Meme Wars
Join the Program on Democracy and the Internet (PDI) and moderator Nate Persily, in conversation with Dr. Joan Donovan, Research Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, and Emily Dreyfuss, a journalist who covers the impact of technology on society, with a focus on social media and information systems.
Memes have long been dismissed as inside jokes with no political importance. Nothing could be further from the truth. Memes are bedrock to the strategy of conspiracists such as Alex Jones, provocateurs like Milo Yiannopoulos, white nationalists like Nick Fuentes, and tacticians like Roger Stone. While the media and most politicians struggle to harness the organizing power of the internet, the “redpill right” weaponizes memes, pushing conspiracy theories and disinformation into the mainstream to drag people down the rabbit hole. These meme wars stir strong emotions, deepen partisanship, and get people off their keyboards and into the streets--and the steps of the US Capitol.
Meme Wars is the first major account of how “Stop the Steal” went from online to real life, from the wires to the weeds. Leading media expert Joan Donovan, PhD, veteran tech journalist Emily Dreyfuss, and cultural ethnographer Brian Friedberg pull back the curtain on the digital war rooms in which a vast collection of antiesablishmentarians bond over hatred of liberal government and media. Together as a motley reactionary army, they use memes and social media to seek out new recruits, spread ideologies, and remake America according to their desires.
This session is part of the Fall Seminar Series, a months-long series designed to bring researchers, policy makers, scholars and industry professionals together to share research, findings and trends in the cyber policy space. Both in-person and virtual attendance is available; registration is required.
Dr. Joan Donovan is the Research Director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. Dr. Donovan leads the field in examining internet and technology studies, online extremism, media manipulation, and disinformation campaigns.
Dr. Donovan leads The Technology and Social Change Project (TaSC). TaSC explores how media manipulation is a means to control public conversation, derail democracy, and disrupt society. TaSC conducts research, develops methods, and facilitates workshops for journalists, policy makers, technologists, and civil society organizations on how to detect, document, and debunk media manipulation campaigns.
Emily Dreyfuss is a journalist who covers the impact of technology on society, with a focus on social media and information systems. She is the senior editor of the Technology and Social Change (TaSC) team and the co-lead of the Harvard Shorenstein Center News Leaders summit. Emily got her start in journalism as a local newspaper reporter, then as an editor at an alt-weekly, before entering the tech reporting fray as an editor at CNET. She was a senior writer and editor at WIRED for many years and most recently helped launch the tech news site Protocol. As a 2017-2018 Harvard Nieman Berkman Klein fellow, Emily studied ephemerality and the internet. She is interested in how technology accelerates change.
WATCH
Evolving Washington Understanding of Asian Perspectives on the U.S.-China Competition
This event is part of APARC’s 2022 Fall webinar series, Asian Perspectives on the US-China Competition.
The China Program brings Inaugural China Policy Fellow Laura Stone to provide on the ground views of what the U.S.-China competition means for the region. As Asia perspectives on U.S.-China competition and Chinese intentions in the region develop and change, Laura will give us insights into how Washington stakeholders’ understanding of these perspectives has shifted and evolved. In a complex iterative process, Chinese and U.S. actions — and the reactions from the countries and countries and entities in Asia — shape a dynamic policy process within the region.
Speaker
Virtual event via Zoom
APARC's China Program Presents: In Conversation with William C. Kirby
America’s preeminence in higher education is relatively new, and there is no reason to assume that U.S. schools will continue to lead the world a century from now. Will China challenge its position in the twenty-first? The modern university was born in Germany. In the twentieth century, the United States leapfrogged Germany to become the global leader in higher education. Today, American institutions dominate nearly every major ranking of global universities. However, America’s supremacy in higher education is under great stress, particularly at its public universities. At the same time Chinese universities are on the ascent. Thirty years ago, Chinese institutions were reopening after the catastrophe of the Cultural Revolution; today they are some of the most innovative educational centers in the world. Will China threaten American primacy?
Please join us for the China Program’s Author Series.
The book is available for purchase here.
Speaker
Discussant
FSI Contact
Sallie Z. LinIn-Person at Philippines Room, Encina Hall 3rd Floor
Comparative Analysis of Energy and Resource Policy Issues among Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan in Light of Russia and China’s Policies | Undraa Agvaanluvsan
Seminar Recording
About the Event: In this seminar, energy and natural resources sector policies of the three former communist countries in Asia - Mongolia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan - in close geographic proximity to Russia and China will be considered. There are similarities in the nature of transition from communist regime to democratic societies in these three states, although major differences in social and cultural issues exist. The reliance on energy in neighboring countries Russia and China as well as export of raw materials to these markets have major influence on specific policy agenda. Particular attention is given to energy minerals and trade balance and imbalance thereof.
About the Speaker: Dr. Undraa Agvaanluvsan currently serves as the president of Mitchell Foundation for Arts and Sciences. She is also an Asia21 fellow of the Asia Society and co-chair of Mongolia chapter of the Women Corporate Directors, a global organization of women serving in public and private corporate boards. During 2021-22, she served on the WCD Global Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. Dr. Undraa Agvaanluvsan is a former Member of Parliament of Mongolia and the chair of the Parliamentary subcommittee on Sustainable Development Goals. Prior to being elected as a legislator, she served as an Ambassador-at-large in charge of nuclear security issues at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, where she worked on nuclear energy and fuel cycle, uranium and rareearth minerals development policy. She is a nuclear physicist by training, obtained her PhD at North Carolina State University, USA and diploma in High Energy Physics at the International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste, Italy. She conducted research at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, USA and taught energy policy at International Policy Studies Program at Stanford University, where she was a Science fellow and visiting professor at Stanford's Center for International Security and Cooperation. She published more than 90 papers, conference proceedings, and articles on neutron and proton induced nuclear reactions, the nuclear level density and radiative strength functions, quantum chaos and the Random Matrix Theory, including its application to the modeling of electric-grid resilience.
All CISAC events are scheduled using the Pacific Time Zone.
William J. Perry Conference Room
Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue
The Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue convenes social science researchers and scientists from Stanford University and across the Asia-Pacific region, alongside student leaders, policymakers, and practitioners, to accelerate progress on achieving the United Nations-adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The conference aims to generate new research and policy partnerships to expedite the implementation of the Agenda's underlying framework of 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
The two-day event is held in Seoul, South Korea, on October 27 and 28, 2022 Korea Standard Time, and is free and open to the public.
Registration is now open for in-person attendees. The conference is also offered online. Watch the live webcast from this page below (session available in English and Korean) and follow the conversation on Twitter: @StanfordSAPARC #AsiaSDGs2022.
The Dialogue's main hosts and organizers are Stanford's Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) and the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future. The co-hosts are the Korea Environment Institute (KEI) and Ewha Womans University. The co-organizers include the Natural Capital Project (NatCap) of Stanford University, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI), Korea Environment Corporation (K-eco), and Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water).
Day 1 Livestream (English)
Day 1 Livestream (Korean)
Day 2 Livestream: Expert Panel (English)
Day 2 Livestream: Expert Panel (Korean)
Day 2 Livestream: Student Panel (English)
NOTE: The times below are all in Korean Standard Time.
DAY 1: THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2022
Hosted by the Korea Environment Institute
Grand Ballroom, The Plaza Seoul
119 Sogong-Ro, Jung-gu, Seoul
9:00 – 9:30 AM
Opening Session
Welcome remarks:
Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chairman of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future
Gi-Wook Shin, Director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and Korea Program, Professor of Sociology, William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Congratulatory remarks:
Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and Chief Executive Officer and President of the Asia Society (pre-recorded video message)
Han Duck-soo, Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea
Plenary 1
9:45 – 10:45 AM
World Leaders Session
Keynotes:
Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations and Chairman of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future
Iván Duque, former President of the Republic of Colombia (live video link)
Gombojav Zandanshatar, Chairman of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia
Moderator:
Gi-Wook Shin, Director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and Korea Program, Professor of Sociology, William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Plenary 2
11:00 AM – 12:15 PM
Climate Change Session
Organized by the Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Scientific Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea
Keynote:
Henry Gonzalez, Deputy Executive Director of Green Climate Fund
Panelists:
Nabeel Munir, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the Republic of Korea and Chair of the G77 at the United Nations
Hyoeun Jenny Kim, Ambassador and Deputy Minister for Climate Change, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea
Oyun Sanjaasuren, Director of External Affairs of Green Climate Fund
Moderator:
Tae Yong Jung, Professor of Sustainable Development at the Graduate School of International Studies, Yonsei University
12:15 – 1:30 PM
Lunch
Hosted by the Korea Environment Institute
Welcome remarks:
Chang Hoon Lee, President of the Korea Environment Institute
Congratulatory remarks:
Kim Sang-Hyup, Co-Chairperson of the 2050 Carbon Neutrality and Green Growth Commission
Eun Mee Kim, President of Ewha Womans University, Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, and Director of the Ewha Global Health Institute for Girls and Women, Ewha Womans University
Plenary 3
1:30 – 2:45 PM
Multilateralism for a Resilient and Inclusive Recovery Towards the Achievement of the SDGs
Organized by the Development Cooperation Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of Korea
Keynote:
Hidehiko Yuzaki, Governor of Hiroshima Prefectural Government, Japan
Panelists:
Kaveh Zahedi, Deputy Executive Secretary, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP) (live video link)
Kim Sook, Executive Director of the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future and former Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations
Won Doyeon, Director-General of the Development Cooperation Bureau, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea
Moderator:
Eun Mee Kim, President of Ewha Womans University, Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, and Director of the Ewha Global Health Institute for Girls and Women, Ewha Womans University
Plenary 4
3:00 – 4:15 PM
KEI Green Korea: SDGs in North Korea
Organized by the Korea Environment Institute
Keynote:
Sung Jin Kang, Professor of the Department of Economics and the Graduate School of Energy and Environment, Korea University
Panelists:
Habil Bernhard Seliger, Representative of Hanns Seidel Stiftung - Seoul Office, Republic of Korea (pre-recorded video message)
Ganbold Baasanjav, Head of Subregional Office for East and North-East Asia, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN ESCAP)
Haiwon Lee, Emeritus Professor of Hanyang University and President of Asian Research Network for Global Partnership
Moderator:
Chang Hoon Lee, President of the Korea Environment Institute
Plenary 5
4:30 – 5:30 PM
Valuing Nature to Achieve the SDGs
Organized by the Natural Capital Project of Stanford University
Keynote:
Gretchen Daily, Bing Professor of Environmental Science in the Department of Biology, Faculty Director of the Natural Capital Project, Director of the Center for Conservation Biology, and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
Panelists:
Juan Pablo Bonilla, Manager of the Climate Change and Sustainable Development Sector, Inter-American Development Bank
Choong Ki Kim, Senior Research Fellow, Korea Environment Institute
Moderator:
Nicole Ardoin, Emmett Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Sykes Family Director of the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
DAY 2: FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2022
Hosted by Ewha Womans University
52 Ewhayeodae-gil, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul
Expert panels are held in Room B412
Student panels (see below) are held in Room B143
ECC, Ewha Womans University
9:00 – 9:15 AM
Opening Session for Expert Panels
Welcome remarks:
Eun Mee Kim, President of Ewha Womans University, Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, and Director of the Ewha Global Health Institute for Girls and Women, Ewha Womans University
Gretchen Daily, Bing Professor of Environmental Science in the Department of Biology, Faculty Director of the Natural Capital Project, Director of the Center for Conservation Biology, and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
Expert Panel 1
9:15 – 10:30 AM
Livable, Sustainable Cities
Organized by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University
Keynotes:
Park Heong-joon, Mayor of Busan Metropolitan City, Republic of Korea
Khurelbaatar Bulgantuya, Member of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia and Chair of Sustainable Development Goals Sub-Committee of Parliament
Panelists:
Anne Guerry, Chief Strategy Officer and Lead Scientist at the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University
Perrine Hamel, Assistant Professor at the Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University
Moderator:
Kiyoteru Tsutsui, Deputy Director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and Director of the Japan Program, Professor of Sociology, Henri H. and Tomoye Takahashi Professor of Japanese Studies, Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Director of the Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Stanford University
Expert Panel 2
11: 00 AM – 12:15 PM
Climate Change, Disaster Risks, and Human Security in Asia
Organized by Ewha Womans University
Panelists:
Juan M. Pulhin, Professor, Scientist, and former Dean of the College of Forestry and Natural Resources, University of the Philippines, Los Baños (live video link)
Rajib Shaw, Professor in the Graduate School of Media and Governance, Keio University
Brendan M. Howe, Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Rafael Schmitt, Lead Scientist at the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University
Moderator:
Jaehyun Jung, Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
12:15 – 1:30 PM
Lunch
Hosted by Ewha Womans University
Welcome remarks:
Eun Mee Kim, President of Ewha Womans University, Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, and Director of the Ewha Global Health Institute for Girls and Women, Ewha Womans University
Expert Panel 3
1:30 – 2:45 PM
Valuing Nature in Finance for Systems Transformation
Organized by the Natural Capital Project of Stanford University
Keynote:
Elías Albagli, Director of the Monetary Policy Division of the Central Bank of Chile
Panelists:
Qingfeng Zhang, Chief of Rural Development and Food Security (Agriculture) Thematic Group and Chief of Environment Thematic Group of the Sustainable Development and Climate Change Department, Asian Development Bank (live video link)
Tong Wu, Senior Scientist and Associate Director of the China Program at the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University
Moderator:
Chung Suh-Yong, Professor at the Division of International Studies of Korea University and Director of the Center for Climate and Sustainable Development Law and Policy of Seoul International Law Academy
Expert Panel 4
3:15 – 4:30 PM
Valuing Nature to Achieve Sustainable Development
Organized by the Natural Capital Project of Stanford University
Keynote:
Mary Ruckelshaus, Director at the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University
Panelists:
James Salzman, Donald Bren Distinguished Professor of Environmental Law at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara and the School of Law at the University of California, Los Angeles
Yong-Deok Cho, General Director at K-water and Secretary General of the Asia Water Council
Moderator:
Alejandra Echeverri, Senior Scientist at the Natural Capital Project, Stanford University
9:00 – 9:15 AM
Opening Session for Student Panels
Welcome remarks:
Brendan M. Howe, Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Nicole Ardoin, Emmett Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Sykes Family Director of the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
Student Panel 1
9:15 – 10:30 AM
Green Financing and Sustainable Investments
Organized by Ewha Womans University
Panelists:
Assia Baric, PhD student, Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Siddharth Sachdeva, PhD student, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University
Sevde Arpaci Ayhan, PhD candidate, Graduate School of International Studies, Seoul National University
Mae Luky Iriani, Master’s student, Department of International Relations, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan
Wu Qichun, PhD candidate, Asia-Europe Institute, University of Malaya
Moderator:
Hannah Jun, Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Student Panel 2
11:00 AM – 12:15 PM
Gender Mainstreaming and Climate Governance
Organized by Ewha Womans University
Panelists:
Vimala Asty Fitra Tunggal Jaya, PhD student, Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Liza Goldberg, Undergraduate student, Computer Science Department and Earth Systems Program of the Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University
Gahyung Kim, PhD candidate, Global Education Cooperation Program, Seoul National University
Maria Golda Hilario, Master’s student, College of Liberal Arts, De La Salle University
Putri Ananda, Master’s student, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University
Moderator:
Minah Kang, Professor at the Department of Public Administration, Bioethics Policy Studies, and Department of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Student Panel 3
1:30 – 2:45 PM
Development Cooperation for Sustainable Governance
Organized by Ewha Womans University
Panelists:
Elham Bokhari, PhD student, Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Suzanne Xianran Ou, PhD candidate, Department of Biology, Stanford University
So Yeon Park, PhD student, Global Education Cooperation Program, Seoul National University
Emmanuel O. Balogun, PhD candidate, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University
Darren Mangado, PhD student, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University
Moderator:
Jinhwan Oh, Professor of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Student Panel 4
3:15 – 4:45 PM
Bringing Environmental Solutions to Scale Through a Business and Social Justice Lens
Organized by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University
Panelists:
Patricia Aguado Gamero, PhD candidate, Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Sergio Sánchez López, PhD student, Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University
Felicia Istad, PhD candidate in Public Policy, Department of Public Administration, Korea University
Sardar Ahmed Shah, PhD student, Osaka School of International Public Policy, Osaka University
Ma. Ella Calaor Oplas, PhD student in Development Studies and Faculty Member, School of Economics, De La Salle University
Shiina Tsuyuki, Undergraduate student, Keio University
Moderator:
Cheryll Alipio, Associate Director for Program and Policy of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center, Stanford University
Closing Session
5:00 – 5:30 PM
Readying Human Capital for Sustainable Development
Organized by the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center of Stanford University
Closing remarks:
Nicole Ardoin, Emmett Faculty Scholar and Associate Professor in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, Sykes Family Director of the Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, and Senior Fellow at the Woods Institute for the Environment, Stanford University
Gi-Wook Shin, Director of the Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center and Korea Program, Professor of Sociology, William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Brendan M. Howe, Professor and Dean of the Graduate School of International Studies, Ewha Womans University
Kim Bong-hyun, former Ambassador of the Republic of Korea to Australia, former President of Jeju Peace Institute, and Advisor to Mr. Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations at the Ban Ki-moon Foundation for a Better Future
Offered online via live webcast and in-person in Seoul, South Korea.
Day 1: October 27, 9 AM - 5:30 PM KST | Grand Ballroom, The Plaza Hotel, Seoul
Day 2: October 28, 9 AM - 5:30 PM KST | Room B412 (Expert Panels), Room B143 (Student Panels), ECC, Ewha Womans University
SCROLL DOWN TO WATCH THE LIVE WEBCAST
The Ban Ki-moon Foundation and Stanford’s Asia-Pacific Research Center Launch Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue
The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (APARC) at Stanford University and the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future announced today the launch of an annual Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue in Asia to accelerate progress on achieving the United Nations-adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The joint project will spur new research and policy partnerships between experts from the United States and Asia to expedite the implementation of the Agenda’s underlying 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by governments and non-state actors. The two-day inaugural Dialogue will be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on October 27 and 28, 2022, and will be free and open to the public.
The Dialogue’s co-organizers include the Natural Capital Project (NatCap) of Stanford University, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea, Korea Environmental Industry and Technology Institute (KEITI), Korea Environment Corporation (K-eco), and Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water).
The first day will take place at The Plaza Seoul and will be co-hosted by the Korea Environment Institute. It will include a series of public sessions headlined by Ban Ki-moon, the eighth secretary-general of the UN, who will join a lineup of world leaders including Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia and chief executive officer and president of the Asia Society; Iván Duque, former president of the Republic of Colombia; and Gombojav Zandanshatar, chairman of the State Great Hural (Parliament) of Mongolia.
“This Dialogue is very timely and relevant as the climate crisis is deepening in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the Sustainable Development Goals are becoming more difficult to achieve in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic,” says Mr. Ban Ki-moon. “Asia-Pacific countries should be more aggressive in the fight against climate change and more audacious in the role they play toward achieving the SDGs,” he noted.
In this spirit, expert discussions on the second day will bring together social science researchers and scientists from across the Asia-Pacific region, alongside policymakers and practitioners, to share local and global nature-positive solutions and new pathways of meaningful SDG acceleration actions. Co-hosted by and held at Ewha Womans University, the panel discussions will explore the making of livable, sustainable cities, such as Busan Metropolitan City, and the threats to them by climate change, disasters, and human security issues. To achieve systems transformation and sustainable development, discussions will turn to the need to value and invest in nature.
“Climate and sustainability solutions span disciplines and sectors and require collaboration with partners worldwide,” says Gi-Wook Shin, the William J. Perry Professor of Contemporary Korea at Stanford and director of APARC. “The launch of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability marks an opportune moment to scale up SDGs implementation by leveraging knowledge and expertise from across Stanford and the Asia-Pacific and engaging the next generation of scholars and experts,” Shin adds. “We are honored to join in this effort with Mr. Ban and his team, with whom APARC has an established relationship.”
Highlighting the role of youth in achieving the SDGs, the Dialogue includes student panels that feature young leaders from Stanford University, Ewha Womans University, Osaka University, and De La Salle University, among other Asian universities. Students’ research, applied work, and entrepreneurial endeavors across the region showcase innovations and transformations in green financing and sustainable investments, gender mainstreaming and climate governance, development cooperation for sustainable governance, and scaling environmental solutions through a business and social justice lens.
The Seoul Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue is the inaugural event in APARC and the Ban Ki-moon Foundation’s joint effort to stimulate ambitious action to deliver the 2030 Agenda and SDGs. The annual Dialogue may rotate among different host cities in Asia to address different themes selected from the SDGs framework spearheaded by Mr. Ban Ki-moon during his term as the UN Secretary-General.
Visit the event page to register to attend the Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue in person in Seoul, as well as for the full program agenda and speaker list.
The event is also offered online via a live webcast: watch the live-streamed sessions on the event page or via the Ban Ki-moon Foundation’s YouTube channel.
About the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center
The Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center (Shorenstein APARC) addresses critical issues affecting the countries of Asia, their regional and global affairs, and U.S.-Asia relations. As Stanford University’s hub for the interdisciplinary study of contemporary Asia, APARC produces policy-relevant research, provides education and training to students, scholars, and practitioners, and strengthens dialogue and cooperation between counterparts in the Asia-Pacific and the United States. Founded in 1983, APARC today is home to a scholar community of distinguished academics and practitioners in government, business, and civil society, who specialize in trends that cut across the entire Asia-Pacific region. For more, visit aparc.stanford.edu.
About the Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future
The Ban Ki-moon Foundation For a Better Future follows and further develops the achievement and philosophy of Ban Ki-moon, the 8th Secretary General of the United Nations through upholding the values of unification, communication and co-existence, and dedication. It promotes three pillars of the UN including peace and security, development, and human rights and contributes to making a better future devoid of conflict and deficiency. In particular, the Ban Ki-moon Foundation actively collaborates with the UN, international organizations, and stakeholders toward achieving the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals and realizing the 2050 carbon net-zero of all state parties of the Paris Climate Accord of 2015. For more, visit http://eng.bf4bf.or.kr/.
Media Contact
Journalists interested in covering the event should contact Shorenstein APARC’s Communications Manager, Michael Breger at mbreger@stanford.edu. For further information on the Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue, please contact Cheryll Alipio, Shorenstein APARC’s Associate Director for Program and Policy at calipio@stanford.edu.
The Trans-Pacific Sustainability Dialogue convenes social science researchers and scientists from Stanford University and across the Asia-Pacific region, alongside student leaders, policymakers, and practitioners, to generate new research and policy partnerships to accelerate the implementation of the United Nations-adopted Sustainable Development Goals. The inaugural Dialogue will be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, on October 27 and 28, 2022.
Echo Chambers, Rabbit Holes, and Algorithmic Bias: How YouTube Recommends Content to Real Users
Join the Program on Democracy and the Internet (PDI) and moderator Nate Persily, for the next seminar in the Fall Seminar Series, Echo Chambers, Rabbit Holes, and Algorithmic Bias: How YouTube Recommends Content to Real Users with Joshua Tucker, Professor of Politics, Director of the Jordan Center for the Advanced Study of Russia, Co-Director of New York University's Center for Social Media and Politics(CSMaP), Affiliated Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, and Affiliated Professor of Data Science.
To what extent does the YouTube recommendation algorithm push users into echo chambers, ideologically biased content, or rabbit holes? Despite growing popular concern, recent work suggests that the recommendation algorithm is not pushing users into these echo chambers. However, existing research relies heavily on the use of anonymous data collection that does not account for the personalized nature of the recommendation algorithm. We asked a sample of real users to install a browser extension that downloaded the list of videos they were recommended. We instructed these users to start on an assigned video and then click through 20 sets of recommendations, capturing what they were being shown in real time as they used the platform logged into their real accounts. Using a novel method to estimate the ideology of a YouTube video, we demonstrate that the YouTube recommendation algorithm does, in fact, push real users into mild ideological echo chambers where, by the end of the data collection task, liberals and conservatives received different distributions of recommendations from each other, though this difference is small. While we find evidence that this difference increases the longer the user followed the recommendation algorithm, we do not find evidence that many go down `rabbit holes' that lead them to ideologically extreme content. Finally, we find that YouTube pushes all users, regardless of ideology, towards moderately conservative and an increasingly narrow range of ideological content the longer they follow YouTube's recommendations.
This session is part of the Fall Seminar Series, a months-long series from the Program on Democracy and the Internet, designed to bring researchers, policy makers, scholars and industry professionals together to share research, findings and trends in the cyber policy space. Both in-person and virtual attendance is available; registration is required. Lunch will be provided for in-person attendees.
About the Speaker:
Joshua A. Tucker is Professor of Politics, an affiliated Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, and an affiliated Professor of Data Science at New York University. He is the Director of NYU’s Jordan Center for Advanced Study of Russia. He is one of the co-founders and co-Directors of the NYU Center for Social Media and Politics (CSMaP) and the Social Media and Political Participation (SMaPP) laboratory.
WATCH
The Microeconomics of Disinformation
Join the Program on Democracy and the Internet (PDI) and moderator Nate Persily, in conversation with Tim Hwang, General Counsel of Substack, for a look at how microeconomics and disinformation are connected. Despite the tendency to wildly speculate on the future of disinformation and next-generation psychological operations, the vast majority of propagandists are rank pragmatists. How might microeconomic principles help us understand how disinformation campaigns are actually organized, and the kinds of tactics they are likely to deploy going into the future? This session will explore some early research exploring the small but critical incentives that shape tactical decisionmaking around disinformation efforts, and how such a framework might be used to ground threat modeling going forwards.
This session is part of the Fall Seminar Series, a months-long series designed to bring researchers, policy makers, scholars and industry professionals together to share research, findings and trends in the cyber policy space. Both in-person and virutal attendance is available; registration is required.
About the Speaker:
Tim Hwang is a writer and researcher, currently the general counsel at Substack. He’s the author of Subprime Attention Crisis, a book about the online advertising bubble. He’s a research fellow at the Center for Security and Emerging Technology, is on the board of Meedan, and is an investor in Temescal Brewing. Previous work includes serving as the director of the Harvard-MIT Ethics and Governance of AI Initiative, $27M philanthropic fund and research effort working to advance the development of machine learning in the public interest. He also was the global public policy lead for artificial intelligence and machine learning at Google.
WATCH
Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China
The Hoover Project on China’s Global Sharp Power and the Stanford Center for International Security and Cooperation
invite you to
Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China
Featuring
Hal Brands
Michael Beckley
Larry Diamond
Glenn Tiffert
About the Speakers
Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He writes a weekly column for Bloomberg Opinion on foreign policy and is the author or editor of several books, including his newest books, The Twilight Struggle: What the Cold War Teaches Us About Great-Power Rivalry Today, and Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, with Michael Beckley. He is a member of the State Department’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board and previously worked as a special assistant to the secretary of defense.
Michael Beckley is an associate professor of political science at Tufts University and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. He is a leading expert on the balance of power between the United States and China, and the author of two books and multiple award-winning articles. Previously, Professor Beckley was an International Security Fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, the RAND Corporation, and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He continues to advise offices within the U.S. intelligence community and U.S. Department of Defense.
Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. He co-chairs the Hoover Institution’s programs on China’s Global Sharp Power and on Taiwan in the Indo-Pacific Region.
Glenn Tiffert is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution and a historian of modern China. He co-chairs the Hoover project on China’s Global Sharp Power and works closely with government and civil society partners to document and build resilience against authoritarian interference with democratic institutions. Most recently, he co-authored and edited Global Engagement: Rethinking Risk in the Research Enterprise (2020).
Hybrid