Dr. Elena Kempf

Assistant Professor

Build a Statement of Purpose

Generate a tailored SOP for Dr. Elena Kempf. Improve your application with a focused, well-structured draft.

Biography

Elena Kempf is a historian specializing in international law and modern Germany within global contexts. She is currently working on a book that examines the history of weapons prohibitions in international law from the 1860s to the 1970s, highlighting the various characters involved, including diplomats, international lawyers, politicians, surgeons, chemists, teachers, and artists, who sought to curtail the development of new weapons. Her research also focuses on the history of arms exports in postwar Germanies (East Germany, West Germany, and reunified Germany) and their interactions with countries in the Global South. Furthermore, Professor Kempf has a research interest in the relationship between the German Federal Constitutional Court and EU justice. She has contributed to leading journals such as Critical Military Studies, AJIL Unbound, and the University of Pennsylvania Law Review.

Research Interests

Experience

Assistant Professor

2021-08-01 — Present

Massachusetts Institute of Technology • Cambridge, MA

Teaches courses on modern European history and seminars on modern Germany and laws of war.

Lecturer

— Present

Stanford University • Stanford, CA

Taught courses in history.

Postdoctoral Fellow

— Present

Miller Institute for Global Challenges and the Law, UC Berkeley • Berkeley, CA

Conducted research in global challenges and legal frameworks.