Ričards Umbraško is a Ph.D. student in Harvard's Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures. He studies Eastern Europe’s colonial entanglements from the 19th century to the present, with a specific focus on the cultures of the Baltic region and eastern Ukraine. Ričards received his A.B., summa cum laude, in Slavic literatures and cultures and comparative literature from Harvard College in 2025. He is a contributing writer for the Latvian cultural and literary magazine Satori, and his other work on Latvian art, society, and politics has appeared in 1843 Magazine (The Economist), New Eastern Europe, and Harvard International Review, among others. Selected publications include
“Culture Wars: Latgalian Identity Between Soviet and Latvian Colonial Imaginaries (1958–1959),” Nationalities Papers (2025).