Contact: Sammy McDavid
A Russian-born sociologist will discuss the future of his native land in a public program Friday [Sept. 20] at Mississippi State University.
Vladimir Shlapentokh will speak at 9 a.m. in Bowen Hall 126. Now a professor at Michigan State University, he has served since 1982 as a consultant to the United States government on social progress, ideology and public opinion in Russia and other states of the former Soviet Union.
His campus visit is sponsored by the Executive Speaker Forum of the university's Center for International Security and Strategic Studies. He also speaks Thursday in Jackson.
Before emigrating to the U.S. in 1979, Shlapentokh was a senior fellow at the Moscow Sociological Institute, where he conducted the Soviet Union's first nationwide public opinion surveys. He also authored 10 books and numerous articles on a variety of social issues.
Since coming to the U.S., he has published a dozen additional books and many professional articles about Soviet issues. He also has been a frequent contributor of commentaries in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, and Christian Science Monitor.
For additional information on his Starkville lecture, telephone Janos Radvanyi at (601) 325-8406.