Professor James Pettifer is a member of the Oxford University History Faculty and St Cross College. He is a participant in the work of other academic institutions, principally the Historisches Seminar, Osteuropaische Geschichtein Zurich University,Switzerland.

He was born in Hereford, UK in 1949 and educated at Kings School Worcester, Hertford College Oxford and the Free University of West Berlin. He has been a senior member of St Antony's College Oxford and Visiting Professor at the Institute of Balkan Studies, Thessalonica and was a Honorary Fellow of the Department of Greek and Byzantine Studies, Birmingham University, UK.

From 2002 to 2006 he was a Visiting Professor in the State University in Tetovo,FYROM/Republic of Macedonia. In 2007 he was Stanley.J.Seeger Research Fellow at Princeton University, New Jersey, USA. From 2000 until its abolition in 2010 he also worked in the Conflict Studies Research Centre (RAB)of the Defence Academy of the UK. He is the author of a number of well known books on the Balkans and regional politics and history.