“Emotion and Society Lab” is a new “network of collaborators in philosophy across different universities that engage in collaborative learning, research, and public engagement around emotions and society.”

Created and directed by Myisha Cherry at the University of California, Riverside, and involving researchers at several institutions, Emotion and Society Lab uses “use methods and theories from philosophy to help explore questions about the nature and role of emotions in everyday life. Our work is interdisciplinary; informed by cognitive science, social psychology, and political science.” The Lab’s inquiries head in five “primary directions“:

One direction is concerned with examining the nature and role of emotions. The second is thinking about how people use emotions as oppressive and liberatory tools. The third is concerned with theorizing affective concepts to illuminate hidden phenomena and then examining how such theorizing can help solve real-world problems. The fourth direction is concerned with creating models of emotion regulation and emotional intelligence that are sensitive to race, gender, and class. The Fifth direction engages the philosophical contributions of non-western traditions (e.g., African American, Latinx, Indigenous, Eastern, and so-forth) to see what insights they offer to help us understand our emotional lives more deeply.

Among the various projects and events to be put on by the Lab are a Works-in-Progress series, beginning next month, and a book club called “So Emotional” that gets started in March.

See the Lab’s website for further information.