This October, the Yale MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies will lead a program in London to explore how regions can shape global futures.
Society must address challenges such as climate change, conflict, ecological devastation, health crises, and rapid technological advancements. Regional-scale collaborations have the potential to bolster global priorities while empowering local action.
The MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies created the Regional Futures Lab as a way to leverage the expertise its seven interdisciplinary regional councils and its network of partners to showcase the remarkable capacity of regional collaboration. Building on a set of high-profile convening and emerging research, in October 2025, the MacMillan Center will host a program in London that will advance these conversations and invite fresh ideas and new collaborations.
Program:
- Water Water Everywhere: insights from South Asia into climate pressures on the Global South
15 October 2025 - Ecological Resilience: an event on balancing people, place, and planet in Africa
16 October 2025
Please read more below for details about each event.
Water Water Everywhere: insights from South Asia into climate pressures on the Global South
15 October 2025
18:00 - 20:00
Wellcome Collection, 183 Euston Rd., London NW1 2BE
Hosted by: Yale South Asian Studies Council in collaboration with Wellcome Collection
Schedule:
- 18:00 Curator-led tour of Thirst exhibit
- 18:30 Discussion
- 19:30 Drinks & nibbles
Presenters:
- Sunil Amrith, Director of the Yale MacMillan Center, Vice Provost for International Affairs, and Renu and Anand Dhawan Professor of History
- Anthony Acciavatti, Diana Balmori Associate Professor of Architecture
Water, climate, daily life, and innovation will be the topics of this immersive multidisciplinary experience. This gathering will start with a VIP guided tour of the Thirst exhibit, which includes visual displays from Anthony Acciavatti’s work, Groundwater Earth. Guests will then hear brief remarks from Acciavatti and Sunil Amrith, whose recent award-winning publication, The Burning Earth, offers compelling insights into connections between colonialism, capitalism, and human and planetary well-being. The reception will feature nibbles from the Wellcome Collection’s Wonderwater menu, offering guests delicious opportunities to learn about the water impact of food choices. Next year marks the 25th anniversary of the Yale Council on South Asian Studies, so the event will also include reflections on the past, present, and future of Yale’s collaborative work in the region, welcoming ideas from guests for collective action.
Ecological Resilience: an event on balancing people, place, and planet in Africa
16 October 2025
16:00 – 21:00, seated dinner to follow
1-54 Fair, Somerset House, South Building, Strand, London WC2R 1LA
Hosted by the Yale Council on African Studies in Collaboration with 1-54
Schedule:
- 16:00 Curator-led tour of 1-54
- 17:00 Discussion and visual display
- 18:30 Seated dinner at Setlist
Presenters:
- Cajetan Iheka, Chair of the Yale Council on African Studies, Director of the Whitney Humanities Center, and Professor of English
- Mae-ling Lokko, Assistant Professor of Architecture and founder of Willow Technologies
- Joshua Amponsah, Yale Fox Fellow and 2025 alumnus of the Yale African Studies master’s program
Centered around themes of environment and resilient societies, this program will feature a discussion between Cajetan Iheka, award-winning author of African Eco-Media, and Mae-ling Lokko, a globally renowned scientist and designer whose research, design, and art emphasize the use of natural materials to advance ecological health and generative justice. Remarks will be visually enhanced by photographs and poems by Joshua Amponsah, whose master’s thesis was a comparative study of community perspectives on conservation, human-wildlife interactions, and the impact of global climate financing in Ghana and Kenya. Currently expanding his research as a Yale Fox Fellow in South Africa, Amponsah’s images and written reflections document his experiences and stories of local communities. Following the remarks, invited guests will join a private dinner to further connect and imagine this future with us.
This event will be in collaboration with 1-54, the first and only international fair dedicated to contemporary African art, and registration for this event includes a VIP curator-led tour of the fair.