Lectures & Conferences

Critical minerals and energy security: Governance challenges and risk-mitigation solutions,” panelist, ENI Political Talks, June 8, 2022.

Discursive dimensions of ecological civilization” Uniting Ecology and Civilization: Histories, Theories, Futures, NYU Athens, organized by the eARThumanities NYU Abu Dhabi, the Rachel Carson Center, LMU and the Center for Ecological History, Renmin University, Beijing May 27-28, 2022.

“Critical but not rare: Building European rare earth and permanent magnets value chains,” panelist, EIT Raw Materials Summit, Berlin, May 23-24, 2022.

Moderator and speaker at The EU: Canada’s Partner for Supply Chain Diversification, EU Chamber of Commerce in Canada, February 16, 2022.

Speaker in The Geopolitics of Critical Minerals Policy Lab Discussion,  Foreign Policy Research and Foresight Division (POR) at Global Affairs Canada (GAC),  December 15, 2021.

Discussant for “Collision Course: The 1980s and the Transformation of Water Politics in Asia,” Sunil Amrith, Professor of History, Yale University, India-China Institute, The New School, September 23, 2021.

“Between Rocks and Hard Places: Geopolitics of Net Zero Futures and the Tech Imperium,” Summer Institute at Caltech and the Huntington, Convener and panelist, July 12-14, 2021.

“Evoke and Provoke: story making and storytelling for the Anthropocene” workshop, NYUAD Anthropocene Kitchen, June-July 2021.

 “Strategic partnership or systemic Rivalry in a Microcosm: ΕU and China in Djibouti,” European Union in International Affairs’ (EUIA) Conference, Brussels, May 26-28, 2021 (held virtually).

Himalayan Water Security: An Unfolding Global Challenge,” in discussion with David Michel (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) and Mark Swislocki (NYUAD)

 “Rich Rocks, the Climate Crisis, and the Tech-Imperium,” The William and Myrtle Harris Distinguished Lecture in Science and Civilization, Caltech, April 14, 2021.

“Belts and Roads in Environmental Perspective” with Maria Adele Carrai, Yifei Li, Galen Murton and Ayesha Omer, New York Center for Global Asia, NYUAD Institute, April 8, 2021.

Between Rocks and Hard Places: Critical Minerals, Climate Change and the Future of Globalization, with Chris Berry (President of House Mountain Partners, LLC), February 4, 2021 eARThumanities.

 Conference organizer and panel moderator, “The Himalayas: Hotspot of Geopolitics?” The Himalayas: Geopolitics and Ecology of Melting Mountains, inaugural conference of The Geopolitics and Ecology of the Himalayas Research Initiative at NYUAD, October 29, 2020.

Respondent, “Does Energy Cause Ethnic War? East Mediterranean and Caspian Sea Natural Gas and Regional Conflicts,” Andreas Stergiou, Associate Professor at the Department of Economics University of Thessaly, Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University, February 28, 2020.

Embracing the Dragon: Greece Becomes the 17th plus 1,” Seeger Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies (PIIRS), European Union Program, The Paul Sarbanes ’54 Fund for Hellenism and Public Service, Princeton University, February 25, 2020.

Showdown in Djibouti: Geopolitics in the BRI Era,” Port City Environments in Global Asia
Second Annual Conference, NYUAD, January 16, 2020.

Discussant for, “Fueling Revolution: Carbon Technocracy in the Early People’s Republic of China,” Victor Seow, Professor Harvard University, India China Institute, The New School, November 14, 2019.

“Europe and China: Face-Off in the Horn of Africa,” European Union Program, Princeton University, October 9, 2019.

“How can Ethiopia help bring Europe and China closer together in light of the BRI?”  United Nations Conference Center, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, May 28, 2019, Jean Monnet Network: The European Union, Africa and China in the Global Age. 

The Life Worlds of Middle Eastern Oil,” NYU Abu Dhabi, 15-16 April 2019, panel chair “Petroleum Ecologies and Geologies: Between Destruction and Hope.”

Rare Earth Geopolitics: A case of Economic Statecraft?” NYU Shanghai, April 8 2019.

“City Environments around the Globe: A Multidisciplinary Research, Teaching and Exchange Project,” NYUAD eARThumanities – RCC/LMU conference, Abu Dhabi, February 10-11, 2019, (conference organizer and convener)

Energy Outlook 2019: The Year of Transition, Gulf Intelligence UAE Forum 2019 “Kick off 2020 – Countdown to the Presidential Election?” in conversation with Frank Luntz, Abu Dhabi, January 9, 2019.

Environmental Pasts – Environmental Futures: Perspectives on China
Workshop at Peking University November 24, 2018, “Global Environmental Visions and Governance: Perspectives on China’s Relationship with the European Union,” part of the 4th Scientific Forum of LMU’s China Academic Network (ChAN).

“Geostrategic and Institutional Implications of the expansion of China’s belt and road initiative into the European Union,” Central Bank of Hungary, October 25, 2018, Budapest, Hungary.

Rare Earths Revisited: The US-China Trade War,” October 24, 2018, Budapest, Hungary.

International Conference on Environmental Humanities, Stories, Myths, and Arts to Envision a Change, Instituto Franklin, Alcalá de Henares, Alcalá Spain, July 3-6 2018, An Environmental Humanities Pedagogy of Radical Hope: A Collaborative Approach to Inspiriting Sustainability Transformations.

Environmental Humanities Summit, Schloss Hohenkammer GmbH, 29 June-1 July, 2018.

“Beyond Climate Change: Shaping the Future of Humanity,” NYU Global Leadership Summit, NYU Shanghai, May 18-20, 2018. (organizational team and speaker)

Oberseminar, “History, Culture, Environment,” Studienhaus Gut Schönwag, Germany 4-6 May, 2018.

The Art of Conversation on Climate,” interview with Matthew Corcoran, NYUAD, February 28, 2018.

Jean Monnet Network ‘The European Union, Africa and China in the Global Age’ (EU-EAC), “Training and Dialogue on Regional Integration”, Tuesday 27 February 2018, Kampala, Uganda.

“China’s Belt and Road: In or out of step with the Anthropocene?” NYUAD eARThumanities – RCC conference, Abu Dhabi, February 2018 (conference organizer and convener)

Author Meets Critics: National Hellenic Research Foundation, “Καινοτόμες τεχνολογίες, κυκλική οικονομία, σπάνιες γαίες και ο παράγοντας Κίνα για την Ελλάδα και τον κόσμο” (Innovative Technologies, the circular economy, rare earths and the China factor for Greece and the World), organized jointly by the Center for Research and Technology Hellas and the Institute of International Economic Relations, January 17, 2018, Athens, Greece.

Recurring Earthquakes and the Rebirth of Hope,” Workshop of Radical Hope, The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU, Munich, Germany, July 3, 2017.

“OPEC and the Global Energy Order: From its Origins to the Present Time,” NYU Abu Dhabi, 18-20 April 2017.

“Millennials Are Not Ready to Takeover Oil & Gas Industry from the Baby Boomers,” The 8th Gulf Intelligence UAE Energy Forum, Knowledge Debate Series, Abu Dhabi, UAE, January 11, 2017.

“River Rights and the Rights of Rivers: The Case of Acheloos,” Rights of Nature in Transatlantic Perspective Conference, The Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society, LMU, Munich, Germany, July 20, 2016.

“Cherry picking migrants: The Talented and the Others,” ESCP Conference on the Race for Global Talent, Paris, June 8, 2016.  

“Η Αλλη Μέση Ανατολή: Η Ελλάδα και οι Χώρες του Περσικού Κόλπου,”  (The other Middle East: Greece and the GCC), Ινστιτούτο Διεθνών Οικονομικών Σχέσεων (Institute of International Economic Relations), Athens, June 6, 2016.

“China: How the environmental crisis makes transition to a low carbon economy the only way forward,” Academic Lecture, University of the Peloponnese, Jean Monnet Program of International Affairs, April 1, 2016.  

“Women in Energy: How to Accelerate Progress,” The Qatar SHELL IPTC 2015 Knowledge Series, Doha, December 2015.

“The Mysteries of the Stymphalian Lake,” Piraeus Bank Group Cultural Foundation, Athens, October 2015.

“From Brussels to Beijing: A Budding Relationship to Shape the Anthropocene?” Colloquium, Rachel Carson Center, July 2015, Munich, Germany

“China and the Geopolitics of Rare Earths,” Office of Strategic Affairs, Crown Prince Court, Abu Dhabi, March 2015.  

“Carbon Initiatives and Global Economy,” at the ‘The ADNOC WFES Knowledge Forum,’ Abu Dhabi, January 2015.

“US-China Climate Change Agreement: Historic, Pivotal or merely a good headline?” Energy Developments in a changing world: Political, economic and legal realignments, Conference at NYUAD, January 2015.

“The outcome of the Greek Elections and the ongoing Euro Crisis,” Boenning and Scattergood Lecture, January 2015.

Understanding the New Europe: Democracy and Politics”; “The History of the Formation of the EU”;  “The Nature and threat of the Euro crisis and its impact on the European project “; “Europe-US: A frayed relationship that continues to matter”;  “Climate Change: The Great ‘Asymmetric Threat’ of our generation”; “The Future of the European Project: Opportunities, challenges, dangers and growing public discontent”; Lectures for the Faculty Resource Network Seminar funded by a grant from the European Union, American College of Greece in Athens, Greece, January 2014.

“How can the Energy Industry Help STEM the Global Talent Challenge?” The SHELL Knowledge Forum’ November 13, 2014, ADIPEC, Abu Dhabi.

“Climate Change and the Global Debate on Green Growth,” University of Piraeus, Masters of Energy Program, Greece, October 2014.

“The Mediterranean Turtle and the work of Achelon,” August 2014 (Agios Nikolaos and Gialova, Messinia, Greece)

“Rare Earths: Resource Competition and Green Growth,” The Center for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), Thessaloniki, Greece (2013)

Global Distribution and Competition over Energy Resources and the Southeast Mediterranean Region” at Eastern Mediterranean conference, The Center for European and Mediterranean Studies and the Remarque Institute, NYU (2013)

Women in and of the World:  Lessons in Leadership” joint lecture at the Brademas Center for the Study of Congress, NYU, with Michele Flournoy, former U.S. Undersecretary of Defense (2013).

Resource Competition in the Age of the BRICS”; “Geostrategic Competition over Rare Earths”; “Energy Security:  U.S. vs China”, “The Failure in America of the Rhetoric of Sustainability and Green Growth”; “Europe’s 2020 Strategy Derailed by Natural Gas?” –set of five invited lectures at the Department of International and European Studies at the University of Piraeus (2013)

“America: Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection,” documentary series for China’s Dalian Television Channel 1 (DLTV-1), Fall 2013.

“And the Strong will inherit the Earth: China’s Strategy for Cornering the Rare Earths Market”, NYU Abu Dhabi (2012)

“Is the European Economic Crisis Overshadowing Efforts to Combat

Climate Change?” Columbia University Seminar for Legal, Social and Economic Environmental Issues, Columbia University (2011)

“The Greek Debt Crisis and the Future of the Greek Banking System,” the Boenning and Scattergood Lecture, NYC (2011)

“The EU Response to Climate Change:  A Paradigm of Leadership?” University of Thessaloniki (2010)

“Creating a Sustainable Athens for the 21st century,” NYU (2010)

“The Challenges of Ecosystem Management” with Shelby White, Leon Levy Foundation, NYU (2010)