Justin Wilmes, MA in Slavic and East European Studies, Class of 2010

Where do you work and what is your current position?

After completing the MA at CSEES, I transitioned to a Ph.D. in Slavic Studies at Ohio State. Post-graduation I accepted a position at East Carolina University as Assistant Professor of Russian Studies, where I remain today. I am currently up for tenure review this year.

How has your CSEES MA helped you throughout your post-graduate life?

My time at CSEES was very beneficial for my intellectual and career development and I remember it fondly. During my two years at CSEES, I took a wide range of courses, spanning literature, culture, history, and political science, as well as studied Russian language in 5th and 6th years, and spent a semester in St. Petersburg. The area studies approach and interdisciplinarity of the program gave me a strong base of knowledge and continue to inform my research today. As a professor at ECU, in addition to teaching Russian language, cinema and culture, I primarily write about post-Soviet Russian cinema and culture, particularly from a cultural studies perspective.

If you are a traveler, what is one of your favorite trips you have taken?

One of my favorite travel experiences happened in 2016, when I hiked for several days around the Great Baikal Trail in Siberia with one of my best friends, who happens to be from Belgium. We spent about six hours per day hiking from village to village across this stunning terrain and interacting with local villagers. There were no roads to these villages and they were only accessible by foot or via boat.