Duke University | Baldwin Scholars Program
Claire Lauterbach
was raised in sub-Saharan Africa before coming to Duke as a University Scholar. I discovered my affinity for interdisciplinary research and ended up settling on Political Science and History. I spent my four years at Duke doing a lot of research and publishing various projects, including an interview-based study of civilian casualty counts in Iraq (International Studies Perspectives), a study of girls' education in Kenya (co-authored with Dr. Sherryl Broverman and Elise Dellinger), and a senior thesis on accession to the International Criminal Court among sub-Saharan African states (Eyes on the ICC). I conducted some of my research projects for outside organizations, including Humanity in Action (HIV/AIDS in Polish society), the National Security Archive (U.S. policy towards the Taliban during the 1990's), and the Institute for Justice Sector Development (corporate liability for breaches of international humanitarian law).
I currently have a fellowship at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, to pursue a Research MPhil in African Studies. In July 2009, I'll start 6 months of research related to disputes over urban land use among Acholi migrants based in eastern Kampala. I hope to work in applied forced migration research, before pursuing a PhD so that I can keep one foot in academia and one foot among the people to whom I am grateful for allowing me to ask them questions about their lives.
In the meantime, I work on my Dutch, my Acholi, and my biking here in The Netherlands. Luckily for me, the country is mostly flat.