Religious Studies department chair and Political Science professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd held a book panel on May 21, hosted by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. The panel addressed her newest book, Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States, which is set to be released in June.

A recent long-form article in The New Yorker explores modern oligarchy in the United States, drawing heavily on political scientist Jeffrey Winters’ arguments from his book Oligarchy. Winters is the founder and Director of the Equality Development and Globalization Studies (EDGS) program at the Buffett Institute.

Northwestern Rotaract invited the community to an event with live music and free food in Bookman’s Alley on Saturday to celebrate the unveiling of a new, Evanston-themed mural by Chicago street artist Juan A. Cano. The mural is sponsored by the Northwestern Buffett Institute.

Northwestern Rotaract recently unveiled a new mural in Bookman’s Alley. The public art installation was funded by the Buffett Institute. The mural is intended to demonstrate support for global literacy and promote community engagement in Evanston.

Haman Mana is a Cameroonian journalist and author. He has spent his time as a Buffett Visiting Scholar at Northwestern continuing to run Le Jour, one of Cameroon’s largest daily newspapers, and working on his new book "Biya's Regime" about Cameroon’s slide toward authoritarian rule, from which he was forced to flee following the paper’s investigation of corruption and influence peddling by a powerful media mogul. Watch the recording of his Buffett Book Talk.

Political science and religious studies Prof. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd spoke at a book talk hosted by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs about her latest book, “Heaven Has a Wall: Religion, Borders, and the Global United States.” The Daily recapped this event.

Historian and University of Southern California Prof. Nicholas Cull visited Northwestern for a discussion on soft power and “reputational security” hosted by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. The Daily recapped this event.

Kseniia Petrova, a Russian scientist at Harvard Medical School, faces felony smuggling charges after failing to declare frog embryos at Logan Airport. Experts say the charge is excessive and likely a pressure tactic to deport her despite her fear of persecution in Russia. Northwestern’s Jacqueline Stevens, director of the Deportation Research Clinic at the Buffett Institute, called the case “highly unusual,” noting smuggling laws typically apply to commercial goods, not harmless research samples.

Northwestern's Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and Center for Communication & Public Policy hosted a conversation with historian and academic Nicholas J. Cull from the University of Southern California to explore his concept of "reputational security"—the idea that a nation's safety and security are strengthened by its soft power and being well-regarded internationally. Watch the event recording.

Northwestern University undergraduates interested in tackling today’s complex global challenges have a compelling new academic opportunity, Thinking Globally: Climate in International Studies, an innovative course co-designed and co-taught by Lydia Barnett, Associate Professor of History, and Mark Hauser, Professor of Anthropology.

Julius Lucks, co-lead of the Buffett Global Working Group on Making Water Insecurity Visible, has developed a first-of-its-kind at-home water test for lead. It is now being tested in an NSF-funded study led by the working group. In this article, Lucks shares insights into how the test works and how it can empower communities to better understand and address water safety challenges.

Political science and Middle East and North African Studies Prof. Mkhaimar Abusada is visiting Northwestern as part of the At-Risk Scholars program, which is facilitated by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. His primary research topics include the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Palestinian politics. The Daily sat down with Abusada to talk about his life, as well as his experiences at NU.

At an event co-hosted by the Buffett Institute, six immigration lawyers advised international students and faculty on navigating a shifting legal landscape regarding student visas. Panelists discussed due process and travel risks following a federal decision to modify thousands of student records.

The Music for Childhood Well-Being Initiative is a global, multidisciplinary program that examines music as an intervention for reducing stress and anxiety. This project originated as the Trauma, Music and the Breath Global Working Group at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. Today, the project is studying the impact of music on youth well-being in cohorts across Evanston, the United Kingdom and Mexico City to improve mental health worldwide.

As part of the Deering Meadow agreement, Northwestern committed to supporting two visiting Palestinian faculty for two years. One Palestinian faculty member is currently a visiting scholar through the Scholars At Risk Program facilitated by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.

What happens when governments view universities as adversaries? How have universities successfully defended academic freedom? How much autonomy over internal decision-making should universities concede in the face of what seem like existential threats? To explore these questions, the Buffett Institute and Columbia University's Committee on Global Thought organized a panel discussion with university leaders and faculty members from around the world who have confronted—and in some cases fended off—state attacks.

Dean Karlan, the most recent chief economist of USAID and a professor of economics at Northwestern, recently spoke to the Northwestern community at an event hosted by the Buffett Institute. He talked about his career, our contemporary political situation, and the future of USAID.

The Northwestern Prison Education Program (NPEP), supported by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs’ Epistemic Reparations Global Working Group, hosted a public art exhibit showcasing work by incarcerated artists from Sheridan and Logan Correctional Facilities. The opening reception also included screenings of four short documentaries created through Brent E. Huffman’s Documenting Carceral Injustice Program, a collaboration between Northwestern students and incarcerated individuals, also supported by the Buffett Institute.

The U.S. Supreme Court has left in place an order by a federal judge in Maryland that instructed the Trump administration to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongfully sent to a El Salvadoran maximum-security prison, to the United States after the administration admitted to an “administrative error.” Northwestern immigration expert Jacqueline Stevens is a professor of political science and the founding director of the Deportation Research Clinic at the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs for Northwestern University. Professor Stevens shared that "a federal government that regularly extradites criminals from foreign countries attempting to evade punishment by the U.S. cannot credibly claim it is unable to organize a flight to Washington, D.C., for someone who desperately wants to return home.”

University of the West Indies history professor Sir Hilary Beckles spoke about reparations for chattel slavery in the postcolonial Americas at a recent Buffett Institute event. At the event, Beckles spoke about his research and writings. “All of them focus on one thing: the wrongness of human exploitation of other humans and the inequity of access to resources for decency,” Beckles said. “I came to understand, eventually, that my entire academic discourse was about injustice.”

With the support of a Buffett Global Collaboration Grant, Professor Sam Meekings of Northwestern University in Qatar co-organized a workshop with Professor Catherine Belling of the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine that convened scholars, filmmakers and practitioners to examine how storytelling can shape trauma processing and recovery. Learn about the work presented and connections drawn.

Our yearlong international diplomacy series culminated in our spring-quarter symposium, Negotiating Peace in a Multipolar World: Lessons Learned, organized with Fundación Acordemos. This two-day event brought together diplomats, negotiators and academics to discuss the high-profile peace processes of recent decades, drawing lessons for future negotiations in a world confronting a crisis of multilateralism.

The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, a Foreign Policy podcast supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Buffett Institute, features inspiring stories about girl power. This episode features a “reporters’ roundtable” looking back and ahead at some of the most impactful stories of the past eight seasons.

At Northwestern’s Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution, part of the Robert J. Havey, MD Institute for Global Health and supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, scientists are helping track the global spread of antibiotic-resistant infections. Led by Dr. Egon Ozer, the team collaborated with Aga Khan University in Pakistan to sequence the genomes of drug-resistant bacteria and fungi. Their work has already helped identify a dangerous new fungal infection in infants and supports coordinated public health responses across Pakistan.

Jeffery Winters, founder and Director of the Equality Development and Globalization Studies (EDGS) program at the Buffett Institute, recently spoke with Teen Vogue about how to identify oligarchy. He also identified types of oligarchies and their unique features.

In this article, V.S. Subrahmanian’s Global Online Deep Fake Detection System (GODDS) was used to examine the authenticity of an audio clip portraying JD Vance criticizing Elon Musk. The GODDS system was pioneered by the Northwestern Security & AI Lab in the Buffett Institute and is being used to identify deepfakes by journalists worldwide.

Jacqueline Stevens, a political science professor at Northwestern University and director of the Deportation Research Clinic at the university’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, discusses how Northwestern could challenge edicts from the Trump administration regarding the First Amendment.

Mkhaimar Abusada, Visiting Scholar of Global Affairs at the Buffett Institute, recently published an op-ed in The Conversation. Here, he discusses the war in Gaza and potential pathways to peace.

The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, a Foreign Policy podcast supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Buffett Institute, features inspiring stories about girl power. In this episode, senior producer Laura Rosbrow-Telem talks to aid workers and direct recipients in Nigeria about the fallout of the cuts so far. After that, host Reena Ninan interviews two special guests about what can be done to address the funding gap.

In this article, NBN spotlights the Buffett Institute. The article discusses travel opportunities offered by the Buffett Institute; Buffett symposiums and events; the Buffett Undergraduate Research Fellow program; Buffett's Global Working groups; and more.

Northwestern for Ukraine, a student group supporting Ukraine, blends activism and culture through rallies, fundraisers, and community events. They are a Buffett Institute Affiliated Student Group. They’ve also partnered with Buffett for a variety of events, including for a screening of WE ARE U, a film featuring Ukrainian teen activists.

The Northwestern Security and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (NSAIL), under the leadership of Professor V.S. Subrahmanian, and the Insight Research Ireland Centre for Data Analytics and UCC Futures on AI and Data Analytics at University College Cork, under the leadership of Professor Barry O’Sullivan, have entered into a partnership to support collaboration in the area of Geopolitics, Artificial Intelligence, National Security.

Julius Lucks, co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group, led the creation of low-cost water tests using biosensors that change color when detecting contaminants. Tested globally and now in Chicago, the project empowers communities to monitor water safety.

Supported by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, Northwestern’s undergraduate and graduate student delegates attended the 29th Conference of Parties (COP29) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) through a quarter-long research seminar. The students developed original research projects, which they then carried out at the conference. We spoke with four students post-conference to share their experiences and insights.

For our inaugural Buffett Q&A, we spoke with Sara Huston, Genetics Ethicist at Lurie Children's Hospital and Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine, to learn about her work as co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Global FamDNA Working Group.

"Water matters for thirst’s sake, but it matters for so much more – for nutrition, mental health, prosperity, disease, and societal stability," says Sera Young, Professor of Anthropology at Northwestern University and co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group. Young led the development of the Water Insecurity Experiences (WISE) Scales, a tool used to measure water access & use worldwide and recently partnered with Mexico’s National Institute of Public Health to implement WISE Scales & tackle the country’s biggest water challenges.

Northwestern University researchers have combined synthetic biology and nanotechnology to create a highly sensitive tool for detecting water contamination. The collaboration, led by professor Julius Lucks, co-lead of the Buffett Global Working Group on Making Water Insecurity Visible, builds on earlier work in DNA-protein interaction and COVID-19 testing. This new platform could eventually monitor both environmental and human health, broadening access to rapid, multiplex chemical detection.

The Buffett Institute's winter quarter symposium on AI and Geopolitics convened leading strategists, researchers and policymakers to discuss the transformative opportunities and profound challenges that AI poses in geopolitics. Speakers offered insights on how AI technologies influence global power dynamics, national security, economic development, international relations and more, exploring the role that international governance and cooperation will play in its future. Read McCormick School of Engineering's synthesis report on the event.

The Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, a Foreign Policy podcast supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Buffett Institute, features inspiring stories about girl power. In this episode, learn from Preethi Herman about how to launch a digital campaign that actually changes policy.

Northwestern for Ukraine and the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs screened a documentary about five young teenagers navigating the Russia-Ukraine War, while launching community projects to aid their home country. The documentary featured student Mira Trofymchuk, who is involved with the Buffett Affiliated Student Organization Northwestern Ukrainian Club.

On February 5, 2025, delegates from the Buffett Institute visited Monash University in Indonesia. The visit highlighted shared commitments to global research collaboration, including a presentation on Monash’s Banten Mosaic project, which explores regional inequalities. The institutions reaffirmed their strong partnership, built through the Arryman Scholars Program and IFAR Postdoctoral Fellowships.

The Season 8 premiere of the Hidden Economics of Remarkable Women, a Foreign Policy podcast supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Buffett Institute, features inspiring stories about girl power. In this first episode, you will hear a conversation from Foreign Policy’s Emerging Threats Forum, an official side event of the Munich Security Conference, about the economic and security implications of halting overseas development assistance.

The Buffett Institute and the IFAR Consortium have deepened academic partnerships in Indonesia through meetings with top universities and the Ministry of Higher Education. The delegation explored new collaborations with Atma Jaya Catholic University, UIII, and Monash University Indonesia—focusing on joint research, faculty exchanges, and scholarships.

Mkhaimar Abusada, Buffett Institute Visiting Scholar and Visiting Lecturer in Political Science and the Middle East and North African Studies Program, was quoted in a piece reflecting on President Donald Trump's recent plans to force Palestinians out of Gaza. Read Abusada's perspective on why "Palestinians are against this and would rather live in tents and in the rubble of their destroyed homes than leave."

Professor Mkhaimar Abusada, Associate Professor of Political Science with the Buffett Institute's Visiting Professor Program, commented on President Trump's plans for the Gaza Strip. He also described Saudi Arabia's role in the conflict.

Jeffery Winters, founder and Director of the Equality Development and Globalization Studies (EDGS) program at the Buffett Institute, spoke with Omar Ocampo on how to define and identify an oligarchy in practice. They also gave strategies to dismantle oligarchy and prevent against its formation.

“The governance of AI is absolutely critical,” shared V.S. Subrahmanian, Buffett Institute Faculty Fellow and Professor of Computer Science at McCormick School of Engineering, at a recent Institute for Policy Research talk on AI policymaking. Subrahmanian was joined by McCormick visiting professor Barry O’Sullivan, a professor at University College Cork in Ireland, who shared how the European Union approaches AI governance and policy.

As conflicts and climate crises proliferate and intensify, countless families are being torn apart. Now, a group is exploring a DNA-based extragovernmental solution to help reunite those separated.

The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs welcomed English Prof. Sarah Dimick to discuss climate change’s impact on the portrayal of nature in global literature. In her discussion, Dimick also introduced the term “climate arrhythmia” to the audience, which refers to environmental irregularities experienced at disturbingly premature or delayed times of the year. Dimick also drew attention to literary efforts for climate change, including poetry performed at United Nations climate negotiations, emphasizing literature’s importance.

Sara Huston, genetics ethicist at Lurie Children’s Hospital and research assistant professor at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, is calling for a global DNA database to reunite Ukrainian children taken by Russia. Huston, who co-leads the Global FamDNA Working Group at Northwestern’s Buffett Institute, says the tool could also help families separated by war, migration, or U.S. immigration policy. “For a child who is separated, every day matters,” she said.

A recent wave of immigration arrests in Chicago—part of President Donald Trump’s pledge to carry out the “largest mass deportation in history”—has drawn critical analysis from Northwestern University Deportation Research Clinic Director Jacqueline Stevens. In an interview with ABC7 Chicago, Stevens emphasized that the highly publicized raids serve more as media spectacle than effective policy.

Northwestern’s Jacqueline Stevens, founder of the Deportation Research Clinic at the Buffett Institute, is shedding light on key changes in the Trump administration’s deportation efforts. In a recent WGN News segment, Stevens noted the use of military aircraft—rather than private buses or planes—due to legal risks for private carriers.

Twelve Northwestern students attended the annual Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, COP29, to conduct research. The delegation presented their findings at a poster session held by the Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.

Jeffrey Winters, Director of the Buffett Institute's Equality Development & Globalization Studies (EDGS) program and Professor of Political Science in the Weinberg School of Arts & Sciences, discussed what some have called the oligarchy shaping American politics and society in a podcast with KUOW, Seattle’s NPR news station.

Sara Huston, co-lead of the Buffett Institute’s Global FamDNA Working Group and Research Assistant Professor at Northwestern University and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, was featured in "Nature" regarding the urgent need for an international DNA database designed specifically to aid the reunification of living family members.

V.S. Subrahmanian, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering and a Buffett Faculty Fellow at the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs, discussed how TikTok works and what a ban would mean for users. "Flowing down from the other side either a response to a request from me or of their own volition, there’s data coming from the TikTok side to me and my phone. If that pipe is removed or blocked in the middle, then this flow cannot happen," Subrahmanian shared.

The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs held a symposium on artificial intelligence and geopolitics to explore the implications of AI technologies on national security. McCormick Professor V.S. Subrahmanian and Ireland’s University College Cork Professor Barry O’Sullivan moderated several panels on the implications of AI in national security, economics and governance.

Our 2024–25 winter quarter Buffett Symposium on AI and Geopolitics convened leading strategists, researchers and policymakers to discuss the transformative opportunities and profound challenges that AI poses in geopolitics. Speakers offered insights on how AI technologies influence global power dynamics, national security, economic development, international relations and more, exploring the role that international governance and cooperation will play in its future.

Julius Lucks, co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group, discusses how toxins and other small molecules at low concentrations in the environment or human body may emit quiet signals that are undetectable without “amplification” via specialized lab technology. This technology is currently being used in the working group's National Science Foundation study.

Julius Lucks, co-lead of the Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group, discusses how a sensing platform already being used to measure toxins in drinking water can be applied to disease detection and monitoring in the human body for nucleic acids like DNA and RNA, as well as bacteria such as E. coli. This technology is currently being used in the working group's National Science Foundation study.

In late November, The Block Museum of Art unveiled the results of the Buffett Institute's Climate Crisis + Media Arts (CC+MA) Working Group’s transformative media-funding initiative. The two-night event included the first public presentation of six original media artworks made possible with funding from CC+MA.

V.S. Subrahmanian, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering and a Buffett Faculty Fellow at the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs, discussed what a potential TikTok ban would mean for the app's users and creators. "The answer is not simple and some amount of time might be required," Subrahmanian shared.

“At the end of the day, our phones reveal a huge amount of information about each of us. An app that can track all that information potentially can allow China to build a massive intelligence database about each and every person in the country — and their personal network of friends and family," said V.S. Subrahmanian, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering and a Buffett Faculty Fellow at the Buffett Institute of Global Affairs on the Supreme Court hearings on a potential TikTok ban.

Matej Jungwirth, a Buffett Institute Graduate Research Fellow, is a PhD candidate in Political Science in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. His research explores the impacts of territorial loss and displacement, aiming to illuminate the experiences of displaced communities and guide the development of policy solutions. Learn more about Matej in this profile by The Graduate School.

Sarah Bartolome, a co-lead of the Buffett Institute's now-retired Trauma, Music & the Breath Global Working Group, is part of a collaboration between the Bienen School of Music and Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital where researchers are exploring whether music and singing can deliver measurable benefits for the heart. Through her Global Working Group, Bartolome jumpstarted the Music for Childhood Well-Being Initiative, which investigates the use of music as therapy for children facing trauma and mental health challenges.

At the 13th annual Global Health Day organized by the Havey Institute for Global Health, two Buffett Undergraduate Research Fellows, Emily Lynott and Ella Kuffour, presented research they conducted under the guidance of their faculty mentor, Professor Faith Summersett Williams. Learn about their research on health inequities in Switzerland in this Global Health Day recap.

Block Museum of Art’s Block Cinema premiered the first of three screenings, “Sanctuary Stations,” as part of its Climate Crisis and Media Arts Showcase Thursday evening. The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs’ Climate Crisis and Media Arts Global Working Group supported the showcase through grants of up to $10,000. The showcase featured a variety of projects, from complete feature films to work-in-progress samples.