Joseph Kellner
Michael F. Adams Early Career Scholar Award 2025

Joseph Kellner, assistant professor in the Franklin College Department of History, is a historian of the Soviet Union whose research examines the intersection of ideology, belief, and historical change. His forthcoming book, “The Spirit of Socialism: Culture and Belief at the Soviet Collapse” (Cornell University Press, June 2025), offers a groundbreaking analysis of the Soviet Union’s collapse, focused on a flourishing of new and radical worldviews that defined the period’s culture. Based on extensive oral history interviews, the book reappraises late Soviet culture and the Soviet legacy in post-Soviet Russia. Kellner is also co-editor of “Red Against Empire: Bolshevik Historians and the Anti-colonial Critique” (University of Toronto Press, expected 2026), which recovers and interprets early Soviet anti-colonial scholarship. A recipient of the Willson Center Research Fellowship and the Virginia Mary Macagnoni Prize for Innovative Research, Kellner is making significant contributions to scholarly debates on Soviet history, cultural identity, and intellectual history.