Our second Connect.ed Conversation took place on Tuesday, November 24th – exactly three weeks after Election Day in the United States. It makes sense, therefore, that this month’s discussion focused on the question of what role the USA currently holds in the world. As the second event of our new series aimed at promoting interdisciplinary discussions on current events, we decided to begin the conversation with a broad question, namely: How, if at all, has the USA’s role as a global leader changed?
This question opened up a dialogue about environmental policies, the military, and public health, which are all areas that the USA has historically been seen as a leader in. However, in our current world where climate change and a pandemic threaten the health and safety of the global population, their position as a world leader seems to have become much more fragile. With that said, it is clear that while it may seem as if they are doing much worse in comparison to some other smaller countries, the USA is under a brighter spotlight compared to those countries which may share the same problems. Moreover, despite this shift, there is at least one domain that still appears to maintain its leadership status in the world, and that is the realm of higher education. As university students ourselves, this topic was particularly relevant to our own lives. We shared our personal guesses on why USA universities continue to be regarded so highly by academics and prospective students around the world, including the inextricable link between higher education and job opportunities as well as the creation of a working system that has now become difficult to abandon. However, with the increase in online education as a result of COVID-19, is the USA’s place on the leaderboard of higher education now the next thing to go? This question was just one of the many which came up throughout the hour-long conversation. However, given that this topic covered so many bases, we were not able to answer them all. But, by the end of our discussion, we knew one thing for sure: the view of the “American Dream” which seemed to feature heavily in many of our childhoods – especially in the media and entertainment we were exposed to – is looking further and further detached from reality. Thank you to everyone who joined us for this wonderful discussion and we look forward to having more of these with you next term. In the meantime, have an amazing winter break and stay safe!
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March 2021
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