events 2008

Prof. Igor Lukeš

Discussion with Igor Lukes, Boston University Professor of International Relations and History

"American Election Campaign Before Conventions"

Igor Lukeš spoke to a full room of professionals, academics and students, who came to his lecture despite of full summer weather. Mr. Lukeš spoke about U.S. presidential candidates in a very down-to-earth and capturing way that resulted in Q&A lasting for over an hour. The dicussion took place at the Institute of International Relations on Monday, July 7, 2008.

Professor Lukes is a historian of Central Europe in the twentieth century. He has written about Europe between the world wars and about contemporary developments in East Central Europe, Russia, and the Balkans.

His work has been published in half a dozen countries and in such periodicals as Journal of Contemporary History, Diplomacy & Statecraft, Vierteljahrshefte für Zeitgeschichte, and Slavic Review. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Professor Lukes has systematically worked in the newly opened archives. This work provided the foundation for his book, Czechoslovakia Between Stalin and Hitler: The Diplomacy of Edvard Benes in the 1930's. Published by Oxford University Press in 1996, the book won the Boston Authors Club Award as well as the Kahn Award. He is also a co-author and/or co-editor of The Munich Conference, 1938: Prelude to World War II (1999), Inside the Apparat: Perspectives on the Soviet Union (1990) and Gorbachev's USSR: A System in Crisis (1990).

His work has won the support of various prestigious institutions, including the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC; IREX; and the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has also been the recipient of two Fulbright Fellowships for research, and in 1997 he won the Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching at Boston University.