(From left). Professor Michael Burleigh and Professor Arne Westad
LSE IDEAS announces a new Chair in History and International Affairs with funding from the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation.
LSE IDEAS will be hosting an annual Engelsberg Chair thanks to funding from the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation. The Engelsberg Chair is an annual distinguished visiting professorship for leading Swedish and global scholars who will give public lectures on topics of their choice. The annual post gives LSE IDEAS the opportunity to bring renowned academics to the School for a year of research and discussion.
Professor Michael Burleigh has been appointed as the first Engelsberg Chair for 2019-20. He is a leading historian who focuses primarily on Nazi Germany. He is the author of The Third Reich: a new history, which won the 2001 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction; Moral Combat, Blood and Rage; and Earthly Powers. His most recent book is The Best of Times, the Worst of Times. He has also won a British Film Institute Award for Archival Achievement and a New York Film and Television Festival Award Bronze Medal.
Professor Arne Westad will succeed Professor Michael Burleigh as the second Engelsberg Chair in 2020-21. He is the S.T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations at Harvard University. He is an expert on contemporary international history and on the eastern Asian region. He was Professor of International History at LSE and Co-Director of LSE IDEAS until 2015. Arne Westad won the Bancroft Prize for The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times.
LSE IDEAS Director Professor Michael Cox said: “LSE IDEAS has been at the forefront of the School in bringing in world class speakers supported by globally recognised foundations. We are absolutely delighted to announce the launch of the Engelsberg Chair, generously supported by the Axel and Margaret Ax:son Johnson Foundation.”
LSE IDEAS Director Professor Christopher Coker said: "We are equally delighted that two internationally renowned scholars, Michael Burleigh, author of over a dozen bestselling books on history, and Arne Westad, the world’s leading Cold War scholar (and old friend of IDEAS), have gracefully accepted our offer to become our first and second holders of this prestigious post."