This site has two purposes. It is first and foremost a place where I can quickly share new ideas and jot off opinions. Its second purpose is to showcase some of my professional activities.
This is me wearing a hideous, 12-year-old, budget suit-jacket, taken 11 July, 2022, at University College London.
I am a lecturer at the UCL School of Slavonic and East European Studies in London, England. I specialise in East Europe and Post-Soviet relations with China and nondemocratic regimes.
For an overview of my research interests, visit my Research page. I am trying (and somewhat failing) to keep my blog up-to-date. For the 2025–2026 academic year, I hope to post more regularly.
For my professional activities as an academic, visit my publications, public engagement, and CV pages.
If you are interested in knowing more about my background, there is plenty of information on my CV page.
Una Terra, Unum Mare
An explanation of my site’s motto, una terra, unum mare (these words sit below my name at the very top of the website), is in order. The words are latin and mean “one land, one sea.” It reflects my conviction that all things are interconnected. To understand a part, we must also consider the whole. The Unum Mare was also the name of my grandfather’s sailboat, which I was fortunate enough to join him on a handful of times when I was very young.
Do, Make, Say, Think
To give you an idea of who I am, I’ve included a few photos.
Do Make Say Think is the name for an instrumental, post-rock band from Eastern Canada. It is a gentle nod to my time as a musician, my (rather dull) music taste, and my appreciation of the band name. The name reminds me to strive and seek, rather than to wait for things to happen.
I have lectured at UCL (University College London) for a few years now. The screen-capture below shows me lecturing on the wave of democratisations that followed the 1989 revolutions. I am tremendously lucky. Not only do I study a fascinating field, but also I get to work with excellent students.
This is me lecturing to undergraduate scholars about the different development trajectories of post-Communist states 30 years after the 1989 revolutions in the Gavin de Beer lecture theatre at the UCL Medical Sciences and Anatomy building on 3 March, 2025.
The image directly below is of me with Dr Bobo Lo at the UCL SSEES 15th Biennial International Postgraduates Conference, “Uncertainty: Perspectives from Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.” I was one of the organisers of the conference. Dr Lo gave one of the conference’s keynote speeches, which I moderated. His speech was titled “Russia and the World in the Age of Putin.” It was fascinating.
This is me with Dr Bobo Lo in February 2018.
Dr Lo is the world’s leading expert on Russia–China relations at the global level. Check out his most recent book, A Wary Embrace: What the China-Russia relationship means for the world. Not only was I lucky enough to see Dr Lo speak, but my role as moderator gave me the chance to field the first questions.
This is me in Kraków, Poland, in 2014. I owe the photo credit to the lovely Gintarė Venzlauskaitė.
I have had the immense privilege to study abroad. The black and white photo above is me in Kraków, Poland, in 2014, shortly after I had handed in my thesis for my joint double Masters Degree programme at the Centre for European Studies at Jagiellonian University, Poland, and the University of Glasgow, UK.
This is me in 2014 at the 11th International Estoril Political Forum. I owe the photo credit to the excellent Artem Remizov.
The summer before I submitted my Master’s thesis, I attended the 11th International Estoril Political Forum in Portugal. The photo just above is from this conference. The most heated debate at the conference was over Russia’s annexation of Crimea, which had taken place earlier that year.
I hope you enjoyed getting to know something about me. I plan to keep this website updated with fresh material.
Thanks for stopping by.