I am a Post-Doctoral Fellow and Imperiia Project Manager at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard University. I am also a Lecturer on History and History House Advisor (Cabot and Adams Houses) at Harvard. In 2020, I will teach an undergraduate history class, "Artifacts of the Russian Empire," which explores the history of the Russian Empire through its cultural artifacts.
In 2019, I received my Ph.D. in History from Harvard, specializing in the history of modern Russia and Ukraine. My dissertation is a cultural and environmental history of the Dnieper River, titled: "Taming the Dnipro Rapids: Nature, National Geography, and Hydro-Engineering in Soviet Ukraine, 1946-1968," advised by Serhii Plokhii. In it I examine the renegotiation of Soviet conceptions of the natural environment and national geography in an era of large-scale nature transformation and hydro-engineering.
I received my B.A. in Neuroscience from Amherst College and then managed contemporary art galleries for six years in New York City, where I was introduced to Soviet history through the eyes of Russian artists. Before coming to Harvard, I received an M.A. in Russian, Eurasian, and Eastern European Studies from the Harriman Institute at Columbia University.