Beth Simone Noveck: Civic University – Democracy, AI, and the Public Imagination
2nd June 6:00 PM – 7:15 PM BST
Join Beth Simone Noveck in conversation with Oliver Escobar for a timely exploration of the civic role of the university in an age of democratic uncertainty and rapid technological change. This event will examine how universities can act as democratic institutions – harnessing AI not just as a tool for innovation, but to strengthen participation, trust, and public problem-solving. At a moment when democracy feels increasingly fragile, what responsibilities do universities hold as civic actors embedded in society? And how can they help design and deploy technologies that serve the public good rather than concentrate power? This conversation invites us to reimagine the university not only as a site of knowledge, but as a vital partner in renewing democratic life.
Part of the Future University programme, this event looks beyond immediate sector challenges to ask what kind of institutions we need for the future – and how universities can rise to meet that moment.
Speaker Biographies
Beth Simone Noveck is a professor and director of the Burnes Center for Social Change at Northeastern University. She leads The Governance Lab and its InnovateUS initiative. Former U.S. deputy chief technology officer and the first state chief AI strategist, she founded AI for Impact, which builds democratic AI with communities. She is the author of Solving Public Problems: A Practical Guide to Fix Our Government and Change Our World and writes on AI and democracy at rebootdemocracy.ai.
Professor Oliver Escobar is the Chair of Public Policy and Democratic Innovation at the University of Edinburgh. He works on participatory and deliberative democracy, with a focus on public participation, policy work, the commons, political inequalities, and the governance of the future. Oliver combines research and practice to develop social and democratic innovations across various policy and community contexts. He was Academic Lead on Democratic Innovation at Edinburgh Futures Institute (2019-2023), and Co-director of CRITIQUE (2021-2023). Read more about Oliver: https://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/staff/oliver-escobar
