CV
Current Appointments
Professor / Chief Scientist in Digital History, University of Luxembourg (2019- ).
FNR PEARL Chair, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (2019- ).
Affiliate Faculty, George Mason University (2019- ).
Previous Appointments
Associate Professor of History, George Mason University (2013-2019).
Director of Research Division, Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media (2007-2019).
Resident Fellow, Institut d'études avancées de Paris (2016-2017).
Visiting Scholar, UMR SIRICE – Sorbonne-Identités, relations internationales et civilisations de l’Europe, Paris IV (2016-2017).
Assistant Professor of History, George Mason University (2007-2013).
Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for History and New Media (2006-2007).
Other Professional Experience
President and co-founder, Corporation for Digital Scholarship (2013- ).
Treasurer, Corporation for Digital Scholarship (2009-2013).
Web Developer, MAXfunds.com (2000-2001).
Systems Engineer, IBM (1996-1999).
Education
Ph.D., History, Michigan (2005).
B.A., Economics, History, Yale (1996).
Digital Projects
Digital History Advanced Research Projects Accelerator, funded by the Luxembourg National Research Fund and the University of Luxembourg, €6,806,000, Principal Investigator (2019-2024).
Tropy 2: Computational Access and Cloud Storage for Archival Research Photographs (https://tropy.org), funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $701,000, Principal Investigator (2018-2020).
Tropy: Digital Image Management for the Humanities Research Community (https://tropy.org), funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $600,000, Co-Principal Investigator (2015-2018).
PressForward 3: Establishing Sustainable Platforms and Communities of Open-Access Scholarship (https://pressforward.org), funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, $736,000, Principal Investigator (2015-2018).
PressForward 2: Implementing New Modes and New Platforms of Open-Access Scholarship (https://pressforward.org), funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, $481,000, Principal Investigator (2014-2015).
Understanding the Role of Social Media in Scholarly Communication, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, $360,000, Project Director (2014-2016).
Discovery and Archiving with Zotero and Library Resources, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $440,000, Co-Principal Investigator (2014-2016).
The PressForward Initiative: Creating New Modes and New Platforms for Scholarship Beyond Traditional Forms (https://pressforward.org), funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, $862,000, Principal Investigator (2013-2014).
OpenEdition / Digital Library for Open Humanities (https://openedition.org), funded by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, €7,000,000, U.S. Project Director (2013-2015).
Zotero Everywhere (https://zotero.org), funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, $600,000, Co-Principal Investigator (2010-2013).
Using Zotero and TAPOR on the Old Bailey Proceedings: Data Mining with Criminal Intent (http://criminalintent.org/), 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).
Publications
Takats, Sean. “Beyond Digitizing.” In Digitizing Enlightenment: Digital Humanities and the Transformation of Eighteenth-Century Studies, edited by Simon Burrows and Glenn Roe, 375–83. Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2020.
"Le design, ça compte (Design Matters)," In Transmettre l'histoire: Contribution du design à la production des savoirs, edited by Gilles Rouffineau, 63-73. Paris: Éditions B42, 2013.
"A Perfect Body of Knowledge: Taste and Digestion in Eighteenth-Century France." In Le Corps et ses images dans l’Europe du dix-huitième siècle, edited by Sabine Arnaud and Helge Jordheim, 295–312. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2012.
The Expert Cook in Enlightenment France. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011. Reviews: American Historical Review, H-France, The Historian, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, Times Literary Supplement.
“Science without scientists: modern cooking in the eighteenth century.” SVEC, no. 12, 2005. Winner of the Voltaire Foundation Besterman Prize.
“Domestic Expertise: Literacy and Numeracy in the Eighteenth-Century Kitchen.” Proceedings of the Western Society for French History 32, 2005. Winner of the Western Society for French History's Edward T. Gargan Prize.
Reviews
Translations
“Artichoke,” “Bouillon,” “Caterer,” “Chinese Writing,” “Cuisine,” “Domestic(s),” "Fish Sauce," "Garum," “Gluttony,” “Pondicherry,” “Sauce,” “Seasoning,” and “Trader.” The Encyclopedia of Diderot and d’Alembert: Collaborative Translation Project.
Conference Presentations and Talks
"Comment les outils numériques changent-ils notre façon d'utiliser les archives ? Retours sur Le Goût de l'archive à l'ère numérique," Université Jean Jaurès, Toulouse, March 2019.
"Subjectivity and Digital Research," Sussex Humanities Lab, Brighton, Great Britain, February 2019.
"Le goût de l'archive numérique," public roundtable with Arlette Farge, Archives nationales de France, Paris, November 2018.
"Digital History as Historical Artifact," Society for the History of Technology, Saint Louis, Missouri, USA, October 2018.
"How to Build a Research Tool for Historians," invited speaker, Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History, Luxembourg, September 2018.
"Managing research photos and archival images with Tropy," invited speaker, European University Institute, Florence, Italy, March 2018.
Concluding round table, dhnord2017: (dé)construire l'histoire numérique, Lille, France, November 2017.
"From Ephemera to Archive: The New Digital Practices of Historical Research," History & Digital Archives conference, invited speaker, Aarhus University, Denmark, November 2017.
Panel Discussant, Digital History Summer School, University of Lausanne, Switzerland, June 2017.
"Enlightenment Networks of Colonial Medical Expertise," French Colonial Historical Society, Aix-en-Provence, France, June 2017.
"La crise épistémologique des humanités numériques," invited speaker, FRAMESPA, Université Toulouse, France February 2017.
"Vers une nouvelle figure du chercheur?" Invited speaker, Epistémologie et pratiques des Humanités Numériques Seminar, Inria, January 2017.
"Tools for Collaborative and Large-Scale Historical Research," invited speaker, European University Institute, November 2016.
"DIY Digitization: The informal uses of digital photography in special collections," invited speaker, Oxford University, January 2016.
"Mapping Colonial Medical Expertise of the Old Regime," Western Society for French History, Chicago, Illinois, November 2015.
"Digital Humanities: Teaching and Research," Invited speaker, Princeton University, March 2015.
Panel comment, "Hygiene, Public Health, and the Social Body," Western Society for French History, San Antonio, Texas, November 2014.
"Archives Without End," Invited speaker, Purdue University, October 2014.
Session chair, "Digitizing the French Enlightenment: A Discussion of Three Digital Humanities Projects," Society for French Historical Studies, Université du Québec à Montréal, April 2014.
"Scholarship in the Age of Perpetual Research," American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, January 2014.
Panel comment, "The Construction and Circulation of Medical Knowledge in France and its Colonies, 1500-1900," Western Society for French History, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2013.
Session chair, "Humanities in a Digital Age: Using Digital Tools for Research and Teaching,” Western Society for French History, Atlanta, Georgia, October 2013.
Orphan Works Best Practices Focus Group, Invited participant, American University, September 2013.
"Pourquoi le CHNM?" Invited speaker, Journée d'étude Digital History, Université de Toulouse, June 2013.
"Doing History of Science in a Digital, Information-Rich Environment," Invited participant, Isis CB 2.0 Conference, University of Oklahoma, April 2013.
"Adventurers in Physic: French Medical Experts in the Eighteenth-Century Tropics," Society for French Historical Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts, April 2013.
"Diet for the Debauched: Preventive Medicine in the Eighteenth-Century Tropics," French Colonial Historical Society, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 2012.
Session chair, "Challenges and potentialities of online archives,” DHLU, Luxembourg, March 2012.
“Design Matters: les outils numériques pour l'histoire au service de tous," Invited speaker, Journée d’étude, Valence, France, May 2011.
Zotero Workshops, BootCamp for THATCamp Florence, Italy, March 2011.
"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 2009.
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 speaker, 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 speaker, 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.
Fellowships and Prizes
Study Leave for Tenured Instructional Faculty, George Mason University (2018).
Fellow, Institut d'études avancées de Paris (2016-2017).
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 (2004-2005).
Frederick Huetwell Fellowship, University of Michigan (2003).
International Dissertation Research Fellowship, Social Science Research Council (2002-2003).
Georges Lurcy Memorial Trust Fellowship (2002-2003).
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).
Review Work
Cambridge University Press, Cornell University Press, Digital Humanities Luxembourg (DHLU), French National Fund for Open Science (FNSO), Journal of Social History, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), Roy Rosenzweig Prize for Innovation in Digital History.