Charles Ziegler

Professor of Political Science
Director, Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order
Distinguished University Scholar

Research: Comparative Politics • Political Economy • Foreign Policy • Comparative Democratization • Russia and Eurasia.

Professor Ziegler was born in farm country near Plymouth, Indiana and graduated from a public high school there in 1971. Most of his professional life has been spent in Louisville. He taught at a small college in Florida for one year before coming to UofL in 1980. He also lived in California, Great Britain and South Korea, and traveled throughout Europe, Asia, and parts of Latin America. His hobbies include music, biking, hiking, pool volleyball, Taekwondo, and raising an energetic boy. Some publications include “The History of Russia, 2nd edition” (Greenwood Press, 2009), “Civil Society, Political Stability, and State Power in Central Asia: Cooperation and Contestation,” Democratization, Vol. 17, Issue 5 (2010) and “Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus after the Georgia Conflict,” in Roger E. Kanet, ed. Russian Foreign Policy in the 21st Century (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010). He earned his Bachelor's degree in Political Science at Purdue University, his Masters in Political Science and his PhD in Political Science at the University of Illinois. He teaches topics on Russia and Eurasia, the Politics of Oil, Comparative Political Culture, Theories of Comparative Politics, and Democratization.