November 18, 2008

BCU’s Will Prigge to Speak in Glasgow, Scotland

SIOUX CITY, Iowa – Briar Cliff University’s Will Prigge, Ph.D., assistant professor of history, will speak in Glasgow, Scotland, at the University of Glasgow's “Symposium Commemorating the 90th Anniversary of Latvian Independence” on Nov. 28.

Dr. Prigge will discuss his research on the national communist period from 1945-1959, the purge of Latvian national communists and its connection to Khrushchev's own fall from power. 

“My specific argument counters the long-held belief that Khrushchev was responsible for purging of 2,000 Latvian national communists,” Dr. Prigge said.  “I discovered archival evidence of Khrushchev expressly forbidding the purge, but astonishingly, it was carried out regardless.”

Dr. Prigge has done extensive archival research in Riga and Moscow. He also has examined memoirs and conducted multiple interviews with the leading national communists, including the late Eduards Berklavs, who was the focus of the Latvian purge.  He will join other global leading experts on recent Latvian history at the event.

The symposium, which concludes a nearly month-long celebration of Latvian culture, heritage and music, takes place Nov 28.

A published author and Fulbright Scholar, Prigge teaches European and Russian studies at Briar Cliff. He recently presented his Latvian research at the University of Tartu in Estonia and at Emory University in Atlanta.

Briar Cliff University is a Catholic institution with an enrollment of more than 1,100 students from 24 states and four countries.  Students are educated in the Franciscan tradition of excellence in the liberal arts and career preparation in an environment of care and compassion.For more information, please visit briarcliff.edu.