Staff profile

Barbara Keys is a specialist in U.S. and international history. She began her teaching career in 2003 after receiving her PhD in History from Harvard University. Before coming to Durham, she taught at the University of Melbourne. She has been a visiting fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, the Center for the Study of Law and Society at UC Berkeley, the Center for European Studies at Harvard, the Center for the History of Emotions at the Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforschung in Berlin, and the Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte in Mainz.

Her latest book, SUPER K: The Making, Breaking, and Remaking of Henry Kissinger's Legacy, will be out with Simon & Schuster in October (and in the UK with OneWorld shortly thereafter). She is finishing a book on anti-torture campaigns since 1945 and starting a book project on personal diplomacy from the 1970s to the present.

She is the recipient of the 2010 Stuart Bernath Lecture Prize, awarded by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the University of Melbourne's 2015 Woodward Medal in Humanities and Social Sciences for her book Reclaiming American Virtue. She was the 2019 President of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Her research and teaching areas include human rights, diplomacy, U.S. foreign relations, the Cold War in global perspective, and foreign relations archival management. Professor Keys welcomes expressions of interest from prospective postgraduate students interested in the history of human rights, 20th century diplomacy, personal diplomacy, U.S. foreign relations, social movements, emotions, or international sport.

• Henry Kissinger and Sino-U.S. relations
• History of diplomacy
• History of emotions
• History of human rights
• History of international sport

• 2019: President: President, Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations

Authored book

• Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s
  
  Keys, B. (2014). Reclaiming American Virtue: The Human Rights Revolution of the 1970s. Harvard University Press.
• Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s
  
  Keys, B. (2006). Globalizing Sport: National Rivalry and International Community in the 1930s. Harvard University Press.

Chapter in book

• "Hierarchies of Rights"
  
  Keys, B. (2025). "Hierarchies of Rights". In S. Moyn & M. Terretta (Eds.), The Cambridge History of Rights, Volume V: The Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries (pp. 83-99). Cambridge University Press.
• "Henry Kissingers Bild in der Öffentlichkeit"
  
  Keys, B. (2025). "Henry Kissingers Bild in der Öffentlichkeit". In A. Schors (Ed.), Henry Kissinger. Ordnungsmacht und Deutungshoheit. Nomos.
• "Human Rights Watch Takes on China: Maintaining the Primacy of Civil and Political Rights, 1991-1996"
  
  Keys, B., & Hodgson, A. (2022). "Human Rights Watch Takes on China: Maintaining the Primacy of Civil and Political Rights, 1991-1996". In J. Eckel & D. Stahl (Eds.), Embattled Visions: Human Rights since 1990 (pp. 139-162). Wallstein-Verlag.
• "Information and Communication Technologies in Human Rights Work in the 1990s"
  
  Keys, B. (2022). "Information and Communication Technologies in Human Rights Work in the 1990s". In B. Möckel & M. Homberg (Eds.), Human Rights and Technological Change (pp. 310-330). Wallstein-Verlag.
• "Human Rights"
  
  Keys, B. (2022). "Human Rights". In M. P. F. Friedman, D. Engerman, & M. McAlister (Eds.), Cambridge History of America in the World, Vol. 4: 1945 to the Present (pp. 328-48). Cambridge University Press.
• "Sport and Emotion"
  
  Keys, B. (2021). "Sport and Emotion". In M. G. Phillips, D. Booth, & C. Adams (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Sport History (pp. 223-34). Routledge.
• "The End of the Vietnam War and the Rise of Human Rights"
  
  Keys, B. (2020). "The End of the Vietnam War and the Rise of Human Rights". In A. D. Moses, M. Duranti, & R. Burke (Eds.), Decolonization, Self-Determination, and the Birth of Global Human Rights Politics (pp. 360-374). Cambridge University Press.
• "’Something to Boast About’: Western Enthusiasm for Carter’s Human Rights Diplomacy"
  
  Keys, B. (2016). "’Something to Boast About’: Western Enthusiasm for Carter’s Human Rights Diplomacy". In Reasserting America in the 1970s: U.S. Public Diplomacy and the Rebuilding of America’s Image Abroad, eds. Hallvard Hottaker, Giles Scott-Smith, and David Snyder (pp. 229-244). University of Manchester Press.
• "Nonstate Actors"
  
  Keys, B. (2016). "Nonstate Actors". In Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations, eds. Frank Costigliola and Michael Hogan. (pp. 119-134). Cambridge University Press.
• "Emotions in Intercultural Relations"
  
  Keys, B. (2015). "Emotions in Intercultural Relations". In Asia Pacific in the Age of Globalization, ed. Robert David Johnson (pp. 212-220). Palgrave Macmillan.
• "Human Rights"
  
  Keys, B., & Burke, R. (2013). "Human Rights". In The Oxford Handbook of the Cold War, eds. Richard Immerman and Petra Goedde (pp. 486-502). Oxford University Press.
• "The Early Cold War Olympics: Political, Economic, and Human Rights Dimensions, 1952-1960"
  
  Keys, B. (2012). "The Early Cold War Olympics: Political, Economic, and Human Rights Dimensions, 1952-1960". In The Palgrave Handbook of Olympic Studies, eds. Helen J. Lenskyj and Stephen Wagg (pp. 72-87). Palgrave Macmillan.
• “Anti-Torture Politics: Amnesty International, the Greek Junta, and the Origins of the U.S. Human Rights Boom"
  
  Keys, B. (2012). “Anti-Torture Politics: Amnesty International, the Greek Junta, and the Origins of the U.S. Human Rights Boom". In The Human Rights Revolution: An International History, eds. Petra Goedde, William Hithcock, and Akira Iriye (pp. 201-222). Oxford University Press.
• "The Soviet Union, Cultural Exchange, and the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games"
  
  Keys, B. (2007). "The Soviet Union, Cultural Exchange, and the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games". In Sport zwischen Ost und West. Beiträge zur Sportgeschichte im 19. und 20. Jahrhundert, eds. Arié Malz, Stefan Rohdewald, and Stefan Wiederkehr (pp. 131-146). Fibre.
• "The 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and the Postwar International Order"
  
  Keys, B. (2006). "The 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games and the Postwar International Order". In 1956: European and Global Perspectives, eds. Carole Fink, Frank Hadler, and Tomasz Schramm (pp. 293-307). Leipziger Universitätsverlag.

Edited book

• Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations
  
  Costigliola, F., & Keys, B. J. (Eds.). (2025). Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations (4th ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009447966
• The Ideals of Global Sport: From Peace to Human Rights
  
  Keys, B. (2019). The Ideals of Global Sport: From Peace to Human Rights (B. Keys, Ed.). University of Pennsylvania Press.

Journal Article

• "The Diplomat's Two Minds: Deconstructing a Foreign Policy Myth"
  
  Keys, B. (2020). "The Diplomat’s Two Minds: Deconstructing a Foreign Policy Myth". Diplomatic History, 44(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dhz053
• "Personal and Political Emotions in the Mind of the Diplomat"
  
  Keys, B., & Yorke, C. (2019). "Personal and Political Emotions in the Mind of the Diplomat". Political Psychology, 40(6), 1235-1249. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12628
• "Harnessing Human Rights to the Olympic Games: Human Rights Watch and the 1993 'Stop Beijing' Campaign"
  
  Keys, B. (2018). "Harnessing Human Rights to the Olympic Games: Human Rights Watch and the 1993 ’Stop Beijing’ Campaign". Journal of Contemporary History, 53(2), 415-438. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022009416667791
• The Telephone and Its Uses in 1980s U.S. Activism
  
  Keys, B. (2018). The Telephone and Its Uses in 1980s U.S. Activism. Journal of Interdisciplinary History, 48(4), 485-509. https://doi.org/10.1162/jinh_a_01196
• "Nixon/Kissinger and Brezhnev"
  
  Keys, B. (2018). "Nixon/Kissinger and Brezhnev". Diplomatic History, 42(4), 548-551. https://doi.org/10.1093/dh/dhy047
• "Political Protection: The International Olympic Committee's UN Diplomacy in the 1980s"
  
  Keys, B. (2017). "Political Protection: The International Olympic Committee’s UN Diplomacy in the 1980s". The International Journal of the History of Sport, 34(11). https://doi.org/10.1080/09523367.2017.1402764
• "Senses and Emotions in the History of Sport"
  
  Keys, B. (2013). "Senses and Emotions in the History of Sport". Journal of Sport History, 40(1), 21-38.
• "Henry Kissinger: The Emotional Statesman"
  
  Keys, B. (2011). "Henry Kissinger: The Emotional Statesman". Diplomatic History, 35(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2011.00968.x
• "Congress, Kissinger, and the Origins of Human Rights Diplomacy"
  
  Keys, B. (2010). "Congress, Kissinger, and the Origins of Human Rights Diplomacy". Diplomatic History, 34(5). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2010.00897.x
• "The Body as a Political Space: Comparing Physical Education under Nazism and Stalinism"
  
  Keys, B. (2009). "The Body as a Political Space: Comparing Physical Education under Nazism and Stalinism". German History, 27(3). https://doi.org/10.1093/gerhis/ghp033
• "An African-American Worker in Stalin's Soviet Union: Race and the Soviet Experiment in International Perspective"
  
  Keys, B. (2009). "An African-American Worker in Stalin’s Soviet Union: Race and the Soviet Experiment in International Perspective". Historian, 71(1), 31-54.
• "Spreading Peace, Democracy, and Coca-Cola: Sport and American Cultural Expansion in the 1930s"
  
  Keys, B. (2004). "Spreading Peace, Democracy, and Coca-Cola: Sport and American Cultural Expansion in the 1930s". Diplomatic History, 28(2). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7709.2004.00405.x
• "Soviet Sport and Transnational Mass Culture in the 1930s"
  
  Keys, B. (2003). "Soviet Sport and Transnational Mass Culture in the 1930s". The Journal of Contemporary History, 38(3), 413-434.

Other (Print)

• “The Kissinger Wars"
  
  Keys, B. (2016). “The Kissinger Wars" (pp. 16-22). American Historian.