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Northwestern Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Faculty Reflections

The Buffett Institute facilitates collaboration across disciplines, encouraging researchers to take risks, reach across barriers and catalyze new ideas. Here, faculty participants share their experiences participating in a Buffett program or engaging with Buffett in an ongoing capacity as a Global Working Group.

Jennifer Dunn

My experience in the Idea Incubation Program was formative because, although my work is very interdisciplinary in the engineering space, I had yet to collaborate meaningfully with many of the humanities and social science disciplines.”

Jennifer Dunn 
Research Associate Professor, McCormick School of Engineering; Director of Research, Northwestern Argonne Institute of Science and Engineering; Associate Director, Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience

Co-lead, Disproportionate Impacts of Environmental Challenges Global Working Group

One of the most remarkable things about the IIW weekend was the learning that happened in the room. We came together, mostly never having met or worked together, and we left with different perspectives and understandings of the challenges we are each working to address. I was thrilled that we were selected, as were the other team members, but we also knew that if we hadn’t won, each of us had formed new relationships that could lead to improved interdisciplinary work.”

Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya
Associate Professor, Department of Political Science; Faculty Affiliate, Center for Native American and Indigenous Research; Faculty Fellow, Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Co-lead, Disproportionate Impacts of Environmental Challenges Global Working Group

Kimberly R. Marion Suiseeya
Patty Loew

We are excited to work with amazing scholars who are committed to working with Indigenous communities that face imminent environmental challenges like climate change. Some of these communities have strong traditional ecological knowledge and have been adapting to intense pressures for hundreds of years. They may have as much to share with us as we will share with them.”

Patty Loew
Director, Center for Native American and Indigenous Research; Professor, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications

Member, Disproportionate Impacts of Environmental Challenges Global Working Group