Claudia Theune is Professor of Historical Archaeology at the University of Vienna. Her research interests range from the Early Middle Ages to contemporary conflict archaeology. She has worked on early medieval funerals and social archaeology in the early Middle Ages. Various projects on gold mining in the Alps and shielings led to research on economy and society in marginal landscapes and the impact of climate change in late medieval and post-medieval times. For about fifteen years she has been working intensively on conflicts of the 20th and 21st centuries. The focus for this work is on survival strategies and options for agency in former concentration camps in Germany and Austria, alongside other terror-sites all over the world.

Claudia is vice-head of the Department of Prehistory and Historical Archaeology of the University of Vienna; President of the Austrian Association of Medival Archaeologie and President of Ruralia – the European Association of Medieval and Post-Medieval Rural Archaeology; and a member of the advisory board for monuments at the Federal Monuments Office Austria.