The Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (Columbia GSAPP) is pleased to share that Professor Reinhold Martin has been selected to steer the Columbia University Committee on Global Thought as its next Chair, effective July 1, 2023. The Committee on Global Thought (CGT) was created in 2006 by Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger to provide an interdisciplinary forum for faculty and students to rethink and reconceptualize the ways the University confronts the challenges stemming from globalization. Professor Martin’s appointment is an important recognition of his scholarship and leadership in this area, as CGT Chairs represent the highest level of global thought: Professor Joseph E. Stiglitz served as Chair from 2006 to 2010; Professor Saskia Sassen was named Co-chair with Professor Stiglitz in the Fall of 2010 and then served as Chair from 2013 to 2015; Professor Carol Gluck served as Committee Chair from 2015 to 2020; and Professor Vishakha N. Desai was appointed Committee Chair in 2020.

The Committee on Global Thought works with scholars, students, and partners across disciplines and geographies to develop critical concepts and practical interventions necessary to address the complexities of the rapidly changing world. Since its inception, the membership of CGT has expanded from six founding members to more than thirty. Members come from diverse backgrounds and draw from all parts of the University, and Professor Martin has been a committee member since 2012. The collaboration among members of the CGT affirms the importance of drawing on multiple perspectives and methodological approaches to advance the scholarly understanding of global issues.

In addition to his teaching at Columbia GSAPP, Professor Martin formerly directed the Temple Hoyne Buell Center for the Study of American Architecture (2008-2021) and has also chaired the Society of Fellows and Heyman Center for the Humanities at Columbia. He has published widely on the history and theory of modern architecture and urbanism, and on the political economy and political ecology of media technologies. His books include The Organizational Complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space (2003); Utopia’s Ghost: Architecture and Postmodernism, Again (2010); The Urban Apparatus: Mediapolitics and the City (2016); and Knowledge Worlds: Media, Materiality, and Making of the Modern University (2021).