Centre for Privacy Studies

The Danish National Research Foundation Centre for Privacy Studies (PRIVACY) is an interdisciplinary research centre funded by the Danish National Research Foundation (DNRF138, 2017-2027). PRIVACY is based at the Faculty of Theology at the University of Copenhagen and collaborates with the Royal Danish Academy, School of Architecture. PRIVACY is directed by Professor Mette Birkedal Bruun. The PRIVACY research team examines how notions 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. We bring together the fields of, e.g., Archaeology, Church History, History of Architecture, Legal History and Social History. PRIVACY is the home to the research project 'STAY HOME: The home during the corona crisis – and after' (the Carlsberg Foundation) and the open access, multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal Privacy Studies Journal.