Inaugurated in 2004, the Lipset Lecture is a joint annual lecture sponsored by the National Endowment for Democracy, the Embassy of Canada to the United States, and the University of Toronto’s Department of Political Science and Munk School of Global Affairs. View past lectures on key democracy issues. 

The 2024 Seymour Martin Lipset Lecture on Democracy in the World will be delivered by Serhii Plokhii, the Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and the Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. 

The lecture will be followed by a Q&A conversation with Serhii Plokhii moderated by NED's president and CEO, Damon Wilson. 

Location: The Embassy of Canada

501 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20001

Date: December 11, 2024

Time: 5:30 - 8:00 PM Eastern Time

Sara Cohen, opening remarks
Deputy Head of Mission (Foreign Policy and National Security), Embassy of Canada

Damon Wilson, welcoming remarks and moderator
President and CEO, National Endowment for Democracy

Christopher Walker, introductory remarks
Vice President for Studies and Analysis, National Endowment for Democracy

Serhii Plokhii, keynote speaker
Mykhailo S. Hrushevs’kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute, Harvard University

Serhii Plokhii is the Mykhailo S. Hrushevs'kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and the Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University. His interests include the intellectual, cultural, and international history of Eastern Europe, with an emphasis on Ukraine. He is the author of, among others, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History (W.W. Norton, 2023); Atoms and Ashes: A Global History of Nuclear Disasters (W.W. Norton, 2022); The Frontline: Essays on Ukraine's Past and Present (HURI, 2021); Nuclear Folly: A History of the Cuban Missile Crisis (W. W. Norton, 2021); Forgotten Bastards of the Eastern Front: American Airmen behind the Soviet Lines and the Collapse of the Grand Alliance (Oxford University Press, 2019); Chernobyl: The History of a Nuclear Catastrophe (Basic Books, 2018); The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine (Basic Books, 2015); and Chernobyl Roulette: War in the Nuclear Disaster Zone (New York, 2024). His books have won numerous awards, including the Ballie Gifford Prize and the Shevchenko National Prize (2018).