Andy Burnstein researches the intellectual history of the idea of the Shtetl. Inspired by his own family history, Burnstein aims to trace how the Shtetl, the popular understanding of which exists more as an idea than a historical reality, is discursively constructed over time. Burnstein is designing this project to be a global cultural history, spanning a transnational geography that includes Russia, Galicia, the former Hapsburg Empire, the United States, and Israel. He hopes to turn his analysis on himself and interrogate his own romanticization of the Shtetl and understand how the shame and pride of his family’s own shtetlekh origins have helped fuel their own understandings of their identity.
Advisor: Frances Tanzer
Education:
- B.A., Whitman College, Washington, 2020
- M.S., University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, 2022
Publications:
Fellowships:
- Claims Conference Fellow (The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany) , 2024
- Albert M. Tapper Fellowship, 2025
