Mariya Petkova
Bulgaria
Modern Middle Eastern Studies (MPhil), 2013
St Antony's College, Oxford
Funding: Louis Dreyfus
Mariya completed her Oxford studies in 2013. She did a double degree in Slavic Studies and International Relations, with a regional focus on the Middle East, at the United States’ Brown University, graduating with honours in 2009 for her thesis ‘Historic Symbolism in Ukrainian-Russian Relations’.
During her time there, Mariya founded the US-Russian Relations Group, which serves as a platform for studying relations between the two countries and, more broadly, Eurasia as a region. She hopes to eventually extend her journalistic experience to the republics of the former Soviet Union.
Prior to going to Oxford, Mariya worked as a journalist in Cairo for two years, covering the ‘Arab Spring’ in Egypt from the first day that Egyptians took to the street.
She is currently the official Middle East correspondent for Bulgarian newspaper 24 Chasa and bTV channel.
