Sophia Freuden graduated from Lewis & Clark College in 2016 with a major in international relations and a minor in Russian, studies that supported her thesis on diversionary foreign policy in Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. After graduation, she completed a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Kazan, Russia. Sophia has also interned for the U.S. Department of State and the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington, DC and has gained professional experience in digital media and law. These experiences furthered Sophia’s research interests in how 21st-century technologies, laws, and epistemological differences affect relations between Russia and the West.