Protecting Civilians in Turbulent Times: An Interdisciplinary Workshop
2025-02-06 09:00 - 2025-02-07 13:30 (America/Toronto) | In Person, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Featuring Jennifer Welsh (McGill University), Daniel Levine-Spound (Harvard University), Emily Paddon Rhoads (Swarthmore College), Diego Da Rin (International Crisis Group) and more.
With more than 100 active armed conflicts currently raging around the world, the international crisis-response toolkit seems no longer fit for purpose. Parties to armed conflict display little concern for international humanitarian law, the UN Security Council is once again paralyzed by great-power discord while the Responsibility to Protect doctrine – adopted by UN member states in 2005 as a means of preventing mass atrocity crimes – now appears to be an artefact of a more hopeful era of liberal internationalism. At the same time, the most prominent contemporary agents of civilian protection – peacekeepers and humanitarians – are increasingly underfunded, unsupported, and under pressure to do more with less in the world’s most dangerous and difficult environments. Little wonder, then, that the UN Secretary General recently described the global landscape for civilian protection as ‘resoundingly grim.’
In the wider context of a multilateral system in crisis, this two-day workshop aims to take stock of the human consequences of an era marked simultaneously by a steep rise in violent conflict and a sharp decline in the will and capacity to alleviate the human suffering generated by such conflicts. The workshop will include thematic sessions on the state of the wider civilian protection toolkit, on both UN and African Union peacekeeping and protection of civilian mandates, on civilian self-protection strategies in the world’s ‘forgotten conflicts,’ and on the geopolitics of protection in light of ongoing crises in Ukraine and Gaza.
Workshop times:
Thursday, February 6, 9:00 am – 4:45pm
Friday, February 7, 8:45 am – 1:30pm
AGENDA
Keynote Address
For further details, contact Timothy Donais at tdonais@wlu.ca or Sophie Greco at sgreco@balsillieschool.ca

Keynote Address: Protecting Civilians in Turbulent Times
2025-02-06 19:00 - 20:30 | Room 1-42, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Professor Jennifer M. Welsh is the Canada 150 Research Chair in Global Governance and Security at McGill University in Montreal. She was previously Professor and Chair in International Relations at the European University Institute (Florence, Italy) and Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford, where she co-founded the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict. From 2013-2016, she served as the Special Adviser to the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, on the Responsibility to Protect.
Professor Welsh is the author, co-author, and editor of several books and articles on humanitarian intervention, the evolution of the notion of the ‘responsibility to protect’ in international society, the UN Security Council, and Canadian foreign policy. Her most recent books include The Return of History: Conflict, Migration and Geopolitics in the 21st Century (2016), which was based on her CBC Massey Lectures, and The Responsibility to Prevent: Overcoming the Challenges of Atrocity Prevention (2015). She was a former recipient of a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship and a Trudeau Fellowship, and from 2014-2019 has directed a five-year European Research Council-funded project called “The Individualisation of War: Reconfiguring the Ethics, Law and Politics of Armed Conflict”. She is also a frequent media commentator on international affairs and Canadian foreign policy.
For further details, contact Timothy Donais at tdonais@wlu.ca or Sophie Greco at sgreco@balsillieschool.ca.

Argentina, Caves and Shortcuts: How Cryptocurrencies Thrive in Crisis
2025-02-11 12:00 - 13:20 | In Person, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Bitcoin, the most important and well-known cryptocurrency, was born out of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) of 2008-2009. According to its proponents, in a context of institutional mistrust, cryptocurrencies emerged as part of a larger wave of criticism toward governments and banks. Recent works in International Political Economy (IPE) and political geography explore how financial crises have pushed the embrace of these alternative monetary tools to protect people’s incomes and facilitate payments in contexts of inflation and currency controls. Argentina is a notable case of the recent uptake in bitcoin and stablecoins as a consequence of major inflationary pressures and other distortions in the economy. Argentina reveals how cryptocurrencies are not just a response to crisis, but these tools also thrive in contexts of upheaval and distortions. Crypto-coins in Argentina serve as shortcuts to access US dollars, and as concealed channels to avoid government regulation, through exchanges and wallets –known as caves– that protect regular Argentines from the hardship of economic distortions. The businesses that promote cryptocurrencies leverage arbitrage, lean toward centralization and succeed in alliance with traditional financial institutions. Rather than being antithetical to banks and governments, as their promoters often argue, cryptocurrency businesses benefit from these institutions. Drawing on field research in Buenos Aires and interviews with Argentina’s booming cryptocurrency business sector, in this presentation, Dr. Rosales explains how cryptocurrencies expand in contexts of crisis and benefit from the institutions their proponents seemingly oppose.
About the Speaker
Dr. Antulio Rosales is an Assistant Professor, Department of Social Science, York University. His research agenda focuses on the political economy of cryptocurrencies, natural resource extraction and democracy, with a special focus on Latin America. His research has appeared in journals such as the Review of International Political Economy, Energy Research and Social Science, and Development and Change.

Technicians of Culture and State: Theorizing Technopraxis in Mainland China
2025-02-13 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
This presentation theorizes the relational character of technology and authority through the concept of ‘technopraxis’: the technological expression of practical or applied thinking. Common approaches in IR consider technology in terms of material power and as tools for actors to use, however tend to neglect the co-constitutive relationship of technology and techniques with collective understandings of practicality and practical action. Drawing from Yuk Hui’s notion of ‘cosmotechnics’ and Chih-yu Shih’s framing of ‘Confucian autocracy’, I look towards mainland China and its contemporary prioritization of technological know-how alongside renewed visions of political authority in practice. Technologies are interpreted as durable cultural expressions and functional beings, and therefore mediators of practical power available to state authority. From this analysis, I theorize a relational technopraxis, one that sees Chinese state-building and technological development as part of the same process: a narrativized return towards a strong China and position of filial authority in East Asia (and beyond). Examples for such a technopraxis include the mid-19th century contrast of “Chinese learning for essence, Western learning for application” and its logical fate in a world of shifting international and neglected post-global relations, particularly regarding technological and practical thinking.
Dr. Jonathan Hui has a Ph.D from the Balsillie School of International Affairs, with research interests in the fields of futures studies, international relations, and sociology, specializing in Chinese approaches to technology and practice. His dissertation is titled “Heaven is Quiet and Technologies are Everywhere: Chinese Cosmotechnics and Dyadic Approaches to International Structure”, which sketches a theory bringing together technics and practices, as a springboard for understanding international distributions of technological and state authority. Jonathan’s longer-term work seeks to imagine technopraxis beyond (inter)nation-states towards planetary or post-global technopraxes, and the cultural and political knowledge needed for such tasks.

Net Zero and Canadian Climate Policy Speaker Series: Pathways
2025-02-24 12:00 - 13:00 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 142, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
The Net Zero and Canadian Climate Policy Speaker Series is intended to provide a forum for reflecting on Net Zero as a key climate policy tool for Canada and understanding the challenges associated with its implementation, as we move into a more uncertain climate policy future.
In this second meeting in the Series, Rick Smith will focus in on what Canada has thus far achieved with its Net Zero policy aims and reflect on what lies ahead for Canada, in the context of international political dynamics and global economic forces.
About the Speaker
Rick Smith has been President of the Canadian Climate Institute since 2021. He has spent 25 years leading organizations dedicated to improving public policy through the creation and communication of the best research and evidence. Rick has played a key role in the creation of many important new laws including Ontario’s Greenbelt, and Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan and Consumer Product Safety Act. Rick is a noted expert on the human health effects of pollution and has co-authored two books on the topic, including the international best-seller Slow Death by Rubber Duck. He holds a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Guelph and lives in east end Toronto.

Petroleum & Politics, Policy & Politics
2025-02-27 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
The old saying… “To pour oil on troubled waters…”, may seem appropriate in our era of inflammatory petropolitics, yet it seems more a propos to say… “To throw oil on the fire…” as we discuss petroleum policy. But, before attempting insightful commentary on Canada’s petroleum and pipelines policies, or making bad puns (sorry), drilling down into some of the facts and issues around Canada’s oil and natural gas (O&G) industries seems warranted.
Canada is the World’s 4th largest petroleum and 5th largest natural gas producer. O&G fuels our economy, forming by far our largest economic and export sectors. Yet Canadians, especially east of Winnipeg, know far more about the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens than they do about these economic pillars of Canada’s prosperity. Hockey is part of our national fabric, but O&G also produce a lot of fabric (polyester, rayon, plastics…), and keeps us mobile and warm besides.
At current production rates, Canada likely has enough oil for a century or more and certainly enough natural gas for several centuries. We export most of our oil and gas production. So why do oil tankers steam up the St Lawrence, threatening beluga, minke and humpback whales, to deliver foreign crude oil to the refineries at Levis, Québec? Why does Canada’s largest refinery in St. John, NB, rely almost entirely on foreign oil? Why do Ontario, Québec and the Maritimes import most of their natural gas from the USA? Why is there such a strong anti-pipeline lobby in Canada? Do we want or need new pipelines? And what about fueling global warming?
I have no real satisfactory answer to many of these questions, but I will try to present a few facts, a bit of history, and some random observations about the Canadian O&G industry to fuel your interest and lubricate your brain cells. Remember that between you and the dangerous outside world is a layer of oil that keeps it all together: your skin is made of cells with hydrophobic lipid (oil) walls, keeping out the water. Also, oil comes from algae – small single-celled animals with cell walls made of lipids: their bodies, plus geological processes, are responsible for the oil and much of the natural gas we produce, consume and export. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, and sometimes, oil to oil…
About the Speaker
Maurice Dusseault is Professor Emeritus of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Waterloo. Maurice started his work life as a roughneck, working a couple of years in the oil industry before returning to University in Alberta. His research over the last five decades has focused on subsurface geo-engineering, including oil and gas production.

Zainab’s Traffic: Moving Saints, Selves, and Others across Borders
2025-02-28 12:00 - 13:30 | Room 1-42, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
What is the value—religious, political, economic, or altogether social—of getting on a bus in Tehran to embark on an eight-hundred-mile journey across two international borders to the Sayyida Zainab shrine outside Damascus? Under what material conditions can such values be established, reassessed, or transgressed, and by whom? Zainab’s Traffic provides answers to these questions alongside the socially embedded—and spatially generative—encounters of ritual, mobility, desire, genealogy, and patronage along the route. Whether it is through the study of the spatial politics of saint veneration in Islam, analysis of cross-border gold trade and sanctions, or examination of pilgrims women’s desire for Syrian lingerie accompanying their pleas with the saint in marital matters, the book and this talk develops the idea of visitation as a ritual of mobility across geography, history, and category. Iranian visitors’ experiences on the road to Sayyida Zainab—emerging out of a self-described “poverty of mobility”—demonstrate the utility of a more capacious anthropological understanding of ritual than current anthropological predicaments allow for. Rather than thinking of ritual as a scripturally canonized manual for pious self-cultivation, Zainab’s Traffic approaches ziyarat as a traffic of pilgrims, goods, and ideas across Iran, Turkey, and Syria.
About the Speaker
Emrah Yıldız (he/him/o) is a sociocultural anthropologist of cross-border mobility and region formation, and author of Zainab’s Traffic: Moving Saints, Selves, and Others across Borders (University of California Press, 2024). Editor of “kaçak | qaçax | قاچاق : Fugitive Forms of Bureaucracy and Economy across Southwest Asia” (Journal of Cultural Economy 17(2) 2024) and co-editor of “Resistance Everywhere”: The Gezi Protests and Dissident Visions of Turkey (JadMag 1(4) 2014), Yıldız published research articles on saint visitation and mobility in Islam; contraband commerce and currencies under sanctions; and queer asylum, borders and their territorial states with Cultural Anthropology, d i f f e r e n c e s, Journal of Cultural Economy, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Toplum ve Bilim. His short-form analyses, translations, and interviews featured in Asoo, Bianet, Counterpunch, and Jadaliyya. Yıldız works as assistant professor of anthropology and Middle East and North African studies at Northwestern University, where he serves as faculty board member for the Keyman Modern Turkish Studies Program, and founding co-convener of the Colloquium for Global Iran Studies (CoGIS). He is the 2024-2025 Global Horizons Junior Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study.
This event is hosted in partnership with the Department of Anthropology, University of Waterloo.

Film Screening and Expert Panel: “Theater of Thought”
2025-03-04 18:30 - 21:00 | CIGI Auditorium, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
The Balsillie School is pleased to partner with the Centre for International Governance Innovation to bring Werner Herzog’s documentary, “Theater of Thought” to Waterloo.
In this documentary, Werner Herzog explores the human brain, seeking to understand how it produces complex thoughts and emotions, while also considering the philosophical, ethical and social implications. The film “illuminates the technological advances that are helping people overcome brain-related illnesses, confronting conspiracy theories over implanted chips, and questioning the politics of mind control.”
The screening will be followed by a panel of experts who will explore the implications of emerging neurotechnologies.
Watch the Trailer

Higher Education Reform in Africa: Technology, Governance, and Innovation
2025-03-06 10:00 - 11:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
BSIA’s Africa Forum and CIGI are excited to host a dynamic conversation on higher education reform in Africa, bringing together experts in higher education policy, postcolonial studies, African development, and distance learning innovation. Drawing on practical insights from the Pan-African University Institute for Governance, Humanities, and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS) and Distance Education for Africa (DeAfrica), the discussion will explore how technology, governance, and policy intersect to reshape African universities, showcasing practical EdTech solutions while spotlighting challenges such as limited infrastructure, lingering colonial structures, and the digital divide. By examining workforce education initiatives designed to close skills gaps and promote gender equity, this exchange will highlight pathways toward equitable, future-ready institutions in alignment with the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the Continental Education Strategy for Africa (CESA).
About the Panelists
Dr. Ngenge Ransom Tanyu will discuss his research on the Pan-African University Institute for Governance, Humanities, and Social Sciences (PAUGHSS) and how this institution exemplifies both the achievements and ongoing challenges in higher education transformation within the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC). Drawing on interviews, policy papers, and course materials, he reveals how innovative curricula, scholarships, and diverse student populations have bolstered PAUGHSS’s prestige, while limited infrastructure and entrenched pedagogical practices continue to hinder progress. Dr. Tanyu is the founder of Africa Online & Publications Library (AOPL) and Ngenge-PostGrad Solutions (NPGS) and has authored several publications on higher education policy, postcolonial studies, and African development.
Mr. Sidiki Traore brings two decades of distance education expertise from his career starting at The World Bank to founding Distance Education for Africa (DeAfrica). Through initiatives such as the Africa Scholarship Cohort (ASC), in partnership with the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, he has awarded over 60,000 Coursera scholarships to learners across the continent, helping bridge the digital divide and promote gender equity. DeAfrica has published multiple books on program design and outcomes, along with regionally and internationally sourced business case studies contributed by participants. Mr. Traore’s work exemplifies how accessible, technology-driven education can foster sustainable development and workforce readiness in African communities.
Brandon Dickson’s doctoral research explores how sustainability decision-making in universities is shaped by multiple levels of governance, with a special focus on how institutions can effectively integrate sustainability principles. He has contributed to various academic, policy, and consulting initiatives – ranging from responsible investing in public-sector organizations to open educational resources – and published widely on education and sustainability topics. An experienced educator and community volunteer, Brandon brings a multidisciplinary perspective to the conversation.

Navigating Food Insecurity: The Impact of Remittances in Kingston During COVID-19
2025-03-11 10:00 - 11:00 | ON
MiFOOD webinar no.21
This seminar presents data on a recent city-wide study examining the role of remittances in households in Kingston. Conducted as part of a survey for the project entitled “Food (in)accessibility among remittance receiving households in Kingston in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic”, the presentation sheds light on the frequency and use of remittance among those left behind. The study therefore contributes to existing literature examining family dependence on remittances and the links between food security and remittances. The discussion offers new insight into the role of remittances in crisis scenarios, in-kind versus cash remittances, and remitting of senders based in Jamaica. The presentation is especially timely given the recent deportation policy agenda in the main destination country of Jamaican migrants. The analysis points to the need for more updated information on remittance practices in small island developing states.
About the Speakers
Natalie Dietrich Jones is Senior Research Fellow at the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) at the University of the West Indies Mona campus. Her interests include geographies of the border, governance of migration, and intra-regional migration in the Caribbean. Natalie is Chair of the Migration and Development Cluster, an interdisciplinary group of researchers exploring contemporary issues concerning migration in the Caribbean and its diaspora. Natalie holds an MPhil in Development Studies from the University of Cambridge and a PhD in Development Policy and Management from the University of Manchester. She is currently undertaking a multi-sited project on the response to Venezuelan migration in small island developing states in the Southern Caribbean. She is also Principal Investigator for the Jamaica (Kingston) component of South-South Migration and Migrant Food Insecurity: Interactions, Impacts and Remedies (MiFood Project), a multi-city research initiative which is led by the Wilfrid Laurier University.
Dr. Stephen Johnson is an accomplished researcher with extensive experience in research methods and monitoring and evaluation methodologies. With a vast portfolio of projects and research publications focused on confronting developmental issues in Jamaica, the wider Caribbean, and the developing world, Dr. Johnson is committed to taking a pragmatic approach to development challenges. His expertise lies in advanced research methods, monitoring and evaluation, voting behaviour, user experience analysis, predictive analytics, harm reduction and behaviour modification campaigns. The British Commonwealth Scholar holds a Ph.D. in International Development from the University of Sussex, UK. He also obtained an MSc in Government and a BSc in International Relations from the University of the West Indies, Jamaica. Dr. Johnson currently holds the position of Research Fellow, where he delivers lectures on Research Methods and equips graduate students with the necessary skills to conduct rigorous research. Dr. Johnson also serves as the chair of the youth development research cluster, where he fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and drives research initiatives focused on youth development.
MiFOOD is hosting a series of webinars on various topics about migration and food security that highlight the progress of the project. These webinars include conceptual discussion, empirical findings and policy analysis. Through these webinars, we intend to build a community with various stakeholders for knowledge sharing, deepen the understanding of the complex intersections between migration and food security, and facilitate the discussion of effective policy interventions. Follow the MiFOOD Twitter (Moving on Empty), Like the MiFOOD Facebook page to be notified about upcoming webinars.

Book Launch: "Titans of Industrial Agriculture"
2025-03-11 12:00 - 13:20 | Room 1-42, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Sponsored by the Waterloo Political Economy Group and the Waterloo Food Issues Group.
Please join us for a lunchtime conversation about Jennifer Clapp’s new book Titans of Industrial Agriculture: How a Few Giant Corporations Came to Dominate the Farm Sector and Why it Matters. Professor Clapp will provide a brief overview of the book followed by a panel discussion with Prof. Sarah J. Martin (Memorial University of Newfoundland, and BSIA Global Governance PhD Graduate), Prof. Bruce Muirhead (University of Waterloo), and Anastasia Papadopoulos (PhD student, Global Governance, University of Waterloo).
The event will be held in-person, and a light lunch will be served for people who register. The event is open to the BSIA community, including all UW and Laurier faculty and students, and CIGI colleagues.
About Titans of Industrial Agriculture
Every year, hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of farm machinery, fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides are sold to farmers around the world. Although agricultural inputs are a huge sector of the global economy, the lion’s share of that market is controlled by a relatively small number of very large transnational corporations. The high degree of concentration among these agribusiness titans is striking, considering that just a few hundred years ago agricultural inputs were not even marketed goods. In her new book, Titans of Industrial Agriculture (MIT Press, 2025), Dr. Jennifer Clapp explains how we got from there to here, outlining the forces that enabled this extreme concentration of power and the entrenchment of industrial agriculture.
Dr. Clapp reveals that the firms that rose to the top of these sectors benefited from distinct market, technology, and policy advantages dating back a century or more that enabled them to expand their businesses through mergers and acquisitions that made them even bigger and more powerful. These dynamics matter because the firms at the top have long shaped industrial farming practices that, in turn, have generated enormous social, ecological, and health impacts on the planet and the future of food systems. Beyond analyzing how these problems have arisen and manifested, the book examines recent efforts to address corporate power and dominance in food systems and assesses the prospects for change.
About the Speaker
Jennifer Clapp is a Professor and Canada Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability and the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo. She has published widely on the global governance of problems that arise at the intersection of the global economy, food security and food systems, and the natural environment. Professor Clapp is a member of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food). From 2019-2023, she served on the Steering Committee of the High-Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE-FSN) of the United Nations Committee on World Food Security (CFS) and was Vice-Chair of that body from 2021-2023.

Independent, but sanctioned: the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC)
2025-03-17 12:00 - 13:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 142, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Join the webinar here: https://cigionline-org.zoom.us/j/87034674314?pwd=[REDACTED]
The establishment of the International Criminal Court was a singular achievement, even a revolutionary one. The Court has no territorial limits on the conflicts it chooses to address or how long it takes to do so. And uniquely within the realm of international criminal justice, the ICC Prosecutor can initiate investigations independently of any state’s wishes.
Why would sovereign states agree to such sweeping powers? To answer that question, The Independence of the Prosecutor dives deeply into the origins of the international body. Laszlo Sarkany draws on interviews with key participants to analyze the negotiations that produced the novel institutional design of the Court. Case studies of Canada and the United Kingdom, which supported prosecutorial independence, and the United States and Japan, which opposed it, demonstrate that state positions depended on the values and principles of those who wielded the most power in national capitals at the time. Appendices to the book build an empirical record of the arguments made by state delegations.
The ICC offers a bulwark against the high politicization of our era. This astute investigation demonstrates that now, over twenty years after its establishment, the ICC’s innovative arrangement of having an independent prosecutor continues to move law and international criminal jurisprudence forward and directly combats impunity for mass atrocities.
About the Speaker
Dr. Laszlo Sarkany obtained a Ph.D. degree in Political Science at Western University in London where he focused on question dealing with the institutional development, evolution and design of the ICC. His publications pertain to the ICC, diplomatic efforts to support the ICC and the engagement of states with the Court. In addition, he has written a number of book reviews, including the recently published review of Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire’s ‘The Peace’ in the Canadian Journal of Political Science. Dr. Sarkany is currently teaching at Huron University College and at King’s University College at Western. Previously he taught courses at the University of Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, and Renison University College. His research interests include questions dealing with the domestic impact of joining the ICC, the meaning of ‘politics’ in the work of the Court, as well as the nature and meaning of cyberwar, artificial intelligence, and, ‘skiddies.’

Careless Harm: Climate Change and the End of International Criminal Law
2025-03-18 12:00 - 13:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 142, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Join the webinar here: https://cigionline-org.zoom.us/j/89669470545?pwd=[REDACTED]
Since World War II, international law has identified crimes of hate (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, aggression) as the greatest threats to global stability, security, human rights, and sovereignty. Accordingly an entire legal superstructure has been created to prosecute such crimes. This has meant: the development of individual criminal responsibility in which a few malevolent perpetrators are blamed for the collective violence of many; the proliferation of identity politics; and the spread of retributive legalism (courts, prosecutions, jails). This presentation looks ahead and argues that critical future stability, security, human rights, and sovereignty threats, however, are not motivated by individual hate, malevolence, or intent. Rather, they are motored by carelessness, poverty, desires to economically develop, have a quality of life for one’s children, self-improvement, and hasty decisions. These notably are the harms of climate change, environmental peril, public health pandemics, capitalism, and rampant speciesism. Addressing these harms cannot occur though criminal law frameworks without imprisoning everyone. How, then, should the architecture of international law and transitional justice change? What will ‘justice’ mean in fifty years? How do we define ‘violence’ and ‘harm’?
About the Speaker
Mark A. Drumbl is the Class of 1975 Alumni Professor and Director, Transnational Law Institute, at Washington and Lee University. He has held visiting appointments and has taught at law schools world-wide, including Queen’s University Belfast, Oxford University (University College), Université de Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), Free University of Amsterdam, University of Melbourne, Masaryk University (Czechia), and John Cabot University in Rome. His work has been relied upon by national and international courts; he has served as defense lawyer in genocide trials; co-authored an amicus brief to the International Criminal Court; and has been an expert in litigation including on international terrorism, with the UN in matters involving child soldiers, and with the UN Human Rights Council in the drafting of a global convention to criminalize racist hate speech. His books include Atrocity, Punishment, and International Law (Cambridge 2007), Reimagining Child Soldiers in International Law and Policy (Oxford 2012), and Informers Up Close: Stories from Communist Prague (Oxford 2024, with Barbora Holá); and co-edited volumes Research Handbook of Child Soldiers (Elgar 2019, with Jastine Barrett), Sights, Sounds, and Sensibilities of Atrocity Prosecutions (Brill 2024, with Caroline Fournet), and Children and Violence (Routledge 2024, with Christelle Molima and Mohamed Kamara et al). He is currently working on a fictional stage-play imagining a trial for the US drop of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki; a project on fascist cultural property in Italy; on child soldiers during the Korean War; a Festschrift for a dear departed friend; and on the relationship between international law and climate change.

2025 Balsillie Lecture: ‘Planetary Maintenance Engineers’: Exploring Earth Interventions
2025-03-20 19:00 - 20:30 | CIGI Auditorium, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
The Balsillie School is pleased to host Gwynne Dyer, historian, journalist and author, for the fifth annual Balsillie Lecture as he discusses the topic of his latest book, Intervention Earth: Life-Saving Ideas from the World’s Climate Engineers.
Jim Lovelock, the founder of ‘Gaia’ (now called Earth System Science) predicted humanity would inherit the perpetual, thankless, possibly doomed job of ‘Planetary Maintenance Engineers’, if we so destabilise the planet’s natural cycles that we are compelled to intervene directly to keep them within the limits that would allow a human civilisation to survive. That was in 1979, and current indications are that Earth interventions will be necessary. This job is now called climate geoengineering.
Gwynne Dyer explores the technological possibilities and geopolitical risks associated with implementing interventions that may be necessary to keep the planet hospitable for humanity.
Gwynne Dyer has worked as a freelance journalist, columnist, broadcaster and lecturer on international affairs for most of his adult life, but he was originally trained as an historian. He was born in Newfoundland and received degrees from Canadian, American and British universities, finishing with a Ph.D. in Military and Middle Eastern History from the University of London.
He served in three navies and held academic appointments at the Canadian Forces College, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Oxford University before giving up the day jobs in favour of a twice-weekly column on international affairs that is published in more than 20 countries.
His first television series, the seven-part documentary ‘War’, was aired in 45 countries. One episode, ‘The Profession of Arms’, was nominated for an Academy Award. His more recent television works include the Gemini Award-winning series ‘The Human Race’. He has written eleven books (most of them Canadian best-sellers) on war, international politics and climate. The most recent ones are ‘The Shortest History of War’ (2022) and ‘Intervention Earth’ (March 2024).
Dr Dyer lives in London. In 2010 he was made an officer of the Order of Canada.
The Balsillie Lecture provides an annual platform to distinguished and leading international thinkers whose work has influenced, and continues to influence, contemporary ideas on international public policy and global governance.
A reception and book signing will follow the lecture.
This event is co-sponsored by the Environment and Resources Research Cluster.

2025 Prospective Student Open House
2025-03-21 12:00 - 14:00 | ON
By Invitation Only
The Balsillie School welcomes prospective students to meet virtually with the School’s Director, Program Directors and Officers, current students and graduates to learn about all the unique opportunities on offer at the School.
AGENDA
12:00 pm – Welcome and introductions, Ann Fitz-Gerald, Director, Balsillie School of International Affairs
12:10 pm – Research Clusters and experiential learning opportunities, Ann Fitz-Gerald, Director, Balsillie School of International Affairs
12:20 pm – Graduates Fellows Program, Andrew Thompson, Global Governance Programs and Partnership Manager
12:40 pm – MAGG and MIPP alumni panel
1:15 pm – Program breakout sessions
1:55 pm – Closing remarks
The link to attend the virtual open house will be sent to all registrants on March 20th.

Hotels, Refuge, and the Rise of Carceral Hospitality
2025-03-25 12:00 - 13:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 142, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Join the webinar here: https://cigionline-org.zoom.us/j/82739202275?pwd=[REDACTED]
Geographical work on hotels has foregrounded their role as spaces of commercial hospitality, leisure, and increasingly as sites of emergency accommodation for a range of displaced groups. Developing such work, this presentation critically examines the central role of hotels in accommodating and containing asylum seekers and refugees. By considering the use of hotels in the UK and Australia, we argue that the hotel is a durable and vitally important site of bordering, one that manifests many of the tensions and contradictions of state responses to asylum seekers and refugees. Far from being a marginal or temporary space, we centre the hotel as a critical site for the reproduction and maintenance of contemporary bordering. In doing so, we advance understanding of the hotel as a specific type of social, political, and cultural space, associated with three dynamics that we explore in turn: forms of flexibility and emergency response, patterns of hospitality, and the violent displacements of the hotel as a site detached from ‘everyday life’. In surveying these understandings of the hotel, we argue that the cultural and political significance of the hotel as a site for understanding contemporary bordering emerges from its unique position at the confluence of the carceral and the hospitable. We thus propose a concept of carceral hospitality, to designate the fraught positioning of the hotel between carceral conditions of institutional detention and spectacle, and the hospitable expectations more readily associated with sites of leisure, escapism, and relaxation. It is positioning that has allowed hotels in the UK and Australia to act as lightning rods for critical discussion and public concern over state responsibilities, welfare entitlements, and the narrowing scope of refugee protection.
This lecture is based on a paper co-authored by Jonathan Darling (Durham University, UK).
About the Speaker
Andrew Burridge is a political geographer, based in the Discipline of Geography and Planning, School of Communications, Society and Culture, at Macquarie University, in Sydney, Australia. Andrew’s work has focused primarily upon undocumented migration, the effects of border securitization and immigration detention, as well as asylum and refugee reception and settlement. He has worked with several immigrant and refugee rights organizations including No More Deaths/No Más Muertes (US), Bristol Refugee Rights and Right to Remain (UK), and the International Detention Coalition. He is co-editor of the collection Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders and Global Crisis (UGA Press, 2012).

The Impact of AI on Higher Education: Challenges, Opportunities, and the Road Ahead
2025-03-27 10:00 - 11:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Join us for a thought-provoking talk exploring how generative AI reshapes higher education, from the classroom to research, assessment, and academic integrity. We will examine how institutions, educators, and students can navigate this rapidly evolving landscape. Whether you’re excited about AI’s potential or concerned about its implications, join us for an open, engaging conversation on how we can shape the future of higher education together.
About the Speaker
Dmytro Chumachenko is an Associate Professor at the Department of Mathematical Modelling and Artificial Intelligence of National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute” (Ukraine). Currently, he is a scholar at the Balsillie School of International Affairs. Dmytro obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in “Applied Mathematics” and Master’s degrees in “Social Informatics” and “Project and Program Management” at the National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute”. Dmytro obtained PhD degree in Systems and Means of Artificial Intelligence at the Kharkiv National University of Radioelectronics and continued his research as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the Ubiquitous Health Technologies Lab of the University of Waterloo. Currently, he has appointments as a Research Associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA), a Research Affiliate at the University of Waterloo (Canada), a Visiting Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (Germany) and an Invited Lecturer at the Wildau Technical University of Applied Sciences (Germany). Dmytro is Chair of the Education and Science subcommittee of the Expert Committee on Artificial Intelligence Development under the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine and Chair of the Board of the Ukrainian Scientific and Educational IT Society. He also contributes to increasing the quality of IT higher education as a member of the Education Committee of the Kharkiv IT Cluster, an expert of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, and an expert of the National Agency for Higher Education Quality Assurance (Ukraine).

PhD Dissertation Defence: “Fallow Fields or Fertile Ground: Analysing Food Governance in a Changing World”
2025-03-28 09:30 - 13:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 123, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Johanna Wilkes‘ dissertation defence.
Abstract
Our food systems are failing us. In particular, industrial food systems fail to deliver healthy, adequate food to billions of people (FAO et al. 2019; FAO et al. 2024) and have led to increased instances of mental health crises for farmers (Jones-Bitton 2019; Younker & Radunovich 2021). In addition, industrial food systems contribute to the devastating impacts of a warming
climate (IPCC 2021), biodiversity loss (WWF 2021), and soil erosion (Wise 2019; Badreldin and Lobb 2023) worldwide. Yet, little structural change has occurred in the way agriculture is governed and the problems created by industrial agriculture are becoming increasingly entrenched. Given this context, the research in this dissertation asks:
Why, in an era of converging crises, has agricultural policy remained largely unchanged and supportive of industrial agriculture practices? The research included in this dissertation is underpinned by current academic literature that constructs my understanding of food systems challenges and changes in global governance over the past decades (Chapter 2). Presented as three research papers (Chapters 4, 5, and 6), each chapter focuses on a unique aspect of governance and is enabled by the different methods laid out in Chapter 3. Chapter 4 lays out the methods and Wilkes- 2 methodology used for the three research papers (Ch. 5, 6, and 7) included in this dissertation. Chapter 5 focuses on actor arrangements and power in Canadian federal agricultural policy while Chapter 6 focuses on how different food systems actors experience multistakeholder governance arrangements. Different examples of how place-based, rights-centred governance arrangements can offer a more equitable outlook for food systems are assessed in chapter 7. The concluding chapter (8) provides a set of tools and strategies to help bridge the gap between the findings of Chapters 5 and 6 with the examples of transition in Chapter 7.
Supervisor: Dr. Alison Blay-Palmer
Committee: Dr. Rianne Mahon and Dr. Alistair Edgar
Internal/External: Dr. Alex Latta
External: Dr. Mustafa Koc, Toronto Metropolitan University
Chairperson Dr. Floria Niu
If you are interested in attending, please email events@balsillieschool.ca and indicate if you would like to attend in person or virtually.

Fabricating Homeland Security: police entanglements across India and Palestine/Israel
2025-04-01 12:00 - 13:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 142, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
When we hear ‘homeland security,’ we often think about the aftermath of September 11th and the dramatic consolidation of domestic mass surveillance in the United States. Less well-known are the term’s origins and the subsequent efforts to reproduce it as new state form and “model” of policing around the world. Drawing on his recently published Fabricating Homeland Security: police entanglements across India and Palestine/Israel, author Rhys Machold’s seminar traces homeland security’s origins in the Zionist colonization of Palestine and subsequent efforts by Israel’s homeland security industry to ‘penetrate’ India in the course of the ‘war on terror’. The book locates homeland security as a universalizing transnational project of contemporary capitalism and empire, staged through ongoing practices and encounters across time and space. Machold tells this story by weaving together fragments gathered through more than a decade of ethnographic research across Palestine/Israel, India and the UK. By charting homeland security’s less known histories and geographies, the book raises urgent political questions about the actually existing extent of security’s self-implied universality and inevitability, even in places and societies deeply imbricated in empire and capitalist social relations.
About the Speaker
Rhys Machold is Senior Lecturer in International Relations in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Glasgow. Through engagements with International Relations, political geography and urban studies, his research has focused on exploring regimes of power, violence and empire from a transnational perspective. He is author of Fabricating Homeland Security: police entanglements across India and Palestine/Israel (Stanford University Press, 2024). His work has also appeared across a range of leading international scholarly journals including International Political Sociology, Political Geography, Security Dialogue and Environment and Planning A as well as popular outlets like Jacobin.

Securing the World with AI - Some Adventures
2025-04-03 12:00 - 13:30 | Room 1-42, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Can we predict the types of attacks that a terror group might carry out? Or if a drone flight over Chicago is threatening or not? Can we assign a score that measures the risk of Boko Haram targeting a school in Nigeria? What might the script used by a scammer look like in coming years and how can we provide an early warning to potential victims? Can we automatically generate new forms of malware and proactively protect against them? How will nation state adversaries run covert social influence operations in coming years and can this knowledge help proactively mitigate this threat? And what about deepfakes – can we identify them successfully or not, especially as they evolve? Understanding threats – before they occur – is key to effective defense. In this talk, I will discuss how the Northwestern Security & AI Lab has addressed the questions listed above in order to dramatically reshape the global threat landscape, both in terms of cybersecurity and in terms of physical security.
About the Speaker
V.S. Subrahmanian is the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Computer Science at the McCormick School of Engineering, Northwestern University and Buffett Faculty Fellow at the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs. He is also the head of the Northwestern Security and AI Laboratory (NSAIL). Prior to this, Subrahmanian was The Dartmouth College Distinguished Professor in Cybersecurity, Technology, and Society at Dartmouth College with tenure in the Computer Science Department and Director of the Institute for Security, Technology and Society (ISTS). Prior to joining Dartmouth, he was a tenured Professor in the University of Maryland’s Computer Science Department. He served a 6.5 year stint as Director of the University of Maryland’s Institute for Advanced Computer Studies where he co-founded the Lab for Computational Cultural Dynamics and founded the Center for Digital International Government. His work stands squarely at the intersection of data-driven AI for increased security, policy, and business needs. Prof. Subrahmanian has been an invited speaker at the United Nations, Capitol Hill, the Mumbai Stock Exchange, and numerous other prestigious forums.
Co-hosted with the Waterloo Data and Artificial Intelligence Institute at the University of Waterloo.

The Trump Administration and the UN: An Initial Damage Assessment
2025-04-07 12:00 - 13:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 142, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
The second Trump administration has taken a deliberately disruptive approach to the United Nations system, denouncing and defunding numerous UN agencies and agreements. The U.S. has also upended its established diplomatic relationships in New York, working with Russia on Ukraine and Syria in the UN Security Council, while demonstrating contempt for the concerns of its NATO allies. Some of Trump’s high-profile gambits, such as his repeated proposals to annex Canada and Greenland, clearly contradict the core principles of the UN Charter.
The President’s barrage of announcements and budget cuts has left UN officials and foreign diplomats disconcerted and uncertain about what strategy to adopt towards Washington. Some UN members think there is still a chance to persuade Trump to work with the UN, if they can show that it offers him value for money. Others fear that it is too late to do so.
Richard Gowan, who has watched the UN at close quarters for 20 years, will do his best to predict what comes next.
About the speaker
Richard Gowan was previously a Consulting Analyst with ICG in 2016 and 2017. He has worked with the European Council on Foreign Relations, New York University Center on International Cooperation and the Foreign Policy Centre (London). He has taught at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University and Stanford in New York. He has also worked as a consultant for the organisations including UN Department of Political Affairs, the UN Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on International Migration, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Rasmussen Global, the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Global Affairs Canada. From 2013 to 2019, he wrote a weekly column (“Diplomatic Fallout”) for World Politics Review.

Battle for the Truth: How to Protect Canada from Dis- and Misinformation
2025-04-08 19:00 - 20:45 | CIGI Auditorium, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
The Balsillie School of International Affairs and the Centre for International Governance Innovation is hosting a keynote address and an in-depth discussion on the latest strategies to combat disinformation.
The keynote will be presented by Siim Kumpas, Head of the Policy, Strategy, and Global Priority Issues Team within the Strategic Communication Division of the European External Action Service (EEAS). Kumpas will present “Beyond Disinformation: From Problematic Content to Manipulative Behavior,” offering a European perspective on tackling foreign information manipulation and interference.
Following the keynote, a panel of leading Canadian experts will discuss the implications of disinformation on national security, democracy, and public trust. The panel includes Jennifer Irish (Information Integrity Lab, University of Ottawa), Marcus Kolga (DisinfoWatch), and Aengus Bridgman (Media Ecosystem Observatory, McGill University), moderated by BSIA director Ann Fitz-Gerald. The discussion will highlight the role of technology, policy, and education in mitigating the effects of disinformation and foreign interference in Canada.
Thank you for your interest in this event. The event is SOLD OUT. Please watch our Events page for more events or sign up for our weekly bulletin.

Academic Roundtable: Protecting Canadians from Dis- and Misinformation
2025-04-09 09:00 - 11:00 | Room 1-23, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Join us for an exclusive breakfast roundtable discussion featuring a presentation by panelists Jennifer Irish (Information Integrity Lab, University of Ottawa), Marcus Kolga (DisinfoWatch), and Aengus Bridgman (Media Ecosystem Observatory, McGill University). The discussion will explore the state-of-the-art research and policy solutions in the realm of disinformation, fostering deeper collaboration among policymakers, academics, and practitioners – especially in the midst of the Canadian elections.
Brett Boudreau will be the discussant. Brett served in the Canadian Armed Forces for nearly 30 years, including 22 years as a public affairs officer, with four assignments as a colonel at National Defence Headquarters, NATO HQ Brussels, the Privy Council Office (Afghanistan Task Force), and in the army reserve (2020-21) with the chief of the defence staff’s office. He has worked at NATO HQs in Mons, Brussels and Kabul, and is a graduate of the NATO Defence College senior course. Since 2009, he has served as principal consultant for Veritas Strategic Communications, providing C-suite advice to help integrate policy, operations and organizational narrative to inform institutional operations and activities. In 2016, NATO published his book, We Have Met the Enemy And He Is Us, an examination of the strategic communications campaign during the NATO-led ISAF mission from 2003-2014.
Breakfast will be served from 8:30 am – 9:00 am.
Thank you for your interest in this event. Registration is now closed.

NATO’s Future in a Challenging New World
2025-05-01 11:00 - 12:00 | Virtual, Balsillie School of International Affairs, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, Canada
Join the webinar here: https://cigionline-org.zoom.us/j/82930913432?pwd=[REDACTED]
At a time of unprecedented geopolitical uncertainty, the Balsillie School of International Affairs – in partnership with the American University’s School of International Service, Department of of Foreign Policy and Global Security, and the Transatlantic Policy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Royal United Services Institute in London, invites you to join a timely and thought-provoking online discussion with three leading NATO experts—Edward Arnold (U.K.), Garret Martin (U.S.), and Alexander Lanoszka (Canada). This moderated webinar will explore the future of the NATO alliance as it faces a confluence of challenges: a shifting transatlantic relationship under a new U.S. administration, escalating global trade tensions, and the ongoing war in Ukraine. These developments are forcing difficult questions about NATO’s strategic direction, its role in global stability, and how collective defence may be reshaping in an era marked by hybrid threats, disinformation, and technological disruption.
As economic pressures mount and security risks evolve, the need for a renewed dialogue on transatlantic cooperation has never been greater. This event offers a unique opportunity to hear from experts across three NATO member states on the Alliance’s evolving role, the urgency of investing in new defence capabilities, and the path forward for shared security commitments. Join us for this vital conversation that seeks to unpack the shifting definitions of “defence” in a fractured world order—and assess what’s next for NATO in navigating the balance between deterrence, diplomacy, and resilience.
About the Speakers
Alexander Lanoszka is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo. He is also Associate Fellow at the UK-based Council on Geostrategy, Senior Fellow at the Ottawa-based Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and a visiting professor at the College of Europe in Natolin, Poland. His research addresses alliance politics and military strategy, with a focus on East Central Europe. He has published in leading peer-reviewed journals such as International Security, International Affairs, and Security Studies. He has also co-written policy monographs on Baltic security and Taiwanese defence strategy. His books include Atomic Assurance: The Alliance Politics of Nuclear Proliferation (Cornell, 2018) and Military Alliances in the Twenty-First Century (Polity, 2022). He received his PhD from Princeton University.
Ed Arnold is a Senior Research Fellow for European Security within the International Security department at RUSI. His experience covers defence, intelligence, counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency, within the public and private sector. His primary research focus is on the transformation of European security following Russia’s war on Ukraine. Specifically, he covers the evolving Euro-Atlantic security architecture, the security of northern Europe, and the UK contribution to European security through NATO, the Joint Expeditionary Force, and other fora. Ed has a particular interest in UK National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Reviews. Ed joined RUSI from the private sector where he was a strategy Director within the defence and security sector. His clients included multiple government departments and multi-national and SME private companies. Prior to consultancy, Ed was an infantry Officer within the British Army. His military career was primarily spent overseas, including deployments to Afghanistan and East Africa and a posting at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe during the 2014 Ukraine crisis. Ed holds a MA War Studies from King’s College London and a BA (Hons) in International Politics from the University of Stirling, Scotland.
Garret J. Martin is a Hurst Senior Professorial Lecturer, and the Co-Director of the Transatlantic Policy Center, in the School of International Service. He has written widely on transatlantic relations and Europe, both in the field of history and contemporary affairs, and focuses in particular on security, US foreign policy, NATO, European politics, European foreign policy and defense, Europe, the European Union, France and the UK. He is a frequent media commentator, providing analysis and interviews, among others, to NPR, the BBC, CNN, Voice of America, USA Today, WUSA, ABC News Australia and France 24.

Abortion, Authoritarianism, and Reproductive Justice
2025-05-01 13:00 - 14:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 142, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
This talk will explore how a reproductive justice framework can inform our thinking about abortion, and bodily autonomy more generally, in the current authoritarian context of the United States.

About the Speaker
Naomi Braine is a Professor of Sociology at Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center, City University of NY. Prior to joining the faculty at CUNY, she worked in the non-profit research sector on issues of drug use and HIV and consulted for community-based organizations. Her political and intellectual work addresses gender, sexuality, reproductive justice, wars on drugs and terror, and health and collective action. Her current work focuses on self-managed abortion as a transnational feminist movement.

This event is hosted by the Politics of Reproduction Research Group and by the Migration, Mobilities, and Social Politics Research Cluster.

Honouring Migrant Women’s Stories through Film and Community-Engaged Scholarship
2025-05-09 15:00 - 16:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 142, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Join the webinar: https://cigionline-org.zoom.us/j/82434479876?pwd=[REDACTED]
The Annual Dr. Kerry Preibisch Global Social Justice and Migration Lecture Series is organized by the International Migration Research Centre, with a first edition in 2016. Dr. Kerry Preibisch was a prolific scholar in the area of social justice and migration, who died of cancer in January, 2016, at the height of her career. The objective of this annual memorial lecture is to add to the myriad ways that scholars and students can keep her research and vision of promoting migrants’ human rights alive into the future.
About the Speakers
Aaraón Díaz Mendiburo research health, education, employment, social representation, and intercultural relations issues of agricultural migrants in Canada, their families, and both their communities of origin and destination. As an independent documentary film maker, he has directed and produced Migrant Mother (2020), Matices “Temporary” Migration in Canada (2011) and Migrants: Those who come from within (2007). He is currently working on his fourth documentary about the activism against the cannabis stigma in North America.
Evelyn Encalada Grez is a transnational labour scholar and community-labour organizer committed to critical sociology and decolonial theories of knowledge production that centers diverse ways of knowing and precarious workers’ experiences within the margins of the global economy. She is the co-founder of the award winning collective, Justice for Migrant Workers, J4MW that has advocated for the rights of migrant farmworkers in Canada for two decades. Her research bridges grass-roots activism with academic scholarship and through this approach Dr. Encalada Grez has extensively documented the lives of Mexican migrant farmworker women who work and forge transnational livelihoods between rural Canada and rural Mexico.

Balsillie Graduates Reunion 2025
2025-05-22 19:00 - 21:00 | ON
Calling all BSIA grads! Join us for our third annual Balsillie Graduates Reunion! This year’s reunion will take place near the ByWard Market in Ottawa.
BSIA graduates are invited to an evening of conversation and networking. This is an opportunity to catch up with old friends, and network with fellow alumni, staff, faculty and friends of the School.
We will provide the venue address, parking information and other event details, once registered.
Ann Fitz-Gerald, BSIA Director, will provide welcome remarks at 7:30 pm. Cocktails and hors d’oeuvres will be served.
We hope you will join us!
Register now to get your ticket(s).

Bridging Science, Policy, and Society: The Role of Science Diplomacy in an Era of Technological Change
2025-06-04 18:30 - 20:00 | Room 1-42, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Hosted by the German Center for Research and Innovation (DWIH) New York in conjunction with the 2025 ACUNS-UN Workshop on Emerging Technologies.
This event, co-organized by DWIH New York under the auspices of ACUNS, the Balsillie School of International Affairs, and Wilfrid Laurier University, brings together ACUNS-UN Workshop participants, scholars, policymakers, and professionals to discuss Science Diplomacy (SD) as a key driver for international collaboration in an era of rapid technological disruption. It will also serve as an opportunity to highlight the upcoming edited volume, Science Diplomacy in an Era of Technological Disruption which explores how emerging technologies—Artificial Intelligence (AI), Quantum Computing (QC), and biotechnology—are transforming diplomacy and international cooperation.
It underscores the transformative potential of science diplomacy in bridging global divides in a polarized world, the central role of multilateral and higher education institutions as key actors in science diplomacy, how public-private partnerships and corporate influence are reshaping international scientific governance, and the growing tension between national security concerns and open science collaboration in areas such as AI, space exploration, and climate policy.
Agenda
6:30 PM | Arrival & Networking
6:45 – 7:15 PM | Interactive Dialogue with Dr. Jan Lüdert, DWIH NY
7:15 PM – 7:30 PM | Q&A Session
7:30 PM – 8:00 PM | Reception & Networking

Navigating Science, Policy, and Innovation: Career Insights from DWIH New York
2025-06-05 08:30 - 11:00 | Room 1-43, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
As part of the ACUNS-UN Workshop, Dr. Jan Lüdert will lead a career-focused session, offering participants insights into alternative career pathways in science diplomacy and the work of DWIH New York in fostering international science collaboration.
Key Discussion Topics:
• DWIH New York’s Role in Science Diplomacy & Transatlantic Collaboration
• Exploring Careers at the Intersection of Science, Policy, and Innovation
• Public vs. Private Sector Roles in Science Diplomacy
• Academic Entrepreneurship & Startups: How Scientists Can Shape Policy & Industry
• Engaging in Science Diplomacy Through International Organizations

How to Deceive Diasporas on WeChat: An Australian Case Study
2025-06-16 11:00 - 12:30 | Hybrid – Zoom and room 123, 67 Erb Street West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6C2, Canada
Alternative social media like WeChat mediate English news for diaspora communities in Australia, but domestic actors take advantage of this underregulated space to create misinformation campaigns. These campaigns are contextually unique to targets and technologies. We use a critical disinformation studies lens (Kuo and Marwick 2021) to report on how the Australian WeChat economy works for misinformation producers. Findings show how misinformation adapts to Australian contexts—where tax burdens, constitutional ambiguity, and colonial threats—are translated into culturally proximate frames for Chinese speakers. Regulatory responses to these tactics are currently wanting.
About the Speaker
Luke Heemsbergen looks at where emerging technologies meet society and intervenes to unsettle assumptions and rewire potentials for our shared digital futures. He co-leads Critical Digital Infrastructures and Interfaces group at Deakin University, is a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation, and is a founder of CAVRN.org. Previously, he served at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Canada. His work on emerging tech appears in international and national media, including The New York Times, Wired, ABC Australia, and Australian Financial Review, as well as diverse academic presses. His recent book Radical Transparency and Digital Democracy is published by Emerald.
