Sean M. Pollock, Ph.D.
Dr. Pollock earned his Ph.D in History from Harvard University (2006), where he received multiple teaching awards, including the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for senior thesis advising and the Stephen Botein Prize for teaching in History and Literature. He received teaching excellence awards at Yale University and the University of New Haven, and was Postdoctoral Fellow at the Harriman Institute for Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies at Columbia University (2007). Since joining the Department of History in 2008, he reguarly received rwards for teaching excellence in General Education (2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014) and Writing across the Curriculum (2009, 2010, 2013) until the awards were discontinued in 2015. He was the 2013 Phi Alpha Theta Outstanding Faculty Member (Department of History) and the recipient of the 2015 College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Teaching Award. In addition to teaching in traditional classroom settings, he has designed and taught asynchronous and synchronous online courses at every level, and has advanced the university's mission to engage in meaningful community service by teaching service‐learning courses in partnership with Dayton's Thurgood Marshall High School. He chaired the University Undergraduate Curriculum Committee and the Faculty Senate Taskforce on Distance Education, served as the inaugural Faculty Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning (2014-18), and represented the College of Liberal Arts on Faculty Senate (2012-2018). Pollock has published on various aspects of Russian empire-building in the Caucasus and laws concerning Russian subjecthood, and his current research focuses on the history and memory of Russia's 1812 campaign against Napoleonic France. He recently served as Special Assistant to the Provost for Wright State Online and currently directs the MA in History program.
Curriculum Vitae
Pollock_CV_2025.pdf 231.27 KB Education History
Graduate Certificate, Instructional Design for Digital Learning, Wright State University, 2017
Postdoctoral Fellow, Harriman Institute: Russian, Eurasian, and East European Studies, 2007-8
- Mentor: Mark Mazower, Ph.D.
- Project: Russia and Islam: Religion, the State and Modernity during and after the Age of Empire
- Organizer: "Russia and Islam in the Archives of Eurasia: An International Workshop," Central Eurasian Studies Review 7, 1 (2008): 20-23
- Author: "Historians and Their Sources: Discourses of Russian Empire and Islam in Eurasian Archives," Ab Imperio 4 (2008): 234-52
Ph.D., History, Harvard University, 2006
- Mentor: Edward L. Keenan, Ph.D.
- Dissertation: "Empire by Invitation? Russian Empire-Building in the Caucasus in the Reign of Catherine II"
A.M., Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University, 1996
- Mentor: Edwatd L. Keenan, Ph.D.
- Thesis: "Soviet Timur: Historiography, Ethnogenesis, and the Scholarly Origins of Uzbekistan's National Hero"
B.A., International Studies: Russia and Eastern Europe, University of Washington, 1994
- Mentor: Daniel C. Waugh, Ph.D.
Honors Thesis: "The Idea of Progress in Russia and the West"
Teaching
- Western Civilizations to 1500 (HST 1100; F2F and asynchronous online)
- The West and the World since 1500 (HST 1200; F2F, asynchronous & synchronous online, and service-learning intensive)
- Introduction to Historical Analysis (HST 3000)
- Themes in Modern European History (HST 3100)
- Russia's People of Empire (HST 3120)
- Russian War Films (HST 3120 / MP 3990 / ML 3990)
- Muscovite Russia (HST4220/6220)
- Imperial Russia (HST4220/6220)
- Soviet Union (HST4220/6220)
- Russian and Islam (HST 4220/6220 /ENG 4460/6460)
- Russia against Napoleon (HST 4220/6220 / ENG 4460/6460)
- Comparative Empires (HST 7400)
- Introduction to Public History (HST 7500)
- War and Society in Ukraine (Collaborative Online International University, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine)
Recent Publications
Sean Pollock, "Extractivist, Exclusionary, and Exploitative? International Scholarly Cooperation in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (under review).
Sean Pollock, “Pretending to Command: Representations of Prince Bagration in Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace” (Academica Press, forthcoming).
Sean Pollock, “Anglophone Historiography of Russia's Empires before the Imperial Turn,” Slavic Review, forthcoming.
Sean Pollock, “‘The Caspian Sea Will Sink Both Me and Russia’: Alexander Suvorov’s Strange Sitting in Astrakhan, 1780-82” (Austrian Academy of Sciences Press, forthcoming).
Susan Smith-Peter and Sean Pollock, “How the Field Was Colonized: Russian History’s Ukrainian Blind Spot,” Russian History 50 (2023): 145-156. Published in 2024.
Susan Smith-Peter, Sean Pollock, et al., “Periodization as Decolonization,” Russian History 50 (2023): 157-183. Published in 2024.
Sean Pollock, review article, “‘A True Russian Solider’: Fabius Larionovich’s Less-Is-More Art of War,” The Russian Review (2024): 1-5, https://doi.org/10.1111/russ.12599.
Sean Pollock, “‘The Duty of Perfect Obedience’: The Laws of Subjecthood in Tsarist Russia,” Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 24, 4 (2023): 753-90, https://doi.org/10.1353/kri.2023.a910976.
Sean Pollock, review of From Conquest to Deportation: The North Caucasus under Russian Rule, by Jeronim Perovic, Jahrbücher für Geschichte Osteuropas 70, 2 (2022): 201-203.
Sean Pollock, review of The Dragoman Renaissance: Diplomatic Interpreters and the Routes of Orientalism, by E. Natalie Rothman, Slavic Review 81, 2 (2022): 755-757.
Sean Pollock, “Who Spoke for Russia’s Muslims? Turki Letters and Russian Empire in the North Caucasus between the 17th and 20th centuries,” Canadian-American Slavic Studies 53 (2019): 387-413.
Sean Pollock, “‘Supreme Fictions’? Early Modern Russian Accounts of the Ottoman Empire.” Commissioned article concerning Victor Taki, Tsar and Sultan: Russian Encounters with the Ottoman Empire, in H-Net Reviews in the Humanities and Social Sciences (October 2019), https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showpdf.php?id=53879.
Recent Presentations
"Negotiating Subjecthood in Russia's Borderlands" and "Early Modern Sultanic 'Correspondence' with Christian Interlocutors," Summer School: The Archives of Islam in the Russian Empire (16th-early 20th Centuries), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, June 30-July 7, 2024.
"A Century of Anglophone Historiography of Russian Imperialism," International Symposium: What is Russian Colonialism?, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna, June 5-6, 2024.
"'The Caspian Will Sink Both Me and Russia': Alexander Suvorov's Strange Sitting in Astrakhan, 1780-82," International Symposium: Muddying the Waters: Towards a History of the Caspian Sea, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna. September 13-14, 2024.
"Pretending to Command: Representations of Prince Petr Ivanoovich Bagration in Leo Tolstoy's "War and Peace," 54th Annual Conference of the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, 1750-1850, Baton Rouge, LA, February 24, 2024.
"A Decolonial Turn? ASEEES Advocacy Policy and the Question of Historians' Complicity in Russian Imperialism," Midwest Russian History Workshop, University of Notre Dame, April 13, 2024.
Panel organizer, “From the Caucasus to Russia’s National Pantheon: The Life and Afterlives of Prince Petr Ivanovich Bagration,” and presenter, “On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Unheroic in Tolstoy’s War and Peace: The Strange Case of Prince Bagration,” Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) National Convention, Philadelphia, PA, Dec. 1, 2023.
Roundtable organizer and panelist, “Teaching Tolstoy in Times of War and Peace,” and panelist, ASEEES National Convention, Philadelphia, PA, Dec. 3, 2023.
Panelist, “How the War Is Changing Our Field,” Midwest Russian History Workshop, The Ohio State University, April 15, 2023.
Panelist, “Alexander Starritt (We Germans) Interview Panel,” College of Liberal Arts, Wright State University, November 14, 2022.
Panelist, “Russia-Ukraine Update: Prospects for Peace and War,” School of Social Sciences and International Studies, College of Liberal Arts, Wright State University, October 24, 2022.
Speaker, “‘How to Die for Rus’”: Prince Peter Bagration between Empire and Nation,” School of Humanities and Cultural Studies Discussion Group, Wright State University, September 2, 2022.
Interview with Molly Koweek, “Wright State History Professor Discusses Historical Implications of War in Ukraine," WHIO, March 10, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4a_d15n_-E&t=4s.
Panelist, “The Russia-Ukraine Crisis: Historical & Political Science Perspectives,” School of Social Sciences and International Studies, College of Liberal Arts, Wright State University, March 8, 2022.
Service
University:
Member, University Policy Review Ad Hoc Committee (2024- )
Member, University Graduate Academic Policy Committee (2023- )
Member, University International Education Committee (2023-24 )
Special Assistant to the Provost for Wright State Online (2021-22)
Member, COVID 19 Taskforce Research Subcommittee (2020)
Faculty Director, Center for Teaching and Learning, Chair, CTL Faculty Advisory Board (2014-18)
Chair, Teaching Innovation Grant Review Committee (2014-18)
Chair, Faculty Senate Distance Education Taskforce (2014-15)
Member, AVP for Continuing Education and Distance Education Search Committee (2015)
Chair, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (2013-15)
Member, Registrar Search Committee (2013-14)
Member, Faculty Senate, elected (2012-18)
Member, Undergraduate Curriculum and Academic Policy Committee (2012-13)
Member, Academic Integrity Hearing Panel, College of Liberal Arts (2009-10)
College of Liberal Arts:
Member, CoLA Scholarship Committee (2025- )
Member, CoLA Retention Committee (2023-24)
Member, Faculty Senate (2021-23)
Member, Petitions Committee (2020-22)
Member, Faculty Development (2020-22)
Member, Promotion and Tenure Committee (2014-17)
Member, Master of Humanities Committee (2014)
Member, Faculty Senate (2010-2011)
Member, Curriculum Committee (2010-2011)
Member, Ad Hoc Committee on Russian Studies Minor, Dept. of Modern Languages (2009-10)
School of Humanities and Cultural Studies / Department of History:
Director, Gradute Program in History (2023- )
Chair, Graduate Studies History Subcommittee (2023- )
Chair, Gradute Studies Committee (2023-24); member (2023- )
Chair, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (2020-22)
Chair, Program Review (2020)
Member, Promotion and Tenure Committee (2014-22)
Member, Annual Evaluations Committee (2014-17)
Member, Student Relations Committee (2012-14)
Member, Graduate Committee (2011-12)
Member, Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (2008-2011)
Member, Ad Hoc Committee on Conversion to Semesters (2009-2010)
Community:
Member, Board of Directors, Cincinnati-Kharkiv Sister City Partnership, Cincinnati, OH (2024- )
Secretary, Harvard Club of Cincinnati (2022- )
President, Harvard Club of Cincinnati (2020-22); 1st VP (2019-20); 2nd VP (2018-19)
Member, Board of Directors, Havard Club of Cincinnati (2012- )
Member, Harvard Schools Committee, Cincinnati, OH (2012- )
Mentor, Higher Education Mentoring Initiative, University of Cincinnati (2011-15)
Co-Chair, Parent Committee, University of Cincinnati Early Learning Center (UCELC), (2011-14)
Board Member, University of Cincinnati Early Learning Center (UCELC) (2011-14)
Member, Parent and Steering Committee, UCELC (2009-2010)
Member, Clifton Heights, University Heights, Fairview Neighborhood Association (2010 - )
Professional:
Member, Advisory Board, Summer Research Laboratory, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (2018 - ).
Peer review/referee: Ab Imperio: Studies of New Imperial History and Nationalism in the Post Soviet Space, Acta Slavica Iaponica, American Philosophical Society, Cambridge University Press, Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice, Norton's The West, Proceedings of the Ohio Academy of History.
Reader, AP European History, College Board, Kansas City, MO, June, 2012.
Panel chair, “Mongol and Rus’ian Authorities: Conflicting, Complementing, and Exemplary (13th-16th Centuries),” ASEEES National Conference, Washington, D.C., Nov. 20, 2011
Member, World History and Western Civilization Board of Advisors, McGraw-Hill (2010).
Panel chair: “Gender and Empire in the Caucasus,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) National Convention, Nov. 2008
Conference organizer, “Russia and Islam in the Archives of Eurasia: An International Workshop,” The Harriman Institute, Columbia University, Dec. 1, 2007
Panel chair and discussant, “The Southern Borderlands: Studying the Caucasus.” Conference: “Research and Identity: Non-Russian Peoples in the Russian Empire, 1800-1855.” The Second A.J. Sjögren Memorial Conference, 14-17 June 2006, Kymenlaakso Summer University, Kouvola, Finland
Chair, “Power and Prestige in Representation,” Central Eurasian Studies Society (CESS) annual conference, 2003.
