News

Ten years ago, the University of Virginia launched a program designed to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Today, the Global Studies Program empowers hundreds of students to tackle the complex global issues that will shape their futures and the world around them.

Katy Quissell, professor of public health in the School of Medicine and the Global Studies program, discusses her research project on moral social movements and policy change in Latin America, funded by a CGII grant. The project, co-designed with students, explores how activism in Latin America has led to policy changes in reproductive rights, contrasting with the U.S. context.

Migrant labor is essential to supporting the nation’s agricultural industry. To better understand how federal policies are shaping the future health of that work force, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reached out to UVA for help.

On August 4, 2024, the shadow of Pluto swept across the Earth cast by a star 500 times fainter than the eye can detect. As it happened, UVA Astronomy professor Michael Skrutskie staffed a brand new a new 0.5-meter Hubble Optics telescope in the middle of the Kalahari Desert in South Africa. Skrutskie was part of a six-person team, which also included four UWC faculty and students and fellow UVA Professor Anne Verbiscer. The team had spent about a week in Cape Town setting up the telescope, donated by UVA to UWC, before heading 500 miles north to view the occultation. In the approximately one-second-long event, they gained invaluable information about Pluto and its atmosphere.

Professors Tessa Farmer (Anthropology, Global Studies) and Phoebe Crisman (Architecture, Global Studies) spent the summer in Egypt where they worked on the collaborative research project “Water Reuse, Urban Agriculture, and Heritage Preservation in Cairo's al-Khalifa Neighborhood” in collaboration with Cairo-based Athar Lina Initiative. They spoke with UVA Global about how sustainability and cultural heritage preservation intertwine in this project and why the co-design process is essential to these goals.

UVA and Bologna have much to gain from collaboration on our mutual priorities.

UVA welcomed two distinguished faculty members from South Africa in April as part of a collaborative initiative supported by the Center for Global Health Equity (CGHE).

In Spring 2024, the Center for Global Inquiry + Innovation awarded its latest round of grants to support impactful global research endeavors led by faculty and graduate students.

Alongside her interdisciplinary team and students, Mandy Rispoli actively adapts interventions that facilitate a two-way exchange of knowledge and practices between the US and Kenya.

This month, more than 40 prominent democracy activists from around the world met at UVA under the banner of the “People Power Academy.”