Formative Experience Abroad

I studied the history of East and Central Europe, as well as post-Communist transitions across the region, throughout the 1990s. This included an undergraduate academic year in Budapest (at Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, Budapesti Corvinus Egyetem, and Budapesti Mûszaki és Gazdaságtudományi), a summer studying in Prague (at VŠE: Fakulta mezinárodních vztahù), and a summer of study in Poland examining the country’s post-Communist economic reforms. These periods of study each included research into the Holocaust, and included visits to Auschwitz, Majdanek, and other significant sites. From Budapest, I studied the civil wars in and breakup of Yugoslavia, making numerous trips to Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

During the summer of 1992, I spent 70 days traveling solo through eight newly independent republics of the former Soviet Union, studying the region’s history, human security, and ethno-national conflicts. This included Crimea, Azerbaijan during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, and Georgia during the Russian invasion of Abkhazia.

In 1995-96, I studied Greek history and ethno-national relations in the southern Balkans, particularly the transnational constituency of Albanians in Kosovo, northern Greece, and western Macedonia, as well as Greek-Turkish relations (prompted by the Imia/Kardak dispute).

Following the Dayton Peace Accords, I twice worked in Sarajevo. During my first stint in the city, I interned with the American Refugee Committee, assisting Internally Displaced Persons with economic development, creating accessibility for people with disabilities, and designing ethnically sensitive playgrounds. During my second period there, I worked with the US Department of State and also served as an election monitor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In the winter and spring of 2025 I undertook sponsored travel through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Armenia, and Georgia to research the role of Putinism in the domestic politics of Europe’s former Soviet republics, particularly the ways in which far-right, ultra-nationalist, and religious conservatives work to subvert liberal reform and/or impose “traditional values” that impede the rights of gender minorities (women and LGBT+ individuals).