Core Curriculum
Given the nature of the program, the curriculum offers significant
training in Information Technology (The program provides each
student with a laptop computer and a digital camera), and an
optional internship related to the student’s required capstone
project. It also encompasses a broad range of topics related
to development and social justice. Additionally, the capstone
project is presented in the Integrated Seminar, summarizing the
student’s learning in the courses and his/her ability to undertake
in-depth research and apply the knowledge and skills acquired.
Finally, its dedicated and distinguished faculty and support staff
participate together and individually in special training seminars
and workshops to ensure excellence in instruction and program
management.
Curriculum (33 credits)
Introductory Seminar 3
credits
Catholic Social Thought and the Vincentian
Tradition 3 credits
Information Resources for Development Professionals
3 credits
International Organizations and Development
3 credits
Economics of Development 3
credits
GIS Applications for Integrated and Sustainable Development 3
credits
Political Issues of Development 3
credits
Gender and Social Justice in Development 3
credits
International Communication and Global
Development 3 credits
Health Care Issues in Global Development 3
credits
Integrating Seminar & Capstone Project 3
credits
Course Descriptions
Introductory Seminar
This course introduces students to key concepts of
global development in light of social justice. It thus
combines concerns for world development with awareness of the human
person, the common good, solidarity and subsidiarity. Issues such
as migration, industrialization, urbanization, colonization, the
environment, health, demography, war and its social impact, and the
political economy of food and hunger are examined. The role of
non-governmental organizations, inter-governmental organizations
and national governments, particularly in matters affecting human
rights and sustainable development, will also be emphasized.
Catholic Social Thought and the
Vincentian Tradition
This is a beginning for the new generation of Global Development
researchers using methodology of the "Imago Dei", the axiom from
which Catholic Social Teaching (CST) derives. The historical CST
statements will be examined within the context of student-centered
action on Millennium Development Goals (MDG), striking a cogent
balance between theoretical and practical knowledge of religious
and civic documents on programming social justice. Pedagogical
method will be intensely dialogical, based on 20th-century
Encyclical developments, identifying the key issues to date within
Global Development Objectives, and opening the field to research
design with actual civic parameters of MDG and Universal
Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Each student will learn to
focus the objective situation of his/her selected research
interest in order to understand and communicate the issue
within the coordinates of meaning and unity, drawn toward its
perfectibility or transcendent direction.
Information Resources for Development
Professionals
This course is an introduction to the scope, organization,
evaluation, and use of print and electronic information
sources. Emphasis will be placed on the use of these
resources by development professionals. Particular emphasis will
also be placed on developing skills in using and creating digital
information resources, and of the sharing these resources using
electronic courseware (i.e., WebCT, St. John’s Central, etc.), the
Social Web, and information management techniques. We will also
discuss the needs of constituent communities, including models of
information seeking behavior, barriers to information access, and
development of information literacy skills.
International Organizations and
Development
This course examines the role of intergovernmental
organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in
global development. Organizations such as the United Nations
(UN) that are universal in scope or regional such as the European
Union (EU) are institutions that are created by sovereign
governments and established by, and given legal recognition by
treaty. On the other hand, NGOs are organizations whose
members are individuals who do not represent any government.
Some organizations are specialized such as the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund (IMF) that deal with economic
development or the World Health Organization (WHO) that deals with
heath issues in developing countries. Organizations play an
important role in the development of the economy, environment,
health care issues, education and other social issues that plague
developing countries in the global economy. At the conclusion of
this course students will be able to 1) analyze the role of
international and nongovernmental organization to development;
2) examine organizations and their policies toward developing
countries; and 3) compare and contrast IGOs, NGOs, and other
organizations in the context of globalization and development.
Economics of
Development
An introduction to the field of economic growth and
development from the perspective of Catholic Social Thought.
This course covers: theories of economic growth; development and
underdevelopment; role of ethics in policy formation; causes and
consequences of poverty (national and international); international
wealth and income inequality; and trade and globalization.
Various theories and perspectives are presented, all contrasted
with the approach to development found in the Catholic social
thought tradition, especially the writings of Popes John XXIII,
Paul VI and John Paul II.
Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Applications for Integrated and Sustainable
Development
Participants will develop a working proficiency in the use
of online web-based Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
applications and a basic familiarity with desktop computer-based
GIS software programs. These research tools will be used for
mapping and analyzing factors that can assist in integrated and
sustainable development and contribute to breaking the cycle of
world poverty. This process is often referred to as Poverty
Mapping. Some key topics will include the GIS mapping and analysis
of: climate change; natural resources; agricultural production;
food security; hunger; disease; access to education and healthcare;
income disparities; crime; and areas of conflict and civil
unrest. The complex relationship between these factors will
be reviewed in political, economic, and sociocultural contexts. The
overall focus of the course will be on monitoring and problem
solving applications of GIS-based data analyses that will
contribute to promoting social justice by overcoming barriers to
global development. Participants will complete a series of applied
projects related to their country of residence or a country in
which they plan to work. They will also be involved with ongoing
class discussions and peer critique. An additional emphasis will be
on influencing development policy decisions worldwide through the
promotion and use of low-threshold information technologies that
increase opportunities for sharing data and knowledge.
Political Issues of
Development
This course focuses on political ideas that matter across
borders and across issues. Through comprehensive research,
analysis and discussions, we will work to shape our understanding
of political issues that shape the policy debate on both the
opportunities and challenges created by an increasingly globalized
world. Important challenges such as global financial
integration, poverty education, energy security, governance
reforms, democratic change and transparency, politics of cultural
pluralism and ethnic conflict, women in development, revolutionary
change, and soldiers and politics represent political issues that
play an essential role in global development. In order to
understand the political challenges to global development, the
learning objectives of this course are: 1) to acquire
knowledge of the political principles necessary for global
development; 2) to analyze and apply political principles to policy
issues helping in global development; 3) to examine political
issues and their impact on global development; and 4) to
compare and contrast impact of policy issues on global
development
Gender and Social Justice in
Development
Catholic Social Teaching is often referred to as the church’s best
kept secret. Within that teaching there is, however, a better
kept secret, which is that social justice has important gender
dimensions. Little work has been done on looking at Catholic Social
Teaching from a gendered perspective. Because women have been
traditionally linked with the care activities surrounding children
and because that which affects women very frequently affects
children, children’s concerns will also be addressed. This
course will be an effort to collect the resources that are in print
and to begin a more systematic approach to applying Catholic Social
Teaching to women and children. The course will use UN
documents to expose issues of injustice and discrimination that
affect women and children throughout the world. It will then
examine Catholic Social Teaching to see how the church addresses
these issues. The social encyclicals as well as the work of
prominent theologians and members of the magisterium will be the
primary sources.
International Communication
and Global Development
International communication specialist is the emerging
profession in the global market driven by informatics. This
specialist, whether at the governmental, non-governmental or
corporate level is required to have proficiency in a wide range of
global affairs, which are taking place in a pluralistic and yet
interdependent global community. This course is intended to educate
proficient international communication specialists with a mission
to promote justice and human rights within the context of their
professional functioning. This course will explore, teach and
propose communication as a vehicle for promoting justice and human
rights in a pluralistic society. The course will encompass a broad
range of theoretical and historical studies of communication and
media, their role in shaping and effecting public policy,
understanding development of global communication structures and
world order; a particular focus will be paid to development media
and the inter-relationship between communication and development,
advocacy communication, communication as an instrument of
integration, and to the issues of peace and war and
communication.
Health Care Issues in Global
Development
This course closely links health care with issues of
culture, global development and social justice. Participants will
gain a comprehensive understanding of global health problems and
the state of health within their own countries. At the same time,
they will get a comparative and global view of current applied
solutions.
Integrating Seminar (Capstone
Project)
The focus of this Integrating Seminar is to bring together
what students have learned during their studies, integrating what
has been learned in each of the courses in the light of each
student’s own experiences, the shared experiences of the entire
class (in person and by the networking that has taken place through
distance learning). During the Integrating Seminar, students
will have the opportunity to present and discuss their capstone
projects with each other, and with the professor who will be the
Seminar leader. The goal is to arrive at an in-depth understanding
of specific development issues researched and to identify
strategic/structural solutions and alternative approaches.
Capstone Project
The goal of the required capstone project is to arrive an in-depth
understanding of development issues or priorities a student has
identified. That comprehensive understanding takes into account the
data available on a specific issue or priority and the results of
other studies that have been undertaken. Students are also
expected to identify strategic / structural solutions or approaches
to addressing the development issue or priority
identified. Students may also choose to research in-depth and
analyze one (or more) strategies that a nation, an international
organization, or NGO has developed to address a development issue
and priority, to assess that strategy, and to propose an alternate
approach(es).