A chance trip to the Soviet Union just before the fall had a huge impact on Erika Monahan and she entered college knowing that she wanted to learn the Russian language and travel back there. Configuring her studies around travel, she became a history major and decided to focus on the present and let the future stay out there until she was ready for it. A web of connections allowed her to revisit after college some of the places she’d gone previously. But her own desire to go deeper into the history and a little adventure put her on a path to navigate other geographies for her career and family. In this episode, find out from Erika how, while clues from the past can certainly inform the future, the present provides a necessary grounding…on Roads Taken Revisited with Leslie Jennings Rowley.

About This Episode’s Guest

Erika Monahan is currently an associate professor in the department of history at the University of New Mexico, where she has been since 2008. Her research and teaching focus on the Russian Empire, Soviet Union, and Russia from the ninth century to the present, with special emphasis on the history of the Russian empire, environmental history, commerce in this part of the world, and Russia in a larger European and global context. Her writing and scholarship have won numerous awards and she recently served as an Alexander von Humboldt fellow in Cologne, Germany. 

Find more episodes at https://roadstakenshow.com

Executive Producer/Host: Leslie Jennings Rowley

Music: Brian Burrows

Email the show at RoadsTakenShow@gmail.com