The Telos Global Challenges Workshop

This workshop examines political responses to three major crises of the twenty-first century: the 2008 Financial Crash, the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. Through lectures and guided reading, students build contextual knowledge of each event, including its causes, political dynamics, and outcomes. We apply this knowledge through practical activities training qualitative, quantitative, and verbal reasoning simultaneously: analysing real datasets, delivering speeches, simulating press conferences, and debating contested ethical questions. Throughout, we ask students to evaluate both the policy choices and the communication strategies of the leaders at the centre of each crisis. The workshop’s core aim is evaluating what political leadership looks like under pressure and how governments respond to major economic, public safety, and global health challenges.

This workshop examines the environmental consequences of the artificial intelligence boom. Through lectures and guided reading, students develop background knowledge on how AI infrastructure works and what it costs: the energy demands of large-scale computing, the geopolitics of critical minerals, the water usage of data centres that power tools like ChatGPT, and other environmental questions. We apply this knowledge through hands-on activities that train qualitative, quantitative, and verbal reasoning simultaneously: analysing real emissions and energy datasets, critically interrogating Big Tech's net-zero pledges, and verbally debating contested policy and ethical questions about AI and the environment. At its core, this workshop asks students to evaluate the trade-offs between technological progress and environmental responsibility. In doing so, students establish an evidence-based understanding of AI’s material costs and who bears them.

This workshop examines sanctions as a tool of diplomacy. It begins by addressing key questions: who imposes sanctions, what they are intended to achieve, and what consequences they produce. We apply this knowledge to case studies of Western sanctions against Iran and Russia in recent decades. Students engage in hands-on exercises to explore these case studies: analysing real trade and economic data, simulating press conferences, writing and delivering public speeches, and debating the terms of policy reports. In doing so, they refine their analytical, argumentative, and verbal reasoning skills. At its core, this workshop trains students to consider how economic power is wielded in international relations and the moral complexities this raises.