Lena Clara Christoph, BA MA

Doctoral researcher (prae doc) at the Department of Contemporary History at the University of Vienna with the ERC research group GLORE – “Global Resettlement Regimes: Ambivalent Lessons learned from the Postwar (1945-1951)”

 
Current research project
The Philippines as a Place of Transit and Destination. Jewish, Russian, and Chinese Displaced Persons in Search of Old and New Homes, 1945-1955

Contact
E-Mail: lena.christoph@univie.ac.at
Phone: +43-1-4277-41246


Curriculum Vitae und Publications

 

Lena Christoph is a doctoral researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History at the University of Vienna and part of the ERC research group GLORE – “Global Resettlement Regimes: Ambivalent Lessons Learned from the Postwar (1945-1951)”. While the ERC project considers the global resettlement regime after World War II at large, her research focuses on the resettlement of displaced persons (DPs) in the Philippines. The dissertation examines the work of the Philippine Mission of the UNRRA and IRO and compares the negotiations on the resettlement of the three main DP groups (Jewish, Chinese, and “White” Russian) on the island nation. Further, with the help of biographical material it aims to bring the experiences of the DPs themselves to the foreground.

Before her PhD research, Lena Christoph studied International Development (BA) and History (MA), majoring in global and contemporary history, at the University of Vienna as well as at the Monash University, Melbourne. In her master´s thesis “Anti-Imperialist Solidarity in the International War Crimes Tribunal on Vietnam” she engaged with the Russell Tribunal (1967) and examined the citizens’ tribunal as an example of international solidarity activism against the war in Vietnam. For the thesis, Lena Christoph received the Vienna Global History scholarship. In 2024, she is a Doctoral Research Fellow of the German Historical Institute, Washington D.C.

 

Key Research Topics:

  • Global history
  • Refugee Regimes
  • Post-conflict justice, memory, and reconciliation
  • Theory and praxis of political solidarity
  • Anti-colonial thought, activism, and connection