New Faculty Profile:

Barbara Skinner
(Assistant Professor, History Department)

A brief overview of your area of expertise, research and teaching.
I came to my field of Russian and East European history after a career as a Russian translator and interpreter – a career that took me on countless trips to Russia, including remote areas of Russian arctic and Siberia, primarily for National Geographic magazine. Prior to that, I had taken some time after graduating from Yale to study in Poland, which gave me an abiding interest in that country and culture as well. My interest in both Russian and Polish culture, religion, and history led to an academic interest in the interactions and conflicts of these two competing and often contradictory peoples and cultures, particularly in their borderlands of Ukraine and Belarus.

My research studies the shifting border between Polish Catholic and Russian Orthodox influences – basically the clash of Eastern Byzantine and Western Roman Catholic traditions – during the westward expansion of the Russian empire in the late 18th century. Specifically, I assess the role of religion in the identity and consciousness of the Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples, who were previously under Polish rule and the majority of whom professed the Uniate faith, which combines Orthodox ritual with Roman Catholic doctrine (now called the Byzantine Catholic or Ukrainian Catholic Church). Over the course of a century after their incorporation into the Russian empire, all Uniates there were forced to convert to Russian Orthodoxy. How did this shift in confession impact their culture and identity? What were the political motivations for the conversion? The Russian perspective that condones this conversion has long been the standard perspective presented in our history books. My study, which started with my Ph.D. dissertation, confronts this view with contradictory evidence from the perspective of those undergoing the conversion, supported by documentation from archives in Russia, Ukraine, and Poland.

My interests in teaching are much more broadly based. My general interests in history go far beyond the geographic bounds of Russia and Eastern Europe. I have the opportunity at Adelphi to teach aspects of European history and world history as well. Regardless of the geographic area I am teaching, I am interested in getting my students to understand the intersection of political, social/economic, and cultural trends and to pull them into the mindset of those making and experiencing historical shifts. Basically, I came into this field with a mission to get students interested in the broader world, in its history, and through studying this history, to expand their ability to think critically and analytically.

Why did you come to Adelphi?
This job struck the right balance between working in my field of Russian and East European history and working to enhance my knowledge in the broader field of world history that would help me develop a more comparative approach to my own research and teaching. I have particularly enjoyed reinforcing my understanding of and teaching the significance of global trends and interactions in world history. Russian historians have previously been largely peripheral to the growing field of comparative world history, and I am hoping to be able to break that mold. Additionally, the friendliness and supportiveness of the other faculty and staff was an important factor as well. I am currently in the difficult situation of working far from my husband, who has a tenured position at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. I would not have come to Adelphi if it had not personally been a very positive place for me.

What has been your experience so far?
So far, the students, faculty, and staff have made me feel very welcome. I am also enjoying the smaller class sizes here that enable me to get to know my students better, especially given my previous adjunct work at Indiana University, where classes were much larger. Moreover, I am very pleased with the level of support for my research and scholarly pursuits. The university is generous with support for participating in conferences, and I am now the recipient of a President's Faculty Development Award, which will be of great assistance to continue my archival research in Russia.

What do you wish to contribute? What do you feel strongly about in regards to teaching or your specialization?
As there are not many in my field with the linguistic capabilities to study the Polish/Russian borderlands, I hope to make an important contribution to the field by refining our perspective on issues of identity and cultural development there. Moreover, I hope through comparative application of my research to contribute to the broader discourse on empire and pre-modern national consciousness across all fields of history.
In terms of teaching, as the sole expert in Russian and East European history at Adelphi, I hope to get students excited about studying this captivating part of the world. I am equally as enthusiastic about what I can contribute through my survey courses in world history, where my goal is to inspire all students – history and non-history majors alike – to take an interest in other regions of the world and to understand the interrelatedness of social and cultural development across the globe.

What do you wish to impart to your students?
I hope that I can instill in them a better understanding of distant parts of the world, a respect for other cultures, an interest in the past, and a desire to continually work towards understanding how the past plays a role in the present moment. Knowledge of history adds another dimension – a very rich and multifaceted dimension – to our understanding of the world around us. The facts I am teaching the students will fade, but I hope that I am teaching them how to think about history, how to read it, and how to learn from it.