I’m actually back in Minnesota, working as book and paper conservator at the Minnesota Historical Society as of February. I’ve been doing well, albeit not necessarily doing a lot with my (now sadly rather broken) Russian. After graduation, I moved to the DC area and did AmeriCorps Vista for a year, which led to several jobs as a grant-writer at various non-profits.
I initially had meant to pursue something more directly related with Russian but my options were limited since at the time I didn’t have citizenship and most of the relevant jobs in DC involved the government. Hence, grant-writing. After a few years, I decided to pursue library conservation, and last year I graduated with a double Masters in Art History and Art Conservation from NYU. I did get to use it, though, in doing research on Russian royal bindings of the 19th century a couple of years ago. I’d have loved to do a more in-depth paper on those, but I ended up getting a job instead. Бывает.
At MNHS, I’m responsible for the preservation of basically everything that involves paper. I’m still not doing much with Russian, but I do get to impress the lady who sells me pierogis at the farmer’s market, so there is that.