Join Assistant Director of Academic Programs Farryl Last and Graduate Program Director Sarah Miller-Davenport in conversation with CGT Alumna Madeline Macdonald (Class of 2023) for a discussion about the academic and professional aspects of the MA in Global Thought.
The Master of Arts in Global Thought takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring critical global issues. This academic program challenges students to engage with new concepts and generate innovative questions as they examine the complexities of our interconnected and always evolving world. Students take courses taught by members of the Committee on Global Thought, an international roster of renowned scholars from across Columbia University. Accepted students begin the program in September and graduate the following May.
Madeline Macdonald: Class of 2023
Madeline Macdonald, a member of the CGT class of 2023 and a Global Thought Leaders Research Fellow, currently serves as the Coordinator of the High Line Network. With prior professional experience as a Program Manager and Social Impact Strategist, Madeline facilitates connection, collaboration, and knowledge transfer among urban infrastructure reuse projects throughout North America. Her focus is on elevating these projects as vibrant public landscapes while harmonizing economic development, environmental resilience, and community engagement. During her time at Columbia, Madeline’s research delved into sustainable urban development, specifically examining the complex interplay between expanding green spaces and the phenomenon of green gentrification. She assessed the progressive neoliberal characteristics of iconic public spaces like the High Line within the context of global cities.
Farryl Last: Assistant Director of Academic Programs
Farryl Last is the Assistant Director of Academic Programs for the Committee on Global Thought. She manages critical aspects of CGT’s academic and student outreach programs, including the Masters in Global Thought program, Undergraduate Global Thought, and Global Thought Leaders program.
Last is an international educator and writer. Prior to joining the CGT, she worked at CUNY – Hunter College’s Office of Education Abroad, coordinating semester exchange programs while advising students on all aspects of their study abroad experience. She also taught at Hunter, including the undergraduate course “Arts through New York City,” which sought to introduce students to various art forms produced in and inspired by the city while fostering students’ own creative work. Her experience includes a school year as an English instructor in kindergartens in Mantova, Italy and work as the administrative coordinator for the World Cities World Class University (WC2) network.
Sarah Miller-Davenport: Graduate Program Director
Dr. Sarah Miller-Davenport is a historian whose research and teaching focus on how the global circulation of ideas, people, and capital shaped American society in the decades after World War II, with a particular emphasis on how the local intersects with national and global scales of historical change. She is the author of Gateway State: Hawai‘i and the Cultural Transformation of American Empire (Princeton 2019). Prior to joining Columbia, Miller-Davenport was a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Sheffield, and she has held fellowships at the New York Historical Society and NYU’s Urban Democracy Lab.