Her research and teaching interests include Russian, Soviet, and Central Asian history, the history of the environment, technology, and engineering, as well as comparative empires. Her current book project is titled Pipe Dreams: Water, Technology, and the Remaking of Central Asia in the Russian Empire and Soviet Union. Based on archival research in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Russia, and the United States, Pipe Dreams examines tsarist and Bolshevik efforts to irrigate the Central Asian borderlands and how such hydraulic engineering projects reflected imperial and Soviet notions of civilization and progress, as well as Russia’s quest to be a European empire in the heart of Asia. Professional Development