S. Frederick Starr

S. Frederick Starr is founding chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program, a research and policy center jointly affiliated with the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the Institute for Security and Development Policy in Stockholm. A past president of Oberlin College and the Aspen Institute, Starr began his career in classical archaeology, excavating at the ancient Phrygian site of Gordium in modern Turkey and mapping the route of the Persian Royal Road. His scholarly focus later shifted to the history and geopolitics of Central Asia, culminating in his major work Lost Enlightenment: Central Asia's Golden Age from the Arab Conquest to Tamerlane, which traces the intellectual and cultural flourishing of the region before the Mongol devastation. He remains one of the foremost American analysts of the Central Asian and Caucasus region.