Expert Bio

Charles Kraus, Ph.D., serves as the Director of Fellowships at the Wilson Center. In this role, he supports the Center’s community of fellows in their independent research and ensures the institution fulfills its congressional mandate to strengthen the critical relationship between the world of learning and the world of public affairs. Dr. Kraus oversees the Center’s flagship international fellowship competition, managing an annual pool of over 600 applications from scholars, journalists, and policy practitioners around the globe.

Dr. Kraus’s tenure at the Wilson Center began with a summer internship in 2008. He joined the full-time staff in 2012. He previously served for six years as the Deputy Director of the History and Public Policy Program. During that time, he managed the Wilson Center Digital Archive, a critically acclaimed research and teaching resource utilized by hundreds of thousands of users worldwide.

An expert in Chinese history and foreign policy, Dr. Kraus has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and other outlets. He is frequently invited to speak and lecture on topics related to China, the Uyghur homeland (Xinjiang), the Cold War, and American foreign relations, as well as topics related to digital archives, archival access, and freedom of information.

Dr. Kraus is fluent in Mandarin Chinese. He earned his Ph.D. (2017) and M.A. (2014) in Chinese History from The George Washington University and graduated summa cum laude from Hiram College in 2010. He lives in northern Virginia with his family.