Rianne Kouwenaar holds a BA from University College Utrecht in the Netherlands, where she studied History, Literature, and Political Science. As part of her BA, she spent a semester at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she took courses in American Literature and Political History, and discovered her interest in the history of North America. She decided to continue her studies in the MA Global History program in Berlin, because it allows her to focus on her area of interest while not losing sight of wider patterns that shape the region’s history.