Dr. Mark Keck-Szajbel

Mark Keck-Szajbel is a historian and philologist specializing in twentieth century East Central European cultural history. He received his Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013 with his dissertation on East bloc travel and tourism in late state socialism. He has also received several degrees from the University of Oregon and the University of Tübingen in Slavic languages, history, and literature. His current research focuses on the cultural afterlife of state socialism broadly defined: he is studying the economic, social and cultural remnants of totalitarian systems a generation after its demise; its unusual reiterations, come-backs, and longevity. In particular, he has focused on the self-identification of the individual in modern life. He teaches about popular music, cultural history, bicycling, literature, and much more. He also does outreach, having recently opened a co-organized exhibition with the Museum Utopie und Alltag in Eisenhüttenstadt, as well as current projects on the state of Central European natural movements. At the university, Mark Keck-Szajbel places particular focus on teaching methods and student mentoring. Recipient of numerous awards—including the Presidential Award for Academic Fitness, the Fulbright fellowship, the DAAD, GHI awards, and several Foreign Language and Area Studies grants—he has studied in a half-dozen countries and regularly takes his students abroad. The avid regional enthusiast currently sits on the board of the Polish Studies Association, amongst other scholarly boards across Poland, Czechia, and Germany.