Professional Affiliation

Mellon Assistant Professor of Russian and East European Studies, Vanderbilt University

Expert Bio

Kathryn David is a historian of empire and entanglements between religion and nationalism in Soviet Ukraine and Russia. Her book project, One Ukraine, Under God examines how the officially atheist Soviet Union used religious institutions to govern and transform its newly Soviet populations in western Ukraine during and after the Second World War. The book also considers how the legacy of this historical relationship between religion and empire continues to impact Russian and Ukrainian relations, and it is these contemporary implications that serve as the subject of her research at Kennan. Kathryn received her PhD in history at NYU and is currently the Mellon Assistant Professor of Russian and East European Studies at Vanderbilt University. Her work has been supported by the ASEEES Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Research Fellowship and the U.S. Department of State. 

Wilson Center Project

"Ukraine and the Russkiy Mir: The Soviet roots of the new Russian Orthodox World"