Kristen Iemma

Kristen Iemma is a historian of archival technologies and US imperialism, currently serving as a Postdoctoral Scholar in Department II (Artifacts, Action, Knowledge) at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG) in Berlin.

• Doctorate in American Studies from Brown University (2024)
• Master's in Library and Information Science (Pratt Institute) and Public Humanities (Brown University)

Her research interrogates the role of archival technologies in early 20th-century US nation-building and imperial expansion, focusing on spatial asymmetries in historical record access. She explores how state archives facilitate knowledge extraction and centralization.

• Traces US territorial records removal to the National Archives
• Analyzes archival systems as infrastructure for imperial power
• Examines epistemological limits of nation-state historiography

Kristen has received prestigious fellowships, including:

• Dorothy M. Cooper Endowed Fellowship
• John Nicholas Brown Center for Public Humanities Fellowship

She contributes to ongoing projects like Archival Dispossessions and Living Knowledge, which connect archival practices to broader histories of science and collective life.