Rinna Kullaa received her PhD from the University of Maryland in 2008 and her MPhil in Russian and Eastern European Studies from the University of Oxford in 2004. Her research focuses primarily on the diplomatic and regional history of Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union, and the Balkans. Her doctoral dissertation outlines the goals of Soviet foreign policy in Europe after the Second World War through two examples of separate but related Soviet relations: with Finland and with Yugoslavia. The title of her post-doctoral study is, “The Mediterranean Dialogue on Communism and Non-Alignment during the Cold War." Her work challenges the conventional study of Europe in the Cold War through the customary exclusive lens of its fault lines between Eastern and Western Europe, the Balkans and the Mediterranean. Her goal is to rediscover the interconnectedness of the Balkan Peninsula under Communism with East Central Europe as well as with the Mediterranean. Rinna has also worked for the United Nations, where her policy work has focused on the analysis of current Serbian political parties and the relations of the states of the former Yugoslavia with the European Union.

Rinna is organizing the second workshop in the European Institute’s Cold War in the Mediterranean series for February 2009.  The workshop is entitled “Contending with the Superpowers: The Non-Aligned Movement in the Mediterranean.” 

Rinna can be reached at rk331@columbia.edu.