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I am interested in the history of the human sciences. Recently I have begun to study the history of religious studies as a discipline.  Efforts to make religion the object of science raise interesting questions about the nature and limits of science.  Can it explain phenomena that have their source, according to believers, in a transcendental realm beyond the natural world?  What does religion have to be in order to become the object of science?  Many of the human sciences have been applied to religion: linguistics, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, to name a few.  Debates over how religion should be studied, by whom, and for what purpose, have always drawn important scholars and passionate audiences.

My early research was on the emergence of psychology and sociology in late nineteenth-century France. I studied two distinct but interrelated developments: the rise of disciplines claiming to investigate the phenomena of the human mind and society through scientific rather than philosophical means, and the institutionalization of these disciplines in French universities. To understand these developments, I have examined the intellectual and institutional characteristics of French academic philosophy. 

In May 2003 I was visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales.  I gave presentations on a variety of topics related to my research:

• "Le durkheimisme et les sciences religieuses : Le cas d'Alexandre Moret (1868-1938)" 
• "La figure mystérieuse : Un cas d'(auto-) interpretation d'hallucination à la Salpêtrière" 
• "Eclectisme et sciences humaines : Histoire secrète d'un divorce amical"
• "Les durkheimiens et la cinquième section de l'Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes"

Books and Book Chapters

• “The Durkheimians and the Fifth Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes: An Overview,” in Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion Today, ed. T.A. Idinopulos and Brian Wilson, 85-109 (Boston: Brill, 2002).
• “Teaching Western Civilization with Computers: A Guide for the Perplexed,” in Instructor's Resource Manual for The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, vol. 2: Since 1560, by Michael D. Richards, 147-160 (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001).
• The Eclectic Legacy: Academic Philosophy and the Human Sciences in Nineteenth-Century France. Newark, Delaware: University of Delaware Press, 1998.

Refereed Journal Articles

• "Institutionalizing Durkheimian Sociology of Religion: The Case of the Fifth Section," Thinking about Religion 2 (2002), <http://www.wfu.edu/Organizations/ncrsa/papers/johnbrooks.htm>  (29 December 2002).
• "Implementing an Internet-Enhanced History Teaching Environment," Journal of the Association for History and Computing 4, no. 3 (2001), <http://mcel.pacificu.edu/JAHC/JAHCiv3/Reports/brooks/text.htm> (1 June 2002).
• "The Definition of Sociology and the Sociology of Definition: Durkheim's Rules of Sociological Method and High-School Philosophy in France," Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 32 (1996): 379-407. 
• "Philosophy and Psychology at the Sorbonne, 1885-1913," Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 29 (1993): 123-45. 
• "Analogy and Argumentation in an Interdisciplinary Context: Durkheim's 'Individual and Collective Representations,'" History of the Human Sciences 4 (1991):223-59. 

Other Publications

• Review of The Post-Revolutionary Self: Politics and Psyche in France, 1750-1950, by Jan Goldstein. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 43 (2007): 230-231.
• Review of Maurice Halbwachs: Un intellectuel en guerres modiales, 1914-1945, by Annette Becker. Journal of Modern History 78 (2006): 461-63.
• Review of The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France, by Jennifer Hecht.  Journal of Modern History 77 (2005): 812-14.
• Review of Contesting Sacrifice: Religion, Nationalism, and Social Thought in France, by Ivan Strenski. Revue d'histoire des sciences humaines 9 (October 2003).
• Review of Le Quadrige: Un siècle d'édition universitaire, 1860-1968, by Valérie Tesnière.  Journal of Modern History 75 (2003): 180-182.
• "Pierre Janet." International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. New York: Elsevier, 2001.
• Review of A Modern Maistre: The Social and Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre, by Owen Bradley. American Historical Review 105 (2000): 1818-19.
• Review of The Practical Imagination: The German Sciences of State in the Nineteenth Century, by David Lindenfeld. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 35 (1999): 183-84.
• Review of La découverte du social: Emile Durkheim et la naissance de la sociologie, by Laurent Mucchielli. Isis 90 (1999): 139-40.
• Review of La sociologie et sa méthode: Les Règles de Durkheim un siècle après, edited by Massimo Borlandi and Laurent Mucchielli. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 32 (1996): 478-82. 
• Review of Les personnalités doubles et multiples, by Jacqueline Carroy. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 30 (1994): 453-55. 
• "Academic Philosophy and the Human Sciences in Nineteenth-Century France" (Ph.D Dissertation, University of Chicago, 1990). Advisor: Jan Goldstein. 
• "E. P. Thompson," in Thinkers of the Twentieth Century, 2d ed., ed. Roland Turner. London: St. James Press, 1987). 

Professional Memberships

• American Historical Association 
• Cheiron, The International Society for the History of the Behavioral Sciences 
• Durkheim Studies, devoted to French sociologist Emile Durkheim 
• Forum for History of Human Science: Founding member and former editor, Forum for History of Human Science Newsletter(1991-1996) 
• Société Française pour l'Histoire des Sciences de l'Homme
• Society for French Historical Studies: Member, Program Committee, 2001 Annual Meeting

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Created by John I. Brooks III. Last updated 01/01/04.
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