ACADEMIC WORK
I am an incoming Master of Arts in Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies (MAERES) student at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service. I also hold a Master of Theological Studies (MTS) from Harvard Divinity School, where my area of focus was Religion, Ethics, and Politics, and a Bachelor of Arts (BA) from Mercer University, where I majored in International Affairs, Political Science, and History, and minored in Religion and Public Diplomacy.
I am interested in the politics of religious transformation in the post-Soviet space. My research explores how religious actors—be they local or transnational, indigenous or introduced, majority or minority, state-backed or state-repressed—and other important stakeholders in religious affairs within state and society have navigated the labile epistemic and ontological landscape that has emerged in the wake of the collapse of state socialism, adapting to (and actively working to shape) the post-Soviet religio-political order. I am particularly interested in how these processes intersect with—how they inform and are informed by—broader debates and contests over historical memory, national identity, sovereignty, and legitimacy, and even more fundamentally, questions about governance, belonging, meaning, and purpose.
PROFESSIONAL WORK
In 2020, I was a Summer Scholar with the National Council on US-Arab Relations—with whom I have also served as both a delegate and chairman for the Model Arab League program—where I learned more about the Arab world and worked to help promote a better understanding of it among the American public.
In 2021, I interned with Churches for Middle East Peace and helped mobilize Christians to advocate for security, equality, and justice for the people of the Middle East. That same year, I also had the opportunity to take part in a service-learning trip to Georgia. While I was there, I worked with a diverse coalition of civil society leaders to advocate for the human rights of marginalized ethnic and religious communities in the country. I returned to the South Caucasus in 2023 to study Azerbaijani at the Azerbaijan University of Languages through the U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarship program.
In 2022, I was a research assistant for Dr. David P. Gushee—with whom I co-authored an article in the Journal of Reformed Theology that was published this year—and served as a teaching assistant for an introductory international affairs course.
In 2023, through the Field Education program at Harvard Divinity School, I started working as a Research Associate at the Institute for Peace Studies in Eastern Christianity. So far, I have researched the way that conflicting visions for society championed by religious institutions have influenced public policy and sentiment in Eastern Europe in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In 2024, as a recipient of a research grant from the Program on Georgian Studies at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, I was in Georgia conducting research with the Georgian Institute of Politics on the ways in which the victims of religious intolerance use the politics of memory to defend their identities and contest the exclusionary narratives advanced by the perpetrators and enablers of religious intolerance and violence. To do so, I looked at some of the many modes of expression through which the identities of victims of religious intolerance are shaped—like folklore, oral and written histories, museums, and cultural heritage sites like graveyards and religious buildings—and investigated how they tied into their political initiatives.
I returned to Georgia in early 2025, and this summer, I will be interning at the U.S. Helsinki Commission.
EXTRACURRICULAR ENGAGEMENTS
Beyond my academic and professional endeavors, I have involved myself in a number of student organizations and extracurricular activities. From 2020 to 2023, I served as a member of the Undergraduate Honor Council and as the President of Bears Engaged Across Religions, the Mercer International Affairs Organization, and the Mercer International Mock Conference Association. At Harvard, I participated in programming and organizations both within the Divinity School, across the broader university, and around Greater Boston. I was, for example, a member of the Lowell House Society of Russian Bell Ringers and a participant in a J-Term trip to Georgia organized by the Program on Georgian Studies. As I move to Washington, DC, I hope to continue to be involved in communities founded on shared academic, professional, and personal interests.
LOOKING BACK AND MOVING FORWARD
I was recognized by Peace Catalyst International for my academic, professional, and extracurricular work with the inaugural Rick Love Young Innovators in Peacebuilding Award in 2022. I have since been recognized with other awards and honors as well, including election to Phi Beta Kappa. I graduated from Mercer University summa cum laude and with University Honors in 2023, and graduated from Harvard Divinity School earlier this year, having been awarded the Dean's Fellowship for the duration of my time at the institution.
Ultimately, I hope to better understand the religious dimensions of conflict through my work. Doing so will prepare me to serve as a more effective peacebuilder and policymaker in the future, equipping me to challenge the misuse of religion by actors who seek to provoke violence and hatred for political gain.