ABOUT ME
I am a historian of the Soviet Union, Russia, Ukraine, and East Germany. I am a doctoral candidate (Ph.D.) in History at the University of Pennsylvania.
My dissertation project is a cultural and social history that explores the meanings of race and Blackness to Soviet and East German people during the Cold War, and what elements influenced these meanings.
My public writing analyzes race, foreign policy, and culture in the United States, Russia, and Ukraine. My writing has been featured in Inkstick Media, Meduza, MSNBC, and Kennan Institute's Russia File.
Photo Credit: Laurence Kesterson.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
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Soviet Nationality Policy
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Race and Ethnicity in the USSR and GDR
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Race and Racism in the former-Soviet Union
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African-American experience in the USSR and Russia
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Soviet Subjectivity
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Old Believers in the Russian Empire
EDUCATION
University of Pennsylvania, 2020-2027
Ph.D. | History (M.A. awarded in 2022)
Fields: Soviet Union, Imperial Russia, African American History (post-1877), Race and Blackness (theoretical field)
Harvard University, 2012-2014
M.A. | Regional Studies: Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia
Focus: History and Russian language
Swarthmore College, 2008-2012
B.A. | History
Adams State University, 2017-2019
Graduate-level courses in American history