Biography

I was born in Kiev, Ukraine, lived in Japan as a kid, and grew up in Gainesville, Florida, where I went to school at the University of Florida. Since childhood I have been fascinated by history. As an undergraduate student, I began studying Chinese, which quickly became a lifelong pursuit. During my college years, I studied abroad in China, Russia, and Taiwan. After college, I worked at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace as a Junior Fellow in the Russia-Eurasia and Energy and Climate Change Programs. I then went back to school to get an M.A. at the University of Chicago in International Relations. This past year I was in Taiwan again as a Boren Fellow studying Chinese and doing research. At Cambridge I will be pursuing a Ph.D. in Modern Chinese History, researching Manchuria in the early post-war period. At the time Manchuria was a fiercely contested space both geopolitically and in terms of its identity. The topic has been understudied by historians and will allow me to wrestle with bigger questions about the balance of power in East Asia, the determination of borders, and the impact of the early Cold War period on modern China. When not working I love running, being a foodie, and globetrotting.

Previous Education

University of Chicago
University of Florida