PRIVACY Centre for Privacy Studies

Research Project:

Maarten Delbeke

Director:

Mette Birkedal Brunn (University of Copenhagen, DK)

The Danish National Research Foundation Centre for Privacy Studies (PRIVACY) was established in September 2017 through a generous grant of DKK 50 million (approx. Euro 6.7 million) from the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF). The Centre has received additional funding of approximately 4.4 million Euros and has been extended through 2027.

The PRIVACY research team examines how no¬tions of privacy and the private shape relations between individuals and society across diverse historical contexts. We are particularly interested in indications of privacy as a quality and threat: in the emergence and development of the idea that too little privacy threatens the individual while too much may ruin society.

PRIVACY focuses on the period 1500–1800 that sees critical changes in individuals’ relationship to society. It brings together the fields of Church History, History of Architecture, History of Ideas, Legal History and Social History.