J.T. (Jeremy) Burman, PhD

JEREMY TREVELYAN BURMAN, PhD, is Senior Assistant Professor (UD1) of Theory and History of Psychology at the University of Groningen, in the Netherlands, and coordinator of the master track dedicated to that specialty. The primary focus of his research is Jean Piaget, but he is also interested more generally in the articulation and movement of scientific meaning—over time, across disciplines, between languages, and internationally. To pursue these interests, he uses methods borrowed from the history and philosophy of science (esp. archival study) and the digital humanities (esp. network analysis).

Burman’s most popular article is a historical critique of the popularization of “memes,” published by Perspectives on Science in 2012. (This project is discussed in more detail here, here, and here.) A sequel was published in the Review of General Psychology in 2022.

His most influential article presented an analysis and simplification of the meanings of "self-regulation," identifying 6 broad conceptual categories from the term's 447 different senses. This was published in Child Development in 2015, then was subsequently discussed on Canadian national television and informed an educational research-to-practice briefing published in both official languages (En / Fr).

But his most important article shows a change in the logical underpinnings of Piaget's stage theory, and provides the formal meta-theoretical basis for what is called "Piaget's new theory." This was published in Theory & Psychology in 2016, as a prequel to an earlier article published in New Ideas in Psychology in 2013. The third essay in this sequence was published as a chapter in 2019 in a book from Cambridge University Press. A fourth used archival sources to investigate the intellectual background from which this emerged, and was published in a collection from Oxford University Press in 2021. 

He presently serves as a Consulting Editor on the editorial boards of New Ideas in Psychology, History of Psychology, and Review of General Psychology for which he often provides editorial commentary as part of peer review. He has also served as a peer reviewer for American Psychologist, Cognitive Development, Curriculum Journal, Dynamis, the European Yearbook for the History of Psychology, History of the Human Sciences, HOPOS, Human Development, Journal of Child and Family Studies, Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, Journal of the History of Biology, Perspectives on Science, Scientometrics, and Spontaneous Generations (which is edited by graduate students at his alma mater). Previously, he served on the Board of Directors for the Jean Piaget Society (2015-2018) and on the Electronic Resources Advisory Committee for PsycINFO and the American Psychological Association (2007-2012), to which was added a liaison position with the Publications and Communications Board (2009-2012).

Burman presently serves as program chair, with Shannon Audley, of the History, Theory, and Methods panel for the 2023 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development. He was also local host with Maarten Derksen, in 2018, of the European Society for the History of the Human Sciences. And he is the international liaison from the Society for the History of Psychology to the American Psychological Association, of which he is a full voting member. 

Burman's work has been recognized through several awards. Most recent among them is election to Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Others include the Early Career Award from the Society for the History of Psychology, the Jean Piaget Society's Dissertation Prize, a Certificate of Academic Excellence from the Canadian Psychological Association, the ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship, the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Fellowship, the Ambassador Gary J. Smith Award for research with an international focus, the Norman S. Endler Research Fellowship, the International Emerging Scholars Award, and the Peter Pufall Award. For his teaching during his doctoral apprenticeship, he received his university's top teaching honour: the President’s University Wide Teaching Award. He also received two certificates of teaching excellence from the Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology. 

Prior to joining the tenure-track at the University of Groningen in 2016, Burman worked at the Piaget Archives in the University of Geneva. His doctoral dissertation, developed and defended in the History and Theory of Psychology Graduate Program at York University in Toronto, was entitled Constructive History: From the standard theory of stages to Piaget's new theory. He also has a separate terminal MA in Interdisciplinary Studies from York University, and a B.Sc(Honours) from the University of Toronto. And he holds a Dutch university-teaching certificate: the Basis Kwalificatie Onderwijs (referred-to in English as the University Teaching Qualification).

Burman was tenured in 2020. And he is now hard at work on a giant grant that he hopes will help to fund his group's activities over the next several years.

You can follow his research at Academia.edu, Google Scholar, and ResearchGate (all of which he tries to keep up-to-date). Or find him on Twitter: @BurmanPhD