Graduate Student Teaching Assistant Taylor Howard grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina and attended North Carolina State University. After graduation, he joined the United States Marine Corps. During his enlistment, Taylor served as an infantryman with 1st Battalion, 8th Marines and later transferred to Wounded Warrior Battalion East. There he represented Team Marine Corps in the 2022 Warrior Games. Following his time in the Marine Corps, Taylor taught ninth grade English at a long-term substitute position at the Wake Early College of Health and Sciences in Raleigh. Teaching, learning, and history are his passions. After the completion of his graduate program, Taylor intends to teach history at either a university or high school level. When not haunting his office in Leconte Hall, Taylor spends his free time lifting weights at the gym, playing video games in his apartment, riding his motorcycle around Athens, or enjoying the local scene with friends downtown. Research Research Areas: Russia and Soviet history War and Diplomacy Education Education: Taylor graduated from North Carolina State University in 2019 with a BA in history and minors in German and naval science. There he completed his honors thesis "Nudging the Bear: The Soviet KGB, the East German Stasi, and the American Nuclear Threat 1981-1989" under the advising of Dr. Daniel P. Bolger. During his time at the University of Georgia, Taylor plans to conduct further historical research concerning the diplomatic and political histories of Soviet and Warsaw Pact Cold War intelligence.