FOX 32’s Chicago Live recently featured Professors Sera Young and Julius Lucks, co-leads of the Roberta Buffett Institute's Making Water Insecurity Visible Global Working Group, to discuss their team’s efforts to make the quality of drinking water easier to monitor at home. The researchers are piloting innovative biosensor-based tests designed to detect contaminants, such as lead, using a simple process similar to at-home COVID-19 tests. Developed through interdisciplinary collaboration at Northwestern, the handheld technology allows households to place a small drop of tap water into a test tube and receive an easy-to-read result, helping communities identify potential water quality risks quickly. The project builds on a broader effort by the working group to generate new data on water insecurity and make the global water crisis more visible to policymakers and the public.

Watch our recent Buffett Book Talk with Marc Lynch on America’s Middle East: The Ruination of a Region, which examines how and why Washington became entangled in the Middle East, situating US policy within the broader trajectory of its post-Cold War foreign policy in the region. Professor Lynch charts the United States' controversial approach to the post-Cold War Middle East, where he claims aspirations for US leadership and a calm region have only produced war, instability, and humanitarian catastrophe.

Watch a short new video overviewing the mission and vision of the Roberta Buffett Institute's Global 2Gen Education Working Group and its Jamaica 2Gen initiative.

Listen to a sound collage recapping a workshop on queer voice, vocal training, and singing for inclusion that convened more than 65 scholars, students, artists, and industry professionals. The workshop was led by Kelli Morgan McHugh, Associate Professor of Instruction in Music Theatre at Northwestern University’s School of Communication, in partnership with the University of Sydney and was supported by a Global Collaboration Grant from the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs.

Watch our recent Buffett Book Talk with Reginold Royston on 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 argues 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.

For this installment of our Buffett Q&A series profiling faculty and students in the Roberta Buffett Institute community, we spoke with Zekeria Ahmed Salem, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern’s Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, outgoing director of the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA), and 2024–25 Buffett Faculty Fellow.

A student panel hosted by Northwestern University’s Ukrainian Club explored the personal impacts of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine at an event supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute. Moderated by political science professor Jordan Gans-Morse, the panel brought together Ukrainian students to share firsthand reflections on life before, during and after the war, including memories of air raid sirens, displacement, family separation, and the emotional toll of conflict.

An article in Vilni Media highlighted a panel discussion held at the Roberta Buffett Institute marking the anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Hosted by Northwestern’s Ukrainian Club in collaboration with the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy Foundation, the event brought together Ukrainian undergraduate students to share personal reflections on the daily realities of Ukrainians living in conditions of war, occupation, and forced displacement. Instead of geopolitical assessments and analytics, the participants focused on personal stories. They talked about life under sirens, being forced to leave home, adapting to new countries, being separated from family, and finding their own identity.

Buffett Faculty Fellow V.S. Subrahmanian, professor of computer science at Northwestern and director of the Security and AI Lab, recently spoke with CBS News Chicago about the growing risks posed by AI-generated deepfakes and scams. In the interview, Subrahmanian explained how advances in generative AI have made it easier to create convincing fake audio, video, and images that can be used to spread misinformation or defraud victims. He noted that scammers increasingly rely on voice cloning, using short audio clips from social media to replicate someone’s voice and stage convincing phone calls to family members claiming an emergency in order to solicit money.

What does the recent US military operation in Venezuela mean for the future of US-Latin American relations? How does the capture of Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, impact the political stability of Venezuela and the future of international law? The Roberta Buffett Institute convened faculty experts to share insights. Read the recap.

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Benjamin Nathans visited Northwestern to discuss his book To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement at an event hosted by the Roberta Buffett Institute. In conversation with Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies Maria Lipman, Nathans discussed the origins and development of the Soviet dissident movement and the research behind his book. He explained that his interest in the topic grew from a broader question about how people living under authoritarian systems think about their options for public engagement and responding to social problems.

A recent feature in the Northwestern literary magazine, Triquarterly, highlighted the 2025 Colombian Writers Symposium, which brought emerging Colombian and Colombian-diasporic authors into conversation with Northwestern students and faculty. The event, supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute, explored how a new generation of writers is reshaping contemporary Colombian literature through multilingual experimentation, queer storytelling, and reflections on migration, memory, and political life. Organized in collaboration with campus partners across the humanities, the symposium featured conversations with writers including Gloria Susana Esquivel, Julián Delgado Lopera, and Melissa Lozada-Oliva, whose work reflects shifting literary landscapes across Colombia and its diaspora. The symposium ultimately highlighted literature not only as artistic practice but as a form of global dialogue, opening space for new solidarities, critical perspectives, and collaborative futures across the Americas.

Watch our Buffett Conversation with Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies, Maria Lipman (Northwestern University) and Alan Charles Kors Professor of History Benjamin Nathans (University of Pennsylvania) on Professor Nathans' new Pulitzer Prize-winning book, To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement.

A recent study supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute’s Antimicrobial Resistance Global Working Group sheds new light on how antibiotic-resistant bacteria may be transmitted from mothers to newborns during birth. Published in Open Forum Infectious Diseases, the research—the first of its kind conducted in the United States—found unexpectedly high rates of antibiotic-resistant gut bacteria among healthy birthing parents and their infants, highlighting an emerging public health concern even in high-income settings. Led by researchers at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the study analyzed hundreds of maternal and infant samples collected shortly after birth.

Watch our Buffett Conversation with Lina Sergie Attar, founder and CEO of the Karam Foundation, on what sustainable recovery for Syrians can look like and how international collaboration is playing a critical role. 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 for Syrians beyond emergency relief toward long-term resilience.

A Daily Northwestern article highlighted a student research presentation session at the Roberta Buffett Institute featuring Northwestern participants in COP30, the United Nations climate conference held in Belém, Brazil. The event grew out of a political science research seminar led by Professor Iza Ding, which brought students to COP30 observe negotiations and conduct field-based research on climate diplomacy, nationalism, and global governance. Presenters reflected on tensions within multilateral climate processes, discussing stalled finance negotiations, the strategic use of scientific framing, fossil fuel lobbyist influence, and debates over Indigenous representation at the conference. While some students described COP30 as overly performative, discussions also emphasized the continued importance of international forums like the UNFCCC as spaces for coordination and accountability on climate action.

In a recent Poynter op-ed inspired by conversations at the Roberta Buffett Institute’s winter symposium, Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World, speaker Angie Drobnic Holan reflects on the evolving role of fact-checking in an increasingly fragmented information environment. Holan argues that despite growing skepticism, fact-checking remains a vital tool for slowing the spread of misinformation and providing audiences with accurate context, particularly as platforms and institutions step back from traditional moderation practices.

A recent feature article highlighted the work of Brent E. Huffman, Buffett Faculty Fellow and professor at Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. The article spotlights Huffman’s latest documentary, Yemen Mosaic, a feature-length film that follows Yemeni women working to preserve their country’s cultural heritage amid the converging threats of war, looting, and climate change. Building on his earlier documentary Saving Mes Aynak, Huffman’s new project centers on archaeologists and heritage advocates in cities including Shibam, Dhamar, Taiz, Marib, and Sanaa. The film portrays preservation not simply as archaeological work, but as an act of resilience and resistance—one rooted in safeguarding identity, memory, and community during prolonged conflict.

Organized with the Center for Communication & Public Policy, our winter 2026 Buffett Symposium on Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World convened global experts and practitioners from industry, public policy, academia, and civil society to discuss urgent priorities in addressing issues of disinformation today.

A recent Daily Northwestern article highlighted a student lunch ahead of the Roberta Buffett Institute's winter symposium, Global Disinformation in a Post-Moderation World, which brought students into conversation with international experts on fact-checking and disinformation. The informal event featured speakers from organizations including Factchequeado, the International Fact-Checking Network, StopFake, and the Taiwan FactCheck Center, who shared regional perspectives on the challenges of combating misinformation in an evolving digital landscape. Discussions explored topics such as the pressures of the attention economy, the influence of platform algorithms, and the role of informal power structures in shaping disinformation campaigns.

A recent Daily Northwestern article highlighted a panel hosted by the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs examining the implications of U.S. military action in Venezuela and what it could mean for regional stability and U.S. foreign policy. During the discussion, Northwestern University faculty drew on historical and political analysis to question the motivations behind the strike and the long-term consequences of removing President Nicolás Maduro through military intervention. Panelists emphasized that, unlike past U.S. actions framed around humanitarian intervention, this operation relied heavily on national security and drug trafficking narratives, raising concerns about precedent and international norms. Speakers also cautioned that while the operation may appear successful in the short term, it could lead to political instability, contested legitimacy, and unintended consequences for U.S.–Latin America relations. As the panel underscored, military solutions rarely resolve deeply rooted political crises and often create new challenges in their wake.

Watch our Buffett Conversation with seven Northwestern University faculty who drew on perspectives from political science, international law, history, and more to examine the origins, legitimacy, and consequences of recent US actions in Venezuela; the future of US–Latin America relations; and the crisis these actions constitute for international law.

Samantha Nissen, Director of Strategic Initiatives and Undergraduate Programs at the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and an adjunct faculty member in Northwestern University’s International Studies Program, was awarded a Mellon/SAR Academic Freedom Fellowship supporting scholars who research and advance academic freedom in higher education. The fellowship provides a research stipend and a collaborative professional community through an eight-month program of project development and virtual workshops. Through the fellowship, Nissen will examine journalism education and student media as spaces where academic freedom is actively exercised and contested in the United States. Her project, Teaching and Telling the Truth: Journalism Education and Student Press as Sites of Academic (Un)Freedom, uses a multi-sited case study approach to explore how students, media advisors, and educators navigate editorial restrictions, surveillance, and retaliation, with particular attention to the experiences of non-citizen participants in today’s political climate.

A recent Daily Northwestern article highlights Georgia Rose, a Buffett Institute Visiting Scholar, psychologist, and professor at the University of the West Indies. In a Buffett Institute–hosted talk titled “Trauma Responses as a Means of Survival in Jamaica,” Rose examined how Jamaican workers have coped with returning to work after the devastating impact of Hurricane Melissa. Drawing on research and interviews conducted in Jamaica, Rose examined how climate disasters shape mental health, livelihoods, and long-term recovery. She emphasized that understanding trauma as an adaptive response is essential to designing recovery efforts that support both economic stability and human dignity.