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Joshua Sanborn, associate professor of history, will appear on History Channel International’s “Global View” program 10 p.m. Thursday.
Sanborn provides his insights as a Russian history expert, particularly in the World War I period, for the taped episode “The Russian Revolution, 1917.” Anchored by historian Alberto Coll from New York City, “Global View” is a weekly program that examines stories making headlines around the world and puts them into historical context. It combines documentary with a talk show format.
The episode examines the Russian Revolution and its impact on the 20th century. Sanborn is joined by fellow Russian history experts Robert Service of St. Antony’s College at Oxford University, Alexander Rabinowitch of Indiana University, and Melissa Stockdale of University of Oklahoma.
“The taping experience was interesting; they told us the topics they were planning to discuss, but there was no script,” says Sanborn. “The format is basically to have mini-documentaries followed by a relatively free-flowing exchange among the panelists and the host. The show is aimed at the general public and does not assume any prior knowledge of the topics being presented. So while no one would call the show a place to discuss cutting-edge scholarship, there is some info in the ‘infotainment,’ and I think the show is a worthwhile enterprise.”
Sanborn is author of Drafting the Russian Nation, a groundbreaking book on modern Russian and military-social history. More recently, he wrote “Unsettling the Empire: Violent Migrations and Social Disaster in Russia during World War I,” an article scheduled for publication in Journal of Modern History.
The article is based on research on a book project, “Life in the Killing Zone: Soldiers, Civilians, and the Ecosystem of War in Russia, 1914-1918,” which he has conducted with the assistance of Lafayette students through the College’s EXCEL Scholars program. He will extend the research this summer and next school year during a sabbatical in Russia supported by the College and a recent grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Student participants in the research project have included Sarah Glacel ’01 and Stephanie Stawicki ’04, graduates with majors in both international affairs and Russian and East European studies; Maria Azimova ’06 (Tashkent, Uzbekistan), who is pursuing a B.S. degree in chemical engineering and an A.B. with a major in mathematics; and other students.
In addition to those supporting his current research project, Sanborn has received fellowships from the Social Science Research Council, the Council for Advanced Studies in Peace and International Cooperation Fellowship, and the Mellon Foundation.