Global Development Studies Program Launched

If you are concerned with the problems of global development then you will be interested to learn about a new Global Development Studies (GDS) program that will be launched at Puget Sound next year. Building upon Puget Sound's existing strengths in the interdisciplinary study of development the GDS program will allow students to earn an interdisciplinary "emphasis" in Global Development Studies.

(Note: an emphasis is not a major or minor but a designation that a student has successfully completed an integrated set of courses.)

Professors DeHart, Kontogeorgopoulos and Warning are to be congratulated for creating this new program.

Here is the description of the program that will appear in the 2008-2009 UPE Bulletin.

GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES

Advisory Committee: Monica DeHart, Comparative Sociology; Nick Kontogeorgopoulos, International Political Economy, Matt Warning, Economics

About the Program

The Global Development Studies Program represents an interdisciplinary array of courses that share a focus on the problematics and transformations associated with development. Since development entails political, economic, social, and cultural transformations at the individual, local, national and global levels, the program consists of courses that address multiple thematic and regional dimensions of development processes. The program offers a curricular concentration on global development as a designation on the transcript upon graduation for students who choose this concentration. The designation Interdisciplinary Emphasis in Global Development Studies reflects the program’s interdisciplinary content and orientation. The designation is not a major or minor, but functions as an enhancement of, or a complement to, any major of a student’s choice.

Courses in the program allow students to explore the empirical, philosophical, and policy dimensions of development. Faculty members with development expertise are in many different departments, and the Global Development Studies Program brings together courses from multiple departments and programs for interdisciplinary engagement. By working with diverse disciplinary lenses, textual forms, and theoretical models, students hone their ability to analyze the source, nature and effects of the global inequalities and transformations associated with development.

University Requirements

Though courses that reflect a focus on development are represented in the First Year Seminars (see list below), they do not count towards the designation in Global Development Studies. Students interested in development processes are nevertheless encouraged to consider these courses.

Several courses in the program are options in the core curriculum and may be counted towards both the emphasis and the core requirement.

Most courses offered in the program require no related prior study. However, students who take any of the few upper division courses with prerequisites must satisfy the associated requirements

Designation Requirements

To qualify for the designation Interdisciplinary Emphasis in Global Development Studies, a student must meet the requirements specified below. While students self-select their participation in the program through declaration of the emphasis on Cascade, they are strongly encouraged to meet with one of the advisory committee members to coordinate their planned curricular trajectory.

Interdisciplinary Emphasis in Global Development Studies

1. The emphasis requires a total of six courses (6 units) from the required and elective course options;

2. Two of the three “core” courses:

a. CSOC 316 Social and Cultural Change,

b. ECON 314 Economic Analysis of Underdevelopment and/or

c. IPE 311 Political Economy of “Third World” Development.

3. Four units of electives from the program curriculum listed below. Two units must come from the “Topical” group and two must come from the “Regional” group. Three units must be at the 200 level or higher.

4. Grades of C or better in all program courses (no pass/fail).

5. Students who take all three of CSOC 316, ECON 314 and IPE 311 will receive elective credit (Topical) for the third course.

Substitution of requirements may be possible, as arranged with and approved by a member of the Global Development Studies advisory committee. For example, students may petition for the inclusion of courses not already listed as approved electives, including courses taken during study abroad. Approval of these petitions will be determined according to the extent the courses address political, social, economic or cultural changes associated with development processes. Courses applicable to the designation in Global Development Studies may be taken at any time in a student’s academic trajectory.

Course Offerings: Topical Electives

COMM 460 Technology and Globalization

CSOC 230 Indigenous Peoples: Alternative Political Economies

CSOC 318 Women and Global Inequality

CSOC 323 Tourism and the Global Order

CSOC 335 Third World Perspectives

CSOC 350 Border Crossings: Migration and Diaspora Studies

ECON 371 International Economics

ENVR 301 Global Environmental Change

IPE 331 The International Political Economy of Food and Hunger

IPE 361 Unraveling Globalization

IPE 382 The Illicit Global Economy
IPE 389 Global Struggles over Intellectual Property

PG 324 Sovereignty and Political Community in Muslim Politics
PG 332 International Organizations
PG 333 Human Rights and International Law

Course Offerings: Regional Electives

BUS 371 International Business in Asia

BUS 372 Business in Latin America

CSOC 315 Identity Politics in Latin America

CSOC 416 Modern India and Diaspora

ENG 484 Indian Fiction

FLL 381 Women and Revolution in Latin American Literature

HIS 280 Colonial Latin America
HIS 281 Modern Latin America
HIS 346 China Since 1800: Reform and Revolution
HIS 380 Modern Mexico
HIS 382 Comparative Revolutions in Twentieth-Century Latin America
HIS 385 Cities, Workers, and Social Movements in Latin America, 1880-1990
HIS 386 Slave Societies in the Americas
HIS 387 The History of Brazil

LAS100 Introduction to Latin American Studies

PG 320 Political Islam in Southeast Asia
PG 323 Asian Political Systems
PG 339 Globalization in Southeast Asia
PG 378 Chinese Political Economy
PG 380 Latin American Politics: Authoritarianism and Democracy
PG 381 U.S.-Latin American Relations

SPA 410 Spanish-American Literature of the Colony and Independence

Course Offerings: First Year Seminars (No credit towards Interdisciplinary Emphasis in Global Development Studies)

Scholarly and creative inquiry

IPE 123 Modernization and Social Change in Southeast Asia

IPE 180 War and Peace in the Middle East

PG 131 Islam and its Contexts

CSOC 118 Social Organization and Change in the Developing World

CSOC 125 Culture Wars: A Global Context

ECON 104 Peasants, Commodity Markets and Starbucks: Coffee in Global and Local Economies

Writing and Rhetoric

ENGL 135 Travel and the Other