International Fellowship Program Archives

Mae Nephew

Mae Nephew is an undergraduate student at Wellesley College where she is studying Russian Area Studies and Political Science. She has lived in Riga, Latvia where she studied Russian and completed an international internship track through the Baltic Center. During her internship she conducted research on russification in Latvia. In addition to research on Russification, Mae has researched the myths and memories of World War II in Latvia and presented her findings at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. While Mae has focused on the Baltic region she is interested in learning more about the Caucasus region and how its history and culture have been preserved.

Katharine Khamhaengwong

Katharine Khamhaengwong has an MA in Central Eurasian Studies from Indiana University, as well as a BA in International Relations and Middle East Studies from Tulane University. She received a Fulbright grant to conduct master’s research in Khulo and Dmanisi on the experiences of rural Muslims in contemporary Georgia. In addition to her international fellowship at the CRRC, she works as a freelance writer and as editor of Binding Hook, a publication focused on digital and emerging technologies and security in Europe. She also taught English in mountainous Adjara for two years and has volunteered with Batumi Raptor Count. Her research has largely focused on Georgian Muslim communities, but she is interested in religious, ethnic, and linguistic minorities in the...

John Amundson

John Amundson joined CRRC as an International Fellow in May 2024. He is a master’s student at the Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at the Munk School at the University of Toronto. His research interests include news media, foreign policy, Eastern Europe, and America. Johnny lived and worked for two years in Odesa, Ukraine and Saint-Petersburg, Russia.

Zachary Fabos

Zachary completed his BA in International Studies at Roosevelt University and MS in Anthropology at Illinois State University. He previously served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Georgia. He was a recent Collaborative Heritage Management Fellow with the American Research Institute of the South Caucasus (ARISC), working in the Georgian region of Kakheti on cultural preservation practices. His research interests include; heritage, memory, transformations of place and space, and their impact on identity and cultural expression in the Caucasus.

Zack Weiss

Zack holds a B.A. from Colorado College with a double major in Political Science and Russian and Eurasian Studies, and a focus on American relations with Russia. Prior to joining CRRC, Zack completed a semester of his bachelor’s degree in Tbilisi studying post-Soviet politics and the Russian language. He has also conducted research in Kyrgyzstan, Albania, and Montenegro on their domestic politics and foreign relations. His interests include public policy, foreign aid, and diplomacy.

Olivia Route

A graduate of UPenn (BA) and Oxford (MSc), Olivia has recently worked for organizations such as People in Need and the Imagine Center for Conflict Transformation. She served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia and a Luce Scholar in Thailand and is excited to dive into Caucasus-related data with CRRC. Her research interests include migration and identity, minority groups, nationalism, and conflict transformation processes.

Sasha Slobodov

Sasha is completing her MA in European, Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the University of Toronto. Prior to joining CRRC, Sasha worked as a Research Associate at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy in Canada, a Research Assistant in the Department of Political Science at the University of British Columbia, and as an English instructor in Spain. She received her BA in International Relations from the University of British Columbia and spent one year abroad studying European Studies at Sciences Po Lyon. Her current research interests include energy geopolitics, civil society and the transition to renewable energy, with a broad regional focus on the South Caucasus, Central Asia and Russia. She speaks English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Julia Xavier

Julia is completing her master’s degree in European and Russian Affairs at the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Toronto, where she holds a Social Sciences and Humanities Council Scholarship. Previously, she obtained an Honors Bachelor of Arts with High Distinction at the University of Toronto, having mastered in History and Women and Gender Studies. Her interests include the impact of gender on policy making and the forms of resistance utilized by women in protesting against gendered discrimination. A native English speaker, Julia also has intermediate Russian language skills.