Kathleen Burk
Kathleen Mildred Burk (born March 1946) is Professor Emerita of Modern and Contemporary History at University College London. She studies international history, focusing on politics, diplomacy and finance. Burk grew up on a California grape farm and earned degrees from UC Berkeley and Oxford University (St Hugh’s College). She completed a D.Phil. at Oxford, studying with A. J. P. Taylor.
Her early books on economic diplomacy argued that governments always need money. She has held several academic posts: Tutorial Assistant at Dundee University (1976–77), Rhodes Research Fellow at Oxford (1977–1980), and Lecturer in History and Politics at Imperial College London (1980–1992). She joined University College London in 1990–1992, became a Reader in 1993 and a Professor in 1995.
Burk founded the journal Contemporary European History in 1992 and was its editor for the first 13 years. She also helped start The Historians’ Press in the 1980s, which ran for 25 years. In addition to history, she writes about wine and holds a diploma from the London Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
She is a Fellow of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Burk has appeared on BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time to discuss many historical topics, including The Federalist Papers in 2023. She served on the governing body of Abingdon School from 2001 to 2013 and writes for Wine Behind the Label.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 13:41 (CET).