I am interested in 20th Century militaries in the Warsaw Pact (East Germany’s NVA and Czechoslovakia’s ČSLA), specifically looking at the ways in which they worked with the USSR, and ways in which they exercised their own agency throughout the Cold War. I want to examine not just the compositions and statistics regarding these peacetime militaries, but to understand what life was like in these military systems in the Cold War era for the average conscripted soldier. I graduated from Ohio University in 2022, and my thesis looked at the intersection of law and justice and religion, regarding the trial of Jan Hus at Constanz in 1415. I am currently a Sergeant in the Ohio Army National Guard and hope to bring my military experience to researching and understanding the East German and Czechoslovak People’s Armies. I am a graduate of U.S. Army Airborne School in Fort Moore, Georgia and am a combat veteran, deploying in 2022-2023 to Syria in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.
While at Pitt, I hope to dive into the military systems of the Warsaw Pact, and to get a window into what life was like in the military on the other side of the Cold War.
