Charles Shaw
Assistant Professor
History
Central European University
Hungary
Biography
Charles Shaw is a social and cultural historian of the Soviet Union with an emphasis on Central Asia. A faint family connection to Russia – only gradually revealed to be Ruthenia – sparked my initial journey to study Russian history and later its language. And a chance trip to the mountains of Kazakhstan and the old cities of Uzbekistan prompted me to view Soviet history from the Central Asian periphery for the first time, opening a comparative, imperial lens that has inspired my research and teaching interests ever since.
Research Interest
My research is centered in the transformation of Central Asia from a borderland connecting three empires to an integral part of the Soviet project, a process that in many ways culminated in World War II.
Publications
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“Friendship under Lock and Key: the Soviet Central Asian border, 1918-1934,†Central Asian Survey, Vol. 30, Issue 3-4 (2011), pp. 331-348.
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“The Last Soviet Park In Russia,†The Appendix, Vol. 2, Issue 1, January 2014.
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“Soldiers’ Letters to Inobatxon and O’g’ulxon: Gender and Nationality in the Birth of a Soviet Romantic Culture,†Kritika 17, no. 3 (Summer 2016): 517-552.
