Athens Calling: A Columbia Gateway to Global Learning, Research and Impact
Situated at an important geopolitical and cultural junction between Europe and the Middle East, the Columbia Global Center in Athens is becoming a hub for students seeking hands-on international experience, with a growing array of programs available in 2025.
"Students who come to Athens experience something truly transformative," says Stefanos Gandolfo, Director of the Athens Global Center. "They're not just studying in Greece – they're actively engaging with its cultural landscape and contributing to projects with lasting significance."
Global Core Summer Experience: Athens as a Classroom
The centerpiece of student opportunities is the Columbia Summer Global Core: The Athens Experience course, which examines how particular spaces serve as sites for cultural and political vision, such as urban planning, nation-making, and democracy. Available to undergraduate Columbia and Barnard students, this summer program extends beyond traditional learning with:
- Cross-disciplinary field studies exploring Greek history, culture, society, and environment
- Hands-on public humanities work culminating in curating a permanent exhibition at the Athens Global Center
- Practical skill development in critical thinking, archival research, oral history, and public presentation
The course "Hellenism and the Topographical Imagination" examines how cultural, urban, and literary spaces shape national and political identity. Through seminars, site visits, and workshop sessions, students collaborate with peers to create a meaningful contribution to Athens' cultural landscape.
"Students not only have the opportunity to visit sites that have come to symbolize the pinnacle of humanistic knowledge, but also take Athens as a vantage point to consider pressing issues in today's world and practice public humanities by creating a permanent exhibition for our new Global Center in Athens."
- Dimitris Antoniou, Lecturer in Hellenic Studies, Department of Classics Program Director, Columbia Summer Global Core: The Athens Experience
Specialized Field Experiences Across Disciplines
Beyond the Columbia Summer Global Core: The Athens Experience course, the Athens Center is welcoming a series of courses to Athens in 2025:
- GSAPP Advanced Architectural Design Program (Spring 2025): The current GSAPP Architecture students, traveling to Athens for their Advanced Studio work led by Professor Lydia Kallipoliti, will be hosted for a visit to the future building of the Columbia Global Center Athens to learn about the building's history, its ongoing renovation project, and its envisioned future.
- Social Work with Refugees and Displaced Persons (Spring 2025): Students will work directly with agencies serving refugee populations while learning about humanitarian policies and practices.
- SIPA Capstone Workshop (Spring 2025): Partner with the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy to explore multilateral mechanisms for protection and labor pathways in migration management. (School of International and Public Affairs)
- Epigraphy Seminar Study Trip (Summer 2025): Led by faculty member Paraskevi Martzavou, this specialized study trip offers classics students hands-on experience with primary sources.
Athens as a Vantage Point for Global Issues
As issues of migration, climate change, cultural preservation, and innovation dominate global conversation, Athens provides a unique vantage point for understanding complex challenges:
- Cultural Heritage and Public Memory: Students engage with questions of how societies preserve, interpret, and sometimes reinvent their past
- Migration and Displacement: Greece's position as a gateway to Europe offers firsthand insights into refugee experience and policy
- Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Students can observe Greece's emerging role as a European innovation hub
- East-West Relations: The country’s unique position at the intersection of multiple worlds offers perspective on global geopolitical developments
One student participant, Danae Kosta CC ‘27, reflected, "Being surrounded by individuals who were eager to learn and experience the culture was infectious, so that even I, who was not foreign to it the way others were, discovered a newfound appreciation."
Program Information
For all inquiries about student opportunities in Athens, the Athens Global Center can be contacted directly at athens-cgc@columbia.edu.
