Ms. Elena Amaya

Professional Background

Elena Amaya is a PhD student in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is currently pursuing a Designated Emphasis in Jewish Studies and is also a Graduate Student Affiliate of the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley. She received BA’s in Sociology, Gender & Sexuality Studies; Criminology, Law & Society and Psychology & Social Behavior from the University of California, Irvine. Her broad research interests lie in comparative-historical sociology, genocide studies, gendered violence, antisemitism and the sociology of law.

Fellowship Research

Fellowship Research: As a Summer Graduate Student Research Fellow at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, Elena will conduct research for her project “In the Archives of Trauma: Silence and Systemic Gendered Violence.” In this project, she will examine how anti-miscegenation laws were used by individuals and institutions in perpetrating gendered violence and sexualized violence against women in Auschwitz and Ravensbrück. She will also explore the role played by female guards in the perpetration of violence against women.

Residency Period: June 1 through August 31, 2021