06.06.2018.

Isaiah Berlin Day in Riga 2018

The 10th annual Isaiah Berlin Day in Riga will take place on December 13, 2018 at the “Splendid Palace” cinema (Elizabetes iela 61, Riga).

The Foundation for an Open Society DOTS invites everyone to celebrate Berlin’s legacy, and discuss the ideas and values expressed and defended by Berlin: pluralism, tolerance and individual liberty.

PROGRAMME

17:00 – 18:15  Documentary “Isaiah Berlin: Philosopher of Freedom” (2018, Judith Wechsler)

The film traces the intellectual development of Isaiah Berlin in the context of his life and times, through archival film and recordings of its subject, as well as interviews with his biographer Michael Ignatieff, his principal editor Henry Hardy, and pianist and writer Alfred Brendel, and others.   Official film trailer.   

18:15 – 19:50 The 10th Isaiah Berlin Memorial Lecture "Turning Points: Yesterday’s World, and Tomorrow’s" by Professor Stephen Kotkin, American historian, author and professor in history and international affairs at Princeton University.

Stephen Kotkin is the John P. Birkelund Professor in History and International Affairs at Princeton University, where he also directs Princeton's Institute for International and Regional Studies. He is also a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Kotkin is the author of many books on history and politics, among them "Uncivil Society: 1989 and the Implosion of Communist Establishment", "Armageddon Averted: the Soviet Collapse, 1970-2000" and the biography of Stalin. He was a Pultizer Prize finalist for the first volume of the biography - Stalin: Paradoxes of Power, 1878-1928. http://stephenkotkin.com/

Both events will take place in English with simultaneous translation into Latvian.

The event is free of charge by showing a free ticket, which can be obtained here: https://ej.uz/Berlindiena-2018

The Isaiah Berlin Day in Riga is organised by the Foundation for an Open Society DOTS in cooperation with the Representation of the European Commission in Latvia and the U.S. Embassy in Latvia. The event is also being supported by the Riga City Council.