Thought-Provoking Content
Explore pressing global questions from diverse disciplinary, analytical, and professional perspectives while remaining sensitive to specific local contexts. The Global Thought Leaders Program will focus on the geopolitical, economic, social, and cultural dimensions of four topics: climate change; world order; technology and social media; and race, gender, and identity. In line with the Committee on Global Thought’s multidisciplinary approach, these themes will be addressed as global issues that are experienced in complex ways across space and time. The program will feature case studies from various regions, including, but not limited to, participants’ home countries.
This program is run in partnership with the Committee on Global Thought and the Istanbul, Paris, and Rio de Janeiro Global Centers.
Develop a Global Professional Network
As Global Thought Leaders, you will belong to a cohort composed of different nationalities, demographic groups, professions, and disciplinary backgrounds. Course sessions will be led by world-class faculty from Columbia University and experts worldwide. Participants, faculty, and guest speakers will jointly contribute toward the construction of Global Thought.
A Strategic Tool for Global Exploration
Through dialogue and collaboration among the global network of faculty, guest speakers, and students, participants in the program will develop a tool kit for analyzing transnational issues that can be applied to their professional and personal lives.
Designed for Emerging and Experience Global Leaders
Join an international cohort to critically discuss how the program’s four topics relate to and affect your professions, daily lives, and career trajectories. For example, what are the implications of climate change, technology, and identity for lawyers, teachers, and international development specialists? How are these issues reshaping various professions? How can thinking about collective challenges and experiences with par from distinct professional spaces and life circumstances generate solutions?
Education Team
Dr. Kevin Funk, Head Instructor
Kevin Funk is a political economist and Latin Americanist who specializes in globalization, the politics of Brazil and Chile, and urban studies. He is a Fellow in Global Thought with the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University, where he is also a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science and an affiliated faculty member of the Institute of Latin American Studies. He is the author of Rooted Globalism: Arab-Latin American Business Elites and the Politics of Global Imaginaries (2022, Indiana University Press).
Guest Speakers to be announced.
More Information
Format
Global Thought Leaders is an 8-week program that begins on March 20, 2023. Sessions are held at 11:00 am EST and take place synchronously over Zoom and last 60 – 90 minutes.
Capstone Project
The solutions-oriented, small-group capstone projects will analyze how a particular place (or places) is/are experiencing, responding to, and could respond to a global issue of participants’ choosing (e.g., environmental challenges, migration flows, and data governance). Participants will be assigned to groups in which they will work on their project during in-class meetings in the final weeks of the program. The last session will be devoted to a brief presentation of each group’s findings.
Contact
Our programs are highly competitive and spaces are limited. We recommend that candidates begin their application at their earliest convenience.
If you have further questions or wish to discuss your goals for the program, please direct all inquiries to cgtglobalthoughtleaders@gmail.com.