Columbia Global Centers

Columbia Global Centers are research outposts established by Columbia University in eight locations around the world, as part of its initiative to further establish an international research university.^[1] The first of these centers opened in March 2009 in Beijing, China and Amman, Jordan, and Columbia opened facilities in Paris, France, Mumbai, India in March 2010 and Nairobi, Kenya in January 2012.^[2] Additional locations in Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro and Santiago de Chile were opened in 2012 and 2013.^[3]

Purpose

Columbia created the global centers "to promote and facilitate international collaborations, new research projects, academic programming and study abroad, enhancing Columbia’s historical commitment to global scholarship."^[4] Columbia Global Centers act as regional hubs for a wide range of activities intended to enhance research in respective areas and at Columbia. The university aims to establish a network of centers in international capitals that brings together regional private enterprise, public officials, scholars, and students to collaboratively address global issues.

Centers

Columbia Global Centers | East Asia

The Beijing Center launched in March 2009 provides a base for activities throughout East Asia.^[5]

The Center's current projects include co-hosting the Summer Palace Dialogue of Chinese and American Economists (SPD) with the Chinese Economist 50 Forum.^[6] SPD brings together a small group of American and Chinese economists to debate and discuss economic cooperation between the two countries. Past years' Dialogues have centered on the global financial crisis and U.S.-China cooperation on climate change.^[7][8]

Another project of the Center is Urban China Initiative, a joint program between Columbia Global Centers | East Asia and McKinsey & Company.^[9] Another project is the Collaborative Center for Advanced Genomic Research between Tsinghua University and Columbia, as well as the Executive Public Policy Training Program at Peking University—a mid-career program for senior Chinese government officials that combines training in policy, economics, and management, and is taught by faculty from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, Peking University, the London School of Economics, and Sciences Po.^[10] Columbia faculty base themselves at the Beijing center and interact with Columbia scholars who are in the city for other projects.

Held at the end of October 2009, CGC Beijing worked with Initiative for Policy Dialogue (IPD) to organize a conference in Beijing with the China Task Force, a collaborative research project of IPD with several Chinese and British universities.^[11]

Xiaobo Lü, professor of political science at Barnard College and former director of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia, served as the first Director of the East Asia center, followed by Chinese economist Geng Xiao. The current director is Joan Kaufman.^[12]

Columbia Global Centers | Middle East

The Amman center, officially called the Columbia University Middle East Research Center, opened with the assistance of Jordan's Queen Rania Al Abdullah and was funded by grants from both the US government and the government of Jordan.^[13]

Current activities in Amman include collaborating with Jordanian resources toward accomplishing educational reforms and enhancing teacher and social worker skills, as well as undertaking several initiatives in the arts and architecture.^[14] The signature program, and catalyst for the center’s launch in Jordan, is a training center with Queen Rania through the Queen Rania Teacher Academy (QRTA), a collaborative effort of the Center, Columbia’s Teachers College, and Jordan’s Ministry of Education. The training center provides Jordan's first-ever induction program for new teachers, training nearly 400 teachers in 2009.

The Center has also been selected, working with the Earth Institute, as the MENA-region node of the Global Soil Mapping Initiative. Jordan’s Ministry of Agriculture is to delegate a full-time staff member to begin gathering soil composition data throughout North Africa and the Middle East, and the information will be digitized in publicly accessible, searchable databases.

Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation will launch a research lab at the Amman center for collaborative research, projects, exhibitions, events, and cultural exchanges involving students, scholars, and designers from Columbia University and the Middle East. Columbia's School of the Arts, its Arts Initiative, and university libraries are also pursuing initiatives in the region, including the Music of the Muslim World archive.

Safwan Masri,^[15] executive vice president for global centers and global development, directs the global center in Amman.

Columbia Global Centers | Europe

In March 2010, the Columbia Global Center | Europe was formally launched at Reid Hall, Columbia's Paris property. According to a signed memorandum of understanding between Columbia and L’École des Hautes Etudes en Santé Publique (EHESP), Reid Hall will host the consortium’s ambitious project to shape public health in the 21st century. As a part of the agreement, Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health (MSPH) and EHESP will utilize Reid Hall for joint, innovative programs of mutual interest, including research and teaching. The Center is directed by Paul LeClerc, former president of the New York Public Library and a noted scholar of French literature. Degree programs include a Master of Public Health offered jointly by Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health and École des hautes études en santé publique, and a Master of Arts in History and Literature developed by Columbia and several French universities. In September 2013, the Center partnered with the Bibliothèque nationale de France to launch the World Writers’ Festival, a public event featuring many of the world’s greatest writers.

Columbia Global Centers | South Asia

Columbia's Global Center for South Asia was launched in Mumbai, India, in late March 2010. Earth Institute economist Nirupam Bajpai, the Center's director, has called the Center "a huge project both physically and in its programming." One major initial project will be "India 2047", a sustainability initiative meant to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of India's independence.^[3] Among the collaborations is Studio-X Mumbai, a GSAPP project. Studio-X serves as the Columbia architecture school’s international network of leadership laboratories for research, public dialogue, and exhibitions about the future of the constructed environment. The Center’s two “Model Districts” projects—one on health and another on education—involve several Columbia schools working in partnership with officials from India’s federal government and from the state governments of six rural districts.

Columbia Global Centers | Africa

On Jan 13, 2012 the center opened its doors in Nairobi, Kenya, the first institution of its kind in Africa. In addition to providing a base for Columbia’s research and academic activities in the region, the new facilities host the MDG Centre for East and Southern Africa as a flagship program, and the regional Millennium Villages Project office in Nairobi, created by Columbia University's Earth Institute. The Center is directed by Belay Begashaw, adjunct associate research scientist at Columbia’s Earth Institute, a former minister of agriculture in Ethiopia, and director of the Millennium Development Goals Center for East and Southern Africa. The Center also hosts the Africa Nutritional Sciences Research Consortium PhD Graduate Training Project; the Africa Soil Information Service Project addressing food security; and an Information Technology Laboratory led by Columbia Engineering.

Columbia Global Centers | Turkey

Columbia Global Centers | Turkey was launched in November 2011 and became fully operational in January 2012. With its headquarters in Istanbul, the center serves as a hub for Columbia programs and initiatives relevant to Turkey and the region. The Center is directed by Ipek Cem Taha, a businesswoman, journalist, cofounder, and director of Melak Investments and an alumna of both Columbia Business School and the School of International and Public Affairs. Major projects developed by the Center include Women Creating Change: Gender, Vulnerability, and Power; the Istanbul Documentation Project, which is creating a digital map and record of the city’s Byzantine and Ottoman monuments and artifacts; and Historical Dialogue and Reconciliation: Building an Interdisciplinary Historical Bridge and Accountability Network in the Middle East.

Columbia Global Centers | Latin America (Santiago)

Launched in March 2012, the center is directed by Karen Poniachik, a former minister of mining and energy in Chile and a graduate of Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. The Center is collaborating with the Chilean Mining Association to provide field placements in mining operations and with the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Preservation and Planning’s Latin Lab to analyze the postearthquake reconstruction process. The Santiago Center has significantly increased the number of scholarships available to Chilean students seeking to attend Columbia and is in the process of developing a variety of programs in partnership with several schools on campus.

Columbia Global Centers | Latin America (Rio de Janeiro)

The Rio Center launched in March 2013 and is led by Thomas Trebat, former executive director of Columbia’s Center for Brazilian Studies. It hosted the inaugural Columbia Global Debates, a forum bringing together Columbia faculty with local thought leaders to discuss issues of global importance in virtual town hall style discussions with audiences from other global centers. The center has established partnerships with all the major Brazilian universities. In tandem with the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation’s Studio-X in Rio, the Center is joining with the offices of the governor of the State of Rio de Janeiro and the mayor of Rio on projects dedicated to social inclusion and economic development in poor communities.

References