Newswise — WELLESLEY, Mass. – The Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute at Wellesley College, a program that brings together 40 students from different fields of study each year to engage with world issues, has made a sampling of lectures from its January 2015 Wintersession available online, for free, to the public.

The talks delve into international affairs through a diverse range of perspectives, from political science and economics to areas not typically associated with public policy, such as computer science, psychology, and the arts.

The Albright Institute brings together a diverse faculty, including professors, policymakers, business executives, and journalists, each year to serve as lecturers on a particular theme. This year’s Institute, which ran from January 5 to 23, 2015, was inspired by the challenges presented in forming the U.N. Post-2015 Development Agenda.

Taken together, the context provided by these lectures is designed to expand perspectives beyond traditional views of global development, melding liberal arts learning with insights from experts and practitioners in the field. The available lectures include:

“Good Enough Governance: A Cautionary Tale” by Merilee Grindle (Wellesley College Class of 1967), professor emerita of international development at the Harvard Kennedy School

“The Challenge of Leadership and Forging a Career in Today's China,” by reporter and documentary filmmaker Shannon van Sant (Wellesley College Class of 1999)

• “Imaginative Literature and Global Affairs,” by Professor Larry Rosenwald of the Wellesley College English department

• “From Decisionmaking to Dealmaking: How Hormones Influence our Brains and Behavior,” by Professor Marc Tetel of the Wellesley College Neuroscience department

A public dialogue featuring Secretary Albright, Ambassador Elizabeth Cousens of the U.N. Economic and Social Council, and Homi Kharas from Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution is also available online. The panel, which took place on January 22, addresses global diplomacy and the path to shaping the world’s new development goals.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a 1959 graduate of the College, founded the Albright Institute in 2010 to provide Wellesley students a forum where they could apply their liberal arts education toward solving problems in the international arena. Albright Fellows spend three weeks in January learning about global affairs in intensive classes and panel discussions, as well as working together in interdisciplinary groups on a pressing current issue.

Videos from the 2015 institute, plus more than 100 videos from past years and programs in Beijing and London, can be found at www.wellesley.edu/albright.

About the Albright Institute
Wellesley College launched the Madeleine Korbel Albright Institute for Global Affairs in January 2010. The Albright Institute supports the College’s mission of educating students for leadership in an increasingly complex and interdependent global environment. The program combines the intellectual resources of faculty from Wellesley College, researchers from the Wellesley Centers for Women, and leading alumnae and other practitioners in the fields of international relations and public policy.

About Wellesley College Since 1875, Wellesley College has been the preeminent liberal arts college for women. Known for its intellectual rigor and its remarkable track record for the cultivation of women leaders in every arena, Wellesley—only 12 miles from Boston—is home to some 2300 undergraduates from every state and 75 countries.

PRESS CONTACTSSofiya Cabalquinto, Director of Media Relations, 781-283-3321, [email protected]Anne Yu, Associate Director of Media Relations, 781-283-3201, [email protected]

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