About
Leveraging the intellectual depth and breadth of Columbia University, the cultural assets of New York City, and a cohort of remarkable colleagues, the Distinguished Fellows program offers a year of rigorous academic learning and renewal for individuals approaching the end of their primary careers or preparing for a life transition. This is that chance to be a student again—on terms designed to fit a different life stage.
Guided by expert Columbia faculty, Fellows in this academic year-long program will be intellectually and personally challenged, grappling with essential questions from history, philosophy, literature, the arts, the social sciences, and current events, while benefitting from the unique engagement opportunities that only Columbia and New York City can offer. Inflected by Columbia’s legendary Core Curriculum and its standing as a renowned research university, fellows can expect the best of both intellectual depth and cutting-edge discovery.
Many leaders have spent decades immersed in their own careers and professional responsibilities; the Distinguished Fellows program provides the space and guidance to reactivate one’s intellectual creativity and explore topics beyond one’s own foundation of knowledge while defining a next phase of purpose and meaningful activity.
Ready to get started? Start your application here.
Leadership of the Distinguished Fellows Program
As the inaugural Faculty Director of the Distinguished Fellows Program, Professor Pamela Smith brings a lifetime of intellectual curiosity, teaching, and research across science and the humanities. Her deep experience at Columbia will be an essential resource for Fellows as they enter into the life of the university. A pioneering scholar of the history of science, her teaching and research ask questions fundamental to human life and society: how do we acquire knowledge? How do we learn to create, with our minds as much as our hands? How does scientific discovery happen? Over three decades, including her work as founding director of the Center for Science and Society, she has served as a mentor to generations of students who have gone on to shape global thought and understanding about science and technology, its history, and ongoing influence in society. She will work closely with Fellows as they design their individual pathways through the Program as well as lead and curate the flagship University Discovery series.
As academic sponsor of the Distinguished Fellows Program, Amy Hungerford brings more than 25 years of experience in higher education at Columbia and Yale, and her deep knowledge of Columbia’s intellectual ecosystem to the program’s design and operations. In her role as Dean and Executive Vice President, she oversees Columbia University’s second largest unit, which includes five schools, more than 1,000 faculty, 28 departments, and 60 research centers and institutes. A scholar of 20th and 21st century American literature and a former Dean of Humanities at Yale, Professor Hungerford has been instrumental in shaping the vision for the program, including its curricular design and faculty engagement. She regularly teaches in the Core Curriculum.
Vice Provost Ushma Neill is co-sponsor of the Distinguished Fellows Program, bringing the scope and expertise of the Provost’s Office and its Lifelong Learning initiatives to the Program’s design and operations. In her role as Vice Provost, she provides strategic and operational leadership to strengthen collaboration and integration across Columbia’s campuses. She works closely with deans, faculty, and academic and administrative leaders to connect research, education, and institutional initiatives that span schools and units. Her portfolio focuses on building durable structures that support interdisciplinary programs, shared resources, and joint initiatives. Through this work, she advances University-wide academic priorities, with the goal of amplifying Columbia’s collective impact.
Professor Eleanor Johnson is the designer and teacher of the Distinguished Fellows Core Seminar, bringing the energy and vision of one of Columbia’s most beloved and celebrated teachers and most active scholars across an exceptionally broad intellectual range. The recipient of two of Columbia’s most prestigious teaching awards, the Lenfest Distinguished Faculty Award (awarded by Arts & Sciences) and the Mark Van Doren award (awarded by Columbia’s own undergraduate students), she has been teaching at Columbia for 17 years, including 15 years teaching Literature Humanities – a primary element of Columbia’s renowned Core Curriculum. By training, Professor Johnson is a medievalist, who focuses on English literature, theology, and culture. But, partially based on her work in the Core, she also teaches extensively in classical, Renaissance, and contemporary literature, as well as American cinema, with a focus particularly on the unsettling genre of horror. She has published 6 books, some for cross-over audiences, with two additional books in the pipeline for 2027-2028. Her playful, provocative scholarship and dynamic teaching will define the shared intellectual experience of the Program.
Frequently Asked Questions
Given that many of today’s leaders have spent decades immersed in their own fields, the Columbia University Distinguished Fellows program will provide space and guidance for Fellows to reactivate their intellectual creativity and explore topics beyond their own ken. The Distinguished Fellows program seeks those who want to be students again, but on different terms, and who, in doing so, want to give something back to the next generation.
As elaborated on the “Experience” page, the program will offer a curated cluster of seminars and outings designed only for the Distinguished Fellows cohort. In addition to the Fellow-specific experiences, the program’s advisors will help participants find and register for open seats in classes from across Columbia in both semesters.
Fellows have the freedom to study almost anything offered in the wide range of Columbia’s curriculum--including philosophy, religion, history, the arts, music, literature, politics, science, environment, and society. They may seek to understand the issues facing the modern world with the context and nuance gained through reflection on history and written, oral and artistic traditions. Select courses in some professional schools will be available as well.
Fellows decide how they want to engage their classes. They may choose to attend and engage in all class activities, or they may simply audit their classes. Fellows attending a class are typically present at all or most class meetings and complete most assignments, and may take exams if they wish, with instructor feedback but with no final grade recorded. Fellows who simply audit a class attend and complete assignments more flexibly, but without instructor feedback.
Fellows understand that they have the opportunity not only to learn but also to give back to the next generation. In class, that may mean holding back, so that students earning their degrees have the space to speak, practice and learn, but it also may mean asking the hard question or contributing the insight that experience and life stage allows one to see.
Voluntary mentorship opportunities will pair Fellows with current students interested in areas where Fellows have expertise, drawing Fellows into the learning community in a special role, giving back even as they undertake their own learning.
Each term, Fellows meet with the advising team to hone their search across the course catalog. Hundreds of classes have open seats after degree-seeking students have registered, and Fellows are free to register for these in most cases. Some special courses—such as first-year undergraduate Core seminars—are reserved only for degree-seeking students and do not admit auditors or visiting students. The advising team helps Fellows navigate registration in a way tailored to their goals and desire for rigorous academic engagement or lower-key auditor experiences.
As a Distinguished Fellows program alumnus, you will have access to a lifelong intellectual home and peer community at Columbia. You will retain access to the exclusive Fellow directory, and will be invited to select annual campus summits, ongoing events, faculty lectures, and some Columbia alumni programming. There will be abundant opportunities to collaborate with past and future cohorts. Some Fellows may cultivate long-time relationships with the faculty teaching them, with current students they mentor, or with collaborators on projects launched during the program.
In its first year, the program is proud to offer two full-tuition fellowships for exceptional leaders coming from the non-profit sector.
As we establish the program, Columbia degree-holding alumni will be offered a 10% discount on tuition if they are admitted to the inaugural cohort (2027-2028).
As one of the opportunities to “pay it forward” for others while on campus, members of the inaugural cohort will be invited to advise on the development and refinement of the program and will be part of special conversations with the deans and academic leaders spearheading this initiative. Inaugural Cohort Fellows may be invited to remain connected to the program in an advisory capacity for the second year and beyond, if a longer relationship with the program and the university is of interest.