The Lab for Character Assassination and Reputation Protection
An interdisciplinary team advancing the theory and practice of character assassination and reputation protection through research, education, and risk assessment.
What We Do
CARP’s work is organized around Four core areas:
- Research on historical and contemporary cases of character assassination.
- Publishing on character assassination and reputation protection.
- Education and training for students and professionals.
- Media and public engagement, including social media outreach.
Character Assassination: What Is It?
Character assassination (CA) is the deliberate destruction of a person’s reputation via character attacks—acts that convey alleged or factual claims about someone’s morals, credibility, authenticity, or integrity. CA is both a process (e.g., smear campaigns) and an outcome (damaged reputation).
Tactics range from direct insults and negative ads to rumors, memes, selective “exposés,” and strategic silence. Effects can last a lifetime: careers, networks, and public images can collapse after a single trigger. Understanding CA helps us detect, guard against, and recover from reputational harm across politics, workplaces, classrooms, and digital platforms.
The CARP Lab
Established in 2016 as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, CARP brings together scholars and practitioners from psychology, history, political science, communication, and public relations to advance theory and applications of CA and reputation protection.
We publish scholarship, edit volumes and special issues, and create public-facing media op-eds, essays, animations, and videos.
Ongoing Research and Conferences
CARP members presented at Universities of Oxford, Bamberg, Vienna, Warsaw, Amsterdam, Venice (Ca’ Foscari), Tartu, the Institute of World Politics (USA), the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Portuguese Navy Academy, and more alongside affiliated conferences worldwide.
We have organized five international conferences dedicated to CA and reputation management, most recently CARP 5 (March 2025, Arlington, VA).
Education
We offer cutting-edge university courses on Character Assassination and Reputation Protection, designed for experts and students across disciplines. Led by CARP experts, these courses provide practical, real-world skills for understanding, managing, and defending reputations in politics, business, media, and public life. CARP is currently developing online versions of these courses for a global audience.
Recent and ongoing courses:
- Queen’s University Belfast: HIS1003 Ancient Smear (Defamation in Greece & Rome).
- George Mason University: COMM 386/GOVT 319 Character Assassination & Reputation Management in PR (undergraduate).
- GMU: GOVT490 Character Assassination in Politics (PR (undergraduate).
CARP’s History
CARP (Character Assassination and Reputation Protection Lab) began as a group of scholars whose interests spanned rhetoric, psychology, sociology, history, political science, and public relations. Their paths first crossed — both together and separately — at conferences in Washington DC, Heidelberg, Paris, and Rome, where they discovered a remarkable overlap in their research interests. Recognizing the potential for collaboration, they combined their efforts and officially founded CARP in 2016, developing over the years several international academic affiliations.
Since its founding, CARP has grown into a dynamic, globally engaged project. Over the years, it has organized five international conferences (with the sixth planned for 2027), attracting academics and practitioners from more than twenty-five countries. The lab benefits from a robust network of research associates and affiliates, as well as a dedicated team of research assistants and interns, fostering both rigorous scholarship and practical training.
The lab’s founders and close associates have made significant scholarly contributions, including several books, a college textbook, numerous peer-reviewed papers, media op-eds, and the organization of dozens of webinars and podcasts. Looking ahead, major scholarly publications are planned under a series initiated and sponsored by Routledge and other publishers and journals.
True to its mission, CARP is constantly developing new ideas, pursuing innovative projects, and inviting qualified associates and interns to join its research community. The lab remains committed to advancing the study of character, reputation, and strategic communication, bridging historical and contemporary insights across disciplines.