Luke Rodeheffer

Some highlights of my time at Stanford have been Professor Robert Crews’ class on the Islamic Republics and Professor Ali Yaycioglu’s class on early Islamic civilization. My capstone project was a comparative examination of the offshoring and corruption that was involved in the Sochi Olympics in Russia and the nexus of bribery, money laundering, and gold smuggling that led to the December 17th Scandal in Turkey. Professor Burcu Karahan, my Turkish language lecturer, was an excellent source of help for sorting through the complex language of Turkish police files and parliamentary reports. Upon graduation, I look forward to taking a Persian language class at the University of California at Berkeley and plan then to work in the field of consulting and research issues related to post-Soviet Eurasia and the Near East.