REEI MA Students

Eric Adams is from Atlanta, GA. He is a U.S. Army European Foreign Areas Officer (FAO). Eric has served in the Republic of Korea, Germany, Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa, and Iraq. His most recent assignment was in Istanbul, Turkey as a student at the Turkish Army War College. He is interested in European and Eurasian languages, cultures and history.
e-mail: adamser

Anna Arays received her BA at Oberlin College, where she studied English and fine art. She has been working in libraries for almost seven years, and her Russian language skills have continually been an asset for her work in special collections, rare books, preservation, and cataloging. She is pursuing a dual MLS/MA at IU, and hopes to find work in a government, academic, or museum library. Her interests are the history of printing and publishing in Russia (particularly samizdat), as well as Polish language and culture and Latvian language and culture.
email: aarays

Margaret Browndorf is pursuing a dual degree with REEI and SLIS in the hopes of becoming an academic librarian. She graduated from Dickinson College in 2008 with degrees in Russian Area Studies and Russian Literature. Her interests include International Librarianship, Ukrainian libraries, Russian literature of the Early Soviet period, Eastern European bookplates and bibliography.
e-mail: browndom

Charles Bonds a native New Mexican, attended Portland State University for Russian and History. By the grace of several gods he found himself in love with Russia during a study abroad semester in the fall of 2008. He has diverse interests and is humbled and excited by the prospect of joining ranks with the fine scholars at REEI and Indiana University. He plans to continue his studies in a doctoral program after picking up some Yiddish and cementing his historiography skills at REEI.
e-mail: cbonds

Crystal DeCell grew up in Idaho and graduated from Mount Holyoke College in 2007 with a major in Russian and Eurasian Studies and from the University of Idaho in 2010 with a major in History. She is interested in the impact of political regimes on the practice of science and how nations use technology and natural resources in pursuit of security and political supremacy.
e-mail: cdecell

Josh Harris graduated with a B.A. in Russian and English literature from the University of the South in 2007. He spent a year in fourteen eastern and central European countries pursuing a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship project entitled Blades and Rails: Ice Hockey, Train Travel, and Slavic Culture in the Former Soviet Bloc. He currently resides in Bloomington, where he's pursuing an M.A. in post-soviet Polish cultural studies and Russian postmodernist literature. He hopes to join the M.P.A. program at SPEA and pursue a career in development or foreign service.
e-mail: harrijob

Brett Homkes is originally from Michigan and graduated from Grand Valley State University with a BA in History and Russian Studies. He was a member of the Russian Honors Society and Phi Alpha Theta Historical Honors Society while at GVSU. Brett is interested in early Soviet history and is considering continuing on to a PhD program following completion of his MA degree.
e-mail: bhomkes

Leah Jakaitis is from Albany, New York and completed a B.S. in science and technology studies from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in 2008. She is pursuing a joint M.A./M.L.S. at IU, specializing in Yiddish and Czech languages, and rare books and manuscripts. Her academic interest is in book history and incunabula printing in central Europe. She plans to continue with a Ph.D. on the history of the book in central Europe.
e-mail: ljakaiti

James Joeriman graduated in 2002 from the University of Florida with a double major in Russian and Psychology. Since graduating he has worked as a translator, mostly freelance, but also briefly on a couple projects for the USGS. His primary interests are environmental issues in the FSU and corporate, social, and governmental initiatives/responsibility in the area of sound environmental management.
e-mail: jjoerima

Adam Julian grew up in Southern Indiana and received a BA in History from Indiana University in 2007. He is interested in higher education in politically autonomous regions of the former Soviet Union, specifically with regard to socio-linguistic issues surrounding ethnic minorities. Adam received a Fulbright Research Grant to study in Moldova during the 2011-2012 academic year where he is studying the revitalization of Gagauz language and Culture. Following the completion of his Fulbright Grant, Adam will return to the REEI to complete his MA and also hopes to join the MPA program at SPEA.
e-mail: aljulian

Ian Karanovich is an Indiana native who graduated with a B.A. in Geography-International Studies from IU in 2008. Moving to Belgrade, Serbia after graduation, he worked as an English instructor, and also volunteered for NGOs. At REEI, he is focusing on the history, politics and demography of the former Yugoslavia. Ian intends to relocate back to Belgrade, upon completion of his M.A., to work at an NGO or to pursue a doctorate at the University of Belgrade's Political Sciences faculty.
e-mail: ikaranov

Austin Kellogg graduated from Rutgers University with B.S. in Environmental Policy. Soon after, she joined the Peace Corps and volunteered in the Republic of Armenia. She is pursuing an MPA/MA degree focusing on Nonprofit Management and study of the Balkans region. Her interest lies in youth and gender development in the Caucasus and Balkans.
e-mail: alkellog

Zach Kelly was born and raised in Wisconsin and finished his undergrad at UW-Madison in Russian Language and Literature. He enjoyed spending his final year in St. Petersburg, Russia. Before coming to IU, he participated in BALSSI, taking Estonian. His current focus is post-Soviet youth culture and gender studies in Russia and Estonia. He plans to continue onto his Ph.D., focusing on Northern European linguistics, i.e. Slavic and Finno-Ugric.
e-mail: zwkelly

Coady Kleinert is originally from Lexington, KY and graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in Russian Studies in 2008. She spent a summer studying in Vladimir, Russia in 2006. Coady spent a year doing Teach for America in Indianapolis before starting graduate school. She is interested in literature and religion in Russia and Eastern Europe.
e-mail: ekleiner

Leonard Leid grew up a farmer in rural Pennsylvania and graduated in 2008 with a Bachelor's degree in International Relations. He became interested in Romanian studies after a series of trips there in the past several years. More specifically, he is interested in the movements of trafficked people, the Romani in Eastern Europe, and collective memory of the Communist years. He participated in SWSEEL 2010 by studying Macedonian.
e-mail: lhleid

Kelly Lostroscio is originally from Chicago, Illinois, but grew up in Dallas. She graduated from IU with her B.A. in Russian and Criminal Justice in 2007. In the spring of 2006, she studied abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia. This experience influenced her research interests in economic development in the former Soviet Union and former Yugoslavia. She is currently pursuing a joint MA/MPA degree and is studying Serbo-Croatian.
e-mail: klostros

Rebecca Mueller grew up in central Wisconsin and received her B.A. in Anthropology from Smith College in May 2008. After college, she served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Albania. Rebecca is an REEI M.A. student interested in contemporary Southeast European culture, politics, and diaspora communities. She speaks Albanian and began studying Croatian through SWSEEL during the summer of 2011.
email: rebmuell

Jeff Naylor is originally from central Missouri. He graduated from Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri in 2005 with B.A. degrees in history and Russian. While an undergraduate, he spent a summer in Moscow studying the Russian language. Continuing work from his undergraduate thesis, Jeff hopes to study the populist movement in nineteenth-century Russia and its influence in Poland. After completing his MA, Jeff hopes to work in academia or for a humanitarian organization.
e-mail: jcnaylor

Robert Craig Perry is originally from Pensacola, FL. Craig graduated from the University of South Alabama in 1999 with a BS in Biology and a minor in Chemistry. Currently, he serves as a U.S. Army Foreign Area Officer, Eurasia Region. Most recently, he served as the Chief of Security Assistance and Military Cooperation at the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and studied at the George C. Marshall Center for European Security Studies.
email: robcperr

Elizabeth Plantan graduated from Wesleyan University in May 2010 with a BA in Government and Russian & East European Studies and a certificate in Environmental Studies. As an undergraduate, she studied in Irkutsk and worked for Great Baikal Trail, an environmental organization that builds hiking trails and provides environmental education to the Baikal region. Originally from Indianapolis, Elizabeth is happy to be back in her home state to pursue her research in Russian environmental policy and comparative politics. She hopes to enter into a PhD program in Political Science after earning her MA degree at REEI.
e-mail: entramme

Katherine Pruess graduated from the University of Missouri in 2006 with degrees in Russian and Political Science. She worked as a research assistant at the Kennan Institute in Washington, D.C., before spending two years teaching English on the Fulbright Program in Russia. Her main interests are culture and history in Soviet and post-Soviet Russia.
e-mail: kpruess

Blake Reinhold is an Air Force brat originally from New York State. He graduated from Stony Brook University with a degree in political science and minor in Russian in 2007. Since then he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the NGO development program in Ust-Kamenogorsk, Kazakhstan, and has spent time translating and teaching in Sochi, Russia. Blake is interested in Russian politics and foreign policy, as well as Russian literature and language.
e-mail: hreinhol

Chris Roush received his B.A. in Intelligence Studies from the American Military University. Chris is interested in Soviet History, especially the operations and influences of the Soviet intelligence and security apparatus. He hopes to pursue a Ph.D. after completion of his M.A. degree.
e-mail: cjroush

Sebastian Schulman received a BA with Distinction in History and Jewish Studies from McGill University in 2006. Since then, he has worked at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, the Workmen's Circle and other non-profits as a teacher, translator, researcher and coordinator of educational programs. In 2007-2008, he was awarded a Jewish Service Corps Fellowship by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, during which time he assisted in revitalizing Jewish life in Minsk, Belarus and Kishinev (Chisinau), Moldova. At IU, his research interests include Jewish history and culture in the former Soviet Union.
e-mail: zschulma

Karli Jo Storm is a graduate of Drake University, where she studies International Relations and Russian. After graduating, she was a Fulbright Fellow in Azerbaijan where she taught English to a variety of students. Her research interests are in the Caucasus region, as well as development and international relations.
e-mail: ktstorm

Jennifer Strayer is pursuing a dual degree with REEI and SLIS with hope of becoming a government or academic librarian. She graduated in 2009 from Hastings College in Nebraska with a degree in Musicology and History. Her interests include history and culture of the Balkans and cultural destruction in times of conflict. In her free time, she is a member of IU's All Campus Band.
e-mail: jeastray

Jason Vincz, a Florida native, grew up mostly in southern Indiana, surrounded by stonemasons and academics. After graduating from Harvard and writing film criticism for the Village Voice, he moved to Iowa to earn the very lucrative Master of Fine Arts in Poetry, since which, of necessity, he has developed interests in cuisine, agriculture, and labor politics. He has joined the Russian and East European Institute in hopes of studying the ethno-political and economic structures of Transylvania and Siberia.
e-mail: jvincz

Adam White, originally from Waukegan, IL, graduated in 1997 from what was then Southwest Missouri State University with a BS in Wildlife Management. Currently a US Army Eurasian Foreign Area Officer, his last assignment was to the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. He has also served multiple tours in South Korea and Iraq. His interests included the effects of international actors on the political and economic development of the countries of the former Soviet Union.
e-mail: whiteah

Meg White is originally from California and graduated from UCLA with a B.A. in Psychology and a Russian Language minor. She traveled Russia as an undergraduate and decided to teach English there after graduation. She returned from the year in Russia with a passion for researching Russian national identity construction and Russia’s changing political and cultural relationship with the countries of Central Asia, specifically focusing on Tajikistan.
e-mail: whitemee

April Wilson graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a B.A. in Russian and Chinese. She received her J.D. from Indiana University Maurer School of Law. April is currently pursuing a dual MA/MPA with SPEA. She is interested in international law and policy, focusing on transition economies and development.
e-mail:aprwilso

Anastasia Wypasek grew up in Akron, Ohio and graduated from Saint Francis University in 2008 with a degree in history and English Literature. She is interested in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Polish history and literature.
e-mail: awypasek

Emily Young graduated from Carleton College with a degree in music. She has studied abroad in Wales and Russia, served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Albania, and is currently pursuing a dual MIS/MA with SLIS and REEI. Emily's interests include the history, culture, and politics of Russia and the Balkans.
e-mail: emjyoung