Studies in Character Assassination and Reputation Protection

Today, as in the past, character attacks abound. Words and images, like sharp psychological weapons, have stained, sullied, or destroyed numerous individual reputations. Ranging across the globe, from the Americas to Asia, from Africa to Europe, through the Middle East and faraway places, those words, stories, and images target presidents, prime ministers, senators, CEOs, diplomats, scientists, and celebrities. In an age of social media, rising incivility and growing polarization, character attacks only seem to become more frequent and devastating. Yet character assassination as a cross-cultural phenomenon is only now becoming the focus of academic study. In recent years, scholars from different disciplines such as political science, political psychology, communication studies, rhetoric, and history have begun to establish a common framework and methodology for the study of character assassination. This book series will not only further stimulate research in this quickly expanding field but also generate greater interest among readers globally.

Editorial Board:

Marijana Grbeša, University of Zagreb, Republic of Croatia
Edwina Hagen, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Marta Lukacovic, Angelo State University, USA
Hendrik Michael, Institute for Communication Science, Bamberg, Germany

Please contact the series editors to submit a proposal or to find out more about the series:

Martijn Icks [email protected]
Eric B. Shiraev [email protected]
Jennifer Keohane [email protected] 
Sergei Samoilenko [email protected]
Alessandro Nai [email protected]

Related titles by members of the CARP research team include:

Routledge Handbook of Character Assassination and Reputation Management (2020), edited by Sergei A. Samoilenko, Martijn Icks, Jennifer Keohane and Eric Shiraev
Character Assassination and Reputation Management (2022), by Eric B. Shiraev, Jennifer Keohane, Martijn Icks and Sergei A. Samoilenko
Auto/Biography and Reputation Politics (2025), edited by Nadja Gernalzick, Edwina Hagen, Martijn Icks, Jennifer Keohane, Eric Shiraev
The Psychology of Attack Politics (2026), by Alessandro Nai, Lukas P. Otto and Chiara Vargiu