I study the economic and political history of modern and contemporary Eurasia and Eastern Europe within the global context of economic and political development since the Industrial Revolution. My dissertation analyzes the economic, political, and social transformations in the Soviet Union/Russia and Poland through a comparative analysis of the flagship automobile producers of both countries and the evolution of the institutional environments in which they have operated. In May 2017, I passed my general examinations at Princeton with distinction, completing a major field on Imperial Russia, the Soviet Union, and successor states (with Stephen Kotkin and Ekaterina Pravilova), and minor fields on Eastern Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries (with Jan Gross) and post-Soviet politics and political economy (with Mark Beissinger, Department of Politics). 

Before coming to Princeton, I received a B.A. in History (with a minor in Russian language), cum laude, a Research M.A. degree in Economic History, summa cum laude, and an M.A. in Russian and Eurasian Studies, cum laude, from Leiden University in the Netherlands. My master’s thesis on the Russian aluminum industry was awarded the Fruin Prize for the best master’s thesis at the History Department of Leiden University in 2015, as well as the first prize of the Leiden University Thesis Awards for the best master’s thesis at the university in 2016.