Mark Choate is a historian of Europe and Africa from the nineteenth century to the present, with particular emphasis on Italy, France, Germany, and east Africa. He has concentrated on the history of migration and colonialism, race, Fascism, politics and culture.

Mark was born in California and grew up in rural Oklahoma, where he became Eagle Scout. He began his college studies at the University of Oklahoma, and earned four degrees in history from Yale University: B.A. magna cum laude (1995), M.A. (1996), M.Phil. (1998), and Ph.D. (2002). His dissertation was awarded the Hans Gatzke Prize by Yale University for the outstanding dissertation in European history. 

Mark was a volunteer missionary in Milan, Italy, for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and returned to Italy as a Fulbright Fellow from 1998 to 1999. He has received other fellowship support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Smith-Richardson Foundation, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education, funding research in the major archives of Britain, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States. Mark was also awarded the Andrew Hill Clark Prize in 2002 by the American Academy of Geographers, Historical Geography Specialty Group.

A professor at Brigham Young University since September 2001, Mark teaches graduate and undergraduate students in courses on Europe since 1914, Fascism, migration, colonialism, contemporary Italy, and world civilizations in the modern era. Other interests include art, music, and running (in italiano, «footing»).

Mark is a retired U.S. Army colonel. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve National Guard as a private, trained as a combat medic, and served a field grade officer in Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Chad, Korea, Sudan, and other countries.

“Choate” is originally a French Huguenot name. Other branches of Mark’s family come from Scotland, Germany, Poland, and Italy.