Shawn Clybor, Ph.D.

Education

PHD, Northwestern University Illino
MA, Northwestern University Illino
BA, U. of Illinois at Chicago

About

Shawn Clybor (Ph.D. Northwestern University, 2010) is an intellectual and socio-cultural historian who specializes in twentieth-century East-Central Europe. He is interested primarily in the legitimization and "normalization" of radical political ideologies such as communism, fascism, and Nazism. His research and teaching intersect with a broad range of topics including the Cold War, nationalism, European socialism, genocide studies, and modernist (avant-garde) arts movements.

Research

Dr. Clybor completed his dissertation, "Prophets of Revolution: Culture, Communism, and the Czech Avant-Garde, 1920-1958," at Northwestern University in 2010. Drawing upon a range of previously unused archival collections from the former Czechoslovakia (today the Czech Republic), the project follows a generation of Czech intellectuals and artists born in the early 1900s known as the "avant-garde" through the rise of fascism and establishment of communist rule. The goal of the project is to illuminate how these intellectuals, associated with non-conformist arts movements such as French Surrealisme and the German Neue Sachlichkeit, transformed into Communist Party functionaries. Building from an emerging body of socio-cultural studies that emphasize the mutual interactions between repressive political regimes and society, the project considers how the Czech avant-garde were both victims and perpetrators of the post-1948 communist regime, building upon long-established social and patronage networks fostered among Party elites.

For his second research project, Clybor plans to research communist forced labor camps in communist East Europe from a comparative perspective, drawing upon Czech, Slovak, Polish and German sources. He will focus on the ideological and pedagogical function of the prisons as a means of socialist "re-education" (a claim that he wishes to explore fully), in addition to how the meaning of these camps shifted in collective memory and public discourse from the early 1950s to the post-socialist period.

Professional Experience

While at Manhattan College, 2012-2013, Clybor will teach different sections of the Roots: History (Hist 150) course, in addition to an upper-level course on Modern Germany (Spring 2013).

Previously, while a visiting assistant professor at Utah State University (2010-2012), he taught a range of transnational history courses (both European and World), including intro-level surveys such as "European Civilization from 1550 to Present," upper-level seminars such as "Nations and Nationalism," "Modern Germany," and "Modern East-Central Europe," and the graduate seminar "Modern European Intellectual History."

While completing his graduate studies at Northwestern University (2003-2010), he taught a first-year course on Continental Europe between the World Wars for the History Department and two introductory surveys ("European Civilization" and "Modern East-Central Europe") for the College of Continuing Studies.

Publications & Professional Activities

Clybor's article "Laughter and Hatred are Neighbors: Adolf Hoffmeister and E.F. Burian in Stalinist Czechoslovakia, 1948-1956" was recently published in the August issue of East European Politics and Societies (EEPS). His article "Socialist (Sur)Realism: Karel Teige, Ladislav Štoll and the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia" was published in December 2010 in the yearbook History of Communism in Europe. In addition, he has written a variety of book reviews for the H-Net listserv, with one forthcomong in Nationalities Papers, the journal of the Association for the Study of Nationalities.

Clybor has presented his work at a broad range of national conferences, including the annual meeting of the Association of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies, the Association for the Studies of Nationalities, and the Midwest Slavic Association. Institutions that have invited him to give presentations include the Ludwig Boltzmann Institut in Vienna and the annual Bennion Teachers' Workshop organized by the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies. He has also participated in workshops including the Junior Scholars' Training Seminar (generously supported by the Woodrow Wilson Center), the annual Czech Workshop at Columbia University, and a graduate research seminar at the Alice Kaplan Institute for the Humanities at Northwestern University.

Currently he is in negotiations to publish a book-length manuscript with a major academic publisher that is based on his dissertation work.

Honors & Awards

Dr. Clybor was recently selected as a Wolfsonian-FIU fellow for summer 2013, where he will be researching artists and intellectuals arrested and imprisoned by the Czechoslovak communist regime in the early 1950s. His work has been generously supported by the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), the Department of Education (Fulbright-Hays Program), The Graduate School (TGS) at Northwestern University, and the Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Research (BCICS).

His teaching has also received recognition. He received the Lacy B. Smith Award for the best teacher’s assistant section leader in the Northwestern University History Department in 2002. In addition, he was honored to be a member of the History Department at Utah State University when it won the Teaching Excellence Award in 2012. His upper-level course "Modern Europe: The History of Anti-Semitism" was among the courses evaluated during the final round of the competition.

Professional Memberships

• Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), 2008-Present
• Czechoslovak Studies Association, 2008-Present

Grants

• Wolfsonian-FIU (Florida International University), Research Fellowship, (May 2013)
• Northwestern University Dissertation Year Fellowship (DYF), 2010
• Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies, Research Grant,  2010, 2008, 2005
• Northwestern University Graduate Research Grant, 2008
• Fulbright-Hays, Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship, 2006-2007
• American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), Individual Language Training Grant, 2005

LinkedIn Profile

Profile on Linked In

Personal Website

Other Worlds - Shawn Clybor Tumblr Blog

Other Links

Article on Dr. Clybor while at Utah State