Current M.A. Students' Profiles

Jeff Gerring graduated from Georgia State University with a BA in Geography, concentrating in Geographic Information Systems.  He has been in the Navy since 1996, and has deployed to the Middle East, South America, Europe, and the Western Pacific.  He is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Naval Science for the Naval ROTC program at UNC.  He is concentrating in Security Studies of the Balkan region, and hopes to become a Foreign Area Officer for the US Navy.

Matthew Green is from southwestern Virginia, where he took BAs in International Studies and Political Science from Virginia Tech. Although he wrote his thesis on center-periphery relations in the Russian Federation, he is still unsure as to what his exact area of emphasis will be at Carolina. In his free time, he enjoys reading, cycling, and running up ridiculously high golf scores.

Katrina Nowak graduated in 2004 from the University of Rochester with a BA in History. She spent 2 years on active duty in the United States Navy and now serves as a Reservist. Her concentration is in Russian, with a focus on History and Political Science. After completing an MA, she hopes to continue her education. Career interests include teaching and government employment.

Ashley Timidaiski lived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the first 20 years of her life before moving with her family to South Carolina. She attended Middlebury College where she pursued a BA in Russian and Eastern European Studies. During her junior year she studied abroad in Yaroslavl, Russia, and served an internship at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. After graduation in May of 2007, she spent a summer at Indiana University studying Polish, which she will continue to study at UNC. Her academic interests are the Russian and Polish languages, as well as Russian and Polish politics and foreign relations.

Jessica Golliday grew up in northern Virginia. She received a BA in international relations and Russian language and literature from Mount Holyoke College. After graduation, she studied in Tbilisi, Georgia before beginning work with the Institute of International Education in Washington, D.C. At UNC she plans to study Russian history, politics, and language as well as Russian-Georgian relations.

Jie Shen graduated from Peking University in China with a BA in Russian language and literature. He came to UNC with his interest in the culture of Russian speaking countries and hope to explore a specific concentration within the area. After completing his MA, he wants to continue his education, and then spend some of his lifetime to experience the Russian countries.

Nicole Balkind Nicole Balkind grew up in upstate New York and graduated from Tufts University in May 2006 with a BA in International Relations and Russian and East European Studies. She studied Arabic and the Middle East while an undergraduate, and hopes to combine this interest with Russian Area studies while at UNC. In her spare time Nicole enjoys being a "political junkie" and traveling.

Nydia Fors graduated from the University of Florida in 2003 with a BA in Linguistics and minors in Russian, TESL, and Anthropology.  After completing her degree she spent time in New York working and hanging around Brighton Beach till she got the chance to go to Russia, where she spent the next 3 years teaching English and studying Russian.  While figuring out what it is she wants to focus on at UNC, Nydia enjoys traveling, cooking, and physical activity.

Tabitha Walker graduated from UNC Charlotte in 2005 with a BA in International Studies and German. After completing her BA she moved to Olsztyn, Poland, where she taught at a private English school. At UNC she will be focusing on the Polish and Serbian languages, and researching issues of identity and national character in Poland. In her free time, Tabitha enjoys international cuisine, traveling and jazz.

Zumrat Salmorbekova graduated from Kyrgyz National State University in 1995 with a MA in Kyrgyz History. After completing the degree she worked for the Institute for Regional Studies, NGO in Kyrgyzstan. In 2005 she implemented UNIFEM “Gender dimensions in the system of early warning and conflict prevention in the Ferghana Valley” project. In 2006-2007 Zumrat was a gender mainstreaming consultant for the UNDP “Peace and Development” program. At UNC she is interested in studying the situation in Serbia and Croatia with the special focus on Kosovo problem.