Annenberg Research Network on International Communication (ARNIC) will host a seminar with guest speaker Erika Widegren, CEO of RE-Imagine Europe, a European think tank researching the connections between science, society, and policy. Widegren will speak on the topic of “The rise of the far right in Europe: facts and interpretation”. Manuel Castells will conduct a dialogue with her after the talk.

Erika Widegren is chief executive of Re-Imagine Europa (RIE). She has been working in the field of connecting science, society, and policy for over a decade. She is a fellow at PlusValue, a UK-based European company focusing on social innovation. She is also a board member of Citizen Communication Platform, a Swedish project to promote stronger communication with citizens, and a member of the committee supporting the work of Luc Van den Brande, Special Adviser to President Jean-Claude Juncker, for the Report on the “Outreach towards Citizen” Strategy. Until September 2016, she was chairman of the Advisory Board of REIsearch, an innovative non-profit European platform co-funded by the European Commission to demonstrate how a simple technological tool, coupled with a broad network of leading media, research institutions, researchers, civil society organizations, and citizens, can help policymakers to make better use of all knowledge and experience — wherever it may come from — to make better decisions, based on evidence and experience, for the benefit of society as a whole.

Schedule:

• Talk: 5–6:30 p.m., ANN 106
• Reception: 6:30–8 p.m., ANN Alumni Plaza