April 9–10, 2026: Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Join us for the Roberta Buffett Institute's 2026 spring symposium Brave New Futures.

Register

Opening Performance on Day 1: Thursday, April 9

Join us for a performance of Neo-Hakawati Nights by rapper & poet Omar Offendum featuring multinstrumentalist Zafer Tawil in the Josephine Louis Theater, located at 20 Arts Circle Drive in Evanston, IL.

Registration link forthcoming

In-Person Program on Day 2: Friday, April 10

Join us for a full-day convening of discussions at the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, located at 720 University Place in Evanston, IL.

Registration link forthcoming

Online Program on Day 2: Friday, April 10

Tune into the full-day convening of discussions online via Zoom.

Registration link forthcoming

Schedule of Events

Thursday, April 9

Josephine Louis Theater, 20 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL

7:30 – 8:30 PM | Opening Performance: Neo-Hakawati Nights

Omar Offendum, spoken word poet, rapper, and storyteller
Zafer Tawil, multi-instrumental musician

Friday, April 10

Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, 720 University Place, Second Floor (Buffett Reading Room), Evanston, IL

8:30 – 8:55 AM | Registration & Coffee

8:55 – 9:00 AM | Opening Remarks

Deborah Cohen, Richard W. Leopold Professor of History and Director of Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM | Human Relationships

Qing Wang, co-founder of The Weirdo Podcast
Nataliya Kos’myna, research scientist at MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces group
Moderator: Nour Kteily, Professor of Management & Organizations and Co-Director of the Center for Enlightened Disagreement at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business

10:00 AM – 10:15 AM | Coffee Break

10:15 AM – 11:15 AM | New Media

Allison Yang, founder and CEO of Reality Reload
Shuwei Fang, Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politic, & Public Policy
Moderator: Jeremy Gilbert, Knight Professor in Digital Media Strategy at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism

11:15 AM – 11:30 AM | Coffee Break

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM | Arts of Social Change

Bing Liu, filmmaker and director of the Emmy- and Oscar-nominated feature documentary Minding the Gap and the newly released feature film Preparation for the Next Life
Omar Offendum, spoken word poet, rapper, and storyteller
Moderator: Ellen Harvey, conceptual artist whose recent work includes Utopia Machine

12:30 PM – 2:00 PM | Lunch Break

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM | Planetary Futures

Vanessa Nakate, climate activist, founder of the Rise Up climate movement, and author of A Bigger Picture
David Wallace-Wells, writer for New York Times Opinion, columnist for New York Times Magazine, and author of The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming
Moderator: Iza Ding, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University's Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences

3:00 PM – 3:15 PM | Coffee Break

3:15 PM – 4:15 PM | Future of Work

Suhani Jalota, founder of Myna Mahila and founder and leader of the Future of Work for Women Initiative at Stanford University's Hoover Institution
Olubayo Adekanmbi, CEO of Data Science Nigeria and co-founder of EqualyzAI
Moderator: Dean Karlan, Frederic Esser Nemmers Distinguished Professor of Economics and Finance at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Business, founder and former president of Innovations for Poverty Action, and former Chief Economist for USAID

4:15 – 4:30 PM | Conclusion

4:30 PM – 6:00 PM | Reception

Speakers & Moderators

Stay tuned for speakers' and moderators' short bios.