Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs

06/02/2026

Academic freedom is often discussed as a faculty concern. But what role do international higher education practitioners play in protecting and advancing it?

In a new practitioner brief, Samantha Nissen, Senior Director for Global Programs and Strategic Initiatives at the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, explores how academic freedom is shaped not only by teaching and research, but also by the everyday work that enables international collaboration, student mobility, and global knowledge exchange.

Drawing on research and professional experience, Nissen examines how visa policies, research security frameworks, institutional risk management, and administrative practices can either support or constrain academic freedom in practice. Read the brief: https://scholarship.shu.edu/cisr/vol6/iss1/3/

05/28/2026

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, thousands of Ukrainian children have been separated from their families and communities. New research, supported by the Roberta Buffett Institute's Global Fam DNA Global Working Group, shows that this crisis is not unique to Ukraine. "We have found reports from Syria that also describe conflict-related child separations. Children are displaced, absorbed into new systems or lost across borders with little documentation...Families are left searching, often with few leads and real fear of the regimes involved with the disappearances. This is why we must work as a global community to build systems not just for today or for specific countries, but also for years and decades to come," shares Sara Huston, Global FamDNA co-lead and Research Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, in her op-ed for the Chicago Tribune.

Huston emphasizes that effective reunification requires more than advancement in DNA technology, but prioritizing sustained community engagement and trust-building with the families of the missing. Read more: https://www.chicagotribune.com/2026/05/27/opinioin-ukraine-missing-children-dna-identification/

05/18/2026

Malicious actors and rogue states are seeking to exploit AI for phishing, malware generation, intellectual property theft, and even the development of dangerous biological or chemical agents.

Join the Northwestern Security & AI Lab (NSAIL), jointly housed at the Roberta Buffett Institute and McCormick School of Engineering, for a workshop on AI-driven threats to global security and a new framework for countering them. The framework was developed with support from the US Department of State in collaboration with leading experts from Georgetown University’s Security Studies Program and the Netherlands Defence Academy. Learn what AI threats, both cyber and kinetic, are emerging, and explore several threat-specific mitigation methods developed by the team, including how you can safeguard training data, protect AI models and trade secrets, mitigate drone threats, and more.

🗓️ Thursday, May 21 from 9:30–11:15 a.m.
📍 Chambers Hall, Ruan Room (600 Foster St.)
👥 Register to attend in person: http://spr.ly/6184BBQWRj
💻 Register to attend online: http://spr.ly/6186BBQWRe

05/14/2026

Kelli Morgan McHugh, Associate Professor of Instruction in Music Theatre at Northwestern University's School of Communication, found little to no literature on musical theatre vocal training for gender expansive performers while searching for resources for her trans and nonbinary students. This gap led McHugh to collaborate with the University of Sydney on the "Q***r Voice, Vocal Training, and Singing for Inclusion" workshop in April 2025. Held at Northwestern and supported by a Global Collaboration Grant from the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs, the gathering focused on the inclusion of q***r voices in music theatre and convened more than 65 scholars, students, artists, and industry professionals.

In April 2026, McHugh and Isa Hernandez extended the initiative through workshops at the University of Sydney. Stay tuned for a recap of their recent visit and information on their forthcoming white paper outlining best practices for inclusive vocal training and music theatre production.

Tune in to a voice collage recapping their first workshop, and learn more about the initiative: https://buffett.northwestern.edu/news/2026/q***r-voice-vocal-training-and-singing-for-inclusion-sound-collage.html

05/12/2026

Join us tomorrow! 🚨 Since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian public opinion polls have consistently shown overwhelming support for the “special military operation.” Regardless of how these surveys are interpreted, the Russian perception of the war is not that of jingoism or belligerence. Rather, Maria Lipman will argue during her Buffett Lecture this afternoon that the Russia's primary national resource—its people's resilience—is fueling the trend.

🗓️ Wednesday, May 13 from 12:30 – 1:45 p.m. CDT

🥗 For those attending in person, lunch begins at 12:15 PM and the lecture at 12:30 p.m.

📍 Buffett Reading Room (720 University Place, Second Floor, Evanston)

🔗 Register to attend in person: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/peoples-resilience-as-russias-primary-national-resource-with-maria-lipman-tickets-1986572581067?aff=PlanItPurple

💻 Register to attend online: https://northwestern.zoom.us/webinar/register/1017751638022/WN_Eu-mzWGfQSWcIUOM2A0iyQ #/registration

Lipman is the 2026 Roberta Buffett Visiting Professor of International Studies as well as a political analyst and commentator whose work focuses on state‑society relations, media, and the politics of history in Russia.

05/08/2026

"America’s allies, Obama said, 'can no longer count on us being the hub of that international order.' ... The tragedy of this, he continued, is that 'there still is no one that can replace us,'" writes Buffett Faculty Advisory Council member and Peter Slevin, Professor at Northwestern University Medill School, who recently met with Obama at his new presidential center in Chicago. Read his reflections on Obama's role in the age of Trump:

The former President remains one of the most popular politicians in the country. What are his obligations to it?

05/05/2026

Professor Iza Ding returned from leading the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs' student delegation to this past fall questioning the concept of "soft power" resurfacing in public conversation—and finding a tautological revelation through the rise of Labubus. Read her new piece in The Ideas Letter via her Substack, I Just Kant:

My new piece in The Ideas Letter. I’ve enjoyed writing for them since 2024. Props to TIL for giving their authors maxx intellectual and stylistic freedom. Reprinting it here with my own pictures. Thanks for reading I Just Kant!

04/30/2026

Our spring Buffett Symposium brought together international scholars, artists, and activists from a wide range of disciplines to explore how we might build a better future amidst the many crises of our time. The symposium’s theme emerged from conversations with students who expressed deep uncertainty about what lies ahead.

The symposium opened with a performance by award-winning spoken-word poet and rapper Omar Offendum and renowned multi-instrumentalist Zafer Tawil, who offered a contemporary interpretation of the traditional Arabic hakawati storytelling practice. The second day of the symposium featured panels that examined how human relationships, information ecosystems, and the future of labor are being reshaped under shifting social, political, and technological conditions. Panelists engaged in a wide-ranging intellectual exchange, reflecting on possible pathways toward a more sustainable global future.

For a more in-depth look at the symposium, read The Daily Northwestern's coverage: http://spr.ly/6040BBP3A2

The Buffett Institute for Global Affairs hosted its two-day spring symposium “Brave New Futures,” where experts discussed topics including sustainability and art as a tool for social change, on Thursday and Friday. Journalist and podcaster Qing Wang and Nataliya Kos’myna, a research scientist ...

04/29/2026

Join the China-America Reel Ecology Project (CARE) for the inaugural screening of student films exploring China’s diverse ecologies on the evening of April 30!

CARE will showcase seven short films co-directed by Northwestern and Tongji University students that capture China’s rich rural and urban landscapes across time and memory. The films include a poetic portrait of human and piscine migration, orchid hunting across labs, markets, and wilderness, and a speculative conversation with the last living Yangtze giant softshell turtle, among others.

With the generous support of the Cyrus Tang Foundation and two Buffett Undergraduate Research Fellows, CARE was launched by filmmaker and anthropologist J.P. Sniadecki, Professor at Northwestern University’s School of Communication and co-leader of The Buffett Institute’s Climate Crisis + Media Arts Global Working Group. The project aims to marry art practice and ecological thinking among students and artists across international borders.

The screening takes place on April 30 over two sessions between 5 PM and 9:30 PM, with a reception in between. The films will be presented at the Block Cinema on Northwestern University’s Evanston campus. For more information, visit: http://spr.ly/6183BBOm1L