International Development and Humanitarianism MSc

The MSc in International Development and Humanitarianism will provide you with a comprehensive understanding of the complex relationship between global development and humanitarian action.

Drawing on theories and practices from various fields – including anthropology, geography, economics, politics and development studies – this interdisciplinary Masters programme will prepare you for a range of challenging careers, including in international charities and NGOs, humanitarian relief organisations, and local, national and international government agencies and departments, as well as in the private sector (corporate social responsibility, consultancies), and with civil, policy and advocacy groups.

The teaching for this degree is research-led, based on an evolving curriculum that responds to contemporary global. Delivered by leading experts in the field, you will interrogate simplistic understandings of development and humanitarianism – what it is, who does it and who it is aimed at – along with prevailing assumptions and explanations for violence and war.

Through a combination of lectures and interactive seminars, presentations and debates, you will engage critically with issues such as:

The ethics of international development
Understandings of war and violence
Development, debt and microcredit
Poverty and inequality
The role of NGOs and aid policy
Humanitarianism, refugees and camps
Gender and development
Ethnicity and the construction of the ‘other’
Violence of everyday life
As well as undertaking rigorous intellectual training, you will have the opportunity to carry out your own ethnographic fieldwork in the UK or overseas. In recent years, Brunel students have carried out fieldwork in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Colombia, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Philippines, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, China, Morocco, and New Zealand, as well as within the UK and the rest of Europe.