Pardee Center Director Speaks at Event for BU’s Alumni Weekend

Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future Director Anthony Janetos was a respondent at the inaugural Gerald and Deanne Gitner Family College of Arts & Sciences lecture kicking off Boston University’s alumni weekend.

The lecture, “Advancing the Human Condition: An Agenda for Research and Education,” was held on Thursday, September 18 at BU. Dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies Adil Najam  and College of Arts & Sciences Dean Virginia Sapiro were also respondents to the panel of six BU faculty members.

The panelists were asked how work in their fields of expertise can lead to advances in the human condition. Panelists touched on topics including improving computer security and literacy, promoting active citizenship, conducting more health research, improving data literacy, promoting a deeper understanding of religion and world politics, and ensuring students are taught about environmental issues and governance from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Prof. Janetos commented that the challenges we now face in human advancement are not phenomenons that take decades to unfold, the effects of these current challenges take only minutes or a few years to be seen and felt. He remarked that because of this “scholarship that is interesting without being useful is not where we need to be,” praising the panelists for focusing on topics that were both interesting and beneficial.

Pardee Research Fellow Henrik Selin was on the panel, as well as Lucy Hutyra (Earth & Environment), Rosella Cappella (Political Science), Sharon Goldberg (Computer Science), Joe Harris (Sociology), and Jeremy Menchik (Pardee School of Global Studies). Alumni, students, staff, and members of the BU community attended the event in the Tsai Performance Center.