Matt Reichert is a preceptor on social studies at Harvard University, where he teaches Social Studies 50: Foundations of Social Science Research, as well as junior tutorials. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard’s department of government in 2022. At the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES) Reichert is a co-organizer of the Thesis Workshop for Juniors.
His research asks about the origins of our beliefs about nationality and national identity. His book manuscript, Who Built Nations in the Soviet Union?, explores the role of authors, artists, and professors in shaping how everyday people thought about national identity in the late Soviet period, especially in places like Armenia, Belarus, and Lithuania. His work draws on elite interviews, oral history, primary sources from in and out of the archive, and digitized historical data.
He also works with partners at Boston Medical Center and University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School to study social determinants of health, especially around racial disparities, preconception care, and chronic illness. Reichert’s research has been published in Politics and Society, The Lancet Digital Health, and The Annals of Family Medicine, amongst other journals.
He holds an M.A. in political science from the University of Chicago and a B.A. in history and international relations from Boston University.
