Eli Rubin

Eli Rubin is Professor of History at Western Michigan University, specializing in postwar German history with expertise in East Germany, material culture, spatiality, and everyday life. He holds a PhD from University of Wisconsin-Madison (2004) and BA from Swarthmore College (1997). His research examines socialist material culture through frameworks including urban history, environmental history, and critical geography.

Research focuses on:

• Plastics and material substitution in East Germany
• Prefabricated housing settlements (Plattenbausiedlungen)
• Trabant automobiles as cultural artifacts
• Memory and spatial transformation
• Everyday life under socialism

Publications analyze how material environments shaped socialist experiences, particularly through case studies like Berlin-Marzahn. Recent work explores the intersection of technology, design, and consumption in Cold War Germany.

Teaches undergraduate/graduate courses including Modern Western World, Modern Germany, Holocaust Studies, World War II, and Historiography. Supervised by Rudy Koshar at UW-Madison.