Caroline Light currently serves as the Director of Undergraduate Studies at Harvard University and teaches courses on women, gender, and sexuality.

As her Harvard bio notes: Professor Light’s research explores the ways in which race, gender, and religion have shaped collective (mis)memory and archival silence. Her recent book, Stand Your Ground: A History of America’s Love Affair with Lethal Self-Defense provides a critical genealogy of our nation’s ideals of armed citizenship. Beginning with the centuries-old adage “a man’s home is his castle,” she tracks the history of our nation’s relationship to lethal self-defense, from the duty to retreat to the “shoot first, ask questions later” ethos that prevails in many jurisdictions today.