Ross graduated with honors from the University of Missouri with bachelor's degrees in German and International Studies – Peace Studies alongside a minor in Russian. During undergrad, he served as the Local Committee President of AIESEC at Mizzou while also working as an AVID tutor to help students from under-represented backgrounds to become college ready. Between his junior and senior year, Ross taught German and English as part of an AIESEC volunteer exchange in Croatia. Upon graduation, he finished an internship for the U.S. Senate in Washington, D.C., and then spent a year as part of the USTA/Fulbright Austria program as an English language teaching assistant. He returned to Mizzou in 2019 to pursue his MA in German while working as a graduate instructor. Ross then worked for a year at the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest in Chicago. In spring 2024 he graduated from the Walsh School of Foreign Service through the dual MA/PhD program with the BMW Center of German & European Studies.
Ross researches the memory and cultural legacy of imperialism within German and European society, with a particular focus on its weaponization by far-right political parties such as Germany's Alternative für Deutschland at the local, national, and EU-level. Alongside his interest in right-wing populism and the postcolonial, Ross also focuses on representations of race and gender within modern German media.