Dr. Monica Rüthers

Biography

Monica Rüthers is a professor of European History with a focus on Eastern Europe at the University of Hamburg, where she has been since 2010. She completed her academic training at the University of Basel, earning her doctorate in 1995 with a dissertation on the transformation of Eastern Jewish life worlds in the 19th century. Rüthers' research interests encompass visual culture in the Soviet Union and Russia, as well as the historical memory associated with socialism, including nostalgia for the socialist past. Her work also investigates the history of Jews in Eastern Europe, particularly through the lenses of gender, visual history, and pogrom photography. Rüthers has held various academic positions, including a professorship in contemporary history at the University of Fribourg and deputy positions in Eastern European history at the University of Konstanz and the University of Hamburg. She has published extensively on Soviet nostalgia, Soviet space culture, and the visual history of the Soviet Union and post-Soviet Russia, contributing to the understanding of Soviet-era monuments and public spaces. Currently, she is researching documentation and photographs of anti-Jewish pogroms during the Russian Civil War. Rüthers' academic contributions have significantly shaped the discourse on visual cultures within socialist societies.

Research Interests

Experience