Otto and Fran Walter Memorial Lecture
The Otto and Fran Walter Memorial Lecture addresses the concerns of the event's namesake with European and transatlantic affairs. Each year, an honored speaker with a track record of insights into Europe and transatlantic relations is invited to give the lecture for a wide public audience at The Graduate Center.
Dr. Otto L. Walter was a benefactor, former Advisory Board Member and a personal friend of the EU Studies Center. Otto Walter came of age at a time when totalitarianism was on the rise and the future of Europe was very much in doubt. In fact, Otto made the difficult decision to abandon his native country and his inheritance for the uncertainties of immigration in a foreign land where he had no language, no prospects, no job. Otto never looked back; he never publicly talked about the losses he sustained under Nazi barbarism. The focus of his life was always to build a better tomorrow, and the Otto and Fran Walter Foundation, the family foundation that he set up during his lifetime, seeks to do just that. The Foundation has underwritten this lecture series for several decades and established an endowment in 2021 to support it in perpetuity.
Past Lectures
David Gill, Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany to New York
"Germany and Europe Facing the Ukraine War"
April 19, 2023
Listen to this conversation on the International Horizons podcast
Ivan Krastev, Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies and Permanent Fellow at the Institute for the Human Sciences
“The End of Peace: How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine is Transforming Europe and Transatlantic Relations”
April 26, 2022
Listen to this conversation on the International Horizons podcast
Federica Mogherini, Rector, College of Europe, and former High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
“Transatlantic Relations After the Trump Administration”
January 27, 2021
Listen to this conversation on the International Horizons podcast
Susan Glasser, Journalist, the New Yorker
“An Ocean Apart: America and Europe in the Age of Trump”
May 14, 2019
David O’Sullivan, Ambassador of the European Union to the United States
“The Future of Transatlantic Relations”
November 27, 2018
Anne Appelbaum, historian and author
“Is This the End of the West?”
April 3, 2017
Timothy Snyder, Bird White Housum Professor of History, Yale University
“Disintegration: Russian Pasts and European Futures”
May 19, 2016
Ira Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History, Columbia University; President, Social Science Research Council
Stephen Kotkin, John P. Birkelund ’52 Professor of History and International Affairs and Acting Director, Program in Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies, Princeton University
Charles Maier, Leverett Saltonstall Professor of History, Former Director, Center for European Studies, Harvard University
Moderated by John Torpey, Professor, Ph.D. Programs in Sociology and History; Director, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, CUNY Graduate Center
“Victory in Europe: 70th Anniversary of the Defeat of Fascism in Europe”
May 5, 2015
Christos Panagopoulos, Ambassador of Greece to the United States
May 9, 2014
Ambassador Thomas Mayr-Harting, Head of Delegation, EU Delegation to the UN
Keynote address by H.E. Mr. Valdis Dombrovskis, Prime Minister of the Republic of Latvia
Elizabeth F. Defeis, Distinguished Scholar and Professor of Law, Seton Hall University, School of Law
“Human Rights and the European Union: Challenges and Opportunities”
December 4, 2012
Roger J. Gobel, Alpin J. Cameron Chair, Professor of Law and Director of the Center on European Union Law, Fordham University School of Law
“From Maastricht to Lisbon: The European Union's Gradual Shift from Intergovernmental to Federal Structures”
December 7, 2011
Volker Berghahn, Seth Low Professor of History at Columbia University
“American Big Business and the British and German Industrial Systems, 1900-2000”
December 15, 2010
Anne Swartz, Professor of Music, Fine and Performing Arts, Baruch College
December 2, 2009
Peter Kenen, Professor, Princeton University
“Ten Years of Euro: Strengths and Weaknesses Revealed”
December 8, 2008
