Our young scholars crossed the stage of Harvard’s historic Sanders Theatre on May 28, collecting their master’s degrees in regional studies—Russia, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. Join us in congratulating them and wishing them all the best on their journey!
The students’ academic work at Harvard culminated in a thesis project. Here’s a brief rundown of the topics tackled by the class of ‘26.
Olive Coles: “The Backseat and the Backward Glance: The Processual Poetics of Mariia Stepanova and Galina Rymbu”
Chris Conway: “Moscow Is in the Know: Authoritarian Resilience in Russian Border Regions During the Russo-Ukrainian War”
Josh Hughes: “Building Kyrgyzstan Through Sport: Identity, Branding, and Legitimacy”
Mateusz Kaczmarczyk: “Investigating Low Participation in Poland's Individual Retirement Account (IKE) Program Among Employed University of Warsaw Students Under 30”
Anastasiia Pereverten: “Persuade and Mobilize: The Work of Ukraine Advocates in the United States in Response to Russia's Full-Scale Invasion of Ukraine”
Pawel Pieniazek: “The Interregnum: Civilian Perceptions of State Collapse During Wartime Shifts of Power”
Markus Vaher: “From Peaceful Protests to Violent Resistance: The Case of Post-2020 Belarus”
Alice Volfson: “Margins of Empire, Centers of Thought: Central Asia in the Cultural Cold War”
Adam Wozniak: “To Be or Not to Be (Populist): How Liberals in Poland Succumbed to the Populist Temptation”
Daria Zhukauskaite: “Kremlin's Greatest Hits: What Disinformation Says, How It Changes, and Whom It Targets. A Computational Tour of Russian Disinformation, 2015-2022”
