MAIS Concentration in Global Development Practice

The MAIS concentration in Global Development Practice offers an interdisciplinary approach to prepare students to address the challenges of sustainable development. This concentration allows students to tailor a program of study that meets their needs and interests, in which they can combine courses in the social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, health sciences, agriculture, forestry, and management. 

As the Final Report of the International Commission on Education for Sustainable Development Practice states, “extreme poverty in much of the world is rooted in a complex set of causes, including poor agricultural productivity, the stress of climate change, the burden of tropical disease and the absence of basic infrastructure, such as roads and telecommunications. A major obstacle to achieving the Millennium Development Goals is the lack of a cadre of generalist professionals trained across fields of public health, agronomy, engineering, economics and environmental science that can recognize these interrelated challenges and know how to address them, drawing from specialist expertise as needed”.

The aim of this concentration is to better equip practitioners to become the “generalist professionals” needed, so that they can work across different specialties, enabling them to better understand the causes of poverty and to address the challenge of sustainable development.

The program of study for this concentration will be structured like all other MAIS programs of study, including a minimum 49 credits coming from three different fields of study. (Please note that a single field of study can include classes from different academic departments).

SUGGESTED/POSSIBLE COURSES FOR THE MAIS CONCENTRATION IN GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT PRACTICE

 

Agriculture and Forestry

  • Introduction to Food Systems: Local to Global
  • Communities and Natural Resources
  • Forest Insect and Disease Management
  • Valuation of Non-Market Resources
  • Ecological Restoration
  • Agroforestry
  • Food Microbiology
  • Fish Diseases in Conservation Biology and Aquaculture

 

Social Sciences

  • Environmental and Resource Economics
  • Rural Development Economics and Policy
  • Economics of Water Conservation
  • International Political Economy
  • International Environmental Politics and Policy
  • Sociology of Globalization
  • International Development: Gender Issues
  • Society and Natural Resources
  • Water Conflict Management and Transformation
  • Anthropology of International Development
  • Nutritional Anthropology
  • Rural Anthropology
  • Agri-food Movements
  • Cross-Cultural Health and Healing
  • Natural Resources and Community Values

 

Oceanic and Earth Sciences

  • Interactions of Vegetation and Atmosphere
  • International Water Resources Management
  • Global Resources and Development
  • Coastal Resources Management
  • Marine Economics

 

Health Sciences

  • International Health
  • Community Nutrition
  • Health Benefits of Functional Foods
  • Community, Culture and Global Health
  • Displacement, Migration and Global Health
  • Disaster Epidemiology

 

Engineering

  • Social Justice, Ethics and Engineering
  • Groundwater Hydraulics
  • Irrigation System Design
  • Solar Engineering Technologies
  • Management for Engineers and Scientists
  • Lean Manufacturing
  • Sustainable Engineering Analysis
  • Contemporary Energy Applications

 

Business

  • Accounting and Finance
  • Financial and Cost Analysis
  • Organization Leadership and Management
  • Global Supply and Sourcing
  • Clean Technology Commercialization
  • Environmental Law, Sustainability and Business