Mathieu Desan

· Assistant Professor • Graduate Chair • Graduate Admissions DirectorVerified

University of Colorado Boulder · Sociology

Active 2013–2026

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Citations140

Papers208 last 5y

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About

Mathieu Hikaru Desan (PhD, University of Michigan, 2016) is a historical sociologist with substantive interests in social theory, political sociology, and cultural sociology. His work has been published in Sociological Theory, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Political Power and Social Theory, History of the Human Sciences, Critical Sociology, and Thesis Eleven. He is currently working on a book manuscript about the practical logic of political conversion, with a focus on the case of French “neo-socialists” who became Nazi collaborators during World War II.

Selected publications

Order, Authority, Nation

Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2026-02-20

book1st authorCorresponding

Order, Authority, Nation develops a sociological account of political conversion from left to right through an examination of the historical case of Marcel Déat and the French neo-socialists. Déat and the neo-socialists began their careers in the 1920s as democratic socialists but became fascists and Nazi collaborators by the end of World War II. While existing accounts of this shift emphasize the ideological continuity underlying neo-socialism and fascism, this book centers the fundamentally discontinuous and relational character of political conversion in its analysis. Highlighting the active part played by Déat and the neo-socialists in their own reinvention at different moments of their trajectory, it argues that political conversion is a phenomenon defined not just by a change in belief, but at its core, by how political actors respond to changing political circumstances. This sociological account of a phenomenon often treated polemically offers a unique contribution to the sociology and history of socialism and fascism.

Publisher DOI

From Socialism to Neo-Socialism

Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2026-02-20

book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

Publisher DOI

Marginalization and Disarticulation

Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2026-02-20

book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

Publisher DOI

“Tactics” and “Doctrine”

Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2026-02-20

book-chapter1st authorCorresponding