Biography

Emma Kluge is a historian of international organisations, anti-colonial activism and decolonisation in the Pacific. Her work investigates the intersection between transnational activism and institutions of global governance. She earned her PhD from the University of Sydney in 2021 with a dissertation on the West Papuan campaign for decolonisation at the United Nations in the 1960s. During her PhD, Emma also worked as a Research Fellow with the Laureate for International History focusing on the impact of the League of Nations in Oceania.

As a Max Weber Fellow, Emma is working on a book manuscript on the West Papuan independence campaign at the United Nations in the 1960s. Placing the campaign within the broader sphere of transnational anti-colonialism and post-war global governance, her manuscript investigates connections between Africa and the Pacific, and interactions between activists and officials at the UN. Using West Papua as a case study, the monograph traces the shifts in politics of self-determination and decolonisation that occurred in the 1960s.

Emma has taught undergraduate courses on International and Global Studies, colonial history, and the history of decolonisation and anti-colonial activism at the University of Sydney. Her teaching interests encompass transnational activism, race, indigeneity, colonialism, decolonisation, human rights and international organisations.