FAITH HILLIS
Writer and Historian
RESEARCH
Children of Rus'
Utopia's Discontents
Digital Projects
BIO
Faith Hillis is an historian of Russia and modern Europe, with special interests in nineteenth- and twentieth-century politics, culture, and ideas and East-West exchanges. She was educated at Princeton and Yale and has taught at the University of Chicago since 2010. She has held fellowships at Columbia and Harvard, and her research has been funded by ACLS, Fulbright-Hays, and the NEH, among others. During the 2018-19 year, she was a fellow at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. She frequently comments on Russian affairs and welcomes inquiries from journalists and policy-makers.
Faith is represented by Kathleen Anderson at Anderson Literary Management.
COMMENTARY
"The most effective strategy would center on making the Western luxury lifestyle impossible for oligarchs and on seizing the considerable wealth that they have stashed abroad."
-"Seize the Oligarchs' Wealth," The Atlantic, 26 February 2022
"Immigration exclusion was bad policy in the 19th century, and it is bad policy today. In a globalized world, ideas and activism cannot be contained by borders."
-"Why trying to distinguish between useful and dangerous immigrants always backfires," Washington Post, 16 August 2019
"Ukrainians have been victims of Russian imperialism and Soviet aggression. At the same time, they've played a central role in the creation of modern-day Russia."
-Interview with The World’s Marco Werman, 17 February 2022
TEACHING
Teaching and advising are vital aspects of my work as a scholar. Courses that I regularly offer at the University of Chicago include:
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Russian Civilization (undergraduate, on-campus and study abroad)
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European Civilization (undergraduate)
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Imperial Europe (undergraduate)
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The Russian Empire (undergraduate)
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The Lands Between: Europe from the Black Sea to the Baltic (undergraduate)
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Lost Histories of the Left (undergraduate/graduate)
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Digital History (undergraduate/graduate)
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Imperial Encounters (graduate)
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Russia and the World (graduate)
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Readings in Modern Russian History (graduate)
I currently advise graduate students working in Russian, European, Jewish, and imperial history. I encourage prospective Ph.D. candidates to contact me. For further information, see my UChicago home page and the history department's site.