BIOGRAPHY

Brady Brower received his PhD from Rutgers University in 2005 with training in French cultural and intellectual history and a minor emphasis in world and comparative history. He is the author of Unruly Spirits, a 2010 book that investigates the relationship between nineteenth-century spiritualism, psychical research, and the development of scientific psychology in France. Brower recently completed work on an article addressing the relationship between psychical research and psychoanalysis in francophone Switzerland. He is also working on a project examining the role that physiological definitions of the “organism” along with studies of animal societies played in French academic and political discourse from the 1870s to the 1930s. Prof. Brower teaches courses in world history and in the history of modern Europe.

 

ACADEMIC POSITIONS

• Weber State University, Professor, Department of History, 2019–present
• Weber State University, Associate Professor, Department of History, 2014–2019
• Weber State University, Assistant Professor, Department of History, 2008–2014
• Idaho State University, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, 2005–2007

PUBLICATIONS

Book

• Unruly Spirits: The Science of Psychic Phenomena in Modern France. University of Illinois Press, 2010.
• Reviewed in: American Historical Review, Journal of Modern History, Isis, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Social History of Medicine, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Canadian Journal of History, Nova Religio

Articles, Chapters, Translations, and Reviews

• “Finis sociologiae: Jean Izoulet and the Chair of Social Philosophy at the Collège de France,” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (under consideration as of September 2025)
• Contributor to “Unit Three: Waves of Revolution,” in Beyond Borders: World History 1500 CE to Present, Gibbs Smith Education, 2025 (in press)
• Review of Making Spirit Matter: Neurology, Psychology, and Selfhood in Modern France by Larry Sommer McGrath, H-France Review 24, no. 67 (December 2024).
• "Janet, Pierre (1859–1947)." In Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Philosophers. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.5040/9781350984967.001.
• "The Medium is the Message: Enunciation and the Scriptural Economy of Scientific Psychology," History of the Present 6.1 (Spring 2016).
• "On Animal Societies: Biology, Sociology, and the Class Struggle in France," South Atlantic Quarterly 115.2 (April 2016).
• “L’histoire n’est jamais sûre," preface to Evrard Renaud, La Légende de l'Esprit: Enquête sur 150 ans de parapsychologie (éditions Trajectoire, 2016).
• Review of Affectivity and the Social Bond: Transcendence, Economy and Violence in French Social Theory by Tiina Arppe. H-France Review 15, no. 76 (May 2015).
• Review of Investigating the Supernatural: From Spiritism and Occultism to Psychical Research and Metapsychics in France, 1853–1931 by Sofie Lachapelle. Journal of Modern History 85, no. 1 (March 2013).
• “Science, Seduction, and the Lure of Reality in Third Republic France,” History of the Present 1, vol. 2 (Fall 2011).
• “Story of the Eye: The Fantasy of the Orgy and Its Limit,” American Imago 59.1 (Spring 2002): 73–89.
• “Strategic Re-membering: The Boundary Politics of Mourning in Post-Great War France,” Rethinking History 1, vol. 1 (Spring 1997): 21–34.
• Translation of Tzvetan Todorov “Totalitarianism: Between Religion and Science,” Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions 2, vol. 1 (Summer 2001): 28–42.

RECENT PRESENTATIONS

• “The French Revolution, Its Heroes and Its Villains,” History Alliance, Social Science Education Center, Weber State University, September 2025
• “Bourgeois Culture,” History Alliance, Social Science Education Center, Weber State University, March 2025
• “Psychoanalysis and History,” History Alliance, Social Science Education Center, Weber State University, June 2024
• “Universalism and the Frontiers of French Colonialism,” History Alliance, Social Science Education Center, Weber State University, March 2024
• “Biology and French Social Theory, 1871-1939,” Sabbatical Presentation, College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Weber State University, November 2023
• “Paris, Popular Protest, and the Commune of 1871,” History Alliance, Social Science Education Center, Weber State University, February 2022
• “Anarchism,” History Alliance, Social Science Education Center, Weber State University, June 2022
• “Marx’s Capital in Context,” History Alliance, Social Science Education Center, Weber State University, October 2021
• “Why Study History?” National History Day Panel Discussion, Utah Division of State History, April 2021
• “Hysteria,” History Alliance, Social Science Education Center, Weber State University, March 2021
• "Paris is Burning: Heat Waves and Social Precarity in France," Climate Change & Culture Shift Lecture Series, Sustainability Practices and Research Center, Weber State University, October 2020
• “Before Charcot: On the Re-emergence of Hypnosis as an Experimental Method in Nineteenth-Century France,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Irvine. CA, November 2019.
• “Le physique et le moral: Vitalism and Psychical Research in Late Nineteenth-Century France,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Toronto, Canada, November 2018.
• “From the Embodied Self to the Social Body: Exteriorization, Telepathy, and la Force Vitale in Belle Époque France,” Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts, Phoenix, AZ, November 2017.
• "Finis sociologiae: Jean Izoulet and the Chair of Social Philosophy at the Collège de France," Western Society for French History Conference, Chicago, IL November, 2015.
• “From Corporate Order to Organic Solidarity: Biology and Social Thought in France,” Social Science Lunch Seminar, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, February 2015.
• “On Animal Societies: Alfred Espinas and Organicism in French Thought,” Writing, Inquiry, and Theory Reading Group, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, February 2015.
• “Bataille, Caillois, and Organicism at the College of Sociology,” works-in-progress seminar, Rutgers University, Department of History, New Brunswick, NJ, January 2015.
• “The Medium is the Message: Theodore Flournoy and Helène Smith,” Law and History Reading Group, School of Social Science, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, January 2015.
• “The Secret of Cohesion: The Persistence of Organicism in Interwar Social Thought,” Western Society for French History, San Antonio, TX, November 2014.
• “The Natural Law of Association: Alfred Espinas and Animal Societies” Society for French Historical Studies, Université du Québec à Montréal, April 2014.
• "On Dispossession and the Discovery of Transference" Psychoanalysis and Critical Theory Workshop, New School for Social Research, New York, NY, November 2014.
• “Animal Republic: On the Sociology of Anatomical Elements,” Rocky Mountain European Studies Consortium Conference, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, October 2013.
• “Wounded Idealism and the New Social Body: Social Biology in France,” Sawyer Seminar, “Biopolitics,” Center for the Humanities, University of Wisconsin-Madison, May 2013.
• “The Declaration of the Rights of Man,” Weber Reads, Weber State University, Ogden, UT, January 2012.
• “Where Science Ends: Théodore Flournoy, Psychology and the Other Lives of Hélene Smith,” Other Lives, Other Voices: Bonnie Smith and the Mirror of History, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, March 2013.

GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, and HONORS

• Weber State University, Eccles Honors Fellowship, 2020
• Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, Member, 2014−2015
• American Philosophical Society, Franklin Grant, 2013
• American Council of Learned Societies, Fellow, 2012−2013
• Research, Growth, and Professional Development Grant, Weber State University, 2011
• Hemingway New Faculty Grant, Weber State University, 2009
• Fulbright Dissertation Research Grant (France), 1999–2000
• Chateaubriand Dissertation Research Fellowship, 1999–2000 (declined)
• Dean’s Excellence Fellowship, Rutgers, 1997–98; 2000–2001
• Phi Alpha Theta, University of Idaho, 1993
• Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha of Idaho, 1992

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

• Senior Seminar, Weber State University, 2008-present
• Historical Research Methods, 2010-present
• Historiography, 2023-present
• Introduction to the Craft of History, 2020-present
• Nineteenth-Century Europe, Weber State University, 2007–present
• Twentieth-Century Europe, Weber State University, 2007–present
• Modern France, Weber State University, 2007–present
• Modern Germany, Weber State University, 2007–present
• British Empire, Weber State University, 2023-present
• Twentieth-Century World, Weber State University, 2025
• World History since 1500, Weber State University, 2007–present
• World History to 1500, Weber State University, 2007–present
• Capitalism and its Discontents: The History and Politics of Economic Thought, 2010
• The Secular and the Sacred: Religion and the History of Social Theory, 2008
• Foundations of Western Civilization (ancient–1750), Idaho State University, 2007  
• Development of Western Civilization (1750–present), Idaho State University, 2005–06
• Old Regime and the French Revolution, Idaho State University, 2007
• Modern France, Idaho State University, 2006
• Twentieth-Century Europe, Idaho State University, 2005
• English Expository Writing, Rutgers University, 2002–04
• Nineteenth-Century Europe, Rutgers University, 2002
• Development of Europe II (1750–present), Rutgers University, 1999

 

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS

• College Ranking Tenure Evaluation Committee, CSBS/CSSE, WSU, 2018-22, 2023-
• Constitutional Review, Apportionment, and Organization (CRAO), WSU, 2025-
• Research, Scholarship, and Professional Growth (RSPG), WSU, 2010-11; 2024-2025
• History Department Acting Chair, WSU, Spring, 2021
• Admissions, Standards, and Student Affairs (ASSA), 2018-21
• History Department Faculty Search Committee, WSU, 2021
• History Department Faculty Search Committee Chair, WSU, 2017
• Weber Storytelling Festival Planning Committee, WSU, 2017-18
• Utah History Day Faculty Liaison and Weber Regional Judge, 2012-2025
• Post-tenure Policy Drafting Committee, CSBS, Weber State, 2013
• Departmental Honors, Advisor, Department of History, Weber State, 2010-12
• Committee on Adjunct Instruction, Department of History, Weber State, 2008-2025
• Utah Regional Phi Alpha Theta History Conference, Organizer, 2010
• Phi Alpha Theta, Faculty Advisor, Weber State University, 2008–12
• Bedford/St. Martin’s Press, Author of Instructional Materials, 2006
• Institute for Advanced Study, School of Social Science, Research Assistant, 2004–05
• Warren I. Susman Graduate Student Conference, Rutgers University, Chair, 1999
• Journal of the History of Ideas, Editorial Assistant, 1998–99