News

Sochua Mu, president of the Khmer Movement for Democracy, discusses what brought her to engage in Cambodian politics, her current exile and the political climate in her home country. As new laws try to strip opposition leaders of their citizenship, Cambodia is becoming a hotbed for cybercrime. In the diaspora, Mu and others have founded the Kem Ley Freedom Academy, which educates youth on democratic principles and inspires them to lead Cambodia into a more hopeful future.

Dr. Bhiken Naik is an anesthesiologist and critical care specialist at the University of Virginia whose work sits at the intersection of surgery, data, and global health equity. Originally from Johannesburg, South Africa, he brings both clinical expertise and personal perspective to his research on improving surgical outcomes in resource-limited settings. He was recently awarded a research grant from the Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation which supported his efforts to create the ACCESS Program (African Collaborative on Surgical Data Equity and System Strengthening).

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.