It's sometimes counterintuitive to think that emotions might have a history, because surely everyone across the world and everyone across time has always felt fear and anger and sorrow and joy in the same kind of way.
About Tiffany Watt Smith
I am an author and historian of emotions. I write about the cultural and historical forces that shape our most intimate worlds. I have won multiple awards for my research and writing, including grants from Wellcome Trust, the British Academy and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I am the 2018 Philip Leverhulme Prize winner.
I am Reader (emerita) at the School of Arts, Queen Mary University of London, where I taught for fifteen years and directed its Centre for the History of Emotions. In 2024, I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Key Points
• Emotions aren't fixed; how we express and understand them changes across time and cultures.
• Some emotions, like boredom or nostalgia, were named and defined in specific historical moments.
• Societies have unspoken rules about which emotions are acceptable and when.
• Some of the emotions that are going to become more spoken about are emotions to do with our response to the climate crisis.

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