Julia Irwin is the T. Harry Williams Professor of History at Louisiana State University. An award-winning author and teacher, she researches the role of humanitarian assistance in 20th century U.S. foreign relations and international history. Additionally, she studies the history of disasters and epidemic diseases. At LSU, she teaches classes on the history of U.S. foreign relations, modern global and international history, and the history of pandemics.

Julia is the author of three books: Making the World Safe: The American Red Cross and a Nation's Humanitarian Awakening (Oxford University Press, 2013), Catastrophic Diplomacy: US Foreign Disaster Assistance in the American Century (University of North Carolina Press, 2024), and Humanitarianism: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2026). She is currently working on a new book project, The Seventh Pandemic: Cholera, Humanitarianism, and Development in a Globalizing World, an international history of cholera and global health from the early 1960s through the early 1990s.

She is a founding co-editor of the book series InterConnections: The Global 20th Century (published by University of North Carolina Press). She is also a co-editor of the Journal of Disaster Studies (published by University of Pennsylvania Press).

Julia earned her PhD and MA from Yale University and her BA from Oberlin College. For her full c.v., please click here.