Sam Harshbarger
MPhil Student in History at Oxford
Historian · Writer · Journalist
I am a first-year MPhil student in Modern European History at Balliol College, Oxford, where I study on a Rhodes Scholarship. I have an A.B. in History from Princeton University, where I graduated summa cum laude in May 2024.
My current master’s project explores the intersection of Soviet nationalities policy, socialist internationalism, and the oil industry in Azerbaijan in the 1960s and 1970s. Outside of my academic work, I am researching the life and times of my great-grandfather, Robert J. Havighurst, and follow politics in the Americas and Turkey.
In the summer of 2024, I worked as an Overseas Press Club of America Foundation Fellow with The Associated Press in Bangkok, Thailand. My work has been published by the Baku Research Institute, The Daily Princetonian, Kültürkampf, and the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy.
Outside of travel, languages, and reading, I love Brazilian music, Sichuanese food, and Guinness. I am a fan of Beşiktaş, Chicago Fire, and River Plate. I also like coffee, islands, maps, and mountains.
I was born in Chicago, Ill. and grew up in suburban New Jersey. Chicago, Istanbul, and Princeton, N.J. are home.