IDST-1002H: Issues in Global Human Inequalities

Instructor: Haroon Akram-Lodhi

Course Code: IDST 1002H

When Taken: Winter 2021

Class Notes: All Notes.docx

Major Assignment: The Failed Revolution.docx

This was the second half of the introduction to International Development Studies, and it functioned in much the same ways to the first half of the class.  I continued to learn more about, and question the world and its structures. However, my biggest takeaway from this class was a discussion I had about with an (at the time) fourth year student in the IDST program.

I had talked to this student about the course, saying that I had overall been enjoying it, and had liked how it had led to questioning world structures. I then asked (as one naïve does of people graduating) what her plans were for after graduation. It then prompted a discussion about how she plans to go back to school for Indigenous studies, and how the things you can do with an IDST degree are directly counter to the questioning that both she and I had done within IDST classes. With this degree people go to work for the World Bank, UN, or NGOs in developing nations. This sort of “educated liberal saves the developing country” was exactly what we had been questioning throughout IDST classes, but was the job opportunities available for graduates of the program, at least how she saw it.

This was a very enlightening discussion, and it led me to select History over IDST for my second major, as I too only saw these jobs as being the ones you would be funneled towards at the end of your degree. 18 years old, despite declaring that I could understand nuance, I think I missed some nuance of this issue. I now think that these sorts of organizations can do a lot of good, although they have historically done a lot of harm. As such, working for them would be very interesting. But I do still think that there are issues with the idea that people educated at Trent, in Ontario, from Canada, with no real experiences of marginalization, are best placed to try to help solve the issues of the world. I think, personally, I am much better off in an archive looking at organizational history than in the field trying as an outsider trying to change the world.