Dr Paula Chan

Dr Paula Chan

PhD, MA, MSLIS
History
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow since 2023

Paula Chan is a historian of Stalinism and Soviet Jewry with a background as a digital archivist. Her work explores authoritarianism, justice, and retribution through information networks and highly politicized big data sources from the former USSR. She completed her PhD. in Russian and Eastern European History at Georgetown University in 2023 and also holds master’s degrees in Eurasian, Russian, and East European Studies as well as Library and Information Science. Chan’s articles have appeared in journals such as Information & Culture, Slavic Review, and Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Her study “Patterns of Silence: French Witnesses of Nazi Crimes in Occupied Ukraine” (Journal of Contemporary History) received the 2021-2022 Best Article Prize from the American Association for Ukrainian Studies. She is currently preparing her first monograph, Eyes on the Ground: Soviet Investigations of the Nazi Occupation, and researching a second monograph project tentatively titled Between Us: Jewish Survival and Betrayal in Soviet Riga.

Links
Research Areas
Digital Humanities
History of Information
Holocaust
Jewish Studies
Soviet Union
World War II

Selected Publications

"The Enemy of My Enemy: Jewish Contributions to Soviet War Crimes Investigations.”

Paula Chan, Information & Culture, 61, no. 1 (2026): 1-19.

“Europe by Numbers: Soviet Investigators Count the Dead during World War II.”

Paula Chan, Journal of Slavic Military Studies 38, no. 1 (2025): 82-100.

“Refractions of Katyn: Photography and Witnessing in Soviet Investigations of Mass Atrocities.”

Paula Chan, Slavic Review 83, no. 2 (Summer 2024): 211-31.

“Patterns of Silence: French Witnesses of Nazi Crimes in Occupied Ukraine.”

Paula Chan, Journal of Contemporary History 57, no. 3 (2022): 597-620.

“Documents Accuse: The Post-Soviet Memory Politics of Genocide.”

Paula Chan, Journal of Illiberalism Studies 1, no. 2 (2021): 39-57.

“Red Stars and Yellow Stars: The Soviet Investigation of Klooga Concentration Camp.”

Paula Chan, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 33, no. 2 (Fall 2019): 197-224.