Robert Austin

Associate Director, Centre for European and Eurasian Studies
Professor, Teaching Stream, Centre for European and Eurasian Studies

Trinity College
1 Devonshire Place 
Toronto, Ontario, M5S 3K7 Canada

Headshot of Robert Austin

Current affiliations

  • Director, Student Programs
  • Director, Hellenic Studies and Hungarian Studies

Areas of interest

  • Transitional Justice in Albania
  • Nations and state-building in the Balkans
  • Kosovo Democratization
  • Para-states in Europe

Biography

Biography

Robert C. Austin (PhD University of Toronto) is a specialist on East Central and Southeastern Europe in historic and contemporary perspective. In the past, Austin was a Tirana-based correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; a Slovak-based correspondent with The Economist Group of Publications; and a news writer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. Austin has written articles for The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Southeast European Times, Orbis, East European Politics and Societies and East European Quarterly along with numerous book chapters and several books. His most recent book is Royal Fraud: The Story of Albania’s First and Last King (2024) Prior to that he published A History of Central Europe in 2021 and Making and Remaking the Balkans: Nations and States since 1878, was published with the University of Toronto Press in May 2019. An Albanian translation of the revised and expanded edition of the book published in Kosovo as  “Bërja dhe ribërja e Ballkanit: Kombet dhe shtetet që nga viti 1878” with Koha in April 2021. At CEES, he coordinates the Undergraduate and Graduate European Affairs Program, the Hellenic Studies Program and the Hungarian Studies Program.

Select publications

  • Royal Fraud: The Story of Albania’s First and Last King. Central European University Press, 2024
  • A History of Central Europe, Palgrave MacMillan, 2021
  • Bërja dhe ribërja e Ballkanit: Kombet dhe shtetet që nga viti 1878. Prishtina: Koha, 2021
  • Making and Remaking the Balkans: Nations and States since 1878. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2019
  • Founding a Balkan State – Albania’s Experiment with Democracy, 1920 – 1925. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2012
  • Revolucioni i Ikur (English Title: The Disappearing Revolution).  Prishtina: Koha, 2012

Awards & recognition

  • President’s Medal of Gratitude, Republic of Albania, 2015
  • Senior Fellow, Massey College, University of Toronto, 2014
  • Rakoczi Medal For Distinguished Service for Hungarian History and Culture, 2010
  • Golden Laurel Leaves from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bulgaria for Distinguished Service to Bulgarian Foreign Policy, 2005

Courses

Europe from Nation State to Supranational State, 1789-Present
Conflicts, Minority Rights and Para-States in Europe
Enlarging Europe: The European Union and its Applicants
Revolution to Revolution: Hungary from 1848 to the Present
Modern Greece in the Balkans and the European Union