From May 1 to 3, the University of Waterloo hosted Interconnected Futures: Pathways to Justice in Global Health, Peace, and Environmental Sustainability, a three-day conference organized by the PEGASUS Institute, an educational charity focused on advancing health for all.
Held on the University of Waterloo’s main campus, the conference brought together more than 220 in-person and virtual participants from across Canada and around the world, including health professionals, academics, researchers, students, and civic and non-profit leaders working at the intersection of global health, peace, and environmental sustainability.
The conference opened with an Indigenous welcome and reflections from Elder Peter Schuler of the Mississaugas of the Credit, who connected his personal experiences and indigenous teachings to the conference themes of justice, sustainability, and interconnectedness. He emphasized the importance of relationships with the land and living world.
President Vivek Goel offered welcome remarks on behalf of the University of Waterloo, emphasizing the university’s commitment to addressing complex global challenges through research, education, and partnerships.
“This conference’s focus on interconnected futures recognizes a powerful truth: that health, peace, and the planet are inseparable — and that justice across these domains requires approaches that are inclusive, interdisciplinary, and grounded in lived experience.” said Goel.
Non-traditional sessions, as well as artistic and cultural components were woven throughout the program, including performances by the Del O Jaan Choir, mentored through the Canadian Opera Company’s Opera Makers Programme, musicians James Gordon and Jessica Murray, and Brazilian cellist and peacebuilder Diego Carneiro. A Student Academy Award-winning film, A Dream Called Khushi, highlighted the experiences of a Rohingya refugee, Rahima Khushi, now living in Waterloo Region.
Several presenters and attendees shared lived and living experiences either as refugees or those providing humanitarian aid in zones of conflict, and interrogated causes and proposed solutions to various planetary crises. An evening dialogue featured Ziauddin Yousafzai (Malala’s father) alongside his family reflecting on education, displacement, and social change. In his keynote, Yousafzai reflected “we can’t change the world, but change starts with us.”
A key theme throughout the conference was how today’s most pressing challenges — including climate change, structural inequality, political violence, forced displacement, and global health inequities — increasingly shape and reinforce one another across communities and borders. Aligned with Waterloo’s Global Futures framework, the conference reinforced the importance of understanding how local and global issues intersect — and how solutions emerge through collaboration across disciplines, sectors, and communities.
Lili Liu, Dean, Faculty of Health highlighted the importance of dialogue across disciplines and lived experiences, noting that “health inequities, conflict, forced migration, and environmental degradation are no longer separate challenges, they are deeply intertwined.”
Fayaz Noormohamed, Executive Director, Global Futures, emphasized the need to create shared spaces for learning and collaboration. “The University’s Global Futures are premised on helping to shape the future of humanity and our planet. It is through conferences like this, which help strengthen our capacity for greater understanding and collective action, that we can look to our shared future with greater hope and confidence.”
A global and multilingual gathering
The conference also reflected a strong commitment to accessibility and inclusion. Alongside in-person plenary panels, workshops and oral presentations, the plenaries and some workshops were offered virtually, with programming in English, French, and Spanish while a Francophone parallel stream and a Latin American hybrid pre-conference supported broader participation and knowledge-sharing across regions and languages.
President Goel also acknowledged the contributions of the PEGASUS Institute team, led by Dr. Neil Arya, University of Waterloo faculty and staff and the many student and youth volunteers, including students from UWaterloo and the Balsillie School of International Affairs, whose efforts helped make the conference possible.