Claudia Lonkin

Claudia Lonkin serves as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Connecticut's Stamford campus, specializing in East Central European and Latin American history with emphasis on transnational Cold War dynamics.

She earned her B.A. from McGill University and M.A. from the University of Alberta while completing doctoral research at New York University. Her academic trajectory reflects deep engagement with Cold War cultural infrastructures.

Lonkin's research centers on state-produced culture and materiality, particularly vinyl record production and popular music as political tools. She examines how music genres like neue deutsche Welle and Belarusian pop functioned within Soviet identity politics, state-owned enterprises, and transnational exchanges. Her work reveals how cultural artifacts served as vehicles for political messaging and resistance during ideological conflicts.

Recent publications analyze Soviet identity ambiguity in Eastern European music, German new wave's historical context, and post-Soviet nostalgia, demonstrating consistent focus on material culture's role in Cold War power structures.

Her scholarship has received competitive funding from the US Department of State and the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), supporting field research on state cultural enterprises.