2012 “Risk, Society and Culture,” Plenary Address at the Global Risk Forum, October 28. Davos, Switzerland.

2012 “Climate and Migration: Anthropological Perspectives,” presentation in the panel entitled “Climates of Migration,” Global Risk Forum, October 29. Davos, Switzerland.

2012 “Social Vulnerability, Climate Change and Development: A Matter of Choice?” Keynote Address at the Capstone Conference of the Munich Re Foundation-United Nations University Institute on Environment and Human Security, October 8. Bonn, Germany.

2011 “Defining Disasters: Key Concepts and Their Complexities,” Symposium on Disaster Research, Yale University, October 19.

2011 "Disaster Induced Displacement and Resettlement: An Additional Challenge of Climate Change," Keynote address as the symposium Populations at Risk of Disaster: Preventive Resettlement as a Disaster Risk Reduction Measure, World Bank, September 14.

2011 "Environmental Migrants? Nature Society and Population Displacement in the 21st Century,"

Keynote lecture at the Symposium entitled "Climates of Migration" at the Rachel Carson Center,

Munich, Germany, August 5.

2011 "Conversations in Catastrophe: The Cultural Framing of Disaster Processes," Keynote lecture at the workshop entitled Cultures and Disasters at Bielefeld University, Germany July 6.

2011 "Rethinking the Angry Earth: The Paths to Vulnerability and Resilience," Keynote lecture at the symposium entitled Disasters, Knowledge, Ethics UNESCO headquarters , Paris, France July 4

2010 "21st Century Risk, Vulnerability and Disaster: Anthropological Perspectives," Keynote lecture at the symposium entitled Catastrophes et risques: de l'empirique a la critique at the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales, of Science Po CNRS, Paris, France, June 18.

2010 "Questions We Need to Ask Ourselves about Climate Change, Poverty and Environmental Justice," at the University of Tennessee Distinguished Lecture series on Human Rights, Disasters and Development, April 14,, Knoxville, Tennessee.

2009-“Out of Place: Mapping the Terrain for a Unified Theory of Involuntary Migration and Resettlement,” Keynote Lecture at the conference entitled The Role of the State in Population Movements: The Circumpolar North and Other Regions. Rovaniemi, Finland. October 26.

2009-“Climate Change and Sea Level Rise: Challenges and Adaptations for Local Communities” Invited Lecture at the conference entitled The Great Transformation: Climate Change as Cultural Change. Essen, Germany, June 10