Dr. John E. Ashbrook Assistant Professor of History Department of History Sweet Briar College Sweet Briar, VA 24595 434-381-6174 jashbrook@sbc.edu
Education University of Florida Ph.D. in Modern European History (2002) Michigan State University Master's of Arts in European History (1996) State University of New York-College at Oswego Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology (1994) Bachelor of Arts Science in Geology (1994) Radford University Bachelor of Arts in History (1990)
Teaching and Research Interests Modern Balkan, Central and Eastern European, Ottoman, and Russian History Historic and Competing Identities World War I, World War II, and the Cold War The European Union Nationalism and Regionalism
Teaching and Professional Experience Sweet Briar College (August 2005-present) Teaching A Clash of Civilizations?: Comparing the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires, Genocide in the 20th Century and the Holocaust, Eastern Europe and the Balkans, European History 1700-2004, the European Union, Imperial Russia, the USSR and Beyond, Hitler and Stalin Building and leading summer abroad programs for students in Eastern Europe Idaho State University (August 2004-May 2005) Teaching Western Civilization II, Twentieth Century Europe, History of Modern Russia and the USSR, and the History of Modern Eastern Europe and the Balkans St. Cloud State University (August 2003-May 2004) Teaching Western Civilization II, Europe in Revolution (19th Century), History of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav Peoples, Europe in World War I, and Europe in World War II Community College of Allegheny County, Boyce Campus (August 2002-June 2003) Teaching Western Civilization, the History of the Holocaust, Native American History, and Introduction to US History
Honors and Awards Faculty Research Grant to Croatia (Summer 2008) Faculty Research Council of Idaho State University Grant for research in the Republic of Croatia (June-August 2005) Fulbright Fellowship for independent research in the Republic of Croatia (September 2000-June 2001) Presidential Recognition of Outstanding Achievement and Contributions to the University of Florida (April 2000) College of Liberal Arts and Sciences dissertation Fellowship (Fall 1999) Boren Fellowship for independent dissertation research in the Republic of Croatia and Yugoslavia (August 1998-Spring 2000) Wilson Center Short Term Grant (May 1998)
Research and Publications Buying and Selling the Istrian Goat: Istrian Regionalism, Croatian Nationalism and EU Enlargement, Regionalism and Federalism Series (Presses interuniversitaires européennes-Peter Lang, 2008) "Locking horns in the Istrian political arena: Politicized identity, policy, the Istrian Democratic Assembly, and the Croatian Democratic Alliance," East European Politics and Societies 20 (4) (November 2006), 622-58 "Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) as an analytical tool in the analysis of politics in Eastern Europe: Istria in the 1990s," Journal of the American Association for History and Computing 9 (2) (October 2006), http://mcel.pacificu.edu/JAHC/2006/issue2/ashbrook.php (online peer reviewed journal) "Istria is ours, and we can prove it: An Examination of Istrian historiography in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies (no. 1707), (University of Pittsburgh, May 2006) "Self-perceptions, denials, and expressions: Istrianity in a nationalizing Croatia, 1990-1997," Nationalities Papers 33 (4) (December 2005), 459-87 "Buying the Istrian goat: Regionalism and the economy in Croatian Istria," East European Quarterly 39 (3) (Fall 2005), 329-366 Review of Pamela Ballinger's History in exile: Memory and identity at the borders of the Balkans, 2003 for the Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans 6 (1) (Spring 2004), 71-2 "Buying the Goat: Economic Regionalism in Croatian Istria in the 1990s," in Nicholas Pappas (ed.).  Antiquity and Modernity: A Celebration of European History and Heritage in the Olympic Year 2004.  Essays from the First International Conference on European History (Athens: ATINER, 2004), 341-55 Ph.D. dissertation: "Istrian regionalism in the mirror of Croatian nationalism, 1989-96" MA Thesis: "'Outsiders' and the crisis of identity in Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1980-1995"
Presentations "International politics, counterinsurgency, and ethnic cleansing: The Case of the Croatian Krajina, 1990-1995" at the Association for the Study of Nationalities' and the Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris's Joint International Conference "Empires and Nations" (3-5 July 2008) "Identity politicization and multiculturalism in Croatian Istria" at the Columbia University's Council of European Studies in Chicago (6-8 March 2008) "A tale of two regionalisms: Istria and Dalmatian Regionalism in a Nationalizing Croatia," at the 31st Annual European Studies Conference at the University of Nebraska (October 2006) "The Politics of 'Small Differences' in Croatia, Bosnia, and Vojvodina: An examination of difference and misunderstanding," at the Radford University East-Central Europe Festival, guest speaker (20 September 2006) "Regionalism in Croatia: Breaking the national monolith," at the annual Blue Ridge Fulbright dinner, hosted by Virginia Tech, guest speaker (11 November 2005) "The goat or the bull?: The politicization of national and regional identities in Croatian Istria in the 1990s," at the 6th bi-annual European Social Science and History Conference (ESSHC) in Amsterdam (March 2006) and the 30th Annual European Studies Conference at the University of Nebraska (October 2005) "Regional perceptions of the nation and "empire": Istria from Tito's Yugoslavia to Croatia," at the 10th Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) "Understanding Nationalism: Identity, Empire, Conflict" at Columbia University in New York City (April 2005) "Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the analysis of ethnopolitics in Istria in the 1990s: An approach for historians of Eastern Europe and the Balkans," at the American Association for History and Computing (AAHC) Affiliate Association of the American Historical Association 119th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association (January 6-9, 2005) "Cognitive borders in an European borderland: Croatian Istrian perceptions of their non-Istrian co-nationals, 1989-97" at the University of Glamorgan and Centre for Border Studies conference "Crossing Borders: Histories, Theories, and Identities" (December 2-4, 2004) "Buying the Goat: Economic Regionalism in Croatian Istria in the 1990s" at the 9th Annual World Convention of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) "Nation, Identity, and Conflict" at Columbia University in New York City (April 2004) and the Athens Institute for Education and Research (ATINER) 1st International Conference on Modern European History in Athens, Greece (December 29-31, 2003) "Economic Motivations for the Expression of Subnational Identities, Istria in the 1990s" at the Southern Conference for Slavic Studies in Savannah, Georgia (March 28-29, 2003) "Revisiting 'nesting orientalisms': The case of Istria in the 1990s" at The Balkans: Mapping Identities Conference (XVIII -XXI c.) sponsored by the Centre for Advanced Study and the NEXUS Project at the University of Sofia (October 18-20, 2002) "Questioning Monolithic National Identity in Croatia" at the University of Pittsburgh's Center for Russian and East European Studies (October 1, 2002) "Nesting Balkanisms among Dalmatian and Istrian Croats in the 1990s" at the Special Convention "Nationalism, Identity and Regional Cooperation: Compatibilities and Incompatibilities" Centro per l'Europa centro orientale e balcanica in association with ASN Bologna University Forli, Italy (4-9 June 2002) "The Economic as a 'Determinant' of Istrian Identity, 1990-6" at the Center for Democracy and Reconciliation in Southeastern Europe's "New Doctoral Research on the History of Southeast Europe" Workshop in Dubrovnik, Croatia (June 29-July 1, 2001) "Dalmatian Regionalism: Some Preliminary Results and Observations" at the Institute of Ethnology and Folklore in Zagreb, Croatia (May 5, 2001) "Anti-Semitism and the Croatian Independent State, 1941-1945" at the Phi Alpha Theta 1996 Regional Conference, Oakland University (March 23, 1996)
Professional Affiliations American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) American Historical Association (AHA) Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) The Historical Society University of Florida's Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa national honor fraternity Virginia Epsilon Chapter of Pi Gamma Mu national honor fraternity

 

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