Melissa Feinberg

Melissa Feinberg is a Professor of History at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where she has been a faculty member since 2008. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and specializes in modern Eastern European history, with particular focus on Czechoslovakia, gender history, Cold War politics, and human rights. Her work examines political culture, feminism, and everyday experiences under communist regimes.

Research Focus: Her scholarship centers on gender equality debates in interwar Central Europe, truth politics during Stalinism, and the societal transformations under communism. She employs ordinary voices to analyze historical change, with recurring themes including:

• Gender citizenship in democratic and socialist systems
• Cold War propaganda and information warfare
• Emotions as political tools
• Post-1989 legacies of communism

Publication Trends: Feinberg's 15 most recent works (2017-2025) predominantly explore Eastern Europe's communist era through lenses of gender, dissent, and daily life. Her 2022 book Communism in Eastern Europe reexamines socialist governance through civilian experiences, while earlier works like Curtain of Lies (2017) analyze truth manipulation during Stalinism. Recurrent keywords include Cold War propaganda, women's activism, state surveillance, and post-socialist transition.

Teaching: Regularly teaches undergraduate courses on 20th Century Europe, Communism, Human Rights, and Cold War seminars. Graduate instruction includes Women's/Gender History and Eastern European studies.