The Department of Political Science and the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs is excited to announce the speakers for the Spring 2024 Security and Resiliences Speaker series. All events will be held in 909 RP on Thursdays at 6:00pm. Light refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP for these events here. Please reach out to Shannon Usher at s.usher@northeastern.edu with any questions.

January 25: Kaitlyn Alvarez Noli:

"Navigating Racial Ignorance and Colorblind Ideology in Pesticide Exposure: A Case Study from Ventura County, California"

Dr. Kaitlyn S. Alvarez Noli, an Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Health Sciences, holds a joint appointment in the School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and the Department of Health Sciences. An advocate for environmental justice, Dr. Alvarez Noli examines the mechanisms by which local environmental disputes often overlook the interests and concerns of marginalized communities. Her current research delves into the power dynamics shaping coalition development, advocacy efforts, and framing involving farmworkers and intensive pesticide use. The John Randolph Haynes Foundation and Newkirk Center for Science and Society at UC Irvine support this work.

February 15: Cansu Canca

"Integrating Ethics into AI Innovation"

Cansu Canca is Research Associate Professor in Philosophy and the Director of Responsible AI Practice at the Institute for Experiential AI at Northeastern University. She is also the Founder and Director of AI Ethics Lab, one of the first initiatives focusing exclusively on advising practitioners and conducting multidisciplinary research on AI ethics. She serves as an expert consultant to the UN and the INTERPOL, a member of the World Economic Forum’s AI Governance Alliance working group, a founding editor for AI & Ethics journal, and an ethics expert for EU and NIH funded research projects. She has a Ph.D. in philosophy specializing in applied ethics. She primarily works on ethics of technology, having previously worked on ethics and health.

March 28: Laura Kuhl

"Climate Finance to Promote Resilience and Climate Justice"

Laura Kuhl’s scholarship examines climate adaptation and sustainable transitions internationally and in the United States, and a key motivation across her research is climate justice. She has conducted fieldwork in Latin American, the Caribbean, and East Africa, and has published in leading climate and development policy journals, including Nature, Climate Policy, Nature Climate Change, Climate and Development, World Development and Environmental Science and Policy. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in climate, environment, and international affairs and in 2023 received Northeastern’s University Excellence in Teaching Award.

April 11: US Army War College Panel

Featuring: Brigadier General Ajai Dabas, Indian Army, Colonel Carina Kelley, US Army, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew Taylor, US Air Force

"Military Roles and Challenges in Upholding and Defending the Rules-Based International Order"

The 2022 National Security Strategy argues that the United States and its partners must resist the efforts of countries like Russia and China to challenge and reshape the “free, open, prosperous, and secure international order.” Why should the current international order be supported and how should the United States manage the challenges and dilemmas it faces in trying to protect it? Join us as senior officers attending the US Army War College discuss the importance of partners and allies in maintaining a rules-based international order and how the US military can help uphold core principles of that international order and deter challenges to it.