Austin has dedicated his career to better understanding social movements. His projects have explored how the powerful respond to being challenged by the powerless (What Slaveholders Think, Columbia University Press), when and why movements adopt new technologies (The Good Drone, MIT Press), and how activists should deal with ethical dilemmas (Wicked Problems, Oxford University Press).
The world is at a critical juncture. Civil society must adapt and evolve if we are to safeguard humanities biggest gains (ending slavery, curbing violence and war, and pursuing universal human rights) while also innovating to face unprecedented challenges to our politics and our planet.
Convinced that creativity is unlocked by contrast and contradiction, Austin is experimenting with interdisciplinary collaborations focused on art/creativity, slavery/emancipation, and the future of human rights.
As an Inaugural Scholar in Residence Austin is transforming these experiments into practical lessons for the Global Leadership Network, and the Aspen ecosystem more broadly.
Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick is Professor of Sociology at the Kroc School of Peace Studies and Faculty Director of the SPARK Social Innovation Institute (University of San Diego). He holds additional academic appointments at the Rights Lab (University of Nottingham) and the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition (Yale University).