Sustainable Development

The Goodnight Family Sustainable Development Department is committed to preparing students for both thoughtful analysis of human systems and applied practice in the pursuit of transformative, community-driven development and social change. Sustainable development aims to enrich human well-being, protect and conserve healthy and productive natural systems, support shared economic prosperity, and advance an ecological worldview.

As members of a critical development studies department, our faculty and students examine the interdependent complexities and challenges of the world’s most pressing environmental, economic, and social problems, and envision and develop creative and innovative solutions to these challenges. We examine key theoretical concepts and analytical tools in order to assess what development means and how it is experienced in different places and cultures in all parts of the world, including how current development and livelihood challenges are shaped by globalization and environmental change. 

Join us as we engage in understanding and advancing the social, economic, and environmental transformations necessary to create thriving, equitable, and sustainable communities within an ecologically healthy world!