Vulnerable Brains in a Divided World: How to establish Sustainable Solidarity

Keynote speech with Dr. Liya Yu on Vulnerable Brains in a Divided World: How to establish sustainable solidarity from the viewpoint of our exclusionary and racist brains - Relevance and impact on sustainable business

This year, we offer you an interesting out-of-the-box perspective for our corporate sustainability engagements. The debate around “Black Lives Matter” and anti-Asian racism have led to impassionate debates and strong reactions.

Dr. Liya Yu is a German-Chinese political scientist and novelist. Her research uses political neuroscience to understand the intractable identity conflicts of our time, from racism and dehumanization, to nationalism and polarisation. She has an interdisciplinary scholarly background and unique international biography. She will give us new perspectives based on the novel approach of neuropolitics — a new field that exposes the biases inherent in all of our judgments. This approach may be relevant for our RBC/CSR engagements.

Dr. Liya Yu received her B.A. from the University of Cambridge, U.K. and her M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University in New York. She has taught and researched at the University of Virginia and Columbia’s Global Mental Health Laboratory. Her book “Vulnerable Brains: The Neuropolitics of Divided Societies” will be published by Columbia University Press this year. She is currently working on a novel, set in the German expat community in Beijing, which tries to answer the question why China’s path did not turn out to be liberalism and why anti-Asian racism matters. More at: liyayu.com

The Keynote speech will be followed by an open exchange with Liya Yu. 

Moderation: Antonio Hautle, Executive Director of the Global Compact Network Switzerland & Liechtenstein.

The event is free of charge and open to the general public.