Director's Message

What is the Buffett Center? We are Northwestern University’s main forum for engendering and sustaining multi-disciplinary research and teaching on international affairs. Our faculty affiliates are drawn from all of Northwestern’s schools from disciplines as wide-ranging as history, political science, sociology, musicology, law, preventive medicine, Slavic languages, and anthropology. The geographical interests of these affiliates range from China to Latin America, North Africa to Chechnya. We also support an active visiting faculty and researcher community, whose interests and talents augment those of our regular faculty and students.

Most of our activities take the form of informal presentations in reading groups, research teams, and talks. Such activities frequently involve faculty, graduate students and undergraduates. We also sponsor more formal academic conferences, and working papers. The talented, multi-lingual staff of the Buffett Center provides key support services to many programs.

This website provides a wealth of information about our dynamic programming. We are always looking for new and exciting ideas, however, and are happy to hear from any member of the Northwestern community who wishes to propose new activities. We also welcome comments about our programs and projects from those outside Northwestern.

The reality of today’s world demands a citizenry that is better informed about international affairs and more attuned to international developments than were previous generations. I hope that our site and our programming can play a significant role in creating future global citizens.

Hendrik Spruyt
Director,
Roberta Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies