Dr Simone Gigliotti is Reader in Holocaust Studies in the Department of History and Deputy Director of the College's Holocaust Research Institute (HRI), an interdisciplinary research centre comprising academics in History, English, and Media Arts. The HRI is one of the leading research institutes of its kind in the UK, with its scholars regularly contributing to public debate, investigative committees, and educational outreach. 

Dr Gigliotti's research and publications focus on the Holocaust's transport and displacement histories from the perspective of lived experience (place, time, and transit). 

Her most recent monograph is Restless Archive: The Holocaust and the Cinema of the Displaced (Indiana University Press, 2023, Open Access). Its innovative interactive platform and topicality have received national and international attention with invited talks, interviews, and contributions to numerous universities and Jewish museums in the United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Czechia, and the United States. 

Additional publications include a special issue of The Journal of Transport History on the topic of "conflict transport," (August 2024), a study of humanitarian provision for Jewish refugees in the Philippines during the 1930s and 1940s for the anthology, German-Speaking Jewish Refugees in Asia, 1930–1950: Shelter from the Storm? (Routledge, 2025), and with Professor James Williams, a co-edited book, The Zone of Interest: Remapping Sound, Space, and the Archive in Holocaust Film (SUNY Press, 2027). 

Finally, Dr Gigliotti is RHUL's Academic and Technical Partner Lead at the EHRI-UK (European Holocaust Research Infrastructure-United Kingdom), a national initiative funded by the AHRC as part of its commitment to developing sustainable research infrastructures. EHRI-UK is also a founding partner of the wider EHRI-ERIC consortium in Europe. 

Dr Gigliotti teaches undergraduate and postgraduate modules (as convener and seminar contributor) in the Department of History and the Liberal Arts programme, specialising in research-led teaching about the Holocaust, genocide, and memory, and leading digital skills discovery workshops. She regularly directs the MA Holocaust Studies degree and also convenes one of its modules ("A Transnational Holocaust: Jewish Refugees and their flight from Nazi Europe"), and delivers training in geospatial digital skills (including StoryMaps) to postgraduate students at RHUL and other UK universities (in central London). She also enriches the student learning experience with field trips to cities in Europe (Berlin, Amsterdam) that are indelibly connected to the Holocaust. 

Royal Holloway

Deputy Director, Holocaust Research Institute

Senior Research Fellow, Conflict, Violence and Terrorism Research Centre

Member, Centre for the GeoHumanities

Research Associate, Centre for Oratory and Rhetoric

UK and International

RHUL Academic and Technical Partner Lead, EHRI-UK

Member, ESRC Peer Review College

Fellow, Royal Geographical Society (with IBG)

Member, EHRI Holocaust Photographs Expert Group (2022-2024)

Affiliated Scholar, USC Dornsife Center for Advanced Genocide Research

Affiliate, Holocaust Geographies Collaborative

Editorial Board, Journal of Holocaust Research

International Advisory Board, Journal of Genocide Research