Dr. Anna Shternshis

Biography

Anna Shternshis received her doctoral degree (DPhil) from Oxford University in 2001. She is the author of critically acclaimed monographs such as 'Soviet Kosher: Jewish Popular Culture in the Soviet Union, 1923–1939' (Indiana University Press, 2006) and 'Sonia Met Boris: Oral History of Jewish Life Under Stalin' (Oxford University Press, 2017). Additionally, she co-authored 'Jews in the Soviet Union: History, War, Conquest, Catastrophe, 1939–1945' (New York, 2022) with Oleg Budnitsky, David Engel, and Gennady Estraikh. Her latest book, 'Jews in the Soviet Union: Post-War Life, Hopes, Fears, 1945-1953', is currently in preparation with New York University Press. Together with artist Psoy Korolenko, she created and directed the Grammy-nominated Yiddish Glory project, which aimed to revive forgotten Yiddish music written during the Holocaust in the Soviet Union. Throughout her career, she has served as a visiting professor at various institutions, including the United States Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. and the EHEES in Paris, France. From 2014 to 2021, she was the editor-in-chief of 'East European Jewish Affairs', a leading journal in the field of European Jewish Studies. In 2020, she received a Guggenheim Fellowship and the President's Impact Award from the University of Toronto. She is currently working on a book tentatively titled 'Yiddish Heroes: Lost and Found in the Archive of Holocaust Music from Soviet Ukraine'.

Research Interests