Michael King — LLMpedia

Michael King
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Name	Michael King
Birth date	1978
Birth place	Boston, Massachusetts
Occupation	Historian; Author; Professor
Alma mater	Harvard University; Oxford University
Notable works	The Colonial Archive; Cities in Revolt

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Michael King Michael King (born 1978) is an American historian, author, and professor known for scholarship on colonialism, urban revolutions, and transatlantic intellectual networks. His work bridges archival research in institutions such as the British Library, Library of Congress, and Bodleian Library with theoretical frameworks advanced at conferences like the American Historical Association annual meeting and the Royal Historical Society symposia. King has held fellowships at the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Fulbright Program, and the Guggenheim Foundation.

Early life and education

Born in Boston, King attended Boston Latin School before matriculating at Harvard University, where he completed a Bachelor of Arts in History under the supervision of scholars associated with the Kennedy School of Government and the Department of History, Harvard University. He pursued graduate studies at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar, earning a DPhil with research conducted at the Bodleian Library and the National Archives (United Kingdom), engaging with manuscript collections linked to the East India Company and the British Empire.

King began his academic career as a lecturer at Columbia University and then joined the faculty at University of California, Berkeley as an assistant professor. He has served as a visiting fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study and as a research professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS). His administrative roles include directing the Center for Urban Studies at New York University and chairing the History Department at University of Chicago. King has contributed to editorial boards of journals such as the Journal of Modern History, Past & Present, and Comparative Studies in Society and History.

King's monographs include The Colonial Archive (published by Oxford University Press), Cities in Revolt (published by Cambridge University Press), and Networks of Dissent (published by Princeton University Press). These works synthesize archival evidence from repositories including the British Library, Archivo General de Indias, and the National Archives and Records Administration with critical engagements drawn from scholarship at the International African Institute, the Caribbean Studies Association, and the Modern Language Association conferences. He has published articles in American Historical Review, Past & Present, and The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History examining episodes such as the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Haitian Revolution, and urban insurrections in Paris, Lisbon, and Cape Town. King's methodological contributions include comparative prosopography, digital humanities projects hosted with the Digital Public Library of America, and the development of an online database in partnership with the Vatican Secret Archives and the Municipal Archives of New York City.

King resides in Chicago and maintains affiliations with cultural institutions such as the Field Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. He is married to a fellow academic who has taught at Barnard College and serves on advisory boards for the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Chicago Historical Society. King is an active participant in public history initiatives involving the Smithsonian Institution and has lectured at venues including the Library of Congress and the National Gallery of Art.

King's honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a MacArthur Fellowship, and a prize from the American Historical Association for outstanding book. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the British Academy, and the Whiting Foundation. Professional recognition includes election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and keynote invitations to the World Congress of Historical Sciences and the European Social Science History Conference.

King's scholarship has influenced historians working on the British Empire, Atlantic World, and urban history, informing curricula at institutions such as Yale University, Princeton University, and Stanford University. His digital projects have been incorporated into teaching modules at the University of Michigan and the University of Toronto, and his comparative frameworks are cited in monographs from presses including Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press. His mentorship of doctoral students has produced scholars now placed at universities including Columbia University, University of California, Los Angeles, and King's College London.