The Young Initiative invites foreign policy experts and guest speakers to campus to engage in discussions on international relations and the global political economy with students and faculty.
Annually: United Nations Week
With the William and Elizabeth Kahane United Nations Program, the Young Initiative supports the annual United Nations Week at Occidental College, each spring. We are passionate in maintaining students involvement and engagement in sustainable development. Our students choose topics that link Global Political Economy, Social Justice, and Sustainable Development.
One Day Conference - Data and the Feminist City Conference - September 30, 2025
The Young Initiative will host invited representatives from city governments from around the world for a one-day conference on the Oxy campus. Attendants will share experiences and best practices on reporting mechanisms to gather data, identify gaps in data collection, and help develop strategies for data-driven, actionable solutions.
Ongoing Young Speakers Events
Young Initiative speakers give students and faculty an opportunity to expand their understanding of global issues. The Young Initiative sponsors several speakers each academic year highlighting particular aspects of global affairs and the global political economy. The Young Speakers program is devoted to highlighting the work and success of eminent international affairs experts and Oxy alumni in public service and academia.
Fania Davis is a leading national voice on restorative justice. She is a civil rights lawyer, social justice advocate, restorative justice practitioner, writer and scholar with a PhD in Indigenous Knowledge. The Los Angeles Times named her a New Civil Rights Leader of the 21st Century.
Jennifer Llewellyn is a Professor of Law for the Schulich School of Law at Dalhousie University and the Director...
Michelle Jurkovich is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a Visiting Fellow at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Her research interests include international food security, ethics, economic and social rights, and human security.
For nearly three years the Young Initiative has partnered with the City of Los Angeles to adopt the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals on a local level. Multiple cohorts of Oxy students have participitated in SDG task forces, and this past summer was no different. 17 Oxy students were split up across 6 different city projects to advance the SDGs.
is incoming Assistant Professor of Government at William & Mary and Founder and Director of its International Justice Lab. Zvobgo’s research focuses on quasi-judicial bodies that have proliferated across the globe to fill the gaps left by domestic and international law and courts. Her work on such accountability mechanisms has extended to truth commissions and international...
Luis Moreno Ocampo is the former first Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, and Ted Braun is a noted documentarian and the Joseph Campbell Endowed Chair of Cinematic Ethics at USC.
The Young Initiative hosted and organized a series of incredibly enlightening workshops with an interdisciplinary cohort of leading human rights practitioners and scholars from three continents.
Perrin Shyne and Amirah Al-Sagr of The Occidental cover the student organizing efforts for UN Week 2020
Joseph S. Nye Jr. has consistently been named one of the most influential American political scientists in history. Nye co-created the international relations concepts of neoliberalism and smart power and is the former dean of Harvard's prestigious Kennedy School of Government.
On Thursday, February 13th, the Oxy UN Week Keynote speaker, Dr. Steven Were Omamo, explained his work on food insecurity in Ethiophia in connection to environmental justice and climate change.
A multi-disciplinary panel of professors challenge students to to use their expertise to fight climate change at all levels.