Julia Kite
Julia Kite CC '07 was an urban studies and writing major who attained minor fame at Class Day when speaker Matthew Fox singled her out for her comment to the Spectator, "I've never heard of this guy." She was the sole graduating senior to be mentioned by name by both Fox and PrezBo.
She gave the John Jay Scholar speech at the 2007 John Jay Awards Dinner held at Cipriani on 42nd Street.
Kite has written for the BBC, Quarto, The Birch, and the now-defunct Collection. She is obsessed with pigeons and while at Columbia could frequently be found observing nests of baby birds. She also co-founded the Polish Students Society and performed with a Polish folk dance group based in Brooklyn.
Her senior thesis in urban studies and sociology was about sectarianism and soccer violence in Scotland. She received the Seymour Brick Memorial Prize for a play set in Glasgow that dealt with sectarian issues.
After graduation she studied at the London School of Economics as a postgraduate, and worked at both the British Urban Regeneration Association and the LSE Personal Social Services Research Unit. She later lived in London and worked as a research executive at Ipsos MORI. She then began a PhD program in sociology in Berkeley, but left to work at Harvard instead.
