Mary Neuburger

Mary Neuburger is Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also serves as the Director of the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREEES) and Chair of the Slavic and Eurasian Studies Department. She holds the Mildred Hajek Vacek and John Roman Vacek Distinguished University Chair in Russian and Slavic Languages.

Neuburger earned her Ph.D. from the University of Washington in 1997 and has been at UT Austin since then, progressing from Assistant Professor (1997-2006) to Associate Professor (2006-2012) to full Professor (2012-present). She also maintains affiliate positions in Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Jewish Studies, Religious Studies, Women and Gender Studies, Center for Global Business, and Clements Center for National Security.

Her research focuses on modern Eastern Europe with specialization in southeastern Europe, particularly Bulgaria. Her scholarly work examines urban culture, consumption, commodity exchange, and the history of truth at the intersection of science and religion. She has authored three major monographs: The Orient Within: Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria (2004), Balkan Smoke: Tobacco and the Making of Modern Bulgaria (2012), which won the Association for Slavic Studies' Barbara Jelavich Award, and Ingredients of Change: The History and Culture of Food in Modern Bulgaria (2022), which received the Bulgarian Studies Association book prize. She has also co-edited significant volumes including Communism Unwrapped: Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe (2012) and Wider Arc of Revolution: The Global Impact of 1917 (2019).

Her scholarly output demonstrates consistent thematic focus on how everyday consumption practices—particularly related to tobacco, food, and drink—intersect with larger political and social transformations in Eastern Europe. Her most recent work explores media, disinformation, and post-truth politics through the lens of Baba Vanga's legacy in Russian imagination.

• Bulgarian Studies Association book prize for Ingredients of Change
• Association for Slavic Studies, Barbara Jelavich Award for Balkan Smoke
• Co-editor of Journal of Contemporary History

As Director of CREEES and Chair of Slavic and Eurasian Studies, Neuburger oversees significant research initiatives and educational programs focused on Eastern Europe and Eurasia. She also serves as Associate Director of the Global Disinformation Lab, connecting her historical expertise with contemporary concerns about information ecosystems. Her extensive teaching record includes graduate seminars on Conflict and Coexistence in Eastern Europe, Empire and Nation in East Central Europe, and undergraduate courses on Cold War Eastern Europe, Cuisine and Culture in East Central Europe, and History and Memory in the former Yugoslavia.