Historian Dean Vuletic joined us as part of the Career Conversations series with the European Studies Undergraduate Fellows Network on March 2 to speak on his unique career as the leading academic authority on the Eurovision Song Contest. His book and university course on the subject are the first of their kind. In his field, he inventively presents the popular Eurovision Song Contest in its cultural, economic, political, social, and technological context, and uses it to understand the history of postwar Europe.
Vuletic received his MA in European and Russian Studies at Yale as a Fulbright scholar. He learned Czech at Yale which became critical in his research. Diving into research on postwar Eastern Europe, Vuletic found that his Czech gave him tailored access to these relevant historical records.
His research has since taken off even more, and it has come together in his book, Postwar Europe and the Eurovision Song Contest, published in 2018.
In addition to discussing the Eurovision Song Contest and his research, Vuletic answered a wide range of questions from students who attended the informal talk.
Written by Sophie Kyle Collins, Class of 2023