M.A (Environment, Society and Development)

Course Overview

Addressing vital global development goals

Are you interested in developing a critical approach to understanding intersecting global issues of environment, society and development? Would you like to acquire the field-based learning skills essential to addressing the most vital environmental and societal challenges of international development today? Would you like to gain the experience of working with the United Nations and a range of NGOs in the challenging international development context of Bosnia and Herzegovina? If so, the innovative and award-winning Masters in Environment, Society and Development is for you.

Engaging the world’s foremost environmental, societal and security challenges
Global issues of geopolitics, security, development and the environment have never been so important. Growing structural economic inequalities, the threat of climate change and international migration crises have brought questions of neoliberalism, environmental sustainability and Western interventionary practices to the fore. The MA in Environment, Society and Development is designed to enable you to bring critical and applied thinking to these vital global challenges. The programme will engage you on a critical exploration of the various practices of development and security that define our contemporary world, and ultimately how that critique can enable more informed and transformative interventionary practices. 

Field-based learning and civic engagement
A core element of the MA programme will involve you working in the challenging international development context of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through partnering with the United Nations Development Programme, and a range of other NGOs, government agencies and communities on the ground, you will gain vital experience of civic and community engagement in bringing critical thinking to development practice.

Student-centered teaching excellence and international reputation
Our students bring passion and new perspectives to urgent overlapping questions of environment, security and development. Coming from every continent across the globe, they mirror a commitment on the programme to a postcolonial concern for the production of nuanced global knowledges that are crucial to envisioning and actioning a better world. Students benefit especially from our reputation for providing one-to-one support. The programme director and teaching team have received a number of accolades for teaching excellence, including: the NUI Galway President’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011; the National Academy Award for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning in 2012; and the NUI Galway’s President’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018.

The Neil Smith Research Award
The Neil Smith Graduate Research Award is annually given to the best overall student on the MA. It is supported by a National Academy for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning award received by the programme director. The award is designed to celebrate the legacy of the late Neil Smith, the inaugural external examiner for the programme, by encouraging graduate research in the areas of geopolitics, development and social and environmental justice.

Scholarships Available