Maxim Matusevich Assistant Professor Address: Fahy 335
Phone: (973) 761-9386
E-mail: matusema@shu.edu As the now defunct Soviet Union was tittering on the brink I decided to exchange the land of socialism for the land of opportunity. This highly successful transaction landed me in the state of Oklahoma, of which I had read in John Steinbeck’s novels but never knew that it actually existed. It did. For the next fifteen years I made a very slow but steady progress across the continent towards the beckoning lights of New York City. Since my arrival at Seton Hall University in 2005 I have been teaching courses in Global, African, and Cold War history. I also co-direct a study abroad program for Seton Hall students in the city of my birth – St. Petersburg, Russia. In my research and writing I focus on the history of cultural and political encounters between Africa and Russia/Soviet Union
Education:
- Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2001
- MA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1995
- BA, University of Oklahoma 1992
Courses at Seton Hall:
- HIST 1101, World History I
- HIST 1102, World History II
- HIST 1201, Western Civilization II
- HIST 1501, African Civilization I
- HIST 1502, African Civilization II
- HIST 2291, History of the Cold War (Topics)
- HIST 2290, Reading the City: St. Petersburg in Russian History and Culture (study abroad)
- GEOG 1111, Fundamentals of Geography
Awards, grants and fellowships:
- 2006 - University Research Council Summer Grant, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey
- 2005 - Black European Studies Consortium (BEST) Research and Travel Award, Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany
- 2005 - Student Government Association Faculty of the Year Award (awarded to one faculty member per year), Drury University, Springfield, Missouri
- 2003 - Drury Faculty Award for Scholarship and Leadership (awarded to one faculty member per year), Drury University, Springfield, Missouri
- Summer 2002 - Faculty Research Grant, Drury University, Springfield, Missouri,Spring 2002
White Scholar’s Faculty Excellence Award,Drury University, Springfield, Missouri - Spring 2001 - Widenor Graduate Teaching Fellowship, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- 1999-2000 -Visiting Research Fellow, Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, Nigeria
Representative publications:
Books
Maxim Matusevich, ed., Africa in Russia, Russia in Africa: Three Centuries of Encounters, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2006
Maxim Matusevich, No Easy Row for a Russian Hoe: Ideology and Pragmatism in Nigerian-Soviet Relations, 1960-1991, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2003
Recent Articles and Book Chapters
Maxim Matusevich, “Reparation and Repair: Reform Movements in the Atlantic World,” in Toyin Falola and Kevin Roberts, eds., The Atlantic World, 1450-2000, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press (under contract, forthcoming in 2006)
Maxim Matusevich, "In Search of a Common Ground: The Four Decades of Nigerian-Soviet/Russian Dialogue," in Ulric R. Nichol, ed., Focus on Economics and Politics of Russia and Eastern Europe, New York: Nova Publishers (under contract, forthcoming in 2006)
Maxim Matusevich, “Introduction: An Invisible Link,” in Africa in Russia, Russia in Africa: Three Centuries of Encounters, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2006, pp. 1-12
Maxim Matusevich, “Visions of Grandeur… Interrupted: The Soviet Union through Nigerian Eyes,” in Africa in Russia, Russia in Africa: Three Centuries of Encounters, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2006, pp. 353-376
Maxim Matusevich, “An Elusive Friendship: Nigerian-Soviet/Russian Relations, 1960-2000,” in Layi Abegurin, ed., Nigeria in the Global Politics in the 20th Century and Beyond, New York: Nova Press, 2006, pp. 141-167
Maxim Matusevich, “Africa’s Challenge to the Soviet Status Quo,” in Black European Studies in Transnational Perspective /Conference Reader/, Berlin, Germany: Freie Universität Berlin, 2006, pp. 124-126
Maxim Matusevich, “Africa, Africans, and Africanness in Soviet Popular Culture and Imagination,” in Challenging Europe: Black European Studies in the 21st Century /Conference Reader/, Mainz, Germany: Gutenberg University Press, 2005, pp. 91-94
Maxim Matusevich, “Ideology of Pragmatism: The Biafra War and Nigerian Response to the Soviet Union,” in Kuda Idesh’, Afrika? Istoriko-Politicheskie Etiudy (Where Are You Heading to, Africa? History-Political Review), Moscow: Africa Institute, 2004, pp. 93-102
Maxim Matusevich, “Crying Wolf: Early Nigerian Reactions to the Soviet Union, 1960-1966,” in Toyin Falola, ed., Nigeria in the Twentieth Century, Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press, 2002, pp. 703-732
Maxim Matusevich, “The War in Biafra and Nigerian Response to the Soviet Union,” Nigerian Journal of International Affairs, vol. 28, nos. 1-2 (2002), pp. 97-138
Maxim Matusevich, “Perestroika and Soviet Policy Shift in Africa,” Nigerian Forum, vol. 20, nos. 7-8 (1999), pp. 5-21
