Graham Weaver

GRADUATE STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE CANDIDATE

Graham Weaver is a Ph.D. student at New York University in the Department of Comparative Literature, where he is pursuing a track in the Interdisciplinary Specialization of Russia. Prior to his doctoral studies, he completed a M.A. in Russian and Slavic Studies at NYU. His current research interests include Russian Modernism, “Russian Style,” Historical Poetics, and the Russo-Byzantine revival in nineteenth-century art, architecture, and literature.  

As the ASEEES Graduate Student Representative, Weaver would prioritize increasing professional support and funding opportunities for master’s students in Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies as well as adjacent fields. Due to the scarcity of fellowships, conferences, and workshops dedicated to them, together with the relative brevity of their programs, many master’s students struggle to navigate academia and plan the next step of their careers. This sense of precarity separates their needs from those of doctoral students, who benefit from longer-term professional training and financial security.  

Drawing on his own experience as a master’s student—as well as his more recent role as graduate representative in his current department—Weaver would work to improve the resources available to these early-career scholars and ensure their voices are heard at highest levels of the ASEEES organization. Whether starting new initiatives, such as a mentorship program pairing master’s students with more-experienced PhD students, or expanding the reach of existing programs, he would use his platform advocate for those graduate students who lack the financial stability and institutional support that doctoral programs typically provide.