Rick Spencer

Rick Spencer
About Rick

Intro text. Who is this guy? What is this site? what do I do next?

Latest Work

Language map of Soviet Union
Editing

Editing a glossary of sociolinguistic terms for the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences

One of my most rewarding opportunties was aworking with Dr. Aisa Bitkeeva, a sociolinguist and “Leading Researcher, Research Center on Ethnic and Language Relations” at the Institute of Linguistics, Russian Academy of Sciences. Initially she asked me to read and edit some English journal articles for Sociolinguistica, but I’m not sure they were used, and we pivoted pretty quickly to a much different piece of work.

12 months ago
visa graphic
Administrative Operations

Leading an Exchange Program Redesign

In 2020, I took responsibility for requesting visa eligibility documents for South Korean applicants to a twelve-year international exchange program in a university graduate department. As I was learning the application process, COVID-19 was grinding international exchange to a halt.

12 months ago
IAEA Lockup
Analytical Writing

Evaluating The International Atomic Energy Agency

If you had walked out of the signing of the United Nations Charter on June 26th, 1945 and taken a bicycle ride south and then east along US40 for roughly six hours per day, in three weeks you could have shown up in Socorro, New Mexico on July 16th to witness the first ever detonation of a nuclear weapon.

12 months ago
Commentary

How do the Russian Armed Forces express jointness?

The Army’s Foreign Military Service Office (FMSO) produced an e-book in 2017 called The Russian Way of War, which is one of the only documents I’ve found that explores Russian inter-service cooperation thoroughly. According to the authors Dr. Lester Grau and Charles Bartles, Russian command and control has jointness baked-in.

12 months ago