Background
In her research, Heather D. DeHaan examines the making of Eurasian urban spaces. Her first book, Stalinist City Planning: Professionals, Performance, and Power, spoke to the politics of urban planning in Stalin-era Nizhnii Novgorod, Russia, highlighting the complex ethical, political, and technical challenges faced by urban planners in that era. For DeHaan, it also raised questions about the popular experience of and involvement in making urban life, prompting her to redefine her research agenda, which now focuses on everyday urban life at the edge of the former Soviet empire, in Azerbaijan in particular. Her work explores neighborhood politics, youth life, popular culture, and the flow of goods and peoples within cities, across Soviet space, and also across borders into Turkey, Iran, and Europe.
Education
- PhD, MA, University of Toronto
- BA, Redeemer University College
Research Interests
- Russia and the Soviet Union
- Eurasian history
