Pictured above: Since 2013, the St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs has sought to contextualize international affairs across the political spectrum. Pictured above is a panel on the opinionation of news from Feb. 25, 2019. From left: William Dowell, Marguerite Moritz, Donald Morrison (moderator), Douglas Herbert, Jim Verhulst.
Story and photo by Emily Wunderlich
The eighth annual St. Petersburg Conference on World Affairs this week promises a little something for everyone — including some extra space in the campus parking garage.
From Wednesday through Friday, nearly 90 experts in government, academia, business, the military, the news media and the arts will descend on USF St. Petersburg.
And this year, attendees are being directed to park at the Mahaffey Theater, in metered street spots or in handicap spots. In previous years, they could park in the university garage, which forced some students to find parking elsewhere.
The conference — which is free to attend — is expected to draw thousands of people as it continues its growing emphasis on art and community outreach.
This will be the first year the conference expands to Eckerd College, where retired Army Gen. John Nicholson, who recently commanded NATO and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, will deliver the closing address at 7 p.m. Friday in Fox Hall, 4200 54th Ave. S.
Carol Bellamy — a former director of the Peace Corps and former executive director of UNICEF — will be the conference’s first female keynote speaker. Her address, “The Rights and Plights of the World’s Children,” will be held at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the Palladium Theater, 253 Fifth Ave. N.
Bellamy is chair of a Geneva-based nonprofit that works to strengthen resilience against what it calls “violent extremist agendas” through job creation and empowering women and youth.
Also new to the conference will be its take on “International Week,” which was dubbed Feb. 11–16 by Mayor Rick Kriseman in 2019. The conference will partner with local businesses to host additional artistic and culinary events throughout the week.
But for Thomas W. Smith, political science professor and co-founder of the event, the conference will always be a “flagship” event for USF St. Petersburg.
“If we didn’t do it, people would say, ‘Where’s our conference?’” he said.
Topics will include “Climate Change: Florida at Ground Zero”; “Women’s Equality: When is the Battle Won?”; “Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Health Care”; “Politics of Infectious Disease”; “Obesity as a Global Public Health Issue”; and “Media Literacy: Making Sense of It All.”
Conference President Diane Seligsohn, a journalist who splits her time between St. Petersburg and Paris, says the panels will offer attendees “something that they’re not getting elsewhere.”
“I think international coverage has really declined in this country, especially during this presidency, where so much of the focus is on what the president is saying or what the president is doing,” she said.
“With the media, you sometimes have information about a certain subject or a certain country, and it’s in the news — it might even be on the front page one day or two days — and then it just disappears,” she said. “So it’s the whole thing of putting events into context that I think is missing in people’s daily lives.”
If the panels aren’t enough, students will also get to hear from representatives of the U.S. State Department, Peace Corps, and Fulbright Scholars program during free recruitment luncheons on Wednesday through Friday at 12:30 p.m. in the ballrooms.
Since 2013, when the conference began as a one-day, 10-panel event that drew 200 attendees, it has sought to contextualize international affairs across the political spectrum. Now, its focus is on making the conference more inclusive and accessible.
“When (students) initially look in the room, they’re going to see, you know, 600 people there, and they might think, ‘Maybe this isn’t my scene,’” Smith said. “Grab a seat anyway.
“I think they’ll pretty quickly see that this is actually a pretty lively discussion, and I think they’ll be engaged.”
For registration, scheduled speakers and other events, visit https://stpetersburgconferenceonworldaffairs.com/. If you’d like to get involved with the conference as a volunteer, you can fill out a contact form at https://stpetersburgconferenceonworldaffairs.com/contact.
