Sustainable International Development

For developing students into global citizens, addressing and discussing the world’s most complex problems is a must. The proposed honors seminar on sustainable international development does exactly that by, for instance, exposing students to poverty / poverty alleviation and the more and more emerging consequences of human-induced climate change.  Resilience and sustainability concepts, often discussed topics when referring to global environmental threats caused by unbalanced economic development, will be addressed in the proposed seminar as well. While the seminar focuses mainly on Sub-Saharan Africa, the problems addressed are global in nature.

In this honors seminar, students will take a panoramic view of sustainable international development (SID) in developing countries with a very specific focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Students will explore social, cultural, and economic challenges of sustainable and resilient international development and will be exposed to poverty and strategies to end extreme poverty. For better understanding of the multifaceted areas of sustainable international development, students will read and discuss topics like education, health care, food security, as well as coping with today’s challenges of urban resilience and the many manifestations of climate change among others.  The seminar provides students with the theoretical and experimental platform for an interdisciplinary approach towards exploring sustainable international development in a challenging yet stimulating environment. As part of the seminar, we will take a 12 day study trip to Botswana, where we will connect with students and faculty from the University of Botswana.  Lively discussions on sustainable international development issues will be followed by field excursions to better understand the challenges of urban/rural life in Botswana and the countries dependencies on natural resources, such as game reserves for tourism and diamond mines, both main contributors to the economy of Botswana.