Claire E. Aubin (LLM)
Thesis title: From Treblinka to Trenton: Holocaust Perpetrators as Immigrants to the United States

PhD Religious Studies
Year of study: 3
- School of Divinity
- School of History, Classics and Archaeology
Contact details
- Email: claire.aubin@ed.ac.uk
PhD supervisors:
Background
Claire E. Aubin is from the US' Pacific Northwest, where she completed a B.A. in International Studies and Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies at the University of Oregon in 2016. Following this, she completed an LL.M in Human Rights Law at the University of Edinburgh. She has also undertaken studies at Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO) in Moscow, Russia.
Claire is currently a third-year doctoral student, researching the individual agency of Holocaust perpetrators in the post-war United States immigration process.
Qualifications
B.A. Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies & International Studies (cum laude, Honors with Distinction), University of Oregon, 2012-2016
- Thesis - "The Internationalization of Atrocity: John Demjanjuk and the Politics of Post-war Justice"
Cert. in Business and International Relations, Moscow State Institute for International Relations, 2015
LL.M Human Rights Law (Merit), University of Edinburgh (2016-2017)
- Dissertation - " Exceptional Realities of Rights and Race: Using International Human Rights Mechanisms to Address Police Brutality in the United States of America"
Responsibilities & affiliations
Founding co-convenor, Emotionally Demanding Histories Group
Representative, Postgraduate Paid Tutor Liason Committee
Member, British Association for Holocaust Studies
Member, Historians of the Twentieth Century United States
Member, Perpetrator Studies Network
Past responsibilities & affiliations:
Contributions Editor, Pubs and Publications (2019)
Steering Committee Member, Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History (2018-19)
Tutor Representative, Edinburgh HCA Board of Studies (2019-20)
Undergraduate teaching
- Global Connections since 1450 (http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/19-20/dpt/cxhist08041.htm)
- The Historian's Toolkit (http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/19-20/dpt/cxhist08032.htm)
- Modern US History (http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/19-20/dpt/cxhist08038.htm)
Current research interests
Holocaust and genocide studies; Legal history; Memory studies; Immigration history; Human rights law; Eastern European and Soviet history; US-Soviet relationsAffiliated research centres
Current project grants
2019 Royal Historical Society Research Expenses Grant, for archival research at Yad Vashem and the Simon Wiesenthal Centre
2020 Historians of the Twentieth Century United States Mini-Grant, for long-distance archival research during the COVID-19 crisis
Past project grants
2016 UO Undergraduate Research Opportunity Project Grant, for archival work at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Papers delivered
The Housewife and the Holocaust: Hermine Braunsteiner Ryan in the Press -- Women's History Scotland, University of Edinburgh, 2019
'Ellis Island or Bust: A Step-By-Step Guide to US Immigration for Displaced Holocaust Perpetrators' -- British Association for Holocaust Studies, University of Roehampton, 2019
2017 University of Oregon Undergraduate Research Award
2019/2020 University of Edinburgh McMillan Award