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Bartels World Affairs Lecture

The Einaudi Center’s flagship event brings distinguished international figures to campus each year to speak on global topics and meet with Cornell faculty and students, particularly undergraduates. The Henry E. and Nancy Horton Bartels World Affairs Fellowship supports the speaker’s visit.


March 22, 2023: Fighting for Democracy and the Planet

Carlos Alvarado Quesada, President of Costa Rica (2018–22)

Carlos Alvarado Quesada, Costa Rica President (2018-22)

Carlos Alvarado Quesada was Costa Rica's youngest president in a century. On March 22, he explores a question that guided his administration: How can we meet the basic needs of the world’s ever-growing human population—equitably and democratically—without sacrificing the health of the planet?

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Read a conservation explainer by the Lab of O's Viviana Ruiz-Gutierrez.

Bartels 2023 greenery band Costa Rica

Past Bartels World Affairs Fellows

2022: Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate


      Bartels 2022 in the News


      2021: Amartya Sen, 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics

      Cornell Chronicle: Nobel Laureate Sen to Lecture on Protecting Democracy, Bartels Lecturer Speaks Out on Rising Threats to Democracy

      2019:  Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Indonesian Minister of Finance

      Cornell Chronicle: Bartels Lecturer Outlines How Developing Countries Can Build Human Capital

      2017: Christopher Painter ’80, Cyber Expert 

      Cornell Chronicle: Former State Department Official Talks Cyber Diplomacy in Bartels Lecture

      2016: Svetlana Alexievich, 2015 Nobel Laureate in Literature 

      Cornell Chronicle: Nobel Laureate Alexievich Created Her Own Literary Genre

      See previous Bartels World Affairs Fellows in Cornell Library’s eCommons archive.