Education

Ph.D.

Temple University

M.A.

University of North Carolina Wilmington

B.A.

University of North Carolina Wilmington

Bio

Matthew Shannon researches, writes, and teaches about the history of the United States in a global context. In his research, he focuses primarily, but not exclusively, on U.S.-Iran relations.

Dr. Shannon is the author or editor of four books. His most recent book, Mission Manifest: American Evangelicals and Iran in the Twentieth Century, was published by Cornell University Press in 2024 as part of its United States in the World series.

His first book, Losing Hearts and Minds: American-Iranian Relations and International Education during the Cold War, was published by Cornell University Press in 2017 and has since been translated into Persian in Iran.

These two books explore the role of Iranian students in the United States, on the one hand, and American missionaries in Iran, on the other hand, in shaping U.S.-Iran relations before 1979. Together, they provide a glimpse into the human dimension of the U.S.-Iran relationship and offer new perspectives on foreign relations through the lenses of cultural diplomacy, international education, human rights, religion, and transnational mobility.

Shannon is the editor of American-Iranian Dialogues: From Constitution to White Revolution, c. 1890s–1960s, which was published by Bloomsbury in 2021 as part of its New Approaches to International History series.

He is the co-editor, with Mark Finney, of 9/11 and the Academy: Responses in the Liberal Arts and the 21st Century World, which was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2019.

He is currently working on two book projects: a biography on the international life of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas and a reader on U.S.-Iran relations since 1979.

Prior to joining the Department of History at the University of South Carolina, Shannon taught at the American University in Cairo and worked for many years at Emory and Henry University.