Grace Talty is a fourth year student at UC Berkeley pursuing a major in Global Studies, specializing in Societies and Culture in Europe and Russia. So far she loves how small the department is, being very involved through peer advisorships and student associations, allowing her to have a more personal and customizable experience. Her interest in Global Studies started from her high school AP European History class, and a desire to study the intersection of politics and history.
Grace in Budapest, Hungary.
During her third year at Berkeley, she took a Finnish culture and history class and decided to do a project on the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 – something that would quickly become her new obsession. Currently working on her Honor Thesis Program addressing “How did Finnish Neutrality by way of the Paasikivi–Kekkonen Doctrine influence the 1952 Helsinki Olympics considering debuting and reentering countries, alongside the actions and contradictions of the international Olympic Committee.” The 1952 Helsinki Olympics was held after the end of WWII and the start of the Cold War, causing dilemmas such as Soviet controlled East Germany trying to join as a separate team from Germany but getting rejected, while both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China, modern day Taiwan, were invited to compete. Furthermore, the Soviet Union competed for the first time, and due to their shared border Stalin wanted athletes to take a boat every morning. Finland instead built another village to accommodate all the Soviet block athletes. The emergence of the Soviet Union led to the common focus on the “USA and USSR competing in the Olympics for Cold War glory,” where behind it remains the story of how Finland, by way of doctrine, was able to allow for a neutral Olympics to occur.
Grace backpacking in Nuuskio National Park in Southern Finland
Grace is currently attempting to gain funding to go to the Olympic World Library in Switzerland to better understand the creation of this neutral environment and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
She has previously participated in UCEAP and studied abroad in Prague, taking classes on Holocaust literature and going to Auschwitz, learning Czech, and interning for the Institute for Politics and Society think tank in Prague. For fun, she also backpacked 40 miles in Finland across three days. She will graduate this Spring after competing her last season in Cal Women’s Rugby. For postgrad, Grace is planning on attending Law school and studying cultural preservation and heritage law!
Fun Fact: The Olympics were revived after the French lost to Prussia and wanted French people to have better physical education and win through athletic feats.
Grace 10 miles into hiking Bohemian Switzerland.
Attached are some photos of Grace during her time at Berkeley.
Grace playing rugby against Stanford University.