Research and Training

The GPD training program has three components: coursework, community building, and research & fieldwork. All GPD fellows must complete the core requirements and are expected to be active in community-building activities. Graduate students interested in Development are invited to take advantage of the courses and talks offered and are encouraged to be active in these and other community-building activities.

Requirements

All fellows are required to fulfill the following:

• IAPA 2000, the foundational interdisciplinary course
• One module (short methods courses specifically designed for GPD)
• Attend events sponsored by the Graduate Program in Development.

All fellows are required and trainees are encouraged to fulfill ONE of the following:

• IAPA 2010, an interdisciplinary field methods course
• One course outside their home department (not including IAPA 2000).  These should be methods courses or substantive courses related to development.
• One additional module (short methods courses specifically designed for GPD)
• Traineeship: Working with a faculty member on a research project (roughly understood to be 10 hrs a week)

Courses and Modules 

Theory and Research in Development I – IAPA 2000: Explores a range of substantive debates in development by drawing on empirical and theoretical work from the disciplines of economics, political science, sociology and anthropology. The course aims to provide students with a broad understanding of current debates and research on development, evaluate both the differences and complementarities in disciplinary perspectives and develop a toolkit of interdisciplinary analytic skills that can be applied to concrete research questions.

Fieldwork across disciplines – IAPA 2010: This course draws on the collective fieldwork experience of GPD faculty and visiting research collaborators to expose students to a range of fieldwork challenges and practices. The course is team-taught and is organized around presentations from faculty and visitors conducting research on inequality. In addition to addressing a range of key methodological challenges of fieldwork (case selection, data reliability, linking micro-mechanisms to macro-phenomena, making sense of context), the course will also address the "nuts and bolts" of fieldwork. This includes developing contacts and networks, dealing with unfamiliar institutional environments, working with collaborators, and handling politically or culturally sensitive issues. The course will also review IRB protocols and address the range of ethical issues that come into play doing fieldwork. The primary student assignment in the course will be to produce a research proposal.

Training modules in research techniques: In order to give trainees exposure to different research techniques, GPD sponsors a number of intensive research modules during the winter break and early summer. The modules include spatial analysis, demographic analysis and survey methods, interviewing and ethnographic methods, and program evaluation. Trainees are required to take at least one module. Modules last one to two weeks and are designed to introduce trainees to a specific technique, identify where/when its use is appropriate, demonstrate some basic applications to the question of inequality, inculcate basic skills in using the technique, and where appropriate review existing sources of data. The modules are designed so that trainees who develop an interest in furthering their skills in a particular technique will be in a position at the end of the module to take more advanced courses.

Community-building Activities

One of the most important objectives of GPD is to build a cross-disciplinary research community of graduate students and faculty with shared interests who actively learn from each other. GPD sponsors three community-building activities.

GPD Events: This year-long speaker series hosts Brown faculty, international collaborators, and outside speakers who give public talks on their ongoing research.  View the current speaker list. Events also include presentations of research by GPD fellows and GPD Summer fellows, including the annual “Back from the Field” forum.

Graduate Student Workshops: Each year, GPD funds a small number for Graduate Student workshops proposed and run by GPD students.  These focus on selected interdisciplinary themes and bring together a small group of GPD trainees with shared research interests.  Workshop funds support meetings and invited speakers. 

Annual workshops and conferences: Every year, GPD supports or co-sponsors a number of workshops or conferences that bring researchers to Watson to explore a wide range of themes.

Research and Fieldwork

The GPD program offers graduate students a range of opportunities to work with Brown faculty, visitors, and our collaborating institutions on research projects.

In order to gain research experience, all graduate students are encouraged to collaborate with faculty on research projects. In order to provide trainees with field-based research experience, GPD facilitates summer research by providing summer funding for individual projects and organizing research opportunities through collaborating institutions. Each of these partners can integrate trainees into ongoing research projects on inequality.

GPD students are encouraged to spend at least one summer in the field. In most cases, this will be after their first or second year of graduate training.  GPD offers summer research grants on a competitive basis.  Preference will be given to pre-dissertation research.