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Molly Nebiolo, History PhD candidate and dissertation fellow at the McNeil Center for Early American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, published an op-ed in the Washington Times. She provides important historical context about the "end" of previous epidemics and how celebrating victory too soon can upset broader public health goals.
Read "The risks of declaring the pandemic over too soon."
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Denise Khor
Associate Director of Asian American Studies; Professor of Asian American Studies and Visual Studies
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Laura Kuhl
Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs
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Alicia Sasser Modestino
Associate Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Economics; Research Director, Dukakis Center
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RECOGNITION AND PUBLICATIONS | |
Elizabeth Bucar, Professor of Religion and Dean's Leadership Fellow, has released a new book. Stealing My Religion: Not Just Any Cultural Appropriation (Harvard University Press, 2022) unpacks the ethical dilemmas of a messy form of cultural appropriation: the borrowing of religious doctrines, rituals, and dress for political, economic, and therapeutic reasons. An excerpt of the book can be read at Teen Vogue. | |
Alan Klein, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, has published "The Great Gathering: Lakota Basketball as a Site of Cultural Production", which can be read in American Indian Quarterly. | |
Guns N’ Roe vs. Bread and Circus: Making Sense of the 2022 Midterm Elections Pop-up Course | |
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What is happening in the 2022 midterm elections? This one-credit, intensive, co-taught pop-up course will introduce students to multiple disciplinary perspectives as tools for understanding and addressing topics that emerge in the immediate run up to and aftermath of election day.
Students will learn about the history and significance of midterms; explore how big data and associated technologies can be used to track, visualize, and affect election trends; and understand various forms of media representation, assessing their impact on the election cycle.
Led by Costas Panagopoulos, Distinguished Professor and Department Chair of Political Science; and Arnon Mishkin, Adjunct Faculty and Director of the Fox News Decision Team
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It Takes a Village to Make a Village: How Trust, Patience, and Data Are Giving a Thousand Semi-Nomadic Families Their Say
Monday, October 3
12:00 - 1:30 PM
310R RP
Register to attend in-person or online
| This event is part of the Social Impact Lab's weeklong series From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining Social Change in the Middle East. | |  |
The desertification of traditional grazing lands, victimization by predatory lenders, and urban encroachment have long threatened to displace semi-nomadic desert tribes in Albaydha, Saudi Arabia. Based on a model developed by Social Impact Lab Director Rebecca Riccio, social investor and human rights advocate Lynn Zovighian and her family's Beirut-based social investment firm The Zovighian Partnership are leveraging "patient philanthropy" to engage over a thousand families in designing and building a village to meet their housing needs. Faculty guests include Moira Zellner, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Director of Participatory Modeling and Data Science, and Co-Director of NULab for Texts, Maps and Networks; Liza Weinstein, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology; and Laura Kuhl, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs. | |
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Embodied Ethics Workshop
Monday, October 3
6:00 - 8:00 PM
909 RP
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In this one hour workshop (followed by a reception), Northeastern theatre professor Ilya Vidrin will show how important ethical concepts, such as trust and manipulation, can be explored not only in writing but also through movement and physical interaction. He will lead attendees in a series of thoughtfully facilitated, interactive movement exercises.
These will allow attendees to consider the ethical significance of touch, proximity, and gaze in social interaction. Guests will also discuss how changing forms of physical interaction and dance have historically shaped societies and can alter our collective future.
All bodies and physical abilities are welcome.
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What Happens When You Ask NGOs What Their Communities Need? Lessons from a Funding Model Designed to Empower Women
Tuesday, October 4
12:00 - 1:30 PM
909 RP
Register to attend in person or online
| This event is part of the Social Impact Lab's weeklong series From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining Social Change in the Middle East. | | |
As the architects of a philanthropic initiative to drive women’s economic empowerment in Lebanon, Lynn Zovighian and Rebecca Riccio invited local community-based organizations to define their own funding priorities and promised to listen. They will present an alternative approach to philanthropic grant making that draws on Social Impact Lab practices and principles to disrupt the conventional power imbalance between grantees and donors to give women a voice. They will also share how their data is providing real-time insights into critical vulnerabilities, urgent needs, and emerging frontline strategies for addressing Lebanon’s multiple crises. | |
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Stories from Sinjar: Yazidi Survivors on Life after ISIS
Tuesday, October 4
7:00 - 8:30 PM
440 Egan
Register to attend in person or online
| This event is part of the Social Impact Lab's weeklong series From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining Social Change in the Middle East. | | |
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The faculty guest for this session is Gordana Rabrenovic, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict.
Lebanese human rights advocate and social investor Lynn Zovighian commissioned, funded, and co-produced the short documentary This Is Still Genocide to center Yazidi survivors’ voices in their own story eight years after the self-declared Islamic State (Daesh/ISIS/ISIL) initiated the ongoing genocide and mass displacement of their community with a brutal assault on Sinjar, Iraq in 2014. Following a screening of the film, Lynn will discuss her partnership with Yazda, an international Yazidi-led NGO committed to documenting the genocide, supporting survivors around the world, and seeking global recognition and justice for their community.
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Lebanon in Freefall: Government Corruption, Economic Collapse, and the Growing Demands on Civil Society
Wednesday, October 5
12:00 - 1:30 PM
909 RP
Register to attend in person or online
| This event is part of the Social Impact Lab's weeklong series From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining Social Change in the Middle East. | | |
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As Lebanon struggles with a corrupt and paralyzed government, economic collapse, and the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, civil society is under pressure to demonstrate leadership in the face of unprecedented demands. Social investor and thought leader Lynn Zovighian will share a unique perspective on the international donor community's response to Lebanon's spiraling crises. Her family business, The Zovighian Partnership, is recognized as an independent monitor of humanitarian aid entering the country. Lynn will also make the case for building the data, governance, and operational capacities of community-based organizations to engage local communities in meeting their own critical needs and shaping Lebanon's future.
This session's faculty guest is
Maria Ivanova, Director, School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs.
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War in Ukraine: Making Sense of a Senseless Conflict
Wednesday, October 5
4:30 - 6:00 PM
909 RP
Register to attend
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Russia’s brutal February 2022 invasion of Ukraine has attracted widespread condemnation across the West. Government and media circles present the conflict as a simple dichotomy between an evil empire and an innocent victim. In this concise, accessible and highly informative primer, authors Medea Benjamin and Nicolas Davies insist the picture is more complicated.
Medea Benjamin is a co-founder of CODEPINK and the fair trade advocacy group Global Exchange. She is the author of Drone Warfare, Kingdom of the Unjust: Behind the U.S.–Saudi Connection and Inside Iran.
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Environmental Justice in Albaydha: The Story of a Rural Desert Community
Wednesday, October 5
6:00 - 7:30 PM
West Village F - Room 20
Register to attend in person or online
| This event is part of the Social Impact Lab's weeklong series From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining Social Change in the Middle East. | | |
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As climate crises displace people around the world, what can be learned from Albaydha, a semi-nomadic rural community in Saudi Arabia whose grazing lands were destroyed by desertification? Offered in collaboration with the Myra Kraft Open Classroom series, this session will examine how participatory processes informed by Social Impact Lab (SIL) principles and frameworks have engaged over a thousand families in the design and implementation of a community-led resettlement initiative. The program employs sustainable building technologies and ecosystem regeneration while honoring traditional family structures and cultural practices. Lebanese social investor and human rights advocate Lynn Zovighian and SIL Director Rebecca Riccio will explain how their commitment to centering community members’ voices has led to this project being designated a national housing pilot for vulnerable communities in Saudi Arabia.
The event moderator is Ted Landsmark, Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs; Director, Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy.
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From Principles to Practice: Choosing a Career in Social Change
Thursday, October 6
12:00 - 1:30 PM
Northeastern Crossing, 1175 Tremont St.
Register to attend in person
| This event is part of the Social Impact Lab's weeklong series From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining Social Change in the Middle East. | | |
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In this lunch conversation with students, entrepreneur and social investor Lynn Zovighian will discuss her commitment to serving women and communities in the Middles East and reflect on the ways her professional and personal journeys have been shaped by Social Impact Lab principals and frameworks. Lynn will also share intimate moments when her personal rulebook for rigorous ethical and decision-making has been put to the test by genocide and war, political and economic corruption, systemic patriarchy, and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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After Area Studies Lecture Series: Monica Kim
Thursday, October 6
4:00 - 6:00 PM
315 Shillman
Register to attend in person
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The second event of the "After Area Studies" series will feature Monica Kim, author of The Interrogation Rooms of the Korean War: The Untold History.
After Area Studies brings distinguished scholars of transpacific history, media, race, critical refugee studies and visual culture to present their work and share their perspectives on how to study the contemporary global moment beyond the disciplinary confines of traditional area studies. This series explores the work of centering Asia, its peoples, its diasporas, and its historical legacies and ongoing contributions.
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Deep Listening to Achieve Impact: Developing Ethical and Effective Social Change Projects and Funding Strategies (Student Workshop Co-Sponsored by NUImpact)
Thursday, October 6
7:00 - 8:30 PM
440 Egan
Register to attend in person or online
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Student-only workshop co-sponsored by NUImpact
This event is part of the Social Impact Lab's weeklong series From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining Social Change in the Middle East.
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As co-founders of The Zovighian Partnership, Lynn Zovighian and her father align the strengths of their social investment firm and public office to design and implement large-scale social impact projects in the Middle East. Prioritizing trust over speed, they integrate systems thinking, ethical governance, and transparency with deep listening and authentic relationship-building with all stakeholders. The firm strategically leverages public funding, private capital, and philanthropy to advance collaboratively defined goals. In this interactive workshop Lynn will invite students to engage with several of her firm’s recent opportunities and challenges as case studies. Attendees will walk away with a new perspective on the importance of honoring all stakeholders’ voices and a toolkit for tapping multiple funding streams to advance social change in a challenging economy. | |
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Ethics Institute Speaker: Deborah Hellman
Friday, October 7
12:00 - 1:30 PM
Curry Student Center, Senate Chambers, 3rd floor
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This event's speaker is
Deborah Hellman, the David Lurton Massee, Jr. Professor of Law and F. Palmer Weber Research Professor of Civil Liberties and Human Rights at the University of Virginia School of Law.
There are two main strands to Hellman’s work. The first focuses on equal protection law and its philosophical justification. She is the author of When Is Discrimination Wrong? and co-editor of The Philosophical Foundations of Discrimination Law and several articles related to equal protection. The second strand focuses on the relationship between money and legal rights.
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Global Leadership: Engaging in Social Change across Difference
Friday, October 7
12:00 - 1:30 PM
Center for Intercultural Engagement, Curry Student Center, First Floor
Register to attend in person or online
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Student Workshop Co-Sponsored by the Center for Intercultural Engagement and the Social Justice Resource Center.
This event is part of the Social Impact Lab's weeklong series From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining Social Change in the Middle East.
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How does reckoning with our own complex identities and lived experiences prepare us to engage more empathetically and effectively with others in the work of social change? As a social investor, human rights advocate, systems disruptor, and changemaker, Lynn Zovighian problem solves from a worldview shaped by Lebanese, Armenian, Italian, and Palestinian ancestry and a multi-generational family history of displacement due to genocide and war. As a child, she was raised in several countries and exposed to many faith traditions that have shaped her spirituality. Drawing on her experience designing and implementing social change projects with collaborators throughout the Middle East, Lynn will illustrate how working across complex identities has presented challenges and unleashed opportunities. Her personal stories will be a starting point for students to reflect on the identities they bring to the social change table and how those identities may influence how they perceive others and show up in the world. | |
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If/Then: Technology and Poetics—Chris Martens and Alexandra To on Gaming as Speculative World Building Practice
Friday, October 7
1:00 - 2:15 PM
Register to attend online
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Chris Martens and Alexandra To, associate and assistant professors (respectively) in the CAMD Art + Design Department and the Khoury College of Computer Science, will lead a discussion and brainstorming session (with a little bit of real-time gameplay) on their collaborative project that explores tabletop gaming as speculative world building practice. They plan to partner with community activists to find ways that games might help us imagine better worlds and solutions to difficult societal problems. This will be a brainstorming session, first and foremost, and a time to put theory into practice by playing world-building games with each other. | | | | | |
