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I hail from Milwaukee, WI. In May 2014, I graduated from Kenyon College, where I double majored in political science and Russian area studies. At Kenyon, I served as editor-in-chief of a student news and commentary blog The Thrill and worked as a Russian Language Apprentice Teacher.

My interest in the region began in high school during an independent study of European history. As a first year at Kenyon, I then enrolled in an intensive introduction to Russian and was hooked. I studied abroad for two summers in St. Petersburg, Russia and for two summers at the Kathryn Davis School of Russian at Middlebury College.

I chose CERES due to its wide variety of course offerings, intensity and strong faculty across many disciplines. Additionally, CERES allows me to pursue both professional and academic tracks simultaneously. My focus in CERES is Russian foreign policy and Soviet history and culture. My additional research interests include Russo-Belorussian relations and Russian celebrity culture in the Putin era.

During the 2014-2015 academic year, I participated in the Center on Global Interest’s Rising Experts Program, in which I explored the effectiveness of Chinese soft power amongst Russian elite and Russian youth. In the Spring 2015, I then interned for the Russia-Eurasia program at The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). While there, I conducted extensive research pertaining to the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s military presence in Central Asia.

I first presented research on Russo-Belorussian relations at the CIPS/CIPSS Graduate Student Conference at the University of Montreal in March 2015. Most recently, in November 2015, I pre-sented my research on the role of celebrities in Putin’s cult of personality at the 47th ASEEES Con-vention.

After CERES, I am considering conducting research on the impact of the Ukraine Crisis on political culture in post-Maidan Ukraine and pursuing a Ph.D. in government.

Follow Leslie on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Leslie_Martin10

Leslie MartinMAERES Class of 2016