Michael M. Sokal

Professor of History, Emeritus
Department of Humanities & Arts
Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Teaching and Research Interests

• History of American Science and Technology.
• History of Psychology.

Education

• B.E. (Electrical Engineering), The Cooper Union, New York, NY, 1966.
• M.A., Ph.D. (History of Science & Technology), Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, 1968, 1972.

Courses Formerly Taught at WPI

• HI 1332: Introduction to the History of Technology.
  
• HI 2331: American Science & Technology to 1859.
  
• HI 2332: American Science & Technology from 1859.
  
• HI 3333: Topics in American Technological Development.
  
• IS 1813: American History for International Students.

Projects Formerly Directed at WPI

• Major Qualifying Projects (MQPs) and Sufficiency Projects (IS/Ps) in History of Science and Technology.
  
• Interactive Qualifying Projects (IQPs) through WPI's Living Museums Program.

Guidelines for Writing and Documenting Sources

Honors at WPI

• President's Award for Interactive Qualifying Project Advising, 1980.
• Trustees' Award for Outstanding Creative Scholarship, 1988.
• Paris Fletcher Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, 1993-95.
• Class of 1897 Award for Sufficiency Project Advising, 1998, 2004.

Recent Professional Activity

• Editor, History of Psychology, a scholarly journal published quarterly by the American Psychological Association for its Division, 26, the Society for the History of Psychology (1997-2005).
• Vice-President (2002-2003) and President (2004-2005), History of Science Society.
• Program Director, Science & Technology Studies Program, Division of Social & Economic Sciences, National Science Foundation (NSF), 1998-2000.
  
  This linked WPI Transformations article, "A WPI Yankee in NSF's Court," reports my experiences in this position.
  
• Committee of Visitors, Programs in Ethics & Value Studies, Research on Science & Technology, and Science & Technology Studies, Division of Social, Behavioral, & Economic Research, NSF, 1996.
• Visiting Program Officer, National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and Coordinator, "Integrating Science and Humanities in Undergraduate Education" Program, jointly sponsored by NEH and NSF, 1995.
• Executive Secretary, History of Science Society, 1988-92.
• Other Professional Activity.

Professional Honors

• Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society; elected 1973.
• American Psychological Association Centennial Lecturer, 1979-80, 1991-92.
• Sigma Xi National Lecturer, 1979-81.
• Visiting Scholar, Department of the History of Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1981-82, 1993-94.
• Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science; elected 1991.
• Chair-Elect, Chair, & Immediate Past Chair, Section on History and Philosophy of Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1997-99.
• Wallace A. Russell Lecturer, Division of the History of Psychology, American Psychological Association, August 2001.
• Vice-President (2002-2003) and President (2004-2005), History of Science Society.

Recent Grants

• (with others) NSF Program in History and Philosophy of Science, Major Grants for Conference on Critical Problems and Research Frontiers in History of Science and Technology, 1989-92.
• Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Major Grant for History of Science Society Committee on Education, 1990-92.
• Pfizer, Inc., Small Grant for the History of Science Society Committee on Publications, 1990.
• Rockefeller Foundation, Major Grant for History of Science Society Quincentenary Fellowships for Latin American Scholars, 1990-91.
• Richard Lounsbery Foundation, Major Grant for History of Science Society International Travel Grants, 1990-91.
• Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Major Grant for Russian Scholars at Conference on Critical Problems and Research Frontiers in History of Science and Technology, 1991.
• NSF Program in Science and Technology Studies, Grant for Exploratory Research for the History of Science Society Survey of Human-Genome-Project Documentation Policies and Practices, 1992.
• NSF Program in Science and Technology Studies, Major Research Grant, 1993-95.
• Other Grants and Fellowships

Recent Major Publications

• "Origins and Early Years of the American Psychological Association," American Psychologist 47 (1992): 111-122; reprinted in The American Psychological Association: A Historical Perspective, edited by Rand B. Evans, Virginia S. Sexton and Thomas C. Cadwallader (American Psychological Association, 1992), pp. 43-71.
• "Gestalt Psychology in America in the 1920s and 1930s," in Gestalt Psychology: Its Origins, Foundations and Influence: An International Workshop, edited by Stefano Poggi (Firenze: Leo S. Olschki, 1994), pp. 87-119.
• "James McKeen Cattell, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Psychological Association, 1891-1902," in Aspects of the History of Psychology in America: 1892-1992, edited by Helmut E. Adler and Robert W. Rieber (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 727, 1994), pp. 13-35.
• "Stargazing: James McKeen Cattell, American Men of Science, and the Reward Structure of the American Scientific Community, 1906-1944," in Psychology, Science, and Human Affairs: Essays in Honor of William Bevan, edited by Frank Kessel (Westview Press, 1995), pp. 64-86.
• "Baldwin, Cattell, and the Psychological Review: A Collaboration and Its Discontents," History of the Human Sciences 10 (1997): 57-89.
• "Editorial: On History of Psychology's Launch," History of Psychology 1 (1998): 3-7.
• (with Sally Gregory Kohlstedt and Bruce Lewenstein) The Establishment of Science in America: 150 Years of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Rutgers University Press, 1999).
• "The History of Science Society, 1970-1999: From Subscription Agency to Professional Society," Isis 90 (1999): S135-S181.
• "Practical Phrenology as Psychological Counseling in the 19th-Century United States," in The Transformation of Psychology: Influences of 19th-Century Philosophy, Technology, and Natural Science, edited by Christopher D. Green, Marlene Shore, and Thomas Teo (American Psychological Association, 2001), pp. 21-44.
• "Thinking Inside the Box"; review of Henry Petroski, Small Things Considered: Why There Is No Perfect Design (New York: Knopf, 2003), in Scientific American, October 2003, pp. 98-99.
• Other Major Publications

Recent Major Presentations

• "In the Beginning: The Origins and Earliest Years of the American Psychological Association," Distinguished Centennial Address, American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA, 16 August 1991.
• "James McKeen Cattell, The New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Psychological Association," New York Academy of Sciences, New York, NY, 15 February 1992.
• "Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi: Two Centuries of Academic Achievement in America," Phi Beta Kappa-Sigma Xi induction address, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 22 April 1992.
• "Cattell, Baldwin, and The Psychological Review: A Collaboration and Its Discontents," invited address, Cheiron, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME, 23 June 1995.
• "Los Psicólogos de la Gestalt en la Ameríca Conductista," Spanish Society for the History of Psychology, Barcelona, Spain, 7 May 1998.
• "James McKeen Cattell in 1917," Wallace A. Russell Lecture, Division of the History of Psychology, American Psychological Association, San Francisco, CA, August 2001.
• "James McKeen Cattell, Columbia University, and the Ironies of Acadenic Freedom, 1891-1917," Guest Lecture, European Society for the History of the Human Sciences, York, England, 29 August 2003.
• Other Major Presentations

Avocational Interests

Cartoons by Sidney Harris