Biography
I am a PhD candidate in History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where I focus on the political, cultural, and social history of the Soviet Union. My dissertation, “Tactical Representation: Political Goals in the Soviet National Soccer Team (1952-1972),” harnesses previously untapped primary and secondary sources to examine the complex intersections of institutional, national, and regional power structures in the USSR through the lens of the Soviet National Soccer Team (Sbornaia), from the team’s official genesis in 1952 to the end of its “golden era” in 1972. In Soviet soccer, a wide array of governmental organizations, industrial leaders, politicians, and sport administrators from all over the USSR actively intervened in sporting affairs, vying for power and influence. I am particularly interested in exploring the reasons behind the shifting locus of representation embodied by the national soccer team: why and how Moscow, endowed with all of the USSR’s most important political institutions, dominant sport institutions, and the best clubs in the country, lost its monopoly on the Soviet team as Tbilisi and especially Kyiv grew in importance. My dissertation explains how a mix of key individuals, political changes, new societal norms, strengthening nationalism in the republics, fragmentation of power in Moscow, evolving regional sport/governmental institutions, and hockey (of all things) played crucial role in impacting the national team’s meaning, composition, and results. In this context, I explore nationalism’s connection to modernity, localism, and empire to unravel the political entanglements that festered in and around the Soviet team in the struggles to shape its image as an icon of “Soviet” identity.
Education
M.A., Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia
B.A., Nazareth University
Field
- European History
Working Dissertation Title
- Tactical Representation: Political Goals in the Soviet National Football Team (1952-1972)
Selected Publications
- “Kyiv 1 Moscow 0: Player Transfers and Ukraine’s Rise to the Top of Soviet Soccer (1953-1963),” upcoming publication at the Journal of Sport History
- “National and Local Identity in Soviet Football,” History with Jackson, 2024
- Unthawed: Post-Cold War Economic Ties Between Kaliningrad and Europe. 2018.
- Калининград и Европа: Экономика (Kaliningrad and Europe: Economy). 2018.
Selected Awards
- Stephen F. Cohen–Robert C. Tucker Dissertation Completion Fellowship, The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES), 2024
- Visiting Fellowship, Leibniz Institute of European History, 2024
- Fellowship for Doctoral Students, Leibniz Institute of European History, 2024 (Declined)
- FIFA Research Scholarship, Centre International d’Étude du Sport (CIES), 2024 (Declined)
- The North American Society for Sport History (NASSH) Graduate Student Essay Award, 2024
- Early Career Scholar Award, European Committee for Sports History, 2024
- The Russia Program and the Bridge Research Network Fieldwork Scholarship, 2023
- Senn Award, UW-Madison, 2023
- Kennan Institute Title VIII Summer Research Scholarship, 2022
- New York Public Library Short-Term Research Fellowship, 2022
- Stephen F. Cohen–Robert C. Tucker Dissertation Research Fellowship (ASEEES), 2022
- The North American Society for Sport History Dissertation Research Award, 2022
- Title VIII Summer Research Laboratory Associateship (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), 2022
- Title VIII, Ukrainian language at Indiana University, 2021
- Foreign Language & Area Studies Fellowship, Poland (academic year), 2020
Professional Affiliations
- Visiting Fellow at the Leibniz Institute for European History, 2024 – present
- Visiting Researcher at the Georgian Football Federation, 2023
- Visiting Researcher at the University of Lausanne, 2023
- Réseaux d’Études des Relations Internationales Sportives member, 2023
Courses Taught as TA
- History 101 – American History to the Civil War era
- History 136 – Sport, Recreation, & Society in the United States