Alumni Spotlight Q&A: Russell Kahn ’16

Meet Russell Kahn, who graduated from Northwestern University in 2016.

What inspired you to pursue study in the American Studies Program?

During the Spring of my Freshman year at Northwestern I begged Professor Sarah McFarland Taylor to let me into her American Studies seminar course, American Teenage Rites of Passage. The course changed everything for me. The materials in our syllabus blew open my world. It was my first opportunity to participate in a genuinely interdisciplinary academic environment. We weren’t just studying events from history, or pieces of media, or excerpts from literature…we were invited to discover a web of culture in which each element was related. I came to Northwestern to study Theatre and Film, but found that the American Studies lens yielded an especially rich context for the stories I loved to consume and wanted to have a hand in shaping.

How did your studies in the American Studies Program impact you personally and/or professionally? 

Today I’m a film, television, and theatre producer and I use my American Studies background everyday! Whenever I review new incoming material it’s with an American Studies lens. I approach every potential project by analyzing the history it is born out of and the culture it will impact.

Is there a specific course, event, or memory that sticks out to you from your time at NU?

The camaraderie shared by my American Studies cohort is what I remember most fondly. Our thesis seminar (led by the incredible Professor Shana Bernstein) was the first academic environment I experienced that was not motivated by competition or grades…but by genuine intellectual curiosity. We all pushed each other forward in my cohort because we were truly curious about what one another might uncover, and what new connections in history and culture we could make. I remember feeling so proud of my peers when we presented our theses at the end of senior year.

What fun fact do you want to share with the Northwestern community?

There’s a great Geocache hidden near the lighthouse on Noyes!

How do you enjoy spending your free time?

I love to go to the movies, and am getting more into hiking!

What are you working on right now that excites you the most, OR are there any accomplishments you would like to share?

Right now I’m working on producing a new play directed by a close Northwestern friend that’s running on Broadway! It’s called JOB and will be at the Helen Hayes Theater through 10/27/24. It’s a brilliant thriller about internet culture, that speaks eloquently to generational divide.

Russell—who runs the Rachel Brosnahan-founded production company Scrap Paper Pictures and has a new production titled JOB—and director and producer Michael Herwitz—one of the youngest people ever to direct an original play on Broadway—shared more about the show and how the duo has worked together to make it possible: