Formative Experience Abroad

Formal Study 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). From Budapest, I studied the breakup of and civil wars in the former Yugoslavia, making numerous trips to Croatia, Serbia, and Slovenia during the conflict in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

I also studied at VŠE: Fakulta mezinárodních vztahù in Prague during the summer of 1999, and spent the summer of 2002 in Poland examining economic reform, principally in Warsaw and Gdynia, with financial support from the University of Denver. These periods of study also included Holocaust studies, with visits to Auschwitz, Majdanek, Zamosc, and other significant sites.

Independent Travel and Research:
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 lived in Athens, studying Greek history and ethno-national relations in the southern Balkans. Examining the transnational constituency of Albanians in Kosovo, northern Greece, and western Macedonia, I toured Macedonia and Albania. I also turned to Greek-Turkish relations, prompted by the Imia/Kardak dispute.

Following the Dayton Peace Accords, I worked in Sarajevo twice. During my first stint in the city (in 1998), 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 (in 2000), I worked with the US Department of State and also served as an election monitor for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

More recently, in the winter and spring of 2025 I undertook sponsored research through Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Armenia, and Georgia to examine 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 would deny the rights of gender minorities (women and LGBT+ individuals).