Parsippany High School Alum Completes Master's In Europe

PARSIPPANY, NJ — A Parsippany native recently earned her master’s degree overseas.

Cassandra Cogan, an alumna of Parsippany High School (Class of 2019), has earned her Master’s Degree after studying abroad in Poland and Denmark. This accomplishment comes after Cogan earned her bachelor’s degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University.

In 2023, Cogan enrolled in the “European Master in Global Studies” (EMGS) program, a two-year program that “ combines innovation, interdisciplinarity, and academic excellence with transnational and transregional academic mobility.”

The EMGS program is a highly competitive one, and Cogan was accepted to it along with a fully-funded Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree (EMJMD) scholarship, which is awarded to “the most competitive and gifted students around the world.” She was one of just two Americans in the program, with other students hailing from Germany, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, and many more countries from around the globe, according to a statement.

Cogan began her overseas studies at Wroclaw University in Poland before moving to Denmark to complete the program at Roskilde University.

She studied international security and gender studies, earning top marks, before earning her “European Master in Global Studies” degree, as well as an additional “Master of Science in Social Sciences” degree from Roskilde University.

Cogan’s master thesis “investigated the construction of gendered narratives of violence and security in scripted television, examining how these narratives reflect hegemonic discourses on gender and politics in global security.” The thesis was accepted for participation and presentation at the upcoming “Popular Culture and World Politics” Conference in Lisbon, Portugal.

The graduate intends to stay abroad and plans to pursue a PhD related to her research interests soon.