Sofiya Grachova
Via Corsica 49,
50014, Fiesole FL, Italy
+39 331 4072518
Sofiya.Grachova@EUI.eu
CURRENT POSITION: Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellow, European University Institute
EDUCATION
Harvard University, PhD in History
Dissertation: Pathologies of Civility: Jews, Health, Race & Citizenship in
the Russian Empire and the Bolshevik State, 1830-1930
Committee: Terry Martin, Serhii Plokhii, Joyce Chaplin, Steven Zipperstein
2014
Central European University (Hungary), MA in History
National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Ukraine), MA in Cultural Studies
2007
2005
Shevchenko National University (Ukraine), BA in History
1999
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Nationalities in the Russian Empire and the USSR; Russian and Eastern European Jewish
history; the history of medicine and life sciences; intellectual history; the history of citizenship;
ethnography and racial thought
PUBLICATIONS
Peer-reviewed:
“'Counter-revolutionary Agitation' in the Soviet Union During the Great Patriotic War: The
Politics of Legal Prosecution,” Cahiers du Monde russe, Vol. 52 (2-3), April-September 2011,
pp. 373-86.
Other publications:
“Oni żyli wśród nas?" [They Lived among Us? - translation and revision of the 2005 Ukrainian
publication], OUN, UPA i zagłada Żydów [OUN, UPA and the Extermination of Jews]. Ed.
Andrzej Zięba (Krakow, Poland: Jagiellonian Univeristy Press, forthcoming in 2014).
Chuza istoriia zi svoieiu moralliu [The History of Others Used to Our Own Ends], Krytyka
(Kyiv, Ukraine: Instytut Krytyky), July-August 2008 (No. 129-130).
Pam'iat', kontrpam'iat' i polityka [Memory, Counter-memory and Politics], Krytyka (Kyiv,
Ukraine: Instytut Krytyky), November 2006 (No. 109).
Vony zhyly sered nas? [They Lived among Us?], Krytyka (Kyiv, Ukraine: Instytut Krytyky),
April 2005 (No. 90).
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AWARDS & FELLOWSHIPS
Visiting Fellowship
Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
2015-16
Max Weber Postdoctoral Fellowship
European University Institute, Florence
2014-15
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Frankel Institute for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan (declined)
2014
Alan M. and Katherine W. Stroock Dissertation Completion Fellowship
Harvard Center for Jewish Studies
2013-14
The Jacob Rader Marcus Center Fellowship
American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati OH
2013
Special Doctoral Scholarship
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
2011
Pre-Doctoral Fellowship
Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin
2011
Doctoral Scholarship
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
2010
Bradley Bloom Graduate Fellowship
Harvard GSAS
2008
Merle Fainsod Prize
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University
2007
Whipple V.N. Jones Graduate Fellowship Fund
Harvard GSAS
2007
Theodosius and Irene Senkowsky Prize for Achievement in Ukrainian Studies
Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
2006
RESEARCH GRANTS
Travel and Research Grant
Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University;
2008-12
Travel and Research Grant
Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute
2011, 2009
Frederick Sheldon Traveling Fellowship
Harvard GSAS
2010-11
Summer Study and Research Grant
Harvard Center for Jewish Studies
2010
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CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
“Racial Science and the Construction of Ukrainian National Identities Across Political Borders,
1914-1949,”Association for the Study of Nationalities, 19th Annual World Convention
(Columbia University, April 24-26, 2014)
“Medicine and Jewish Identity in Imperial Russia, 1880-1917,” Association for Jewish Studies
44th Annual Conference (Boston, December 15-17, 2013)
“In Search of Jewish Blood: Sero-Anthropology and the Quest for the Ethnic History of Soviet
Jews,” Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies, 45th Annual Conference
(Boston, November 21-24, 2013)
“Jewish Health and the Politics of Race in the Russian Empire,” Association for Jewish Studies
44th Annual Conference (Chicago, December 16-18, 2012)
“Beyond the Jewish Type: Physical Anthropology, Jewish Bodies, and Citizenship in the
Russian Empire and the USSR,” Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies,
44th Annual Conference (New Orleans, November 15-18, 2012)
“Medicalizing Ethnicity? Russian Ethnography and Medicine Approach “Jewish“ Diseases,
1860-1914,”Association for the Study of Nationalities, 17th Annual World Convention
(Columbia University, April 19-21, 2012)
“Russian Jews and the Politics of Sanatorium Access, 1900-1921,”Association for Slavic,
Eastern European and Eurasian Studies, 43rd National Convention (Washington, DC,
November 17-20, 2011)
“Anti-Soviet Agitation” during the Great Patriotic War: the Politics of Prosecution,” The Soviet
Union and World War II (Le Centre d'études des mondes russe, caucasien et centre-européen,
l'École des hautes études en sciences sociales; Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique,
Paris, May 5-7, 2011)
“Wartime Diaries of Ukrainians as an Insight into Ukrainian-Jewish Relations during the
Holocaust,” American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, 41st National
Convention (Boston, November 12-15, 2009)
“Reconstructing the Ghetto: Historical Jewish Districts in Lviv Sightseeing Guides,“ Urban
Jewish Heritage and History in East Central Europe (Center for Urban History, Lviv, Ukraine,
29-31 October 2008)
“Unknown Victims: Ethnic-Based Violence of the World War II Era in Ukrainian Politics of
Memory after 2004,”Fourth Annual Danyliw Research Seminar in Contemporary Ukrainian
Studies (University of Ottawa, October 23-25, 2008)
LECTURES & INVITED TALKS
“Racial Science and Nationalism in Eastern Europe, 1890-1930: Ukrainian and Jewish Cases”
(Summer School “Jewish History and Multiethnic Past in East Central Europe, Center for the
Urban History of East Central Europe, July 22, 2014)
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“Modernity, Gender and Sexuality in the Russian-Jewish Psychiatric Discourse (1890-1914)”
(Summer School “Jewish History and Multiethnic Past in East Central Europe, Center for the
Urban History of East Central Europe, July 23, 2014)
“Eastern European Jews, American Philanthropies, and Eugenics (1914-1930)” (The American
Jewish Archives, June 7, 2013)
“Physicians and the Jewish Community in the Russian Empire and USSR, 1900-1930: A Study
in Professional Politics.” Presented at the workshop “Modern Jewish Worlds” (Harvard
University, March 21, 2012)
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Harvard University, History Department
Head Tutor
Historical Analysis (required for all history majors). 65 students & 10 instructors. Spring 2013.
Developed primary-source based tutorial; coordinated seminars and tutorial sessions;
reorganized course syllabus; managed course website; designed lesson plans and
assignments; organized biweekly faculty meetings; supervised course tutors; instructed
students in historical methodology, research techniques, writing skills. Advised students
on papers, evaluated drafts, assessed final papers.
Tutor
Historical Analysis. Spring 2012.
Instructed students in historical methodology, research techniques, writing skills.
Advised students on papers, evaluated drafts, assessed final papers.
Teaching Fellow
History 1281 - The End of Communism. Spring 2010.
Lead discussion sections. Graded papers and exams, coordinated course responsibilities.
Research Seminar Tutor
Historical Ontology. Fall 2009.
Consulted with students on research papers, advice them on topics, sources, research
and writing techniques.
Harvard University, Extension School
Research Seminar Tutor
The Origins of the Cold War: The Yalta Conference. Fall 2012.
Supervised students' research papers, advising them on topics, sources, research and
writing techniques; supplied extensive feedback on paper outlines and drafts; led
seminar discussions.
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SERVICE & RELEVANT PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Course Support Team Adviser, Harvard History Department. May-September 2013.
Advised visiting and new faculty on syllabus design and incorporating active learning
methods into the classroom; assisted course logistics and administration.
Review Editor, “Ab Imperio” Quarterly. December 2011 - May 2013.
Commissioned and edited reviews; established and kept up contacts with academic
publishing houses; coordinated communication between authors, editors, and copyeditors throughout the publication cycle.
Workshop Leader, “How to apply for research and study funding in Jewish history,” Third
Annual Summer School “Jewish History and Culture of East Central Europe in the 19th-20th
Centuries (Lviv Center for Urban History, Lviv, Ukraine). July 2012.
Designed and lead two-session workshop on professional development for young
Ukrainian scholars and graduate students interested in Jewish studies.
Coordinator, Graduate workshop on Russian and Eastern European History (Davis Center for
Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University). 2009-10.
Coordinated biweekly workshop; organized meetings; supervised paper submission and
circulation.
SUMMER SCHOOLS & PROFESSIONAL WORKSHOPS
International Forum of Young Scholars of Russian and East European Jewry, Jerusalem. Third
Alumni Session. June 2012.
International Forum of Young Scholars on East European Jewry, Lviv, Ukraine. Fifth Session.
July 2011.
Uriel Weinreich Program in Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture (YIVO Institute for
Jewish Research and New York University). July-August 2010.
LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY
Russian, Ukrainian (native speaker)
English, Polish (fluent)
Yiddish, German, French (reading fluency)
Modern Turkish (intermediate)
Modern Hebrew (beginner)
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