By Jennifer Allen and Gail Hairston

 

Karen Petrone in the Department of History is the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences’ 2017-18 A&S Distinguished Professor.

 

“Since joining the faculty of the college in 1994, Petrone has established a record of outstanding teaching, scholarship and service that is recognized by her colleagues both here at UK and in the discipline of history,” said Mark Lawrence Kornbluh, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.

 

In 1998, within four years of her arrival at UK, Petrone was awarded the Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Teaching. She has taught a wide variety of courses ranging from freshman survey offerings in European history to advanced graduate seminars in Russian history. She was very active in the college’s former Gender and Women’s Studies Program (now department) and was a leader in developing UK’s Working Group on War and Gender (WGWG). Petrone also has been invited to give lectures across the world, including a series of 13 public lectures in Russia as a part of the U.S. Russian Embassy’s speakers’ program in 2015 and 2016.

 

Petrone has established herself as a renowned scholar of Russian history and has written two books, “Life Has Become More Joyous, Comrades: Celebration in the Time of Stalin” and “The Great War in Russian Memory.” The latter book garnered several prestigious awards, including the Heidt Prize, and was chosen as a Choice Outstanding Academic title. She also has co-edited four volumes addressing aspects of Russian history and published 25 articles in diverse venues that elaborate her broad interests in Russian history and gender and women’s studies. 

 

Currently, Petrone is working on a project titled “War Memory in Putin’s Russia” focusing on the recent restoration of Russian military pride. Through her extensive travels in Russia, she has witnessed the substantial changes that have occurred in that country in the past two decades and is viewed as a leading contemporary scholar of Russian history.

 

Petrone is currently in her second term as chair of UK's history department and also has served on college-level committees.

 

“Dr. Petrone has been dedicated to serving students, colleagues and the institution with diligence, energy and wisdom,” Kornbluh said. 

 

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