Columbia College Rose Research Ambassadors

Columbia College Rose Research Ambassadors

The Columbia College Rose Research Ambassador program allows students who have successfully completed Contemporary Civilization to promote a culture of scholarship, investigation and community that Contemporary Civilization fosters early on in students’ time at Columbia. It provides an opportunity for students to consider how Contemporary Civilization informs their intellectual investigations in specific fields and/or areas of research.

Writing about and reflecting on research, and by building on their earlier exposure to texts covered in CC, Research Ambassadors consider research as an extension of their engagement with core texts. They are able to demystify the research process, allowing them to consider how research further strengthens the skills they developed in Contemporary Civilization. The program allows students to consider how research gives them the flexibility of mind required in any post-graduate plan they seek to pursue, a mission that is at the heart of Contemporary Civilization.

Research Ambassadors and contribute blog pieces monthly. The objective of this blog is to allow students to reflect upon their CC Journey, to promote a culture of research and scholarship among undergraduates, to empower the broader undergraduate community to engage in or consider research opportunities.

Read the CC Rose Research Ambassadors Blog.

Columbia College Rose Research Ambassadors, 2026 - 2027 (clockwise from top-left): Henry Bansbach, Ari Gordon, Julia Kirby, Daksha Pillai, Christabelle Sutter.

Meet the 2026 - 2027 Rose Research ambassadors!

Henry Bansbach, CC’27, SIPA’28, is a senior majoring in Middle Eastern Studies who is also beginning his joint Master’s in International Affairs program at SIPA this fall. He studied Arabic in Cairo as a Theodore de Bary Language Fellow last summer, and has been working at the International Rescue Committee for the past year. This summer, he has conducted a research project on the discursive praxis of the Egyptian Feminist movement. Other research interests include critical approaches to International Humanitarian Law, the theology of Arabic Calligraphy, and Sufi philosophy of science! On campus he is the Media and Design chair of the Arabic Debates Club and a research assistant in the Institute for the Study of Human Rights. He would love to discuss the Middle East, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) department, getting research positions on campus, and critically evaluating our relationship with research as scholars, students, and people.

Ari Gordon, CC’27, is a senior majoring in English and American Studies. He has conducted research and participated in fellowships at the Hadar Institute, Columbia's Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, and the University of Chicago. This past summer, he was awarded the Richmond B. Williams Traveling Fellowship by Columbia's English Department in order to fund research on literary critics George Steiner and Walter Pater in the United Kingdom. On campus, he is the Lionel Trilling Book Award Chair for the Academic Awards Committee, the Editor-in-Chief of The Varsity Review, and a research assistant to various professors. He would be happy to discuss humanities research, the Core, Columbia’s English and American Studies departments, choosing a major, or anything else!

Julia Kirby, CC'27, is a senior double majoring in Physics and History & Theory of Architecture. She works as a research assistant at the Synthetic Biological Systems Lab, with work published in Molecular Systems Biology, and manages the lab’s bio-art practice, for which she has had artworks exhibited internationally and submitted to MIT’s Leonardo. She also researches plasma physics at the Columbia Fusion Research Center, and this past summer she worked on fusion materials as a SULI Fellow at Savannah River National Lab. In addition to her scientific research, she has been involved in a variety of archaeological research projects in Portugal, New Mexico, and Peru. She is writing a senior thesis about the use of the color blue in Mayan art and architecture, focusing on art historical and scientific perspectives, and would love to talk more about that. She would also love to talk to students about how to navigate an interdisciplinary path in the sciences and humanities, the Core, archaeological fieldwork and archival systems, or really anything that they're curious about.

Daksha Pillai, CC'27, is a senior majoring in Economics with a minor in Political Science. Outside of the classroom, she is an investigative journalist for the Columbia Daily Spectator and her local newspaper back home in Kentucky. She has also participated in medical brigades in Rwanda and Ecuador, conducted research in urban slums in Mumbai, and taught literature in Indore as a Columbia Symposium fellow. She would love to talk with students about exploring beyond their major, cultivating relationships with faculty, and having the best Core experience possible.

Christabelle Sutter, CC ’27, is a senior majoring in Classics with a specialization in Ancient Greek. Her academic interests center around Latin and Greek literature and classical philosophy, and she also enjoys the study of logic and mathematics. At Columbia she served as a grader for the course Symbolic Logic and is also involved with the Columbia Catholic Ministry. Last spring she studied abroad at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, where she intensified her study of the history and intellectual traditions of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Beyond Columbia she has held fellowships in political and moral philosophy with the Witherspoon Institute and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, and last summer she completed the Hertog Foundation’s Political Studies Fellowship. She has also interned at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where she contributed to the Krateros digitalization project. She would be delighted to discuss investigating topics of reserach within the humanities, the Core Curriculum and the questions it inspires, or miscellaneous topics such as crafting a senior thesis project, pursuing fellowships, studying abroad, and exploring interdisciplinary coursework.