Karen Sonik is a cultural historian specializing in the visual arts and literature of Mesopotamia.
Currently Lanier Endowed Professor of Art History at Auburn University, she is the author of numerous studies of numerous articles on emotions, the visual arts, literature, and aesthetics in Mesopotamia, as well as the editor, most recently, of Contemporary Approaches to Mesopotamian Literature: How to Tell a Story (with D. Shehata; Leiden: Brill, 2024); The Routledge Handbook of Emotions in the Ancient Near East (with U. Steinert; Routledge, 2023); and Art/ifacts and ArtWorks in the Ancient World (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021).