Cull earned both his
B.A. and
Ph.D. at the
University of Leeds. As a graduate, he studied at
Princeton University as a
Harkness Fellow of the
Commonwealth Fund of New York. From 1992 to 1997, he was lecturer in
American history at the
University of Birmingham, and from 1997 to 2005, chair in
American studies and director of the Centre for American Studies at the
University of Leicester. Cull's research and teaching interests are broad and inter-disciplinary, and focus on
public diplomacy, the role of
advocacy, culture, exchange, broadcasting, and public opinion research in
foreign policy. Cull has also worked more broadly on the
history of propaganda,
film,
television and
radio history and the role of
mass media as a source for historical study. He is best known for detailed historical studies of the institutions behind public diplomacy and for emphasizing the importance of "listening" as a pre-condition for successful public diplomacy. He coined the term
reputational security for a category of enhanced security that comes to an international actor when they are well thought of by external audiences. Cull is past president of the
International Association for Media and History (2004-2019), and has worked closely with the
British Council's Counterpoint Think Tank. He sits on the board of the
Public Diplomacy Council and is a Fellow of the
Royal Historical Society. In April 2008, Cull's University of Southern California program was a co-winner of the
Benjamin Franklin Award for Public Diplomacy, awarded by the
U.S. Department of State. In January 2012, he succeeded
Simon Anholt as editor of the
Journal of Place Branding and Public Diplomacy (published by
Palgrave) and continued in this role until January 2019. He has been featured in a number of documentary films including
Memory: The Origins of Alien (2019). He has held visiting appointments at
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milano's Rome program and at
Green Templeton College/
Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,
University of Oxford. ==Publications==