Global Development Studies Program
Why study Global Development Studies?
Are you interested in learning about the world, your place in it, and how to effectively address difficult global problems? Do you want to see a world in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive and not simply survive?
Global Development Studies is about understanding and addressing the world’s most pressing global challenges and problems, combining critical thinking with practical skills development.
The Saint Mary’s approach
With small, student-focused and engaging courses, Global Developments Studies offers the distinct opportunity to develop the skills required to address urgent contemporary challenges, from climate change and conflict, to food insecurity and global inequality.
We offer intensive, interdisciplinary classes aimed at research, policy and development practice, taught by internationally recognized scholars, for a rewarding and dynamic learning experience.
Hands-on learning
Students regularly participate in exchanges and research trips across the globe, including in Brazil, Colombia, Ghana, Greece, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Uganda. They often volunteer and engage in hands-on learning in class, including experiential learning around Fairtrade coffee and affordable housing in Halifax.
Our students have received many academic awards, including the Homburg Mobility Award, the prestigious Kari Polanyi-Levitt (KPL) Prize, and the Governor General Gold Medal.
Sample courses offered:
- Global Development in Turbulent Times: Explore the idea of development and its changing and contested nature from colonialism to the current era of globalization. With an eye toward social change and uneven power, students unpack concrete case studies in resistance and domination, analyzing the causes and consequences of global social, environmental, and economic crises in these turbulent times.
- Global Development: Policies and Issues: Explore development policies and contemporary issues in the context of an uneven global order. Students examine the role, practices, and actions of the state, local communities, international institutions, nongovernmental organizations, transnational corporations and other actors, critically analyzing their impacts on society, the environment, and the economy.
- Climate, Security and Development: Examine how security as a concept frames the problem of climate change and its impacts, and how competing security frameworks shape national and international policy interventions to mitigate climate change. Asking whose security matters, students will explore the practical, political, and ethical challenges of developing equitable and effective climate policy in a globally divided world.
Future career options:
Graduates work with international organizations, government, local institutions and corporations. Recent graduates have worked with:
- UN Women
- Global Affairs Canada
- War Child Canada
- Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada
- Carbon Pulse (an international climate journal)
- Above Ground
- The Maritimes-Guatemala Breaking the Silence Network
- Mobile Food Market
- The Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia
- The Atlantic Council for International Cooperation
What our former students are saying
I hold undergraduate degrees in Global Development Studies (GDST) and Biology; the GDST program taught me the importance of analyzing environmental and biodiversity conservation issues from perspectives that extend beyond science. For example, during the Environment and Development course, I learned about the socio-economic factors that a play a role in threats to environmental issues and how imperative it is to address these issues from a holistic perspective. The critical thinking skills I learned throughout the program continues to be invaluable while I work on my PhD which tackles issues related to soil biodiversity and policy.
The Global Development Studies department provided me with a highly personalized and meaningful course regimen that proved both challenging and extremely rewarding. The curriculum connected theory and practice in a way that allowed me to greatly expand my knowledge base through library research and conference travel, and set me up for sustained success after graduation in a manner I would not have achieved elsewhere.