History, Memory, Politics in Democratisation Research: a personal and professional journey [Audio]

Speaker(s): Professor Tomila Lankina | Three decades after the collapse of communism in Europe, a number of post-communist states experienced democratic back-sliding or embraced authoritarianism. In her inaugural lecture, Tomila Lankina discusses how her research into the durability of social structure of pre-communist Russia— elements of which she argues survived the revolutionary experiment to engineer a new society—helps explain democratic resilience and backsliding in Russia and other contexts. Tomila Lankina is Professor of Politics and International Relations at the LSE’s International Relations Department; her current research focuses on comparative democracy and authoritarianism, mass protests and historical patterns of human capital and democratic reproduction in Russia and other states. Peter Trubowitz (@ptrubowitz) is Department Head of International Relations and Director of the US Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Associate Fellow at Chatha