Lea Ypi’s memoir of growing up in communist Albania, Free, is an unforgettable coming-of-age story exploring the meaning of freedom in all its forms. The collapse of communism was a turning point in history that she remembers vividly and recounts with outstanding literary talent. Communism had failed to deliver the promised utopia, putting strict boundaries around one’s individual future. And when the early ’90s saw Albania and oth
James A. Moffett '29 Lectures in Ethics Lea Ypi (London School of Economics and Political Science): "Dignity and Historical Injustice: An Albanian Family's History" ABSTRACT: Professor Lea Ypi reads and discusses a chapter from her new book project which follows the journey of a woman from Ottoman Salonica to a life under surveillance in post-war Communist Albania. The book explores the moral and political meanings of dignity, individual and collective, in connection to questions of truth and reconciliation, historical injustice and the relationship between fact and fiction. Lea Ypi: Lea Ypi is professor in political theory at the London School of Economics and Political Science and an honorary professor in philosophy at the Australian National University. A native of Albania, she has degrees in philosophy and in literature from the University of Rome La Sapienza, a Ph.D. from the European University Institute and was a post-doctoral prize research fellow at Nuffiel