Cornel Ban Video Sets Stage for New Year in Development Studies

August 26, 2010

As the new academic year begins, a video of development studies concentration advisor Cornel Ban gives an insight into what DS seniors face in the coming year.

In Ban’s humorous talk during May’s DS graduation ceremony, playgrounds and dungeons are the operative metaphors, as are hippy communes.

Ban was honored in the spring by Brown’s Undergraduate Council of Students with its Outstanding Advisor Award for 2009-2010. He is a visiting fellow at the Institute.

Thirty-five Brown seniors graduated in 2010 from the development studies program at Brown, which is designed to provide undergraduates with a comparative perspective on the long-term social, political, and economic changes that have accompanied industrialization and the growth of the modern state in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and in the historical experience of European countries. It is one of the only concentrations at Brown to require a senior thesis of all who participate.

A list of the 2010 graduates’ theses is available here and videos of their thesis presentations will be posted over the coming year on the Global Conversation, a new site being developed by the Watson Institute to feature media of, by, and for Brown students, faculty, and alums.