American Scholar and Diplomat to Speak at Seminary

As part of its public lecture series for the Pascha Term, the Saint Photios Orthodox Theological Seminary will offer another public lecture, free of charge, on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, at 7:00 p.m., in the Seminary auditorium, located on the first floor of the school. The lecture will be followed with complimentary refreshments in the upstairs dining hall.

The speaker will be Dr. Ernest Hargreaves Latham, Jr., an Adjunct Professor at the Seminary, where he is presently teaching a seminar, “The Twentieth Century’s Search for Salvation,” an historical overview of the political, social, and religious factors that shaped the last century. His lecture on Wednesday will center on his reminiscences as an American diplomat and educator in the Middle East, the Balkans, and Eastern Europe during the Cold War era and after the fall of Communism. His vast diplomatic experiences and his unique scholarly background make him an engaging and fascinating lecturer.

Dr. Latham has served the United States government as a Commander in the United States Coast Guard; as Special Assistant to the Director and as Washington Director of the Foreign Press Center of the United States Information Agency; and, in the capacity of a foreign service officer for the United States Department of State, as Assistant Public Affairs Officer at the American Embassy in Jedda, Saudi Arabia, Assistant Press Attaché at the American Embassy in Vienna, Austria, Supervisory Political Officer at the American Embassy in Nicosia, Cyprus, Cultural Attaché at the American Embassy in Bucharest, Romania, and Cultural Attaché at the American Embassy in Athens, Greece.

He received his B.A. degree at Dartmouth College (with distinction), where he was a Rufus Choate Scholar, an M.A. in history (with honors) at Roosevelt University, and his doctoral degree in history at the University of Bucharest.

With regard to his academic career, Dr. Latham recently retired from the faculty of the Foreign Service Institute of the United States Department of State, was an instructor at the Lowell Technological Institute (now part of the University of Massachusetts), and was a Fulbright Scholar and Professor at the Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. He also served as Interim Executive Director of the United States Fulbright Commission in Romania. He is a member of the American Historical Association, the Association for the Study of Nationalities, the Association for Romanian Studies, the Association for Slavic, Eastern European, and Eurasian Studies, the American–Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Southeast European Studies Association.

Dr. Latham lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife, the Romanian diplomat, poet, and playwright, Ioanna Ieronim-Latham, who also gave a public lecture last week at the Seminary.