Skip to main content
Sign In

University of Colorado Denver College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Anthropology Logo
 

Master's Concentrations

Sustainable Development and Political Ecology


Sustainable Development and Political Ecology

As part of the MA degree, students earn between six and 18 credit hours in a research concentration.

This concentration provides critical, multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary perspectives to issues of development and resource conservation. A particular strength of this program is the integration of theoretical knowledge with field-based training opportunities. Three major themes are addressed within this concentration: the types of resource management systems that exist around the world and their relationships to particular ecosystems; the types of knowledge systems and ideas that are associated with this diverse array of resource management systems (environmental knowledge and theoretical perspectives included); and the culture of the global and local institutions, from small-scale NGOs to the World Bank, that design and implement conservation and development.

A central goal of this emphasis is to help students imagine careers in conservation and/or development, and to provide them with information, opportunities and resources to pursue a wide variety of career options. In addition to the course offerings listed below we encourage each student to develop a specialized skill, choosing from the following options: GIS mapping (Geography), ecology (Biology/Anthropology), legal (Graduate School of Public Affairs), land-use (Geography, GSPA), or research/evaluation methodologies (Anthropology).

Courses

  • ANTH 5030, Ethnobiology
  • ANTH 5070, Culture of Development and Globalization
  • ANTH 5170, Culture and the Environment
  • ANTH 5180, The Nature of Power
  • ANTH 5220, Community in Global Context
  • ANTH 5230, Anthropology and Community-Based Participatory Research
  • ANTH 5450, Development and Conservation: Contemporary Issues
  • ANTH 5460, Development and Conservation: Theory and Practice
  • ANTH 5570, Landscape Archaeology

Students will select other relevant courses in consultation with their advisor.