Jennifer Goetz is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Columbia History Department focusing on the Soviet Union and Russia. Her dissertation centers on the development of photography and a domestic camera industry in the Soviet Union from 1937 to 1963. In her research she explores how, following World War II, an increased availability of cheap and easy-to-use equipment fueled the growth of mass amateur photography. Simultaneously, artistic and journalistic photography underwent a seeming decline, with publications featuring fewer and fewer photographs and artistic institutions decreasing the attention and support given to photographers.

She has received Harriman Institute Pepsico Research Travel Fellowships to support summer research trips to Russia, as well as the Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Research Fellowship from the Association for Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies to spend a year gathering materials in the archives.