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Abu Dhabi university welcomes former UK PM David Cameron and ballet-dancing physicist Merrit Moore

New York University Abu Dhabi signs up high-profile lecturers

David Cameron and Merrit Moore in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi university welcomes former UK PM David Cameron and ballet-dancing physicist Merrit Moore

New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) has announced a line-up of high-profile lecturers and courses for its new term.

The NYUAD January Term (J-Term) will see guest speakers including former UK Prime Minister David Cameron and former Italian PM Senator Matteo Renzi.

NYUAD offers its undergraduate students J-Term courses in many locations around the world.

New York University Abu Dhabi guest lecturers

The January Term courses are taught by renowned scholars, writers, artists, journalists, and policy analysts, who teach only during the J-Term and distinguished professors from NYU, NYUAD, and other leading universities.

David Cameron Abu Dhabi
David Cameron, Britain’s former prime minister, has a new teaching job at a university in Abu Dhabi

Students take one course full-time for approximately three weeks.

The courses are designed as immersive experiences that intensify the student’s intellectual focus, reach beyond the classroom to incorporate experiential learning, and are often site-specific, connecting students to the place where they study.

The January 2023 programme marks the first J-Term since the COVID-19 pandemic began, heralding the resumption of travel and the global experience provided to the 1,200 NYUAD students taking J-Term courses this year.

Students have selected one of the 77 courses offered, covering a diverse range of topics in environmental governance, politics, leadership and innovation, business and entrepreneurship, marketing, arts and culture, and history, among others.

The majority of courses (35) are held fully in Abu Dhabi and use the UAE as a “text” for the class.

A further 24 courses are split between Abu Dhabi and other international locations, including Bangladesh, France, Greece, India, Italy, Jordan, Kenya, Morocco, Nepal, Oman, and Thailand.

The remaining courses take place in NYU’s distinctive global network of programme sites in Buenos Aires, New York, Washington, Paris, Florence, Los Angeles, Accra, Prague, Berlin, Madrid, London, and Tel Aviv.

Highlights include:

  • Former British prime minister David Cameron is teaching a course titled “Practising Politics and Government in the Age of Disruption”.
  • Meanwhile, Italian politician and former prime minister Senator Matteo Renzi is giving a course titled “From the Renaissance to Artificial Intelligence: Cities, Innovation, and Building the Future”.
  • Merritt Moore, a professional ballet dancer and academic quantum physicist at the University of Oxford, asks what the future of human and robot interaction will look like.
  • Dana Burde, Associate Professor and Director of International Education at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, is delivering a course titled “International Peacebuilding and the Role of Education” and holding a seminar for the class in Athens, Greece.

NYUAD Vice Chancellor Mariët Westermann, who is teaching her signature J-Term course on Gardens of Eden in Abu Dhabi, said, “J-Term is more than a single distinctive international learning experience; it reflects our university’s deep commitment toward global education.

“The courses are designed to illuminate the interdependence of local knowledge and global awareness while fostering cross-cultural research and insights into complex global issues.”

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