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Fulbright Canada 30th Anniversary Speaker Series
The Right to Belong: A New Framework for Addressing Equality, Inclusion, and Sustainability in the Age of COVID
Kim Samuel,
Founder of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness
Please register online: fulbrightcanada.zoom.us
“In the age of the pandemic, climate change, inequality, and social division, this lecture will explore an emerging human rights framework for addressing diverse modern challenges. The Right to Belong is a new vision for social solidarity and sustainability that applies to public policy, business, nonprofit management, healthcare, education, and other fields.” - Kim Samuel
Join us on Thursday, December 10 at 2 PM EST. for a special speaker series talk with activist, professor, and researcher, Kim Samuel who has been on the frontlines of today’s movement for belonging. Kim is the Founder of the Samuel Centre for Social Connectedness, President of the Samuel Family Foundation, and has lectured at institutions including Oxford, Harvard, and McGill universities.
A pioneer in academic study and policy advocacy on issues of social isolation and belonging, Kim combines writing, teaching, and direct programmatic work to support communities in overcoming diverse social, economic, and environmental challenges in the 21st Century. She is currently working on a book on the Right to Belong, to be published by Abrams Press in 2022.
The crisis of COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated a range of deep, long-standing challenges facing humanity, including inequality, inadequate healthcare, fragile food systems, and social divisions. While political leaders around the world speak of the need to remake institutions and “build back better,” there is now a pressing need to define clear principles for governance in the post-COVID age. Just as the world emerged from the Second World War with a new global governance regime founded on the vision of human rights, there is an opportunity today to define new values and systems to meet a growing need for social solidarity and sustainability. This lecture will explore one such prospect: The Right to Belong. Drawing on decades of research at leading universities and programmatic work in international development and human rights, Kim Samuel will explore the meaning of belonging as an organizing principle for policymaking with deep roots in diverse cultures around the world. The discussion will explore possibilities for building the value of belonging into systems of education, healthcare, community development, business, environmental management, and government. The discussion will focus on specific current challenges related to the rights of older people, mental healthcare, and other issues, examining how principles of belonging can drive actionable and scalable solutions.
A Q&A session will follow.
We encourage you to share this public event with members of your network, either directly or via social media. Further, if you have any questions about the event, please contact Patrick Burke, Acting Director of Public Affairs, at (613) 688-5514 or pburke@fulbright.ca.
Fulbright Canada is pleased to be presenting a speaker series focused on the post-COVID world. In bringing Fulbright Canada subject-matter experts to our broader community, our goal is to create opportunities for thoughtful discussion on a range of critical issues such as supporting social cohesion and inclusion, enhancing public health and wellbeing, and contributing to digital transformation and economic recovery. Stay tuned for upcoming events!