Eli Rubin

Eli Ruben is a graduate student in the History Department. He is traveling to Germany this summer to examine the question of how popular consent and state hegemony developed in former East Germany during the Cold War. In particular, Eli seeks to explore how the Communist ruling party, cultural institutions and mass publications worked together to create a new socialist style of fashion, architecture, consumer goods and ideals of domestic life. He hopes to analyze this style, who created it, how it was implemented and the extent to which the public authenticated it by evolving new “tastes” that matched the expectations of its promoters.