Global Development major requirements

Advancing equitable and sustainable solutions to global challenges

Global problems are becoming more interconnected. The Global Development major curriculum is a response to the complexification of the concept and practice of development. The major prepares students to interpret problems, clarify solutions, develop leadership and foster positive social change. Students in the Global Development major receive comprehensive training in the key ideas, issues and debates central to global development.

Global Development Core Requirements

8 courses; 20 credits

These core courses ensure that students can demonstrate a broad introductory knowledge in the major disciplines involved in global development. They enable students to interpret a comprehensive multi-disciplinary set of issues related to socio-economic development, agriculture & food systems, and environmental sustainability in developing countries.

GDEV/DSOC/IARD 1102: Introduction to Global Development (3 credits; Fall first year)
GDEV/DSOC/IARD 1105: Global Development Cornerstone (2 credits; Fall first year)
PLSCI 1300: Just Food (4 credits; Fall first year)
NTRES 2010: Environmental Conservation (3 credits; Spring first year)
GDEV 4961 Perspectives in Global Development (1 credit; Fall and Spring; previously IARD 6960)
GDEV 2130 Introduction to Social Science Research Methods (3 credits; Spring second year; previously DSOC 3130)
GDEV/DSOC/IARD 3305: Planning for Change (3 credits; Spring second year)
Senior Seminar (1 credit; Spring senior year)

Engaged Learning Requirements

3 courses, 1 field-based “learning experience”: 4 credits

GDEV 2105: Critical Global Citizenship: Preparing for Ethical Engagement (2 credits; Spring first year)
Pre-departure Portfolio, designed to help students thoughtfully prepare for their specific internship (Completed in the semester before the start of one’s internship)
8-week field-based engaged learning experience: Students may choose from a range of options for their eight-week experience, including independent internships, Cornell internship programs, study abroad programs, which include an internship experience as part of their curriculum, and more.
GDEV 3105 / ALS 3105: Making Meaning and Moving Forward - Maximizing Engaged Learning Experiences (1 credit; Fall or Spring post engagement experience)

Read the full Engaged Learning Requirements and guidelines on how to identify and select your learning experience.

Thematic concentration requirements

To gain more depth in a particular aspect of development, all Global Development majors choose to affiliate with one thematic concentration and take an additional 24-26 credits of coursework within that concentration.

Social & Economic Development

The Social and Economic Development Concentration provides students an opportunity to explore global development issues, theories, policies, and practices in greater depth using the theories, approaches, and analytical frameworks of multiple social science disciplines. Students can develop individualized pathways through the concentration in consultation with their academic advisors. In addition, this concentration provides students planning to pursue graduate study in economics or sociology an opportunity to take advanced undergraduate coursework in those disciplines. The pathway for students planning graduate study in economics requires the four foundational courses coded with an (e). An additional four courses in economics are required for the economics pathway. For this pathway, advanced mathematics is highly recommended.

Learning Outcomes

Students completing this concentration in the major will be able to:

Effectively communicate, through writing and speech, the underlying beliefs, values and evidence claims that differentiate competing definitions of development.
Analyze development issues from a systems perspective.
Critically analyze the historical and political context of development in multiple contexts and across spatial scales from local to global.
Discuss alternative proposals for addressing major issues (poverty, inequality, food insecurity, environmental degradation, others) and how they reflect competing concepts of development, political ideologies, and notions of evidence.
Collect and integrate quantitative and/or qualitative information to reach defensible and creative conclusions about development.
Apply social science conceptual frameworks and tools to the analysis of one or more major development challenges.
Demonstrate professional and technical skills relevant to development research, practice and policy.
Engage with a development organization, project or program to develop ‘on the ground’ experience.
Demonstrate the capability to work both independently and in cooperation with those who hold views different from their own.

Required and Elective Courses

See the GDEV Advising Checklist for all Social and Economic Development concentration requirements.

Agriculture & Food Systems

This concentration is built on an integrative systems perspective that melds the biophysical, socio-economic, and nutritional sciences towards the sustainable development of inclusive agriculture and food systems. Students will learn about how food is produced, significant trends and drivers of change, and how to assess systems from an interdisciplinary perspective across cultural contexts. Critical contemporary debates about the future of food systems, such as sustainability, social justice, and resilience, will be examined from various perspectives. Students will also gain foundational skills in agriculture and food systems, including analytics for decision-making, monitoring and evaluation, and project management. This major is designed to support a range of career paths, including development practice, food policy, agricultural extension, and academia.

Learning Outcomes

Students completing this concentration in the major will be able to:

Describe the intellectual foundations and critically assess the comparative strengths and weaknesses of diverse agricultural and food system approaches to global development.
Identify key challenges and opportunities for agriculture and food systems, including those pertaining to food security, climate resilience, economic development, ecosystem sustainability, social inequality, socio-cultural knowledge and traditions, population mobilities and public health.
Analyze agriculture and food systems issues from a systems perspective.
Develop professional and technical skills relevant for those working in development research, practice and policy.
Engage with an agricultural and food systems organization, project or program to develop ‘on the ground’ experience.

Required and Elective Courses

See the GDEV Advising Checklist for all Ag and Food Systems concentration requirements.

Environment & Development

Students in this concentration will build their capacity to analyze how development affects the environment and how the environment shapes development. Through a range of courses, students will explore how society makes difficult choices concerning the control, use, and long-term management of land, freshwater, and marine resources. In engaging with these ethically complex and politically laden issues, students also examine how these topics are inextricably intertwined with issues of global food security and health, culture and identity, livelihood security, and intergenerational environmental justice.

Learning Outcomes

Students completing this concentration in the major will be able to:

Find, access, critically analyze, evaluate, and ethically use theories and methods of international development.
Understand competing definitions of development.
Critically analyze the historical and political context of environment and development.
Engage local problems with a global awareness.
Analyze structural inequalities that impact social-ecological systems.
Apply concepts of sustainability to the analysis of one of more major challenges facing environment and development.
Integrate quantitative and/or qualitative information to reach defensible and creative conclusions about environment and development.
Analyze contemporary environmental issues and how they intersect with development.
Interrogate knowledge claims that inform understanding and policy.
Communicate ideas effectively through writing, speech, and visual information.
Develop practical skills in environment and development.
Respectfully articulate the views of people with diverse perspectives.
Demonstrate the capability to work both independently and in cooperation with others.

Required and Elective Courses

See the GDEV Advising Checklist for all Environment & Development concentration requirements.

Policies

All required GDEV core and concentration courses must be taken for a letter grade (except for 1105, 1104, 3104, and 3105, which are currently only offered S/U) unless there are extenuating circumstances to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.
To receive credit for the required GDEV core and concentration elective courses, a student must receive a grade of C or higher unless there are extenuating circumstances to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.