Brigid O'Keeffe
Professor
History
Location: 1123b Boylan Hall
Phone: 718.951.5000 x1174
Fax: 718.951.4504
Email:
Brigid O'Keeffe is a historian of imperial Russia and the Soviet Union. O'Keeffe is the author of The Multiethnic Soviet Union and its Demise (Bloomsbury); Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia (Bloomsbury; Winner of the 2021 Ab Imperio Award) and New Soviet Gypsies: Nationality, Performance, and Selfhood in the Early Soviet Union (University of Toronto Press). She is at work on her next book, The Family Litvinov: A History of the Twentieth Century.
Education:
Ph.D., New York University - 2008 (History)
B.A., Ohio University - 2001 (History)
Areas of Expertise:
O'Keeffe is a specialist in late imperial Russian and Soviet history. Her research interests include Soviet internationalism; ethnicity and race in Russian and Soviet history; everyday life; and individual life stories. Learn more at her website.
Books and Publications
The Multiethnic Soviet Union and Its Demise. Bloomsbury. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 2022
"A Cold War Cold Case: What Huldah Clark Can Teach Us about Teaching Soviet History," Slavic Review 80, 2: 299-306. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2021
"An Epistolary Empire: On Esperanto, Russia, and a World of Possibilities." Ab Imperio, vol. 2021 no. 4, 2021, p. 179-191. (Books and Publications: Article (Other)) 2021
"Building a Communist Tower of Babel: Esperanto and the Language Politics of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia," in Internationalists in European History: Rethinking the Twentieth Century, ed. Jessica Reinisch and David Brydan (London: Bloomsbury, 2021), 17-32. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2021
Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia. Bloomsbury. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 2021
"An International Language for an Empire of Humanity: L.L. Zamenhof and the Imperial Russian Origins of Esperanto," East European Jewish Affairs, 49, 1: 1-19. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2019
"The Racialization of Soviet Gypsies: Roma, Nationality Politics, and Socialist Transformation in Stalin's Soviet Union." In Ideologies of Race: Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union in Global Context. Edited by David Rainbow. McGill University Press, 2019. 132-159. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2019
"The Woman Always Pays: The Lives of Ivy Litvinov," The Slavonic and East European Review 97, 3: 501-528.
(Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2019
"Gypsies as a litmus test for rational, tolerant rule: Fin-de-siècle Russian ethnographers confront the comparative history of Roma in Europe." International Journal of Comparative and Applied Criminal Justice (Special Issue on Crime and Justice: Roma in Europe and North America) 38.2: 109-31. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2014
New Soviet Gypsies: Nationality, Performance, and Selfhood in the Early Soviet Union. University of Toronto Press. (Books and Publications: Book (Authored)) 2013
"Aleksandr Germano, 1893-1955." Russia's People of Empire: Life Stories from Eurasia, 1500 to the Present. Eds. Stephen M. Norris and Willard Sunderland. Indiana University Press. 265-73. (Books and Publications: Book Chapter) 2012
"'Backward Gypsies,' Soviet Citizens: The All-Russian Gypsy Union, 1925-28." Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 11.2, Spring: 283-312. (Books and Publications: Article (Peer-reviewed)) 2010
Awards, Honors and Fellowships
Ab Imperio Book Award, for Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia (Awards and Honors) 2022
Brooklyn College Award for Excellence in Research (Awards and Honors) 2021
Brooklyn College Award for Excellence in Teaching (Awards and Honors) 2021
Tow Faculty Travel Fellowship (Grants and Fellowships) 2020
Distinguished CUNY Fellow, Advanced Research Collaborative, CUNY Graduate Center (Fall Semester)
(Grants and Fellowships) 2019
PSC-CUNY grant, for research in Russia. (Grants and Fellowships) 2019
Ethyle R. Wolfe Institute for the Humanities Fellowship, 2017-2018 (Grants and Fellowships) 2017
Writer in Residence, NYU Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, 2017-2018 (Awards and Honors) 2017
Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society (Grants and Fellowships) 2016
Visiting Research Fellowship, Birkbeck College, University of London. (Grants and Fellowships) 2015
Feliks Gross Endowment Award for Outstanding Research, CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences. (Awards and Honors) 2013
Mrs. Giles Whiting Foundation Fellowship for Outstanding Teaching in the Humanities. (Grants and Fellowships) 2012
PSC-CUNY grant, for research in Russia. (Grants and Fellowships) 2012
Leonard and Claire Tow Faculty Travel Fellowship, for research in Russia. (Grants and Fellowships) 2011
PSC-CUNY Grant, for research in Russia. (Grants and Fellowships) 2010
Postdoctoral Fellowship, Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies, Miami University of Ohio, 2008-09. (Grants and Fellowships) 2008
Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Fellowship, 2005-06. (Grants and Fellowships) 2005
International Research and Exchanges Board IARO Dissertation Research Fellowship, 2005-06. (Grants and Fellowships) 2005
American Councils of Teachers of Russian Combined Research and Language Training Fellowship, 2004-05. (Grants and Fellowships) 2004
Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums
"Radical Empathy: How Esperanto Reimagined the Russian Empire and Defies Historical Imagination," University of Illinois Chicago. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2022
"Comrades With(out) Borders: The SAT Congress in Leningrad 1926," Un siècle d'espérantisme ouvrier, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (Hybrid symposium) (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 2021
Book Talk, Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia, University of Wisconsin-Madison Center for Russia, East Europe & Central Asia. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2021
"Bolshevik Tower of Babel: Language Anxieties and Miscommunication in the Comintern," Annual Meeting of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2020
"Bolshevik Tower of Babel: The Language Politics of Global Communism in Revolutionary Russia," Max Kade Center for European and German Studies, Vanderbilt University (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2019
"Bolshevik Tower of Babel: The Language Politics of Internationalism in the Early Comintern," Advanced Research Collaborative Seminar, CUNY Graduate Center. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2019
"Lost in Translation: The Language Politics of Global Communism in Revolutionary Russia," Grand Challenges Forum, University of Houston. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2019
"Speaking in Proletarian Tongues: Esperanto, Internationalism, and the Global Politics of Language in Revolutionary Russia," Chicago Russian History Kruzhok, University of Chicago (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2018
"An Alternative History of Esperanto," Annual Meeting of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies. Chicago (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2017
"An International Language for Global Proletarian Revolution? Esperanto & the Bolsheviks," Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies, Miami University. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"An International Language for Global Proletarian Revolution? Esperanto and the Bolsheviks, 1917-1923," The Peripheries of the European Revolutionary Process(es) 1917-1923 Conference, European University Institute, Florence (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2017
"Conversations in the Socialist Future: Esperantist Delegations to the Early Soviet Union," Tivadar Soros Lecture Series, CUNY Graduate Center (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"Hopeful Conversations in a Future Foreclosed: The Rise and Fall of Esperanto in the Early Soviet Union," Languages of Internationalism Conference, hosted by the Reluctant Internationalists Project Team, Birkbeck College, University of London. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2017
"Tsarist Babel, Bialystok Global: The Imperial Russian Origins of Esperanto," Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, New York University. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2017
"How to Be a (Soviet) Gypsy: Roma, 'National Character,' and Socialist Transformation." Russia's Races Workshop. Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, New York University. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2015
"Pornography or Authenticity? The Politics of Romani Women's Performance on the Early Soviet Stage." Gender and Transformation: Women in Europe Workshop. New York University. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2015
"Fire in the Envelopes, Revolution in the Air! The Soviet Union as Host to International Meetings of Esperantists in the 1920s." Annual Meeting of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies. San Antonio. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
"Let us Work and Hope! Esperanto, Citizen Diplomacy, and Internationalism in Russia, 1887-1939." Whiting Seminar. The Wolfe Institute for the Humanities at Brooklyn College. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
"People Without History? Why Studying Roma Is Important" roundtable. Annual Meeting of the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies. San Antonio. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2014
"The Seeming Antithesis of Soviet Citizens: So-Called 'Foreign Gypsies' in Moscow of the Early 1930s." Northeast Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies Conference. Seton Hall University. South Orange, N.J. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2012
"'Am I a Gypsy or Not a Gypsy?': A.V. Germano, Nationality, and the Performance of Soviet Selfhood." Inaugural Conference in Romani Studies. University of California, Berkeley. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Divided Memory, Insistent Belonging: N.A. Pankov's 'Memoirs of an Old Gypsy.'" Annual Meeting of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Gypsies, Europe and the 'Enlightened' Russian Empire: Ethnographers' Arguments for the Superiority of Imperial Russian Rule, 1878-1901." Annual Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2011
"Pornography or Authenticity? Performing 'Gypsiness' on the Early Soviet Stage," NYU Slavic Studies Colloquium, New York University. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2010
"Pornography or Authenticity? Performing 'Gypsiness' on the Early Soviet Stage, 1921-1939." Co-sponsored by the Department of History and Department of Modern Languages. University of Alaska Anchorage. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2009
"The Self-Edited Life of a Sometimes Gypsy: A.V. Germano, 1893-1955." Russian History Workshop. Columbia University. New York. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
"The Self-Edited Life of a Sometimes Gypsy: A.V. Germano, 1893-1955." Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Boston. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2009
"The ABCs of Backwardness: Educating Roma in the Early Soviet Union." Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Philadelphia. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
"We, Too, Are Soviet: The All-Russian Gypsy Union, 1924-1928." Midwest Russian History Workshop. University of Chicago. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2008
"A Mission to Collectivize: Refashioning 'Gypsy' Nomads, 1926-1939." Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. New Orleans. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Conference Presentation) 2007
"We, Too, Are Soviet: The All-Russian Gypsy Union, 1924-1928." Lafayette College, sponsored by the Russian and East European Studies Program. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Invited Talk) 2007
"What Is Soviet? An Interrogation of a Concept" roundtable. Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies. Washington, D.C. (Conferences, Seminars and Symposiums: Contributed Talk) 2006
Professional Leadership
ASEEES, First Book Subvention Selection Committee (2022-2024) (Professional Leadership: Committee Service) 2022
The Russian Review, Associate Editor (2020-Present) (Professional Leadership: Organizational Leadership Position) 2020
Other Professional Activities
"Madame Comrade" "The People's Ambassadress: The Forgotten Diplomacy of Ivy Litvinov." Aeon. 2021
"'Life on Wheels' (1931) at Moscow's State Gypsy Theatre Romen," RomArchive. Click here for the link. 2019
Co-organizer, with colleagues of the Reluctant Internationalists Project Team at Birkbeck College, University of London, of the Languages of Internationalism Conference, 24-26 May 2017
"The Roma Homeland That Never Was." Open Democracy Russia. Click here for the link. 2016
"How (Not) to Talk about Roma." All the Russias Blog of the NYU Jordan Center. Click here for the link.
2013
