Christine Ruane's intellectual interests center around the study of modern Russian and European history. Her first book analyzes the professionalization of men and women city schoolteachers from 1860 to 1914. In particular, she looks at how teachers' attempts to form a profession contributed to Russia's revolutionary crisis. Her second book tells the story of the Russian fashion industry from 1700 to 1914. In 1700, Peter the Great declared that all urban residents and civil servants must abandon traditional Russian dress and wear European fashion. Ruane's book is the first in any language to explain how Russians manufactured and sold European clothing, and how they learned to feel comfortable in their new clothes. Her new project is a social and cultural history of kitchen gardening in Russia. Kitchen gardening has been and remains a central activity of most Russians. Her study will use the humble kitchen garden as a way to understand the complex role of religion, science, gender, economics, culture, and politics in Russian life.

The social, cultural, and gender history of Imperial Russia
History of kitchen gardening in Imperial Russia

European and Russian history from the late seventeenth century to the present