On March 3, Hampshire College Adjunct Assistant Professor Megan Briggs Lyster will give a talk titled “Addressing Wicked Problems Through Social Entrepreneurship.”
The talk will explore how and where wicked problems — issues too complex for one person, organization or nation to solve alone — and social entrepreneurship intersect. Wicked problems require transformative and purposeful innovation. Social entrepreneurs develop ideas that embrace and are shaped by the kind of complexity inherent in wicked problems. Their ideas engage communities, cross disciplines and have the potential to disrupt and transform systems. To be responsible and effective, social entrepreneurs must understand how their ideas and actions might open new economic and social opportunities, and how that might affect specific people and communities.
In addition to teaching at Hampshire College, Briggs Lyster is the co-curricular director for the Five College Public Policy Initiative’s Curriculum Bridging Project. That project, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, aims to strengthen Five College students’ preparation for effective, lasting social change by giving faculty opportunities to investigate and pilot cutting-edge pedagogies that bridge undergraduate and professional education in the areas of public policy, organizational leadership and innovation for social change. Briggs Lyster has spent more than a decade working with both nonprofit and for-profit enterprises in the Pioneer Valley.
This lecture is part of CPPA’s spring 2014 Faculty Colloquium series, which consists of informal talks, often about works-in-progress, with presenters providing a significant amount of time for audience discussion and feedback. All talks will be in Thompson 620, from 12:15 to 1:15 p.m. They are open to the public and brown bag lunches are welcome.