The fourth Global Environments Summer Academy was held from 26 July to 15 August 2014 in collaboration with the Centre for Development and Environment of the University of Bern (Switzerland). Eighteen participants (1 from Africa, 5 from Asia, 5 from Europe, 6 from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 1 from Northern America) actively engaged with highly experienced representatives of academia, civil society, government and the private sector invited to GESA as resource people.

Highlights from GESA 2014

Salvia Goethe Dynamic Engagement Retreat

GESA 2014 opened with the 5-day Salvia Goethe Dynamic Engagement Retreat, a retreat that prompted participants to weave Goethe’s presence into the rest of the course, both in everyday interactions and reflections, and through specific workshops and discussions. 

TED-style talks at GESA

The application of TED-style talks, a new feature of GESA, resonated throughout the course with the aim to develop participants’ communications skills through the practice of presenting their research and ideas, which came to be known as the GESAx talks. 

Video communications Workshop

For the fourth year running, our successful Video Communications Workshop was conducted, led by visual anthropologist and GESA photographer/videographer Inanc Tekguc, and journalist and videographer Ruth Krause.

Visual note-taking

In keeping with the theme of enhancing participants’ communications skills, resource people Reinhold Leinfelder and Alexandra Hamann delivered a well-received workshop on making comics for communicating complex scientific ideas and innovations. 

Read the Overview on GESA 2014by GEN Founder and Director, Gary J. Martin.