Dr Baptiste Brossard
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Baptiste Brossard is a sociologist currently working in the areas of critical mental health and historical sociology.

After completing his studies in sociology, anthropology and history at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, he served as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Montreal, and obtained his first position at the Australian National University in 2016. He then joined the Department of Sociology of the University of York in 2022. He received the Young Researcher Award of the Fondation pour le lien social (France - 2014) and the Kathy Charmaz Early-in-Career Award of the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction (USA - 2021).

Baptiste works at the crossroad of micro-sociology (inspired by symbolic interactionism and Goffman), critical sociology (influenced by Bourdieu’s approach to embodiment and social positioning) and historical sociology (eg Elias and long-term processes). His previous studies dealt with self-harm, Alzheimer's disease, and the legacy of Charles H. Cooley, of whom he is the first translator into French. His last book, Explaining Mental Illness (co-written with Amy Chandler, Bristol University Press, 2022), proposes a critical review of the sociology of mental health, and was shortlisted for the 2023 Best Book Award of the Foundation for the Sociology of Health and Illness.

Baptiste’s current research agenda pursues two directions:

• Critical mental health, through several research projects examining mental health-related phenomena in light of their socioecological contexts (ongoing studies on trauma, suicide risk detection, and the experience of depression).
• ‘Historical microsociology’, through research projects exploring the transformations of social interactions since the eighteenth century in the West (ongoing study on shopping interactions and the history of capitalism in France and the UK).

Baptiste is the co-convener of the British Sociological Association mental health study group, and a member of the editorial boards of the journals Sociology, and Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry.

Publications

Selected publications

Brossard, B., 2024. Eloquent Blood: A Historical Microsociology of Blushing. Sociology, online first.

Brossard, B., Roy, M., Brown, J., Hemmings, B. and Larocque, E., 2023. On the social existence of mental health categories: The case of sex addiction. Social Problems, spad024.

Brossard, B. and Amy Chandler. 2022. Explaining Mental Illness. Bristol: Bristol University Press.

Brossard, B. and Gary A. Fine. 2022. The Problem of Pétain: The State Politics of Difficult Reputations. Sociological Perspectives, 65(2), pp.278-296.

Brossard, B., 2019. Why mental disorders flourish and wither: Extending the theory of ecological niches. Social Science & Medicine, 237, 112445.

Brossard, B. and Natalia Ruiz-Junco. 2019. Updating Charles H. Cooley: Contemporary Perspectives on a Sociological Classic. London: Routledge.

Brossard, B. 2018. Why do We Hurt Ourselves: Understanding Self-Harm in Social Life. Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.