Graduate Minor in Development Studies and Social Change

The PhD minor in development studies and social change (DSSC) offers to graduate students the opportunity to complete a structured program of study in an interdisciplinary and globally oriented field. By focusing on the social basis of change in the global south, the minor program engages a wide range of academic disciplines, including the social sciences, humanities, and biological sciences. The minor program focuses on three areas:

1. The relationships between macroscopic processes of political, economic, and social change, and the microscopic conditions of lived experience in the developing world
2. Specifically interdisciplinary perspectives (encompassing the social sciences, the biological sciences, and the humanities) on this general thematic concern
3. Preparation of doctoral students for field research in the global south

At the University of Minnesota, this multi-disciplinary field of study is housed at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Global Change (ICGC). Approximately 60 ICGC Scholars, who hold fellowships from ICGC, participate in the DSSC minor outside of their departmental course work.