Fellows Fall Semester 2026

The CAS cohort for the fall term 2026 consists of two research pairs.

The project deals with distrust as a societal phenomenon. Distrust assumes with certainty that other actors will harm you, and perhaps even do so intentionally. Distrust can both express an attitude and occur as a social action. Furthermore, and this is to particular interest to us, distrust is used as a discursive tool that is deployed in debates around the relationship between individuals and between the individual and the nation state, in mediascapes as well as in fictional cultural products.

The project deals with distrust as a societal phenomenon. Distrust assumes with certainty that other actors will harm you, and perhaps even do so intentionally. Distrust can both express an individual attitude and occur as a social action. Furthermore, and this is of particular interest to our research group, actors and stakeholders deploy distrust as a discursive tool in debates about relationships between individuals, between individuals and institutions, and between individuals and the nation state. These debates can be found both in contemporary media discourse as well as in fictional cultural products.