Credit: Edinburgh Law School

The four-year project will be led collaboratively with co-investigators Dr Alice Krzanich (University of Aberdeen) and Professor Katie Barclay (Macquarie University) and comprises an interdisciplinary study of legal redress for injured feelings across the modern period (1750-present). It will combine approaches from law, history of emotions, medical history, and legal history, charting how injured feelings have been identified, defined and addressed by courts. 

Using Scotland as a case study, the project aims to understand which, and whose, emotions have received legal protection and for what reasons. The project will explore how socially- and culturally-informed ideas of selfhood, wellbeing, dignity, and respect have shaped legal processes and examine how class, race, and gender have affected litigation and legal decision making.