2018 Nuclear History Boot Camp Participants

Announcing the 2018 Nuclear Boot Camp Participants

NPIHP's summer 2018 Nuclear History Boot Camp will be hosted by the University of Roma Tre and the Machiavelli Center for Cold War Studies (CIMA) for ten days, June 15th-June 25th. Aimed at building a new generation of experts on the international history of nuclear weapons, the eigth-annual Nuclear History Boot Camp is an initiative of the Nuclear Proliferation International History Project (NPIHP) and funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

This Year's Students

Oliver Barton is a Principal Analyst at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (the research and analysis arm of the UK Ministry of Defence), where he leads research on deterrence and defence strategy. He reads History at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and holds an MA in War Studies from King’s College London. He is currently studying for a PhD in International History at the London School of Economics on "Dual Track Diplomacy: Britain, INF, and Transatlantic Relations, 1977-87". Oliver’s most recent publication was “Deterrence Communications: Theory and Practice” in Varriale, C. (ed.), The 2017 UK PONI Papers, (London: Royal United Services Institute, 2017).

Sarah Bidgood is a senior research associate and project manager at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, California. Her research focuses on US-Soviet and US-Russia nonproliferation cooperation, as well as the international nonproliferation regime more broadly. She was an intern at the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs during the time of the 2015 NPT Review Conference, in which capacity she supported the Secretariat and the Chairs of Main Committee I and Subsidiary Body I. She has been a member of the CTBTO Youth Group since its inception in 2016. Sarah holds a B.A. in Russian Language and Literature from Wellesley College, a Master's Degree in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and a Master's Degree in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Katie Davis is a PhD Candidate in History and a Connaught International Scholar at the University of Toronto in Canada. Her dissertation examines the transformation of transatlantic atomic relations in the early Cold War, focusing on the history of the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission and the relationship between public opinion and foreign policymaking. Katie also received an MSc in Theory and History of International Relations from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Aurélie Deganello is a PhD student at the Laboratoire d'ethnologie et de sociologie comparative (LESC - Center for Ethnology and Comparative Sociology) of Paris Nanterre University. After obtaining her Master's degree in Anthropology with a thesis on the expression and transmission of the traumatic memories of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, she began her doctoral thesis on the controversies surrounding the project for the construction of the nuclear power plant of Kaminoseki in Japan. Her research focuses on the constructions that emerge from interactions between humans and nuclear energy. In 2015, she attended the summer course "Hiroshima and Peace" held by the Hiroshima City University. Between 2014 and 2018 she spent a total of about two years in immersion in Hiroshima and Kaminoseki. During her field research trips to Japan she began a photography project on the marine and island environment and humans in the Kaminoseki region.

Vitaly Fedchenko is a Senior Researcher with the SIPRI European Security Programme, responsible for nuclear security issues and the political, technological and educational dimensions of nuclear arms control and non-proliferation. He is currently a PhD candidate in international relations at Deparment of Economic History and International Relations at Stockholm University. Previously he was a visiting researcher at SIPRI and worked at the Center for Policy Studies in Russia at the Institute for Applied International Research in Moscow. He is the author or co-author of several publications on international non-proliferation and disarmament assistance, the international nuclear fuel cycle and Russian nuclear exports.

Tokikake Ii is a third-year history Ph.D. student at University of Hawai’i, Manoa. Born and raised in Japan, he has received degrees in History and American Studies B.A. (Washington College), and History (Archival Studies as minor) M.A. (California State University, Northridge). He focuses on post-World War II US-Japanese nuclear cultural discourse within material culture, domesticity, memory, memorial sites, media, generational social trend, and literature. Under Dr. Yuma Totani and Dr. Margot Henriksen, he examines the cultural impact of Atoms for Peace exhibitions held in Japan in the 1950s in conjunction with Japan's post-war social development, the rise of nuclear apocalyptic representation during the late Cold War period of the 1980s, as well as the post-3.11 Disaster Japanese public perception/memorialization/mourning of nuclear meltdown, of the term kizuna (social connection), and of recent Japanese films Shin Gojira and Kimi no Nawa.

Ellie Immerman is a PhD student in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology, and Society at MIT. Her research explores knowledge production in nuclear warhead verification experimentation contexts. She previously completed an MS in Technology Policy, also at MIT, where she was involved in researching how zero knowledge algorithms could be applied to arms control. Ellie was a junior fellow in nuclear policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and has done research at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and the Science and Technology Policy Institute.

Martand Jha is a graduate in Journalism from University of Delhi. Martand completed his post-graduation in International Relations from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in 2016. Currently, he is pursuing a M.Phil in the Department of Russian and Central Asian Studies, School of International Studies, JNU. He has been awarded a Junior Research Fellowship in Defence and Strategic Studies in the year 2016.

Ruoyu Ji is currently a candidate at the Dual M.A./M.Sc. in World and International History program at Columbia University and London School of Economics. He is generally interested in the Cold War diplomatic history related to nuclear weapons. His Master’s dissertation examines the Surprise Attack Conference in 1958, a long-forgotten international negotiation on disarmament, particularly on the question of how to avoid a surprise nuclear attacks. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

EkaterinaLapanovich is a PhD student at the Department of Theory and History of International Relations, Ural Federal University, Russia. She is Member of the Center for Security and Non-Proliferation Research and Education, Ural Federal University, and the NextGen Initiative in Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament supported by the Swedish Radiation Safety Authority (SSM). Her research interest are deterrence, Euro-Atlantic security, NATO, NATO-Russia relations, nuclear non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament, and the role of nuclear weapons after the end of the cold war. Her PhD thesis is devoted to the transformation of deterrence in NATO’s security policy after the end of the cold war.

Jacklyn Majnemer is a PhD candidate in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She completed her BA in Political Science at McGill University and MPhil in International Relations at the University of Oxford. Her doctoral dissertation examines dual-key nuclear weapons sharing in NATO, focusing on why these arrangements were terminated for some hosts, but not others. Her research interests include nuclear security, strategic studies, and the dynamics of alliances and commitments.

Robin Möser holds a B.A. in African Studies and a M.A. in Global Studies (both obtained from the University of Leipzig). He is currently a Ph.D. Candidate in Global Studies and a member of the Graduate School “Global and Area Studies” at the Research Academy of the University of Leipzig, Germany. His dissertation project, “The termination of the South African nuclear weapons program: an analysis of the reasons for dismantling, 1985-1993”, rests on interviews and multi-archival research in South Africa, the United Kingdom, Austria, the United States and Germany. His research interests include the Global Cold War, nuclear decision-making, Apartheid and Global History.

Allen Pietrobon received his Ph.D. from the American University in Washington, D.C. and currently serves there as the Assistant Director of Research at the Nuclear Studies Institute. His research into nuclear weapons issues has taken him to Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Moscow, and most recently, Chernobyl. Allen’s research specializes in the early Cold War origins of “citizen diplomacy.” He is currently working on completing a biography of Norman Cousins, prominent anti-nuclear advocate and an early citizen diplomat for the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations.

Saima Aman Sial is a Senior Research Fellow and expert in strategic issues at the Center for International Strategic Studies (CISS), Islamabad. She is a former Nonproliferation Fellow from the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and Sandia National Laboratories (2013), USA, Graduate Fellow NEREC South Korea (2016), and South Asian Voices Fellow at Henry L. Stimson Center DC (2017). Previously, she worked with Pakistan's Strategic Plans Division as an Assistant Director - Research in its Arms Control and Disarmament Affairs Directorate for some years. Her research interests include peaceful applications of nuclear energy, arms control and nonproliferation policy, nuclear strategy, doctrines, safety and security, command and control systems with a special emphasis on South Asian nuclear policies. Her writings have appeared in The Diplomat, South Asian Voices, and various other prestigious platforms. She is associate editor of the research Journal, CISS Insight.

Alexandra Sukalo is a PhD Candidate in Eastern European and Russian History at Stanford University. Alexandra’s research interests include the Soviet missile industry, Soviet science and technology, and the history of Ukraine. Her dissertation examines the role of the Soviet secret police in the creation of Soviet Ukraine from 1918-1953. Prior to coming to Stanford, Alexandra was a military analyst for the Department of Defense. She completed a Master’s Degree in European and Russian Studies with a certificate in Security Studies at Yale University, and earned her undergraduate degree in Political Science from Barnard College of Columbia University.

Donghyun Woo is a Ph.D. student in history of socialism at UCLA. He received his B.A. and M.A. in Korean History from Seoul National University. His research concerns the relationship between North Korea and the Soviet Union in the Cold War period, focusing on how complexity, contingency and contestability interacted in the making of “socialist” forms of knowledge and technology. He is interested in integrating approaches, disciplines and methodologies from various fields such as anthropology, intellectual history and science, technology and society studies (STS). He has presented in several countries including the US, the UK, Russia and Norway. He studied Russian language in the city of Tomsk in 2017 and loves the following Russian phrase: “tol’ko vpered, ni shagu nazad!”