Global Leaders' Alliance | Alliance University

Overview

The Global Leaders Alliance (GLA) is the flagship (postgraduate diploma) programme in Liberal Arts at Alliance University. It is a multidisciplinary fellowship programme designed to train the brightest young thinkers in the world to be citizens, stateswomen and men, and leaders in all fields of thought and action. The aim of this programme is to prepare fellows for the unique challenges posed by the 21st century, from environmental disasters to unprecedented invasions on privacy to extreme wealth inequality to novel challenges to democracy, and a post-factual political landscape.

The GLA is India’s first actual postgraduate fellowship that will be fully funded. The purpose of the programme is only to provide the best possible international education for the most promising minds in Asia and the world. Multidisciplinarity forms the structure and foundation of the programme. Each course is interdisciplinary in nature – they range from ‘chaos theory in politics’ to ‘abuses of psychometry in the marketplace’ to ‘ethics of artificial intelligence’ – and will be taught by the world’s best academics from ivy league or equivalent institutions. The courses are in turn designed to complement each other to build a comprehensive knowledgebase that will allow fellows to approach any problem with insight, subtlety, and balance.

By the end of the fellowship, students will be well versed in the areas of:

With both a taught and work experience dimension, students will be ready to join the upper echelons of political, academic, media, policy, corporate, and most other fields. For a rich academic and extra-curricular learning experience in a fully transdisciplinary conception of the liberal arts, apply to the GLA now!

Key Features

Oxford Faculty

Fully funded

Interdisciplinary courses

Cultural heritage tour

Internships

International study exchange

Application assistance to ivy leagues

Modern and ancient languages

Podcasts, conferences, magazines

Cultural Heritage Tour

A traveling boot-camp will be organized for the fellows and faculty as they crisscross the state of Kerala, interspersing and enhancing their continuous intellectual exchange with visits to the most memorable architectural, cultural, and natural marvels of South India. This is a great opportunity to spend time informally with the Ivy league faculty while learning about the rich heritage of South India, having unforgettable culinary experiences, and staying comfortably at the coziest of resorts.

All costs and organizational hassle will be borne by Alliance.

Oxford-Alliance Faculty

Adam Jones

D.Phil., Mathematics
University of Oxford

Dr. Adam Jones completed DPhil from University of Oxford after a four years undergraduate master’s programme in Mathematics from Queen Mary University of London.

Dr. Jones is primarily involved in research on non-commutative algebra, often with application to representation theory. He has taught and supervised groups for a variety of subjects such as linear algebra, commutative algebra, representation theory and lie algebras.

GLA Course Title: The history and role of algebra in the development of mathematics

Bernhard Kasberger

Postdoctoral Researcher, DICE
Junior Research Fellow, Economics
University of Oxford
Ph.D., Economics, University of Vienna

Dr. Kasberger is a Postdoctoral Researcher at Dusseldorf Institute of Competition Economics. He completed his Ph.D. in Economics from University of Vienna, M.Sc. In Economics from Institute for Advanced Studies and TU Wien and a B.Sc. In Economics from WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.

Teaching and research areas of Dr. Kasberger include Game Theory, Auction and Market Design and Industrial Organization.

Dr. Kasberger is a recipient of multiple awards and honors such as NOeG Young Economists Award and Heinz-König-Young-Scholar-Award from ZEW Mannheim. He is an Austrian citizen and actively publishes in renowned journals.

GLA Course Title: Strategic thinking in practice

Crescente Molina

Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard Law School
D.Phil., Philosophy of Law
University of Oxford

Dr. Crescente Molina holds a doctorate (Dphil) in philosophy of law from the University of Oxford and has law degrees from UC Berkeley (LLM) and Catholic University of Chile (LLB).

Dr. Crescente Molina is a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Law School’s Project on the Foundations of Private law. His work lies at the intersection of moral, legal, and political philosophy, and private law. He has written mostly about the morality of promises and contracts, He is currently working on a book project on the law’s role in creating and recognizing some of our normative powers.

GLA Course Title: Law and its Moral limits: A Contemporary Introduction to the Philosophy of Law

Liam Saddington

ESRC, Postdoctoral Research Fellow
University of Oxford
D.Phil., Geography, and the Environment
University of Oxford

Dr. Liam completed his DPhil in Geography and the Environment at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, with his thesis "Rising Seas and Sinking Island: The Geopolitics of Climate Change in Tuvalu and Kiribati". Dr. Liam Saddington is currently an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Oxford.

Dr. Liam first entered the department to read for a BA in Geography before completing his MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance in 2017. Dr. Liam was also a Visiting Research Fellow at the University of the South Pacific.

GLA Course Title: The Geopolitics of Climate Change: Small Island States in a Warming World.

Luke Davies

Fellow in Political Theory
Department of Government, LSE
D.Phil., Philosophy
University of Oxford

Dr. Luke Davies is a fellow in political theory in the Department of Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Prior to joining the LSE, he completed a PhD and MA in philosophy at the University of Oxford and a BA in philosophy at the University of Toronto. His work to date has focused primarily on the political philosophy of Kant, particularly Kant's account of citizenship and rights.

GLA Course Title: The Philosophy of Rights: historical and contemporary perspectives

Maximilian Kiener

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Philosophy
University of Oxford
D.Phil., Philosophy
University of Oxford

Dr. Maximilian Kiener received a DPhil and BPhil in Philosophy from the University of Oxford as well as a BA in Philosophy and Public Law from the University of Regensburg in Germany. Dr. Kiener’s work has been published, for instance, in The Journal of Moral Philosophy, Philosophical Studies, and The Journal of Medical Ethics, and was also awarded the international prizes SOPHIA in 2016 and the CEPE IACAP Best Paper Award in 2021.

Dr. Kiener is a philosopher at the University of Oxford and specialises in moral and legal philosophy. His research, which is supported by a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship, focuses on consent, responsibility, and artificial intelligence.

GLA Course Title: The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence

Merve Emre

Associate Professor of American Literature
University of Oxford
Ph.D., English Literature
Yale University

Merve Emre is associate professor of English at the University of Oxford. She is the author of Para literary: The Making of Bad Readers in Post-war America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2017), The Ferrante Letters (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019), and The Personality Brokers (Doubleday: New York, 2018), which was selected as one of the best books of 2018 by the New York Times, the Economist, NPR, CBC, and the Spectator, and has been adapted for CNN/HBO Max as the documentary feature film Persona. She is the editor of Once and Future Feminist (Cambridge: MIT, 2018), The Annotated Mrs. Dalloway (New York: Liveright, 2021), and The Norton Modern Library Mrs. Dalloway (New York: Norton, 2021).

GLA Course Title: Abuses of psychometry in the marketplace

Peter McDonald

Professor of English
University of Oxford
D.Phil., English
University of Oxford

For most of his professional life Peter has been thinking about the idea of culture as it has been shaped and reshaped over the past two hundred years, and about the processes and perils of literary guardianship, especially in the complex, mobile, and interconnected world that emerged in the course of the long twentieth century. This guiding preoccupation has informed his work on censorship, the rise of mass culture, media history and questions of the book, the public value of literature, critical theory, and interculturalism. It has also led Peter to write on an eclectic range of authors, including Arnold, Beckett, Bennett, Blanchot, Bourdieu, Brink, Breytenbach, Amit Chaudhuri, Coetzee, Conan Doyle, Conrad, Derrida, T.S. Eliot, Gordimer, Kirsty Gunn, Sarah Howe, Jensma, Joyce, Krog, Lawrence, Matthews, Mehrotra, Mphahlele, Ndebele, Pound, Rushdie, Serote, Tagore, Woolf, and Yeats. Peter teaches literatures in English from around 1830 to the present and critical theory.
Professor, University of Oxford

Théo LEBRET

Msci, Astrophysics
University College London
D.Phil., Astrophysics
University of Oxford

Dr. Théo holds a Dphil from University of Oxford. Prior to his doctoral work, Dr. Théo studied for an Msci in Astrophysics at University College London and has a Baccalaureate in France. His research work has been on areas such as ‘the dynamics of Dark Matter halos in galaxies like the Milky Way’ or ‘comparing numerical methods to simulate the formation of stellar halos’.

Dr. Théo is currently in France working towards obtaining the Agregation de Physique, a French higher education teaching certification.

GLA Course Title: From Chaos to Complexity: studying dynamical systems in physics and elsewhere

Tedd Moya

Oxford Martin Fellow
University of Oxford
Ph.D., Energy and Natural Resources
Queen Mary University of London

Dr. Tedd is a qualified lawyer, academic, and consultant in energy, environment, climate change, technology, sustainable development and finance. Dr. Tedd holds a Ph.D. from Queen Mary University of London. He is also a board member and strategist in conservation, education, philanthropy, and technology ventures in sub-Saharan Africa, the UK, and the Middle East. He is currently an Oxford Martin Fellow at the Oxford University Martin Programme on Integrating Renewable Energy.

Dr. Tedd has research affiliations with the Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London and has also taught and held various multi-disciplinary positions at the Universities of St. Andrews, Cape Town, Michigan, Dundee, and LSE.

GLA Course Title: The Philosophy of Rights: historical and contemporary perspectives

Meghanne Barker

LSE Fellow
Department of Media and Communications
Ph.D., Linguistic Anthropology
University of Michigan

Dr Barker works on animation, childhood, and film culture in post socialist Eastern Europe and Eurasia. She has been especially keen to foster greater dialogue between linguistic anthropologists and interdisciplinary scholars of visual culture. Dr Barker has published her research in Anthropological Quarterly and Journal of Linguistic Anthropology. She has been a guest co-editor for two special issues in Semiotic Review, one on “Blank Faces” (2019) and another, in preparation, on the “Semiotics of the Image.” Ongoing research projects include transmediality in early Soviet children’s culture, World Expositions as media events, generic conventions of online personals ads, and the politics of amateurism among postsocialist film clubs. Before arriving at the LSE, Dr Barker was a Collegiate Assistant Professor in Social Sciences and Harper-Schmidt Fellow, with an affiliation in the Department of Anthropology, at the University of Chicago. She finished her PhD in linguistic anthropology at the University of Michigan.
GLA Course Title: Eastern European film culture

Derek Attridge

Professor, English
University of York
Ph.D., English
Cambridge University

Prof. Attridge holds a Ph.D. and BA in English from Cambridge University. He has also done his B.A. Hons. in English and B.A. in English and Psychology from University of Natal, South Africa.

Prof. Attridge has received multiple awards and fellowships through his career such as Marie Curie Fellowship from Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies; M.H. Abrams Fellowship, National Humanities Center, North Carolina; A.W. Mellon Visiting Fellowship, University of Cape Town; Solomon Katz Distinguished Lecturer in the Humanities, University of Washington, Seattle; to name a few.

Prof. Attridge publishes extensively in the areas of literature and literary history.

GLA Course Title: The Experience of Art

Samuel Day

Department of Experimental Psychology
University of Oxford

Dr. Samuel is a researcher in the Emotion and Social Relations lab at University of Oxford's Department of Experimental Psychology. His work focuses on how the interpretation and perception of facial expressions depends upon a combination of various contextual factors, and how these interpretations be affected in clinical conditions such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

GLA Course Title: Faces and Places: Rethinking Emotion and Social Interaction

COURSE STRUCTURE

The one-year fellowship will be structured as:

A 9-month in-campus academic program.
A 3-month Internship/foreign exchange.
Those who successfully complete this 1-year program will be awarded a Postgraduate degree/diploma in Liberal Arts.

The nine-month in-campus academic program would include:

Nine taught modules covering the key themes of the program.
Each module will be led by one or more module tutors.
Each module will comprise four weeks of learning, which would include both theoretical classes and research work.

Three-Month Internship Program

The GLA Fellows will spend three months gaining exposure and experience working with:

Media

Print and Electronic
NGOs and Societies/Trusts

International Universities

Projects
Academic Internships

International Organizations and Countries

UN
UNICEF
WEF
WHO and other International Bodies
Political Offices
State and National Ministries
Fortune-500 Companies

Experiential Learning

International Literary Festival

Be a part of the movement to make Alliance the nerve center of all things literary in India. Organize and participate in what will become one of Asia’s most significant literary festivals where academics, writers, publishers, translators, journalists, and other public intellectuals come together for a confluence of conversations that take stock of the newest literary currents while also reviving forgotten and obscure literatures.

Know More

Film Club and Festival

Experience the collective ecstasy of watching and analyzing world cinema. Expand your artistic vision and sharpen your critical eye as we watch films throughout the year, culminating in a film festival that congregates filmmakers and curates the most exciting collection of old and new films to be screened.

Media Lab

Use the excellent facilities of the media lab to get hands-on experience in filmmaking and editing, camera-handling and production. Along with the film club, the media lab is a place for tinkering and experimentation through various media as well as the hub generating content for the Alliance public sphere.

Podcasts

Set up podcasts with luminaries from different fields and be part of the movement to make Alliance the hub of Bangalore's intellectual public sphere.

Magazines

To inculcate literary values and aesthetic sensibility, the department of language and literature envisions to promote academic discourses and literary compositions through its various publications. At present, the department publishes a multi-lingual literary magazine titled Anukarsh. As one among the very few multilingual literary magazines in the country, Anukarsh works to explore the multitudinous ways in which India’s diverse languages and cultures have worked to form a rich and composite literary oeuvre.

Distinguished Speaker Series

Be enthralled and inspired by distinguished speakers including scientists, filmmakers, writers, Nobel Laureates, parliamentarians, media personalities-all invited from the world over in occasional lecture series. Well-known pioneers from different fields shall be called upon to share their infectious wisdom with the budding thought-leaders of tomorrow.

Annual Conference

Organize and participate in an annual conference where the leading academic luminaries are called upon to deliberate on the state of the humanities with focus on a special theme.

Career Opportunities

The Global Leaders’ Alliance fellowship will broaden the horizons of the fellows in a manner that they are fast-tracked into positions of leadership and influence across a variety of sectors. This will happen through mentorship by world-class faculty, exposure through prestigious internships and the cultivation of a nurturing alumni network.

The fellowship is structured around thematic areas that make the students polymathic individuals as well as informed world citizens. This aspect, along with a strong orientation in argument and articulation makes the fellows suited for an eclectic set of professions in corporate, governmental, and non-governmental spheres. Most significantly, the fellowship mandates participation in organizational activities at Alliance, making them ideally poised for the kind of institution-building smarts necessary for entrepreneurship and community service.

A brief glimpse of the many possible careers that await a GLA fellow:

Corporate Governance
Scientists and Technical Consultants
Market Research and Advertising
Public Administration and Policymaking
Think Tanks and Lobbying Organizations
Media and Publishing
Social Work and Philanthropy
Urban Planning and Rural Management

Higher Education and Research
Politics and Political Management
Legislation and Legislative Assistance
Legal Consultancy and Judicial Clerkship
Public Relations and Communications Strategy
Archivist and Curators
Diplomats, Interpreters and Translators

Admissions

Eligibility

A Bachelor’s Degree from Any Recognized National/International University
Good Verbal and Written Ability in English
Aged Below 35
Academic And Extra-Curricular Excellence

Selection Process

An Application & Written/ Videotaped Expression of Interest
Written Test
Personal Interview

Key Dates

Commencement: September 1, 2022

APPLY ONLINE

Fees and Financing

The Global Leaders' Alliance Fellowship is India’s first true postgraduate fellowship in the sense that it will be fully-funded. The GLA fellows will be provided state-of-the-art facilities, food, and lodging, free-of-cost by the University. The costs incurred for travel and accommodation during the in-course exposure visits and heritage tour will be borne by the University as well.

FAQs

Who can Apply?

Students from around the world, under the age of 35,with an undergraduate degree in any discipline, and with a demonstrated record in academics or extracurricular activities are encouraged to apply for the fellowship.

How much does it cost?

Being a genuine fellowship in the true spirit of the term, tuition costs are waived and lodging costs are borne by Alliance.

Who teaches?

A selection of the world’s best faculty drawn from Ivy-league Universities, especially Oxford.

Duration of the Fellowship

The fellowship programme is divided into two phases:

Phase I: A 9-month in-campus academic programme
Phase II: A 3-month Internship/foreign exchange