DIASPORA FUTURES SALON

Day02. Thursday, July 8, 8:00 EDT

A facilitated talk with the Diasporic Futures Collective, a group of futurists of color who are working on decolonizing and re-centering the future towards non-Western frameworks.

This participatory discussion will explore what it means to imagine a more inclusive, just, and diverse future with a small group of the Collective’s members, and provide a non-judgemental and collaborative space for us to grow our futures practices together.

Alisha Bhagat is a futurist and strategist whose work focuses on the creative use of futures tools such as strategic foresight and scenarios planning to impact long term positive change, particularly around social justice. She is based at Forum for the Future, a non-profit, and is a part-time faculty member at Parsons School of Design. Alisha is passionate about changing the narrative around who the future is for - and convenes the Diaspora Futures Collective, a group of POC working on decolonizing, reframing, and taking action for the future. When she isn't thinking about the future, Alisha is an avid gamer and science fiction nerd. She is the board president of Bitch Media, an intersectional feminist media organization.

Mansi Parikh is a Passionately Curious, Reverse Superhero (In defiance of the superhero norm, she attempts her world-building & saving by day). Mansi is the Founder of Future Tense, a Strategic Foresight & Innovation Consultancy & and NextGen Foresight Practitioner Fellow. She runs experiments in the liminal spaces between the past, present & future, real and imagined with projects like the design fiction zine Variations on Tomorrow. A full-stack venture builder she researches and designs innovative new business models, understands the culture, and imagines future scenarios for businesses across the for-profit & social impact spectrum. She is currently working on India Strategy for Playboy, Scenario Building for UK's largest Warranty Provider, Cultural Research & Strategy for an Easter European Financial Services company, she has also worked with brands like Bacardi, Scotch Malt Whisky Society, etc. and in social impact for Balipara Foundation. If she is not doing any of these things you’ll find her deeply engrossed in a novel or watching cricket.

Wayne brings a deep passion for the power of futures thinking to his role as a Research Director with Institute for the Future. His belief in the need to explore and envision preferable futures and challenge existing assumptions developed through a background in addressing global, intractable environmental conservation, sustainability, and international development issues. Finding just and equitable systems-based solutions to these issues continues to drive his work and research. Wayne has spent the better part of the last decade focused on futures and foresight work. Prior to joining the Institute, he was a key member of the Futures Team at Kantar where he helped Fortune 500 companies from a wide range of industries to explore and plan for the future – including Best Buy, the Coca-Cola Company, Mastercard, Microsoft, and J.M. Smucker. He has also spent time working with Forum for the Future, UNDP, and what is now Deloitte Monitor. Having lived and worked in six countries across three continents – China, Hong Kong SAR, the Philippines, Hungary, Sweden, and the US – he brings a global perspective based on a deep appreciation for cultural differences and local contexts. Wayne has a Masters of Science in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management from an Erasmus Mundus program based at Central European University and Lund Universit. He also holds a BA in History, specializing in modern Chinese history, from UC Berkeley. He speaks Mandarin.

Nour Batyne is a New York-based facilitator, creative producer, and educator whose work lies at the intersection of immersive storytelling, strategic foresight, and social innovation. Batyne is the founder of Disruptivist, a global community of artists who are amplifying the arts as a tool for social change and innovation, with the intention to challenge and transform the status quo. Their most recent production includes Resilience 2032, a social media theatre experience that transports you to the year 2032. Current projects also include Future Ancestors, a community-led platform of story-seekers that exists to unlock the power of our legacy in the face of cultural erasure. Disruptivist is a member partner of the For Freedoms Organization. Nour currently serves as an Associate Instructor in the M.S. in Nonprofit Management program at Columbia University and is a Next Generation Foresight Practitioner Fellow at the School of International Futures. She is a member of the Wide Awakes, an open-source network that is radically reimagining the future through creative collaboration.