About Me
Charlotte Voelkel is a Ph.D. candidate studying the creation of “Britishness” through representations of violence in museums and sites of memory. She works with Weeksville Heritage Center, a museum on the site of the second-largest pre-Civil War free Black community, creating an online audio-visual exhibition to open up the historic archive to the public for the first time. She is also a researcher in AI ethics at Barnard College Library’s Center for Engaged Pedagogy, supporting teachers and students to pursue the ideals of a liberal arts education in a world increasingly influenced by generative AI.
Previously, Voelkel worked at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on various political campaigns, in digital technology and online disinformation prevention working on projects such as countering Russian interference and monitoring threats to elections, and digital archives.
Voelkel received her B.A. with honors in comparative literature and political science from Barnard College at Columbia University where her thesis exploring Indigenous influence on the U.S. Constitution was taught on several Columbia University syllabi. She also holds an Msc in International Relations Theory from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and an MA in Museum Studies from the City University of New York.
Education
2026-present
St Andrews University
PhD in Modern History
Pursuing a PhD in Modern History, researching representations of violence in British cultural sites of memory. My work is supervised by historian Dr. Chandrika Kaul.
awarded June 2026
City University of New York
MA in Museum Studies
My research focused on representations of war and violence in museum settings, and effective demonstrations of difficult topics.
This work included evaluating the representation of colonial troops at the Imperial War Museum, proposing a reworking of existing galleries, designing a new temporary exhibition under the supervision of Dr. Renée Romano. Additional projects included considerable research into the representation of war in cultural institutions, including queer communities in the Second World War, veteran PTSD, and racial trauma.
Dean’s Honor List 2024-2026
awarded December 2020
London School of Economics
MSc in International Relations, Military History
Completed a dissertation analyzing the system racism embedded in realism, akin to coded bias in APIs. My research was focused on cyber security. historical memory, and "non-violent" weapons of war (financial systems, agriculture, resource access, archives).
awarded June 2019
Barnard College,
Columbia University
In political science, I completed a thesis comparing the Iroquois Great Law of Peace with the United States Constitution, evaluating the erasure of Indigenous thought from constitutional history, ultimately taught on multiple Columbia course syllabi.
In comparative literature, I completed a thesis exploring the works of Sylvia Plath and Colette before and after their marriages, and the comparative viability of being as authors, spouses, and parents for men and women.
Graduated Summa Cum Laude.
BA in Comparative Literature & Political Science
Awards and Honors
Commencement Speaker, Barnard College - 2019
Pi Sigma Alpha Honors Society - 2019
Bold Award for Coalition Building, Barnard College - 2019
Exceptional Leadership in Service, Columbia University - 2017, 2018, 2019
Van Amson Learning Fellowship, Columbia University - 2018
Service Innovation Award, Columbia University - 2018, 2019
Dean's List 2015-2019
Certificates
AI Ethics, London School of Economics, 2019
Data: Law, Policy & Regulation, LSE Law School, 2020
International Human Rights Law, University of Louvain, 2022
Digital Security and Human Rights, Amnesty International, 2023
professional experience
Research Assistant
Weeksville Heritage Center
Sept 2025 - present
• Digitize and research portions of the collection to build out Bloomberg Connects page, including recorded interviews with staff, archivists, and historians
• Support collections team in sorting through artifacts acquired in recent archeological digs of historically Black neighborhoods in Brooklyn
• Create lesson plans aligned to local curricular standards to accompany the collection
Graduate Fellow, AI Ethics & Pedagogy
Barnard College Center for Engaged Pedagogy
Nov 2025 - present
• Design programming highlighting the risks of AI usage, AI ethics, privacy and data,
and promote conversations around the role of technology in education
• Work with professors to create subject specific interventions exploring individual
industry impacts, bespoke to their existing curriculums
• Convene a student policy working group thinking about how to regulate/implement
governmental standards for AI and other emergent technologies
• Design departmental assets for external use
Digital Archivist
Grove Atlantic Publishing House
June 2024 - Aug 2025
• Digitized the documented history of contracts and sub-rights deals, both foreign and domestic, devising organizational systems and digital structures
• Generated an inventory of paper materials, organizing items for disposal or transfer to the permanent archive
Project Manager
Freelance for textbook development team
Feb 2023 - March 2024
• Commissioned by an editorial panel working on a comparative text for middle grade learners on ancient history and civilizations
• Liaised between researchers, archeologists, and writers to manage chapter completion
• Provided background research, compiled data and transcribed interviews
• Created decade-by-decade global overviews of cultural achievements and political change to create comparative timelines of periods and ancient civilizations
Editorial Fellow, Dis/Misinformation Research
Logically AI
June 2022 - Jan 2023
• Collaborated on original research on disinformation and resulting harm, eg: Q-anon,
Russian interference, climate disinformation, and white supremacy
• Developed policy briefs and resources for public use, advocating protective measures
• Prepared spokespeople for media appearances
• Worked with local officials to track threats to voting infrastructure in the 2022
midterms, including burgeoning Spanish language threats in AZ, NV, CA
Project Manager, Wachsman
July 2021 - June 2022
• Worked with artist/activist Drue Kataoka to expose the racism underlying much of
popular NFT imagery, conducted company teach-ins on bias in emerging technologies
• Monitored regulatory changes, tracked policy amendments, and evaluated potential
implications of proposed technology legislation
• Conducted briefs on emerging tech and translated white papers into plain English
• Ghost-wrote op-eds for chief technology officers
Technology Fellow, India Chair
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Nov 2020 - June 2021
• First fellow to design/implement their own project, creating a two-year financial
program aiding female entrepreneurs across 6 Indian states
• Brought in new funders focused on female economic empowerment
• Performed technical audit across Indian states to identify areas for standardization eg:
digitization of service provision & governmental archive policies
• Served as point-of-contact for civilian/local/government collaborators, providing
updates on the evolving global regulation