SNF Dialogues
DIVERSE OPINIONS NEW WAYS OF THINKING
Curated & Moderated by:
Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou
Anna-Kynthia Bousdoukou
Upcoming event
Tuesday 30 April 2024
The SNF Dialogues is set to host a public speaking event that underscores libraries’ vital role in promoting civic engagement and strengthening democracy at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library in New York.
Topics
Thursday 30 November 2023
Three Greek long-term survivors of HIV and one doctor share their stories about living through the dark days of the HIV/ AIDS epidemic before anti-retroviral medication became available.
Topics
Friday 15 December 2023
What are the prospects and implications of space travel and how will it affect us all? The SNF Dialogues discuss with Dr. Tanya Harrison, planetary scientist, and Mars expert, seeking answers to the above questions.
Topics
Tuesday 28 November 2023
The SNF Dialogues shed light on the devastating impact of different types of conflict on the environment by examining different cases around the world.
Topics
Tuesday 28 November 2023
The SNF Dialogues explore the realm of brain-computer interfaces with Neurology and Ethics expert, Dr. James Giordano.
Topics
Wednesday 25 October 2023
Insect populations around the world are in a dramatic decline; this poses great risks to both ecological balance and human life. In this partly animated video interview, Professor Dave Goulson discusses the catastrophic implications of a total insect collapse and tells us what we can do to stop it.
Events on demand
Alternative Stage, GNO
The vicious cycle of political polarization not only gives rise to political issues, but also raises moral and mental health concerns. Is there a way to break free?
iMEdD International Journalism Forum
In an age when crises are extensively documented and breaking news constantly floods our screens, new information has become something that can lead us to disengage rather than energizing us.
2:01'
Antonis Tritsis Metropolitan Park Open Theater - General and accessible entry through Entrance A (on Moustaklis Street).
The SNF Dialogues returned for an in-person discussion on the evolving role and meaning of public space.
TOPICS
Through podcasts, videos, and multimedia content of all kinds, the SNF Dialogues explore different angles and shed light on the issues that define us all.
OPINIONS
Speakers, experts, and citizens share their knowledge and experience on every possible field of science, culture, or just everyday life, keeping the Dialogue alive.
Public Libraries: A Quiet Force to Strengthen Democracy
Anthony W. Marx
Beyond Spectators: Can we reconfigure representative democracy?
Darren Lilleker
A Call for Civility in a Polarized Democracy
Peter Ditto
Dialoguers
Anthony Marx
President of The New York Public Library
We must continue to invest in libraries, so they can keep quietly strengthening and fortifying our democracy, whether it's through standing up against book bans, author talks that connect neighbors with little in common, or a being a welcoming space when all other doors are closed.
Appears on:
57
Beyond Books: How libraries can serve the public
Tanya Harrison
Co-Founder and Director, Earth and Planetary Institute of Canada
People tend to assume that the struggles that we're going to run into with sending humans to Mars are technological. Can we feed them? Can we keep them warm? Can we keep them healthy? But I don't think we fully understand what the mental impact will be.
James Giordano
Professor of Neurology, Biochemistry and Ethics at Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington DC USA
It is critical to discern science fact from science fiction, and to define the actual capabilities, and limitations of both brain-computer interfacing technologies, and of those individuals and groups that are engaged in their development, use, and regulation.
Darren Lilleker
Professor of Political Communication at Bournemouth University
Digital technologies allow everyone to have a voice to some extent. Anyone can speak, but not everyone can be heard.
Appears on:
56
Spectators or Citizens?
Laurie Ouellette
Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of Minnesota
What the media are trying to do is not to passivize citizens, but to activate them as fans. They are blurring boundaries between information and entertainment and politics.
Appears on:
56
Spectators or Citizens?
Timothy Shaffer
Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Chair of Civil Discourse and Director of the SNF Ithaca Initiative
Where is that line [between citizenship and journalism]? It is that sense of professional expectations of what it means to be a journalist. But I would almost flip it; how much do journalists think of themselves as citizens? How do we enable or support professionals to see themselves in a civic way?
Appears on:
56
Spectators or Citizens?
Lilliana Mason
Associate Professor of Political Science at the SNF Agora Institute of Johns Hopkins University
Leaders have a big role to play (…) Their motivations are often based on how to get more votes and how to get more money and…[they] create more conflict to get those things. Having leaders be more responsible participants in democracy (…) could tone things down.
Appears on:
55
Reconnecting in a Fractured Political Landscape
Peter Ditto
Professor of Psychological Science at the University of California, Irvine
When you feel that it’s morally offensive what the other side is doing…it creates anger, anxiety, very often fear, particularly when they are in power, and you could see the connections between the political and the personal in this sort of situation.
Appears on:
55
Reconnecting in a Fractured Political Landscape
Carlo Barbante
Director of Italy's Institute of Polar Sciences
What is happening in polar regions, doesn’t stay in polar regions. It affects the ocean, the atmosphere, and the continents at lower latitudes.
Esther Duflo
Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics at the Department of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Co-founder and co-director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
The…mistake is that we are focusing too much on economic growth. That should not be an end, that should be a means. The end would be welfare in developing countries. Simple things, like being alive, not dying in infancy or in childbirth, being able to go to school…
Foteini Tsalikoglou
Author and Professor of Psychology at Panteion University
Our psyche is a product of dialogue, as, from the moment that we are born, we are part of a relationship. There is no ‘I’ without an ‘other.’ From this initial condition derive the difficulties, but also the beauty, that shape the adventures of our psyche.
Appears on:
38
The Psychological Effects of a Year Living with Covid-19
Nikos Alivizatos
Emeritus Professor of Constitutional Law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Everyone has the right to define themselves as they wish, and to believe whatever they want, but when they coexist with others, they cannot set the rules of the whole game.
Appears on:
37
Τhe Power of Dialogue
Alondra Nelson
President of the Social Science Research Council and Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University
More than ever before it’s both important to have real experts at the table and those who are not experts but live with the consequences of the decisions that are being made by a technocratic society.
Appears on:
33
The Interplay between Technology and Democracy: Pοtential and limitations
Thodoris Chondrogiannos
Journalist
Dogfighting is inextricably linked to other crimes. When we investigate the issue of dogfighting, it's like investigating arms and drug dealing.
Appears on:
23
Cruelty toward Animals
Dimitris Christopoulos
Professor at the Department of Political Science and History at Panteion University
The purpose of dialogue is not to deliver compliments. Dialogue is necessary in difficult situations and arguments, where our patience and tolerance are being tested.
Appears on:
37
Τhe Power of Dialogue
Alex Piquero
Chair of the Department of Sociology and Criminology and Distinguished Scholar of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami
One of the strongest risk factors for later violence is exposure to violence.
Appears on:
50
Manifestations of violence
Giannis Vassilopoulos
Member of the SNF Nostos Youth Advisory Committee
Social media has found a way to satisfy a need that is not met by our social circles.
Appears on:
52
Generation Social
Eric Klinenberg
Professor of Social Sciences at New York University
A public space is an essential part of modern democratic life.
Appears on:
44
The Return to Public Space,
50
Manifestations of violence
Walter Puchner
Professor Emeritus of Theater Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
Ancient tragedy had a mechanism that starts with hubris, which involves a human being, a mortal, transgressing the laws of the gods and being punished for it. And, today, we are in a parallel situation, in the sense that we are breaking the laws of nature, the absolute standard.
Appears on:
54
Modern political values, ancient drama
Irene Moundraki
Dramaturg and Head of the Drama, Library, Archive and International Relations Departments of the National Theatre of Greece
Theater does not simply reflect the ideas of philosophy, but also raises big questions that concern humankind and, I think, will always concern it.
Appears on:
54
Modern political values, ancient drama
Demetres Karavellas
CEO of WWF Greece
Climate change has become a crisis because we are already living it, and we have reached the point where reality confirms, or even exceeds, forecasts. Moreover, there is also the time factor; the fact that time is running out, and now is the time for change. The crisis is the harbinger of the need for change.
Appears on:
26
Climate Change
Thibeaux Hirsh
Member of the SNF Nostos Youth Advisory Committee
I’ve found social media to provide a sort of distorted reality as a result of the algorithms, the feedback loops, and for myself it has resulted in a lower general appreciation for life than when I’m off social media.
Appears on:
52
Generation Social
Harold S. Koplewicz
Founding President and Medical Director of the Child Mind Institute
The stigma attached to mental disorders for years prevented parents from seeking help. It is time, because of the pandemic, to think about our mental health, especially that of our children.
Appears on:
38
The Psychological Effects of a Year Living with Covid-19,
51
Mental Health
Stelios Virvidakis
Professor of Epistemology and Ethics at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens
We cannot always decide on a moral dilemma on the basis of the use of algorithms.
Appears on:
45
Humanity - AI Symbiosis
Prodromos Zanis
Professor of Meteorology and Climatology at the School of Geology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Human beings may be small compared to nature, but they are big enough to disrupt it.
Appears on:
46
Climate Change - Part 2
Isobel Bruce
Digital Campaign Director at Purpose in London
Many movements have behaved intelligently. They’ve been able to use social media to enhance campaigns, enhance the dissemination and diffusion of messages, to reach out to more and diverse audiences.
Appears on:
53
Social Media and Social Change
Prodromos Tsinikoris
Director – Dramaturge
Τhe main role of art is to open a dialogue with the audience, which in cases such as theater, dance, or concerts has the role of co-creator, seeking common ground on how we envision society.
Appears on:
31
Art on Lockdown
Rinu Oduala
Founder of Connect Hub Nigeria and Activist
Social media platforms allow young people to drive meaningful political discussion and dialogue about what is happening. The platforms have provided the necessary space.
Appears on:
53
Social Media and Social Change
About
QUESTIONS, CONCERNS, DEVELOPMENTS, AND NEW DATA ARE UPDATED CONSTANTLY. IN A RAPIDLY CHANGING WORLD IN AN INCREASINGLY DIGITAL ENVIRONMENT, WE ALL SEEK ANSWERS FOR THE PRESENT, AND GUIDANCE AS WE ENVISION THE FUTURE, THROUGH IDEAS, INSPIRATION, AND ACTION.
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Dialogues
273
Unique Dialoguers
21
Different Locations