Ilyana Karthas

Ilyana Karthas is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Missouri, affiliated with the College of Arts and Science. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from Brown University, an M.A. from Oxford University, and a B.A. from Barnard College. Her research focuses on national identity, modern aesthetics, and women’s & gender history, with specialties in Modern Europe, France, and visual culture. She has received teaching awards, including the 2013 MU Maxine Christopher Shutz Award and the 2020 Alumnae Anniversary Award.

Her book When Ballet Became French (2015) explores modern ballet’s cultural politics in early 20th-century France, linking it to nationalism and gender dynamics. Current projects include studies on photographer Merlyn Severn and women’s influence in Parisian modernity. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on European history, the French Revolution, gender studies, and cultural history.

Dr. Karthas is an Affiliate Faculty member of the Women’s and Gender Studies Department and the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy. She has lectured at the National WWI Museum in Kansas City and contributed to the Oxford New Dictionary of National Biography.