The Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies is poised to make a difference on today’s global problems, says the center’s new director Ellen Lust. The key is the Einaudi community’s energy for collaboration.

Lust joined the Einaudi Center in January as director and John S. Knight Professor of International Studies. Her research examines the role of social institutions and local authorities in governance, particularly in Southwest Asia and North Africa. 

She is also a professor in the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and Department of Government (College of Arts and Sciences) and University of Gothenburg Department of Political Science and the founding director of the Governance and Local Development Institute.

A Conversation with Ellen Lust

How can the Einaudi Center contribute right now?

If you think about the issues of nationalism, climate change, threats to humanitarian aid—a lot of the things that are foremost on our minds these days are affecting not only the U.S. They really are very global. And at the same time as they’re global threats and interests, the forms they take and the abilities to address them differ a lot across different regions and across different peoples and places. 

Einaudi brings people who have deep knowledge in different regions together—to highlight challenges that might be faced in one place or solutions that might have been found in one place—to help us to understand possibilities elsewhere. 

What are your plans to support collaboration across the university?

I think it's worth thinking not only about how we address the issues we know exist. We also need to be ready to address issues that emerge in the future. In 2018 you never would have expected COVID to be on the table. What we want to be able to do is respond quickly to new issues and problems that emerge.

We want to facilitate and advance the work of faculty. We’re going to create an infrastructure that allows people to come together relatively quickly—to address new and emerging problems as researchers become aware of them.

How can students get involved?

On a nuts-and-bolts level, Einaudi offers many opportunities aimed at helping students gain the language skills and other knowledge and expertise they need to be able to move forward and make an impact on the world.

From my own student experience: I did an MA in modern Middle Eastern studies at the University of Michigan. I would go to a seminar, and it would sort of create an “a-ha moment.” I’d realize that some of the assumptions I was making in the work I was doing didn't necessarily make sense. Einaudi has a lot of programming that provides students the opportunities to get those a-ha moments. Another thing we do is give students a sense of community.

Read and listen to the full interview on the Einaudi Center's website.