Claire is a social scientist passionate about ethics, human rights, behavioral science and social psychology. She also loves writing long bios...
Claire Boine is currently a Research Scholar at the Boston University School of Public Health. Her research is funded by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Focusing on American gun culture, she explores the social identity of gun owners and shared values between gun owners and non gun owners. Passionate about what values drive people, and how they form collective identities, she uses methods drawn from psychology, sociology, political science as well as quantitative methods and machine learning. She also conducts research about the predictors of firearm violence and how to reduce homicide rates.
In the past, Claire worked on topics as diverse as human trafficking, the use of torture and asylum law. Claire’s research has always been driven by her profound desire to understand the world as well as a commitment to try to make it a better place for humans and other animals when she can. In her ideal world, she would spend half of her time at the library reading everything humanly possible from quantum mechanics to ethology to social psychology, and the other half running NGOs in child protection, climate change mitigation and the ethical use of new technologies.
As an undergraduate, she studied history to identify what was universal and what was relative in human societies. Wanting to approach complex problems from a multidisciplinary background, she also obtained a Master in Public Policy (Harvard university), a JD in International Law (Nantes Law School) and a graduate diploma in Conflict Analysis (Toulouse University). Her law thesis tackled the laws and policies to prevent child trafficking into France. Her MPP thesis at Harvard was about finding ways to scale up American anti-trafficking policies across the world.
In the public sphere, Claire has generated ideas in many areas. An out-of-the-box thinker, she identifies needs, generates ideas to meet them, and connects the right actors to move the projects forward. In 2017, inspired by the practical experience American gain in their studies, she created Apportez vos talents à l'innovation publique and recruited Harvard and MIT students and pairs to be hosted in French public organizations in Toulouse, where they participated in classes, a hackathon and public service internships.
The same year, she pushed for French schools to replicate the HKS From Harvard Square to the Oval Office program that promotes the involvement of women in politics. She reached out to the right actors and facilitated a collaboration that resulted in the creation of the Gender Equality and Public Policy certificate.
Claire has also been involved in the French community in Boston. For the French Consulate in Boston, she chaired a workgroup that authored a report on brain drain out of France. She also pushed for the Consulate to bring gender equality to the top of their agenda, which led to the organization of the International Symposium on Education and Gender Equality at Wellesley College.
During her time at Harvard, Claire was selected as a participant in the Emerging Human Rights Leaders Program at the Carr’s Center for Human Rights (2016-2017). In the summer 2016, she conducted a monitoring and evaluation missionof an anti-trafficking program conducted in Haiti by Free The Slaves. In the For two years prior (2014-2016), she conducted research within the Cost and Consequence of Torture Project.
Claire also chaired the HKS Francophile Club and co-chaired the Harvard club of France on Campus. In that capacity, she ideated and organized the Diversity and inclusion: French and American perspectives symposium at the Harvard Kennedy School, gathering 50 French and American speakers and 200 participants. Today, Claire is a member of the Board of the HKS women’s network, where she serves as the City Ambassador Coordinator.
In 2015, Claire participated in the Asylum Law Clinic at the Harvard Law School and was granted honors for her clinical work with asylum seekers. Passionate about it, she worked pro-bono on six cases. Before coming to the U.S., Claire worked as a history teacher in both traditional and pedagogically innovative settings.
Claire is currently a member of the Board of the HKS Women's Network, where she serves as the City Ambassador Coordinator.