Andy Bruno

Assistant Professor

Fields of Study: Russia/Soviet Union, Modern Europe, Arctic, Environmental History, Climate

Email: abruno2@niu.edu
Phone: 815-753-0131
Office: Zulauf 720

Education: Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2011; M.A., European University at Saint Petersburg, 2004; B.A., Reed College, 2003

Current Research: I am working on a book that examines the environmental history of economic transformation in the Russian north during the twentieth century. It asks questions about the relationship between nature and power in the Soviet Union, the forms of interaction with the environment that developed in communist systems, and the role of the Arctic in global environmental history. The study is based on an in-depth examination of a range of industries on the Kola Peninsula in the northwest corner of Russia. I also have several article-length projects that address industrial waste and Soviet environmental performance, the environmental history of the Russian Revolution, and environmental subjectivity in the Soviet Union. My next major project will focus on Eurasian climate history.

Major/Recent Publications:

• “Tumbling Snow: Vulnerability to Avalanches in the Soviet North,” Environmental History (accepted, forthcoming in 2013).
• “Industrial Life in a Limiting Landscape: An Environmental Interpretation of Stalinist Social Conditions in the Far North,” International Review of Social History 55, S18 (December 2010): 153-174.
• “Making Reindeer Soviet: The Appropriation of an Animal on the Kola Peninsula,” in Jane Costlow and Amy Nelson (eds.), Other Animals: Beyond the Human in Russian Culture and History (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010), 117-137.
• “Russian Environmental History: Directions and Potentials,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 8, no. 3 (Summer 2007): 635-650.

Teaching Interests: I teach a full array of courses on Russian history as well as classes on comparative environmental history, including climate history. I also offer surveys on world history and European history and methodological/thematic courses for history majors, advanced undergraduates, and graduate students.

Courses Taught:

• HIST 338: The Soviet Union
• HIST 434: The Russian Revolution

Personal Webpage: http://andybruno.wordpress.com/