Tabitha Cochran is graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign this year with an MA in REEES and an MS in Library and Information Science. She received her BA in Russian Studies and International Studies from Macalester College in 2013. In her first year, she assisted Professor Jessica Greenberg with an initiative on Legal Humanities as part of REEEC’s Critical Methods Series. In her second year, she assisted REEE Librarian Kit Condill in collection development and coordinated the Slavic Research Institute. For both years of the Master’s program, she was a FLAS fellow.

Tabitha has enjoyed being part of REEEC because of the collaboration among disciplines. The community of scholars within REEEC is rich and diverse.

Tabitha’s research focuses on Ukrainian nationalism at the turn of the 20th century, specifically on the role of Ukrainian women in preserving, modernizing, and proliferating folk culture. After graduation, she will continue this research in the History PhD program at Illinois.