Professional Affiliation

Professor, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Expert Bio

Paul W. Werth is professor of History at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he has taught since 1997. The holder of a Kennan fellowship prior to his start at UNLV, he has held other fellowships in the US, Japan, Germany, and France. He is the author of numerous articles, as well as three monographs, including, most recently, 1837: Russia's Quiet Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2021). His research has focused on religion and empire, the fate of religious and ethnic minorities in Russia, and the problem of borders and boundaries in Eurasia across several centuries.

Wilson Center Project

"Russia's Enclosure: A History of the World's Longest Border"

Project Summary

"Toleration in the Russian Empire"

Addresses a dimension of the Russian Empire’s religious experience by exploring discourses of religious tolerance and relating them to developing conceptions of citizenship. Hypothesizes that while explicitly more tolerant views on non-Orthodox religions acknowledged diversity and thereby implied a more inclusive set of standards for the formation of an empire-wide polity, these views simultaneously contributed to the constitution of Orthodoxy as the ideal, if not indispensable foundations for modern forms of citizenness.

Previous Terms

Title VIII Research Scholar, 4/1/97 - 8/1/97, "Toleration in the Russian Empire", Kennan Institute