Global Development Studies

Global Development Studies is an undergraduate program that hosts two majors, a major in Global Development Studies (GDS) and a major in Global Development Studies with a concentration in Global Public Health (GPH). The GPH concentration is jointly administered by the Department of Public Health Sciences in the School of Medicine and the Global Development Studies program.

Announcements

University Museums Internships

The University of Virginia Art Museum, the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, the Department of Art History, and the program in Global Development Studies offer University undergraduates a two-semester six-credit internship course, ARTH/GDS 4951-4952. This course combines a museum internship (8 – 10 hours per week) and an academic curriculum drawn from art history, anthropology, and museum studies. We can host 6 – 8 students per year. Students apply for entrance into the course during the Spring pre-registration period.

Admission process: applicants submit a copy of their transcript and a one-page essay explaining their interest in museum work, their skills, and what they expect to get out of an internship. Entrance into ARTH/GDS 4951-52 is by permission only; instructors are Matthew Affron (UVA Art Museum and Art History), Richard Handler (Anthropology and Program in Global Development Studies) and Margo Smith (Anthropology and Kluge-Ruhe).

Submit applications in the spring to Richard Handler (rh3y); deadline is May 1.

Note: students must be willing to commit to their internship for the entire academic year.

About Global Development Studies

The Global Development Studies (GDS) core curriculum includes:

• A two-semester seminar analyzing theories of global development illustrated by relevant case studies
• A course in fieldwork methods and ethics
• A fourth-year seminar, during which students will write a research paper on a topic of their choice.

Combining theory, methods, and case studies, the GDS major will equip students to be constructively critical of development projects from a variety of intellectual and cultural perspectives. We will ask both what kinds of development projects work, and what do people in different places want from development.

Read more about Global Development Studies