Research Overview

Interests: Russia; Soviet Union; Gender;  Masculinity; Nature; Science (glaciology)

I am a Modern European historian. Since the publication of my book, Mother of the Church: Sofia Svechina, the Salon, and the Politics of Catholicism in Nineteenth Century Russia and France (Northern Illinois University Press, 2016; winner of 2018 Harry Koenig Book Award, American Catholic Historical Association), I have shifted my interest to such topics as ecofeminism, masculinity, gender and environment, and gender and science. I am currently completing a book, The Politburo Goes Hunting: Masculinity, Nature, and Power in the Soviet Union and launching two new projects in ice humanities: 1) together with a group of international colleagues from the PAMIR project (Switzerland), I am co-authoring an eco-biography of the Fedchenko glacier (Tajikistan); 2) with Professor Stewart Weaver (UR, History), I am researching the history of early glacial science in the Alps.

Together with Professor Stewart Weaver, I serve as an international collaborator to the History of Glacier Science cluster of the Pamir Project (a flagship initiative by the Swiss Polar Institute, Sion, Switzerland) – an interdisciplinary project that studies “the state, unexplained variability, and trajectory of the Pamir cryosphere. … The goal of the project is to gather data ranging from ice to microbes to human memory, collect new measurements to study climate change impacts on the cryosphere and the downstream implications, including hydrology, geohazards, microbial ecosystems, humans, and the history of cryospheric research and generate milestone knowledge for hazards, ecosystems, and water resources management in the region.” https://pamir-project.ch/research/history-of-glacier-science/ 

As one of the recipients of 2016 University of Rochester Research Award, I have also been working on an oral history research project in Ladakh, India, where our team conducts a study on the local community’s relationships with glaciers.

Graduate Research Fields

I am not accepting new graduate student advisees for our MA and PhD programs.

Courses Offered (subject to change)

• GSW 105:  Sex and Power
• GSW 200/W:  History of Feminism/Colloquium in Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies
• HIST 200:  The Politics of Sport: Race, Gender, and National Identity in Athletic Competition
• HIST 100:  The Case of Sherlock Holmes: Race, Gender, and Crime in the British Empire
• HIST 256:  Politics of Nature: Race, Gender, and the Environment

Selected Publication Covers

Selected Publications

• "Diplomacy in the Woods: Nature, Hunting, Masculinity, and Soviet Diplomacy under N.S. Khrushchev," Diplomatica: a Journal of Diplomacy and Society (accepted, Fall 2022) 
• “Oral Environmental History and Community-Based Participatory Research: Studying Climate Change in Ladakh, India,” Oral History Review 49. No 1 (2022): 56 - 76 (with Stewart Weaver and Daniel Rinn)  
• “The Politics of Trees: the Logging of Białowieża Forest and the Debate on Polish National Identity,” in E. Johann, J. Jusmin, J. Woitsch, eds., European Forests – Our Cultural Heritage (Prague: Nová Tiskárna Pelhřimov & Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, 2021): 121 - 136.  
• “Ecofeminism, Maternalism, and the Carnivalesque: The Spatial Politics of Women’s Environmental Movement in Poland,” Feminist Formations 33, no. 2 (2021): 79 - 105. 
• "Ecofeminism as Intersectional Pedagogy and Practice,” in Mapping Gendered Ecologies: Engaging with and Beyond Ecowomanism and Ecofeminism, eds. Melchor Hall and Gwyn Kwirk (New York: Lexington Books, 2021): 107 - 124. 
• “Forests in Revolutionary France: Conservation, Community, and Conflict, 1669 – 1848,” book review, Environmental History (summer 2019) 
• Mother of the Church: Sophia Svechina, the Salon, and the Politics of Catholicism in Nineteenth Century Russia and France  (University of Northern Illinois Press, 2016)
  Winner of 2018 Harry Koenig Book Award, American Catholic Historical Association 
• “How Women Got the Vote,” Reviews in American History 44, no. 2 (2016): 291 - 298. 
• Including Students in Academic Conversations:  Principles and Strategies for Teaching Theme-Based Writing Courses across the Disciplines (with Deborah Rossen-Knill) (Hampton Press, 2011) 
• “Education in the United States” in American society: Essays on history and culture (St. Petersburg: University of St. Petersburg, 2008) 
• “Russian Catholicism and the Collapse of the Ideals of the Enlightenment,” Nauka, Religiia i Obstchetvo: Sbornik Statei 36 (2006): 84 – 99.  
• “Russian Catholicism in the First Quarter of 19th Century: New Look,” Religiovedenie (Study of Religion) 4 (2005): 30 – 41. 
  
  
• Awards:
• 2023: NEH Planning International Collaboration Grant
• 2022: University of Rochester Pump Primer research grant
• 2021: Public Outreach Award, American Society for Environmental History
  
• 2020: Goergen Teaching Award, University of Rochester
• 2018: Harry Koenig Book Award, American Catholic Historical Association
  
• 2016: University of Rochester Research Award