Alexander McConnell
Bio
Alexander J. McConnell is an Assistant Teaching Professor of History at North Carolina State University. He is a historian of modern Russia and the Soviet Union, with a particular focus on the intersections of political language, cultural production, and moral values in the post-Stalin period (1953-1991).
Dr. McConnell received his Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2023 and was subsequently the 2023-2024 Postdoctoral Fellow at the U-M Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies. His research has been supported by fellowships and grants from major professional associations and university centers, including the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES); the American Councils for International Education; the University of Illinois Russian, East European, and Eurasian Center; the U-M Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies; the U-M Donia Human Rights Center; and the U-M Weiser Center for Europe and Eurasia.
At NC State, Dr. McConnell is responsible for leading the department’s undergraduate methods and writing programming (HI 300) as well as offering occasional courses in Russian and Soviet history.
Publications
Journal Articles
“‘Tragic Presentiments’: Maksim Gor’kii and the Invention of Soviet Humanism,” Slavic Review vol. 83, no. 2 (Summer 2024): 300-317
Book Chapters
“Masking the Void, Voiding the Mask: Viktor Pelevin and the Performance of History,” in Companion to Victor Pelevin, edited by Sofya Khagi (Academic Studies Press, 2022), 75-103
Academic Reviews
Review of The Soviet Myth of World War II: Patriotic Memory and the Russian Question in the USSR by Jonathan Brunstedt (Cambridge University Press, 2021), 306 pp., The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review vol. 50, no. 3 (October 2023): 359-364
Review of State of Madness: Psychiatry, Literature, and Dissent after Stalin by Rebecca Reich (Northern Illinois University Press, 2018), 283 pp., EuropeNow, May 7, 2019
Essays & Literary Reviews
“Plight of the Living Dead: An Update on the Cinematic Sage of Empire V,” NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia Blog, April 20, 2023
“Empire V meets Generation ‘Z’: The Awkward Business of a Would-Be Blockchain Blockbuster in Wartime,” NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia Blog, September 7, 2022
“Stepping in the Same River Twice: On Vasily Grossman’s Stalingrad,” Cleveland Review of Books, November 26, 2019
“Pictures at an Execution: On Lev Ozerov’s Portraits Without Frames,” Cleveland Review of Books, December 4, 2018
Digital Scholarship
“‘Peace to the World’: Lessons from the Soviet Antiwar Underground,” Reverb Effect Podcast, Season 5, Episode 3 (February 20, 2024)
Education
Ph.D. History University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 2023
M.A. Russian & Eurasian Studies European University at Saint Petersburg 2014
B.A. History, with honors Grinnell College 2012
Area(s) of Expertise
Russia and the Soviet Union; Eastern Europe; Cultural History; Language and Ideology; Political Dissidence; Literature and Film; History of Emotions; Historical Methods and Writing.