How can we create a more connected and harmonious world in an era of unrelenting global challenges?
That question and many more will be addressed in a TEDx event hosted at Duke Kunshan University on Feb. 24 by a team of undergraduate students.
Themed “Tomorrow United?”, the TEDxDKU conference features seven speakers from Asia, Europe and North America, drawn from within the Duke Kunshan community and beyond.
Offering different perspectives and personal experiences, they will broach topics as diverse as healthy longevity, territorial conflict and education reform in front of a live audience at the Community Center Theater on DKU’s stunning campus in Kunshan, China.
Noah Caplan and Colden Johnson, both from the Class of 2026, lead a nine-strong DKU student team organizing all aspects of the event, from curation and budgeting to marketing and design.
“Given Duke Kunshan’s unique position at the confluence of Western and Eastern culture, we wanted our TEDx event to tackle the ultimate question: How can the world work together to combat the problems humanity is facing right now?” said Caplan, TEDxDKU executive co-organizer.
“There’s a strong entrepreneurial and problem-solving culture on the campus, and it’s been incredibly fun and meaningful being able to advance that through the TEDx conference.”
The lineup consists of three faculty and two students from DKU alongside two external speakers. They are:
• James Miller (United Kingdom), inaugural professor of humanities at DKU
• Renee Richer (United States), associate professor of biology at DKU
• Luyao Zhang (China), assistant professor of economics at DKU
• Davit Kavkasyan (Armenia), Class of 2027 undergraduate at DKU
• Dominika Wilczok (Poland), Class of 2026 undergraduate at DKU
• Russell Cailey (United Kingdom), managing director of THINK Learning Studio
• Rocco Li (China), senior manager at KPMG China
“Our speakers represent five nationalities and have a wide range of expertise and perspectives on fascinating topics such as education reform, life longevity, West-Asian geopolitics, among others,” said Johnson, TEDxDKU executive co-organizer.
“It’s been a great privilege to organize Duke Kunshan’s first TEDx conference in five years, and we hope our audience is as excited as we are to see the talks come to life.”
Tickets can be reserved on the TEDxDKU website at https://tedxdku.com. Keep an eye out for talk content and other updates on the event’s Instagram page @tedxdku.
The student organizing team, pictured above, is made up of five nationalities and completed by Mateja Bokan (lead videographer), Annie Tong (lead photographer), Gavin Huang (webmaster), Michael Cornell (director of design), Kamila Mejia Ley (marketing executive), Abdullah Bin Javed (event manager) and Sue Wang (curator).
You can read more about the speakers and organizers on the TEDxDKU website.
