14th Student Conference on Global Challenges Recap

The Office of Global Engagement hosted the 14th Annual Student Conference on Global Challenges on May 18, 2021, with the theme of Disaster. Over 300 students, faculty, staff and community members from Drexel’s partner institutions abroad attended the conference virtually to discuss globally-themed challenges. The conference offers undergraduate and graduate students opportunities to share their research and engage in critical reflection and dialogue on how climate change and the environment is shaping our global context within the diverse disciplines of health, education, science, human rights, medicine, law, media, economics, politics, development, and history.

The Conference also represented the benefit of university collaborations, with partners from the Climate Year Committee, and Pennoni Honors College. There were also student presentations from the University of Strathclyde, UL and Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain. 

Vice Provost for Global Engagement Rogelio Miñana opened the day with remarks on the importance of student research to address the global challenges, which felt particularly salient given the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic posed over the past year.

Throughout the day, six interdisciplinary student panels featured research and projects form undergraduate and graduate student son topics related to Disaster. Out of over 70 abstracts submitted, a committee selected 27 presentations. Presentations included subjects such as climate gentrification, COVID-19’s impact on global food security, and the dangerous potential of self-driving cars. A full list of presenters and topics can be found here.

The conference featured two keynote speakers: first, Dr. Regina Folorunsho, Director in the department of Marine Meteorology and Climate at the Nigerian Institute for Oceanography and Marine Research, who led a discussion about the impacts of climate change and policymaking as it relates to Disaster. The second speech featured Dr. Ksenia Chmutina, Senior Lecturer in Sustainable and Resilience Urbanism and Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the School of Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering, Loughborough University, UK.

The Conference concluded with a virtual Poster presentation, which was available to registrants throughout the day.

Thank you to all our presenters and guests for making the conference a success. For information on next year’s conference, sign up for our quarterly newsletter, where you will receive updates about upcoming Global engagement programming and opportunities.