USI professor to discuss anti-Stalinism of anarchist Carlo Tresca

Dr. Denise Lynn, associate professor of history at the University of Southern Indiana, will present "Where is Julie Poyntz?, Carlo Tresca and radical anti-Stalinism," exploring the importance of Juliet Stuart Poyntz's disappearance in understanding the internecine battles that would feed the anti-communism of the Cold War period. The lecture will take place at 3 p.m. Friday, November 18 in Kleymeyer Hall located in the lower level of the Liberal Arts Center, and is free and open to the public.

The disappearance of Juliet Stuart Poyntz, a Soviet spy engaged in anti-Nazi work and first Soviet spy to disappear from American soil, fueled the fears of many communists. Rumors started circulating suggesting her disappearance demonstrated that Josef Stalin had manipulated the great socialist experiment in the USSR and that the American Communist Party was culpable by its silent indifference to Stalin's brutality. Lynn will examine the views of anti-Stalinist radical, Carlo Tresca, who cited that Poyntz's likely murder as proof that American communists were slavishly devoted to the Soviet Union. 

This will be the third public lecture in the 2016-17 College of Liberal Arts Faculty Colloquia Series, which feature current faculty research.

For more information, contact Dr. Shannon Pritchard, assistant professor of art history, at 812-454-1023 or snpritchar@usi.edu