IDS Core Classes
***Please note that not all courses are offered every year. Please refer to the appropriate聽聽for current course offerings.
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IDS CORE COURSES
- INTD 2001.03: Introduction to Development I. (The Global Development Primer) Poverty, inequality and injustice are widespread throughout the contemporary developing world. This module-based course will examine how this situation came to be, by engaging students directly with the pressing development issues of today. Students learn about the meaning of "development" and then examine the major themes in the discipline through modules that are taught by experts. The Global Development Primer recognizes colonial legacies of development and goes beyond any basic development studies textbook in order to critically engage students with issues that are shaping our world today.
- INTD 2002.03: Introduction to Development II. This course builds upon the core concepts and approaches studied in INTD 2001 (ie. theoretical approaches to development and the historical creation of underdevelopment). The course examines key contemporary issues in the field of development and analyses the connections between them: debt, global trade rules, foreign aid, hunger and malnutrition, rural and urban livelihoods, population growth. The course also examines the principles actors involved in development and the strategies they have used to promote and resist development, including governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the World Bank and IMF, and popular social movements in the Global South and North.
- INTD 3002.03: Development Practice. This course is designed for third year undergraduate students who are interested in a career in international development. The course will introduce students to the internal dynamics of development organizations (both governmental and non-governmental), development planning, methodologies of development practice in the field, ethical issues related to development work, fundraising, project proposal writing and project evaluation. The major assignment will involve the preparation of a development project proposal. Because this is a course in development practice, it will involve both seminar discussions and practical 'hands-on' activities. Different sections of the course may include different thematic emphasis - eg. rural development, gender and development and community development.
- INTD 3003.03: Development and Activism: Methods of Organization, Manifestation and Dissent. There are three prats to this course. In Manifestation, we explore theories of activism to understand how motivated individuals managed to change their societies. In Organization, we wrestle with the legalities of forming a civil-society organization. In Dissent, we take our skills to the streets by organizing lawful protests.
1000-level courses
- INTD/CANA 1102.03 & 1103.03: Halifax and the World. This course offers an introduction to both International Development Studies and Canadian Studies by exploring the connections between important global issues and your daily life as a student in Halifax. As you walk across the 麻豆社 campus and go about daily life in Halifax, your actions connect you to people around the globe and to the history of the city and world as well as to the many works of literature, art and music that depict these connections.
Learn more about these courses here.
2000-level courses
- INTD 2045.03: Indian Society: Change and Continuity. The objective of this half-credit course is to introduce students to the society and culture of India from an interdisciplinary perspective. India presents a society of enormous complexity and an unbroken living civilization of great antiquity. The focus of the course will be on selected, significant aspects of Indian society with particular emphasis on issues of current relevance. Topics discussed include: a historical background, social structure, political and social constraints to economic development, health issues, major religions and philosophy, development and foreign policy since independence, science and technology, disaster relief and development, and literature. This course counts as a half-credity in Sociology and Anthropology towards the IDS established discipline requirement.
- INTD 2106.03: Africa: An Introduction. This course will focus on contemporary Africa. Stereotypical protrayals of Africa will be examined and critiqued with the goal of emphasizing the immensity, diversity and complexity of the continent in order to better understand the opportunities and challenges of African development in the twenty-first century.
- INTD 2107.03. Special Topics in International Dvelopment Studies A course on a particular aspect of International development taught by special arrangement between individual IDS Major or honours students and individual instructors associated with the program.
3000-level courses
- INTD 3000.03: Seminar in Development Studies. This seminar course consists of an intensive examination of a selected issue within International Development Studies. Since the specific topic or research problem will vary from year to year, students are advised to consult the department prior to registration.
- INTD 3001.03: Contemporary Debates in Development Theory. This seminar course examines key contemporary theoretical debates in International Development Studies and their relevance to the real world of development practice.
- INTD 3010.03/3011.03/3104.03/3106.03/3401.03/3406.03: Seminar in Development Studies. This seminar course consists of an intensive examination of a selected issue within International Development Studies. Since the specific topic or research problem will vary from year to year, students are advised to consult the department prior to registration.
- INTD 3012.03: Sustainability, Development, Economy. This course offers an introduction to principles and equitable distribution of benefits oriented towards issues of economy. The course adopts an interdisciplinary framework of inquiry to explore challenges of appropriate scale (relative to biocapacity), efficient allocation, and inter and intra-generational equity. In addition, the course will consider how these issues apply to managing real world issues in environmental management, and will explore tools to quantify and interpret scale, efficiency, and distributive justice. This course is designed as a one-term introduction to the intersection of sustainability, economic issues and social justice for undergraduate students who have little or no prior exposure to economics, but who have completed one or more courses in international development, ESS, environmental science, or related programs.
- INTD 3020.03/3023.03/3024.03/3101.03 / 3102.03/3203.03 : Special Topics in International Development Studies. A course on a particular aspect of international development taught by special arrangement between individual IDS major or honours students and individual instructors associated with the program.
- INTD 3022.03:World Cities. Around the world, cities are growing at an incredible speed, particularly in Asia and Africa where megacities continue to increase in number. Along with this growth, new issues are emerging including rising inequality, environmental pollution, climate change, racialized segregation, and growing slums. Municipalities are responding by restructuring and gentrifying urban spaces to attract economic growth, often at the expense of the historically marginalized poor. In this course, we鈥檒l focus on cities around the world in order to understand how rapid urban growth is reshaping cities. Themes include: neoliberalism, migration, informal labour, poverty and exclusion, slums and segregation, environment and health, food security, gentrification and displacement, and alternative urban futures.
- INTD 3118 & 3119: Experiential Learning: Canada. Experiential learning is an opportunity for students to engage in the global/local through volunteering and studying. Other programs and departments use such as internship, volunteer or co-op placements. IDS has adopted the term experiential learning because it reflects the interplay between academic and practical skills development that this program offers. Experiential learning courses are available for both local/Canadian and international placements. The Canadian component of experiential learning focuses on the themes of community development and public engagement. The international component addresses questions of global citizenship. The Canadian component of experiential learning combines classroom learning with volunteer work experience in a community organization in Halifax or other parts of Canada. Students are required to volunteer for a minimum of 60 hours over the Fall and Winter terms, or approximately 3 hours/week. In addition to this work, students are required to attend regular seminar meetings and complete three academic assignments (a mid-term report, a reflective paper and an academic paper).
- INTD 3109.03: Experiential Learning: Abroad. The experiential learning abroad course is open to International Development Studies students who wish to obtain academic credit for an overseas placement, volunteer experience or internship. Students who have already secured a place in an overseas experiential learning program can register for this half credit. Special permission to register for this course is required and an application for this course must be completed prior to registration. Students are required to complete course readings and to write several reports reflecting on the relevant literature and the practical work experience. One half credit is completed over the course of a full academic year.
- INTD 3110.03: Migration and Development. The purpose of this course is to explore and better understand the connections between migration and development in contemporary societies. Classes will introduce or further explore one main theme or issue, such as development-induced displacement, labour migration, and HIV/AIDS and migration. Each class will centre on one or more discussion questions, exchange insights from relevant experiences of class participants or focus on a case study.
- INTD 3111.03: Popular Culture and Development. Development does not occur in a vacuum; it is informed by a particular cultural understanding and carried out by a specific mode of politics. Similarly, culture too, unlike the common belief, is not an autonomous realm, but consistently shapes and is shaped by other societal dimensions. This course will seek to understand the connections between culture and development by specifically exploring the dynamics of popular culture and its linkages with capitalist forms of development mainly in the South.
- INTD 3114.03: How to (Not) Feed the World: Agricultural Development. This seminar investigates the intersections between environmental science and development studies. Our primary focus will be to understand how the non-human environment impacts and constrains development interventions, both in the past and the present. The course is organized into three distance sections. The first focuses on informal lectures mixed in with discussion and interactive forums, revolves around student presentations, while the final component consists of a simulated negotiation.
- INTD 3115.03: Global Health: Challenges of Global Health Equity in the 21st Century. By examining global inequities that lead to health injustices, this course explores why healthcare is abundant for some and nonexistent for others. It identifies why some are born to live well, and others are doomed to die quickly. It asks, "what are we going to do about it?"
- INTD 3116.03: Contemporary Issues in Gender and Development. The course critically examines how development processes affect women and men and gender relations. Many development projects and policies have had a negative impact on women. The course provides a theoretical and conceptual grounding in gender/women and/in development, explores the gendered impact of policies and processes and examines issues such as governance, HIV/AIDS, and conflict.
- INTD 3125.03: The French-Speaking World. Introduction to the French-speaking world from a political, cultural, social and economic perspective. Study of the organization known as la Francophonie, with an emphasis on its evolution and mandate, as well as on the bliateral and multilateral cooperations between its member countries, the course is designed for students who are not specializing in French. The course format will consist of lectures and in-class discussion of print and audio-visual materials. Student assessment will be based on oral presentations, assignments, exams and written papers. The language of the course will be English.
- INTD 3150.03: Aspects de la francophonie/Aspects of the Francophone World. Introduction to the study of the francophone world: political, economic, linguistic, literary and cultural aspects. From year to year the course might emphasize different regions: Western countries, Sub-Saharan Africa, Pacific Islands, West Indies, Northern Africa. Taught in French.
4000-level courses
- INTD 4001.03 / 4002.03/4011.03 : Special Topics in International Development Studies.
- INTD 4006.03: Global Poverty and Human Rights: From Development to Global Citizenship. This course explores contemporary debates from an interdisciplinary cadre of scholars in order to understand why our political and financial systems acquiesce to contribute as active participants by generating critical debate out of the assigned readings.
- INTD 4011.03: Advanced Seminar in Development.
- INTD 4013.03: Environmental Conflict and Security. This seminar seeks to unravel the origins of conflict in the Global South. It emphasizes the ecological dimension of conflict, by investigating the intersections between natural resources and political upheaval. We will trace the origins of a diverse set of conflicts evaluating the role the non-human environment play sin triggering upheaval, as well as possible steps to alleviate ongoing conflicts and prevent new ones.
- INTD 4014.03: Development as Modernity, Modernity as Development.Development as we understand today is a definite product of the modern condition. Therefore, we cannot understand development unless we understand modernity. But often this relationship is obscured when development is discussed. This course will seek to make sense of modernity and its inter-linkages with development. After looking at some classical understandings of modernity, we will examine the lacunae in such understandings. The way in which actual historical processes of development actualize or subvert the ideal-typical notions of modernity will also be examined. Finally, we will dwell upon the attempts to resist modernity and imagine possibilities that are hitherto not part of the horizons of modernity. Here the debate will be about if it is actually possible to go beyond modernity and inaugurate new understandings of development or are these attempts radicalizing the original intent of modernity.
- INTD 4015.03:Pandemic! A Real time Simulation Course in Pandemic Management.Viruses are everywhere. Best thought of as packages of genetic material that exploit another organism鈥檚 metabolism in order to reproduce, they have adapted to attack every organism that exists. For human beings, viruses have caused a litany of epidemics: small pox, measles,influenza, HIV, SARS, Ebola, and now COVID-19. Viruses strip down life itself to the bare essentials and it's replication. They gain opportunity when the target organism becomes overly common, and leaves a window of vulnerability open. For COVID-19, a planet of 7 billion humans, of whom many could travel globally in hours and whom many more are clustered in urban settings, was this vulnerability. Currently two major public health policy strategies exist to prevent viruses turning into pandemics: Modern-Day Vaccines & Antiquated Public Health Policy. In this class, we build pandemic management skills of health promotion, disease prevention, and collaboration: three things that viruses struggle against. The COVID-19 pandemic forced every government of the planet, from the municipal to the national, to take unorthodox and extraordinary actions. Public gatherings and social behaviour that was perfectly legal in December 2019 was forbidden by March 2020. The social and economic impacts of self isolation, quarantines and restrictive movements will be felt for years to come. Pandemic playbooks and international guidelines were prepared, and in many cases acted upon, but few governments were prepared to work collaboratively in order to actually prevent the widespread transmission of the COVID-19 virus in the first place. This is a course where students work together to save humanity from the next global pandemic. This course returns to the basics of public health to understand how the social determinants of health matter most in times of pandemics. It is a class that builds collaborative working skills while critically exploring the experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. This is conducted through a series of 10 podcast modules, and an active live-time game-based simulation. In this course students will: - Understand the social determinants of health, and why it matters for pandemics. - Gain a thorough comprehension of COVID-19 public policy on a global scale. - Development collaborative team management skills for public health frameworks. - Development collaborative intra-team management skills for public health frameworks.
- INTD 4022.03: Advanced Seminar in Development Theory.
- INTD 4100.06: Special Topics in IDS.
- INTD 4211.03: Gender and Development: Theory, Concepts and Methods. The primary aim of this course is to provide a broad foundation to some of the theoretical perspectives which ahve informed current thinking in gender and development. The course introduces students to key concepts in the analysis.
- INTD 4322.03: Children and War.The aim of this course is to explore the many dynamics of conflict that affect children globally. The course will take both a thematic and case study approach. Currently, conflicts that occur are most often intra-state conflicts. The victims of such conflicts are disproportionately women and children. At the same time, the demographics of many of the most war-torn societies has led to increasing numbers of children being involved in the conflict. This course will aim to explore various aspects related to children and war. On the one hand, the course will discuss the effects of war on children. However, it will also discuss the involvement of children in the participation of war. In addition, what are the responsibilities of the International Community to protect and support children of war? What can we learn from the children that have survived in terms of their agency and resilience? What preventative measures can be taken to better ensure children do not fall victims to armed conflict? The course will also explore aspects of culture and its effects on solutions to the dynamics of children and war. In addition, students will learn about various types of child exploitation that make children vulnerable across the peace and wartime spectrum.
- INTD 4401.03: Honours Thesis Course A.Students pursuing an Honours Degree with a thesis must register in both the Fall and Winter Honours courses. These are two classes that constitute a multi-term course and both must be successfully completed to earn an Honours degree in International Development Studies by way of a thesis. The thesis courses are restricted to students enrolled in the Honours Thesis option.
NOTES: This is the first required seminar for students accepted into the IDS honours thesis class. The class is structured to help students develop a conceptual research framework, pair with a supervisor, and improve research, editing, and writing skills.
- INTD 4402.03: Honours Thesis Course B.Students pursuing an Honours Degree with a thesis must register in both the Fall and Winter Honours courses. These are two classes that constitute a multi-term course and both must be successfully completed to earn an Honours degree in International Development Studies by way of a thesis. The thesis courses are restricted to students enrolled in the Honours Thesis option.
NOTES: This is the first required seminar for students accepted into the IDS honours thesis class. The class is structured to help students develop a conceptual research framework, pair with a supervisor, and improve research, editing, and writing skills.
- INTD 4403.03 Global Citizenship in Theory and Practice. The question of global citizenship lies at the core of what International Development Studies is all about: critically examining causes of global poverty, inequality and injustice 鈥� and the ethical obligations which these issues pose for all human beings. Questions about our ethical obligations to other human beings 鈥� especially those who are very poor and very far away 鈥� have persisted in debates among philosophers and ordinary people for centuries. The idea of global citizenship 鈥� also often referred to as cosmopolitanism 鈥� dates back to ancient Greece and has been an ongoing focus of debate since then. At its core are a series of fundamental questions that have particular importance in the context of the challenges of the twenty-first century 鈥� such as economic globalization and climate change: What basic rights do all human beings possess? What ethical obligations do those rights imply for other humans? What specific actions do those ethical obligations require us to undertake? This course examines both the ethical obligations which global citizenship suggests and the ways in which people might fulfill those obligations in practice.
- NTD 4404.03 Capstone Class in International Development Studies.
IDS is about global change. Ideally that change is rooted in the autonomy of communities around the world, supported by networks of global governance and civic society all working to build the just, sustainable, equitable world we all deserve after hundreds of years grotesque violence and inequity despite unprecedented economic development. That this world remains unrealized is the reason why students, scholars, and practitioners of this fraught thing we call 鈥渄evelopment鈥� continue to do what we do. Throughout your degree you have been studying the many failures and successes of global development, its historical antecedents, and its grounding in the foundations of aspirational social justice. In the IDS Capstone class, students come together one last time to leave their mark on the field, to master translating their knowledge to diverse audiences, and work together to think creatively and effectively about the many crises their generation are now tasked with addressing.