Samuel Finkelman

Samuel Finkelman is a historian specializing in Soviet and modern Jewish history at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of History. He holds a Ph.D. from Penn (2023) and has taught courses on Russian politics, the Holocaust, and Cold War history. His research examines the intersections of Jewish nationalism with Russian and Ukrainian movements in the late Soviet era, emphasizing the role of collective memory in shaping post-Stalin dissident movements.

• Education:
  • Ph.D. in History, University of Pennsylvania (2023)
  • M.A. in History, University of Pennsylvania (2020)
  • M.A. in East European Studies, Universiteit van Amsterdam (2016)
  • B.A. in International and Global Studies, Middlebury College (2014)

His research interests include Soviet-Jewish experiences, nationalisms in the USSR, and the memory of catastrophe in postwar Soviet Union. His current book project, Ghetto, Gulag, Geulah, explores how Jewish activists interacted with Russian and Ukrainian nationalists in prison camps and protests, shaping late Soviet Jewish nationalism. Finkelman’s work has been supported by grants from ASEEES, Blinken OSA, and the FLAS program.

Teaching highlights include instructing Portraits of Contemporary Russia (Summer 2024) and serving as a teaching assistant for courses on the origins of Nazism, Afro-American history, and the Cold War.