Emmanuel Delille is a historian of science and medicine. He earned a doctorate in History at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris) in 2008 with a dissertation on the history of the French medical encyclopedia, the “Encyclopédie Médico-Chirurgicale” (EMC), between 1947 and 1977. One of his major interests is the history of psychiatry: the intellectual networks and comparative history between France, Germany, and North America — particularly Canada. Other research projects after his PhD include the history of the French psychiatric hospital Bonneval (Eure-et-Loir), the history of Canadian transcultural psychiatry, and the history of the French scholarly society “L’Évolution Psychiatrique” (created in 1924). A large number of his publications include reflections on the critical use of archival material, especially medical records of hospitals and journals of patient associations in a psychiatric context. Emmanuel’s interest in intellectual history deals with epistolary material: above all, letters between scientists involved in scholarly networks. Since 2009, he has conducted research in Germany, using the tools of the French-German histoire croisée to evaluate the reading patterns of how and when German physicians read French publications, and vice versa. Within the field of the history of mental health, Emmanuel is also currently researching the history of epidemiology in Canada, USA, UK, Germany and France. In these different comparative perspectives, his main inquiry remains the shaping of the dynamic of the circulation of knowledge. Emmanuel was visiting scholar at the Department of History of the University of Saskatchewan from January to May 2020. His current research examines the history of post-war psychiatric epidemiology in Canada. He is currently a member of the Department of Contemporary History of the University Johannes Gutenberg and Associate Researcher at the Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin, Germany.
Select publications
Delille E. (2021). Une histoire comparée de la psychiatrie. Paris: Éditions rue d’Ulm.
Delille E. & Basso E. ed (2019). Revue Germanique Internationale, vol. 30: special issue "Histoire et philosophie de la psychiatrie au XXe siècle: regards croisés franco-allemands".
Delille E. & Crozier I. ed (2018). History of Psychiatry, vol. 29 (3): special issue "Historicizing Transcultural Psychiatry".
Delille E. ed (2017). Ethno-Psychiatrie, by Henri Ellenberger. Lyon: ENS Editions. English translation: (2020) Ethnopsychiatry, Montreal & Kingston: MQUP.
Delille E. (2014). Réseaux savants et enjeux classificatoires dans le Traité de Psychiatrie de l’Encyclopédie Médico-Chirurgicale (1947-1977), Villeneuve d’Ascq: ANRT