About the MA Program in Development Studies
| To provide students with a full range of conceptual and methodological tools to engage the current issues and challenges of sustainable human development as it confronts us in our globalizing world. |
The MA in Development Studies at York University is a unique program composed of a set of interdisciplinary core courses that have been specifically designed to provide students with a full range of conceptual and methodological tools to engage the current problematique of development as it confronts us in our globalizing world. The program requires students to confront this reality not only through the literature, but also directly though a field work component. The course work and field work together combine to provide students the basis for an opportunity for sustained reflection (in the form of a major research paper or a thesis) on a particular aspect of the larger development problematique.
York 's MA in Development Studies:
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will provide an exciting new opportunity for students to become part of a growing field of graduate-level international development studies available at York University that follows York's commitment to the values of social justice, equality, democracy and sustainability;
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integrates critical theoretical exploration and practice, and incorporates contemporary discourses on development to better reflect the new realities of globalization and recent developments in the field;
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students will graduate with solid grounding in the practices, processes and issues of international development;
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is designed for persons who are either currently working or wishing to work in the field (e.g. for multilateral organizations, government agencies, development NGOs or local community organizations) and will serve as an excellent foundation for those intending to complete a specialized doctoral program in development studies;
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students will have the option of completing either an MA thesis, or a Major research paper (MRP) and one additional elective course;
- All students will be required to undertake field work for a period of three to four months, during the summer semester. Students will be assisted in choosing the location of their field work by the Graduate Director.
