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 Speaker Events
Young Initiative speakers give students and faculty an opportunity to expand their understanding of global issues. The Young Initiative sponsors several speakers 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.
Joseph S. Nye Jr. has consistently been named one of the most influential American political scientists in history. Nye co-created the international relations concepts of neoliberalism and smart power and is the former dean of Harvard's prestigious Kennedy School of Government.
On Thursday, February 13th, the Oxy UN Week Keynote speaker, Dr. Steven Were Omamo, explained his work on food insecurity in Ethiophia in connection to environmental justice and climate change.
A multi-disciplinary panel of professors challenge students to to use their expertise to fight climate change at all levels.
On Wednesday February 12, 2020 Alberto Saldamando, a Lawyer Advocate at Indigenous Environmental Network, gave a presentation on “Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations.”
The built environment and climate change converge at Oxy Arts on York with Alison Hirsch and Aroussiak Gabrielian of USC Landscape Design as part of UN Week 2020.
As part of UN Week 2020, Jasmin Vargas of Food and Water Watch discusses locally-based environmental climate activism and its intersections with politics professor Michael Sardo and Aerex Narvasa.
Kahane U.N. Program students report back on their fall 2019 experiences at the U.N., including Task Forces regarding the Green Economy and Digital Jobs.
On February 10th, the first day of Oxy’s 2020 UN week, students studying everything from music to diplomacy to environmental policy gathered in Booth Hall to hear Professor Adam Schoenberg talk about his composition entitled Losing Earth.
Toby Dalton '79 from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace engaged with Oxy students and faculty on modern nuclear proliferation. Dalton is an expert on non-proliferation and nuclear energy.
Andrew Zimbalist is a professor in the Economics Department at Smith College. He has acted as a consultant in Latin America for the United Nations Development Program and the U.S. Agency for International Development.