Professor Leonidas Donskis was elected in Lithuania as a member of the European Parliament, running on the Liberal Party ticket. Born in Klaipeda in 1962, he has been for years professor at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, and dean of its Faculty of Political Science and Diplomacy. He is the author of numerous seminal books on philosophy, political science and the history of ideas. His works have been translated into a dozen languages, and he has been a visiting professor in Britain, Sweden, the United States, and other countries. His unique television discussion show Without Anger (in Lithuanian) won a large following and promoted tolerance and openness. In recent years, Prof. Donskis has spoken out with inspirational courage and with unmatched sophistication, against the wave of antisemitism, Holocaust Obfuscation and ’Double Genocide’ misinformation in his country (see for example here, here, and here).

DONSKIS IN DEFENDING HISTORY

DEFENDING HISTORY’S 15 MAY 2009 EVENING ENABLING CANDIDATE DONSKIS TO MEET WITH SOME OF THE WESTERN DIPLOMATIC CORPS IN VILNIUS

After the election of Professor Donskis to the European Parliament, Peter Lang brought out a new volume which he conceived and edited, A Litmus Test Case of Modernity. Examining Modern Sensibilities and the Public Domain in the Baltic States at the Turn of the Century (= Interdisciplinary Studies on Central and Eastern Europe V). Peter Lang: Bern et al 2009.  Information here.

Note: The Defending History team is proud to have hosted an evening in Vilnius in honor of Professor Donskis, at which ambassadors and/or other major diplomats from virtually all the Western embassies in Vilnius were present, including the American,  Austrian, British, Canadian, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Irish, and Swedish embassies. Photos from the event will be posted in an online album in due course.