"Me and Joe McCarthy: Studying American Communism" is the topic of the 17th annual Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Monday, Feb. 6. Harvey Klehr, Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History, will give the address on at 4 p.m. in the Winship Ballroom of the Dobbs University Center.  It is free and open to the public.

"In the last two decades, as new material has become available from newly-opened Russian archives, the issue of whether Senator Joseph McCarthy was right about communist subversion has generated a lot of controversy," Klehr says. "My talk will discuss that issue, as well as what it is like to be labeled a 'McCarthyite' for exposing Americans who spied for the Soviet Union."

Klehr's research interests center around American communism and Soviet espionage in America. His most recent publication is "Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America" (Yale University Press, 2009).

The Distinguished Faculty Lecture Series is part of Founders Week, an annual academic festival held this year from Feb. 6 to 10.

Each year's speaker for the series is selected by a committee, headed by the chair-elect of the Faculty Council and comprised of Distinguished Faculty Lecturers from previous years. The committee is responsible for administering the annual lecture initiated and supported by the Office of the President.