Prof. Irina Mukhina, Professor of History, has been teaching Russian, Eastern European, Central and East Asian, and World history, as well as research methods and seminar courses, at Assumption University in Worcester, MA, since 2007. She also served as History Department Chair from 2014 to 2022 (except for her sabbatical leave in AY 2020-2021). Over the years, she has been honored to work with several thousand students in her courses, many of whom have become history teachers at schools across Massachusetts and beyond.
In her spare time away from teaching, research, and service obligations, Prof. Mukhina enjoys traveling, reading, walking her three rescue dogs, and spending time with family and friends.
Educations Background
Prof. Mukhina earned her PhD from Boston College, and she has spent many years conducting research in Russia and Central Asia. This research resulted in two books: Women and the Birth of Russian Capitalism: The History of the Shuttle Trade, 1987-1998 (Northern Illinois University Press, 2014) and The Germans of the Soviet Union (Routledge, 2007 hardcover; 2011 paperback), as well as dozens of other scholarly publications, including book chapters, articles, and review essays. Her work has appeared in various international journals, including Europe-Asia Studies; The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review; Women’s History Review; Journal of Social History; Science & Society; Cold War History; Journal of Minorities Research (Hungary); Studies in Conflict and Terrorism; Issues of Contemporary World Socialism (China); Marburg Journal of History (Germany); Harvard Ukrainian Studies, and others. Select works have also been translated into several languages. Prof. Mukhina is also an editor and translator of Rural Women in the Soviet Union and Post-Soviet Russia (Routledge, 2010 hardcover; 2013 paperback), a winner of the Outstanding Academic Titles of the Year Award by CHOICE (2011).
Publications
Prof. Mukhina is currently working on a manuscript-length project on GULAG Spaces in Public Memory, which analyzes the complexity of preserving Gulag memories in light of new public uses of former Gulag structures. This research takes her to diverse regions, including Perm Krai, Novosibirsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Altai, Yakutia, Magadan, and the Russian Far East, where remnants of former Gulag buildings have gained new life as office spaces, museums, and even residential compounds – or have been entirely abandoned and left to ruin.