Kerstin Thomas, art historian and philosopher, is director of the Emmy-Noether research Group: Form und emotion. Affektive Strukturen in der französischen Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts und ihre soziale Geltung at Johannes Gutenberg-University in Mainz. The aim of this project is to explore how aesthetic forms transfer emotions. Thomas is interested in art history and aesthetic theory and has published several books and articles on the way in which artists like Seurat, Puvis de Chavannes, Gauguin and Cézanne make use of mood to appropriate the world, among which Welt und Stimmung bei Puvis de Chavannes, Seurat und Gauguin (Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2010) and Stimmung. Ästhetische Theorie und künstlerische Praxis (Deutscher Kunstverlag, 2010). Currently, she is preparing a book on The problem of form in Henri Focillon and Meyer Schapiro.