Graduate Students

Lee Andrews

MA Student

Email:

leeandre@iu.edu

Lee Andrews is a student at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. His research focuses on area studies of Central Eastern Europe and, more specifically, on security and defense. He will graduate with a BA in Central Eurasian Studies and is beginning graduate work in Russian and Eastern European Studies via the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and Eastern European Institute. His research time is spent on hybrid threats and warfare affecting the Visegrad Group. Lee is a recipient of the Jesse and Beulah Access Cox Scholarship, the U.S. Department of Education Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship, and Indiana University’s Provost Award for Undergraduate Research.

Emma Carlson

MA Student

Email:

emmecarl@iu.edu

Emma Carlson graduated from Montana State University in the spring of 2023 with bachelor’s degrees in English Literature and History. Her research interests focus on the Balkans, specifically the republics of the former-Yugoslavia. She is passionate about how language and narrative has shaped foreign policy decisions in the Balkans. Emma has completed an intensive summer language program for Turkish at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and a year of Russian language instruction as a recipient of the Critical Language Scholarship Spark award. As a recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Scholarship, she has also completed the virtual Russian Language and Area Studies Program through American Councils in Chisinau, Moldova. Emma will study Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian as an MA student at REEI. She is interested in learning more about Russian influence in Bosnia and Serbia, and how the structure of the Dayton Accords has furthered divisions between ethnicities. She hopes to pursue a career in diplomacy, human rights, conflict resolution, and genocide prevention in the Balkans.

Kirby Fleitz

MA Student

Email:

kfleitz@iu.edu

Kirby Fleitz graduated from Indiana University in May of 2021 with high academic distinction with a B.A. in History and a minor in Polish Studies. She was a Hutton Honors College member and a member of the Collins Living Learning Center at IU, serving in the Board of Educational Programming and as the LLC’s Fee Committee Chair. Kirby’s history capstone papers examined the evolution of post-WW2 reconstruction of Warsaw. After graduating she did a solo six-week trip to Poland, focusing on visiting museums and monuments dedicated to the Communist era. At REEI, Kirby plans to continue her studies on Polish history & culture, with a focus on the 20th century and understanding Poland as both a colonizer and a colonized country. The Interwar period is of particular interest to her. Post REEI, Kirby hopes to work at a Polish/East European research/cultural institute or continue onto a PhD program and into academia.

Brittany Janosi

MA / MLS Student

Email:

bajanosi@iu.edu

Brittany Janosi graduated from the University of Connecticut in 2021 with a Bachelor’s degree in English Literature and American Studies and an Associate’s Degree in Liberal Arts. Brittany grew up in a Hungarian and Romanian household, whose family immigrated to the United States during the fall of communism in both countries. At Indiana University, Brittany will be a part of two programs –the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute and the Luddy School’s Department of Information and Library Science. Her regions of interest include Hungary and Romania, where she is interested in researching communism’s effects on record & artifact retention, cultural memory, and the importance of physical historical objects in these countries, post-communism. Brittany hopes to become head of an East European library/archive collection or continue onto a PhD program and pursue a career in academia.

Rubble Kazi

MA Student

Email:

rukazi@iu.edu

Ru Kazi graduated cum laude from the University of Richmond in May 2020, majoring in Political Science and Russian Studies. He started his MA at Georgetown University and is continuing it as a FLAS recipient at REEI. Interested in the structure of government and the socio-cultural impact of dissent, Ru intends to research the means by which oppositionists can initiate and enact reform within the Putin regime. Outside of the classroom, Ru is a competitive weightlifter, enjoys cooking and experiencing diverse cuisine. Currently, he is the US Membership Coordinator for IHRSA, the Global Health and Fitness Association.

Nika Khomeriki

MA Student

Email:

nkhomer@iu.edu

Nika grew up in Georgia and finished his undergraduate studies at the Free University of Tbilisi with a BA in International Relations. He studied East Asia and the Chinese language as a part of his undergraduate education. Nika has worked as a teaching assistant at the university and as a lecturer at the student club. During his senior year, he also interned at the US Embassy in Tbilisi and researched the politics of the Russian Federation at GFSIS (Georgian Foundation for Strategic and International Studies). His research interests include Soviet cinema, literature, history; Khrushchev Thaw and its effects on nationalism, artistic freedom; Ukrainian history and culture. 

Ryan McCrea

MA Student

Email:

ryamccre@iu.edu

Ryan McCrea’s interest in Russia and Eastern Europe stemmed from his long-time interest in chess and the many Soviet grandmasters that changed the game. Graduating summa cum laude from Texas Tech University in the fall of 2023, Ryan double majored in Russian Language and Political Science as a recipient of the TTU Presidential Merit Scholarship. In 2023, he presented at the American Political Science Association in Los Angeles, on the topic of Georgia as a representative democracy in crisis. He finished his degree at TTU with Highest Honors by writing an undergraduate thesis titled “Russian Foreign Policy in the post-Soviet Era”. His academic interests include Russian and Georgian politics, Soviet literature, and proxy wars. In his personal life, Ryan enjoys playing and teaching chess, cooking, soccer, and ballroom dancing.

Lewis Poggie

MA Student

Email:

lpoggie@iu.edu

Lewis Poggie graduated from Purdue University in 2023 with a major degree in Computer Animation and minor in History. His area of study is the intersection between politics, crime, and digital media in former Warsaw Pact countries. He is a frequent contributor to the Deep Cuts podcast, where he has provided research and scripts for episodes on the Czechoslovak Legion and Russian internet culture. He studied Russian at Purdue University and completed the 2023 Indiana University Azerbaijani Summer Language Workshop.

Sydney Verel

MA Student

Email:

sverel@iu.edu

Sydney Verel graduated from Houghton University in the Spring of 2022 with a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science.  While at Houghton she was a member of the “East Meets West” honors program which explored history, theology, and political science through study of the Balkans.  At REEI, Sydney plans to continue her studies on Balkan history and politics as the recipient of the Ann and David Erne Fellowship for Serbian studies.  Sydney will be studying Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian at IU, and hopes to use it in her study of ethnopolitical relations and identities in the decline of Yugoslavia.

Tabor Walls

MA Student

Email:

tabwalls@iu.edu

Tabor Walls, raised on a cattle farm near Bloomington and the first in his family to pursue higher education, completed an accelerated course of study at Ivy Tech and subsequently worked in the Admissions office there. His passion for studying the Cold War and nuclear history led him to the Hamilton Lugar School at Indiana University. During his first semester there, he was a Teaching Assistant for a course on "Artificial Intelligence and the Race to Rule the World." Tabor has undertaken Russian language studies, including an intensive summer program, and will continue learning the language as an MA student. At REEI, he aims to focus on Cold War Soviet history, particularly nuclear weapons and arms control, with the goal of working for an organization dedicated to advancing public and policymaker understanding of nuclear arms control.