Reporting in Armenia
This summer, I took part in The Armenia Project's international journalism internship, which brings emerging reporters and analysts to Armenia to work within the independent media space for 10 weeks. Over the course of the program, I worked full time for CivilNet, one of Armenia's leading independent news organizations. There, I primarily covered politics and international relations, authoring 25 articles. My work included breaking news reporting, analytical policy writing, and more long-term investigative pieces. I also contributed to scriptwriting and voice-over work for CivilNet's Daily Armenia video series. Some of my favorite publications included an investigation into Armenia's growing military drone sector and economic reporting on the philanthropic endeavors of Armenia's richest man and leading opposition figure.
Investigating the Eastern European Experience in Germany
This summer I had the opportunity to work at the Centre for European Studies (ZOiS) and conduct my thesis research in Berlin, Germany. Working there opened me up to the experience of working alongside researchers, examining issues of history, identity, transnational repression, and more in the context of Eastern Europe—with a particular focus on Russia and Ukraine. I was able to learn from brilliant researchers in the field, discussing topics including how to research hard-to-reach/vulnerable populations, research design, the future of research in the field, and the importance of such work. Outside of work, I continued collecting data for my thesis, which examines the salience of Kremlin propaganda related to the war in Ukraine among Russian/USSR migrants now living in Berlin. The city has a large population of such migrants and it was an incredible opportunity to speak with them, learn about their family history, connections to their homeland, and understand certain propaganda messages coming from the Kremlin.
Mapping National Memory Through Museums in the Baltic States
This summer, I had the opportunity to travel to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to conduct research for my thesis, which will examine how museums in the Baltic states construct and present historical narratives about the Soviet period. During my fieldwork, I visited more than 50 museums across 12 cities to see firsthand how this period is depicted through objects, testimonies, artwork, and other artifacts. I also conducted approximately 40 in-depth interviews with museum curators, guides, and educators to better understand how exhibits and educational programming are designed, implemented, and presented to the public. One of my favorite moments during my fieldwork was having the opportunity to visit the Patarei Prison Museum in Tallinn, which is currently under construction. A staff member at the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory graciously took the time to give me a tour of the unopened museum and shared insights into the new permanent exhibition that is scheduled to open next year. I look forward to drawing on the data I collected during my summer fieldwork as I write my master's thesis.
Studying Post-Stalinist Rehabilitation in Moldova
This summer I conducted thesis research in Chișinău, Moldova, through the generous support of a Davis Center Goldman Grant. I divided my time between the National Archives, where I examined recently declassified files of "counterrevolutionary criminals," and interviews with individuals involved in various stages of the rehabilitation story. My interviewees included rehabilitated victims of Stalinist persecution, government officials who carried out the rehabilitations, activists, scholars, and legal professionals. I was inspired by the resilience of survivors of Stalinist persecution, touched by the warm reception I received, and awed by the intricacy of the legal processes that attended post-Soviet Moldova's engagement with the country's Stalinist past—more to come in my thesis. On weekends I explored the Moldovan countryside; an impromptu folk festival, a nocturnal experience with a broken tire a couple of hours removed from Chișinău, and explorations of Gagauzia and Transnistria featured in my itinerary. Earlier in the summer, I led the 2026 Harvard Lithuania-Poland-Hungary Jewish Heritage program, a summer learning opportunity that takes an interfaith cohort of 20 Harvard undergraduate students on a 12-day trip across Eastern and Central Europe to learn about the Jewish history of the region. I then worked in Shanghai at a Sino-European investment advisory boutique specializing in facilitating investments between European and Chinese companies. The internship was directly relevant to my second thesis, which focuses on international investment arbitration in Russia and China.
Communicating With Communicators in Ukraine
This summer I traveled to Ukraine to conduct research for my thesis about Ukrainian public diplomacy during the full-scale invasion. It was both deeply personally meaningful and invigorating for my research to be back in the country for the first time since 2021. I felt the impacts of the war keenly throughout my time in Kyiv—from many sleepless nights spent in the basement bomb shelter during missile and drone attacks to long discussions about the innovations, adaptations, and urgency of Ukraine's digital public diplomacy with my interlocutors. Conducting these interviews directly in the place where these professionals work gave me an immense appreciation of the conditions under which they operate. I was also able to represent the Davis Center and Harvard at the Summer School on Nazi and Soviet Rule in Ukraine at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, co-hosted by the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The program's lectures, presentations, and city excursions focusing on the dark history of the 1930s and '40s in Western Ukraine helped deepen my understanding of these important events and exposed me to some of the latest and greatest in Ukrainian historical scholarship about them. At a time when war and occupation once again descend upon Ukraine, these events demand re-examination and re-contextualization.
Documenting History in Archives in Ukraine
This summer was busy and filled with adventure. With the generous support of the Davis Center, I spent my first month in Kyiv, Ukraine, conducting archival research for my master's thesis at Ukraine's Central State Archives. This research will provide an essential foundation for my thesis, which considers the paradigm of national communism—an always uneven fusion of nationalism and communism—in Soviet Ukraine from Stalin's death in 1953 until 1972. It was at once a trying and inspirational time to be in Kyiv, where city residents continue to get out of bed, go to school and work, and make time for family and friends despite incessant and deadly Russian strikes on civilian infrastructure. I spent the second half of my summer back in Cambridge as a student at the Harvard Ukrainian Summer Institute (HUSI) taking courses in Ukrainian history and language with the generous support of Harvard's Ukrainian Research Institute (HURI) and the Shevchenko Scientific Society. The students and faculty at HUSI offered a wonderful and welcoming community. I learned a great deal through our conversations. Moreover, Boston was an incredible place to be this summer as the World Cup and America's 250th anniversary took over the city. I am excited to be back this fall at the Davis Center for my final year with the REECA program!
Supporting Women in Kazakhstan and Beyond
This summer, with generous funding from the Davis Center, I traveled to Almaty, Kazakhstan, to conduct three weeks of fieldwork for my master's thesis about recent domestic violence reforms. It was an incredible trip; I interviewed many inspiring and fascinating people, from legal experts to activists to diplomats. Above all, I was struck by the unwavering commitment to this important global issue often at great personal sacrifice. Alongside my thesis work, with support from the Yale REEESNe Summer Internship Grant, I also worked with the NGO Undivided: Women, War & the Battle for Peace on a project about Ukrainian women's experiences throughout Russia's ongoing war. Working with the talented team at Undivided was amazing and I look forward to sharing the project's publication in the fall. On a more personal note, it was the first time I went back to Kazakhstan since studying abroad in Astana more than two years ago, so it was wonderfully nostalgic to return to foods I've missed as well as my favorite boutiques and, of course, a few trips to the nail salon!
Conducting Ethnography Through Cinema in Kyrgyzstan
I spent my entire summer living with my grandmother in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. My priority was to film her and the neighborhood every single day in preparation for an independent film project that I'll edit in the fall as part of my two-semester Sensory Ethnography Lab course. The project saw my cousin picking her wedding dress, my attempts to follow my mom through a crowded melon festival in Khiva, a cramped car of environmental delegates visiting the remains of the South Aral Sea, and several never-ending dinners with family in Karakol. Alongside practicing my Russian and extemporaneous filmmaking, I took two months of intensive Kyrgyz language lessons. In my spare mornings, I frequented the Central State Film and Photo Archive amid hectic renovations to prepare for my thesis on the Kirghizfilm studio in the 1960s-'80s. I finished the summer filming at a lakeside sanatorium, where I wrote this while having a cup of kumis on a balcony overlooking Lake Issyk-Kul.
