A new seminar series will provide a deep and critical analysis of the history, practices and structural inequalities of international development.  

In its inaugural semester, the Critical Development Studies seminar series will bring together scholars and students for conversation around topics of economic power and environmental sustainability in North America and Asia. The new series in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Global Development features innovative scholars in development studies addressing neoliberalism and the role of the United States in sovereign debt; post-revolutionary Mexico’s influence on international finance; and how environmental interventions are affecting Bangladesh’s approach to climate change. 

“In seeking a more equitable and just world for the people and planet alike, we as scholars must confront injustices that exist in the development sector,” said Jenny Goldstein, assistant professor of global development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and one of the seminar series organizers. “This series is a space for us as multidisciplinary scholars and students to reflect on and challenge the status quo of development practices.”

The Critical Development Studies seminars are held monthly on Fridays at 3 p.m. throughout the semester. Students, faculty and the general public are welcome to attend via Zoom.

This semester’s speakers and their topics are:

• October 15: "Adjudicating ‘development’: Transnational US law and the disciplining of debtor states" with Shaina Potts (University of California, Los Angeles) 
• November 19: "Revolution in development: Mexico and the governance of the global economy" with Christy Thornton (Johns Hopkins University) 
• December 3: "Threatening dystopias: Development, scientific knowledge, and adaptation to climate change" with Kasia Paprocki, PhD ’17 (London School of Economics)

The series is co-organized by faculty in Global Development alongside doctoral students in the Field of Development Sociology. 

Marvi Ahmed, doctoral student who researches how the aid industry interacts with social institutions and existing land-based inequalities and David Balgley, doctoral student who studies collective land issues in Morocco, said the seminar series is an opportunity to engage on critical areas relevant to development today.  

“As co-organizers of the new seminar series, we wanted to create a space for graduate students and faculty within and beyond the Cornell community to engage with scholarship that analyzes and interrogates processes of development across disciplines, regions, and historical periods,” Ahmed and Balgley said.

Kelly Merchan is a communications specialist in the Department of Global Development in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.