A Global Focus

An accomplished scholar of European and global history, Deborah Cohen has led the Northwestern Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs since January 2024. During this time, her team has launched a raft of programs that build on the institute’s mission of fostering interdisciplinary teaching and research about the world beyond U.S. borders. 

Northwestern Buffett’s newest opportunities for undergraduate students include the Elliott Scholars Program, which pairs a two-course sequence on global topics with internships abroad, as well as an international senior thesis research competition and research fellowships that match students with faculty mentors. The institute also offers programs for graduate students, including grants for language study and funding for international research and dissertation work. 

“One of the thrilling things about Northwestern Buffett is that it connects so many different parts of the University to each other and then to a wider public,” says Cohen, the Richard W. Leopold Professor of History. The institute draws faculty and students from all 12 Northwestern schools for conversations, events and working groups on urgent global issues. 

Cohen expects the institute’s upcoming relocation to the renovated Jacobs Center to further stoke collaboration — and not only at Northwestern. “We’re also reaching out in the policymaking space, in international governance and to globally focused nongovernmental organizations,” she says. “That’s our mandate.”