He studied in Germany, Switzerland, and England. He completed his MPhil (2006) and PhD (2010) in History at the University of Cambridge, where he was a Gates Scholar. Dr. Motadel subsequently took up a Research Fellowship in History at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge (2010-15), and a Chancellor’s Fellowship in History at the University of Edinburgh (2015-16). He has held visiting positions at Harvard (2007-8), Yale (2009-10), and Oxford (2011-12). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. In 2017, he was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for History.