Michael Gunter

Education

Gunter earned his B.A. in American history in 1964 from Columbia University, his M.I.A. from Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs in 1966, and his Ph.D. in international relations from Kent State University in 1972.

Teaching experience

Gunter taught at Kent State from 1967 to 1971. Since 1972, Gunter has taught political science at Tennessee Tech University. He was an assistant professor from 1972 to 1976, an associate professor from 1976 to 1981, and a professor since 1981. He won the university's Caplenor Faculty Research Award in 1995–1996 and the Outstanding Teaching Award in 1999–2000. He is only the second faculty member in Tennessee Tech's history to win both of these awards.

He was also a Senior Fulbright-Hays Lecturer in international relations at Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey from 1978 to 1979. He was an instructor of ESL and American Culture at Shanghai Xuhui Education College in Shanghai, China during the summer of 2001. He was an adjunct professor for Fisk University in the fall of 2002. He was a visiting professor for The International University in Vienna, Austria during the summers of 2002 and 2003, where he won the Distinguished Visiting Professor Award in 2003. He also taught courses on Kurdish and Middle Eastern politics, among others, for the U.S. Government Areas Studies Program and U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Institute in Washington, D.C. Since 2018, he has been a “Distinguished Professor of the Centre for Turkish Studies of Shaanxi Normal University” in Xi’an China.

Recent publications

• The Kurds in the Middle East: Enduring Problems and New Dynamics, co-ed., 2020
• Kurdish Autonomy and U.S. Foreign Policy, co-ed., 2020
• The Kurds: A Divided Nation in Search of a State, 3rd ed., 2019
• Routledge Handbook on the Kurds, ed., 2019
• Historical Dictionary of the Kurds, 3rd ed., 2018
• The Kurds, a Modern History, 2016
• Kurdish Issues: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Olson, ed., 2016
• Out of Nowhere, The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War, 2014
• Earlier, Gunter published many other books and over 200 scholarly journal articles and book chapters.

Controversies

Gunter has been criticized for denying the Armenian genocide and claiming that Armenians are responsible for "provoking" their own persecution. His book Armenian History and the Question of Genocide was described as "a very badly written and poorly argued volume" by historian Richard Hovannisian. The book was partially funded by Turkish Coalition of America. He published a positive review of Guenter Lewy's book The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey after having blurbed it, raising criticism of professional integrity.

References

References

1. "Michael Gunter".
2. O’Leary, Brendan. (2017-12-15). "The Kurds, the Four Wolves, and the Great Powers". The Journal of Politics.
3. (2020-05-25). "Kurdish Studies Vol 8, No 1 (2020) Special Issue on Alevis".
4. "TTU professor publishes history of Kurdish people".
5. (2008-03-11). "Tech Times {{!}} Gunter ranking".
6. "Columbia College Today".
7. "Gunter Named Outstanding Teacher". www.college.columbia.edu.
8. "Dr. Michael M. Gunter". www.tntech.edu.
9. "The Kurds in the Middle East: Enduring Problems and New Dynamics".
10. (2019-09-20). "Kurdish Autonomy and U.S. Foreign Policy".
11. "The Kurds: A Divided Nation in Search of a State (2019 Edition) — Markus Wiener Publishers".
12. "Routledge Handbook on the Kurds".
13. "Historical Dictionary of the Kurds, Third Edition".
14. Gunter, Michael M.. (2016). "The Kurds: A Modern History". Markus Wiener Publishers.
15. "Mazda Publishers - Kurdish Issues".
16. Gunter, Michael M.. (2014). "Out of Nowhere: The Kurds of Syria in Peace and War". Oxford University Press.
17. Usitalo, Steven A.. (2016). "Armenian History and the Question of Genocide by Michael M. Gunter (review)". Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
18. Hovannisian, Richard G.. (2015-12-01). "Denial of the Armenian Genocide 100 Years Later: The New Practitioners and Their Trade". Genocide Studies International.
19. Kéchichian, Joseph A.. (2007). "A Response to Michael Gunter's Review of "The Armenian Massacres in Ottoman Turkey: A Disputed Genocide (IJMES 38 [2006]: 598-601)". International Journal of Middle East Studies.
20. (17 August 2007). "Michael Gunter: He blurbed a book ... Should he then have reviewed it? {{!}} History News Network".