I am a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, studying Russian history. I am originally from Canada and completed my BA (double majoring in History and Political Science) and MA (in European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies) at the University of Toronto. Both at the University of Toronto and at UIUC, my broadest interest has been in the study of historical poverty and inequality, particularly in Russian cities.

Prior to coming to Illinois in 2015, I also worked for several years as an Information and Privacy Analyst at the Archives of Ontario in Toronto, Canada.

Broadly speaking, my research focuses on issues of urban poverty and inequality in the late Russian Empire, particularly in Russia's rapidly-growing cities.

My dissertation project focuses on the Imperial Russian penny press (1908-18). These newspapers were the first to target Russia's poor and lower classes as their primary audience, and reached large numbers of readers across the Russian Empire in the decade immediately preceding the Russian Revolution of 1917. My dissertation will explore how and why these newspapers were so widespread, successful, and popular, and their influence on the attitudes and behaviour of Russia's lower classes.