Join Harvard Griffin GSAS Dean Emma Dench, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History and of the Classics; Grzegorz Ekiert, AM ’87, PhD ’91, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government at Harvard University, immediate past director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, and senior scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies; and Jill Kastner, AM ’92, Soviet Union studies, PhD ’99, history, visiting fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London, as they explore how the erosion of norms, trust, and tolerance threatens contemporary democracy and the ways governments, civil society organizations, universities, the private sector, and citizens can work in solidarity to push back against authoritarian threats and reinforce democratic governance.
Following the speaking program, enjoy drinks, appetizers, and stimulating conversation with fellow alumni and friends!
Thursday, March 7, 2024
(All times are GMT)
6:00 p.m. – Doors open for registration
6:30 p.m. – Program begins
7:45 p.m. – Reception
Event Cost:
- Harvard Griffin GSAS alumni and Harvard Club of United Kingdom members: USD 30.00
- Recent Harvard graduates (’18-’23): USD 30.00
- Harvard alumni and members of the Harvard community: USD 35.00
Emma Dench
Emma Dench was born in York, grew up near Stratford-Upon-Avon, and studied at Wadham College, Oxford (BA Hons Literae Humaniores), and at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford (DPhil in Ancient History). Before taking up a joint appointment in the Departments of the Classics and of History at Harvard in January 2007, she taught classics and ancient history at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has been a Craven Fellow at the University of Oxford, a Rome Scholar and a Hugh Last Fellow at the British School of Rome, a Cotton Fellow, a Member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and a Visiting Professor of the Classics and of History at Harvard, and a Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellow.
Dench is the author of From Barbarians to New Men: Greek, Roman, and Modern Perceptions of Peoples from the Central Apennines, Romulus’ Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian, and “Imperialism and Culture in the Roman World” for the Cambridge University Press series Key Themes in Ancient History. Other current projects include a study of the retrospective writing of the Roman Republican past in classical antiquity.
While at Harvard, Dench received a Harvard College Professorship in recognition of “outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching, mentoring, and advising,” a Marquand Award for Excellent Advising and Counseling, and an Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award for her mentorship of graduate students.
Grzegorz Ekiert, AM ’87, PhD ’91
Grzegorz Ekiert, AM ’87, PhD ’91, sociology, is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government at Harvard University and senior scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. He was director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (2012-2024) and chair of social studies undergraduate concentration (2000-2006). His research and teaching interests focus on comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society and social movements and East European politics and societies. He is the author and editor of several books and special issues of academic journals including: Ruling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements (co-editors Elizabeth J. Perry and Yan Xiaojun), Cambridge University Press, 2020; Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule (co-editor Stephen Hanson), Cambridge University Press, 2003; Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland (co-author Jan Kubik, Rutgers University), University of Michigan Press, 1999; The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe, Princeton University Press, 1996. His papers appeared in numerous social science journals in the US, Europe, and Asia, and in edited volumes. He was the advisory board member of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (2016-2024), External Examiner in Politics, Public Administration and Global Studies at the University of Hong Kong (2012-2018), and is a member of several advisory boards in social science research institutions and NGOs.
Jill Kastner, AM ’92, PhD ’99
Jill Kastner, AM ’92, PhD ’99, is a visiting fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. She has written about Cold War crises in Berlin and the Middle East and contributed to The Nation and Foreign Affairs. She holds a master’s in Soviet Union studies and a PhD in history from Harvard, where she was a Krupp Foundation Fellow. While pursuing her PhD, she studied at the Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte in Mainz and lived in both Mainz and Frankfurt. Prior to her academic life, she worked as a TV news producer in Washington.
She is the executive editor of Hope and History: A Memoir of Tumultuous Times, by Ambassador William vanden Heuvel (2019), and is currently working on a new book, A Measure Short of War: The Return of Great Power Subversion, with William C. Wohlforth, due out in 2024.
Harvard University and the Graduate School Alumni Association encourage people with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please let us know in advance at gsaa@fas.harvard.edu.
Join Harvard Griffin GSAS Dean Emma Dench, McLean Professor of Ancient and Modern History and of the Classics; Grzegorz Ekiert, AM ’87, PhD ’91, Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government at Harvard University, immediate past director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, and senior scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies; and Jill Kastner, AM ’92, Soviet Union studies, PhD ’99, history, visiting fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London, as they explore how the erosion of norms, trust, and tolerance threatens contemporary democracy and the ways governments, civil society organizations, universities, the private sector, and citizens can work in solidarity to push back against authoritarian threats and reinforce democratic governance.
Following the speaking program, enjoy drinks, appetizers, and stimulating conversation with fellow alumni and friends!
Thursday, March 7, 2024
(All times are GMT)
6:00 p.m. – Doors open for registration
6:30 p.m. – Program begins
7:45 p.m. – Reception
Event Cost:
- Harvard Griffin GSAS alumni and Harvard Club of United Kingdom members: USD 30.00
- Recent Harvard graduates (’18-’23): USD 30.00
- Harvard alumni and members of the Harvard community: USD 35.00
Emma Dench
Emma Dench was born in York, grew up near Stratford-Upon-Avon, and studied at Wadham College, Oxford (BA Hons Literae Humaniores), and at St. Hugh’s College, Oxford (DPhil in Ancient History). Before taking up a joint appointment in the Departments of the Classics and of History at Harvard in January 2007, she taught classics and ancient history at Birkbeck College, University of London. She has been a Craven Fellow at the University of Oxford, a Rome Scholar and a Hugh Last Fellow at the British School of Rome, a Cotton Fellow, a Member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and a Visiting Professor of the Classics and of History at Harvard, and a Loeb Classical Library Foundation Fellow.
Dench is the author of From Barbarians to New Men: Greek, Roman, and Modern Perceptions of Peoples from the Central Apennines, Romulus’ Asylum: Roman Identities from the Age of Alexander to the Age of Hadrian, and “Imperialism and Culture in the Roman World” for the Cambridge University Press series Key Themes in Ancient History. Other current projects include a study of the retrospective writing of the Roman Republican past in classical antiquity.
While at Harvard, Dench received a Harvard College Professorship in recognition of “outstanding contributions to undergraduate teaching, mentoring, and advising,” a Marquand Award for Excellent Advising and Counseling, and an Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award for her mentorship of graduate students.
Grzegorz Ekiert, AM ’87, PhD ’91
Grzegorz Ekiert, AM ’87, PhD ’91, sociology, is Laurence A. Tisch Professor of Government at Harvard University and senior scholar at the Harvard Academy for International and Area Studies. He was director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (2012-2024) and chair of social studies undergraduate concentration (2000-2006). His research and teaching interests focus on comparative politics, regime change and democratization, civil society and social movements and East European politics and societies. He is the author and editor of several books and special issues of academic journals including: Ruling by Other Means: State-Mobilized Movements (co-editors Elizabeth J. Perry and Yan Xiaojun), Cambridge University Press, 2020; Capitalism and Democracy in Central and Eastern Europe: Assessing the Legacy of Communist Rule (co-editor Stephen Hanson), Cambridge University Press, 2003; Rebellious Civil Society: Popular Protest and Democratic Consolidation in Poland (co-author Jan Kubik, Rutgers University), University of Michigan Press, 1999; The State Against Society: Political Crises and Their Aftermath in East Central Europe, Princeton University Press, 1996. His papers appeared in numerous social science journals in the US, Europe, and Asia, and in edited volumes. He was the advisory board member of the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung (2016-2024), External Examiner in Politics, Public Administration and Global Studies at the University of Hong Kong (2012-2018), and is a member of several advisory boards in social science research institutions and NGOs.
Jill Kastner, AM ’92, PhD ’99
Jill Kastner, AM ’92, PhD ’99, is a visiting fellow in the Department of War Studies at King’s College, London. She has written about Cold War crises in Berlin and the Middle East and contributed to The Nation and Foreign Affairs. She holds a master’s in Soviet Union studies and a PhD in history from Harvard, where she was a Krupp Foundation Fellow. While pursuing her PhD, she studied at the Institut für Osteuropäische Geschichte in Mainz and lived in both Mainz and Frankfurt. Prior to her academic life, she worked as a TV news producer in Washington.
She is the executive editor of Hope and History: A Memoir of Tumultuous Times, by Ambassador William vanden Heuvel (2019), and is currently working on a new book, A Measure Short of War: The Return of Great Power Subversion, with William C. Wohlforth, due out in 2024.
Harvard University and the Graduate School Alumni Association encourage people with disabilities to participate in its programs and activities. If you anticipate needing any type of accommodation or have questions about the access provided, please let us know in advance at gsaa@fas.harvard.edu.