Mauricio Borrero

Associate Professor
Ph.D., 1992, Indiana University, Russian HistoryM.A., 1984, Indiana University, Russian HistoryB.A., 1981, Georgetown University, Russian and East European History

Mauricio Borrero received his Ph.D. in Russian History from Indiana University in 1992 and came to St. John’s two years later, after teaching at the University of Oregon.  He was Chair of the History Department from 2002 to 2011.  At St. John’s he teaches courses in Russian history, European history from 1815 to 1914, and modern world history with an emphasis on sport, food, and popular culture.  He is the author of Hungry Moscow: Scarcity and Urban Society in the Russian Civil War, 1917-1921 (2003) and Russia: a Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present (2004). His main research interests are three-fold and very loosely interconnected: the history of hunger, the social and cultural history of sport, and modern Colombian history, the latter as seen through the methodology of oral history.  In addition to ongoing research on the history of hunger, he is currently working on several topics: a global history of sport, a biography of the renowned Soviet soccer goalkeeper, Lev Yashin, and, in a return to earlier work on food in Russian history, a study of Asian culinary influences on Russian foodways.

Undergraduate

  • Core: The Emergence of Global Society
  • Europe: Age of Nationalism, 1815-187 
  • Europe at Its Zenith, 1870-1914
  • Wars of Empire (mini-course)
  • History of the Soviet Union
  • Russia as a Multinational Empire
  • Senior seminars in European and World history

Graduate

  • Proletarian Pleasures: The Evolution of European Popular Culture 
  • The Russian Revolution
  • The Soviet Union
  • Seminar on Soviet Russia and the World. 1917-1953
  • World Regional Geography

Books

  • Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present  European Nation Series (New York: Facts on File, 2004)
     
  • Hungry Moscow: Scarcity and Urban Survival in the Russian Civil War, 1918-21 (New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 2003)
     

Articles

  • "Dubcek’s Moment: 1968 in Eastern Europe," in Elaine Carey, ed. 1968 in the World (New York: Pearson, forthcoming)
     
  • "Food and the Politics of Scarcity in Pre-War Soviet Russia, 1917-1941," in Warren Belasco and Philip Scranton, eds., Food Nations: Selling Taste in Consumer Societies (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 258-276.
     
  • "Communal Dining and State Cafeterias in Moscow and Petrograd, 1917-1921," in Musya Glants and Joyce Toomre, eds. Food in Russian History and Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997), pp. 162-176.
     
  • Encyclopedia Entries in New Catholic Encyclopedia, American National Biography and Encyclopedia of Modern Dictators
     
  • Book Reviews in Slavic Review, Russian Review, Slavic and East European Review and East/West Education

“Tea, Pilaf, and Kebab: Tracing Asian Culinary Flows in Russian Foodways,” paper to be presented at the Inter-Asian Connections IV conference to be held in Istanbul, October 2-5, 2013. 

“The Making of a Soviet Transnational Star: Lev Yashin in the South American Sports Press,” paper presented at the Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (formerly AAASS), Los Angeles, November 2010.

“Blackness and Sports in the Americas: North and South American Perspectives from the Early 20th Century,” Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Association (MAPACA), Alexandria, Virginia, October 2010.

“Lev Yashin: Soviet Football Icon on a World Stage," paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS), Boston, November 2009, as part of a panel “Of Cosmonauts, Athletes, and Rock Stars: Official Celebrity and Popular Celebrity in the USSR after Stalin."

“Lev Yashin and the International Emergence of Soviet Soccer, 1958-1966,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the AAASS, New Orleans, November 15-18, 2007.

“Dispelling Myths about Hunger: The Globalization and Politics of Hunger," a presentation to students as part of program, "Global Challenges to Feeding the World: Everyday Action for Combating Hunger," sponsored by the Vincentian Center for Church and Society, Rosalie Rendu Roundtable on Religion and Science, St. John's University, October 16, 2006.

“Darker Shades of Red: Art and Freedom of Expression in a Totalitarian State," part of program, "Through Colored Lenses: Truth and the State," organized by the Vincentian Center for Church and Society in conjunction with University Art Gallery exhibit of Soviet propaganda posters, St. John's University, October 4, 2006.

“Soccer and Civics: The Social History of a Global Game,” an invited lecture delivered at the Institute for Historical Research, University of London, April 19, 2004 as part of the Pearson-Prentice Hall Seminars in Global History.

“The Myths of Hunger throughout History,” a presentation to students as part of panel on “The Globalization of Charity: The Fight against Hunger,” organized to mark World Food Day 2002, St. John’s University, October 16, 2002.

“Extremist Variants of Russian Nationalism,” session chaired at the Fifth Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), New York, April 13-15, 2000.

“Food and the Politics of Scarcity in Pre-War Soviet Russia, 1917-1941,” a paper presented at the conference on “Food and Drink in Consumer Societies,” organized by the Center for the History of Business, Technology and Society, Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Delaware, November 12-13, 1999.

"Entitlements, Moral Economy, and Urban Food Shortages in Revolutionary Russia," a
paper presented at the annual convention of the AAASS, St. Louis, November 1999.

“Ethnicity, Economy and the State in Tatarstan,” session moderator at the Fourth Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN), New York, April 1999.

"Babylon in Moscow: Campaigns against the Sukharevka Market, 1918-30," paper presented at the 28th National Convention of the AAASS, Boston, November 1996.

"Moscow's Food Brigades in the Russian Civil War, 1918-1921," paper presented at the Midwest Russian History Colloquium, Akron, Ohio, September 1995.