Office Location:	314 Carr Building
Office Phone:	(919) 684-2497
Email Address:
Web Page:	http://www.duke.edu/%7Ewmr/

Education:

• PhD University of Chicago 1974

Specialties:

Europe

17th and 18th Centuries

19th and 20th Centuries

Cultural

Gender

Social

Research Interests:

Current projects: I have just completed a book with the title, The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions, published by Cambridge University Press. This study examines current theories of emotions in use in cognitive psychology and ethnography, probing their strengths and weaknesses, and proposes a new theory of emotions that makes it possible to conceive of and examine historical change in emotional experience. The book also provides an account of the history of emotions in France between 1700 and 1850, including the era of the Revolution, as an example of the application of the proposed theory. The article "Against Constructionism" is a preliminary statement of the thesis; and the articles "Emotional Liberty," and "Sentimentalism and Its Erasure" explore aspects of the study. In the near future, I will be working on a number of related essays, showing the links between cognition, cultural theory, and historical interpretation. I am also continuing research in judicial archives and other sources on the history of emotions in France.

My teaching responsibilities include European history, French history from the eighteenth century to the present, cultural theory (especially the joint methodological interests of historians and anthropologists). My research in the past has dealt with such issues as the social history of industrialization, comparative social history of the modern era, the history of emotions and gender identities in France since 1750, theories of culture, and theories of emotions.

Representative Publications   (More Publications)

1.  The Navigation of Feeling: A Framework for the History of Emotions. Cambridge University Press, 2001.

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