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Clare Griffin
IU Bloomington

Clare Griffen

Department of History and Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute

Expert Bio

Clare Griffin is an assistant professor of Russian history in the Department of History and the Robert F. Byrnes Russian and East European Institute. She is a neuroatypical academic who publishes academic work on the history of the early modern Russian Empire in global context, as well as mental health advocacy pieces and short fiction on the neurodiverse experience.

Griffin completed her Ph.D. at University College London before moving on to postdoctoral research at the University of Cambridge and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, in Berlin. Before joining IU, she spent five years in Kazakhstan teaching at Nazarbayev University.

Her first book, “Mixing Medicines: The Global Drug Trade and Early Modern Russia,” appeared in 2022 with McGill-Queens University Press. It examines the global connection of the Moscow court through their use of Chinese rhubarb, powdered North Sea narwhal tuck and North American Sassafras in their medicines. Griffin’s new project examines early modern documents reporting on wounded Russian soldiers and their place in Russia’s global conflicts, bringing together histories of pain with histories of violence.

Areas of Expertise

History of the Russian Empire, global history, history of science and medicine, history of drugs, early modern history, history of translation, COVID-19 in Central Asia.