Fear (2007-2008)

Remains of the World Trade Center Friday, Sept. 14, 2001 in New York City. U.S. National Archives.

During the academic year 2007/08, the Shelby Cullom Davis Center for Historical Studies focused on the problem of fear. As part of the theme, we addressed topics and problems from a wide variety of periods and places, from prehistory to the present, and from all parts of the world.

Fear: Multidisciplinary Perspectives poster

Topics Included:

  • Trauma
  • Sexual violence
  • Fear as a mechanism of social and religious control
  • Warfare and technology
  • The nature of gun ownership and use
  • Racially based fear and the process of racialization
  • Censorship, media, and fear of the masses
  • War, terror, and population displacement
  • Religion and fear

Davis Center Fellows

  • Alexander Etkind, Cambridge University
  • Lisbeth Haas, University of California, Santa Cruz
  • David Lederer, National University of Ireland Maynooth
  • Melani McAlister, George Washington University
  • Ronald Schechter, The College of William and Mary
  • Marla Stone, Occidental College
  • Ravi Sundaram, CSDS, Delhi

Shelby Cullom Davis Center Volume

Facing Fear, edited by Michael Laffan and Max Weiss

Facing Fear: The History of an Emotion in Global Perspective

Edited by Michael Laffan and Max Weiss
Copyright 2013 Princeton University Press