Awardees

Dr. Devi Sridhar spoke on the topic, “Preventing the Next Pandemic: What have we learned about international health collaboration and what needs to change?” In this lecture, Dr. Sridhar examined the historical roots of international collaboration in health and the subsequent creation of the World Health Organization in the aftermath of World War II. Yet, during the COVID crisis, Dr. Sridar described how world health cooperation broke down illustrated by divergent and nationally-driven strategies on COVID-response, vaccine nationalism and hoarding by rich countries, and tense political frictions over the origins of COVID-19. Dr. Sridhar offered insightful thoughts on how the world can learn from the past and better manage the next pandemic.

A video of the lecture is available on the US-UK Fulbright Commission’s website.

Fulbright Legacy speaker Janet Napolitano, President of the University of California, was joined by UK university leaders to discuss the timely topic of “Higher Education and the Public Good.” The wide-ranging discussion reflected on the results of a dedicated IPSOS Mori global survey on public attitudes towards higher education and covered topics from inequality and student debt, to international collaboration and alternative models of university education.

A video of the lecture is available on the Fulbright Commission’s website.

In his lecture titled “The New Arrogance of Power: Global Politics in an Age of Impunity,” Mr. Miliband examined the shift today in international relations away from checks and balances on the use of power, and towards an age of impunity. His explanation of how the rules-based international order forged after World War II is being undermined serves as an urgent call to preserve the rule of law and protect the most vulnerable. A video of the lecture delivered at Pembroke College, University of Oxford, is available on their website.

The eighth annual Fulbright Legacy Lectures were given by Lord Nicholas Stern, IG Patel Professor of Economics and Government at the London School of Economics and the Co-Chair of the Global Commission on the Economy and Climate. He spoke at King’s College London on June 4, followed by Edinburgh University on June 6, and Pembroke College Oxford on June 8, 2018. The theme of his lectures was “The best of centuries or the worst of centuries? Leadership, governance and cohesion in an interdependent world.” He argued that the international economic order, which J. William Fulbright helped to build after WWII, served fairly well for much of the second half of the twentieth century. If we are to avoid the grave we currently face, however—including climate change, pandemics and conflict—it must be re-cast for our increasingly interdependent world. Our success in doing this will determine whether the twenty-first century becomes the best or worst of centuries.

Lord Stern’s lecture was live streamed and has now been published on the website of Pembroke’ College.

The seventh annual Fulbright Legacy Lectures were given by Professor Louise Richardson, Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford. Through lectures at King’s College London on June 12, at Edinburgh University on June 14, and at Pembroke College, Oxford on June 16, 2017, Richardson addressed the roles of and challenges faced by universities in an age of increasing populism. Read her lecture online on the University of Oxford’s website.

Richardson completed her BA in History at Trinity College Dublin before coming to the U.S. to pursue graduate studies in political science at UCLA and Harvard University. As an award-winning professor, she has promoted interdisciplinary studies an the combination academic and creative pursuits. Her research focuses primarily on international security and counter-terrorism, and she has published numerous books addressing both issues, including Democracy and Counterterrorism: Lessons from the Past (2007), What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Enemy, Containing the Threat(2006), The Roots of Terrorism (2006), and When Allies Differ (1996).

Economist Joseph E. Stiglitz (Columbia University) gave the fourth annual Fulbright Legacy Lecture on International Relations. His topic was the “Causes and Consequences of Growing Inequality—and what can be done about it” at Pembroke College, Oxford, and Kings College London. Stiglitz is a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979) and a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank.

Historian Emma Rothschild spoke on the mid-twentieth century history of internationalism at the University of Edinburgh. Rothschild is the Jeremy and Jane Knowles Professor of History at Harvard and the director of the Joint Center for History and Economics at Harvard and Magdalene College, Cambridge. Her lecture took place on 21 May 2014 at Edinburgh University, where she received an honorary doctorate in 2013.

In the third annual Fulbright Legacy Lectures, Harold Varmus spoke on “International Relations in Science and Medicine” at Kings College London, Edinburgh University and Pembroke College Oxford, where Senator J. William Fulbright studied from 1924-48. His talks expanded and elaborated upon themes discussed in his book, The Art and Politics of Science. Dr. Varmus is Director of the National Cancer Institute and a Nobel prize laureate.