Why have states across the Global Majority followed such different political, economic, and social trajectories? This course examines development and political change through comparative analysis of colonial legacies, state formation, political institutions, global markets, conflict, gender, technology, migration, and environmental pressures.
The course does not treat the developing world, Global South, or Global Majority as a homogeneous category. Students compare countries and regions, evaluate competing explanations, and assess when broad theories travel across cases and when they fail.
The first part introduces major approaches to development and political change and examines how the concepts used to divide and describe the world shape analysis and policy. The second traces political trajectories from pre-colonial societies and colonial rule through nationalism, independence, state-building, military intervention, authoritarianism, liberalization, and democratization. The third examines contemporary challenges including political violence, gender inequality, environmental change, digital power, migration and diasporas, and the role of transnational actors.
Throughout the semester, students connect theory to contemporary events while developing sustained expertise on one adopted country. The graded labs form a cumulative building-block sequence. Each lab adds evidence and analysis that students will later synthesize in the Comparative Team Presentation on December 7.
The course does not treat the developing world, Global South, or Global Majority as a homogeneous category. Students compare countries and regions, evaluate competing explanations, and assess when broad theories travel across cases and when they fail.
The first part introduces major approaches to development and political change and examines how the concepts used to divide and describe the world shape analysis and policy. The second traces political trajectories from pre-colonial societies and colonial rule through nationalism, independence, state-building, military intervention, authoritarianism, liberalization, and democratization. The third examines contemporary challenges including political violence, gender inequality, environmental change, digital power, migration and diasporas, and the role of transnational actors.
Throughout the semester, students connect theory to contemporary events while developing sustained expertise on one adopted country. The graded labs form a cumulative building-block sequence. Each lab adds evidence and analysis that students will later synthesize in the Comparative Team Presentation on December 7.
- Teacher: Sarah-Myriam Martin-Brûlé