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Professor Office: Herter 627 Degree: Ph.D., University of Chicago (1990). Field(s) of interest: European history, comparative law Research Interests and Professional Activities: I did a B.A. in History at Columbia University, a Ph.D. in History at the University of Chicago, and an M.S.L. (Master of the Study of Law) at Yale Law School. My first academic job was a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford (1989-91), where I taught in the Cultures, Ideas, and Values program. I became an assistant professor of History and of History and Literature at Harvard (1991-1995). I came to UMass in 1995. I've had two visiting appointments since then: one at Stanford as visiting associate professor (1998-99), where I taught courses on the Enlightenment, and one as visiting professor at the Collège de France (2002), where I lectured on the sociologist Norbert Elias and his idea of "civilization." When asked what I specialize in, I like to reply: "generalization." This is a provocation, not a boast. Enlightenment thinkers did not specialize in "history," and they did not divide history into small branches such as “French history,” “social history,” etc. Specialization is a recent development and one that has harmed the vitality of universities in many ways. But specialization also has advantages and is very hard to avoid. The subjects I know the most about are the European Enlightenment and modern constitutional law as it relates to religion. Selected Publications: Citizens Without Sovereignty: Equality and Sociability in French Thought, 1670-1789 (Princeton UP, 1994). Translation of Voltaire's Candide (Bedford St. Martins, 1999). Editor of Postmodernism and the Enlightenment (Routledge, 2001). Articles in the Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment (Oxford UP, 2003) on "Citizenship," "Ernst Cassirer," "Sociability," and other topics. Editor (with Michael Kwass) of Money in the Enlightenment, a special volume of Historical Reflections (Summer, 2005). I have written editorials for the History News Service and for The Public Humanist. Numerous review essays for History and Theory, including "Is Tocqueville Defunct?" (vol. 43, 2004). An article jointly written with Malick W. Ghachem, “From Emergency Law to Legal Process: Herbert Wechsler and the Second World War,” Suffolk University Law Review (2006). Also in progress is a book on the Muslim headscarf issue in France, Germany, Turkey, and the U.S.
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