iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

📅 First Friday of each month from 12:30–1:45 p.m. 🚪 Doors open at 12:00 p.m., and lunch begins at 12:15 p.m. 📍 720 University Place, Second floor 🔑 Wildcard required for building access 🔗 Learn more: buffett.northwestern.edu/events/first...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

🌷 May: From Oil Barrels to Pipelines: Citizenship and Political Life in Nigeria with School of Communication & Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences' Dotun Ayobade What can Nigeria’s retired oil barrels tell us about citizenship and political life?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

🌸 April: The Global Energy Transition with McCormick School of Engineering's Sossina Haile Can a carbon-free energy future be built from materials the earth already has in abundance?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

🌱 March: Above the Law: The U.S. and the International Criminal Court with @weinbergcollege.bsky.social's Daniel Krcmaric Why has the United States spent decades at odds with the world’s leading war crimes tribunal?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

❄️ February: Art, Archives and African Sovereignty with @sesp-nu.bsky.social's Sally Nuamah Can artist-led cultural movements offer genuine independence, or do they risk reproducing systems of extraction?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

⛄️ January: Partnering to Tackle Public Health Crises: Viral Hepatitis as a Case Study with @feinberg.northwestern.edu's Claudia Hawkins How can partnerships between communities, institutions, and research networks improve infection prevention and treatment?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

🍂 November: The Yemeni Women Fighting to Preserve Their Heritage with @medillschool.bsky.social's Brent Huffman How are women working to preserve Yemen’s heritage amid war, looting, and climate change?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

🍁 October: Governing Diversity in Economic History with @kelloggschoolnu.bsky.social's Nancy Qian Why do some civilizations endure for centuries while others disappear?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 22/09/2026

From global public health to African sovereignty and the International Criminal Court, hear from Northwestern University faculty experts at our 2026–27 Buffett First Friday Lunch series. Northwestern students, faculty, and staff are invited to join us for a talk designed for a broad audience.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 18/09/2026

How has China's political and information environment evolved? Join us for a conversation between journalist and author James Griffiths and @nuschoolofcomm.bsky.social's Yingdan Lu. 📅 Sept. 29 at 12:30 p.m. 📍 720 University Pl. or online via Zoom 🔗 Register: events.humanitix.com/inside-conte...

events.humanitix.com

Inside Contemporary Asia: Politics, Power, & Information | Buffett Conversation with James Griffiths

The Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs generates new knowledge about pressing global challenges and promising solutions for addressing them.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 17/09/2026

Has women’s agency been overlooked in histories of the 1947 Partition of India? Research Fellow Angad Singh's new research argues that focusing on desire alongside violence offers a more nuanced understanding of women’s experiences at this time. Learn more: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 15/09/2026

How do different forms of repression operate together, and how do these measures shape public attitudes? Drawing on evidence from Turkey, Buffett Research Fellow Ulaş Erdoğdu (@polisciatnu.bsky.social) co-authored research seeking to answer this question. Read: academic.oup.com/jpr/advance-...

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Reposted by Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Ulaş Erdoğdu @ulaserdogdu.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Happy to announce that our new article with Mert Arslanalp and @tdenizerkmen.bsky.social , “Do protest bans make police repression more acceptable? Experimental evidence on the effects of legal repression from Turkey,” is now published in the @jpeaceresearch.bsky.social. doi.org/10.1093/jopr...

doi.org

Do protest bans make police repression more acceptable? Experimental evidence on the effects of legal repression from Turkey

Abstract. In explaining whether protest repression incites or suppresses mobilization, research on the repression–dissent nexus has underlined the importan

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 10/09/2026

Atypical Anthropologist will be screening at the OTO Film Festival in Chicago at the DuSable Black History Museum on Saturday, October 3: www.tixtree.com/e/oto-film-f...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 10/09/2026

In our documentary on his work, Atypical Anthropologist, he shared that when community members recognize they have something to contribute, fieldwork becomes as much about giving back as gathering knowledge. 🎥 Watch the documentary: buffett.northwestern.edu/news/2026/bu...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 10/09/2026

"I'm doing a form of anthropological work that can push our discipline to tell stories that inspire us for the future, but also make us proud of where we came from," shared Craig Stevens, who completed his Anthropology PhD at @weinbergcollege.bsky.social as a Buffett Dissertation Fellow.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 10/09/2026

Her thesis, “From Scarcity to Solidarity: Mutual Aid as a Pathway to Food Justice and Urban Resilience in Chennai" won the top overall poster award and 1st place in the social justice division at the Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium. Learn more: buffett.northwestern.edu/news/2026/bu...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 10/09/2026

"Chennai has some of the most expansive welfare programs in India, yet many are food insecure and undernourished. I was interested in researching how communities have been organizing to fill those gaps," said International Senior Thesis Grantee Anusha Kumar, a 2026 @sesp-nu.bsky.social graduate.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 08/09/2026

Hear more from Yang on Live from the Buffett Reading Room, a podcast featuring conversations from events held in the Buffett Reading Room, where global leaders and pioneering scholars convene to investigate the world’s most pressing problems.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 08/09/2026

"We made this arbitrary gap — that this [media] is boring but serious and this [media] is really fun but stupid — but it doesn't have to be,” said Allison Yang, founder & CEO of video game studio Reality Reload, during @buffett.northwestern.edu’s Brave New Futures symposium panel on new media.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 04/09/2026

The symposium was organized by Buffett Faculty Fellow Sally Nuamah (@polisciatnu.bsky.social) and Dotun Ayobade (@nuschoolofcomm.bsky.social) alongside Reginold Royston (@uwmadison.bsky.social) and Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang (University of Ghana).

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 04/09/2026

More than 100 artists, technologists, and business leaders joined live performances and discussions ranging from African autonomy in the age of AI and the future of African cultural performance. Learn more: www.africanartsfutures.com

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 04/09/2026

How might art and technology converge in the pursuit of African sovereignty in the age of AI? That question drove the inaugural African Arts Futures Symposium held this summer at the University of Ghana with the support of a Buffett Global Collaboration Grant.

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Reposted by Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

Raed Mansour @raedmansour.com · 02/09/2026

Great reporting on the latest @buffett.northwestern.edu Defusing Disasters study on heat-related diagnoses in Chicago ER visits. It shows that extreme heat’s health toll extends far beyond heat stroke, with a surprisingly wide range of conditions showing up in emergency and urgent care.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 03/09/2026

The stakes remain urgent for Afghan women and girls as they fight for education, safety, and basic human rights under Taliban rule. Join @loyolachicago.bsky.social's Rule of Law Institute & Art Works Projects for an exhibit, film excerpt, and discussion event on women’s rights in Afghanistan.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 02/09/2026

The group is undertaking the world’s first comparative study investigating how LLMs from countries around the world respond to prompts about climate change, migration, and other topics. Learn about the Global LLM Values Benchmarking Working Group: buffett.northwestern.edu/research/glo...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 02/09/2026

How does training AI models on regionally-biased data influence how global challenges are interpreted and framed? The Roberta Buffett Institute’s Global LLM Values Benchmarking Working Group is studying what sociopolitical values countries embed in the LLMs they create.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 02/09/2026

China recently pledged to share their data to help developing countries build AI systems. However, rules in place so that Chinese AI models cannot deviate from the Chinese Communist Party's official narratives mean that Chinese chatbots can evade answering sensitive questions and revise history.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 31/08/2026

The CoT was developed by NSAIL, led by VS Subrahmanian, in collaboration with Georgetown University's Daniel Byman and Netherlands Defence Academy's Roy Lindelauf & Herwin Meerveld. Learn more about the Counterproliferation Triad: sites.northwestern.edu/evcap/

sites.northwestern.edu

Homepage | Countering AI Proliferation

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 31/08/2026

At the center of this work is the Counterproliferation Triad (CoT), a framework that brings together people, processes and technology to help organizations anticipate threats and protect against the misuse of AI.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 31/08/2026

The Northwestern Security & AI Lab (NSAIL), jointly housed in the Roberta Buffett Institute and McCormick School of Engineering, is developing new approaches to identify and mitigate AI-related proliferation risks.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 31/08/2026

Cyberattacks targeting U.S. water systems have been reported in at least a dozen states and more than 100 municipalities, with officials suspecting some may be linked to Iran-backed hackers. How can AI help us predict and protect against these threats?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 27/08/2026

As our experts discussed at our disinformation symposium, social media companies may not control speech — but they do control what gets amplified, monetized, and made visible.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 27/08/2026

Meta agreed to pay up to $17 billion to settle lawsuits alleging that Facebook and Instagram were designed to addict children and teens. This raises a bigger question: How responsible are social media platforms for the environments they create?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 27/08/2026

The new working group will bring together scholars, governments, utilities and industry partners to develop solutions for how climate change threatens underground infrastructure in cities. Learn more: www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

theguardian.com

‘132F’: meet the man calling out NYC’s infernally hot subway stations

Jack Klein takes heat readings, gives fans to overheated passengers and lugs big jugs of water into the stations

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 27/08/2026

“Extracting the heat and moving it away is a rational approach. You can deploy this universally, in New York City, London, Rome, wherever you are. The only issue is space restraints and the expertise and willingness to install it,” says Loria.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 27/08/2026

Alessandro Rotta Loria, McCormick School of Engineering Associate Professor and co-lead of the Roberta Buffett Institute’s new Underground Climate Change Global Working Group, says one solution could be capturing subway heat and using it to heat nearby buildings in winter.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 27/08/2026

A heat index of 132°F was recorded this month in an underground NYC subway station. As cities face rising temperatures, how can we make underground infrastructure safer?

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 26/08/2026

Since then, Kumar has received a US Student Fulbright Award to teach English in Linz, Austria. Stay tuned for an upcoming Buffett Q&A featuring Kumar and her research trip to Chennai. Learn more about her accomplishments: sesp.northwestern.edu/news-events/...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 26/08/2026

With a Buffett International Senior Thesis Research Grant, Kumar traveled to Chennai, India, to study how community-led mutual aid networks help people access food and build resilience. Her resulting thesis won top overall poster at the Chicago Area Undergraduate Research Symposium.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 26/08/2026

“I was really curious how communities [in Chennai] are organizing to address the fact that climate change is increasingly threatening urban communities and their food security,” said recent @sesp-nu.bsky.social graduate Anusha Kumar.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 25/08/2026

With nonprofits in Thailand, Vietnam, Morocco, Argentina, & Costa Rica, our Elliott Scholars advanced community-driven change & applied lessons from their coursework to make a difference. Northwestern students: Apply to become an Elliott Scholar by Nov. 1. buffett.northwestern.edu/programs/und...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 25/08/2026

Our 14 Elliott Scholars spent the summer contributing to community-led international development efforts around the world. After taking winter and spring courses on the foundations of international development and how to bring people into policy, they embarked on an internship abroad via GESI.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 24/08/2026

As a development economist whose work focuses on rural economic activity in Sub-Saharan Africa, Udry aims to understand the various causes and potential solutions surrounding global poverty. Learn more about Professor Udry's work: buffett.northwestern.edu/news/2026/bu...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 24/08/2026

"I believe that the persistence of global poverty is an unsustainable, unforgivable sin...That's why I study what I do,” shared Buffett Faculty Fellow Christopher Udry, Professor of Economics at @weinbergcollege.bsky.social & co-director of @kelloggschoolnu.bsky.social's Global Poverty Research Lab.

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 21/08/2026

Our Global Lab courses offer opportunities for hands-on learning through real-world projects or work with leading practitioners. This course will be offered again in spring 2027 & include a trek to D.C. to practice advocacy. Students, subscribe for updates: buffett.northwestern.edu/subscribe/in...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 21/08/2026

Taught by two Institute staffers, the seminar was a collaboration with @scholarsatrisk.bsky.social, a nonprofit working to protect scholars who are threatened, displaced, or imprisoned for their academic work. Read the UN's call for Abilov and Samadov's release: www.ohchr.org/en/press-rel...

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Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs @buffett.northwestern.edu · 21/08/2026

Through our spring-quarter course on defending global academic freedom, undergraduates designed advocacy campaigns for two Azerbaijani scholars and activists currently imprisoned abroad, Igbal Abilov and Bahruz Samadov, who were wrongfully convicted of treason for their academic and advocacy work.

Class in front of the Rock on Northwestern's campus that says "Scholars at Risk"

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