About

Research specialist in the history of the Russian revolutionary movement, Soviet trade unions, Soviet political struggle in the 1920s, and Stalinist repressions.

Teacher of Russian & Soviet history, European history, the Holocaust, World War II, global history, and oral history methods. My teaching methods include Reacting to the Past.

My publications include a political biography, two collections of documents I translated from Russian to English and edited, five chapters in edited collections, eight articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, seventeen other articles, and twenty-four book reviews. I have presented at thirty conferences and made a dozen invited presentations to audiences outside La Salle University. I have taught around twenty distinct courses at La Salle University online and face to face, using interactive methods as well as lecture.

I first traveled to the Soviet Union in 1988 and have spent about 2 1/2 years in Russia, Kazakstan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, and Georgia on multiple trips. I carried out academic research in Moscow in 1990-91, 1995, and 2012; and in Kyiv in 2017. I am proficient in reading, writing, and speaking Russian and have some introductory knowledge of Spanish, French, and German.

I grew up in rural North Carolina and have lived in Indiana, Arizona, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, in addition to time spent abroad.