Dear Friends:
It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the start of the 2016-2017 academic year, the Watson Institute's 25th Anniversary. Throughout the semester, we will be celebrating this milestone with engaging speakers, new research true to our core tenets, and open and informed discussions about the critical issues of our time. We hope you will enjoy this short video featuring key members of our community looking forward to the next 25 years at the Watson Institute.
As we continue to grow in a changing world, I'm proud to highlight some important additions to our collective research and outreach efforts. This semester we are inaugurating the Humanitarian Innovation Initiative (HI2), the Africa Initiative, and the Center for Contemporary South Asia. We also welcome the Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, a leading scholarly publication that will now be housed at the Institute.
In the midst of a highly divisive U.S. presidential election, a hyperbolic media environment, and a series of roiling societal debates extending across the world and right to the heart of our campus, I believe that the Watson Institute can be -- and, indeed, must be -- an important source of light. As indicated by our programming on the American elections, programming that will be complemented by efforts from several of our regional centers, we will not shrink from the toughest, most contentious issues. For all of the topics and challenges our students, faculty, and visitors seek to address, we will continue to explore myriad perspectives and seek new, empirically grounded truths through cross-disciplinary, comparative research and teaching.
Over the coming weeks, be on the lookout for Explore, our newly redesigned e-newsletter that will keep you up to date on the Watson Institute's latest news and research.
I greatly look forward to hearing from you in the months to come.
Best,
Ed
P.S. I'm pleased to draw your attention to a new search function on our website. "Find an Expert" will help connect policymakers, journalists, and other members of our global audience to the Watson Institute faculty whose expertise they seek.
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