Picture: Veikko Somerpuro

In the 2026–27 academic year: Core Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies and University Researcher at the University of Helsinki

alexa.x.stiller@helsinki.fi

CV

8/2026–7/2027 Core Fellow at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies and University Researcher at the University of Helsinki
8/2021-3/2026 Senior Researcher and Ambizione Fellow, Department of History, University of Zurich
8/2025-1/2026 Adjunct professor at the Law Faculty, University of Zurich
4-7/2025 Fellow, Research Group “Universalism and Particularism”, Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
11/2024-3/2024 Fellow, Imre Kertész Kolleg Jena, Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
10/2024 Visiting scholar, Department of History and Sociology, University of Konstanz
12/2020-7/2021 Research Associate, Department of Humanities, Social and Political Sciences, ETH Zurich
8/2019-11/2020 Visiting scholar, Oxford Centre for European History and the History Faculty, University of Oxford
8/2019-11/2020 Senior member, St Antony’s College, Oxford
8/2018-7/2019 Visiting scholar, Department of History, Columbia University in the City of New York
3-7/2017 Visiting scholar, European Institute, Columbia University in the City of New York
12/2015-7/2018 Lecturer, Department of History, University of Bern
11/2015 Dr. phil (summa cum laude), Faculty of Humanities, University of Bern
8/2009-11/2015 Research Associate and Ph.D. candidate, Department of History, University of Bern
CV, October 2026 (PDF, 96KB)

Research Focus

  • Contemporary history in international perspective
  • History of Nazi Germany
  • Mass Violence Studies/Holocaust and Genocide Studies
  • Historical Peace and Conflict Studies
  • History of international law
  • History of international criminal tribunals
  • History of forensics and forensic anthropology
  • Human Remains Studies
  • Visual History

Research Projects

  • lnvestigating War Crimes: lnternational Law, Politics, and Forensics, 1912-1949 (in collaboration with Daniel Marc Segesser, 2027–2030, Swiss National Science Foundation research project, approved)
  • Evidence of Atrocities: The History of Investigating Mass Violence and War Crimes since 1850 (ongoing)
  • Vision of Accountability: Global Transformation of Human Rights Activism, International Criminal Law Practice and Humanitarian Interventions in the Post-Cold War Era (ongoing)
  • Spatial Planning and Violence: Nazi Planning and Practice in Occupied East Central and Eastern Europe (Co-PI together with Karl R. Kegler, completed and published)
  • Negotiating the Past: German, Jewish, and American Perspectives in the U.S. War Crimes Trials in Nuremberg, 1946-1949 (Co-PI with Kim C. Priemel, completed and published)
  • Germanization and Violence: Nazi Race and Population Policy in Polish, French, and Slovenian Territories 1939-1945 (doctoral thesis, completed and published)

Media presence (latest)

5/2026 Interview on the Nazi party membership records and National Socialism in Switzerland, NZZ am Sonntag, 17 May 2026
11/2025 Radio interview as part of a panel discussion on the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg and the state of international criminal law today, SWR-Kultur “Forum”, 20 November 2025
11/2025 Radio interview on the Nuremberg trials, Radio SRF 4 News, 20 November 2025
11/2025 Radio interview on the Nuremberg Military Tribunals and the German postwar period, SWR-Kultur “Das Wissen” [Knowledge], 17 November 2025
9/2025 Radio interview on the history of international criminal law, Deutschlandfunk “Der Rest ist Geschichte” [The Rest is History], 5 September 2025
8/2025 Interview on the London Agreement, ZDFheute online, 8 August 2025
11/2024 Radio interview on the Nuremberg trials, Bayern 2, 21 November 2024

Awards and Honors (selected)

2026-2028 Core Fellowship, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki
2021-2024 Ambizione Fellowship, Swiss National Science Foundation
2018-2021 Advanced Postdoc Mobility, Swiss National Science Foundation
2017 Postdoc scholarship, German Historical Institute, Washington, D.C.
2016 Herbert Steiner Prize, Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance, Vienna
2008-2009 Fellowship, Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah, Paris
2007 Charles H. Revson Foundation Fellowship, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.