My research explores the cultural, social, and intellectual history of Russia and Eurasia, with a focus on Imperial Russian print culture, institutional and informal networks promoting economies of reading, and the links between commerce, social mobility, and ideas of social stratification both before and after the 1861 serf emancipation. My current work examines the emergence of a professional-commercial press between the 1820s and 1860s. I trace the formation of a reading economy as it expanded beyond the salon circles of the high nobility to rely on the participation – as both press consumers and producers – of a heterogeneous middle stratum composed of non-nobles, women, and ethnic and religious minorities.

Research interests:

Print culture; history of education; urban history; business history; women’s participation in commerce and the professions; transnational and global history; historical networks, mapping, and digital history.