Distinguished Scholar Lecture series

The Distinguished Scholar Lecture series brings leading voices in the field of International Relations to our community each year. Designed to spotlight groundbreaking research and bold new thinking, the series invites internationally recognized scholars whose work is shaping the study and practice of global politics.

Held annually these lectures provide a unique opportunity for students, faculty, and the broader community to engage directly with influential researchers at the forefront of the discipline. Each event fosters thoughtful dialogue, critical reflection, and meaningful exchange on the most pressing issues in international affairs.

The following is a curated list of previous and forthcoming speakers, including talk titles and links to their profiles.

Bust with books in window of King James VI Library

Distinguished Scholar Lecture events

February 2026

Dunkirk in Korea: On the Transwar Histories of Battle Imaginaries

Professor Tarak Barkawi

Johns Hopkins University

This masterclass considered the relations between archival research, historicity, and power. What is the status of history if power can silence or reshape the story of what happened in the past? Since history is always researched and written in the present, how does the present shape views of the past? At any given moment, what is the relationship between what happened in the past, and what is said to have happened?

Historians have long wrestled with these questions about the history of history, assigning an important place to historiography in conceptualizing and conducting their research. They understand that the documents they read in archives do not have stable meanings. But they are also able to document the history of these meanings, and make this internal to the story they tell. In doing so, they steer a course between facts and power that gives due respect to both. What can we learn from them in a discipline that often opposes positivism to constructivism?