The Young Initiative invites foreign policy experts and guest speakers to campus to engage in discussions on international relations and the global political economy with students and faculty.
Past Young Initiative Events
Young Initiative speakers give students and faculty an opportunity to expand their understanding of global issues. The Young Initiative sponsors several speakers and student events each academic year highlighting particular aspects of global affairs and the global political economy. The Young Speakers program is devoted to highlighting the work and success of eminent international affairs experts and Oxy alumni in public service and academia.
Michelle Jurkovich’s talk "Not all rights have Norms: Blame Diffusion in International Anti-Hunger Advocacy at the U.N. and Elsewhere" began in an unconventional way. Rather than speaking on the topic before ceding to questions, Jurkovich began by confronting the audience with deceptively simple questions. What are the causes of chronic hunger? Who is to blame?
With his encyclopedic knowledge of the United Nations, Stephen Schlesinger was an informative speaker whose talk, "The UN and the US after Obama," concluded United Nations Week by reflecting back on the history of the UN and predicted its future trajectory.
United Nations Week has served as a focal point for bringing together speakers, presentations and visual media to summarize and analyze issues surrounding international governance.
Former U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Davidow visited Occidental College early in the spring semester, kicking off the 2016 Young Future of Diplomacy Series, coordinated by Oxy’s Director of Global Affairs Ambassador Derek Shearer.
As a scholar with close personal ties to Occidental College, Dr. Warigia Bowman was excited to be on campus on Monday, Jan. 25. A professor of African politics at the University of Arkansas’ Clinton School of Public Service, Dr. Bowman spoke about her recent research regarding hate speech and the use of text messaging in the 2013 Kenyan elections.
On November 19, students filled the Johnson Atrium to see Stephen Walt, preeminent international relations scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School, give his talk "Follies, Foibles, and Fiascoes: Why American Foreign Policy keeps Failing."
Journalist Juliana Barbassa visited Occidental College on Thursday, November 12, 2015 to speak at two events.
Just before the lunch hour on Wednesday, November 4, 2015, the McKinnon Center for Global Affairs hosted Norwegian author Unni Turrettini in the Johnson Global Atrium.
On Monday, October 26, 2015, Occidental College hosted "Sexualities, Genders, and Rights: Histories and Futures."
I have found that one of the most important resources that every student can and should take advantage of here at Oxy is the wide assortment of guests that the department will bring in. It never ceases to amaze me the number of famous well-known figures that come. Speakers like Howard Dean and Strobe Talbot.