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Global College Welcomes MDP Program With New Acting Director

Photo: Dr. Jerry Buckland

Photo: Dr. Jerry Buckland

WINNIPEG, MB – The University of Winnipeg’s Global College welcomes Dr. Jerry Buckland as Acting Director of the Master’s in Development Practice program with its unique focus on Indigenous Development, effective immediately.

Buckland, a Professor in the International Development Studies program at Menno Simons College, will serve in an acting capacity for the coming year. The program’s academic home has also moved from UWinnipeg’s Department of Indigenous Studies to Global College.

“I am excited to take on the Acting Director position because the qualities of the MDP program – cross-disciplinary, examining development which is guided by Indigenous peoples and communities, preparing young professionals through class and field studies- are challenging and, I believe, very important,” said Buckland. “Challenges for the coming year include orienting new and returning students, consolidating the new curriculum and practicum placements, and working with faculty.”

Following a successful inaugural year which saw 15 students from around the world enroll in the MDP program, Dr. Julie Pelletier is stepping aside as MDP Director to focus on her multiple responsibilities as an active professor and Chair of UWinnipeg’s Department of Indigenous Studies.

The first cohort of MDP students share global perspectives, with backgrounds from Kenya, Zambia, Thailand, Mexico, South Sudan and Canada. UWinnipeg is the only university in the world to specialize in Indigenous development within the MDP program. This unique two-year Masters degree, supported by a grant from the prestigious John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and CN Founding Partner combines training in the health sciences, natural sciences, social sciences and management to give students the tools to address the world’s most challenging problems while creating leaders in the field of Indigenous development.

UWinnipeg joins a global network of 22 other prominent academic transnational institutions, offering online ‘global classrooms.’ The global network includes Columbia University’s Earth Institute and other prestigious universities from every continent.

The MDP students have just completed their first year in the program and are now engaged in practicums in diverse Canadian and international locales. In these placements, the students are directly engaged in Indigenous development and are learning first hand about the challenges and successes.

The University of Winnipeg continues to accept applications for the MDP program for 2012-2013.

For details, please visit: http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/index/mdp-home

Or email: mdp@uwinnipeg.ca

BIOGRAPHY – JERRY BUCKLAND

Jerry Buckland is Professor of International Development Studies and has worked at Menno Simons College (a part of Canadian Mennonite University and affiliated with the University of Winnipeg) for 18 years. His teaching and research focus on micro-finance/bank access, community/economic development, rural development, and development in Bangladesh. He teaches courses, among others, on research and evaluation methods in International Development Studies and in the Masters of Development Practice Program. In the past ten years he has published two books (Ploughing up the Farm: Neoliberalism, Modern Technology and the State of the World’s Farmers, and Hard Choices: Financial Exclusion, Fringe Banks and Poverty in Urban Canada) and numerous articles on rural/community development internationally and financial exclusion in Canada.

MEDIA CONTACT
Diane Poulin, Communications Officer, The University of Winnipeg
P: 204.988.7135, E: d.poulin@uwinnipeg.ca