Mark Landau
University of Kansas
Mark Landau is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Kansas. Mark received his B.A. from Skidmore College, where he became interested in the intersection of experimental psychology and existential philosophy. He continued his education at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, and then at the University of Arizona, where he received his Ph.D. in 2007. Mark’s research explores how existential concerns motivate social behavior and the use of metaphor to understand abstract ideas.
He has received a number of awards recognizing his research, including the Theoretical Innovation Prize from the Society for Personality and Social Psychology and the Early Career Award from the APA. Mark is a founding member of the International Society for the Science of Existential Psychology. He has authored or coedited three books, including Conceptual Metaphor in Social Psychology: The Poetics of Everyday Life. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on social psychology, research methods, and the self.