Indiana University

Faculty Member, History

John V. Hill Chair in East European History

College of Arts and Sciences

About

My research and teaching interests focus on European history in the modern period, especially social and cultural developments in Eastern Europe, with a special interest in Romania (geographically) and gender (thematically). I began my intellectual journey by investigating the ways in which cultural producers and social policy makers tried to engineer the future during the first half of the twentieth century. This led to the publication of my first book, Eugenics and Modernization in Interwar Romania. Subsequently I moved on to examine how various local communities and official state institutions in Eastern Europe tried to engineer the past, by constructing representations of wartime violence through monuments and commemorative processes, which has resulted in my newest book, Heroes and Victims. Remembering War in Twentieth Century Romania. In addition to these books, I've also published a number of essays on eugenics, philanthropy, the cultural history of the Great War, commemorations of World War II, and gender and war. I am currently working on a project entitled “Everyday Citizenship and Gender. A Transnational Study,” which compares 2 case studies from Romania and the United States. My teaching combines these specific research interests with broader pedagogical ones. I've taught courses on the idea of Europe, film and history, memory and war, gender in Modern Europe, as well as communism in Europe. I am also the President of the Association for Women in Slavic Studies (2009-2011).

Contact Information