Russian, East European & Eurasian History

The History Department at The Ohio State University offers an internationally recognized graduate program in Russian, East European and Eurasian history.

Faculty in Russian, East European & Eurasian History

	Professor Nicholas B. Breyfogle received his Ph.D. (1998) and M.A. (1994) in Russian and European History from the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B. A. (1990) from Brown University in History and French Civilization. Professor Breyfogle is a specialist in Imperial Russian history, c. 1700 to 1917, especially the history of Russian imperialism and the non-Russian nationalities of the tsarist empire. His research interests include Russian colonialism, inter-eth... (read more about Nicholas Breyfogle)
	M.W.Cavender; Ph.D., University of Michigan, 1997. Professor Cavender is a specialist in Russian history, with interests in 18th- and 19th-century Russian cultural, social and intellectual history. Most recently, she has published Nests of the Gentry: Family, Estate and Local Loyalties in Provincial Russia (University of Delaware Press, 2007), and "'Kind Angel of the Soul and Heart': Domesticity and Family Correspondence among the Pre-Emancipation Russian Gentry" in The Russian Revi... (read more about Mollie Cavender)
	Theodora Dragostinova received her B.A. in History and Archaeology from the University of Athens, Greece (1998), her M.A. in History from the University of Florida (2000), and her Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2005). She joined the Department of History in 2007 as an Assistant Professor of Eastern European history. Her work focuses on nation-building, refugee movements, and minority politics in Eastern Europe, with a particular emphasis on the Balkans. ... (read more about Theodora Dragostinova)
	David L. Hoffmann; B.A., Lawrence University, 1983; M.A., Columbia University, 1986; Ph.D., Columbia University, 1990. Professor Hoffmann is a specialist in Russian and Soviet history, with a particular focus on the political, social, and cultural history of Stalinism. He is the author of Peasant Metropolis: Social Identities in Moscow, 1929-1941, which won the Ohio Academy of History award for best book in 1995. His most recent monogra... (read more about David Hoffmann)
	Professor Levi's research focuses on the socio-economic history of early modern, pre-colonial Central Asia. In addition to multiple journal articles, book chapters and other publications, Professor Levi has authored The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and its Trade, 1550-1900 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 2002) and he has edited India and Central Asia: Commerce and Culture, 1500–1800 (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007). His current projects include a co-edited (with Ron Sela of Indiana University, Blo... (read more about Scott Levi)
	Jennifer Siegel joined the OSU Department of History in the fall of 2003. She received her B.A. and her Ph.D. from Yale University, the latter in 1998. A recipient of a number of prestigious fellowships, including an Olin Postdoctoral Fellowship, a Mellon Foundation Dissertation Fellowship, and a Smith Richardson Foundation Junior Faculty Fellowship, Dr. Siegel specializes in modern European diplomatic and military history, with a focus on the British and Russian Empires. She is the author of En... (read more about Jennifer Siegel)

OTHER FACULTY: In addition to our primary faculty in Russian/East European history, graduate students exploring Russia/East Europe/Eurasia at OSU benefit from access to a department of over 50 faculty members with a wide array of interests and expertise. Faculty of particular note for students interested in Russia/East Europe include (this is only a partial list):

Central Asia, Ottoman Empire and Iran
Stephen Dale, Carter Findley, and Jane Hathaway

Byzantine and Greek History
Tim Gregory

Medieval Europe
Barbara Hanawalt and Daniel Hobbins

Early Modern Europe
David Cressy, Robert Davis, Geoffrey Parker, and Dale Van Kley

Modern Europe
Alan Beyerchen, Alice Conklin, Carole Fink, Stephen Kern, Chris Otter and Birgitte Søland

Diplomatic and Military History
Carole Fink, Peter Hahn, John Guilmartin and Robert McMahon

Women's History
Susan Hartmann, Claire Robertson, Stephanie Shaw, Birgitte Søland and Mytheli Sreenivas

Jewish History
Matt Goldish and Robin Judd

Graduate Training and Courses

Students in the Russia/East Europe program receive a rigorous training in both teaching and research in a supportive and collegial environment. Our faculty works together in joint-advising arrangements to provide students with extensive contact and interaction both in and out of the classroom.

Students are trained in Russian and East European history, as well as in comparative and methodological minor fields. This diverse scope of geographical areas and historiographical fields produces intellectually wide-ranging scholars and prepares our students well for the demands of the job market, as our recent successes in job placement indicate. (list of recent OSU Ph.D.s in Russian, East European and Eurasian History)

See Also: Courses on Russian and East European History offered by the Department.

Graduate Funding

Graduate student funding packages and research support are among the best in the country.

• All admitted graduate students receive guaranteed multi-year funding packages from the history department.

• The department also offers numerous research grants, including the Wildman Award, specifically designated to support the research of graduate students in the Russia/East Europe field.

• Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships are readily available from the Center for Slavic and East European Studies for academic-year and summer language study.

• The Mershon Center offers generous fellowships to support graduate students’ research travel.

• The Office of International Affairs provides grants for graduate students conducting dissertation research abroad.

• In recent years, Ohio State graduate students have been very successful in national fellowship competitions, such as Fulbright-Hays, IREX, ACTR, and SSRC.

Library Resources at OSU in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies

The Ohio State University has one of the country's finest library collections in Russian and East European History. The Russia/East Europe collection contains 800,000 volumes, 1,400 serials, and 175,000 sources on microfilm. Basic reference works and current newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journals in Slavic languages and in English are available in the Slavic and East European Reading Room of the Main University Library.

For more information about the library resources contact Miroljub Ruzic, our Russian-East European Librarian or visit the East European and Slavic Studies web site.

The library also houses the Wildman-Perez Russian Peasant Collection of nineteenth-century publications on peasant history

The Hilandar Research Library is among the special resources of the University Libraries system. A repository of microfilm copies of medieval Slavic manuscripts, the collection includes Church Slavonic, Russian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Turkish and Wallachian charters, edicts, and other documents dating from the early eleventh century to modern times. The Hilandar Research Library recently acquired over 1,200 manuscripts on microfilm from widely scattered and previously inaccessible libraries in Russia, making The Ohio State University the leading center of medieval and early modern Slavic studies in the United States. The Hilandar library offers research assistantships to students in the history department, as well as research facilities and the annual Medieval Slavic Summer Institute.

Slavic, East European and Eurasian Resources at OSU

The graduate program in Russian/East European history is part of a large, vibrant network of Slavic and Eurasian studies at the University.

1. The Center for Slavic and East European Studies

At OSU, CSEES develops new courses and funds existing classes, sponsors lectures, administers a Slavic and East European studies M.A. program, supervises exchange programs with foreign universities, provides monies for library acquisitions, awards Foreign Language and Area Specialist (FLAS) Fellowships to OSU graduate students, oversees the awarding of other grants, maintains a large video library, and houses the Current Digest of the Post-Soviet Press. Among its other activities, CSEES annually hosts the Midwest Slavic Conference. CSEES is an invaluable resource for graduate students in the history department.

2. The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures

The Department of Slavic and East European Languages and Literatures, with a faculty of ten full-time professors offers instruction in Russian and other East European languages, as well as coursework in East European literature and linguistics.

3. Mershon Center for International Security and Public Policy

4. Melton Center for Jewish Studies

5. Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

6. Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

7. Office of International Affairs