Tabitha Cochran is a Master’s student in REEES and Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is a 2020-2021 REEEC FLAS fellow and will be a 2021-2022 EUC FLAS fellow. She received her B.A. in Russian Studies and International Studies from Macalester College in 2013. Her research focuses on Ukrainian nationalism at the turn of the 20^th century, specifically on the role of Ukrainian women in preserving, modernizing, and proliferating folk culture. Tabitha enjoys being a part of REEEC because of its interdisciplinarity; REEEC’s programming provides opportunities to interact with scholars from other disciplines across the REEE region.

With support from FLAS, Tabitha is currently taking Ukrainian in order to conduct research and engage with the work of contemporary Ukrainian scholars. After graduating with her Master’s degree, she plans to either pursue a doctorate in Ukrainian history or a career in academic librarianship with a focus on Slavic regions. She believes that greater cultural and linguistic diversity enriches one’s world view, and hopes to use Ukrainian to open new doors for students or library patrons.