Jonathan Ludwig

Jonathan Z. Ludwig is Teaching Associate Professor of Russian and a member of the Advisory Board for SAGE International Australia. He received his BA in Russian and Soviet Studies from Sewanee: The University of the South and his MA and PhD in Slavic Linguistics from Indiana University, Bloomington. A dedicated teacher-scholar with thirty years experience in the classroom, Dr. Ludwig is nationally known for his work on video-aided instruction (VAI) and Russian across the curriculum (FLAC/CLAC), both of which he has successfully integrated into Russian-language programs. He has authored several articles and reviews on Russian textbooks and reference materials and co-authored a version of the placement exam for Indiana University’s Summer Intensive Russian-language program (SWSEEL). He has also written, taught, and lectured extensively on Russian literature, history and politics, including at the Baker Institute for Public Policy.

Internationally known for his work on Afghanistan and Central Asia, he has taught and lectured extensively on that region as well, with topics as diverse as the March 2005 Kyrgyz Revolution, the Kyrgyz “streetocracy,” Russian-American cooperation and confrontation in Central Asia, Chinese relations with the Central Asian states, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). He has published on the SCO and on Sino-Afghan relations, the latter in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and taught a course on Afghan history at the Rice University Glasscock School of Continuing Studies, which coincided with the exhibit “Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH).

He is under contract with Cambridge University Press to write A Concise History of Central Asia. He continues to research the Sino-Afghan relationship, the Eurasian Economic Union, and other issues in and pertaining to Central Asia, Russia, and China, including positioning Russia as an Asian country.

He has successfully mentored students for Critical Language Scholarships, Fulbright Fellowships, the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, the Zeff Award, and the Stanford University Russia Forum (SURF), among others. He continues to work closely with his former students who have followed him into the field of Slavic Studies or into the teaching profession.