits per month. URL: www.anth.ucsb.edu/projects/esm. 1997 - 2000.

Honors and Awards:

UCSB Graduate Division Dissertation Fellowships, Winter and Fall 1999

Department of English Dissertation Fellowship, UCSB, Fall 1998

"Graduate Student’s Web Site Explores Intersection of Literature and Cognitive Science":

CogWeb reviewed by the Chronicle of Higher Education, June 26, 1998
Graduate Student's Web Site Explores Intersection of Literature and Cognitive Science

Humanities/Social Sciences Research Grant, UCSB, Spring 1998

UCSB Graduate Division Fee Fellowship, Winter and Spring 1998

Critical Excellence Award for the web site CogWeb: Cognitive Cultural Studies from the Society for Critical Exchange, Fall 1997

Recognized as Outstanding Faculty Member by the Residence Halls Association 1996-97

UCSB Regency Fellowship, 1993-94

Academic Service

2001-2: Chair, External Review Response Committee, Communication Studies, UCLA

2001- present: Chair, Library Committee, Communication Studies, UCLA

2001 - present: Board member, UCLA Center for Governance

1998 - 2000: Executive Committee of the new Discussion Group on Cognitive Approaches to Literature at the Modern Language Association, co-organizer and founding member.