Robert C. Austin (PhD University of Toronto) is a specialist on East Central and Southeastern Europe in historic and contemporary perspective. In the past, Austin was a Tirana-based correspondent for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty; a Slovak-based correspondent with The Economist Group of Publications; and a news writer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. Austin has written articles for The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Southeast European Times, Orbis, East European Politics and Societies and East European Quarterly along with numerous book chapters and several books. His most recent book is Royal Fraud: The Story of Albania’s First and Last King (2024) Prior to that he published A History of Central Europe in 2021 and Making and Remaking the Balkans: Nations and States since 1878, was published with the University of Toronto Press in May 2019. An Albanian translation of the revised and expanded edition of the book published in Kosovo as  “Bërja dhe ribërja e Ballkanit: Kombet dhe shtetet që nga viti 1878” with Koha in April 2021. At CERES, he coordinates the Undergraduate and Graduate European Affairs Program, the Hellenic Studies Program and the Hungarian Studies Program.