Latvia - Personal background



Vike-Freiberga was born in the Latvian city of Riga on 1 December 1937. During World War II (1939–45), she fled with her family to refugee camps in Germany. After the war, the family emigrated to Morocco and, in 1954, to Canada. Vike-Freiberga earned bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from the University of Toronto. She went on to receive a doctorate in experimental psychology in 1965 from McGill University in Montreal.

Vike-Freiberga is fluent in Latvian, French, English, German, and Spanish. From 1965 until 1998, she was a professor of psychology at the University of Montreal. She lectured on psychopharmacology, psycholinguistics, theory of science, and experimental methods. Vike-Freiberga has published numerous professional articles and books. She is best known among Latvians for her studies of the poetic character and structure of Latvian folksongs.

In 1998, Vike-Freiberga assumed leadership of the Latvian Institute, a private nonprofit group that promotes Latvian culture and interests in the international community. She has headed various professional societies and has received numerous awards from Western, as well as Latvian, organizations.

She is married to Imants Freiberga, who teaches computer science at the University of Quebec at Montreal. They have a daughter, Indra, and a son, Karlis.

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