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BIDDEFORD, Maine

UNE philosopher David Livingstone Smith speaks at G20 summit event in Mexico

David Livingstone Smith, Ph.D., University of New England associate professor of philosophy and religious studies, spoke at the June 15-18th G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico as part of an event titled "Rethinking G20: Designing the Future."

Other speakers participating in this event included: Robert Bruce Zoellick, president of the World Bank; Her Excellency Margaret Chan, director general of the World Health Organization; Henry Markram, director of the Human Brain Project; Joshua Foer, author of "Moonwalking with Einstein"; Samantha Smith, leader of Global Climate and Energy Initiative at World Wildlife Federation International; and Geoffrey Lamb, president of Global Policy & Advocacy of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

UNE's Smith took part in a June 16th discussion titled "Rethinking our Planet and our Lives," which focused on; transforming education; The G20 panorama: new paradigms vs. old paradigms; digital policies: new tools, new understandings; taking part in the transformation of communities; and Redefining sustainable development. Watch a 4-minute montage from the summit in which Smith appears briefly three times. Watch a video of Smith's G20 presentation.

The G20

The Group of Twenty, or G20, is the premier forum for international cooperation on the most important aspects of the international economic and financial agenda. It brings together the world's major advanced and emerging economies.

The G20 includes 19 country members and the European Union, which together represent around 90 percent of global GDP, 80 percent of global trade and two-thirds of the world's population.

Rethinking G20

Rethinking G20 is an initiative of the Government of Mexico, set against the backdrop of the G20 Summit so that leaders in different disciplines may engage in a reflection on social, economic, political, environmental, scientific and world financial futures, and generate contributions to the design of future public policies of innovation and efficiency.

Participants from different disciplines have been gathered with the aim of redesigning in an analytical and proposable manner, a future G20 agenda that focuses on the main social, cultural, economic and financial issues.

David Livingstone Smith

Smith's most recent book, Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others won the Cleveland Foundation's 77th Annual Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He is also the author of The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War and Why We Lie: The Evolutionary Roots of Deception and the Unconscious Mind. Smith recently discussed Less than Human on NPR's Talk of the Nation.

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.