This fall’s Presidential Colloquium at Hope College on Monday, Nov. 10, will look to the future, exploring what current trends will lead the world to look like in two decades.
Scott Aughenbaugh, who is a deputy director of Strategic Futures at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), will present “Our World in 2035: Seven Revolutionary Trends That Will Change Everything" at 4 p.m. at the Knickerbocker Theatre in downtown Holland.
The public is invited. Admission is free.
The presentation will consider the global trends in seven key areas, population, resource management, technology, information and knowledge, economics, security and governance, and the world in which they will result in 20 years. What, for example, will be the impact of a global population of nine billion by the middle of the century and the resulting challenges for the availability of food, water and energy resources? How will society balance the benefits of technological innovation and advanced communication with the threat of cyber security? How will global economic integration and governance affect trade, markets and commerce overall?
Aughenbaugh, who specializes in global trends and forecasting, has briefed the findings of his research to, and led discussions with, numerous colleges and universities, corporations and government agencies. His presentation at Hope will additionally connect to an ongoing strategic planning process at the college which began last fall, offering additional consideration of how the changes to come will affect higher education and Hope.
More information about the Seven Revolutions is available on the CSIS website, located at http://csis.org/program/seven-revolutions.
Aughenbaugh previously led the CSIS Abshire-Inamori Leadership Academy’s Higher Education Initiative in conjunction with the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) and worked for the Center’s Office of External Relations. He holds a B.A. in history and politics and government from Ohio Wesleyan University and an M.A. in history, with a focus on the Cold War, Europe and China, from Kent State University. He has also worked at the Lyman L. Lemnitzer Center for NATO and EU Studies at Kent State University and studied at Beijing University.
The Presidential Colloquium is a semi-annual lecture series that brings prominent, internationally known thinkers to Hope. Through lectures and other engagements with the campus, the speakers will share their insights on the academy, leadership and global civic engagement. The desire is that they will challenge Hope to deeper conversation on these topics, which furthers the college’s mission “to educate students for lives of leadership and service in a global society.”
The series was established in conjunction with the inaugural year of President John C. Knapp, who became the college’s 12th president on July 1, 2013. It debuted in September 2013 with presentations by Dr. Richard Carwardine, who is an internationally recognized expert on Abraham Lincoln and president of Corpus Christi College of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It continued in March with the keynote address “Mandela’s Children: Shaping a University” and other presentations by Professor H. Russel Botman, rector and vice-chancellor of Stellenbosch University, who died on Friday, June 27, at age 60.
The Knickerbocker Theatre is located at 86 E. Eighth St., between College and Columbia avenues.