Events & Speaking
Contact: billy.hallock@caa.com
Ruth Ben-Ghiat is a compelling and lively speaker on topics of vital interest today. Her talks feature insights on authoritarian styles of leadership, fascism and its memory, and propaganda that have made her a go-to source for journalists around the world and a frequent guest on television, radio, and podcasts.
Speaking Topics Include:
- Propaganda and Personality cults from Cultivation to Disengagement
- The GOP as an Authoritarian Party and the Future of US Democracy
- Anti-Semitism and Fantasies of National Purity
- How Autocrats Think, and How To Oppose Them
- The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook
- Making the Nation Great, Again – Nostalgia and Utopia in Authoritarianism from Mussolini to Trump and Putin
- Endgames: How Strongmen Fall
Photos from “The Return of the Strongman,”
Festival of Dangerous Ideas, Sydney, October 2022
“The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”
National Press Club 2019
Strongmen Book Tour / Online Events
Feb 4, 2024
6:30-8:00 PM Eastern
“Strongmen: How to Defeat Them and Autocracy,”
Foreign Policy Association, The Century Association, NYC
Dec 11, 2023
8:00-9:30 PM Eastern
(Online Event)
“The Captured Mind: The Growing Appeal of Authoritarianism”
Columbia Ceenter for Psychoanalytic Training and Research
Past Events
Nov 11, 2023
Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota
“Fascism at Our Doorstep – And What to Expect Next”
Florida Veterans for Common Sense, Choose Democracy Now, and Floridians for Democracy
Nov 1, 2023
“Viktor Orban and the Illiberal Turn”
Columbia University
Oct 15, 2023
10:00-5:00 PM Eastern
“Fighting Fascism: A Symposium on Jewish Responses From the Interwar Period to the Present Day”
Co-hosted by the American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History
Oct 11, 2023
NYC, NY
“Stop Trump Summit”
Panel “Trump and American Fascism”
October 4, 2023
7PM Eastern
(Online Event)
“How Media and Journalism Can Defend Democracy from Fascism,”
The Media and Democracy Project
Sept 21, 2023
7PM Eastern
“The Authoritarian Playbook and How to Defeat It,”
Henry King Stanford Distinguished Professor, University of Miami Center for the Humanities lecture
Sept 13, 2023
12PM – 1PM Eastern
“What Political Trends Will Shape the Future?”
New America and Arizona State University Future Security Forum 2023
Sept 5, 2023
12-1pm PT/3-4pm ET
(Online Event)
“The Trump Indictments, the 2024 Elections, and Public Peace,”
Panel, UCLA School of Law Safeguarding Democracy Project
Sept 28, 2022
“America At A Crossroads”
The Community Conversations Series, in conversation with Larry Diamond.
May 18, 2022
12PM – 1PM Eastern
“Democracy in Peril”, sponsored by The New Republic
Featuring Ruth, Barbara Walters, David Rieff, and New Republic editor Michael Tomasky
May 4-6, 2022
Crosscut Festival
Seattle, WA
“Authoritarian Cults and Media Indoctrination“
June 2-4, 2022
Keynote Speech
Canadian Association of Italian Studies
““Italy: Laboratory of Political Modernity,” “
July 17, 2021
World Mental Health Coalition Town Hall
“Authoritarian Cults and Media Indoctrination“
May 20, 2021
American Club of Hamburg
“Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present”
May 19, 2021
Dartmouth College
“Propaganda and Personality Cults from Mussolini to Trump,”
May 19, 2021
Körber History Forum
“Is it that simple? The allure of authoritarianism,”
April 30, 2021
Maxwell School of Government, Syracuse University
“Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present”
April 29, 2021
Cambridge Union
“This House Believes That We are Witnessing a Global Fascist Resurgence,” Debate
April 20, 2021
Bristol Festival of Ideas
“Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present”
April 16, 2021
Northeastern University
“The Fascist Threat to Public Health” Panel
April 15, 2021
Cleveland State University
“The Fascist Threat” Panel
February 18, 2021
Columbia University Institute for Ideas & Imagination, 1PM EST
“Real Strong Men” Virtual Talk
Ruth in conversation about fascism, authoritarianism, and coups, with Mark Mazower
February 12, 2021
NYU Department of History, 12:30-2PM EST
“Reflections on the 2020 Election” Virtual Event
Ruth in conversation with Steve Hahn and Michele Mitchell
January 15, 2021
Krasno Global Events Series at UNC-Chapel Hill
“Defending Democracy: The Global Rise of Autocracy in the U.S., Europe & Elsewhere”
Moderated by Dr Klaus Larres (Krasno professor, UNC-Chapel Hill)
January 13, 2021
Brooklyn Historical Society,
New York, NY
The Authoritarian’s Playbook: A Conversation between Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Adam Gopnik
Ruth in conversation with Adam Gopnik.
December 8, 2020
Italian Cultural Institute,
New York, NY
Strongmen: From Mussolini to the Present
Ruth in conversation with Federico Rampini, US Bureau Chief, La Repubblica.
October 27, 2020
Museum of Jewish Heritage,
New York City
Strongmen: Mussolini To The Present
This program will be moderated by How Fascism Works author Jason Stanley, Yale University. Suggested donation: $10