Congratulations to Robinson alumna, Dr. Surekha Davies on her newly published book 'HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY'.  

Dr. Surekha Davies is a British author, speaker, and historian of science, art, and ideas. Her first book, Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human, won the Morris D. Forkosch Prize for the best first book in intellectual history from the Journal of the History of Ideas and the Roland H. Bainton Prize in History and Theology.

'HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY' “This is a book about monster-making: the stories societies tell about who they think isn’t normal or typical—the process of defining people as something outside normal categories, as something monstrous.” Surekha Davies

A powerful and provocative history of how humans have created monsters out of one another—and what these monsters tell us about humanity's present and future. From ancient gods to generative AI, from Dracula to E.T., and from Hannibal Lecter to the Menendez brothers, monsters saturate our culture: on the big screen, in the pages of our books, in the news, and in our social media feeds. But what is it that defines a monster? What, exactly, makes something or someone so monstrous?

In HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY (UC Press; February 2025), award-winning historian Dr. Surekha Davies seeks to answer these questions, taking readers on a fascinating journey through our extensive history of monster-making. Exploring humankind’s long history with monsters—how we have created, classified, and identified them throughout the ages—she explains how monsters are, at their core, marked by the idea of otherness. Who and what we see as a threat becomes subhuman; when we distinguish “self” from “the rest” we create a monster lurking somewhere outside of societal norms. And when we relate our fellow humans to everything from apes to witches to zombies, we place them outside the realm of the normal—a fundamental process in inventing various racial, gender, and ethnic stereotypes.

Join Surekha Davies at one of her London talks on the following dates:
Sunday April 27, 3pm: HistFest at The British Library (also livestreamed). Register here 

Monday April 28, 5.30pm: King's College London, book lecture and conversation with science writer and author Philip Ball; reception follows. In person only. Register here.

Thursday April 24, 7pm US East Coast, midnight UK time. Live Peculiar Book Club YouTube interview show. Membership of the book club required; $5/month (you may cancel after the first month). Click here to join.

Dr Surekha Davies links

Author website 
HUMANS: A Monstrous History  
Podcasts
Excerpts
Free newsletter: Notes from an Everything Historian (subscribers receive a free excerpt from the book).
BlueSky
 

 Cover designed by the University of California Press Art Director, Lia Tjandra.