Mara Muslea is from Los Angeles, California, having grown up in a Romanian household. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University in 2020 with a Bachelor’s degree in Slavic Languages and Literatures and certificate in Humanistic Studies. As an undergraduate, her Senior Thesis focused on the artistic traditions of Novodevichy Cemetery in Moscow, using the headstones of Soviet statesmen as a tool to better understand how the Russian government memorializes controversial political legacies. She studied in St. Petersburg, Russia, during an immersive summer language program and completed fieldwork in Moscow for her Senior Thesis. At Georgetown, she is looking to expand from a literary and cultural study of the region to one that centers on the history, politics and security implications for the region.