Dr Baptiste Brossard
Senior Lecturer

Profile

Biography

Baptiste Brossard is a sociologist specialising in critical mental health and historical sociology.

He studied sociology, anthropology and history at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, before taking up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Montreal. He was appointed to his first faculty position at the Australian National University in 2016 and joined the Department of Sociology at 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 early research examined self-harm, Alzheimer's disease, and the intellectual legacy of Charles H. Cooley, whom he was the first to translate into French. His last book, Explaining Mental Illness (with Amy Chandler, Bristol University Press, 2022), offers a critical assessment 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.

His current research agenda develops along two main lines:

• 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 in general practice, and the experience of depression). His forthcoming book, Trauma in Social Life, will be published in 2026 with Polity Press.
• Historical (micro)sociology, investigating the long-term transformations of social interactions and “mental health” in Western societies since the eighteenth century.

Beyond his research, Brossard wishes to play an active role in shaping the field. He is co-convener of the British Sociological Association’s Mental Health Study Group and serves on the editorial boards of Sociology, Critical Gambling Studies, 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.

Teaching

Other teaching

Baptiste teaches in modules:

• Critical Transformations of Social Psychology
• Contemporary Investigations in Social Psychology
• Global Justice, Health and Well-being,
• Theorising the Social World
• Cultivating a Sociological Imagination
• Creative Methods in Social Psychology

He supervises students working in any area relevant to his research interests.