JEREMY TREVELYAN BURMAN, PhD, is a tenured Senior Assistant Professor (UD1 with indefinite contract) of Theory and History of Psychology at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. The primary focus of his research is Jean Piaget, but treated as a microhistorical case: he is interested more generally in the characterisation and movement of scientific meaning—over time, across disciplines, between languages, and internationally—and Piaget provides many entry-points for interesting investigations that can be supported by strong evidence. It is this broader interest that guides his teaching in the Theory and History of Psychology master programme at the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences.

He presently serves as a Consulting Editor of History of Psychology, New Ideas in Psychology, and the Review of General Psychology. He has also been a reviewer for American Psychologist, Cognitive Development, Curriculum Journal, Dynamis: Acta Hispanica ad Medicinae Scientiarumque Historiam Illustrandam, European Journal for Philosophy of Science, European Yearbook for the History of Psychology, History of the Human Sciences, History of Psychology, HOPOS: The Journal for the International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science, Human Development, Journal of Child and Family Studies, Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, Journal of the History of Biology, Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, New Ideas in Psychology, Perspectives on Science, Review of General Psychology, Scientometrics, and Spontaneous Generations. 

Burman also presently serves as the international liaison from the Society for the History of Psychology to the American Psychological Association, of which he is a full voting member (not an international affiliate). Previously, he served on the Electronic Resources Advisory Committee for PsycINFO at the APA’s central office (2007-2012), to which was added a liaison position with the Publications and Communications Board (2009-2012). And on the Board of Directors for the Jean Piaget Society (2015-2018). He was also local host with Maarten Derksen, in 2018, for the annual meeting of the European Society for the History of the Human Sciences.

His work has been recognized through several awards. Most recent among them is an Early Career Award from the American Psychological Association (awarded by Division 26, the Society for the History of Psychology). Others include 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).

Before returning to academia, he was an associate producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. For this reason, he now leads the master Writing Skills course at RUG-GMW. And he serves on several writing-related internal committees, including the editorial boards for Mindwise and the Heymans Institute.

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—where he shares news from the discipline and sometimes posts pictures of his cat.