Teaching Assistantship Vacancies – Department of Global Development Studies
The Department of Global Development Studies has Teaching Assistantships available in the following courses for 2023-2024 academic year. TAships are filled according to Group Preferences set out in the Collective Agreement between Queen’s University and the Public Service Alliance of Canada
Applications are due no later than Thursday July 27, 2023.
DEVS 101-001 and DEVS 101-700 Development Studies in Global Perspective
Fall Term ON CAMPUS and Winter Term ONLINE
Instructor: Marcus Taylor (Fall) and Ayca Tomac (Winter)
Explores the relationships between global economic integration, technological change, environmental sustainability, political systems, and cultural diversity. Introduces essential interdisciplinary perspectives for complex global challenges from poverty to climate change and builds the foundations for ethical cross-cultural engagement.
DEVS 102-001 Canada in the World
Winter Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Rebecca Hall
Canada in the World will help students build knowledge and analytical capacities in global development, with a focus on Canada. The course examines how processes of global development are differentiated across borders and axes of gender, racialization, and colonization. Students will explore applications of theories of global change.
DEVS 102-700 Canada in the World
Spring/Summer 2024 ONLINE
Instructor: Rebecca Hall
Canada in the World will help students build knowledge and analytical capacities in global development, with a focus on Canada. The course examines how processes of global development are differentiated across borders and axes of gender, racialization, and colonization. Students will explore applications of theories of global change.
DEVS 100AB-700 Canada and the "Third” World
Fall Term and Winter Term ONLINE
Instructor: Mark Hostetler
Introduces basic theoretical concepts of development studies, the history of global inequality, and short histories of alternative development strategies. Case studies of Canada’s ties to the so‐called third world will include missionaries, military, business, and aid. Canadian colonialism over First Nations peoples will introduce basic issues in Aboriginal Studies.
DEVS 210-001 Development in Practice
Winter Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Bernadette Resurrección
Development in Practice focuses on institutional efforts to frame, plan, and manage development and change towards sustainable, just, and positive outcomes. It will examine political negotiations in setting strategic development agendas and goals. It also includes critically learning about practical planning approaches used in development programs.
DEVS 220-700 Introduction to Indigenous Studies
Fall Term ONLINE
Instructor: Ian Fanning
An introduction to Indigenous ways of knowing organized on a historical basis, from creation to present day, emphasizing Indigenous cultures and experiences in Canada. Students will critically examine colonialism. Indigenous perspectives will be introduced through lecture, reading and assignments, and from contributions from elders, members of Indigenous communities and Indigenous scholars.
DEVS 220-700 Introduction to Indigenous Studies
Spring/Summer 2024 ONLINE
Instructor: Ian Fanning
An introduction to Indigenous ways of knowing organized on a historical basis, from creation to present day, emphasizing Indigenous cultures and experiences in Canada. Students will critically examine colonialism. Indigenous perspectives will be introduced through lecture, reading and assignments, and from contributions from elders, members of Indigenous communities and Indigenous scholars.
DEVS 221-700 Indigenous Studies II
Winter Term ONLINE
Instructor: Ian Fanning
Indigenous Studies II highlights the resilience and resistance of Indigenous communities as they grapple with gendered settler colonialism. The course examines Indigenous knowledge and governance within the settler nation state and the re-building of Indigenous communities. Topics include contemporary issues in Indigenous healing, art, teaching and learning, Indigenous activism, and socio-political life. Students engage in work that centers the voices of Indigenous peoples.
DEVS 230-001 The Global Political Economy of Development
Fall Term ON CAMPUS and Winter Term ONLINE
Instructor: Susanne Soederberg (Fall) and Mark Hostetler (Online)
This course introduces students to important debates, concepts and themes in the global political economy of development. Using a political economy perspective, we examine how different types of power relations are formed around the production, distribution and consumption of goods across local, national and international settings. We also examine how these power relations structure the institutions, processes and outcomes of global development. The course proceeds historically starting with an examination of the ways in which post-colonial countries were integrated into the world economy in the decades following the Second World War. Subsequently, we use this as a basis to examine more contemporary issues including good governance, free trade, and corporate social responsibility. No prior study of economics is needed for this course – we will be concerned with the real world of development, not abstract mathematical models.
DEVS 240-001 Culture and Development
Winter Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Paritosh Kumar
This course will explore how theories and practices of 'development' are entwined with different conceptions of culture. It starts by examining how the West constructed itself as the civilising force in the world and viewed the mass poverty of 'Third World' peoples as a product of their conservative traditions and cultural practices. The course will examine ways that colonial perceptions and practices still imbue development discourse today, and how they are being challenged. How have new social movements, art forms, and technologies opened up to engage with, resist and contest the current model of market driven development, and how does the latter incorporate or co-opt the critiques? Specific topics will include science, religion, sports, art and music. After completing the course, students should be able to demonstrate a critical awareness of everyday events in the Global South and among indigenous peoples as reported, for example, in the media or as performed through hip hop and the many other forms of resistance culture.
DEVS 250-001 Global Environmental Transformations
Winter Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Marcus Taylor
Examines the relationship between development and environmental change by introducing social science perspectives on themes including energy, agriculture, climate, urbanisation and water. With a focus on combining macro‐ and micro‐‐ analysis, the course reflects on the meaning of development in an era of global environmental transformation.
DEVS 250-700 Global Environmental Transformations
Spring/Summer 2024 ONLINE
Instructor: Mark Hostetler
Examines the relationship between development and environmental change by introducing social science perspectives on themes including energy, agriculture, climate, urbanisation and water. With a focus on combining macro‐ and micro‐‐ analysis, the course reflects on the meaning of development in an era of global environmental transformation.
DEVS 260-001 Globalization Gender and Development
Fall Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Reena Kukreja
This course is designed for those interested in undertaking a critical analysis of the gendered impact of the globalization process and development policies with a focus on women in the Global South.
DEVS 275-001 Global Health and Development
Fall Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Kilian Atuoye
This course examines the nexus between global health and development with a focus on preparing students for work on contemporary health and wellbeing issues. It takes a multidisciplinary perspective, but largely from the field of social science, to analyze current global challenges including environmental and social transformations, and changing disease burden. Using case studies, students will learn important concepts and principles in global health and development. Innovative approaches that bridge global health and development will also be introduced in this course.
DEVS 280-700 Global Engagement
Fall Term ONLINE
Instructor: Mark Hostetler
This course explores current thinking around the motivations for, and ethical implications of, working with communities on issues of social justice, inequality, and sustainable development. Students will engage in self‐ reflexive practices and work collaboratively to create tools and action plans for ethical global engagement in the future.
DEVS 293-001 Living Lake Ontario
Fall Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: David McDonald
This course is designed to introduce students to a wide range of historical and contemporary issues related to Lake Ontario, from access to clean water to urban planning and climate change. Field trips will give students a first-hand account of what is happening with the Lake, including visits to the sewage treatment plant, Belle Island and a boat building factory. The course will include a broad range of disciplinary perspectives and guest speakers from various departments, NGOs, government agencies and local First Nations. Students will also be asked to consider how local water issues are linked to global freshwater challenges, such as safe sanitation, food security and water privatization, with direct reference to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
DEVS 293-001 Policy and Practice
Winter Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Susanne Soederberg
The course is designed to build on the foundations and the themes covered in DEVS 230 (Global Political Economy of Development). Unlike DEVS 230, however, this course explores the intersection between government policy and global political economy framings. The latter is based on three core questions: (1) how might we understand the ways in which the pursuit of private interests and the public good are managed across various geographies in the global North and global South? (2) who benefits from this resolution and who pays the costs? And, (3) how might we grasp power in this resolution? Examining the junctures between government policy and GPE we encounter some of the most pressing issues in global capitalism, including: the housing crisis, infrastructure, household debt and climate resilient cities.
DEVS 300-001 Cross‐Cultural Research Methods
Fall Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Mark Hostetler
How do we go from an idea or question to designing a research project to answer it? Students will learn how to prepare and design cross-cultural research projects for international development work, to understand and use selected methods from a critical perspective, to understand important elements underlying successful fieldwork and to learn to develop a development research proposal. We will cover research design, choosing the instruments, cross-checking and in-the-field analysis, entering the field, choosing the informants, analyzing the data and proposal writing.
DEVS 340-001 Theories of Development
Winter Term
Instructor: David McDonald
This course introduces students to various theories that attempt to explain what ‘development’ is, how it occurs (or why it does not occur) and to whose benefit. Despite the frequent use of the term ‘development’ in academic, policy and journalistic writings, there is little consensus on what it actually entails – or even if some discernable process exists at all. For example, while modernisation theory suggests that development is a sequence of structural changes that all societies eventually go through; post-development theories argue that the notion of ‘development’ is merely a rhetorical device that reproduces power relations between the West and the Rest. To begin to understand these debates – and the political issues at stake – we survey several broad areas of development theory including classical political economy, modernisation theory, dependency theory, neoclassicism, neoinstitutionalism, Marxism, post-colonialism, post-development, feminist theories and global political-ecology.
DEVS 352-001 Technology and Development
Winter Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Diane Cordoba
This course teams Arts and Science with Applied Science students to explore and analyse different theoretical and practical perspectives on technology and development. Students then apply their evolving collective understanding to the creation of a proposal for a technology related development project. Throughout the course, we introduce students to the socio-economic, cultural and political factors surrounding technology and its relationship to the development in both advanced industrial societies and developing nations. We focus in particular on the interaction of politics and policy with technological choice and design, critically exploring ideas including appropriate, intermediate and sustainable technologies.
DEVS 358-001: Non‐Governmental Organisations, Policy Making, and Development
Fall Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Diana Córdoba
Non‐governmental organization (NGOs) have become key actors in the world of development influencing both the decision‐making process and policy implementation. This course aims to provide students with basic knowledge and skills in preparation for work in the NGOs’ sector and a critical overview of the major issues involved in their interventions. The first part of the course introduces students to critical theories and debates on NGOs’ governance, state‐society relationships and democracy. Special attention is given to the role and effectiveness of NGOs to influence the decision‐making process and to impact policy implementation. The second part of the course focuses on NGOs’ managerial practices and knowledges and the challenges and constraints associated with their growing dependency on external funding. Thus, students explore aspects such as NGOs’ organisational management, legitimacy and accountability, the way these organisations facilitate capacity development, and NGOs future opportunities. Using a case‐based approach, in the third part of the course students analyze the structures, missions and intervention approaches in a variety of international NGO areas such as agricultural development, poverty reduction, climate change adaptation and mitigation, women’s rights, and humanitarian relief.
DEVS 359-001 Migrations, Refugees and Development
Winter Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Reena Kukreja
The course examines contemporary issues 'forced' migration of people to obtain theoretical understanding of processes shaping human mobility and the debates governing inclusion or exclusion of people.
DEVS 361-700 Policy Advocacy in Global Development
Winter Term ONLINE
Instructor: Scott Rutherford
This course equips students with strategies, techniques and mindsets that help social movements and justice-oriented organizations contribute to policy advocacy. Through historical and sociological research, students apply core concepts and best practices to develop new understandings about where policy advocacy fits within a broader spectrum of transformative societal change. The course provides practical guidance for designing public campaigns aimed at legal and policy changes toward the goal of justice advocacy in global development.
Note: This course no longer includes project planning. Students interested in project planning are encouraged to take DEVS 210 (Development in Practice)
DEVS 363-001 Contemporary Southern Africa: Development Trends and Challenges
Fall Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Marc Epprecht
This course first provides the historical and regional context necessary to understand urban southern Africa’s contemporary struggles, then examines strategies to address key development challenges and how they may be creating opportunities for new ways of thinking about citizenship in South Africa and the Global South more generally.
DEVS 365-001 Trade and Investment in the Global South
Fall Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Kyla Tienhaara
As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, the future of globalization is highly uncertain. The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the fragility of global supply chains for everything from medical equipment to basic food supplies and has led many to argue that countries need to be more self-sufficient. But even before the pandemic hit, there was trouble brewing. The turn to more mercantilist policies by President Trump brought the term “trade war” back into vogue and the “rules-based” order for trade and investment into crisis. In this course, students will examine this shifting landscape and what it means in a development context. Would the breakdown of the World Trade Organization (WTO) benefit or hurt countries in the Global South? What does the regionalization of trade rules mean for the “development agenda”? Students will also critically assess alternatives to the current system, with a focus on fair trade. Finally, the course will address the intersection between global trade and investment and the climate crisis.
DEVS 366-001 Land Politics and Health
Winter Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Kilian Atuoye
This course explores the complexity of land politics and its implications for health and health promotion at local and global levels. It starts by conceptualizing land politics as deeply steeped in political ecologies which produce and reinforce health inequities. With such theoretical framing, students will learn the situatedness of contemporary concepts and processes in land politics (including environmental appropriation, exploitation, dispossession, and repossession) in broader discourses of environmental (in)justice and sustainability. It will also discuss how power and politics over land access are organized and operationalized at multiple scales to influence longstanding health inequalities. The course will conclude by examining ways in which global health can benefit from equity in land politics, and assist students to examine their future roles in promoting healthy environments and healthy populations through ‘equitable land reforms’ in communities and at the global level.
DEVS 367-001 Climate Change and Disaster Risk
Fall Term ON CAMPUS
Instructor: Bernadette Resurrección
The world is experiencing increasing extreme and slow onset climate change events and intensifying disasters. Cyclones, floods, heat waves and longer dry spells are now more intense and frequent, having immediate- and long-term adverse effects on agriculture, water systems, urban living, and food security. Globally, marginalized groups least responsible for climate change are also its most vulnerable. Climate change and disasters thus exacerbate already existing and unjust conditions of vulnerability and insecurity. The first part of the course will examine the ontological framings of climate change, disaster risk, vulnerability and resilience from various intellectual streams such as: risk/hazards, ecological resilience, and political ecology. The second part will explore how these ontological framings translate into practical responses and programs such as climate change adaptation, mitigation, resilience-building, and disaster risk reduction. Despite considerable traction and resources that characterize these programs today, there is heightened concern and unease that unjust conditions of vulnerability continue unaddressed. Finally, in the search for counterpoint pathways, the course will be bookended by visions and platforms that imagine more ecologically just, ‘care-ful’ and convivial futures envisaged by the climate, gender and environmental justice and degrowth-oriented scholars and movements.
Teaching Assistantships are filled according to Group Preferences set out in the Collective Agreement between Queen’s University and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC 901 ).
First Preference – Group A
Is for qualified graduate students registered as:
I. Students in a department or program in which the TAship will be offered; or
II. Students in an interdisciplinary program with TA budget resources, and for whom the TAship has been granted as part of the funding commitment offered by Queen’s University.
Second Preference – Group B
Is for qualified graduate students registered as:
I. Students in a department or program in which the TAship will be offered; or
II. Students in an interdisciplinary program with TA budget resources; and
III. who are in their first unfunded year of their graduate studies program
Third Preference – Group C
Is for qualified graduate students registered as:
I. Students in a department or program in which the TAship will be offered; or
II. Students in an interdisciplinary program with TA budget resources,
and for whom
III. the TAship will not form part of the funding commitment offered by Queen’s University; or
IV. there is currently no funding commitment provided by Queen’s University.
Fourth Preference – Group D
Is for qualified graduate students who have previously held a TAship or TFship for Queen’s University.
Fifth Preference – Group E
Is for qualified graduate students who have not met the criteria as set out above in Group A, B, C, or D.
APPLICATION PROCESS
Applications are being accepted immediately and are due no later than Thursday July 27, 2023. Please ensure you indicate which applicant group you are in.
• Group A and B Applicants
Please complete and submit the indicating course preferences.
• Groups C, D and E Applicants
Please complete and submit the . In addition, submit a cover letter and curriculum vitae outlining academic accomplishments and relevant experience along with your unofficial transcript to Carrie Roosenmaallen at devsgrad@queensu.ca. Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered.
Posting date: 15JUN2023