Apr 16
The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation has partnered with Streamable Learning, an educational platform that provides live and interactive presentations for middle and high school teachers and students, to provide educational resources on the history and perils of communism to teachers and students who are part of Streamable Learning.
“Ideologies and Methods of Rule: Communism 101” with Dr. Elizabeth Spalding
About the speaker:
Dr. Elizabeth Edwards Spalding is Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. In addition to serving as Vice Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s (VOC) Board of Trustees, she is a core faculty member in VOC’s National Seminar for Middle and High School Educators. Spalding is the author of The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism, the co-author of A Brief History of the Cold War, and currently at work on a history of world communism. She has taught on subjects ranging from U.S. foreign policy, national security, and international relations to presidential leadership, religion, and politics at Pepperdine University, Claremont McKenna College, George Mason University, and Catholic University of America.
“Totalitarianism” with Dr. F. Flagg Taylor IV
About the speaker:
Dr. F. Flagg Taylor IV serves on the Academic Council of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and is an Associate Professor of government at Skidmore College. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in political science from Fordham University and a B.A. from Kenyon College. Taylor’s specialty is in the history of political thought and American government, especially the question of executive power. He is the co-author of The Contested Removal Power, 1789-2010, author of numerous articles, and editor of The Great Lie: Classic and Recent Appraisals of Ideology and Totalitarianism and The Long Night of the Watchman: Essays by Václav Benda, 1977-1989.
“Marxism” with Dr. Gregory McBrayer
About the speaker:
Dr. Gregory A. McBrayer is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Core Curriculum at Ashland University. He teaches courses in political philosophy and international relations. Prior, he was an assistant professor at Morehead State University, a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University, and a visiting assistant professor at Gettysburg College. He has published articles in Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy and Kentron: Revue Pluridisciplinaire du Monde Antique, as well as reviews in Interpretation, The Journal for Hellenic Studies, The American Journal of Islamic Social Science, and Political Science Quarterly. He is the author (with Mary Nichols and Denise Schaeffer) of Plato’s Euthydemus and is the editor of Xenophon: The Shorter Writings (forthcoming).
“The Cold War” with Dr. Elizabeth Spalding
About the speaker:
Dr. Elizabeth Edwards Spalding is Senior Fellow at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. In addition to serving as Vice Chairman of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s (VOC) Board of Trustees, she is a core faculty member in VOC’s National Seminar for Middle and High School Educators. Spalding is the author of The First Cold Warrior: Harry Truman, Containment, and the Remaking of Liberal Internationalism, the co-author of A Brief History of the Cold War, and currently at work on a history of world communism. She has taught on subjects ranging from U.S. foreign policy, national security, and international relations to presidential leadership, religion, and politics at Pepperdine University, Claremont McKenna College, George Mason University, and Catholic University of America.
“Leninism” with Dr. Jonathan Pidluzny
About the speaker:
Dr. Jonathan Pidluzny is the Director of Academic Affairs at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), where he works with governing boards, faculty, and administrators to promote academic excellence (especially in the liberal arts), fiscal responsibility, and academic freedom. Prior to joining ACTA, Pidluzny was an associate professor of political science and the political science program coordinator at Morehead State University, where he won several awards for teaching excellence. His research focuses on the social and civic prerequisites of liberal democracy—at home and in the Middle East. He has recently become interested in Pope John Paul II’s criticism of Marxism/Leninism and the role he played encouraging democratic reforms in Eastern Europe.
“Putin’s War on Ukraine and the West” with Ken Pope
About the speaker:
Ken Pope is CEO of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. Previously he had a 34 year career in the U.S. Army, consulting industry and academia. While in uniform, he served in a variety of Armored Reconnaissance, Special Operations and Russian Foreign Area Officer (FAO) assignments in Europe, the Middle East, and Central America. He commanded an Armored Cavalry Troop during the Persian Gulf War and a Special Operations unit focused on Central America. Ken had over 12 years of operational fieldwork as an Army FAO with a focus on Russia and the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and security issues with a variety of assignments in Russia, Ukraine, Estonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kosovo. In the consulting industry, he led teams that provided strategy, planning, analysis and wargaming support to the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Joint Staff, and Combatant Commands. Ken also served as an Assistant Professor at the Center for Intelligence and Security Studies at the University of Mississippi where he taught courses on intelligence, advanced analytics, senior capstone program and led the center’s national security simulations. He has a B.A. in Sociology, a M.A. in International Relations and is a graduate of the U.S. Army Command and Staff College and the George C. Marshall Center’s Executive Program for Advanced Security Studies. He speaks Russian.
