Brooks, John

Dr. John I. Brooks III
Associate Professor of History
Office: Lauretta Taylor 321E
Phone: 910-672-1075
Email: jibrooks@uncfsu.edu
Appointments (Students only): Navigate

EDUCATION

Degrees

Ph.D. University of Chicago History 1990

M.A. University of Chicago History 1982

B.A. Duke University History and French 1979

Dissertation: “Academic Philosophy and the Human Sciences in Nineteenth-Century France.” Dissertation Advisor, Jan Goldstein.

Academic Honors and Awards: Tocqueville Award and Social Science Research Council Fellowship, 1986-1987; Georges Lurcy Fellowship for dissertation research in France, 1985-1986; Searle Fellowship, University of Chicago, 1981-84; summa cum laude, 1979; Phi Beta Kappa, junior year, 1977.

Languages

French: excellent reading knowledge, good speaking and writing ability.

German: reading knowledge.

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Teaching

Associate Professor of History, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina, 2004-present (Assistant Professor, 1998-2004). Teach European and World history. Serve on departmental, college, and university committees. Pursue research and publication in European history.

Assistant Professor of History, Teikyo Loretto Heights University, Denver, Colorado, 1991-1998.

Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Austin College, Sherman, Texas, 1990-1991.

Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, University of Hartford, Hartford, Connecticut, spring 1990.

Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, Springfield College, Springfield, Massachusetts, spring 1990.

Lecturer, University of Chicago, spring 1987-spring 1988 and fall 1989.

Teaching Intern, University of Chicago, fall 1986-winter 1987.

Teaching Assistant, University of Chicago, fall 1983-spring 1985.

Administrative

Dean, University College, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina, 2010-2019. Duties of Director (see below) plus responsibility for outreach programs (TRIO, GEAR-UP), the Honors program, International Education, military education, and the Office of the Registrar.

• Led a general education revision that aligned requirements with learning outcomes and initiated a comprehensive and continuous assessment program.
• Oversaw the development of interactive video courses with international partner institutions.
• Oversaw expansion of federally-funded TRIO programs to include Upward Bound Math and Science.
• Led blended-learning initiative funded by Next Generation Learning Challenges grant (2010-2011), UNC Leveraging Technology to Strengthen Academic Quality grant (2013-2014).
• Implemented a Bachelor of Professional Studies program for students seeking non-traditional majors.

Director, University College, Fayetteville State University, Fayetteville, North Carolina, 2004-2010 (Acting Director, 2001-2002). Supervised the Summer Bridge and First-Year programs. Managed academic support services. Oversaw first- and second-year retention programs. Directed Learning Communities initiative. Oversaw advisement of early college high school students and relationship of on-campus early college programs with FSU. Monitored and assessed effectiveness of University College programs. Oversaw Core Curriculum review process.

• Initiated first-year Learning Communities program, which grew from one to fifteen communities and from fifty to over six hundred first-year students.
• Initiated general education review that led to adoption of new core learning outcomes.
• Initiated the creation of a centralized academic support center, the University College Learning Center, with subject area coordinators and peer tutors with national certification. Expanded Supplemental Instruction program to serve over 1,000 students each semester.
• Implemented an e-communications software product that enhanced early orientation programs, early alert programs, learning center attendance, at-risk student monitoring, suspension appeals, etc.
• Helped implement an online operational planning initiative for FSU using TaskStream’s Accountability Management System software.

Title III Activity Director, “Student Success in the Core Curriculum” (2012-2019), “Student Success through Outreach, Advisement, Engagement…” (2009-2012). Helped write proposals for FSU’s Title III grants; managed annual budget of approx. $900,000/year, distributed among multiple offices and sub-projects; assured assessment and evaluation of grant activities.

• Oversaw center to promote service-learning courses
• Funded advising and student engagement initiatives
• Funded curriculum redesign to incorporate Fine Arts Series into general education classes
• Oversaw supplemental instruction and other academic support programs

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Fayetteville State University

Chair, Core Review Task Force, Spring 2023-Present. Oversees the revision of the university’s general education program.

Member, AI Task Force. Advises the university on policies, practices, and procedures related to artificial intelligence.

Chair, Core Curriculum Committee, 2024-present (member, 2004-2024). Reviews proposals for changes to the University College Core Curriculum. Reviews assessment of core curriculum.

Member, Faculty Senate, 2019-present. Represents department in faculty governance.

Chair, Senate IT Committee, 2019-present. Advises Faculty Senate on information technology matters.

Member, Information Technology Advisory Committee, 2010-2019 (Chair 2010-2017). Advised FSU Chancellor on educational technology matters.

Member, Executive Enrollment Management Committee, 2015-2019: Advised the Provost on matters related to recruitment and retention.

Chair, CLA Subcommittee, University of North Carolina General Education Council, 2013-2015. Oversaw UNC system pilot of Collegiate Learning Assessment, developed report and recommendations for consideration of General Education Council.

Chair, Advisement Effectiveness Committee, 2010-2011. Advised the Provost on matters related to academic advising.

Co-Chair, Academic Appeals Committee, 2009-2013. Reviewed appeals of academic suspension and financial aid ineligibility. Advised the Provost on policies and procedures related to academic progression.

Secretary, Faculty Senate, 2003-2004: Kept records of the Faculty Senate; serves on Executive Committee.

Co-Chair, Technology Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, 2003-2004 (member, fall 2000-2004): Advised Dean on issues related to educational technology. Organized Technology Week each Fall.

Chair, Technology Committee, Department of Government and History, fall 1999-spring 2001, 2002-2004: Advised department on issues related to educational technology.

Co-Chair, Black History Month Committee, College of Arts and Sciences, fall 2002-spring 2003 (member, fall 1998-spring 2003): Planned, coordinated, publicized, and implemented activities and events for February in celebration of Black History Month, and throughout the year.

Other service to Fayetteville State University and other institutions available upon request.

TEACHING

EUROPEAN HISTORY

“Problems in European History: Ethnicity and State in Eastern Europe”: upper-division course on the relationship between ethnic identity and state formation focusing on Russia and Ukraine.

“Renaissance and Reformation”: upper-division course on the rise of individualism and humanistic thought after 1300, the fragmentation of religious and political authority in Europe, the Reformation, and the religious wars through the Treaty of Westphalia.

“History of Russia since 1917”: upper-division course on the Russian Revolution, the Soviet Union, and post-Soviet Russia.

“Modern Europe, 1815-Present”: upper-level survey from the end of the Napoleonic era through the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe.

“Pre-Modern Europe”: introductory survey of European history from Greece and Rome to about 1715.

“Modern European Culture, 1750-present”: cultural and intellectual history of modern Europe.

“History of Western Civilization”: three-quarter survey from Greeks to present.

“Paths to the Present”: adaptation of freshman-level topical introduction to history developed by History Department of University of Colorado at Denver. The TLHU version focused on topics in modern European history.

“Modern Europe, 1648-1848”: upper-level survey from the Treaty of Westphalia to the revolutions of 1848.

“History of European Integration”: senior-level course in history of economic and political cooperation in Europe, centered on history of European Union.

“Special Topics: Conflict in Yugoslavia”: upper-level examination of the roots of conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

“The Politics of Culture in Contemporary France”: examines interaction of culture and politics in four kinds of culture–classical, avant-garde, regional, and popular.

“The French Revolution and Napoleon”: a senior-level seminar course.

WORLD HISTORY

“World History”: two-semester survey from paleolithic to present.

“World Civilizations”: one-semester introduction to major world civilizations. Taught in computerized classroom making use of networking, Internet access, and multimedia presentation capabilities.

“Heritage of the World”: one-semester survey of the cultural heritage of major world civilizations. Companion course to “World Civilizations.”

“The Age of Revolution”: upper-level undergraduate course comparing revolutions in Western and non-Western societies.

“The Age of Imperialism”: upper-level undergraduate course examining Western and Japanese imperialism in China and Vietnam during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

“History of Modern East Asia”: History of China and Japan from 1800 to the present.

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

“Science and Technology”: lower-level core course exploring issues concerning the relationships among science, technology, and society.

“Science, Technology, and Society in the Modern World”: upper-level undergraduate course comparing development of science and technology in Japan and West.

OTHER

“Ethics and Civic Engagement in Action.” A service-learning course focused on the history of voluntary associations in the United States.

“Freshman Fellows Seminar”: an honors seminar enabling motivated first-year students to work one-on-one with faculty on research projects.

“America in the Sixties”: content is self-explanatory. Ran this course as experiment in progressive education, requiring students to negotiate their syllabus, carry out group project, and moderate classes.

“Historiography”: a graduate course in the theory and practice of history.

RESEARCH

Publications—Peer-Reviewed

“Institutionalizing Durkheimian Sociology of Religion: The Case of the Fifth Section,” Thinking about Religion 2 (2002), http://www.wfu.edu/Organizations/ncrsa/papers/johnbrooks.htm\ (11 October 2003).

“Implementing an Internet-Enhanced History Teaching Environment,” Journal of the Association for History and Computing 4, no. 3 (November 2001), http://mcel.pacificu.edu/JAHC/JAHCiv3/Reports/brooks/text.htm\ (11 October 2003).

The Eclectic Legacy: Academic Philosophy and the Human Sciences in Nineteenth-Century France. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1998.

“The Definition of Sociology and the Sociology of Definition: Durkheim’s Rules of Sociological Method and High-School Philosophy in France.” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 32 (1996): 379-407.

“Philosophy and Psychology at the Sorbonne, 1885-1913.” Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 29 (1993): 123-45.

“Analogy and Argumentation in an Interdisciplinary Context: Durkheim’s ‘Individual and Collective Representations.’” History of the Human Sciences 4 (1991): 223-59.

Publications—Other

Review of The Post-Revolutionary Self: Politics and Psyche in France, 1750-1950, by Jan Goldstein. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 43 (2007): 230-231.

Review of Maurice Halbwachs: Un intellectuel en guerres mondiales, 1914-1945, by Annette Becker. Journal of Modern History 78 (2006): 461-63.

Review of The End of the Soul: Scientific Modernity, Atheism, and Anthropology in France, by Jennifer Hecht. Journal of Modern History 77 (2005): 812-14.

Review of Contesting Sacrifice: Religion, Nationalism, and Social Thought in France, by Ivan Strenski. Revue d’histoire des sciences humaines 9 (October 2003).

Review of Le quadrige: Un siècle d’édition universitaire, by Valérie Tesnière. Journal of Modern History 75 (2003): 180-182.

“Pierre Janet.” International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Boston: Elsevier, 2002.

“The Durkheimians and the Fifth Section of the Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes: An Overview,” in Reappraising Durkheim for the Study and Teaching of Religion Today, ed. T.A. Idinopulos and Brian Wilson, 85-109 (Boston: Brill, 2002).

“Teaching Western Civilization with Computers: A Guide for the Perplexed.” In Instructor’s Resource Manual for The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures, vol. 2: Since 1560, by Michael D. Richards, 147-160. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.

“Le legs éclectique: La philosophie universitaire et les sciences de l’homme au dix-neuvième siècle en France,” Pour l’Histoire des Sciences de l’Homme no. 21 (Summer 2001): 7-15.

“An American in Paris,” Forum for History of Human Science Newsletter 12, no. 2 (Winter 2001).

Review of A Modern Maistre: The Social and Political Thought of Joseph de Maistre, by Owen Bradley, American Historical Review 105 (2000): 1818-19.

Review of The Practical Imagination: The German Sciences of State in the Nineteenth Century, by David Lindenfeld, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 35 (1999): 183-84.

Review of La découverte du social: Naissance de la sociologie en France (1870-1914), by Laurent Mucchielli, Isis 90 (1999): 139-40.

Review of La sociologie et sa méthode: les Règles de Durkheim un siècle après, edited by Massimo Borlandi and Laurent Mucchielli. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 32 (1996): 478-82.

Review of Les personnalités doubles et multiples, by Jacqueline Carroy. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 30 (1994): 453-55.

“E. P. Thompson,” in Thinkers of the Twentieth Century, 2d ed. Ed. Roland Turner. London: St. James Press, 1987.

Selected Conference Presentations and Invited Lectures

“Divide and Collaborate: Using Themes, Focus Areas, and Groups to Reduce Information Overload in the World History Survey.” Southeast World History Association, Charleston, S.C., October 2023.

“Post-Pandemic Pedagogy: A Hybrid Structured-Flexible Approach to the World History Survey.” Southeast World History Association, online, October 2021.

“Multimodal Course Design: An Accidental Contribution to Teaching and Learning in a Time of Uncertainty.” Fayetteville State University Department of Intelligence Studies, Geospatial Science, Political Science, and History, June 2020.

“Creating Curricular Coherence in the Core: A Student-Centered Approach,” with Beth Hogan. AASCU Summer Meeting, Baltimore, July 2017.

“How to be Intentional with your Data to Reimagine Student Success,” with Ellyn Artis and Scott James. AASCU Summer Meeting, Baltimore, July 2017.

“General Education for the Twenty-First Century: Fayetteville State University’s General Education Revision.” HBCU General Education Alliance Annual Meeting. Raleigh, N.C. May 2013.

“Blended Learning: The Best of Online and Face-to-Face?” HBCU General Education Alliance Annual Meeting. Shaw University, Raleigh, N.C., May 2012.

“Synergies for Student Success: Merging Hobsons’s EMT Retain and Noel-Levitz’s College Student Inventory,” with Amyn Abduk-Khaliq, Hobsons University, Washington, D.C., July 2011.

“Facilitating Cross-Departmental Collaboration: Technology as the Common Thread,” Consortium for Student Retention Data Exchange symposium, Milwaukee, WI, September 2007.

“Raising the Graduation Rates of Male College Students” (with David Allen), presented at the Southern Association for Institutional Research, Arlington, VA, October 2006.

“The Last Eclectic: Paul Janet and the Persistence of Eclecticism in Late Nineteenth-Century France,” presented at the conference “Eclecticism in Nineteenth-Century Europe,” Brussels, September 2005.

“Le clan du faucon : Alexandre Moret et l’interprétation durkheimienne de la monarchie égyptienne,” presented at the conference “Morale et Idéologie: Durkheim et les durkheimiens sur la religion,” University of Crete, December 2003.

“Le durkheimisme et les sciences religieuses : Le cas d’Alexandre Moret (1868-1938),” presented at the History of the Human Sciences Seminar, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, May 2003.

“La figure mystérieuse : Un cas d’(auto-) interprétation d’hallucination à la Salpêtrière,” presented at the History of Psychology and Psychiatry Seminar, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, May 2003.

“Eclectisme et sciences humaines : Histoire secrète d’un divorce amical,” presented at the Political and Cultural History of French Philosophy Seminar, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris, France, May 2003.

Information on earlier presentations available upon request.

GRANTS

“European Integration Since 1945.” UNC Center for European Studies Curriculum Grant Award. $2000. 2021-2022.

“EDUCAUSE IPAS2.” EDUCAUSE. $12,000. 2015-2018.

“UNC Early Warning Systems Proposal.” UNC General Administration. $13,500. 2015.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS AND SERVICE

American Historical Association, 1998-present.

North Carolina Association of Historians, 2020-present.

North Carolina Religious Studies Association: Program Chair, 2003; President, 2004; Secretary-Treasurer, 2004-present.

Phi Alpha Theta, History Honor Society, 2020-present.

Voluntary System of Accountability Advisory Board, 2011-2013.

Hobsons Advisory Council, 2009-2014.

Forum for History of Human Science: Editor, FHHS Newsletter, fall 1991-1996.