Sochi: The Florida and California of the Soviet Union

Join us for a discussion with Johanna Conterio on February 7, 2014 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM EST.  Co-sponsored by NYU Gallatin and the History of Science Working Group, the Conterio will present her work on 'The Florida and California of the Soviet Union':  The Circulation of Knowledge and the Acclimatization of Citrus to the Soviet Subtropics in Sochi.

Conterio is a PhD Candidate in the History Department at Harvard University and an associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, specializing in Modern Russia. Her research interests are at the intersection of the cultural, environmental and medical history of the Soviet Union. Her dissertation uses the sanatorium in the Soviet Union as a prism to explore scientific and popular medicine, architecture, urban planning, the transformation of the natural environment and the rise of mass tourism, emphasizing the intersection of ideas of nature and health in Soviet culture, while placing the Soviet sanatorium into the context of the Central European life reform movement and mainstream medical practice of the interwar years.

Conterio has served as a teaching fellow for courses at Harvard on the history of the Soviet Union and Imperial Russia and has presented at international and national conferences in Slavic studies, environmental history and medical history. She has a MA in History from Harvard University and a BA in Comparative Literature from Yale University.

Link to written event recap