Leo RaykherUndergraduate Humanities Honors Fellow

Leo Raykher is a senior majoring in History.

His thesis titled “Economics, Espionage, and Exile: the Surveilled life of David Drucker, esq.” examines the life of his great, great uncle David Drucker. Drucker lived an international life in which he advocated tirelessly for socialist causes, eventually moving to Mexico to evade political scrutiny and government surveillance in the United States. Investigating personal correspondence and government surveillance documents, this work provides a rare opportunity for an intimate look at the nature of espionage, surveillance, and political freedom in the United States. In our current moment in which deportation is used as a political tool, David’s experience of forced expatriation is particularly worthy of examination.