Peter Kabachnik

Dr. Peter Kabachnik is a Professor of Geography at the College of Staten Island (CUNY) and a member of the Earth and Environmental Sciences graduate faculty at the CUNY Graduate Center. He holds a Ph.D. (2007) from UCLA, alongside an M.A. and B.A. from Rutgers University. His research focuses on political and cultural geography, particularly the interplay between place, mobility, and identity. Current projects examine personality cults in authoritarian regimes and post-Soviet memory dynamics in Georgia. Notable work includes studies of Stalin’s legacy, memorialized landscapes, and the impact of displacement on Georgian communities.

Key research areas include post-Soviet memory politics, the role of cultural memory in national narratives, and the geographies of internally displaced persons (IDPs). He has also investigated discrimination against nomadic groups in England and Georgia. Kabachnik’s publications span journals like Professional Geographer, Central Asian Survey, and Geopolitics, with a 2016 co-authored book on Stalin’s legacy in Georgia. His work frequently bridges theoretical geography with empirical studies of conflict, identity, and spatial politics.

Collaborative projects with scholars like Alexi Gugushvili and Joanna Regulska explore topics such as reputational politics, gendered displacement, and the cultural politics of mobility. His research emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to understanding how spatial dynamics shape and are shaped by sociopolitical processes.