International Student Seminar for Global Citizenship and Peace
‘Understanding Global Inequalities: Bridging the Gaps’
5th – 13th August 2021
In 2021, the International Student Seminar will explore the issue of inequality around the globe. It aims to engage with the nature of inequality, which manifests itself in a layered and interconnected way: from the global level, with huge discrepancies between the developed North and the developing South to the interpersonal level, that highlights the fact that poverty, inequality in access to resources that facilitate a flourishing life and to social justice can set apart individuals within the same local communities. Further still, the seminar will explore different kinds of inequalities that manifest themselves in areas such as education or health, as well as more recent forms such as digital inequality, focusing on their impact on peace and human security. The seminar will also consider the fact the Covid-19 pandemic has deepened the inequality crisis, accentuated differences and exposed our individual and collective fragility, leading an organisation like Oxfam to label it ‘the inequality virus’ and the UN Secretary General to refer to ‘an inequality pandemic’.
The seminar aims to provide an opportunity to explore and reflect the impact of inequalities on global peace and the full realisation of human potential in the world hit by the pandemic. In this context, the seminar will also critically consider the potential for actions that aim to address inequalities and to bridge the existing gaps. At global level, the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are at the heart of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development adopted by all United Nations member states at the UN Sustainable Development Summit in 2015. Behind the SDGs, there is an understanding that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth in order to realise peace and prosperity for people and the planet. The SDGs have been, right from the beginning, ambitious as any aspirational goals should be, but the Covid-19 pandemic has raised significant barriers in terms of advancing them. On the other hand, the crisis generated by the pandemic has also produced mobilisation against poverty at local level, from community support groups to wider social movements.
This year’s INU student seminar aims to provide an opportunity to reflect on all these developments, and on how they impact on the global efforts to achieve reduce inequalities, peace of the world and prosperity of people on the planet.
The 4 workshops delivered as part of the seminar will focus on the following topics:
‘Comparative Analysis of the Global Disparities that exist between the global North and global South.
Speaker: Angelo Jephtha, Stellenbosch University International (Centre for Global Engagement)
‘Health Equity: A Global Goal’
Speaker: Modjadji Choshi, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor of Nursing, James Madison University
“Inequality in the wealthy world: labor market institutions and low-wage jobs”
Speaker: Dr Ferran Mañé Vernet, Associate Professor, Rovira i Virgili University
Reducing inequities for sustainable development. The role of intersectorality in health.
Speaker: Larisa Carrera, Dean-Professor, School of Medical Sciences, Universidad Nacional del Litoral
Read in more detail about the seminar by downloading the Project brief and Speaker/ Workshop sessions PDF.
In addition, there will be two keynote speakers as part of the program.
Vidya Diwakar
Senior Research Officer in the Chronic Poverty Advisory Network at Overseas Development Institute
https://odi.org/en/
“The principle of sovereign equality of UN member states”
Prof. Dr. Carmen Thiele
Faculty of Law, European University Viadrina
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the student seminar will be delivered online in 2021.
Further details on the programme structure will be published shortly, however in the meantime, this will provide an indication of specific time slots per country as below:
| Group work | Workshops / Keynote speakers | |
| USA | 19:00-21:00 | 08:00-10:00 |
| Argentina | 20:00-22:00 | 09:00-11:00 |
| Sweden | 11:00-13:00 | 14:00-16:00 |
| UK | 10:00-12:00 | 13:00-15:00 |
| Germany | 11:00-13:00 | 14:00-16:00 |
| Spain | 11:00-13:00 | 14:00-16:00 |
| South Africa | 11:00-13:00 | 14:00-16:00 |
| Japan | 08:00-10:00
18:00-20:00 |
21:00-23:00 |
| Indonesia | 16:00-18:00 | 19:00-21:00 |
If you are interested in attending the Student Seminar, please do contact the INU Coordinator for further information: inu@kingston.ac.uk