The Warburg Chair in International Relations
Established with the help of a generous grant from Joan Melber Warburg '45, widow of James P. Warburg, the Warburg Chair in International Relations brings to Simmons a distinguished practitioner who has had significant experience at a responsible level in international relations. The Warburg professor normally remains for a two or three-year term. He or she joins the interdisciplinary program in international relations, encompassing the fields of political science, economics, history, women's studies, and foreign languages, and sits on the Steering Committee of that program.
The Warburg Chair teaches the senior seminar in international relations in the fall and a special topics course in the spring. The Chair also holds occasional luncheon seminars with faculty, staff, and students and organizes other programming throughout the academic year, such as a lecture series or an academic conference.
Current Warburg Professor: Thomas Hull
Tom Hull was Ambassador to the Republic of Sierra Leone (2004-2007) where he assisted the country's evolution from peacekeeping to peace building. Throughout his 31-year diplomatic career, which also included assignments in Ethiopia, South Africa, Nigeria, Czechoslovakia, Somalia, Burkina Faso, and Congo, he was involved in issues of conflict and peace, revolution and transformation, and democracy and development. He was Director of African Affairs at the U.S. Information Agency (1995-97) before it merged with the Department of State. His career began as a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher in Sierra Leone (1968-70).
Ambassador Hull's contributions during and following the collapse of communism in Prague earned him a
Presidential Meritorious Service Award from President Clinton. While there, he founded the Fulbright
Commissions for Educational Exchange with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Before joining the Foreign
Service, he assisted former Senator J. William Fulbright at the Institute of International Education in New
York.
Ambassador Hull has a B.A. (history) from Dickinson College. His graduate degrees from Columbia University
include an M.A. (education and international affairs), a Master of International Affairs (M.I.A.), and the
Certificate of the Institute of African Studies. He was an Ed.D. (ABD) candidate at Columbia when he joined
the Foreign Service.
Ambassador Hull has received many professional and humanitarian awards as well as recognition in Who's Who in American Politics.
The Warburg Professors have included:
- 1983-1985 Robert E. White, former United States Ambassador to El Salvador
- 1985-1988 David Anderson, former United States Ambassador to Yugoslavia
- 1988-1990 Monteagle Stearns, former United States Ambassador to Greece
- 1990-1991 Elizabeth Pond, eminent writer and journalist
- 1991-1993 Harry Barnes, former United States Ambassador to India
- 1993-1995 Frank Crigler, former United States Ambassador to Somalia
- 1995-1998 Denis McLean, former New Zealand Ambassador to the United States
- 1998-2000 Erik Jensen, former Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations
- 2000-2004 Charles F. Dunbar, former President of the Cleveland Council on World Affairs
- 2004-2007 Walter C. Carrington, former United States Ambassador to Nigeria and
Senegal.
