We use cookies on this site to enhance your experience.
By selecting “Accept” and continuing to use this website, you consent to the use of cookies.
I am the child of immigrants, and so have always lived my life conscious of being caught between vastly different lands. Thus, though born in Canada, Canada is but a small part of my identity. It is also no surprise that I have been fascinated by the past from an early age. It was always a land of mystery for me, one that I always knew held the answers to questions I wanted to engage: who was I, what was my community, and how did my world come to be?
On a more mundane level I received a PhD from the University of Toronto in 1989 after extensive graduate studies in a country that no longer exists (the Soviet Union, and Leningrad/St. Petersburg above all). I have been at Laurier since 1994 and I have seen the History Department at this university develop into a remarkably strong unit in that time.
I think that it's safe to say that my published research has been rather diverse of late. Recent publications include a social history of southern Ukraine (known in the Imperial era as "New Russia". More recently my book on Dostoevsky's vision for an ethical world was published, and a book on Russian Mennonites that I have edited is due out in the fall of 2017. I have begun several new projects, including a major rethinking of the Mennonite experience in Russia and Ukraine.
I have broad expertise in Russian and Soviet history, most especially in the Social History of Southern Ukraine (New Russia); the great Russian writer Fedor Dostoevsky, and most recently on the history of Russian Mennonites, who lived in what is today Ukraine; a people who spoke German but were of primarily Dutch and Flemish origin. See why the study of History is important!
- 2016 Meritorious Recognition at Wilfrid Laurier University for “outstanding or superior performance.”
- 2012 Meritorious Recognition at Wilfrid Laurier University for “outstanding or superior performance.”
- 2010 Nominated as Best Lecturer for TV Ontario’s Best University Lecturer Competition.
- 2007 Meritorious Recognition at Wilfrid Laurier University for “outstanding or superior performance.”
- 2006 Recipient of University Hoffman Little Award, given “in recognition of developing excellent rapport and inspiring students, positively contributing to Laurier’s reputation, and having a history of distinguished service to Laurier and the wider community.”
- 2006 Wilfrid Laurier University’s local WUSC (World University Service of Canada) Committee was recognized as the top University chapter in Canada when I was its University Faculty Advisor.
I am willing to work with graduate students in areas that pertain to my areas of research and publication, but more broadly in Russian history as appropriate. Please contact me.
-
Mennonites in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union: Through Much Tribulation. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2022.
-
Minority Report: Mennonite Identities in Imperial Russia and Soviet Ukraine Reconsidered, 1789-1945. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2018.
-
Transcendent Love: Dostoevsky and the Search for a Global Ethic. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 2016.
- Rural Revolutions. Peasants, Nobles, and Estate Owners in Southern Ukraine, 1775-1905. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press (Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute), 2008.
Contact Info:
T: 548.889.5053
Office location: DAWB 5-152
Languages spoken: English, Russian, German, Pennsylvania Deitsch