German film history, film studies, Vienna's literary and visual culture around 1900 and German studies overall form the core of Professor Leo Lensing's expertise and research. His scholarly papers and articles include studies in the history of photographry, visual culture, and the history of psychoanalysis.

A regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement http://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2016/06/29/lensingfritzlang/ on a variety of topics including filmmaker Fritz Lang https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/man-of-the-eye/(Fritz Lang, Fassbinder) and on "Vienna 1900"  - Karl Kraus, Peter Altenberg, Arthur Schnitzler, Klimt, Kokoschka and Richard Gerstl - https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/public/karl-kraus-at-war/ https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/private/phantasmagorias-richard-gerstl/ and an occasional reviewer and writer for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Professor Lensing's most recent work has centered on postcards and literature and on author-photo experiments in Vienna 1900.  

Lensing is the co-editor of The Anarchy of the Imagination (1992), the interviews and essays of Rainer Werner Fassbinder, https://www.amazon.com/Anarchy-Imagination-Interviews-Essays-Notes/dp/0801843693, and of Traeume (2012), the dream journal of Arthur Schnitzler., https://www.amazon.de/Tr%C3%A4ume-Traumtagebuch-1875-1931-Bibliothek-Janowitz/dp/3835310291/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526052629&sr=8-1&keywords=schnitzler+traeume. Traeume was embraced and celebrated http://newsletter.blogs.wesleyan.edu/2012/05/27/lensing/ in Austria on Schnitzler's 150th birthday and enjoyed wide coverage on national TV, radio, and print. There were more than 30 reviews in European newspapers and journals.  http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/arthur-schnitzler-zum-geburtstag-licht-und-schatten-dieser-welt-1.1357452 / https://www.nzz.ch/die-nachtseiten-des-tagebuchs-1.17492104

Professor Lensing has also edited and co-edited several editions of the works of Peter Altenberg and Karl Kraus. https://www.amazon.de/Die-Selbsterfindung-eines-Dichters-Bibliothek/dp/3835305522/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1526053587&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=lensing+altenberg+die+selbsterfindung / https://www.amazon.de/Karl-Kraus-Vorleser-Faksimile-Schauspielkunst/dp/3938743433/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526053672&sr=1-1&keywords=karl+kraus+als+vorleser / http://www.verlag-ulrich-keicher.de/vv.html#LENSING,%20Leo%20A. He has published scholarly articles and essays on the nineteenth-century German novelist Wilhelm Raabe, Freud, Klimt, Kafka, Joseph Roth, Irmgard Keun, Ingeborg Bachmann, Thomas Bernhard, and the Austrian photographers Emil Mayer and Theodor Beer. He is a regular contributor to the Times Literary Supplement and occasionally writes reviews and articles for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. His most recent work has centered on postcards and literature and on author-photo experiments in Vienna 1900.

B. A.,  Modern and Classical Languages, University of Notre Dame (1970). M.A. and Ph.D, German Literature, Cornell University (1976). Studied at the University of Innsbruck (1967-68) and the University of Heidelberg (1972-73). Visiting professor of Germanic Languages & Literatures, Yale University (2001). At Wesleyan: Professor of German Studies , 1987-2014; Professor of Film Studies in the College of Film and the Moving Image, 2015-present; Dean of the Arts and Humanities, 1993-96.