Dr. Corinna Kühnapfel

Dr. Corinna Kühnapfel is a postdoctoral researcher specializing in neuroaesthetics and empirical aesthetics. She investigates how and why art experiences become moving, meaningful, or transformative. She is currently part of the ERC-funded Affective Aesthetic Cognitivism and Wonder (AAC_Wonder) project at Technische Universität Berlin, where she studies how wonder deepens engagement with art and expands understanding. She is also affiliated with the Research Platform Neurourbanism, exploring how public art and urban aesthetics shape well-being and people’s experience of cities. Corinna holds a PhD from the University of Vienna and previously earned degrees in Cognitive Science (BSc) and Embodied Cognition (MSc). Her doctoral dissertation examined how bodily movement, interoception, and interactions with installation art shape aesthetic experience. Beyond academia, she co-founded EDGE e.V., an international non-profit organization connecting the arts and neuroscience through exhibitions, workshops, and public events.