Dr. Eugene Avrutin

Biography

Eugene M. Avrutin is the Tobor Family Endowed Professor of Modern European Jewish History at the University of Illinois, where he directs the Program in Jewish Culture and Society. He is the author of 'Jews and the Imperial State: Identification Politics in Tsarist Russia' (Cornell University Press, 2010) and 'The Velizh Affair: Blood Libel in a Russian Town' (Oxford University Press, 2018). Avrutin's research delves into documentation practices, notions of race, and the challenges of religious toleration and neighborly coexistence in the East European borderlands. Together with Elissa Bemporad of the City University of New York, he edited 'Pogroms: A Documentary History' (Oxford University Press, 2021), which compiles essential sources and essays from leading scholars on the history of anti-Jewish violence over six decades. His recent book, 'Racism in Modern Russia: From the Romanovs to Putin', is part of the Russian Shorts series by Bloomsbury and will be available in a revised edition in 2026 as an open-access resource. He is currently working on a longer book about everyday crime, imperial legal culture, and neighborly relations, co-authored with Bemporad. Avrutin's scholarship has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Research Interests