Daniel J. Watkins

Areas of Specialization

Early Modern Europe, Catholicism, Digital History, Pedagogy

Education

Ph.D., The Ohio State University
M.A., University of Florida
B.A., University of Florida

Academic Interests & Research Narrative

My research explores how religion and public opinion have shaped one another in the modern world. Focusing on eighteenth-century Europe, I examine how books, newspapers, and other forms of media influenced religious culture, political debate, and everyday life in an age often associated with secularization. More recently, I have incorporated digital humanities methods to study how ideas circulated across large information networks, including projects on Catholic missionary writings and religious toleration. I am also interested in pedagogy and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, particularly how classroom environments foster meaningful engagement, collaboration, and historical thinking.

Selected Publications

Books

Berruyer’s Bible: Public Opinion and the Politics of Enlightenment Catholicism in France. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2021. 

Belief and Politics in Enlightenment France: Essays in Honor of Dale K. Van Kley (edited with Mita Choudhury), Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment 02:2019. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2019. 

Articles

“Skepticism, Criticism, and the Making of the Catholic Enlightenment in France: Rethinking the Career of Jean Hardouin,” Journal of Jesuit Studies 6 (2019): 486-504.

“The Two Conversions of François de La Pillonnière: A Case Study of Rationalism and Religion in the Early Enlightenment.” Eighteenth-Century Thought 6 (2016): 33-58.

“Religion and Trade through Jesuit Eyes: Bringing Early Modern Central Asia into the World History Classroom.” World History Connected 10, no. 3 (2013). 

Essays

“A Suppression Revisited: Jansenism, Conservatism, and the Anti-Jesuit Ordinances of 1828.” In Belief and Politics in Enlightenment France, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment 02:2019. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2019.

“An Enlightenment Bible in Catholic France: Isaac-Joseph Berruyer’s Histoire du peuple de Dieu (1728-1758)." In Vernacular Bibles in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Era. Leuven: Peeters Press, 2017.

Regular Course Offerings

• Undergraduate:
  • HIS 1300 | US in Global Perspective - Coming to America
  • HIS 2395 | Research Writing: History
  • HIS 4333 | The French Revolution
  • HIS 4343 | Nationalism in Modern France
• Graduate:
  • HIS 5320 | Seminar in European History – Religious Toleration in Enlightenment Europe
  • HIS 5391 | History Pedagogy

Other Courses Taught

• Undergraduate:
  • HIS 1307 | World History Since 1500
  • HIS 4318 | Capstone Seminar in European History – Napoleonic Europe

Work with Students

• Willing to advise undergraduate theses and independent research