Author Archives: Joshua Sanborn
Open Access: A Response to Sean Guillory
My most recent blog post (on MOOCs) dealt with digital teaching. Less than a week after it appeared, Sean Guillory wrote an important piece on Sean’s Russia Blog regarding digital scholarship, to wit, the importance of open access for Russian … Continue reading
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MOOCs and the Future of Russian History in America
At the most recent Slavic Studies convention, I was talking with an old friend about the advent of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). We teach similar courses at different institutions – he teaches at a university with global name recognition, … Continue reading
The Invention of Tradition, or How Military History Was NOT Written
Every few years, military historians in the United States engage in a bout of handwringing about the state of the field. Practitioners argue about whether military history in the academy is threatened, who or what is doing the threatening, and … Continue reading
Posted in Historiography, World War I
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Joe Paterno and the Cossacks: Thoughts on Atrocity and Honor
One of the areas that I study is why soldiers behave the way that they do, especially in the period of World War I and the Russian Civil War. This has led me repeatedly to the question of atrocity. Why … Continue reading
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From the Classroom: Teaching Russian Texts in European History Courses
This semester I’m teaching a new course entitled “Sex in Modern Europe,” which I developed on the basis of some research I did a few years ago when co-authoring a book with Annette Timm. The course has seven two-week units: … Continue reading
Posted in Teaching Russian History, Uncategorized
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Russians in East Prussia, 1914, pt. 2
I’ve gotten several interesting responses to the first post on atrocities: on this site, in private communication, and on the listserve of the International Society for First World War Studies. Many of those comments have related to the issue of … Continue reading
Posted in Imperial Russia, Uncategorized, World War I
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Atrocities in East Prussia, 1914
When Steve Barnes invited me to join this project, I hadn’t given much thought to blogging as a scholarly enterprise. I have read academic blogs from time to time and I usually enjoy them. Sometimes helpful, sometimes self-indulgent, often stimulating, … Continue reading
Posted in World War I
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