Global Grand Challenge: The Future

Global Cornell invites thinkers across campus to use their imaginations to reach beyond the immediate, the tangible, and the well-known constraints.

How Can We Build a Better World?

How can we use our creativity to plan and build for a future that is equitable, sustainable, and good?

What can we collectively achieve when we focus on "what we want" rather than "what I can do"?

And when we've imagined a better future for our world, how do we chart the path—starting today—with practical steps to take us there?

"The Global Grand Challenge calls on us to go beyond the cutting edge… to imagine what the world would look like if we asked not just what can I do, but what do I want? What do we want?"

~Wendy Wolford, Vice Provost of International Affairs

Conversation with Anindita Banerjee

What would you like the campus community to know about Cornell’s new Global Grand Challenge: The Future?

The Global Grand Challenge tries to bring down some of the walls that already exist before we even start to imagine what a good future might be. It seeks to make some cracks in those self-limiting walls that we have already built, fearing that this vision may be too bold, too full of wants that are not possible in reality. It’s a call to say: Okay, what if those walls were not there?

Why is it important to dream big when we imagine the future?

When we do the work of imagining, all too often we curb our own imagination. It’s a way of curbing our desires for a better future by saying, “Well, yes, this is great, but it’s not practicable.” Imaginings that are bold—sprung from what we want, from our desire for a better world—often get shrugged off as empty utopian naivety.

Global Grand Challenge Task Force

Vice Provost for International Affairs Wendy Wolford assembled a cross-campus faculty task force to oversee the Global Grand Challenge.

• John Albertson, Cochair, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell Engineering
• Anindita Banerjee, Cochair, Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, A&S
• Kaushik Basu, Cochair, Carl Marks Professor of International Studies, Professor of Economics, A&S
• Lorenzo Alvisi, Tisch University Professor of Computer Science, Cornell Bowers CIS
• Victoria A. Beard, Professor of City and Regional Planning, Director of Cornell Mui Ho Center for Cities, AAP
• Sarah Besky, Associate Professor of Anthropology of Work, ILR
• Lourdes S. Casanova, Gail and Rob Cañizares Director Emerging Markets Institute, SC Johnson
• Steven J. Jackson, Professor of Information Science and Science and Technology Studies, A&S
• Lisa Kaltenegger, Associate Professor of Astronomy and Director of the Carl Sagan Institute, A&S
• Ravi Kanbur, T.H. Lee Professor of World Affairs, Dyson School
• Lori Leonard, Professor of Global Development, CALS
• Saurabh Mehta, Janet and Gordon Lankton Professor, Nutritional Sciences, CALS
• Raina K. Plowright, Rudolf J. and Katharine L. Steffen Professor of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary College
• Rachel Beatty Riedl, Director of the Mario Einaudi Center for International Studies, Professor of Government, A&S
• Linda Shi, Assistant Professor of City and Regional Planning, AAP