Beyond Conflict: Democracy, Perception, and Dialogue

Join us for an extraordinary conversation with Sabina Cudic, Dr. Shady ElGhazaly Harb, Gabriela Ramos Patino, and David Koranyi, four remarkable voices exploring the roots of conflict and the strategies we can use to bridge seemingly impossible divides, and introduced with a special performance by Jeanette Andrews.

Produced in collaboration with Beyond Conflict and California College of the Arts, this event brings together an artist who examines the power of shifting perception alongside leaders and diplomats whose work has navigated major conflicts and authoritarianism across the globe. Together, they will share examples and insights drawn from real experiences responding to democracy under pressure, navigating extreme polarization, and resisting the erosion of democratic systems. The conversation will also explore the vital role artists play in nurturing understanding and belonging.

At a moment when democracies worldwide face unprecedented challenges, these four practitioners offer understanding, grounded in hard-won experience, and practical insight to cultivate the skills the complexities of civic life require.

About the Speakers

Jeanette Andrews is a New York–based artist working at the intersections of illusion, performance, installation, film, and audio. Her studio practice bridges the worlds of illusion, installation, and conceptual art, creating interactive vignettes and surreal, multisensory experiences that investigate perception, cognition, and the seemingly impossible. She invites audiences to co-create her illusory performances which function as live thought experiments. She has presented numerous commissioned works with the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, as well as for the Quebec City Biennial and Boca Raton Museum of Art, presented talks for Cooper Hewitt, Chicago Ideas Week, The British Society of Aesthetics, and universities, including Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Harvard. She is the current visiting artist for the Arts Institute at Brown University.

Sabina Cudic is a member of the National Parliament of Bosnia and Herzegovina. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Studies from Towson University in the United States and a master’s degree in Human Rights and Democracy from the University of Sarajevo and the University of Bologna. She has received a number of international awards and recognitions in the field of debate and public speaking. Cudic taught at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the Sarajevo School of Science and Technology. Cudic is also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.

Dr. Shady ElGhazaly Harb is a leading Egyptian political strategist and civil society figure whose activism during the Arab Spring made him one of the most recognized voices for democratic reform in the region. A co-founder of the AlDostour Party alongside Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, he continued advocating for representative governance even after the 2013 military takeover, enduring nearly two years of imprisonment for his stance. Dr. ElGhazaly Harb is a visiting scholar with the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative and Ash Center and an assistant professor of surgery at Cairo University. His analysis has appeared in the BBC, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy, and Journal of Democracy.

Gabriela Ramos is an accomplished international leader dedicated to building a more prosperous, just, and sustainable world. An economist, diplomat, and policy expert from Mexico, she brings over 30 years of global leadership experience. Throughout her career, she has played a pivotal role in advancing global agreements and implementing impactful reforms in artificial intelligence, gender equality, international taxation, inclusive growth, education, and climate action. Since 2020, she has served as assistant director-general for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO, delivering transformative results. Under her leadership, UNESCO has emerged as a global leader on AI ethics, anti-racism, and gender equality. She has also advanced youth empowerment, science-policy dialogue, and the role of sport in development, with a 143% budget increase, strong internal restructuring, and renewed team motivation. Key donors during her tenure include the European Union, Patrick McGovern Foundation, Japanese Development Cooperation, Ford Foundation, Nestlé, and Nike. Previously, at the OECD, she served as G20 sherpa and chief of staff, leading major reforms including global tax reform, inclusive growth, education (PISA), and the Paris Agreement. She also helped expand OECD membership and tripled its budget. She is married to Ricardo Lopez and has two daughters, Paula and Julia.

David Koranyi serves as president and executive director of Action for Democracy, building a global pro-democracy solidarity movement committed to promoting democratic values and institutions and pushing back against the rising tide of autocracy worldwide. David is also the co-founder of NewsGamer, an AI-assisted immersive narrative tool that simulates real-life conflicts as they appear in the news. David has more than two decades of policymaking experience in Washington, DC; New York; Brussels; and Budapest, having served in senior roles in national and municipal government, international institutions and leading global think tanks. His previous roles include undersecretary of state and chief foreign policy and national security advisor to the prime minister of the Republic of Hungary, Gordon Bajnai, and senior advisor on city diplomacy to Gergely Karácsony, the Mayor of Budapest, Hungary, director for energy diplomacy at the Atlantic Council, policy advisor on sustainable energy at the United Nations, special envoy for the Pact of Free Cities, and strategic advisor to GLOBSEC. David earned master’s degrees in Economics from Corvinus University Budapest and in Public Administration from Columbia University SIPA.

About Beyond Conflict

For 30 years, Beyond Conflict has created powerful and innovative frameworks to open pathways for progress in peace talks, transitions to democracy, and national reconciliation in the aftermath of division and violence in over 75 countries. Their powerful methodology of shared experience is grounded in two core principles: that people can learn from each other and that people can change. They have partnered with cognitive and behavioral scientists to bring forward a new framework at the intersection of behavioral sciences and real-world experience. Their goal is to apply brain science to design and promote new tools that reduce conflict, increase tolerance, and facilitate positive social change in the United States and abroad.

This program is made possible with support from Google.org.