History Department
Areas of expertise
History and Philosophy of Science
Research interests
I am a historian of science, medicine, and psychiatry, with a focus on Europe and the USA from the Enlightenment to the present. I have published articles on the history of a variety of topics, such as the practice of scientific observation in the eighteenth century, the concepts of “sexual identity” and “sexual instinct” in the nineteenth century, and the popularization of medicine in early modern Europe. In addition, I have written a monograph (in French) on an eighteenth-century doctor and his patients, and have co-edited a philosophical critique of the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
Teaching interests
I teach the History of Medicine and the History of Depression.
Publications
Books
The DSM-5 in Perspective: Philosophical Reflections on the Psychiatric Babel. Co-edited with Steeves Demazeux. Springer. 2015.
L’Usage du sexe. Lettres au Dr Tissot, auteur de L’Onanisme (1760). BHMS Editions. 2014.
Articles
“Sexual Identity at the Limits of German Liberalism: Law and Science in the Work of Karl Heinrich Ulrichs (1825-1895).” Journal of the History of Sexuality. Vol. 30 (2021). 390-410.
“Hebephilia: A Postmortem Dissection.” Archives of Sexual Behavior. Vol. 44 (2015). 1109-1116.
“Sexuality and Liberalism.” In The Care of Life: Transdisciplinary Perspectives in Bioethics and Biopolitics. Edited by Miguel de Beistegui, Giuseppe Bianco, and Marjorie Gracieuse. Rowan and Littlefield International Limited. 2015. 227-239.
“Medicine and the Senses: The Perception of Essences.” In Cultural History of the Senses. Vol. 4: The Enlightenment. Edited by Anne C. Vila. Berg Publishers. 2014. 133-153.
“Structuralism.” In Foucault Lexicon. Edited by Leonard Lawlor and John Nale. Cambridge University Press. 2014. 490-495.
“Perverse Perversion: How to Do the History of a Concept” (with Kevin Lamb). GLQ. Vol. 17 (2011). 405-422.
“The Popularization of Medicine in the Eighteenth Century: Writing, Reading and Rewriting Samuel Auguste Tissot’s Avis au peuple sur sa santé.” Journal of Modern History. Vol. 82 (2010). 769-800.
“Huber’s Eyes: The Art of Scientific Observation before the Emergence of Positivism.” Representations. Vol. 95 (2006). 54-75.
“Friction of the Genitals and Secularization of Morality.” Journal of the History of Sexuality. Vol. 12 (2003). 345-64.
Academic credentials
Ph.D. (Committee on Conceptual and Historical Studies of Science), University of Chicago; M.A. (Psychology), University of Geneva (Switzerland);
Lippman Hall 112
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