Alfred E. Senn

Who is Alfred E. Senn?

Alfred Erich Senn is a professor emeritus of history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Senn was born to Swiss philologist and lexicographer, Alfred Senn. His father taught at the University of Lithuania, where he met his future wife. After they married, they moved to the United States 1930–1931, along with two daughters. Alfred E. Senn was born in the United States.

Senn received a BA in 1953 from the University of Pennsylvania and then an MA in 1955 and a Ph.D. in 1958 from Columbia University in East European history. He has taught at the University of Wisconsin–Madison since 1961, from which he retired as professor emeritus.

Senn is the author of eight books, several monographs, and numerous scholarly articles. Many of his works center on the history of Lithuania. His book, Gorbachev’s Failure in Lithuania, was awarded the Edgar Anderson Presidential Prize by the American Association of Baltic Studies in 1996.