Samuel Finkelman
Mellon Assistant Professor in History and Jewish Studies
Samuel Finkelman is a historian specializing in Soviet and modern Jewish history, with research interests in nationalism, the Holocaust and its memory, and the history of dissent. His current book project—Ghetto, Gulag, Geulah—explores Soviet Jewish activists’ encounters with Russian and Ukrainian nationalists, illuminating how interethnic exchange precipitated and shaped Jewish collective memory of the catastrophic recent past in the post-Stalin USSR (1953-1985).
Samuel’s work has been supported by numerous grants including from the American Association of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) in Budapest, and the U.S. Department of Education FLAS program.
Specializations
Soviet history, Modern Jewish history, Nations and nationalism, Collective memory, Intellectual History