Sean Takats : Curriculum Vitae
Education
University of Michigan, Ph.D. in History (1999–2005).
Yale University, B.A. in Economics, History (1992–1996).
Employment
George Mason University, Assistant Professor of History (2007– ).
Center for History and New Media, Director of Research Projects (2007– ).
George Mason University, Research Assistant Professor (2006–2007).
Center for History and New Media, Digital Historian (2006–2007).
Publications
“A Perfect Body of Knowledge: Taste and Digestion in Eighteenth-Century France.” In Le Corps et ses images: santé, humeurs, maladies, edited by Sabine Arnaud and Helge Jordheim. Paris: Honoré Champion, forthcoming.
The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.
“Science without scientists: modern cooking in the eighteenth century.” SVEC, no. 12, 2005. Winner of the Voltaire Foundation Besterman Prize.
“Constructing the Cook: The Professionalization of Taste in Eighteenth-Century France.” Repast XVIII, no. 4, 2002.
Digital Projects
Zotero Everywhere (http://zotero.org), funded by the Andew W. Mellon Foundation, $600,000, Co-Principal Investigator (2010–2012).
Using Zotero and TAPOR on the Old Bailey Proceedings: Data Mining with Criminal Intent, funded by Digging into Data (a joint initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, Social Science and Humanities Research Council, and Joint Information Systems Committee), $100,000, Project Director (2010–2011).
The Encyclopedia of Diderot and d’Alembert Collaborative Translation Project (http://www.hti.umich.edu/d/did/), Project Director (2008– ).
Building the Games Students Want to Play, funded by the Institute for Museum and Library Services, $649,000, Co-Principal Investigator (2008–2010).
Scholarship in the Age of Abundance: Enhancing Historical Research With Text-Mining and Analysis Tools, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities, $340,000, Co-Principal Investigator (2008–2010).
Zotero Commons, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $514,000, Co-Director (2008–2009).
Zotero 2.0, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $890,000, Co-Director (2006–2008).
Zotero 1.0, funded by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, $250,000, Co-Director (2006–2007).
Echo 2 (http://echo.gmu.edu), funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, $700,000, Associate Director (2006–2007).
Prizes and Fellowships
Mathy Junior Faculty Award, George Mason University (2009).
Nelson Junior Faculty Research Award, George Mason University (2008).
Besterman Prize, The Voltaire Foundation, Oxford University. Awarded for best graduate student essay (2005).
Edward T. Gargan Prize, Western Society for French History. Awarded for best paper presented by a graduate student at the society’s annual meeting (2005).
Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan (2004).
Frederick Huetwell Fellowship, University of Michigan (2003).
International Dissertation Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council (2002).
Georges Lurcy Memorial Trust Fellowship (2002).
Fulbright Fellowship (2002, declined).
Rackham Humanities Research Fellowship, University of Michigan (2002).
Everett Helm Visiting Scholar Award, Lilly Library, Indiana University (2001).
International Institute Predissertation Research Award, University of Michigan (2001).
Orla B. Taylor Award, University of Michigan (2001).
Conference Presentations and Talks
“Facing Abundance: Zotero as an Enlightenment Tool,” American Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Albuquerque, New Mexico, March 2010.
“Enabling Open Source Scholarly Research,” Invited speaker, Obermann Public Humanities Symposium, University of Iowa, October 200
“The Future of Digital History,” Keynote speaker, Médias et infrastructures numériques pour les sciences historiques, Bern, Switzerland, September 2009.
“Zotero 2.0 as a Research Platform,” New Directions in Digital Scholarship Symposium, CLIR/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, February 2009.
“The Science of Taste,” Invited lecture, Brock University, January 2009.
“Faculty of Taste: Cooks and Sensibility in the Eighteenth Century,” Western Society for French History, Université Laval, November 2008.
“A Perfect Body of Knowledge: Taste, Digestion, and Dissection in Eighteenth-Century France,” International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Montpellier, France, July 2007.
Panel chair, “People of Color in the Revolutionary Era: Debates, Relationships, and Representations,” Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, 1750-1850, George Mason University, March 2007.
Comment on papers by Nina Gelbart, Jason Kuznicki, and Jeffrey Merrick, Western Society for French History, California State University, October 2006.
“Infection and Corruption: Cooks and Kitchens in Eighteenth-Century Paris,” Western Society for French History, Colorado College, October 2005.
“Corrupting Spaces: Kitchens and Danger in Eighteenth-Century Paris,” Society for the Study of French History, University of Southampton, UK, July 2005.
“Guilty Pleasures and Culinary Terrorism: McDonaldization in the United States, France, and Madagascar,” Invited lecture, American Studies Conference, Antananarivo, Madagascar, May 2005.
“The Scientist in the Kitchen: Cooking, Expertise, and Authority in Eighteenth-Century France,” Society for French Historical Studies, Stanford University, March 2005. Organized the panel “The Cultivation of Expertise.”
“Domestic Expertise: Literacy and Numeracy in the Eighteenth-Century Kitchen,” Western Society for French History, Texas Tech University, October 2004. Winner of the Edward T. Gargan Prize.
“Constructing the Cook: The Professionalization of Taste in Eighteenth-Century France,” Workshop on “Expertise in Pre– and Early Modern Societies,” International Institute, University of Michigan, October 2001.
“Unimagined Empire: A Frenchman in India, 1755–1763,” Workshop on “Empires, States, and Political Imagination,” International Institute, University of Michigan, April 2000.
