Development Studies

This course examines issues of environment and uneven development through the historical geography of empire. The course educates students on: 1) interdisciplinary theoretical approaches to empire in the social sciences and humanities, 2) the study of empire and environment (especially natural resources) within the subfields of political geography, historical geography, development geography, and political ecology, and 3) the complex natures, spatialities, and identities produced in the wake of European empires in Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Specific topics include the spatiality of sovereignty, racialized labor regimes (including slavery, coolies, and peasants), imperial modes of water and forest development, imperial systems of food and agriculture, state responses to disease and disaster, and the contradictory political geographies of settlement, incorporation, exploitation, and decolonization. The course concludes with a reflection on struggles to ‘decolonize’ imperial knowledge systems, political economies, and social relations in the contemporary era.

The course is designed to prepare students for leadership in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse workforce. Throughout the course, students are challenged to question, think, and respond thoughtfully to the issues they observe and encounter in the internship setting, and the designated city in general. Students have the opportunity to cultivate the leadership skills as defined by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), such as critical thinking, teamwork, and diversity. Assignments focus on building a portfolio that highlights those competencies and their application to workplace skills. The hybrid nature of the course allows students to develop their skills in a self-paced environment with face-to-face meetings and check-ins to frame their intercultural internship experience. Students complete 45 hours of in-person and asynchronous online learning activities and 225-300 hours at their internship placement.

This course has been designed to help English-speaking students apply the knowledge acquired in the Pre-Professional Healthcare Issues course through community service focused on primary care. Students will make an Analysis of Health Status (ASIS) followed by a project with the purpose of improving those health problems identified in the community. The course is based on the practical application of priority healthcare programs, addressed to rural and urban areas, and it will be performed under the Primary Health Care strategy, emphasizing
health promotion. These programs include prenatal care, health care to children and adolescents, extended vaccination program, chronic diseases, prevention of uterine-cervical and breast cancer, sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, prevention and treatment of tuberculosis and endemic diseases (Malaria, Dengue, Chikungunya, Cholera, among others). The course offers training on the appropriate educational techniques that allow students to get involved in community health care promotion and prevention. Moreover, the course will engage students in the application of the most useful health care tools, such as family records, diagrams, and identification badges for pregnant women, chronic patients´ records, and children´s identification card, among others. In order to comply with the course requirements, students will be visiting First Level Health Care Centers in their communities during the first five (5) weeks. Visits during this period will be held three (3) days a week for three (3) hours (45 field hours). The last three (3) weeks will comprise a rural stay (45 field hours), an urban stay (15 field hours), and final research and presentations (30 research hours).

This course explores concepts of globalization and the advantages and disadvantages of globalization for such developing countries as Ghana, India, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Honduras, and Malaysia. It studies four different selections of literature that have been developed around the concept of globalization. The first set of selections defines the concept in terms of its relationship to the changing work force, technology and communications, culture, and finance. A second set debates the novelty of the various processes encoded in the concept of globalization. Another set debates the changing role and nature of the state in an era of globalization. A final set debates the issue of whether the economic prospects of the developing world indeed hinge on their full participation in the globalization process. The course also explores economic, political, and cultural perspectives on globalization.