Liana Kirillova

Areas of Specialization

Modern Europe, Soviet Union, Cultural Cold War, Global Sixties

Education

Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale
M.A., Southern Illinois University Carbondale
B.A., Udmurt State University (Russia)

Academic Interests & Research Narrative

My teaching and research interests center around the history of the Cold War, global sixties, and transnational youth exchanges in Europe. I also have a special interest in teaching the history of totalitarian regimes and ethnic relations in Europe. 

I plan to turn my dissertation titled Friendship Projects: Internationalization of the Student Construction Brigade Movement, 1965-1975 into a book. While examining Soviet youth interactions with foreign students from socialist and non-socialist countries under the umbrella of the Student Construction Brigade Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, my research challenges rigid understandings of Cold War motivations and behavior. I argue that during the Cold War, international cooperation was not limited to the acts of government officials and bureaucrats. Global youth also emerged as key agents of internationalism through cooperative economic, political, and cultural activities on construction sites around the world. 

Selected Publications

“Building the Nation: Socialist Construction Projects in Algeria, 1962-1978.” Vestnik Udmurtskogo Universiteta: Sotsiologiia. Politologiia. Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniia, v. 4, issue 3 (2020): 334-343.

“Free Angela Davis!”: Soviet Citizens Embrace America’s Most Controversial Civil Rights Activist.” The Yearbook of Transnational History, v. 2 (2019): 223-242.

Contributing author of The Feminism Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2019.

Contributing author of Women: Our Story. London: Dorling Kindersley, 2019.

“The Ironies of Whiteness: Italian Americans Pursue Affirmative Action in the City University of New York, 1976 – 2015.” Essays in History 51 (2017): 1-22.

“Soviet Internationalism: Cultural Diplomacy in Latin America and Peoples’ Friendship University.” Vestnik Udmurtskogo Universiteta: Sotsiologiia. Politologiia. Mezhdunarodnye Otnosheniia, v. 2 (2017): 221-230.

Selected Activities

Awards

• Dissertation Research Assistantship Award, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2019-2020)
• Hayek Fund for Scholars Award, Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University (2018)
• Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2016)

Fellowships

• Keston Center Summer Teaching Fellowship (2024)
• The Doctoral Fellowship, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2020-2021)
• Summer Faculty Institute, Baylor University (2025)

Grants/Scholarships

• Davis Graduate Student Travel Grant, ASEEES (2019)
• Emma Smith Hough Library Research Scholarship, Southern Illinois University Carbondale (2016)

Recent Conference Presentations

•  “Communism Cannot Be Built with a Shovel”: Politicization of the Soviet-Czechoslovak Student Construction Brigade Exchange in the Context of the Prague Spring, ASEEES Annual Convention (2024);
• “Free Angela Davis!”: Soviet Citizens Embrace America’s Most Controversial Civil Rights Activist, Women’s History Month Roundtable: Reflections in History, Baylor University (2024)
• “'Communism Cannot Be Built with a Shovel': The Experiences of Soviet and Czechoslovak Student Construction Brigades in 1968” Southern Conference on Slavic Studies (2024)
• “Internationalism Achieved? Participation of Foreign Students in Soviet Construction Projects in the 1970s” ASEEES Annual Convention (2022)    
• “Internationalist Education in the Soviet Union, 1965-1975” World Congress of the ICCEES (2021)
• “Friendship Projects: The Development of the Student Construction Brigade Movement in Socialist Europe in the 1960s” ASEEES Annual Convention (2019)
• “Building the Nation: Socialist Construction Projects in Algeria, 1962-1978” the Ninth Biennial AWSS Conference (2019)
• “Peoples’ Friendship University: Racialization under the Rhetoric of Soviet Internationalism” The Midwest Slavic Conference (2018)
• “Freeing Angela Davis in Eurasia” ASEEES Annual Convention (2017)

Regular Course Offerings

Undergraduate:

• HIS 1300 | US in Global Perspectives: With Amusement for All
• HIS 2395 | Research Writing: History
• HIS 3342 | Russia since 1861
• HIS 4342 | The Holocaust
• HIS 4347 | Totalitarian Regimes in Europe

Work with Students

Willing to advise undergraduate theses