Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

One’s census tract continues to predict one's access to the learning experiences research shows are essential for developing the skills, identity and interests necessary to access and power STEM possible futures. While this reality is not new, the advancement in technology and data science coupled with America’s growing awareness of the embeddedness of systemic racism has created opportunities for communities to reimagine the ...

Survey evidence from 16 developing countries shows widespread employment loss and declines in income and food security since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. These patterns are apparent in Ghana. In this Northwestern Buffett "Building Sustainable Futures: Global Challenges and Possibilities" webinar, Chris Udry, professor of Economics at Northwestern University, and Robert Darko Osei, vice dean for the School of Gradua...

Mexico and Colombia have been theaters of the war on drugs for half a century, yet both Latin American countries continue to be two of the largest producers of illegal drugs in the world, where many regions are hellscapes of violence, corruption and inequality. Why do governments keep insisting on a strategy that has consistently failed according to its stated aims?

In this Northwestern Buffett "Building Sustainable F...

The last few years have seen a shift in the global balance of power due to evolving political and economic interests. What are the implications of these shifts on existing trade relationships between and amongst countries in the Global South, and what role will the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union play? How do we assess the implications of the economic landscape in Africa and the Diaspora against a backdrop ...

Primarily focused on economic inequality, United Nations Sustainable Development Goal #10, “Reduced Inequalities,” also aims to “empower and promote the social, economic, and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion, or economic or other status.” Yet today’s global inequities possess long legacies of systemically generated and sustained efforts to benefit the few to the ser...

According to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, climate change has disproportionately exacerbated many challenges global Indigenous communities face, including political and economic marginalization, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination, and unemployment. Yet despite these challenges and despite the contributions Indigenous Peoples make towards effective environmental governance,...

How can we "read" or understand policy responses to climate change? We can "read forwards," drawing on scientific evidence and reasoning to project consequences and dictate policy responses. Or we can "read backwards"; we can look to the human beliefs, values, and goals that impute meaning to the world to understand the many lines of evidence and reasoning leading to policy responses. University of Cam...

Can environmental activism save the world? And if it can, how? This webinar features perspectives on the future of environmental activism and the role of activism in shaping global environmental outcomes, including combating climate change. Northwestern Professor of Management and Organizations Brayden King will be joined by Phil Radford (Founder, Progressive Multiplier) and Kady McFadden (Deputy Director, Illinois Sierra Club) for...

Many observers expect that Joe Biden’s presidency will quickly restore federal climate change measures and reverse the U.S. withdrawal from international commitments that we witnessed over the past four years. Many hope for substantial new domestic efforts—some sort of "new green deal"—and for the United States to fuel far-reaching international cooperation around climate change. Are those expectations warranted or unreal...

How are racial boundaries defined, and who decides where they lie? What aspects of power and privilege are at work in designing the rules that rule race? Why do states make and manipulate racial classification schema, and with what effects? Northwestern University Associate Professor of African American Studies Dr. Barnor Hesse was joined by Dr. Debra Thompson, Associate Professor of Political Science at McGill University, for a di...

Many observers are excited that Joe Biden’s presidency promises to bring international cooperation back into American foreign policy, but whose interests are advanced and whose are harmed by international agreements? While international cooperation is often presented as a smart, pragmatic and progressive approach, a closer look reveals some reasons to worry.

Northwestern University Weinberg College Center for International...

Islamophobia is commonly understood to be part of the aftershock of 9/11, but surfaced as a category at the beginning of the 20th century at the height of white supremacy. What does the re-appearance of Islamophobia tell us about white supremacy now?

Northwestern University Associate Professor of African American Studies Barnor Hesse will be joined by Salman Sayyid, Professor of Social Theory and Decolonial Thought at the ...

As the United States struggles to resist the crumbling of its institutions in the face of polarization and populism, Ukraine struggles to surpass corruption and foreign domination—including corruption in which wealthy Americans have participated. In some respects, the two countries appear to be converging. What can each country learn from the crises of the other? Northwestern University Professor of Law Paul Gowder will be joined b...

The year 2020 has brought about global insecurity in unprecedented and inexplicable ways. This webinar will take the Arab World, primarily Syria and Lebanon, as a place from which to think about insecurity and crisis. How are these lived? What does it mean to be living-in-crisis and with constant insecurity? How do people imagine their futures when their present is incommensurable?

In this Northwestern Buffett Institute fo...

Why do racial injustices, racial inequalities and racial disparities in liberal democracies persist over time without structural redress? Why has the U.S. found itself in every generation since Reconstruction indicted by Black citizens for anti-Blackness, despite foundational claims to liberty and equality as universal ideas and practices? Why has police violence against Black citizens been recurrently and generationally protested ...

More than 2.2 million people are currently incarcerated in the United States, over 20% of the world’s 10.35 million imprisoned people. As of mid-June, at least 46,249 people in United States prisons tested positive for COVID-19, and at least 548 incarcerated people died from the virus. Five of the U.S.’s top 10 hot spots are prisons or jails, including Chicago’s very own Cook County Jail. What can we understand about pandemics and ...

Marwan M. Kraidy, a leading authority on Arab media and incoming dean and CEO of Northwestern University-Qatar (NU-Q), will give a tour d’horizon of the repercussions of the COVID-19 pandemic on media and geopolitics.

This webinar will focus on rival media narratives that have emerged as the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in late 2019 turned into a pandemic by March 2020. There has been a perceptible shift in how politicians spea...

Months into the novel coronavirus pandemic, researchers around the world are working to understand its effects on people’s attitudes and behaviors. How do people feel about isolation and lockdowns? What kinds of media are we consuming, and how do those media affect our knowledge of COVID-19 and our social distancing practices? What are people willing to sacrifice for the economy? 

Northwestern University assistant professo...

The COVID-19 pandemic, and political and economic responses to it, have raised urgent questions not only about access to education, but also about education’s deeper purposes, challenges and possibilities. Drawing from distinct and complementary scholarly perspectives, Northwestern professor of political science Sally Nuamah and Northwestern professor of learning sciences Shirin Vossoughi provide a critical analysis of educational ...