Juliana Geran Pilon

Research Professor of Politics and Culture, Earhart Fellow

Dr. Juliana Geran Pilon is Research Professor of Politics and Culture at the Institute of World Politics and Adjunct Professor at both the National Defense University and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Her latest book, Why America is Such a Hard Sell: Beyond Pride and Prejudice, was published in 2007, as was Every Vote Counts: The Role of Elections in Building Democracy, which she co-edited with Richard Soudriette, former President of IFES (International Foundation for Election Systems). She has also contributed chapters to Strategic Influence: Public Diplomacy, Counterpropaganda, and Political Warfare (2008) and The Public Diplomacy Reader, (2007) both edited by J. Michael Waller and published by IWP Press.

From January 1992 to October 2002, she was first the Director and later the Vice President for Programs at IFES, where she designed, conducted, and managed projects related to a wide variety of democratization projects. During the Reagan years, she was a Senior Policy Analyst at the Heritage Foundation, writing on the United Nations, Soviet active measures, terrorism, East-West trade, and other international issues.

In 1991, she received an Earhart Foundation fellowship for her second book, The Bloody Flag: Post-Communist Nationalism in Eastern Europe -- Spotlight on Romania, published by Rutgers University Press. Her autobiographical book Notes From the Other Side of Night was published in the U.S. in 1979 and in Romania in 1993. A paperback edition appeared in May 1994. Her anthology on civic education, funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, entitled Ironic Points of Light, was published in Estonian and Russian in 1998. She has also written and edited a textbook on civic education, which is being used throughout Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, endorsed by the Departments of Education in these countries.

After receiving her Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Chicago, she held post-doctoral fellowships in international relations at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and at the Institute of Humane Studies In addition to IWP, she has also taught (in chronological order) at Roosevelt University, Indiana University, Emory University, St. Mary's College of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins University, George Washington University, and American University.

She is the author of some 200 articles and reviews, and several monographs on East-West affairs. She has been interviewed extensively on television and radio -- CBS, ABC, CNN, CBN, Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, and NPR - has testified before Congress on many occasions, having addressed many groups in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Pilon is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the advisory board of the Oswiencim Academy in Auschwitz, Poland, a think tank devoted to human rights.

Upon her departure from IFES, on Sept. 10, 2002, the Board of Directors passed a resolution in gratitude "for her many years of distinguished service and her tremendous contributions to [IFES'] cause," commending her "for her efforts in demonstrating that freedom and democratic ideals matter and that they are the primary tools needed to achieve a more peaceful and democratic world."

To view all of Dr. Pilon's publications, please visit her website: http://julianageranpilon.yolasite.com/.

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Professional Experience

Formerly Vice President, International Foundation for Election Systems;
Senior Policy Analyst, The Heritage Foundation; and
Adjunct Professor at George Washington University, Johns Hopkins University SAIS, and St. Mary's College (MD).
Member, Council on Foreign Relations.

Dr. Pilon is the author of The Bloody Flag: Post-Communist Nationalism in Eastern Europe (Transaction, 1992); Notes from the Other Side of Night (University Press of America, 1994); and Why America is Such a Hard Sell: Beyond Pride and Prejudice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007).

Download file Pilon Resume

Education

B.A., 1969, University of Chicago
M.A., 1971, University of Chicago
Ph.D., 1974, University of Chicago