Professional Affiliation

University of South Florida

Expert Bio

Julia Irwin is an Associate Professor and Associate Chair of History at the University of South Florida. She earned her Ph.D. in History, with a concentration in the History of Medicine and Science, from Yale University. Her research focuses on the place of humanitarian assistance in 20^th century U.S. foreign relations and international history. Her first book, Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation’s Humanitarian Awakening (Oxford University Press, 2013) is a history of U.S. international relief efforts during the First World War era. She is now completing a second book, Catastrophic Diplomacy: U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century. Professor Irwin is also the author of many articles and book chapters, including most recently “Our Climatic Moment: Hazarding a History of the United States and the World” (Diplomatic History, 2021), “The ‘Development’ of Humanitarian Relief: U.S. Disaster Assistance Operations in the Caribbean Basin, 1917-1931,” (in The Development Century: A Global History, Cambridge University Press, 2018), and “Disastrous Grand Strategy: U.S. Humanitarian Assistance and Global Natural Catastrophe” (Rethinking American Grand Strategy, Oxford University Press, 2021).