Paulina Bren
Paulina Bren received her PhD in History from New York University, her MA in Russian and East European Studies from the Jackson School for International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle, and her BA in the College of Letters from Wesleyan University. Her most recent book, She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street [W. W. Norton, 2024], called “enthralling” by Publisher’s Weekly, was the Next Big Idea Club Must-Read, The Washington Post’s, Town & Country’s and LitHub’s Most Anticipated Books for Fall 2024, and Untapped New York’s 100 Best Books about New York of all time. She-Wolves is in development with Mark Gordon Pictures. Her previous book, the highly acclaimed The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free [Simon & Schuster, 2021], was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and has been translated into Spanish, Italian, Korean, Chinese, Russian, and Hungarian. Both She-Wolves and The Barbizon are published in the U.K. by John Murray/Hachette.
Prof. Bren teaches in International Studies; Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies; and Media Studies. More information can be found at her website: paulinabren.com.
Paulina Bren received her PhD in History from New York University, her MA in Russian and East European Studies from the Jackson School for International Studies at the University of Washington, Seattle, and her BA in the College of Letters from Wesleyan University.
Her most recent book, She-Wolves: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street [W. W. Norton, 2024], called “enthralling” by Publisher’s Weekly, was the Next Big Idea Club Must-Read, The Washington Post’s, Town & Country’s and LitHub’s Most Anticipated Books for Fall 2024, and Untapped New York’s 100 Best Books about New York of all time. She-Wolves is in development with Mark Gordon Pictures. Her previous book, the highly acclaimed The Barbizon: The Hotel that Set Women Free [Simon & Schuster, 2021], was a New York Times Editor’s Choice and has been translated into various languages. Both She-Wolves and The Barbizon are published in the U.K. by John Murray/Hachette.
She is also the author of The Greengrocer and His TV: The Culture of Communism after the 1968 Prague Spring (Cornell UP, 2010), which won the Council for European Studies 2012 Book Prize, the Austrian Studies Association 2012 Book Prize, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Vucinich Book Award. Furthermore, she is co-editor with Mary Neuburger from the University of Texas at Austin, of a collection of essays entitled Communism Unwrapped: Consumption in Cold War Eastern Europe (Oxford UP, 2012). In January 2017, she co-organized, with Lisa Kaul, the Poughkeepsie Women’s March Across the Hudson.
Prof. Bren has been the recipient of many grants and fellowships, including from the National Endowment for Humanities (NEH), the National Council of East European and Eurasian Research (NCEEER), the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS), and the Fulbright-Hays.
Paulina Bren teaches in International Studies, Women, Feminist, and Queer Studies, and Media Studies.
More information can be found at her website: paulinabren.com.
Research and Academic Interests
20th Century
Gender
Cultural History
Media
Departments and Programs
Courses
INTL 106 Perspectives in International Studies
WMST 130 Introduction to Women’s Studies
MEDS 160 Approaches to Media Studies
Selected Publications
Paulina Bren is the author of the book, She-Wolves: the Untold History of Women on Wall Street.
Grants, Fellowships, Honors, Awards
Professor Bren is the author of The Barbizon: The Hotel That Set Women Free.
Paulina Bren has written a “captivating portrait” (The Wall Street Journal), both “poignant and intriguing” (The New Republic): from award-winning author Paulina Bren comes the remarkable history of New York’s most famous residential hotel and the women who stayed there, including Grace Kelly, Sylvia Plath, and Joan Didion.
