I graduated with a BA in History from the University of Sheffield in 2019. After which I took a hiatus from studies and over that period found success in language learning, opening the possibility to seriously explore the history of Russia and Eastern Europe. Over that hiatus, I also gained more practical experience in research and analysis within a different context while working for the Department of Defense.
During undergraduate studies at Sheffield, I explored questions of public and private diplomacy during the reign of King James I/VI in Stuart England. Elements of this approach continue to guide my interests even as they have shifted further afield. While I conducted research in an English context, I was interested in how James balanced his role as King of one of the main Protestant powers with attempts to maintain the fracturing peace. In an Eastern European context my interests fall in a similar field of conflicts between identity and realpolitik particularly in the early 20th century.
My research interests mostly cluster around the late Imperial and early Soviet periods, particularly, in the Ukrainian space. I am particularly interested in the attempts to construct a Soviet Ukrainian identity and the use of that identity to expand Soviet influence into the borderlands with Poland.
