Global Affairs
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Contact Us
General Admission Contact
The New School for Social Research
Office of Admission
72 Fifth Avenue, 1st floor
New York, NY 10011
212.229.5600 or 800.523.5411
SocialResearchAdmit@newschool.edu
Program Contact
Global Affairs Program
6 East 16th Street, 9th floor (map)
New York, NY 10011
intaffairs@newschool.edu
Phone: 212.206.3524
Fax: 212.924.1292
Chair
Antina von Schnitzler, Associate Professor of Global Affairs
Student Advisor
Anna de Moura Leite: GPIAAdvising@newschool.edu
Program Staff
Questions about academic and student affairs should be directed to NSSRAcademicAffairs@newschool.edu.
The new MA in Global Affairs at The New School in NYC prepares you to address the world’s most pressing contemporary challenges through a multidisciplinary approach that combines an in-depth investigation of complex global systems, practice-based experience, and a commitment to global social justice.
Unlike conventional international affairs degrees, the MA in Global Affairs treats global, environmental, and urban questions as inseparable. The program’s multidisciplinary curriculum brings together critical social science perspectives with powerful tools from design and AI and data-based fields.
The New School’s tradition of social research as well as Parsons School of Design’s celebrated design curriculum provide you with opportunities for uniquely interdisciplinary collaborations with world-class faculty and student peers. As a Global Affairs graduate student, you can tailor your study by taking courses in a range of disciplines offered throughout the university and interning with or becoming research fellows at our innovative centers, institutes, and labs. You gain practical experience and apply the skills you gain in the classroom through our partnerships with diverse organizations in New York City and around the world.
Our Approach
Throughout your course of study, you learn to apply frameworks that go beyond mainstream paradigms to analyze contemporary global issues. Heterodox theoretical approaches are combined with analytical tools in design, data and AI, and media production.
You enter the program and choose a pathway that aligns with your personal interests from the following pathways:
- Technology, Design and Infrastructure
- Global Inequality, Development and Social Change
- Global Orders and Security
- Global Climate and Urban Futures
A global hub of international diplomacy, finance and social activism, New York City offers unparalleled opportunities for internships in a range of fields, sectors, and organizations that help you explore your career options. Through field-based learning, studios, community partnerships, and an optional intensive International Study Trip offered annually, you develop analytical and practical skills that integrate theory, policy and practice.
Career Opportunities and Outcomes
Graduates of this program emerge equipped to work with and lead cross-sector teams, launch new initiatives, and design innovative, social justice-driven alternatives to existing global systems and structures. Graduates establish careers in the following settings:
- International organizations—positions with multilateral institutions that work on global governance, development, climate policy, and human rights.
- Policy research and think tanks—roles in institutes and policy centers conducting analysis on geopolitics, global political economy, and technology governance.
- Nonprofits, NGOs, and advocacy—program and project management, strategic planning, and research roles addressing climate justice, migration, and global development.
- Consulting and social impact firms—work with private sector companies situated between government, civil society and business.
- Government and the public sector—policy and strategy roles at the municipal, state, and federal level, especially in global cities like New York.
- Technology and AI governance—positions in tech policy, digital rights advocacy, and roles engaging with the social and political implications of emerging technologies.
