Ryan M. Irwin

Ryan Irwin writes about U.S. and the World history. His first book, Gordian Knot: Apartheid and the Unmaking of the Liberal World Order, explored how African independence altered the international system at the height of the Cold War. His current book, 'Vast External Realm: America and the Making of the Liberal World Order,' reintroduces Felix Frankfurter as an architect of the Free World, using law to reconsider the logic and scale of the United States' world footprint during the mid-twentieth century. He's also working on a manuscript about American expansion, which looks at six debates about federalism and imperialism since the 1750s, and writing a project about a U.N. housing complex in Queens, NY.

Professor Irwin is interested in global governance and decolonization, as well as the relationship between nineteenth century political theory and twentieth century international politics, and he is happy to advise students on most aspects of American foreign relations history. He's won teaching awards from the Provost of the SUNY system and the Dean of the College of Arts and Science, as well as a Meritorious Service Award from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the Stuart L. Bernath prize for the best article in U.S. foreign relations history. Currently, he serves as the Director of the Institute for History and Public Engagement.