The Roberta Buffett Institute's 2025–26 event series Brave New Futures aims to prompt new thinking about visions of the world beyond the present conjuncture, a project that involves assessments of the contemporary moment internationally as well as fresh ideas about the future. The series includes our quarterly daylong Buffett Symposia, which will take up the subjects of youth peace-building in the fall, global disinformation in a post-moderation world in the winter, and millennial visions of the future in the spring.
Upcoming Events
Buffett Symposium: Brave New Futures (Day 1)
Thursday, April 9 from 7:30–8:30 p.m. at the Josephine Louis Theater
Join us for the opening of the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs’ spring Buffett Symposium on Brave New Futures: a performance by award-winning Syrian-American rapper and poet Omar Offendum alongside acclaimed Palestinian multi-instrumentalist Zafer Tawil masterfully playing the oud and ney. This performance is co-sponsored by A&O Productions. The show, Neo-Hakawati Nights, is a spin-off of Offendum's off-Broadway hit Little Syria. It's a genre-defying experience that blends spoken word, rap, electronically produced beats, and live music into a contemporary reimagining of the traditional Arabic hakawati practice. Hakawati is an Arabic word that signifies a communal storyteller who narrates culturally resonant tales, folklore, legends, and oral histories. Drawing from Offendum’s deep engagement with Arabic poetry and hip-hop lyricism, his unique performance style is an homage to the hakawati traditions of Damascus while remaining firmly rooted in the stories and streets of New York.
Buffett Symposium: Brave New Futures (Day 2)
Friday, April 10 from 8:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m. at 720 University Place, Second Floor
We are all too familiar with the crises of our time: global warming, uncontrolled technological change, disrupted labor markets, eroding social norms, new geopolitical conflicts, for starters. But what comes next? And how might we innovate for a better future?
Our spring symposium convenes a visionary set of emerging international thinkers to explore how human relationships, information ecosystems, labor, and the planet itself are being reshaped in this moment of uncertainty and possibility. From the power of art for action to the future of work and planetary survival, join us to consider bold new visions for building more just and sustainable global futures.
Elliot Speaker Series: Conversation with Josh Lerner
Thursday, May 7 from 4:00–5:15 p.m. at 720 University Place, Second Floor
Join us for an Elliott Speaker Series conversation with Josh Lerner, Co-Executive Director of People Powered, a global hub for participatory democracy—the direct participation of community members in making the policy decisions that affect their lives.
Josh has spent the past 20 years developing, researching and supporting participatory democracy programs around the world. He is dedicated to building and connecting movements that expand people’s democratic power.
Buffett Book Talk | The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracies
Friday, May 15 from 12:30–1:45 p.m. at 720 University Place, Second Floor
Join us for a Buffett Book Talk with Jeffrey A. Winters, Professor of Political Science, Director of the Roberta Buffett Institute’s Equality Development & Globalization Studies (EDGS) Program, and author of The Blind Spot: How Oligarchs Dominate Our Democracies. In conversation with Edward L. Gibson, Kenneth Burgess Professor of Political Science, Winters will trace the evolution of oligarchy in the democratic era, arguing that the outsized power of the ultra-wealthy is not a breakdown of democracy but a feature embedded in its design. They will examine Winters’ concept of participatory inequality—a paradoxical condition in which nearly everyone participates freely in democratic processes, yet only a tiny fraction exercises meaningful economic and political power—and offer ideas for how societies might rebalance power and pursue more equitable futures.
Buffett Conversation with Laura K. Cooper
May 22 from 12:30–1:45 p.m. at 720 University Place, Second Floor
Join us for a Buffett Conversation with Laura K. Cooper—Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia—moderated by Ambassador (ret.) Ian C. Kelly. As the Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia, Ms. Cooper was responsible for policy concerning Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia (Belarus, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Moldova). She was also a career member of the Senior Executive Service and previously served as a Principal Director in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Global Security Affairs, with policy responsibility for mission assurance, defense continuity of operations, and homeland counterterrorism.
Past Events
Buffett Lecture | Global Security Challenges: A View From Down Under
October 1, 2025
This Buffett Lecture featured Professor John Blaxland, a former Australian military intelligence officer and a trusted and highly regarded historian on international, military, and security affairs, who explored how today’s strategic challenges, from great power competition to climate disruption and technological transformation, appear when viewed through an Australian lens in the Indo-Pacific. He aimed to explain how and why gaining an Australian perspective on these global issues can benefit American scholars, students, industry leaders, and policymakers.
Buffett Book Talk: Michael Grunwald on “We Are Eating the Earth”
October 29, 2025
Northwestern's Center for Synthetic Biology organized a talk with Michael Grunwald on his new book, We Are Eating the Earth.
Grunwald shows how the world, after decades of ignoring the climate problem at the center of our plates, has pivoted to making it worse, embracing solutions that sound sustainable but could make it even harder to grow more food with less land. He also tells the stories of the dynamic scientists and entrepreneurs pursuing real solutions.
Co-sponsored by Northwestern's Roberta Buffett Institute, Institute for Policy Research, Trienens Institute for Sustainability & Energy, and Global Poverty Research Lab.
The Peace We Make: A Student-Led Buffett Symposium
November 7, 2025
Young people are leading global efforts to end conflict, defend human rights, and advocate for sustainable peace. This student-led symposium brought together activists, political councilmembers, NGO leaders, and negotiators from across the world to explore how youth are transforming the future of peace and justice.
The daylong program featured panel discussions, community-building spaces, and a special conversation with 2018 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad.
Buffett Book Talk: "Selective Solidarity" with Chelsie Yount
November 12, 2025
This Buffett Book Talk, featured anthropologist Chelsie Yount, who spoke about her recent publication, Selective Solidarity: Children and Middle-Class Moralities in Transational Senegal (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2025). This ethnography of Senegalese households in Paris and Dakar analyzes the ways families negotiate transnational kinship. Yount shared insights into how global inequalities change the ways transnational families negotiate “economic moralities,” or expectations about material obligations. She detailed experiences of family life in global capitalism, focusing on middle-class downward mobility to highlight the ways socioeconomic relations are redefined as resources stretch thin.
Co-sponsored by Northwestern's Roberta Buffett Institute and the Program of African Studies.
Trauma Responses as a Means of Survival in Jamaica with Visiting Scholar Georgia Rose
January 6, 2025
This Buffett Conversation featured Buffett Visiting Scholar Georgia Rose. In her talk, Professor Rose explored the psychology behind the Jamaican people in the aftermath of major disasters and their ensuing tragedies. On October 28, 2025, Hurricane Melissa with windspeeds in excess of 185 mph made landfall on the small Caribbean Island of Jamaica. In the aftermath, over thirty inhabitants died and an estimated JMD$9 billion remained in damages with over 25,000 people displaced. Three days later, people returned to work, the major airport reopened, and businesses resumed some semblance of operation. Was this rapid recovery a testament to collective resilience, or a form of survival shaped by structural pressures, historical vulnerability, and the psychological demands of living with recurring disaster?
Cosponsored by Northwestern's Roberta Buffett Institute, the Weinberg College Center for International and Area Studies, and the Program of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.
Absolute Resolve & Its Aftermath: Assessing US Action in Venezuela & What’s Next
January 16, 2025
“Operation Absolute Resolve”—the recent US military operation in Venezuela resulting in the capture of its president Nicolás Maduro and his wife—marked one of the most consequential foreign policy developments in the Western Hemisphere in decades. Drawing on perspectives from political science, international law, history, and more, this panel discussion examined the origins, legitimacy, and consequences of US actions; the future of US–Latin America relations; and the crisis these actions constitute for international law.
This panel was co-hosted by the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and the Weinberg College Center for International & Area Studies and its Latin American & Caribbean Studies Program.
Buffett Symposium: Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World
January 22–23, 2026
The global information environment is undergoing a significant transformation, as major social media platforms and government institutions retreat from their active roles in combating disinformation. These shifts mark the emergence of a “post-moderation” era—one in which individuals and communities must take greater responsibility for identifying, interpreting, and responding to disinformation. This symposium convened global experts and practitioners from industry, public policy, academia, and civil society to address urgent priorities for this new era.
Hosted with the Center for Communication & Public Policy and co-sponsored by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Kyiv-Mohyla Foundation of America, and Polsky Foundation.
What Comes After Crisis: Rebuilding Home & Homeland for Post-War Syria
February 9, 2026
This Buffett Conversation featured Lina Sergie Attar, founder and CEO of the Karam Foundation, who examined what sustainable recovery can look like and how international collaboration will play a critical role in post-war Syria. Once a volunteer-led effort launched from her kitchen table, Karam has grown into a leading organization advancing education and opportunity for Syrians who have remained in the country as well as those who have sought refuge abroad. In conversation with Wendy Pearlman, Jane Long Professor of Arts & Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, Sergie Attar shared insights into her work to move humanitarian aid beyond emergency relief toward long-term resilience.
Elliott Speaker Series | Thea Riofrancos on "Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism"
Tuesday, February 17
This installlment of the Elliott Speaker Series featured Thea Riofrancos, Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, who spoke about her new book Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (W.W. Norton 2025). Her book provides an in-depth analysis of the growing industry of green technologies and the environmental, social, and political consequences of the mining it requires. Drawing on fieldwork in Chile, Nevada, and Portugal, Professor Riofrancos explored the environmental and social costs of the global race to expand lithium mining amid supply chain concerns and offers compelling ideas for harmonizing climate action with social justice.
Buffett Book Talk: Pan-African Futurism with Reginold Royston
Wednesday, February 25
We hosted a Buffett Book Talk with Reginold A. Royston, Associate Professor of African Cultural Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of Pan-African Futurism: Ghana and the Paradox of Technology for Development, an ethnographic account of an emerging ethos among technologists working on development projects on the ground in Africa today. Drawing on observation and interviews with software engineers in Ghana and media producers across Ghana's digital diaspora, Royston argued that these actors challenge long-standing NGO-led development paradigms, using technology as a means of reclaiming autonomy and reimagining African political futures in a global digital age. After Royston's talk, Sean Hanretta, Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University, joined the conversation to offer historical context and reflections on the book’s themes as well as questions for further investigation.
