A Russian major provides preparation for a wide range of careers, including law, journalism, international relations, business, public health, ecology, translation, teaching, and graduate work in the humanities or social sciences.
The following link is information from the Macalester Career Development Center about Russian Studies alumni career paths:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j9p68sJ8gVHoWEKjip2x9bEvGG9j_Xu9AVsuSBkbB0o/edit
ALUMS! Send recent news and photos to Julia Chadaga at [email protected].
Recent Updates
Mallie Kermiet ’20 is working at the National Democratic Institute in Washington, DC.
Jadie Minhas ‘20 has received a fully-funded scholarship for the PhD program in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University.
Daniel Szetela ’19 has been hired as a Participant Recruiter in Secondary School Programs at American Councils for International Education. He will be working in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Anna Ivanov ’18 is completing her doctorate in Slavic Languages and Literatures at Harvard University.
Susan Stalter ’18 is a Program Analyst at Buaya Pacific Management, LLC in Monterey, CA
Dagmara Franczak ’17 is a Senior EU Policy Consultant at Monitor Deloitte in Brussels, Belgium
Ingrid Korsgard ’13 is a Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. Department of State.
Lindsay Daniels ‘12 is the Manager of Legal Personnel at Arnold & Porter in Washington, DC
Wendy Guyot ’97 is the Director of Strategy Realization and Communications at Mercy Corps in Portland, Oregon
Alumni by Decade: 2010 | 2000 | 1990
Salman Haji ’14 (Albuquerque, NM), a Pickering Fellow, is pursuing a master’s in international affairs at American University and interning with the U.S. State Department.
Ruxi Zhang ’14 (Beijing, China) is pursuing a PhD in political science at Stanford University.
Ingrid Korsgard ’13 (Madison, WI) has been accepted into the Young Professionals Network program of the Eurasia Foundation, and is now pursuing an M.S. in Development Management at American University.
Tabbey Walquist ’13 (Lisle, IL) works in the ministry program at Kiev Church of Christ.
Matthew Butler ’12 (Southlake, TX) is pursuing a graduate degree at the School of International Service at American University.
Lindsay Daniels ’12 (Bloomburg, TX) is teaching in New York City with Teach for America.
Kaitlyn Arctander ’11 (Sea Cliff, NY) teaches English in Russia for Language Link.
Wendi Bootes ’10 (Tucson, AZ) is pursuing a PhD in Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley, after receiving an MA in European and Russian studies at Yale University.
Matthew Thrasher ’10 (St. Louis Park, MN) is the Perkins Collaboration Liaison for North Hennepin Community and Hennepin Technical Colleges.
Katherine Whitmore ’10 (West Bend, WI) is currently a Peace Corps volunteer in Kazakhstan.
Sarah Dicks ’09 (New Castle, NH), is teaching English in Russia for Language Link
Luke Franklin ’09 (Castle Rock, CO) is pursuing a graduate degree at the Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver.
Merve Demirel ’08 (Istanbul, Turkey) is completing a JD at American University in Washington, D.C.
Sarah Sutter ’08 (Hanover, IN) received a PhD in Slavic studies and ethnomusicology at the University of Michigan. She is working on an anthology of Eastern European women’s literary representations of mothers and motherhood.
Curran Hughes ’07 (Towson, MD) is completing a graduate degree in developmental agriculture at the University of California–Davis.
Cassandra Hartblay ’06 (Amherst, MA) is working toward her PhD in anthropology from the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.
Elizabeth Everson ’05 (Chilton, WI) entered graduate school at the University of Michigan to study Russian culture and Library Science.
Krista Goff ’04 (Renton, Wash.) recently completed her Ph.D. in History from the University of Michigan. She was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies before going on accepting a tenure track job at the University of Miami.
Emily Baran ’03 (Wauwatosa, Wash.) completed her Ph.D. in History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is now a tenure-track assistant professor at Middle Tennessee State University.
Eric Scheufler ’03 (Arlington Heights, IL) won a U.S. English language teaching assistantship in Austria, managed by the Austrian Fulbright Commission, to teach in Austrian secondary schools. He is currently in graduate school at the University of Washington–Seattle.
Lewis Thompson ’02 (Lincoln, NE), participated in the ACM study abroad semester and graduated with a double major in RCEES and economics. He received a master’s degree in economics at Saint Petersburg State University. He is currently a general partner at Lincoln International Fund, LP.
Owen Kohl ’02 (Wellesley, MA) received a Watson Fellowship to study in France, Senegal, Croatia, Mongolia, and Russia. The title of his project was “A Post-Colonial Hip-Hop Testimonial.” He received a PhD in anthropology at the University of Chicago, writing his dissertation on hip-hop in the former Yugoslavia.
Emilia Simeonova ’02 (Targovishte, Bulgaria), completed a PhD in economics at Columbia, and is currently assistant professor of economics at Princeton.
After spending the summer following graduation as a gardener on St. Paul’s Summit Avenue, Quinn Martin ’02 (Woodstock, CT) bought a plane ticket to Russia and started a career as a journalist. He wrote for The Moscow Times, several on-line magazines that deal with Central and Eastern Europe, and magazines here in the States. His particular areas of interest, pursued at Macalester and abroad, include international relations, human rights and the media. Quinn completed a degree in public policy at Columbia University and currently publishes a magazine in Moscow.
Elizabeth Eagen ’00 (Cinncinnati, OH) completed an MPP/MA in public policy and Russian/Central and East European studies at the University of Michigan. She is currently program manager in Human Rights and Governance for the Open Society Foundation.
After having graduated in May, 1999, Jake Rudnitsky (Watertown, MA) returned to Russia and works for the expatriate newspaper, eXile. See his work and more at the website.
Greg Luloff ’99 (Southborough, MA) was a Peace Corps volunteer in Novosibirsk and subsequently completed a law degree at the Northwestern University Law School. He currently works for Amazon.com.
Rachel Green ’98 (Mercer Island, WA) enrolled in the PhD history program at the University of Chicago and is currently completing her dissertation on the adoption of orphans in post-war Russia.
Wendy Guyot ’97 (Portland, OR) completed her master’s at Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies. She is currently working for the International Rescue Committee in the Russian Republic of Ingushetia.
Becky Shields ’96 (St. Peters, MO) completed her master’s in Russian literature at Moscow State University and enrolled in a doctoral program at the University of Wisconsin.
Heidi Lowrey Baines ’95 (Honolulu, HI) spent the summer after graduation working on AIDS education in Moscow. She completed her MD at the University of Washington in 2002 and is currently a resident physician in family practice in Anchorage, Alaska.
Rebecca Hanson ’95 (Massapequa, NY), who majored in history and Russian area studies, earned a Master’s degree at Georgetown University and worked for the CIA and in the White House during the Clinton administration. She is currently pursuing a law degree at the University of Chicago. Hanson says it was probably the language preparation she had at Mac as well as her experience of studying in St. Petersburg that helped her land a job as an analyst with the CIA.
Laura McCallister ’94 (Roanoke, VA), wrote a senior thesis on health in St. Petersburg, and went on to receive a graduate degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. She served as manager of a USAID project operating in Kazakhstan and Russia.
Jenny Abel ’93 spent a year in Siberia in the region of Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest lake, working for the U.S.-based Rural Enterprise Adaptation Program on sustainable farming; then spent two and a half years managing agricultural development projects in Russia and Senegal at Rodale Institute, a sustainable agriculture research and education organization in Pennsylvania. She has since earned a masters degree in food science from Penn State.
Kristin Hayden ’92 was a triple major in Russian, international studies, and Soviet and East European studies. She lived in the Russian House, assisted refugee children from the former Soviet Union at a St. Paul elementary school, and spent a semester studying in Moscow as the Soviet Union was on the verge of collapse. After graduation, her internship at the Foundation for Russian-American Cooperation in Seattle led to another internship at the newly opened Russian consulate in Seattle. That experience in turn helped her gain a job with a Seattle company, which then sent her to Moscow to develop and manage its Russian pharmaceutical business. She has since gone on to found OneWorld Now!, a two year global leadership program for high school youth. “This was an amazing opportunity for a recent grad with no business or medical background. … Thank you, Macalester,” wrote Hayden via email from London.
David Brandenberger ’92 (Appleton, WI) worked as a curricular consultant at Moscow State Linguistic University for a year; then entered Ph.D. program in Soviet history at Harvard; spent 1996-97 academic year ferreting through former Communist Party archives in Moscow; worked in Stalin’s personal library and with Red Army files produced by the NKVD. Since receiving his Ph.D., he taught in the history departments of both Harvard and Yale, and is presently Associate Professor of History at the University of Richmond. He is the author of National Bolshevism: Stalinist Mass Culture and the Formation of Modern Russian National Identity (2002), Epic Revisionism: Russian History and Literature as Stalinist Propaganda (2006), Political Humor under Stalin: an Anthology of Unofficial Jokes and Anecdotes (2010), and the forthcoming Propaganda State: Stalinist Ideology, Terror and Political Indoctrination.
Jed Sunden ’92 (New York, NY), traveled to Kiev, Ukraine for a post-graduate tour and has been the publisher of the Kyiv Post.
Ingrid Summers ’91 (Bellingham, WA) received a full, five-year fellowship to study anthropology at Columbia University, and recently received an IREX fellowship for a year of dissertation research in the Kamchatka Peninsula.
Laura Adams ’90 (Minneapolis, MN) received her Ph.D. in sociology at the University of California at Berkeley, during which she spent 10 months in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Her research involves national holidays in post-Soviet Uzbekistan: how they express new and old identities, and how the Soviet experience fundamentally shaped the way Uzbekistan’s cultural elites understand Uzbek national identity and culture. She was a guest speaker at the 2004 Central Asia Symposium at Macalester. She is currently director of the Program on Central Asia and the Caucasus at Harvard University.