In October 2014, the Committee on Global Thought will launch the Global Think-ins, vehicles for generating new ideas and perspectives on issues of major global concern, with a series entitled, "Rethinking Knowledge." Although universities are designed to generate and disseminate knowledge, rarely do we reflect on what counts as knowledge or evidence, what lends credence to theory, or what shape that knowledge must take to grasp a changing world. Rethinking Knowledge poses such questions across the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, with an eye toward redefining how urgent matters are addressed in a globalizing world.

The first event in this series, "Rethinking Knowledge: Global Governance," will address the past, present, and future of attempts to "govern the world" (Mark Mazower) from a variety of perspectives and at a number of scales. From taking stock of past and present efforts, to examining the assumptions built into the very premise, to speculating on the necessary reconfiguration of academic disciplines, this Think-In aims at a free flowing exchange in which the contours of the problem are sketched and possible models are tested. 

With: Mark Mazower, Ira D. Wallach Professor of History; Partha Chatterjee, Professor of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies; Katharina Pistor, Michael I. Sovern Professor of Law, Columbia Law School

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