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Welcome! I am a historian of US international history who studies the fluid interconnectedness of the modern world.

My research is situated at the intersection of the United States and the Middle East, with a focus on US-Iran relations and the role of non-state and other unconventional actors in international relations. I write and teach about the history of the United States in the world, with attention to the ways in which individuals – both individually and collectively – exercise their agency in global affairs. More broadly, I am interested in the relationship between diplomacy and dialogue, culture and power, and the local and the global in modern transnational histories during the twentieth century and beyond.

I am an Associate Professor of History at the American University in Cairo. I earned my PhD in History from Temple University in Philadelphia, and thereafter worked for more than a decade at Emory and Henry College (now University), a small liberal arts institution in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia. My teaching is rooted in the global liberal arts, and I am an active member of various professional organizations, especially the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Contact me at: matthew.k.shannon@gmail.com

CV available upon request.