Join the Committee on Global Thought for a conversation on how an MA in Global Thought contributes to one’s academic and professional career.
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.
Lara Kok: Class of 2018
Lara is a half-Dutch, half-American Global Thought alum who graduated from the MA program in 2018. As a generalist, her academic and professional career has stretched across themes and countries, from studying English Literature for her BA in London to her first job after graduating with her Global Thought MA at a social-impact start-up called Andela. At Andela, a company connecting African tech talent with the global marketplace, Lara’s work frequently took her to West and East Africa. During the pandemic, Lara took up program management at a healthtech company, Medidata, whose primary product is clinical trial software. Currently, Lara is living back in Amsterdam, focusing on a career-switch from tech to something as yet undecided– most likely something with a global outlook and commitment to positive social change.
Abhinav Seetharaman: Class of 2019
Abhinav Seetharaman is the aide to Deputy Secretary of State (D-MR) Richard Verma at the U.S. Department of State, with deep interests in South and Southeast Asia. He was previously a summer 2022 intern at the State Department, where he contributed to the ASEAN portfolio.
Abhinav is a 2023 Master in Public Policy graduate from Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), where he was a research assistant to Deputy Secretary Verma at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. Prior to HKS, he worked as a Southeast Asia Analyst at The Asia Group from January to August 2021. He additionally was the Princeton-in-Asia Fellow at the Milken Institute in Singapore from July 2019 to December 2020, a time that greatly crystalized his interest in Southeast Asia.
Abhinav received his B.A. in sustainable development (’18) and M.A. in global thought (’19) from Columbia University. Outside of work, he enjoys traveling, learning languages, and professionally performing on the mridangam (South-Indian classical drum). He is fluent in Tamil and Sanskrit, and has a working knowledge of Bahasa Indonesia, Spanish, Hindi, and Mandarin Chinese.
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.