Thomas Kuehne

Thomas Kuehne is Professor of History and Strassler Chair in Holocaust History at Clark University, where he also serves as Director of the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Director of Holocaust and Genocide Graduate Studies. He is additionally affiliated with the Women’s Studies Program and the Race and Ethnic Relations Program.

Education

• Ph.D., University of Tübingen, 1992

Research Interests Kuehne’s scholarship integrates Holocaust history, modern German and European history, gender history, military history, and genocide studies. His work interrogates the long-term cultural and emotional frameworks that enable mass violence, tracing how concepts such as comradeship, community, and collective identity intersect with war and genocide. A new project examines how categories of race, gender, class, and age shape global beauty and body aesthetics from the nineteenth century to the present.

Publications & Themes Across recent books, edited volumes, and articles, Kuehne has explored the emotional economies of Nazi Germany, the myth of comradeship among German soldiers, the genocidal dimensions of Volksgemeinschaft, and comparative approaches to mass violence. His forthcoming and recent edited works extend these themes to the Armenian genocide and transnational memory cultures.

Awards & Honors

• German Bundestag Research Prize
• John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship
• Fellow, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton (multiple years)
• Major grants from the German Research Foundation

Advising & Grants As Director of both the Strassler Center and the graduate programs in Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Kuehne mentors doctoral and master’s students, coordinates an interdisciplinary faculty team, and oversees externally funded research initiatives. His projects have received continuous support from national and international funding bodies, fostering collaborative networks across North America, Europe, and Israel.

Labs & Teams Kuehne leads the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies—an endowed research and teaching institute that hosts visiting scholars, organizes international conferences, and supports archival and digital humanities projects. The center’s working groups focus on comparative genocide, gender and mass violence, and memory studies.