Zach P. Messitte
Zach P. Messitte is the Vice Provost for International Programs at the University of Oklahoma and holds the William J. Crowe Chair in Geopolitics. He is also the Executive Director of the International Programs Center and an Associate Professor in the School of International and Area Studies. At OU he has taught American Foreign Policy, Governments Around the World, an inter-active course on The Iraq War and the media and a capstone class on how Washington works internationally.
Before joining OU in August 2007, he spent five years as an assistant professor of political science and director of the Center for the Study of Democracy at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, the state’s public honors college. While at St. Mary’s he taught International, American, Maryland, and Intro Politics. He also twice taught a special yearlong course on the Italian language and led a student trip to Alba, Italy in 2006. Twice honored by the St. Mary's College Student Government Association with its highest awards for outstanding service to the college, improving student life, and excellence in teaching, he also served as the faculty adviser to the school newspaper, The Point News which won first place citations in 2006 and 2007 from the American Scholastic Press Association.
Dr. Messitte received his B.A. in American History and Italian language from Bowdoin College and his M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in American Foreign Policy and International Economics. He received his Ph.D. in Politics from New York University. His work has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, The Baltimore Sun, Slate, Italy Daily, The Maryland Daily Record, The Johns Hopkins SAIS Review, The Johns Hopkins Bologna Center's Journal of International Affairs, Maryland Historical Magazine, The Oklahoman, World Literature Today, The Tulsa World, and The Washington Times. He is a frequent guest interview host on National Public Radio’s Oklahoma Voices where he has spoken with, among others, OU President David Boren on American foreign policy, former US Ambassador to Russia Arthur Hartman, US Senate (D-OK) candidate Andrew Rice, and democracy scholar Larry Diamond. He has received grants from The National Security Education Program, The National Endowment for the Humanities, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Association of University Professors, and the Italian-American Foundation.
Before entering academia, Zach Messitte served as a public information officer for the United Nations in New York and Vienna, Austria. He also worked as a researcher-producer at the Cable News Network's Washington bureau for senior national correspondent Judy Woodruff, and spent three years as the press spokesman for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in Washington, DC. Born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Dr. Messitte grew up in Montgomery County, Maryland and is a graduate of Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. He and his wife, Julia, have two sons.