-
Courses
Courses
Choosing a course is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make! View our courses and see what our students and lecturers have to say about the courses you are interested in at the links below.
-
University Life
University Life
Each year more than 4,000 choose University of Galway as their University of choice. Find out what life at University of Galway is all about here.
-
About University of Galway
About University of Galway
Since 1845, University of Galway has been sharing the highest quality teaching and research with Ireland and the world. Find out what makes our University so special – from our distinguished history to the latest news and campus developments.
-
Colleges & Schools
Colleges & Schools
University of Galway has earned international recognition as a research-led university with a commitment to top quality teaching across a range of key areas of expertise.
-
Research & Innovation
Research & Innovation
University of Galway’s vibrant research community take on some of the most pressing challenges of our times.
-
Business & Industry
Guiding Breakthrough Research at University of Galway
We explore and facilitate commercial opportunities for the research community at University of Galway, as well as facilitating industry partnership.
-
Alumni & Friends
Alumni & Friends
There are 128,000 University of Galway alumni worldwide. Stay connected to your alumni community! Join our social networks and update your details online.
-
Community Engagement
Community Engagement
At University of Galway, we believe that the best learning takes place when you apply what you learn in a real world context. That's why many of our courses include work placements or community projects.
Accessibility & LanguageMA (Environment, Society and Development)
College of Arts, Social Sciences & Celtic Studies, School of Geography and Archaeology
Course Code: MA-ESD
Course Overview
Watch course video presentation here.
Addressing core global development goals
Global issues of development, security and environmental sustainability have never been so important. The Covid-19 pandemic, the broader overstepping of ecological boundaries and the threat of climate change have brought questions of neoliberal economic production, environmental sustainability and human security to the fore. If you would you like to acquire the critical thinking and field-based learning skills that are essential in addressing these challenges, then the innovative and award-winning MA in Environment, Society and Development (MA-ESD) is for you.
Engaging vital overlapping environmental and security challenges
The MA-ESD will engage you on a critical exploration of the various practices of development and security that define our contemporary world, and ultimately how that critique can enable more informed, participatory and transformative interventionary practices. The programme involves engagement with a number of core areas in international development, critical security studies and political ecology, and will expose you to global concerns that encompass a complex and dynamic mesh of environmental, geopolitical and economic processes. On the programme, you will gain enormously from the field experience of working on the ground in an international development context, and as a graduate you will have the ability and ambition to activate a wide range of expert critical knowledges in shaping a more sustainable world.
Field-based learning and civic engagement
In embarking upon your career and in following your passion for addressing urgent global development issues, a core programme module ‘Field-Based Learning’ is designed to enable you to synthesise both theoretical and practical concerns in bringing critical thinking to issues of environment, society and development in the field. The module will culminate in a fieldtrip to Northern Ireland, where students will be intersecting with the work of various governmental agencies, NGOs and community development leaders and activists. The module considers how to operationalize critical knowledge of environment-society relations in the field, but also how to learn in the field by experience, through participation with both practitioners and local populations. You will gain vital experience of civic and community engagement in bringing critical thinking to development practice.
MA in ESD students on fieldwork in Mostar, Herzegovina.
Student-centred teaching excellence and international reputation
Our students bring passion and new perspectives to urgent overlapping questions of environment, security and development. Coming from every continent across the globe, they mirror a commitment on the programme to a postcolonial concern for the production of nuanced locally-attuned knowledges that are crucial to envisioning and actioning a better world. Students benefit especially from our reputation for providing one-to-one support. The programme director and teaching team have received a number of accolades for teaching excellence, including: the University of Galway President’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2011; the National Academy Award for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning in 2012; and the University of Galway’s President’s Award for Teaching Excellence in 2018.
Award-winning programme
Winner: University of Galway President’s Award for Teaching Excellence (2018)
Winner: Irish National Academy Award for the Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (2012)
Winner: University of Galway President’s Award for Teaching Excellence (2011)
Winner: University of Galway Learning and Teaching Innovation Award, Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (2010)
The Neil Smith Research Award
Launch of the Neil Smith Graduate Research Award—please see here.
The Neil Smith Graduate Research Award is annually given to the best overall student on the MA. The award is designed to celebrate the legacy of the late Neil Smith, the inaugural external examiner for the programme, by encouraging graduate research in the areas of geopolitics, development and social and environmental justice.
Past winners:
- 2024: Lucy Kelly
- 2023: Mara Levi
- 2022: Áine Keating
- 2021: Patrick Gaynor
- 2020: Timothy Eberth
- 2019: Matina Granieri
- 2018: Deirdre Leonard
- 2017: Maeve McGandy
- 2016: V’cenza Cirefice
- 2015: Rosie Howlett-Southgate
- 2014: Naoise McDonagh
- 2013: Paul Digan
Part-time option
A two-year part-time option is also available. Students take 30 ECTS of taught modules in Years One and Two, along with a 30 ECTS Dissertation module in Year Two.
Scholarships available
Find out about our Postgraduate Scholarships here.
Applications and Selections
Who Teaches this Course
Requirements and Assessment
Sign up to receive updates
Matina Granieri | Policy Leader, Office of Sustainability, Philadelphia, USA
MA-ESD Graduate, Matina Granieri, has begun a new role in Philadelphia’s Office of Sustainability, leading an innovative environmental and climate justice program for the city. Matina won the Neil Smith Award on the MA-ESD and returned to her home city of Philadelphia in 2019. She recently wrote to MA-ESD Programme Director, John Morrissey, to say a lovely thank you to all colleagues who supported her on her Masters in Galway: “I’m humbled by the opportunity to help shape Philadelphia’s new environmental and climate justice programme. I find myself frequently falling back on what I learned on the MA-ESD program to guide my decisions, and feel well equipped with the critical mindset needed to engage with government systems while attempting to center human well-being. So, I’m sending many thanks for all the foundational materials you shared and the critical thinking you asked of us”.in Connect with Matina
Elaine Williams | Graduate
I thoroughly enjoyed the MA in Environment, Society and Development. Not only does it theoretically and thematically inform students on key geographical concerns of interventionism and development, but most importantly it gives them the tools to practically apply critique on the ground. Gaining friendship and confidence in a hugely supportive environment is all part of the process too.
Vittoria Semplici | Graduate
The Masters in Environment, Society and Development addresses fundamental questions of international development. It offers students the opportunity to deepen and pursue research interests with creative license, and combines a vast amount of theoretical knowledge with a concrete and practical approach, improving both critical thinking and organizational working skills. " Vittoria currently works as a consultant for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (https://www.unccd.int/). Check out the Careers in Geography profile by Vittoria Semplici in the Geographical Society of Ireland Postgraduate and Early Career Researchers Network https://pecnireland.wordpress.com/2022/11/19/geoweek2022-vittoria-semplici/
Diego Andreucci | Graduate
What I like the most about the MA in Environment, Society and Development is the fact that it is theoretically broad and academically stimulating whilst at the same time being very much engaged in practical, political and ethical issues in a variety of geographical contexts on the ground.
Sinead Burke | Graduate
I like the MA in Environment, Society and Development as it is an opportunity for academic growth and personal development which works by challenging a group of students to critically and creatively question wide-ranging theoretical concepts, whilst also providing practical research skills to assess the relationships between political, social and economic systems in geographically diverse spaces and places.
Our Chatbot only works if 'Functionality' cookies are enabled. Manage Cookies
