The event is a preliminary workshop of Planetary Workshop series and an inter-/cross-disciplinary effort to initiate a conversation among scholars whose research grapples with planetary futures from various different perspectives.

In the first roundtable, Temporalities will serve as the overarching theme, and participants will explore human/nature relationship with time, evaluation of future and nature, and finally mortality.

The unifying theme for the second roundtable is Crisis, encompassing topics from extreme weather events, to global and transnational challenges posed by climate change, as well as technologies like geo-engineering that are intended for -- and may become -- crisis.

The third roundtable will focus on Resources and how their exploitation, appropriation, circulation and distribution shape and reshape power -- both past and future, and how humankind’s relationship with the planet is projected in their (in-)materiality and (in-)scarcity.

 The fourth roundtable is about Social where we will explore various actions and actors that are vested with or organized to have the power to move for and against the planet.

This event is a closed-door session, accessible by invitation only.

Contact: Yirong Sun, ys5086@nyu.edu

Legal and political discourse about digital technologies focus on whether and how the technology should be regulated—including discussions about machine learning, often grouped under the umbrella of Artificial Intelligence or “AI”. This panel will shift the focus to ask how the proliferation of AI impacts the practice of international law(-making). Examples abound. International organizations are increasingly using AI for operational and advisory functions, commercial technology companies are becoming active players in global law-making, data modeling and AI are emerging as central to planetary governance, and AI is challenging established concepts and rubrics of international economic law. This roundtable will convene a conversation among scholars and practitioners about “next-generation international law” How does our digital turn affect international legal decision-making? How might our model of diplomacy be rethought in light of technological advances? What role do AI and other digital technologies play in negotiating our geopolitical and climate challenges?

Panelists: Victoria Adelmant, Adele Barzelay, Laura O’Brien, Thomas Streinz, Yirong Sun