Assistant Professor Joseph Kellner teaches Russian and Soviet history, and was previously a lecturer in Russian and global history at the University of California, Berkeley. Research Research Areas: Europe-Modern Russia and Soviet history Cultural & Intellectual Religion Research Interests: My forthcoming book is a cultural history of the collapse of the USSR, focused on the highly visible flourishing of radical spiritual movements and worldviews that emerged in Soviet cities at that time. The manuscript is comprised of five case studies, each examining problems that Soviet people faced, and the beliefs—esoteric or dogmatic, foreign or homespun, utopian or apocalyptic—that offered solutions. These histories speak to the nature of Soviet ideology, exposed as it unraveled, and to the common features of societies undergoing crisis. The book might be titled The Spirit of Socialism: Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse. Education Education: Ph.D. History, University of California, Berkeley (2018)
