Dr. Eleni Braat is Associate Professor in Political History at Utrecht University, specialized in history of intelligence and state secrecy, and the related political tensions during the 20th century. More specifically, her research concerns organizational (working) cultures of intelligence services, and their relation to memory, political legitimacy, and democratization. 

Eleni Braat obtained her Ph.D. from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy (2008), and she has been trained at the University of Amsterdam, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris. She has been the official historian of the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), and she is a member of the executive board of the Netherlands Intelligence Studies Association (NISA). Eleni Braat is also a member of the University Council at Utrecht University (2023-2025), which promotes the interests of employees and students with the executive board of the university. 

Currently, Eleni Braat is involved in the research project "Politics of state secrecy. The long shadow of authoritarianism on the legitimacy of state secrecy in Greece, France, and the Netherlands, 1945-2015", for which she obtained an NWO Aspasia grant (2020-2027). In this context, she was a visiting scholar at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Spring 2022.     

Keywords: 

Intelligence (espionage), organisational culture (secrecy, gender), legitimacy, accountability, democratization, memory, oral history.