World Chess Champion and Churchill Expert Headline Churchill Fellows Weekend
Click here to watch Kasparov’s lecture live!
The one-time youngest world chess champion in history and an expert on Churchill and the Cold War will headline Churchill Fellows Weekend 2016 on April 9-10 hosted by the National Churchill Museum on the campus of Westminster College in Fulton, MO.
The public will enjoy free admission to the National Churchill Museum all day April 9 in celebration of Winston Churchill Day, the anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill receiving his honorary American citizenship in 1963.
Garry Kasparov, the Soviet who in 1985 became the youngest world chess champion in history at the age of 22, will begin the Churchill Fellows Weekend with a free public lecture at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 9, in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury.
In his 20th year as the world’s top-ranked chess player, Kasparov abruptly retired from competitive chess to join the vanguard of the Russian pro-democracy movement and as founder of the United Civil Front organized the Marches of Dissent to protest the repressive policies of Vladimir Putin.
Facing imminent arrest during Putin’s crackdown, Kasparov moved to New York City in 2013 and is a commentator and lecturer on politics and a human rights activist. His latest book, Winter Is Coming: Why Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped, chronicles the disintegration of the Soviet Union, the dysfunctional relationship between Russia and the world’s leading nations since the fall of the Iron Curtain and his own personal journey.
Then on Sunday, April 10, Dr. Klaus Larres, who is the Richard M. Krasno Distinguished Professor in History and International Affairs at the University of North Carolina, will deliver the annual Enid and R. Crosby Kemper Lecture at 2 p.m. in the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury.
The lecture titled “War, Terror and Global Order: the Search for Stability from the ‘Iron Curtain’ to the Present” is free and open to the public and following the lecture is a free reception and book signing by Dr. Larres at 3 p.m. in the Galleries of the National Churchill Museum.
New Churchill Fellows will also be inducted at an investiture ceremony.
Dr. Larres is the author of Churchill’s Cold War: The Politics of Personal Diplomacy (2002) and has written many essays and articles about Churchill and recent European politics. His research interests include the international history of the Cold War and the economic and geo-strategic developments in the post-Cold War world.
He is considered an expert on contemporary transatlantic relations, European integration and 20th century American, German and British foreign policies in comparative perspective.
Since 2009, Dr. Larres has been a Senior Fellow at the Centre for Transatlantic Relations, a leading Washington, D.C. think tank, and EU Centre of Excellence. He also holds a senior research fellowship at the leading German think tank SWP (Institute for Security and International Affairs) in Berlin.
Those interested in attending the entire weekend of Churchill activities can purchase tickets for the cocktail reception and dinner at 6 p.m. on Saturday evening, April 9, and the brunch at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, April 10 in the Backer Dining Hall. Dr. Larres and other Churchill experts will answer questions about Churchill, the Cold War and the legacy of the “Iron Curtain” speech.
During the weekend, visitors will also be able to enjoy the Museum exhibit, “The Prime Minister, the President, and the General,” commemorating the 70th anniversary of the “Iron Curtain” speech and the role of Major General Harry H. Vaughn in inviting Churchill to Westminster College.
Information on how to purchase tickets for the Churchill dinner or Kemper Lecture brunch is found at https://www.nationalchurchillmuseum.org/churchillweekend.html.
For additional information about the weekend, contact Meda Young, Administrative Assistant to the Museum’s Executive Director, at 573-592-5602 or Meda.Young@westminster-mo.edu.
The Enid and R. Crosby Kemper Lectureship was established in 1979 by a grant from the Enid and R. Crosby Kemper Foundation of Kansas City, MO. The series is intended to provide lectures by authorities on British History or Sir Winston Churchill at the National Churchill Museum on the campus of Westminster College in Fulton, MO. The inaugural lecture in the Kemper Lecture series was given by Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Churchill. This established Lectureship is held under the auspices of the British Institute of the United States and the National Churchill Museum.
