Department of History | The University of Chicago

Field Specialties
Modern Russia; Ukrainian history; Modern Europe; Urban history; Nationalism; Borderlands; Comparative empires; Inter-ethnic relations; Communal violence; History of political ideas.

Biography
I am an historian of imperial Russia, with a special interest in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century politics, culture, and ideas. In my research and teaching, I explore how Russia’s peculiar political institutions, and its status as a multi-ethnic empire, shaped public opinion and political cultures. I also consider where the Russian experience belongs in the broader context of European history.

My book manuscript in progress, tentatively titled The Ukrainian Cauldron: Illiberal Mass Politics and the Demise of the Russian Empire, tracks the rise of an ideologically radical, socially emancipatory, right-wing mass movement in Kiev, one of pre-revolutionary Russia’s largest, most ethnically diverse, and most culturally contested urban centers. Following Kiev residents as they learned to practice politics over the last half century of tsarist rule, my project explains how a handful of intellectuals opposed to capitalism, liberalism, and long-standing local traditions of inter-cultural accommodation used urban political institutions and cultural activities to consolidate an organized movement with mass appeal. In the early twentieth century, the Kiev right managed to seize control of the city’s formal political institutions as well as its street politics; by the last years of the old regime’s existence, the movement’s influence transcended city limits, as its leaders shaped political agendas and identities across the Russian empire. The Ukrainian Cauldron argues that far from being an isolated, provincial movement, the Kiev right played a key role in promoting nationalism, ideological extremism, and mass violence—all of which hastened the demise of the Russian empire and posed continuing challenges its successor states.

Before joining the Chicago faculty, I taught at Yale University and was as a post-doctoral fellow at Columbia University’s Harriman Institute.

Publications
“Ukrainophile Activism and Imperial Governance in Russia’s Southwestern Borderlands,” Kritika 13,2 (Spring 2012)

“Migration, Mobility, and Political Conflict in Late Imperial Kiev,” in Russia on the Move: Essays on the Politics, Society and Culture of Human Mobility, 1850-Present, ed. John Randolph and Eugene Avrutin (University of Illinois Press, Studies of World Migrations Series, 2011)

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Faith Hillis

Assistant Professor of Russian History
Ph.D. Yale University 2009