About The Forum

The UCI Forum for the Academy and the Public is a collaborative project between the Literary Journalism Program, the School of Humanities, and the School of Law that bridges the university and the public through conferences and pop-ups that tackle the most pressing issues of our time. Led by Amy Wilentz (Literary Journalism) and Jeff Wasserstrom (History) and international in scope, the Forum has tackled issues such as freedom of expression, justice and incarceration, and fake news. Former participants include a range of journalists, activists, scholars, novelists, and artists.

Professor Amy Wilentz, Literary Journalism, and Jeffrey Wasserstrom, History
Photo: Steve Zylius/UCI

We ostensibly live in a postcolonial age, but imperialist behaviors, broadly defined, have not gone away. On the contrary, they seem to be manifesting themselves in all sorts of contexts. The U.S. and the international community continue to intervene in Haiti and elsewhere in the hemisphere; China is asserting control in Hong Kong and presiding over a “soft empire” in many parts of the globe; and, of course, Putin is attempting to reconquer Ukraine and revive the old tsarist empire. Meanwhile, the residues of European empires persist, and the EU and NATO have imperialist aspects as well. This conference will consider all of these issues, as well as the impact of supranational empires such as tech, finance, and energy.

For our 2022 symposium, we take stock of the complicated impact the People’s Republic of China is having on the global order—and the ways that international trends are altering life in the world’s most populous country. Climate change, human rights abuses and debates, diplomatic relations, economic booms, financial crises, technological shifts, and, of course, pandemics—there is a need to come to terms with the PRC when considering any of these issues and many more as well.

Artificial intelligence is emerging as an important element in almost every aspect of human life. Yet little has been said or done about the overall implications of this huge leap forward in technology. At the Forum for the Academy and the Public’s 6th annual conference, experts and thinkers of all kinds will come together to discuss AI issues—for example, AI’s effects on democracy, climate, work, art, medicine, and war—and to help us understand what awaits the planet as humanity moves into a problematic technological future.

We’re taking a wide-ranging and provocative look at climate change at our 2019 conference, Fire and Ice: The Shifting Narrative of Climate Change. Legendary climate heroes and communicators Bill McKibben and Elizabeth Kolbert, as well as Nathaniel Rich of The New York Times, will join us to discuss why it’s so hard to alter the behaviors that exacerbate the problem and to talk about the importance of continuing to reach out and take action where we live and worldwide.

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