News

Polish youth activist Dominika Lasota discusses her journey from a shy teenager to a leading figure in transnational climate and social justice movements. Lasota highlights how climate justice, women's rights and democracy are interconnected. And she calls for reinvigorating democracy with a sense of global solidarity and community-focused climate action. Not recognizing our interdependence? As Lasota might say, “That’s delulu, honey.”

Recently, supported by a grant from the Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation, Professor Glen Bull has been conducting a research project that aims to promote collaboration between students in the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE) Jr. chapter at Albemarle High School and the Winam Fabrication Laboratory (FabLab) in Kenya. High school students in Charlottesville are designing 3D-printed microscopes that are being replicated at the site in Kenya while Kenyan students are designing a 3D-printed microcentrifuge that is being replicated in Virginia.

Q&A with Anastasia Dakouri-Hild, Associate Professor of Aegean and Near Eastern Art and Archaeology and curator of the Fralin exhibit The World Between: Egypt and Nubia in Africa.

Freddy Guevara joins us from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where he works as a research fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. Guevara is the former vice president of the Venezuelan Parliament, a freedom fighter, and is now a global democracy advocate. Before being forced into exile, he was a key figure in the opposition movement against the regime of Nicolás Maduro. Guevara responds to the recent US operation to depose Maduro, his ongoing trial in New York, and what this means for democracy movements worldwide.

CGII’s fall 2025 grant cycle was a successful one, if challenging.

Funded by a Global Programs of Distinction grant, the STAR Global Autism Initiative connects UVA researchers with partners in Kenya and Bolivia to co-create autism interventions. Professors Mandy Rispoli and Michaela DuBay reflect on the program's first year, the promise of reciprocal innovation, and the future of global autism research.

The Democratic Futures Project hosted the Resisting Illegal Government Detentions and Hostage-Taking (RIGHT) Coalition meeting at UVA’s Fairfax campus on September 17th, 2025.  The DFP’s involvement in this project emerged from DFP fellow and Global Studies faculty member Felix Maradiaga’s efforts to promote international advocacy and cooperation to prevent and deter the use of arbitrary detention against democratic advocates working in authoritarian regimes.

PhD candidate Robert Sanchis-Álvarez (Spanish, Italian & Portuguese) describes his discovery of a Spanish colonial-era newspaper from the Philippines at a flea market. With CGII funding, Sanchis was able to start a two-year process of preservation and repatriation.

This 10-minute video captures highlights from the 3rd Gugulethu Community-Researcher Indaba, held on 12 March 2025 in Gugulethu, Cape Town. The Research Indaba was organized by the Cape Town-based Movement for Change and Social Justice (MCSJ), the University of Cape Town, and the University of Virginia. The objective of the Indaba (a local word for ‘news’ or ‘meeting’) is to improve community health and well-being by promoting community-researcher engagement. The focus was on improving men’s health given the high levels of disease and death among South African men from TB, HIV, diabetes, hypertension and cancer, and from violence and injury. This Indaba presented relevant research to the local community to increase awareness, build social and research networks, and consider next steps for local solutions.

The Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation closes out the 2024-2025 academic year during what can only be described as a season of consequence and challenge. In the most important ways, this grant cycle has been enormously successful.