معرفی
Charles Walton is a Professor of History at the University of Warwick, where he serves as Director of the European Historical Research Centre. He previously taught at Yale University, the University of Oklahoma (Norman), and Sciences Po (Paris). His research focuses on Ancien Régime, Enlightenment, and Revolutionary France, with particular emphases on human rights, political economy, and socioeconomic justice.
Walton's scholarly work explores the intricate connections between political theory, economic thought, and revolutionary movements in eighteenth-century France. His groundbreaking research on free speech during the French Revolution examines how concepts of honor, calumny, and libel evolved during revolutionary turmoil. Recent scholarship has expanded into social rights and the politics of obligation throughout history, analyzing how ideas of reciprocity and socioeconomic justice developed during revolutionary periods and continue to shape modern societies.
Professor Walton has received the prestigious 2010 Gaddis Smith International Book Prize from Yale University for his seminal work on free speech in revolutionary France. His scholarship has established him as a leading authority on the political and social dimensions of revolutionary movements, particularly regarding the historical development of rights frameworks.
As an advisor, Walton supervises doctoral students working on eighteenth-century European and Atlantic history involving France, including Jeremy Goh researching Chinese banking transnationalism, Claire Rioult examining British and French commercial diplomacies in the Spanish market, and Ronan Love studying Revolutionary Debts. With Leverhulme Trust funding, he established a major research network on social rights that has produced significant publications including the co-edited volume 'Social Rights and the Politics of Obligation in History' (Cambridge, 2022).
Walton leads important research initiatives as Director of the European Historical Research Centre and President of the Board of the GIS Eighteenth-Century Sociability Network based at the University of Rennes, fostering international collaboration among scholars studying eighteenth-century European history and culture.
