Asst. Professor Katherine M.H. Reishel is featured in the current ASEEES Spotlight.
When did you first develop an interest in Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies?
My interest in Slavic studies began with stumbling upon a used copy of Anna Karenina, and was solidified in my first year of college at the University of Chicago through a course in 20th-century Russian literature. I was one of those students who was motivated to take Russian in order to read and experience works “in the original,” so I dove into Russian courses (“Russian through Literature”) and studied abroad with CIEE in St. Petersburg. Russian and Russian literature quickly overtook my first plan of being a fine arts and comparative literature major. My research and teaching focus still retains the traces of my passion for art practice and transnational exchange.