TEACHING
GENERAL Philosophy
I see the classroom as an extension of my scholarly interest in citizenship. As a teacher, I strive to cultivate literate citizens, and I focus especially on developing on two key skills: a nuanced awareness of the experiences of others and an ability to engage critically with sources.
Everyday life experiences should be at the heart of historical study, which I encourage in both reading and writing assignments. Although broad timelines and big events provide the organizational scaffolding for most history courses, I encourage students to think about the everyday life experiences of ordinary people. Assigned materials draw from a wide range of first-hand accounts, observations and experiences. When possible, I include marginalized voices, including those of women, ethnic minorities, or others living far from seats of power. When such sources are unavailable, I invite students to reflect upon the reasons for their absence. Writing assignments, including informal assignments from the perspective of a person living at the time and essays focusing on a single primary source, deepen the focus on everyday life.
This feeds into my other key goal in the classroom: to challenge students to approach materials with a critical, thoughtful eye. I believe the history classroom serves an important function in training students to evaluate the reliability and usefulness of sources, which is critical in an era when people have access to endless array of sources at their fingertips.
By focusing on everyday life and a careful approach to sources, I seek to deepen students’ empathy for the life experiences others and to hone their analytical skills, traits that are essential for citizens in a diverse society. These lessons extend beyond the classroom and remain important long after students have forgotten the facts and timelines they might have learned for an exam. It is here in building citizens that history education can make its most important and enduring impact.
Stories about the History of the USSR, the cover from a 1967 textbook for fourth graders.
examples of courses
Undergraduate survey courses: These courses are intended to provide an introduction to major historical concepts and ideas. To give students first-hand experience with historical analysis, readings in all survey courses are derived exclusively from primary documents, while lectures offer the larger frameworks for interpreting these documents. Writing assignments in these courses center around Primary Source Analyses, which require students to develop an original interpretation of a single document. Midterm and final examinations require students to identify major figures and events and to write short essays based on pre-circulated prompts.
Examples: History of "Russia" (ca. 850–present) The Russian Empire to 1917, Soviet history, late socialism in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Central Asian history (syllabus here, taught at WashU, Fall 2020), global communism, European and global history since 1500.
Advanced thematic seminars (graduate and/or undergraduate): These courses offer a deeper dive into specific topics, and include discussions of major historiographical interpretations and how historians employ evidence to support arguments. For undergraduates, courses will walk students through the process of conducting a research paper. In iterations intended primarily for graduate students, readings will center around major historiographical questions and prepare students for comprehensive examinations. All can be taught for advanced undergraduates or for graduate students.
Examples: citizenship in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective (syllabus here, taught Fall 2020 at WashU); borders, walls, and frontiers; (in)equality in global perspective (syllabus here, co-taught with Dr. Clare Kim at WashU in Spring 2020); everyday life in the Soviet Union (syllabus here); nationalities policy in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union; imperial knowledge production; the global history of empires; nation, empire, and citizenship in modern Europe. In addition to thematic courses, specific courses and/or independent reading seminars for Ph.D. students can be arranged in Russian, Soviet, and Central Asian history, according to departmental needs and student interest.
First-year seminars: Like advanced seminars, first-year seminars delve deeply into a specific historical topic, with the explicit purpose of introducing first-year students to reading, writing, and thinking like historians. Exercises guide students through contributing to class discussions, reading primary documents, identifying arguments, and developing original interpretation of sources. By introducing advanced topics in an accessible format, these courses cultivate an interest in history as students bridge from the high school history classroom into college-level work. Possible topics include “Borders, Walls, and Frontiers” (syllabus here, taught Fall 2019 at WashU), and the global history of coffee.
Undergraduate writing: Beyond my geographic and thematic interests, I am also interested in developing curriculum in historical writing for undergraduate majors. One fully designed syllabus, “Bad History: Writing Good History from Unlikely Sources” (prepared for the University of Michigan) explicitly trains prospective undergraduate history majors to work with problematic sources, including outright falsehoods, official communist party histories, and forgeries. Over the semester, documents become progressively more mainstream to demonstrate that even “good” sources contain assumptions and biases, but that all sources nevertheless reveal unintended revelations for the innovative historian. The course teaches students to read critically and to write effectively, challenging them to be conscientious consumers of all media and training them to think and write like historians.
Graduate seminar in research planning and methodology: This year-long course aims to build the bridge from coursework to the dissertation, building off my own extensive research conducting research over more than three years in the field. Intended especially for third-year graduate students preparing for research, the seminar trains students in developing research proposals, writing grant applications, designing and conducting research, and managing notes while in the field. In the fall, we will focus on planning research, with particular attention to methodological and ethical considerations. Since many grant applications are due in late fall and early winter, students will draft and workshop grant proposals. In the spring, the focus turns towards framing the dissertation prospectus and conducting research, with attention to practical details: contacting archives, taking and managing notes, working with archival photos, and adjusting research projects in the field. This course could alternatively be taught through a series of voluntary evening workshops in collaboration with fellow faculty members, who would bring diverse perspectives on research methods and approaches. Whether taught as a seminar course or an evening workshop, this would provide a forum to help graduate students transition from coursework to independent research and writing.