IBSC UK-Europe Regional Conference
February 27, 2026
St. Paul’s School
London, United Kingdom
Teaching Boys: A Positive Perspective
Speakers
Rory Stewart
Rory Stewart is a diplomat, author, explorer, academic, and politician, serving in successive Conservative governments in multiple leadership roles. He is the Brady Johnson Professor of Grand Strategy at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches politics and international relations.
His latest book, Politics on the Edge, has received wide acclaim, including several media outlets naming it a best book of 2023. The book shares his story of the challenges, absurdities, and realities of political life. His earlier books include The Places in Between, The Prince of the Marshes, Can Intervention Work?, and The Marches.
He co-hosts the hugely successful podcast, The Rest Is Politics, alongside Alastair Campbell. Together they speak from across the political divide, “disagreeing agreeably” over big-hitting subjects and lifting the lid on the secrets of Westminster.
The New York Times described Stewart as “living one of the most remarkable lives on record.” Named by Esquire magazine as “one of the 100 most influential people of the 21st century,” he was the first man to walk across Afghanistan after the U.S.-UK invasion and served as deputy governor of two Iraqi provinces at the age of 29. An award-winning writer and documentary maker, Stewart has advised a U.S. president and British prime minister on their Afghanistan and Middle East policies. He is proficient in 11 languages.
Entering UK politics in 2010 as a Conservative MP, Stewart became a government minister following the party’s winning majority in 2015. After Theresa May replaced David Cameron as prime minister following the Brexit vote, he was promoted to minister of state for international development. In this role, he worked closely with nations in South Asia, particularly Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar. A further promotion to the Department for International Development soon followed in which Stewart took over responsibility from the Foreign Office for Africa. He was the driving force behind a renewed Africa strategy and pushed more resources into the UK’s network there.
After a subsequent year as minister for prisons, Steward was promoted to cabinet as the secretary of state for international development. In this role he served as a governor of the World Bank. He also committed to double UK’s spending on climate change. Stewart resigned his role following Theresa May’s resignation. He was a dark horse in the subsequent leadership election, making it through the second parliamentary ballot, surpassing more favored candidates. After Boris Johnson’s eventual success, Stewart resigned from the Conservative party and sat as an independent MP.
Niobe Way
New York University Professor of Developmental Psychology Niobe Way founded the Project for the Advancement of Our Common Humanity. She serves as creative advisor of agapi and principal investigator on the Listening Project, an ongoing, empirically grounded, school-based curriculum that fosters curiosity and connection among students and teachers in schools in New York City. Previously Way served as president of the Society for Research on Adolescence. She received her B.A. from University of California, Berkeley, and her doctorate from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. Way was a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellow at Yale University in the psychology department.
Her work focuses on social and emotional development and how cultural ideologies shape families and child development in the U.S. and China. Way is a principal investigator of a 20-year longitudinal study of 1,200 families that examines how the changing economic, political, and social contexts in China shape families and children in Nanjing, China. Researching social and emotional development of adolescents for almost 40 years, she has written over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and seven books.
Her latest book, Rebels with a Cause: Reimagining Boys, Ourselves, and Our Culture, explores the toxic culture that undervalues human connection and contributes to boys' mental health struggles. Based on her longitudinal and mixed-method research over 35 years, Rebels with a Cause is a true call to action to change the culture so we stop the vicious cycle of violence and blame.
Her latest coedited book is The Crisis of Connection: Its Roots, Consequences, and Solution. She also coedited with Judy Chu, Adolescents Boys: Exploring Diverse Cultures of Boyhood. Her last single-authored book, Deep Secrets: Boys’ Friendships and the Crisis of Connection, inspired the movie Close, which won the Grand Prix Award at Cannes Film Festival and an Oscar nomination for best foreign film.
She is regularly featured in mainstream media speaking on the topics of boys, friendships, loneliness, teenagers, gender stereotypes, masculinity, and the roots of violence.