About Steven Seegel

I'm a writer, translator, and historian, a Professor of Slavic and Eurasian studies at The University of Texas at Austin (USA), and a host of featured author podcasts at New Books Network. My recent books are Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe (University of Chicago Press, 2018), Ukraine under Western Eyes (Harvard University Press, 2013), and Mapping Europe's Borderlands: Russian Cartography in the Age of Empire (University of Chicago Press, 2012).

Steven Seegel is Professor of Slavic and Eurasian Studies at The University of Texas at Austin.

Steven's website

NBN Episodes hosted by Steven:

Mark Monmonier, "Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography" (ESRI Press, 2019)

January 10, 2024

Connections and Content

Mark Monmonier
Hosted by Steven Seegel

In Connections and Content: Reflections on Networks and the History of Cartography (ESRI Press, 2019), cartographic cogitator Mark Monmonier shares hi…

Lenny A. Ureña Valerio, "Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities: Race Science and the Making of Polishness on the Fringes of the German Empire, 1840-1920" (Ohio UP, 2019)

January 2, 2024

Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities

Lenny A. Ureña Valerio
Hosted by Steven Seegel

In Colonial Fantasies, Imperial Realities: Race Science and the Making of Polishness on the Fringes of the German Empire, 1840-1920 (Ohio University P…

Jelena Subotić, "Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism" (Cornell UP, 2019)

January 1, 2024

Yellow Star, Red Star

Jelena Subotić
Hosted by Steven Seegel

In her new book Yellow Star, Red Star: Holocaust Remembrance after Communism (Cornell University Press, 2019) Jelena Subotić asks why Holocaust memory…

Catherine Gibson, "Geographies of Nationhood: Cartography, Science, and Society in the Russian Imperial Baltic" (Oxford UP, 2022)

June 17, 2022

Geographies of Nationhood

Catherine Gibson
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Geographies of Nationhood: Cartography, Science, and Society in the Russian Imperial Baltic (Oxford UP, 2022) examines the meteoric rise of ethnograph…

Piotr Puchalski, "Poland in a Colonial World Order: Adjustments and Aspirations, 1918-1939" (Routledge, 2021)

April 5, 2022

Poland in a Colonial World Order

Piotr Puchalski
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Poland in a Colonial World Order: Adjustments and Aspirations, 1918-1939 (Routledge, 2021) is a study of the interwar Polish state and empire building…

Valerie A. Kivelson and Christine D. Worobec, "Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000-1900: A Sourcebook" (Northern Illinois UP, 2020)

March 29, 2022

Witchcraft in Russia and Ukraine, 1000-1900

Valerie A. Kivelson and Christine D. Worobec
Hosted by Steven Seegel

This sourcebook provides the first systematic overview of witchcraft laws and trials in Russia and Ukraine from medieval times to the late nineteenth …

Samuel Clowes Huneke, "States of Liberation: Gay Men Between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany" (U Toronto Press, 2022)

February 25, 2022

States of Liberation

Samuel Clowes Huneke
Hosted by Steven Seegel

States of Liberation: Gay Men Between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany (U Toronto Press, 2022) traces the paths of gay men in East and W…

Paweł Markiewicz, "Unlikely Allies: Nazi German and Ukrainian Nationalist Collaboration in the General Government During World War II" (Purdue UP, 2021)

February 1, 2022

Unlikely Allies

Paweł Markiewicz
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Unlikely Allies: Nazi German and Ukrainian Nationalist Collaboration in the General Government During World War II (Purdue UP, 2021) offers the first …

Jason Lustig, "A Time to Gather: Archives and the Control of Jewish Culture" (Oxford UP, 2021)

January 24, 2022

A Time to Gather

Jason Lustig
Hosted by Steven Seegel

How do people link the past to the present, marking continuity in the face of the fundamental discontinuities of history? A Time to Gather: Archives a…

Lucie Fremlova, "Queer Roma" (Routledge, 2021)

December 24, 2021

Queer Roma

Lucie Fremlova
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Lucie Fremlova's book Queer Roma (Routledge, 2021) offers in-depth insight into the lives of queer Roma, thus providing rich evidence of the heterogen…

Brigid O'Keeffe, "Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia" (Bloomsbury, 2021)

December 16, 2021

Esperanto and Languages of Internationalism in Revolutionary Russia

Brigid O'Keeffe
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Hoping to unite all of humankind and revolutionize the world, Ludwik Zamenhof launched a new international language called Esperanto from late imperia…

Molly Thomasy Blasing, "Snapshots of the Soul: Photo-Poetic Encounters in Modern Russian Culture" (Cornell UP, 2021)

November 23, 2021

Snapshots of the Soul

Molly Thomasy Blasing
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Snapshots of the Soul: Photo-Poetic Encounters in Modern Russian Culture (Cornell UP, 2021) considers how photography has shaped Russian poetry from t…

José Vergara, "All Future Plunges to the Past: James Joyce in Russian Literature" (Cornell UP, 2021)

October 20, 2021

All Future Plunges to the Past

José Vergara
Hosted by Steven Seegel

All Future Plunges to the Past: James Joyce in Russian Literature (Cornell UP, 2021) explores how Russian writers from the mid-1920s on have read and …

John-Paul Himka, "Ukrainian Nationalists and the Holocaust: OUN and UPA's Participation in the Destruction of Ukrainian Jewry, 1941-1944" (Ibidem Press, 2021)

October 12, 2021

Ukrainian Nationalists and the Holocaust

John-Paul Himka
Hosted by Steven Seegel

One quarter of all Holocaust victims lived on the territory that now forms Ukraine, yet the Holocaust there has not received due attention. John-Paul …

Olesya Khromeychuk, "A Loss: The Story of a Dead Soldier Told by His Sister" (Ibidem, 2021)

October 6, 2021

A Loss

Olesya Khromeychuk
Hosted by Steven Seegel

This book is the story of one death among many in the war in eastern Ukraine. Its author is a historian of war whose brother was killed at the frontli…

Patrice M. Dabrowski, "The Carpathians: Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine" (Northern Illinois UP, 2021)

October 1, 2021

The Carpathians

Patrice M. Dabrowski
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Patrice M. Dabrowski's book The Carpathians: Discovering the Highlands of Poland and Ukraine (Northern Illinois UP, 2021) tells story of how the Tatra…

Vladislav Davidzon, "From Odessa with Love: Political and Literary Essays in Post-Soviet Ukraine" (Academica Press, 2020)

September 27, 2021

From Odessa with Love

Vladislav Davidzon
Hosted by Steven Seegel

The Tashkent-born Russian-American literary critic, editor, essayist, and journalist Vladislav Davidzon has been covering post-Soviet Ukraine for the …

Mark Baker, "Time of Changes" (Albatros Books, 2021)

September 24, 2021

Time of Changes

Mark Baker
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Mark Baker is an American journalist and travel writer. In the 1980s, he lived in Vienna and reported on the former Eastern bloc for Business Internat…

Sarah J. Young, "Writing Resistance: Revolutionary Memoirs of Shlissel’burg Prison" (UCL Press, 2021)

September 20, 2021

Writing Resistance

Sarah J. Young
Hosted by Steven Seegel

In 1884, sixty-eight prisoners convicted of terrorism and revolutionary activity were transferred to a new maximum-security prison at Shlissel'burg Fo…

Eliza Ablovatski, "Revolution and Political Violence in Central Europe: The Deluge of 1919" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

August 11, 2021

Revolution and Political Violence in Central Europe

Eliza Ablovatski
Hosted by Steven Seegel

In the wake of the First World War and Russian Revolutions, Central Europeans in 1919 faced a world of possibilities, threats, and extreme contrasts. …

Alison K. Smith, "Cabbage and Caviar: A History of Food in Russia" (Reaktion Books, 2021)

July 27, 2021

CABBAGE AND CAVIAR

Alison K. Smith
Hosted by Steven Seegel

When people think of Russian food, they generally think either of the opulent luxury of the tsarist aristocracy or of post-Soviet elites, signified ab…

Marta Dyczok, "Ukraine Calling: A Kaleidoscope from Hromadske Radio 2016-2019" (Ibidem Press, 2021)

July 9, 2021

Ukraine Calling

Marta Dyczok
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Marta Dyczok's book Ukraine Calling: A Kaleidoscope from Hromadske Radio 2016-2019 (Ibidem Press, 2021) is like a time capsule containing a selection …

Kristin Poling, "Germany's Urban Frontiers: Nature and History on the Edge of the Nineteenth-Century City" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2020)

July 8, 2021

Germany's Urban Frontiers

Kristin Poling
Hosted by Steven Seegel

In an era of transatlantic migration, Germans were fascinated by the myth of the frontier. Yet, for many, they were most likely to encounter frontier …

Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius, "Imaging and Mapping Eastern Europe: Sarmatia Europea to Post-Communist Bloc" (Routledge, 2021)

July 6, 2021

Imaging and Mapping Eastern Europe

Katarzyna Murawska-Muthesius
Hosted by Steven Seegel

Imaging and Mapping Eastern Europe: Sarmatia Europea to Post-Communist Bloc (Routledge, 2021) puts images centre stage and argues for the agency of th…