Alumni News

Alumni, please send news on your activities since graduation to crees@umich.edu. Include your name, class year(s), degree(s), current activities, as well as address updates so that we may send you occasional postings. Please let us know if we may post this news on our website and if we may share your contact information with current students or recent alumni interested in pursuing an internship or career in your field.


Guntra Aistars (MA REES/MS Natural Resources & Environment ‘98, PhD Natural Resources & Environment ‘08), assistant professor in the Department of Environment, Peace, and Security at the University for Peace in Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica, received a 2010-11 post-doctoral fellowship from Central European University in Budapest. (3/4/11)

Ilya Blinov (DMA ‘10) became lecturer in music at Susquehanna University. (9/18/12)

Cynthia Buckley (BA Economics ‘85, MA REES ‘87, MA Sociology ‘88, PhD Sociology ‘91) became professor of sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in August 2012. (9/18/12)

Anna Cichopek-Gajraj (PhD History ‘08) began a new position as assistant professor in the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies and Center for Judaic Studies at Arizona State University in Fall 2011. (10/4/11)

Stephen D. Corrsin (MA History/MILS ‘78; PhD History ‘81) left his position as assistant director of acquisitions at the New York Public Library in late 2010 to become curator of the Library’s Dorot Jewish Division and team leader for NYPL’s Slavic collections. (1/20/11)

Leslie Davis (PhD Slavic ‘96) left her position at U-M’s Center for International Business Education to become director of the Office of Global Outreach at U-M’s School of Nursing. (12/7/11)

Eva-Marie Dubuisson (PhD Anthropology ‘09) became assistant professor of anthropology at Bogazici University in Fall 2011. (4/9/12)

Steven Fagin (MA REES ‘94), a career foreign service officer since 1997, has been counselor for political and economic affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Brussels since September 2010. (4/12/11)

Helen Faller (PhD Anthropology ‘03) wrote Nation, Language, Islam:Tatarstan's Sovereignty Movement. (6/2/11)

Lisa Fein (MA REES ‘94; MA Sociology ‘00; PhD Sociology ‘09) is assistant professor at Westminster College in Fulton, MO. (4/12/11)

Anne Gorsuch (PhD History ‘92) is the author of All This is Your World: Soviet Tourism at Home and Abroad after Stalin (Oxford UP, 2011). (9/18/12)

Brian Grodsky (PhD Political Science ‘06) was promoted to associate professor of political science with tenure at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. (5/15/12)

Stephanie Hitztaler (MA REES/MS Natural Resources & Environment ‘03, PhD Natural Resources & Environment ‘10) has been awarded an IREX Embassy Policy Specialist Fellowship to support research in Moscow and Kamchatka on changes in Russia's forest policies since the institution of the new Forest Code in 2006. (3/4/11)

Eric Anthony Jones (MA Political Science ‘76; PhD Political Science ‘88), a career Foreign Service Officer, is currently serving as Iraq Assistance Team Leader in the State Department’s Bureau of Near East Affairs in Washington. (1/20/11)

Michelle Kelso (PhD Sociology ‘10) is assistant professor of sociology and international affairs at George Washington University. (5/15/12)

David Kostelancik (MA REES ‘88) became director of the Office of Russian Affairs at the U.S. Department of State in June 2012. (7/1/12)

Tijana Krstić (PhD History ‘04) authored Contested Conversions to Islam: Narratives of Religious Change in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire (Stanford UP, 2011). (9/18/12)

Valerie Laken (MA Slavic ‘97, MFA Creative Writing ‘01), assistant professor of English at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, published a new collection of stories set in Russia and the U.S., Separate Kingdoms. (4/12/11)

Anna Lembryk (BA REES/German ‘09) is an international assignment consultant at Deloitte. (2/11/11)

Irina Livezeanu (PhD History ‘86), associate professor of history at the University of Pittsburgh, is president of the Society for Romanian Studies. (9/18/12)

Sonja Luehrmann (PhD Anthropology & History ‘09), assistant professor of anthropology at Simon Fraser University, is the author of Secularism Soviet Style: Teaching Atheism and Religion in a Volga Republic. (12/7/11)

Mary Manjikian (MA Political Science ‘94, PhD Political Science ‘97), assistant professor at the Regent University Robertson School of Government, received a Fulbright Research Scholarship to support a 3-month residency at Durham University, UK. (4/9/12)

Deborah Michaels (PhD Education/Graduate Certificate REES ‘09) is assistant professor of education at Grinnell College. (4/12/11)

Kelly Miller (PhD Slavic ‘02) became director of Teaching and Learning Services and Head of the College Library at UCLA in August 2011. (8/1/11)

Margarita Nafpaktitis (PhD Slavic ‘03) became Librarian for Slavic Studies at UCLA in August 2011. (8/1/11)

Inna Naroditskaya (PhD Musicology ‘99), associate professor of musiciology at Northwestern University, authored a new book, Bewitching Russian Opera: The Empress from State to Stage. (12/7/11)

Justyna Pas (PhD American Culture ‘08) is assistant professor in the School of Humanities at Lindenwood University. (2/2/11)

Patrick Patterson (PhD History ‘01) is the author of Bought and Sold: Living and Losing the Good Life in Socialist Yugoslavia. (5/15/12)

Raymond Patton (PhD History ‘11) is assistant professor of history at Drury University. (5/15/12)

Mark Pekala (BA Political Science ‘91) was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Latvia in 2012. (9/18/12)

Lara Peterson (MA REES/MS Natural Resources & Environment ‘04) is Russia, Europe, and Near Asia Program Coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service’s International Programs. (2/11/11)

Karen Petrone (PhD History ‘94), associate professor of history at the University of Kentucky, is the author of The Great War in Russian Memory. (7/2/11)

Hadley Renkin (PhD Anthropology ‘07) is assistant professor in the Department of Gender Studies at Central European University, Budapest. (3/4/11)

Carl Sandberg (MA REES ‘73), recipient of U-M's first MA in REES, is founder and CEO of Oxford Ventures LLC, a Silicon Valley-based investment and operations holding company. (2/11/11)

Monica Sendor (BS REES/Psychology ‘09) completed an MA in International Relations/Conflict Management at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies in May 2011 and subsequently entered the Foreign Service. (10/4/11)

Mila Shevchenko (PhD Slavic ‘08) joined the faculty at the University of Denver as lecturer of Russian language, literature, and culture. (10/4/11)

Jennifer Smith-Lee (MA REES/MS Natural Resources & Environment ‘04) is executive director of the Baikal-Tahoe Institute, a non-profit dedicated to help preserve these and other significant and threatened lake ecosystems around the world. (2/11/11)

LTC Daniel Soller (MA REES ‘02) is assigned to the U.S. Army Intelligence & Security Command headquarters at Ft. Belvoir, VA, and will pursue a master’s degree in national security strategy at the National War College in Washington, DC. (6/15/11)

Julie Subrin (BA American Culture ‘90; MA History ‘97) is executive producer for Tablet Magazine’s audio content, including “Vox Tablet,” which was named Best Podcast at the National Magazine Awards for Digital Media in 2010. (1/20/11)

Olga Supek (MA Anthropology ‘76; PhD Anthropology ‘82) is an assistant professor in the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Zadar. (4/12/11)

Magdalena Szaflarski (BA REES/German ‘90; MA REES ‘93) is assistant professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences and the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. (4/12/11)

Milena Todorova (MA REES/MPP Public Policy ‘09) is a project officer at the Applied Research & Communications Fund, an innovation policy & research institute in Sofia, Bulgaria. (4/1/11)

Lenny Urena Valerio (PhD History ‘10) is assistant director of U-M’s Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies. (4/12/11)

Katarzyna Zechenter (PhD Slavic ‘95), lecturer in Polish literature at the School of Slavonic & East European Studies, University College London, published a new volume of poetry, W Cieniu Drzewa. (6/15/11)