Congratulations to Elizabeth Davidson, who has graduated from the MA in Slavic and East European Studies program this autumn 2020 semester!

What first piqued your interest in Eastern Europe?

I used to compete internationally in synchronized swimming, and the country that always came first in every event was Russia. I had the opportunity early on to watch the Russian teams compete as well as to learn from Russian coaches. I heard them speak Russian and saw Cyrillic writing and wanted to know more about the language and the culture that I knew very little about.

What became the focus of your studies as you progressed in our MA program?

My undergraduate degrees were in Russian and communications, so I was happy that I was able to use both of these in the MA program. I was able to take courses that allowed me to apply communication theories in different ways that I hadn't before.

What are your future plans?

I plan on moving back home to California in September and working with international affairs in the public sector. Hopefully by then then the pandemic will be under control, but until then I'm staying in Ohio for a few months working at the hospital here at OSU.

What, as you exit, was your impression of our MA program?

I loved having the opportunity to learn from professors from several different disciplines. Everyone was an expert in their own field and applied their knowledge to Slavic and East European studies, and I am grateful that I was able to meet and learn from so many intelligent people. This MA program was a good way to look at the East European and Central European regions through different lense

Do you have any advice for current/future CSEES grads?

The most useful thing for me was to make connections with both instructors and students. It was so helpful to have a class buddy in almost every course to help with proofreading papers, starting research, asking about assignments, and so on. All of my instructors were also all great about communication, and I always felt comfortable with emailing them with questions.

Just for fun: A random fact about yourself!

A random fact about myself is that I was a competitive synchronized swimmer for 16 years! I was part of OSU’s synchronized team for 4 years and helped win national championships 29 and 30. I also competed at the World Championships in 2017 for Team USA!