Charles King

Charles King is Professor of International Affairs and Government and chair of the Department of Government at Georgetown University. He previously served as chair of the faculty of Georgetown’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, the country’s premier school of global affairs. King’s research has focused on nationalism, ethnic politics, transitions from authoritarianism, urban history, and the relationship between history and the social sciences. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul (W. W. Norton, 2014), which was a New York Times Editors’ Choice and was awarded the French “Prix de Voyage Urbain;” Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams (W. W. Norton, 2011), which received the National Jewish Book Award; and The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus (Oxford University Press, 2008), which was named “History Book of the Year” by the Moscow Times. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. King has been a Fulbright scholar, a Fellow of the Woodrow Wilson Center, and a Public Scholar of the National Endowment for the Humanities. His research has been supported by the Social Science Research Council, the International Research and Exchanges Board, and the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies. He has held visiting appointments at the University of Michigan and Bosphorus University in Istanbul. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations. A frequent speaker and commentator on global affairs, King has published essays in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and other major newspapers; in magazines such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The New Republic; and in web-based media such as Slate, The Daily Beast, and the Christian Science Monitor. His broadcast appearances have included National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition,” MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show,” CNN, the BBC, and other venues. He is a three-time recipient of professor-of-the-year honors from Georgetown students and has received both the School of Foreign Service Dean’s Medal and the McGuire Medal, the highest awards for service to the school and its students. A native of the Ozark hill country, King holds a bachelor’s degree in history and philosophy from the University of Arkansas, a master’s degree in Russian and East European Studies and a doctorate in Politics, both from Oxford University, where he was a British Marshall Scholar.