Originally, I intended to receive a BA in physics--I began studying Russian in undergrad because I could not study Ukrainian, and I needed a foreign language for my degree. My grandparents had emigrated from Ukraine to Canada in 1945 by way of East Prussia/Kaliningrad Oblast, and I wanted to know more about my family. In 2020, when the pandemic sent us all home, my dad asked me to translate the diary of a Red Army soldier who had fought in East Prussia during World War II. The rest was, well, history. I enjoyed the work and loved the story I was exploring. My summer translation project morphed into my undergraduate thesis, which soon gave way to a master's thesis about the creation of Kaliningrad Oblast itself. I will be supervised by Rebecca Manley.
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow, 2024-2025, 2025-2026
