Online Event  8:00 am – 9:00 am EDT/GMT-4
8 AM New York l 2 PM Vienna

Birkbeck University of London invites the OSUN community to attend an online seminar discussing how we can incorporate climate literacy and environmental awareness into teaching and learning across diverse fields, from the sciences to the humanities, business, law, and the arts.

Drawing on our recently launched Open Educational Resource, Sustainable Futures in a Changing Climate, Dale Mineshima-Lowe will share tools and resources for integrating climate and environmental topics into almost any course. Attendees will gain practical insights into fostering interdisciplinary collaboration in their classrooms, empowering students to think critically about these pressing issues. Join us for an engaging event that will help you transform how climate and environmental issues are taught in your discipline.

This event is open to: Teaching staff from all disciplines, including science, social sciences, humanities, arts, law and business. Graduate students and researchers interested in climate education and interdisciplinary approaches. Environmental advocates and community leaders seeking to expand their educational outreach efforts.Register to join online

Deadline to register is June 25

Online Event  4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
4 PM New York l 10 PM Vienna

AltLiberalArts presents a lecture by Nicholas Tampio, professor of political science at Fordham University, on the history of the idea of academic freedom. In this lecture, Professor Tampio thinks about how to defend academic freedom in our current moment. To ground his thinking, he will discuss debates about tenure in a public higher education system (Ohio) and a private university (Harvard). Tampio will present the strongest arguments he can find for restricting what professors may teach or say in public, and he will offer a full throated defense of the rights of academics to act like Socratic gadflies stinging the people who pay the university's bills. 

Nicholas Tampio is a professor of political science at Fordham University. He earned a BA from New College, an MA from Indiana University, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Tampio researches the history of political thought, contemporary political theory, and education policy. Tampio is an associate editor of The Journal of Politics, and he often writes for public facing outlets such as the Boston Globe, USA Today, and the Washington Post. He lives with his family in Ridgefield, Connecticut. 

Register to join via Zoom

Online Event  4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
4 PM New York l 10 PM Vienna

AltLiberalArts presents a lecture by Nicholas Tampio, professor of political science at Fordham University, on the history of the idea of academic freedom. In this lecture, Professor Tampio discusses the twentieth century history of academic freedom in the United States. He explains how In the early 20th century, university trustees and presidents in the US could and did fire professors at will. In 1915, the American Association of University Professors published a Declaration of Principles on Academic Freedom and Academic Tenure to protect academics who taught controversial topics. This document is cited often to protest violations of academic freedom, but the document is also important for what it demands that professors do inside and outside of the classroom.

Nicholas Tampio is a professor of political science at Fordham University. He earned a BA from New College, an MA from Indiana University, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Tampio researches the history of political thought, contemporary political theory, and education policy. Tampio is an associate editor of The Journal of Politics, and he often writes for public facing outlets such as the Boston Globe, USA Today, and the Washington Post. He lives with his family in Ridgefield, Connecticut. 

Register to join via Zoom

Online Event  4:00 pm – 5:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
4 PM New York l 10 PM Vienna

AltLiberalArts presents a lecture by Nicholas Tampio, professor of political science at Fordham University, on the history of the idea of academic freedom. In this lecture, Professor Tampio explains how the founders of the modern research university—including Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Friedrich Schilling, and von Humboldt—justified academic freedom to a skeptical public and politicians. 

Nicholas Tampio is a professor of political science at Fordham University. He earned a BA from New College, an MA from Indiana University, and a PhD from Johns Hopkins University. Tampio researches the history of political thought, contemporary political theory, and education policy. Tampio is an associate editor of The Journal of Politics, and he often writes for public facing outlets such as the Boston Globe, USA Today, and the Washington Post. He lives with his family in Ridgefield, Connecticut. 

Register to join via Zoom

Online Event  9:00 am – 10:00 am EDT/GMT-4
9 AM New York l 12 PM Vienna

The next Get Engaged Alumni Workshop will spotlight Sanskriti Shrestha, 2023 Get Engaged Alumna, who will lead a workshop titled: Breath, Body, and Beyond: A Psychosomatic Approach to Everyday Resilience. 

This workshop explores the powerful connection between mind and body as a gateway to everyday well-being. It provides practical, ready-to-use tools, including the power of breath and other mindfulness techniques, that help regulate everyday stress and create a deeper connection to ourselves. This space is an invitation to reconnect with our inner core and to gain insight into how our physiological responses shape our emotional experiences. In a world where we are constantly flitting from point A to point B, this workshop offers a gentle pause to reflect, breathe, and realign with what truly matters.

Sanskriti Shrestha is a senior Arts and Humanities student at Bard College Berlin, originally from Nepal. Alongside working as a freelance yoga teacher and meditation therapist, she is an advocate for disability awareness and works around the topics of body awareness, meditation, and somatic healing. With a keen interest in culture and linguistic anthropology, she had participated in the Get Engaged conference 2023 representing her language project that aimed at teaching German to refugees in Berlin. She believes in spirituality as a way of building resilience, of fostering connection, and in a world where we need that more than ever, a way of cultivating the understanding of what it truly means to be human. 

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Online Event  3:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
3 AM New York l 9 AM Vienna

The Open Society Hub for the Anthropocene presents a workshop on an OHPA project volume entitled "War and The Anthropocene" by Alexander Etkind and A. Dirk Moses. 

This volume argues that the new wars of our time result from the global environmental crisis and contribute to it. Local wars of the late Anthropocene reveal their intimate connections with the global crisis as the contribute to the deterioration of the natural and social environment. Decarbonization, famines, migration flows, ecological catastrophes, booming authoritarianism, growing inequalities, and the overwhelming sense of permanent insecurity are the causal factors of the crisis as well as its resulting outcomes. Interconnected with the climate crisis, these circular developments disable international organizations, weaken climate commitments, bring new forms of military escalation, and launch waves of misinformation, manipulation and violence.

The authors construe these crises as securitized responses to the perceived deprivation that comes from the realities of the climate crisis, the perspectives of decarbonization, and the resulting explosion of inequality. Drawing on the concepts of permanent security, the petrostate and ecocide, this volume integrates a large amount of interdisciplinary material into a coherent narrative that combines theoretical, comparative and regional studies.

Register to join via the link in bio

Online Event  8:00 am – 9:00 am EDT/GMT-4
8 AM New York | 2 PM Vienna

Global Engagement Fellows host monthly workshops bringing student leaders together from across the network to learn from each other’s experiences, reflect on each other's work, gain insight and training, and work together on gathering material helpful for new project leaders. This series provides them with the necessary assessments, knowledge, abilities, and skills needed to ensure sustainable projects.

This month's workshop, led by Jazmin Velenczei, focuses on "How to make a website for your project."

Join via Zoom

Online Event  10:30 am – 12:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
10:30 AM New York l 430 PM Vienna

The OSUN Hubs for the Politics of the Anthropocene will host a seminar with Eduardo Viola, Professor at the Institute of International Relations, University of Brasilia and Senior Researcher of the Brazilian Council for Research. Viola will analyze the complex trajectory of climate policy in Brazil from 1990-2024, focusing on the sectors of land use change, agriculture and energy (including transportation).

Learn more and register to join online

Online Event  4:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
4 PM New York l 10 PM Vienna

AltLiberalArts' “Five Disruptive Principles in the Liberal Arts” series explores the core values that define an exceptional liberal arts education. The third event in the series will explore "Depth and Breadth."

What if education wasn’t something handed down to students, but something they actively built for themselves? In learning environments that prioritize student responsibility, the answer is often transformational.

Join AltLiberalArts for Part 4 of its “Five Disruptive Principles in the Liberal Arts” Webinar series with Miriam L. Wallace, Jeff Lundy and Sam Kocher.

Miriam L. Wallace is Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Illinois-Springfield. She was Professor of English and founding faculty in Gender Studies at New College until 2023. With the support of a 2021 NEH Humanities Connections Grant and colleagues in anthropology, epidemiology, and history, she helped create a new program in Health, Culture, and Societies. She currently serves on the Executive Council of the MLA, where she continues to advocate for the value of the humanities and the study of literature to respond to our current moment. Dean Wallace is currently co-PI with Dean Emily Todd on another NEH grant exploring the particular value of humanists engaging generative AI in the undergraduate classrooms. She continues to write about innovative teaching, most recently as co-editor of Teaching the Eighteenth Century Now (Bucknell UP, 2023).

Jeff Lundy directs global coordination on mandatory ESG reporting for PepsiCo’s Public Policy & Government Affairs team. His team analyses issues with legislative implications and uses data to provide guidance on policy positions and combines expertise in financial analysis, data analytics, and policy research to make PepsiCo proactive in responding to looming policy issues. Previously, Jeff led the Health & Wellness program at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center. In this role, Jeff directed programming for business executives interested in addressing the most pressing wellness issues. Additionally, Jeff created the Health Means Business campaign; started by a $1.7M grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Jeff joined the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation in February 2012 as a Manager of the Corporate Citizenship Center’s research agenda. Jeff previously served as a consultant for Empower Partners LLC, a social enterprise developing marketing models to help underserved inner-city businesses tailor their product lines to local consumers. Prior to that, he was an intern at the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), where he selected several new technologies to be tested, in order to improve the Bureau’s capture of respondent data. Jeff earned his Ph.D. in Economic Sociology from the University of California, San Diego and completed a research assistantship at the University of Michigan. He also holds a B.A. in sociology from New College of Florida.

Sam Kocher (they/them) has a Master of Public Health degree with a concentration in Behavioral, Social, and Community Health from Indiana University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Gender Studies from New College of Florida. They are currently the Education and Data Manager at a Harm Reduction program with sites in both rural and urban settings. Sam's time at New College was foundational in shaping their approach to working with people who use drugs. 

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4:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
4 PM New York l 10 PM Vienna

AltLiberalArts' “Five Disruptive Principles in the Liberal Arts” series explores the core values that define an exceptional liberal arts education. The third event in the series will explore "Mastery."

Whether it’s learning an instrument, speaking a new language, or diving into astrophysics, mastery certainly involves building skills and acquiring knowledge. But the real magic of mastery is something more personal. It's about the journey. Mastery transforms us, and our progress can inspire those around us.

Join AltLiberalArts for Part 3 of its “Five Disruptive Principles in the Liberal Arts” Webinar series with Brian Cody, Adele Fournet and Juliana Paré-Blagoev.

Brian Cody is the CEO and co-founder of Scholastica, a provider of academic journal publishing software. Brian currently serves on the boards of the Novo Collegian Alliance and AltLiberalArts. He attended New College of Florida for undergrad 2002-2006, serving on the New College Board of Trustees in 2004-2005 and the New College Foundation board in 2007. He obtained his master's degree from the University of Chicago in sociology. He is a self-taught Ruby on Rails programmer. Brian is the father of two, and lives in Chicago.

Adele Fournet is a music producer and video artist living in Brooklyn, NY. She is also a music scholar and holds a PhD in music from New York University. She writes about the intersections of gender, technology, labor, and aesthetics in popular music production with a geographic focus on the Americas. Adele has received support for her research from Fulbright, the NYU McCracken Foundation, Humanities New York, and the NYU Center for the Humanities.  She has performed her original music at cultural institutions including Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center while also participating in and celebrating independent and DIY music spaces.   She will be joining the Jacobs School of Music at IU-Bloomington in the fall as an assistant professor of music production.  Adele has an audio and video production company called Bit Rosie. The Bit Rosie web series (www.bitrosie.com) features female and gender expansive music producers and is an inaugural component of the NYU library's first music-related video streaming web archive.  Her films have been screened on PBS New York, the NYC Independent Film Festival, and Cine Las Americas Film Festival, among others. Current personal music projects include Tipa Tipo and La Banda Chuska. 

Juliana Paré-Blagoev is trained in developmental psychology and educational neuroscience. Current research efforts include understanding and addressing the unique educational needs of pediatric survivors of childhood cancer. Her earlier work included lab-based research that used a combination of brain and behavioral methods to explore skill and language learning. Later collaborative and classroom-based research created and tested STEM classroom tools that were grounded in cognitive science and informed by practitioner’s expertise. As a founding member of the International Mind, Brain, and Education Society, she has worked to improve the bidirectional integration of knowledge from research and educational practice. She currently is associate editor for the society’s journal, Mind Brain and Education.

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Online Event  9:00 am – 10:30 am EDT/GMT-4
9 AM New York l 3 PM Vienna

Universities as Frontline Responders, an initiative supported by OSUN and the Talloires Network of Engaged Universities, will host an important panel discussion focused on the leadership strategies that university presidents have employed to respond to various crises and discuss the lessons that can be drawn from this moment, as universities face wide ranging challenges.  OSUN faculty, staff and students, are welcome.

Moderator:
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President of Bard College

Speakers:

Margee Ensign, President of American University of Bulgaria
Fadlo R. Khuri, President of American University of Beirut
Dmytro Sherengovsky, Vice-Rector for Outreach and Social Engagement, Ukrainian Catholic University
Kyaw Moe Tun, President of Parami University (Myanmar)

Jonathan Becker is the Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs; Director, Center for Civic Engagement; and Professor of Political Studies at Bard College. He has a B.A., McGill University; D. Phil., St. Antony’s College, Oxford University with a specialization in Soviet, Russian, and Eastern European politics; media and politics. Becker taught at Central European University, University of Kiev Mohyla Academy, Wesleyan University, and Yale University. He is the author of Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press, Politics and Identity in Transition (1999; new edition, 2002) with articles in European Journal of Communication, Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, Slovo, among others. He is also the Director, Global and International Studies Program; Academic Director, Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program and has been at Bard since 2001.

Margee Ensign is the president of the American University of Bulgaria (AUBG), whose mission  is to educate democratic and ethical leaders. During her presidency, Ensign has  strengthened the Center for Information, Democracy and Citizenship (CIDC) through innovative  and impactful funded grants and projects. Under her leadership, AUBG welcomed its largest admitted class in history and also attracted outstanding faculty members from diverse disciplines. Ensign has also actively engaged the alumni  community and spearheaded fundraising efforts, culminating in the successful completion of the  $1M America for Bulgaria Foundation matching challenge. She previously served as president at the US International University in Kenya, Dickinson College in the United States, and the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Adamawa State. Ensign is a long-time advocate for connecting learning to community engagement and democratic citizenship. For eight years, she was the president of AUN, Africa’s development university, and founder of the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API). Ensign is a well-respected scholar on development, on Africa, and—growing out of her experience in Rwanda—on genocide, governance, and democracy.  She is the author and editor of six books, including Rwanda: History and Hope and Confronting Genocide: Dehumanization, Denial and Strategies for Prevention. Ensign earned her BA from New College in Florida and her Ph.D. in International Political Economy from the University of Maryland, with a dissertation in Artificial Intelligence and Economics.

Fadlo R. Khuri is the 16th president of the American University of Beirut (AUB). Under his leadership, AUB has forged strong  partnerships with leading foundations and universities around the world and enhanced its global reputation  as a mission-driven university. In March 2024, the Board of Trustees voted to extend President Khuri’s five-year appointment as president through 2030. President Khuri led the BOLDLY AUB fundraising campaign that raised more than $805 million for university  priorities and attracted the single largest gift in AUB history; the adoption of VITAL 2030, a new campus  master plan and strategic plan for the university (2019); the launch of AUB Online (renamed AUB Global in  2024); established the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo in Pafos, Cyprus, AUB’s first twin campus outside Lebanon; and secured the Keserwan Medical Center, AUB’s first community hospital, in Jounieh, Lebanon.  Khuri is the author of over 750 publications and has received numerous awards including the 2006 Nagi Sahyoun Award of the Middle  East Medical Assembly; the 2013 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award by the American  Association for Cancer Research; TAKREEM’s Scientific and Technological Achievement Award in 2015;  and the 2018 Ben Qurrah Award.

Dmytro Sherengovsky, is Ukrainian Catholic University's Vice-Rector for Outreach and Social Engagement. He is a specialist in educational expertise, international relations, management, and administration. His responsibilities now are development and implementation of university internationalization strategy, international and national networking, university social engagement projects, representation of the university on the national and international level, and development and lobbying of educational reforms. In September 2023, Dmytro Sherengovsky became Head of the Steering Committee of the Alliance of Ukrainian Universities. In this position, he is responsible for strategic development, international and national networking, and research and social engagement projects for the alliance. Previously, Dmytro Sherengovsky served at UCU as Deputy Vice-Rector for Academic and International Affairs, Director of the Academic Department, and Director of the International Academic Relations Department. He received his higher education at Ivan Franko National University in Lviv, specializing in the field of International Relations, Diplomatic and Consular Service. 

Kyaw Moe Tun completed his undergraduate education at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and  Oxford University and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry at Yale University. The transformative  liberal arts and sciences education that he received abroad challenged him to find deeper meaning  behind his actions. He returned to Myanmar  in 2014 to dedicate his life to the development of his native country. He believes that a liberal arts and sciences education  has the transformative power to develop the types of innovative, adaptable leaders to address fast changing sociopolitical trends and industrial disruptions seen worldwide.  Kyaw Moe Tun established a well-regarded school known as Parami Institute in early 2017, which has been providing high quality liberal education programs to young Myanmar college graduates who want to take on challenges facing  Myanmar. He raised millions of dollars from local and international philanthropists to transform  the institute into a private non-profit residential degree-granting university that would create next generation leaders for Myanmar. That plan was curtailed by the military coup on February  1, 2021 so he pivoted to incorporate Parami University as a licensed private non-profit online synchronous university offering associate and bachelor’s degree programs in the fall of 2022 to displaced students in Myanmar  and other areas under authoritarian control as well as students living in refugee camps. 


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Online Event  4:00 pm – 5:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
4 PM New York l 10 PM Vienna

AltLiberalArts' “Five Disruptive Principles in the Liberal Arts” series explores the core values that define an exceptional liberal arts education. The second event in the series will explore "Engagement." Carol Flint will moderate and Maureen T. Cannon and Maria Vesperi are panelists.

In student-driven learning environments, students aren’t treated as consumers of education, nor as vessels to be filled with information. Instead, they are expected to be active participants in their own academic journeys.

Carol Flint and Emmy Award winner who has written and produced over 400 hours of episodic prime time television, including the shows LA Law, ER, and the West Wing.  

Maureen T. Cannon has practiced at both the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and the Washington, D.C. law firm of Williams and Connolly. In her own law practice, she has represented leading executives in the fields of higher education and professional sports.

Maria Vesperi is an anthropologist and a professor at the University of South Florida and then a journalist for the Tampa Bay Times. She then joined the New College of Florida Anthropology department and helped students establish The Catalyst, a student-led newspaper. 

Learn more

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Online Event  5:00 pm – 6:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
5 PM New York l 10 PM Vienna

AltLiberalArts' “Five Disruptive Principles in the Liberal Arts” series explores the core values that define an exceptional liberal arts education. The first event will explore "Agency/Responsibility" with moderator Susan Burns and panelists Sophia Brown and Dan Chambliss. Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to engage with innovative thought leaders as they share their vision of how these principles empower students and educators alike.

Susan Burns spent 34 years as a writer and editor for SagaCity Media (formerly Gulfshore Media) in Sarasota, where she was founding editor of a regional business magazine and editor-in-chief of Sarasota Magazine before retiring in 2022. A New College alum, she sat on the New College Foundation board from 2020 to 2024 and served as chair of the governance committee. 

Sophia Brown is the Program Coordinator of PEN America Florida. She graduated from New College in 2023, where she studied English with a slash in Rhetoric in Writing and served as the Editor in Chief of the student-run newspaper, the Catalyst, from Fall 2021 to Spring 2023. 

Daniel F. Chambliss (B.A. New College, 1975; PhD Yale University, 1982) is the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Sociology Emeritus at Hamilton College, and co-author, with his former student Chris Takacs, of How College Works. He is also co-author, with Russell Schutt, of Making Sense of the Social World, a research methods text currently in its fifth edition.

Learn more

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Online Event  11:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
11 AM New York l 5 PM Vienna

This workshop with Nathalissa Charles will help participants stay engaged and keep pushing forward, even in difficult times. They will learn why engagement matters and discover practical ways to stay involved during hardships. By building a growth mindset, participants will see challenges as chances to learn and stay committed.

Nathalissa Charles recently earned a degree in financial institution management at Quisqueya University in Haiti, benefiting from a scholarship program from the Haitian Education and Leadership Program. She had the opportunity to attend the Civic Engagement Course and be part of the Get Engaged Conference of 2024. 

Register to join via Zoom

Featuring ABQ Professor and Levy Research Associate Sameh Hallaq
Blithewood Conference Room  5:00 pm – 6:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
Join the Levy Institute Graduate Program for a lecture and discussion with AQB Professor and Levy Research Associate Sameh Hallaq. He will present his research on weather patterns which finds that an increase in rainfall in the previous year is associated with a higher proportion of workers in the agricultural sector, especially in regions where agriculture is the primary economic activity. The study also examines two potential mechanisms through which climate change affects labor decisions: agricultural labor migration to the Israeli labor market and how climate shocks affect agricultural wages. Dr. Hallaq’s presentation will be followed by an open Q&A session with audience members.

Sameh Hallaq is an Associate Professor in the Economics Program at Al-Quds Bard College, Al-Quds University. Dr. Hallaq is a Research Associate at the Levy Economics Institute at Bard College. He obtained his PhD in economics at the University of Wuppertal, Germany, in 2019. His published research has consistently focused on the theme of “Human Capital,” where he explores the determinants of early life intervention: education, health, and well-being, within the Palestinian context:  a highly unstable political and economic environment accompanied by a violent conflict. Also, he investigates how these factors shape later life consequences, such as educational attainment, labor market outcomes, wages, and employment. He was recently granted the Award of Scientific Research from Al-Quds University Deanship of Research.



 

Online Event  12:00 pm – 3:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
12 PM New York l 6 PM Vienna

Sasha Skochilenko, a Russian artist and musician who was arrested and imprisoned in 2022 for opposing the war in Ukraine, will speak at Bard College Berlin on “How a Bachelor’s Degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences Helped Me in Jail.” The talk will be moderated by her Smolny academic advisor, Ilya Kalinin.  

Skochilenko will discuss her studies in anthropology at Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia) and how this experience shaped and strengthened her anti-war stance. She will also reflect on her famous courtroom speech, “Oh yes, life!” which explores the value of life and reconciliation in times of war and conflict, and how these ideas helped her survive imprisonment.

Read the OSUN case study on Sasha Skochilenko

CORRECT LINK

Online Event  10:00 am – 12:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
10 AM New York l 4 PM Vienna

OSUN Global Engagement Fellows present "Leadership in Times of Crisis," an online student conference in which Fellows facilitate simultaneous workshops on the following topics: 

 1. Resilient Leadership: Managing Stress and Burnout in Crisis – Strategies for staying strong under pressure. 
Led by Nurbolot Piridinov.
 2. Tech and Innovation in Crisis Leadership – The role of digital tools in crisis response.
Led by Shadin Nassar.
 3. Leading Through Crisis: Mental Health and Well-being – Addressing the importance of mental health for leaders in crisis situations, strategies for managing stress and burnout, and fostering resilience in teams.
Led by Nafira Nayeem.
 4. Resilient and Innovative leadership in relation to technology.
Led by Vishal Parkash.
The workshops will be followed by Q&A and discussion sessions. 
 Join via Zoom

Online Event  8:00 am – 10:00 am EDT/GMT-4
8 AM New York l 2 PM Vienna

OSUN and the Talloires Network of Engaged Universities present a panel on "Universities as Frontline Responders: Lessons Learned from the Field." Join the Co-Leaders of the Universities at the Frontline Responders Initiative for a conversation on how universities are using the Frontliner Model to respond to challenges and provide critical support to their communities. Panelists will share stories of how their universities are responding to emerging and ongoing crises in different contexts and present shared strategies for encouraging universities to lead as bold and nimble civic actors who partner with communities to respond swiftly and intelligently to unexpected societal challenges.

Moderator: 
Rabih Shibli, Director of the Center for Civic Engagement and Community Service (CCECS) at the American University of Beirut

Confirmed Speakers:
Samia Huq, Dean of the School of General Education and Professor of Anthropology, Brac University
Maheen Mumtaz,  Manager Community Services, National University of Sciences & Technology
Erin Cannan, Vice President for Civic Engagement; Deputy Director, Bard Center for Civic Engagement
Jude Acquuah, Assistant Director for Outreach and Experiential Learning Programs at Ashesi University

Register to join via Zoom

Online Event  10:00 am – 11:00 am EDT/GMT-4
This workshop will focus on creating inclusive spaces for people with disabilities, exploring barriers and how to overcome them. Participants will learn practical strategies to make environments more accessible, foster empathy, and promote inclusion in schools and communities. They will also gain tools to advocate for and implement inclusive practices within their own communities, leaving with actionable ideas to create a more inclusive world.  

Workshop leader Vickania Turenne, from Haiti, is about to graduate in business administration from Quisqueya University and is a sign language interpreter. She is an alumna of the Haitian Education and Leadership Program scholarship and the Get Engaged Conference 2024. She is currently working on a project focused on UN Sustainable Development Goals 16 and 10 named Coaching for Social Inclusion, addressing violence and inequalities. Her project addresses people with disabilities and under-resourced children. 

Register to join online

Online Event  12:30 pm – 2:00 pm EDT/GMT-4
12:30 PM New York l 5:30 PM Vienna

Open Society Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene at CEU presents a seminar with Petra Vodová, Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science, University of Hradec Králové, Czech Republic, on Czech political parties' reaction to climate change.

Despite the relative disappearance of the Green Party from the Czech parliamentary landscape, climate crisis and environmental issues retained salience for many young voters. An opportunity arose for a new party to attract younger, post-materialist, educated urban voters, who prioritize environmental protection and civic activism. The Czech Pirate Party seemed to seize the opportunity when it achieved significant success in 2017 and entered government in 2021. While both Czech Greens and Pirates highlight environmental issues as a priority, their approaches differ. The Green Party positions environmental concerns as central to its mission, focusing on comprehensive ecological policies, including renewable energy sources, biodiversity protection, and sustainable agriculture. The Pirates place less emphasis on these issues, prioritizing policies such as waste recycling, public transportation, and innovative technologies.

Petra Vodová will present her analysis of party manifestos, the Pirate digital forum and interviews with Pirates responsible for the creation of environment/climate change policy stances. The development of Pirate positions on environment/climate change issues will be explained, as will relations with the Czech Greens.

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Online Event  9:00 am – 11:00 am EDT/GMT-4
9 AM New York l 2 PM Vienna

The Spring 2025 IWT/CLASP Workshop Series continues with "Supporting Writing to Learn with Technology"
How can we support a student-centered online classroom through integrating writing-to-learn practices? This workshop takes a hands-on, practical approach – allowing participants the opportunity to experiment with different digital technologies – Perusall, Discussion Boards, Padlet, Google Docs, Whiteboards, and Mentimeter. We will explore pairing each of these technologies with a specific writing-based practice – such as Process Writing, Dialectical Notebooks, or others. We will discuss the challenges of using digital tools for writing-based learning online, how to integrate these pairings into our own classrooms, and how specific tools can be used with different kinds of writing for different purposes.

Learn about the series and register here

Online Event  9:00 am – 11:00 am EDT/GMT-4
9 AM New York l 2 PM Vienna

The Spring 2025 IWT/CLASP Workshop Series continues with "Debate in the Classroom."
Join the directors of the Bard Debate Union for a session focused on incorporating debate in the classroom. This workshop will cover best practices for using debate in the classroom, including appropriate formatting, topic writing, logistics, and assessment. Anyone interested in adding debate to their classroom, fine-tuning an existing debate assignment, or deciding whether assigning a debate would work for their classroom is invited to join.

Learn about the series and register here

Online Event  10:10 AM New York | 3:10 PM Vienna

The OSUN Network Collaborative course on "Freedom of Expression" announces a series of online guest lectures that are available for the public to observe online.

The first lecture will be delivered on March 19 by Jalal Abukhater, a Palestinian rights advocate based in Jerusalem. Abukhater is the Advocacy Manager at 7amleh, the Arab Center for the Advancement of Social Media, a digital rights organization that fights for a free, fair, and safe digital space for all Palestinians. 

The lecture will focus on the suppression of Palestinian voices online within contexts of targeting of journalists, access to information, issues of connectivity in Palestine, and current advocacy campaigns calling to restore and rebuild Gaza’s telecom sector. Abukhater would discuss how some tech company CEOs are aligning themselves with authoritarian political players, how they may be complicit in human rights violations and facilitating behaviors that fuel real-world harm—while failing to uphold legal obligations and other human rights frameworks. The lecture will be followed by a Q&A session.

Viewers can address questions to Abukhater in advance by sending an email to Kseniya Shtalenkova at [email protected]
Please indicate "Lecture with Jalal Abukhater" as the email subject.

Join via Zoom

Online Event  12:30 pm – 2:30 pm EDT/GMT-4
12:30 PM New York l 5:30 PM Vienna

The Open Society Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene (OHPA) presents "Life in Occupation: Remote Ethnography of the Russo-Ukrainian War," a seminar with Vicente Ferraro. The role of bureaucrats, such as teachers, healthcare workers and police officers, has garnered increasing attention in public administration literature. Less explored is their role in wars and conflicts over territorial control. Ferraro's research aims to analyze how wars impact the work of such "street level bureaucrats" and the strategies they adopt to cope with adversities. This talk will focus on the war in Ukraine, the most intense conflict on European soil since World War II. We address education professionals as an SLB subgroup since schools and universities have become pivotal targets of Russian occupation forces— a cultural frontline instrumental in the efforts to legitimize territorial annexation and assimilate local inhabitants.

Vicente Ferraro is a postdoctoral researcher at the Getulio Vargas Foundation in Brazil and a visiting researcher at Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS-Berlin). He holds a degree in International Relations, a master’s degree in Applied Politics from the Higher School of Economics (Moscow), and a doctoral degree in Political Science from the University of São Paulo. His research focuses on: (a) the Russian occupation of Ukraine, particularly its impact on teachers, education professionals, and local public officials; (b) the wars in Chechnya and Ukraine and their effects on Russian society and politics.

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Online Event  9:00 am – 11:00 am EDT/GMT-4
9 AM New York l 2 PM Vienna

The Spring 2025 IWT/CLASP Workshop Series begins with “I Snap, Therefore I Am”: Freewriting and Participatory Photography. 
Integrating more visual tools into an educator's toolbox not only fosters a more inclusive and participatory classroom environment but also enhances a crucial skill for the modern world – visual literacy. In an era when mobile photography is omnipresent and younger generations are increasingly focused on media presence, there is a growing need to explore how this phenomenon can be harnessed to encourage students to think more critically and meaningfully about their photography – to consider what they capture, why they do so, how they do it, and how their images align with professional practices and broader media discourses. In response to these evolving educational needs, this workshop will introduce participants to a range of pedagogical strategies, including freewriting prompts, in order to explore how the act of taking everyday photos shapes our perception of the world and our sense of identity.

Learn about the series and register here

Online Event  2:30 am – 12:00 pm EST/GMT-5
2:30 AM New York l 8:30 AM Vienna

The Open Society Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene (OHPA) invites OSUN students to join its workshop on "Climate Disinformation: European & Global Perspectives." As climate change accelerates, so too does the spread of misinformation and disinformation designed to sow doubt, delay policy action, and erode public trust in science. From organized scepticism and conspiracy theories to digital disinformation campaigns and state-sponsored narratives, the fight against climate denialism is more relevant than ever. This workshop aims to bring together leading scholars and experts to explore how climate disinformation operates, how it spreads across different platforms and regions, and what strategies can be used to combat it. The program features three engaging panels covering the dynamics of climate skepticism, the role of social media in amplifying climate denialism, and the weaponization of climate conspiracies by political actors. Scholars from various disciplines will present research on topics ranging from Russian disinformation strategies to climate-related conspiracy theories in Turkey and Africa’s digital climate debates. The workshop will conclude with a keynote speech by Péter Krekó (Political Capital), who will offer insights into the broader political implications of climate disinformation.

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Online Event  9:00 am – 3:00 pm EST/GMT-5
9 AM New York l 3 PM Vienna

2022 GE Alumnus Michael Mugisha leads this interactive workshop exploring the transformative power of community service as a pathway to active civic participation. Participants will learn how community engagement fosters social responsibility, builds stronger communities, and cultivates leadership skills.

The session will feature practical strategies for identifying community needs, organizing impactful service projects, and sustaining long-term civic involvement. Attendees will leave equipped with the knowledge and tools to champion community service initiatives and inspire others to join in building a more engaged and responsible society.

Michael Mugisha is a proud Ugandan and a graduate of Ashesi University in Ghana, where he earned a BSc in Business Administration. He is currently pursuing an MBA at Necmettin Erbakan University in Turkey, with the ultimate goal of becoming a Financial Controller.  In 2022, Mughisha had the privilege of participating in the prestigious Get Engaged Conference in Kyrgyzstan, where he presented his community service initiative, The Berekuso Teaching Project, which aimed to enhance communication and public speaking skills among schoolchildren in the community.

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Online Event  12:30 pm – 2:00 pm EST/GMT-5
12:30 PM New York l 6:30 PM Vienna

The Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene presents a seminar with Alexander Clarkson on "The Periphery as Center and Center as Periphery: EU Neighborhood and Accession Policy after EU, US and German Elections." Clarkson will examine how the position of so-called peripheral states in Europe is changing at a time when elections in the EU and US reflect growing instability in the global economic system. Though they still face significant imbalances after joining the EU, for new member states the accession framework marks the beginning of a process of dep-eripheralisation that provides them with access to strategic opportunities within a geopolitical center of power. This presentation will outline how such center-periphery dynamics within the EU as well as along its borders are experiencing a process of transformation whose trajectory is reshaping the balance of power around Europe.

Born in Canada, after completing his schooling in Hanover, Germany, Alex Clarkson studied Modern History at the University of Oxford. He has been the German and European Studies Lecturer for the European and International Studies Department at King’s College London since 2007.

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Online Event  9:00 am EST/GMT-5
9 AM New York l 3 PM Vienna

This workshop featuring 2022 and 2023 Get Engaged Alumnus Labby Ahshanul equips participants with practical strategies to amplify their projects through effective media use and impactful outreach events. Participants will learn how to harness the power of media to promote their projects and engage their target audience. Participants will also learn about designing and executing outreach events that leave a lasting impression and foster community engagement.  

Labby Ahshanul is a dynamic youth leader and changemaker who has been actively involved in community engagement and development since 2012.  He is Youth Coordinator at The Daily Star, Bangladesh’s leading English-language newspaper. With OSUN, he has participated twice in the Get Engaged conference and currently and has served as the Social Media and Outreach Manager of OSUN Global Commons. He is the founder of the BRAC University Research for Development Club, a pioneering initiative bridging young researchers with policymakers in the field of research and development. 


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11:30 am – 1:00 pm EST/GMT-5
11:30 AM New York l 5:30 PM Vienna

The Open Society Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene presents a discussion on "Understanding the EU's role in Forming the "Loss and Damage Fund" at COP27 in Egypt."

Loss and Damage (L&D) usually refers to the excessive destruction caused by climate change effects despite mitigation and adaptation efforts. At UNFCCC COP27 in Egypt, a landmark deal was agreed to construct a fund that would distribute L&D funding to vulnerable countries from the Global South. The European Union was among the first from the Global North to accept the proposal but the establishment of this fund has long been a red line for the EU’s negotiation strategy.

This seminar with Michal Kolmaš asks why did the EU accept the proposal, even though it remained convinced that the existing infrastructure was better suited to deal with the issue? Kolmaš argues that the EU accepted the proposal for three different but interrelated reasons. These findings shed light on the often hidden mechanisms of climate diplomacy and provide a first hand experience of the Loss and Damage negotiations at COP27 in Egypt.

Michal Kolmaš is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Metropolitan University Prague, Editor-in-Chief of the Czech Journal of International Relations (CJIR), and an Associate Editor of the Journal of International Relations and Development (JIRD). Previously, he was a visiting fellow at Umass Boston, Hokkaido University and Ritsumeikan APU in Japan.

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Online Event  9:00 am EST/GMT-5
9 AM New York l 3 PM Vienna

This workshop featuring 2022 Get Engaged Alumna Hephzibah Emereole (Ashesi University) provides instruction on "Project Management Techniques for Civic Initiatives."

This workshop will help students learn the essential project management techniques to effectively plan, execute, and sustain their initiatives. This workshop aims to empower listeners with tools to set clear goals, manage resources, and navigate challenges, ensuring your civic engagement projects make a lasting impact.

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Online Event  9:00 am EST/GMT-5
9 AM New York l 3 PM Vienna



This workshop featuring 2022 Get Engaged Alumna Nguyen Dang provides instruction on "How to Enhance Cross-Cultural Communication Skills."

This workshop delves into the vital role of cross-cultural communication in our interconnected world. Participants will uncover how cultural norms and communication styles shape interactions, identify common barriers to understanding, and learn actionable strategies to bridge cultural divides. By the end of the session, attendees will gain practical tools to navigate diverse environments confidently and foster inclusive, meaningful connections across cultures.

Nguyên Dang is a passionate advocate for youth empowerment and sustainable development. As a core member of YUU Organization, a youth-led nonprofit, she focuses on poverty reduction, cultural preservation, job orientation, and educational initiatives through impactful programs and training camps. As a Global Fellow, Nguyên supports OSUN Fulbright students to develop and sustain transformative social projects. 

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Online Event  11:30 am – 1:00 pm EST/GMT-5
11:30 AM New York l  5:30 PM Vienna

The Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene (OHPA) presents a seminar with Benjamin Steininger, discussing the Vienna Basin and its oil and gas fields as a showcase for how to deal with Nature/Culture-History in modernity and Anthropocene. Observing the history of oil and gas exploration in the region, Steininger will trace at least four different versions of experience with petro-modernity and Anthropocene-agency (international capitalism, Nazi-war-economy, Soviet imperialism, social democratic-catholic petro-modernity). The talk argues that it takes this type of bottom up field work and a comparative 'petrocultures' or 'Anthropocene-comparision' as performed in the 'Atlas of Petromodernity' to interpret the planetary agency of the so called 'Anthropos'.  

Benjamin Steininger is a historian of science and technology and a curator. He works as a postdoc at the Cluster of Excellence UniSysCat at TU-Berlin and at the MPI of Geoanthropology in Jena. His main Anthropocene research fields are industrial chemistry and petro-modernity. From 2012 to 2016 he led a participatory research and collection project on 100 years of oil and gas in the Vienna basin. His open access book with Alexander Klose, "Atlas der Petromoderne'", was published in German and Russian in 2020 and in 2024 in an enlarged American version with an introduction by Stephanie LeMenager. 

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Online Event  3:00 pm EST/GMT-5
3 PM New York l 9 PM Vienna

The Bard Center for the Study of Hate presents an online opportunity to try out SWAY, a new AI-based platform for engaging difficult conversations.   BCSH recently hosted a webinar on how AI be used to reduce hate, deepen student discussions of divisive topics, and improve teaching and learning. 

Simon Cullen and Nicholas DiBella of Carnegie Mellon University discussed and demonstrated their AI-scaffolded group chat platform for students called SWAY, which was chronicled in Inside Higher Ed.  Cullen and DiBella are now offering an opportunity for OSUN faculty, students, staff to try out this new technology.

SWAY connects students with differing perspectives into one-on-one chats and facilitates better discussions between them. Inspired by John Stuart Mill's radical view that engaging with opposing perspectives is an essential tool for improving reasoning and solving complex problems, SWAY aims to create online environments where students can discuss controversial issues more openly and constructively.

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Online Event  10:30 am EST/GMT-5
10:30 AM New York l 4:30 PM Vienna

This workshop featuring 2020 Get Engaged Alumnus Wisdom Kalu (Ashesi University) provides instruction on "Finding Scholarship Opportunities During Uncertain Times."

This workshop will discuss practical ways to find scholarship opportunities using social media and the My Scholarship Info website. It will give students practical advice on how to search and apply for these scholarships anonymously, specifically for those applying from troubled areas around the world.

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Online Event  11:30 am – 1:00 pm EST/GMT-5
11:30 AM New York l 5:30 PM Vienna

CEU's Hub for the Politics of the Anthropocene presents an academic seminar with Serhiy Kudelia, Baylor University, on "Urban Agglomerations in Russia’s Conquest of Donbas."  Since its inception in 2014, the Russo-Ukrainian war has been mainly fought in the most densely urbanized and heavily industrialized region of Ukraine – the Donbas.

Professor Kudelia will examine how the urban and industrial landscapes of the region affected the course of the war and, in turn, were transformed as a result. It will explain how the density of urban agglomerations of Donbas enabled quick removal of Ukraine’s sovereign control over the region in spring of 2014, while its dilapidated industrial base turned into a vital material and ideological resource for the nascent separatist movement. With the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022, high urban density of the region became, by contrast, an important structural obstacle for further Russian conquest.

During the seminar Kudelia will draw on his field research in the towns of Donbas prior to 2022 and on his forthcoming book Seize the City, Undo the State: The Inception of Russia’s War on Ukraine (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2025).

Serhiy Kudelia is Associate Professor of Political Science at Baylor University, where he teaches courses on political regimes, state-building and political violence, and Ukrainian and Russian politics. His research, published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, deals with various aspects of politics in Ukraine, the armed conflict in Donbas and Russo-Ukrainian war. He earlier held teaching and research positions at the University of St. Andrews (UK), the University of Basel (Switzerland), George Washington University (US), Johns Hopkins University (US), and the National University ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’ (Ukraine).

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