Carleton Convo with Steven Levitsky | May 5, 2023

Steven Levitsky delivered the convocation address at Carleton's Skinner Chapel on Friday, May 5. Levitsky is the David Rockefeller professor of Latin American studies and professor of government at Harvard University. Levitsky also serves as director of the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard, which works to increase awareness of the histories, cultures, economics, and environment of contemporary Latin America. His research focuses on democratization and authoritarianism, political parties, and weak and informal institutions. 

Levitsky is an award-winning author and has written or edited 12 books, published guest essays, and featured in media publications such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. In 2018, he published How Democracies Die with David Ziblatt, which focuses on the potential death of democracy in the United States, in particular after the election of Donald Trump. How Democracies Die was a New York Times Bestseller and has been translated into 25 languages. It was recognized as one of the best non-fiction books of 2018 by The Washington Post, Time, and Foreign Affairs. Other books by Levitsky include Transforming Labor-Based Parties in Latin America: Argentine Peronism in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2003), Competitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War with Lucan Way (Cambridge University Press, 2010) and Revolution and Dictatorship: The Violent Origins of Durable Authoritarianism with Lucan Way (Princeton University Press, 2022).

Levitsky received his BA in political science from Stanford University and his PhD from the University of California–Berkeley. He currently lives in Massachusetts with his family.

Learn more about Carleton Convos at go.carleton.edu/convocations