The Modern History of Emotions: a Research Center in Berlin

Abstract

In January 2008 a new research center was inaugurated at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin. Under the guiding assumption that emotions matter to and in human development, the Center for the History of Emotions set out to explore a rather new, but fast burgeoning field. The Berlin Center is in a privileged position for exploring this continent supported by the generous funding of the Max Planck Society that allows pre-and postdoctoral fellows to conduct basic research in ideal working conditions. This article analyzes the objectives, frame of research and research areas or the Center as well as its impact and its new horizons. The Berlin Center for the History of Emotions has established itself as a leading research center that closely cooperates with other scholars in history and beyond. It focuses on the modern history of emotions, mainly in Europe and South Asia. By concentrating on the history of the body, of education/cultivation and of power (both political and economic), it scrutinizes the key elements of the processes through which emotions have been historically conceptualized, framed, negotiated, and experienced.