NOW
After graduating from the Portland State Russian Flagship in June 2019, I completed a Masters in Russian and East European Literature and Culture at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies in September 2020, after conducting field research in Belarus on the topic of traditional textiles and the intersection of culture, information, and identity. I then published my thesis, "Reading Belarus: The Evolving Semiosis of Belarusian Textiles" in the Journal of Belarusian Studies, where I highlighted the use of textile in the events surrounding the 2020 presidential election.
I then completed a Masters in Library and Information Sciences at the University of Rhode Island in December 2021 with a focus on visual information and digital media, studied abroad at the University of Tartu remotely, and completed an internship building an archive of Belarusian digital protest art for the University of Michigan.
I currently work as the digital archivist for the New York City Ballet and volunteer as a Slavic indexer for the American Philatelic Research Library.
THEN
What do you plan to do with your fluency in Russian?
Further my career in public service.
What attracted you to the PSU Russian Flagship?
The well-roundedness of the program.
What’s the best aspect of being in the PSU Russian Flagship?
Certainly the small classes and access to the instructors.
Why is fluency in Russian important to you?
Russian is an important language on the world stage and one that the United States has situationally decreased its fluency with. The U.S.'s lack of linguistic and cultural fluencies of Russian-speaking places are of grave concern