Congratulations to Dr. Marcus Taylor

The Department of Global Development Studies congratulates Dr. Marcus Taylor on his appointment of Head, Department of Global Development Studies for the period July 1, 2018 to June 30, 2023.

Dr. Taylor has taught in the Department of Global Development Studies at Queen’s since 2006 and is cross-appointed to the Department of Sociology and the School of Environmental Studies. He researches and teaches courses on the political ecology of development, with a focus on agriculture, labour and livelihoods as reflected in courses such as DEVS 250: Global Environmental Transformations and DEVS 311: Labour and Global Development. His current SSHRC funded project is on new approaches to rice cultivation in south Asia in conditions of climate change, livelihood strains, and mounting pressures to ensure food security by increasing yields. Recently books by Dr. Taylor include The Political Ecology of Climate Change Adaptation (Routledge 2015) and Global Labour Studies (with Sébastien Rioux, Polity Press, 2018).

Dr. Taylor has been the graduate chair within Global Development Studies for the past five years, and recently spearheaded the establishment of a PhD program of study within DEVS. Faculty, staff, and students are looking forward to working with Dr. Taylor as the new department Head in Global Development Studies starting in July 2018. 

Special thanks is extended to Dr. Marc Epprecht for his tireless work as the Department Head of Global Development Studies over the past six years.   

Welcome to Dr. Rebecca Hall

The Department of Global Development Studies in the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen’s University is happy to announce the appointment of Dr. Rebecca Hall as the Assistant Professor in the field of The Political Economy of Extraction and Development effective July 1, 2018. Rebecca Hall holds a PhD in Political Science from York University and takes a feminist political economy approach to questions related to resource extraction and community development, Indigenous/Canadian State relations, decolonizing methodologies, and gender-based violence.

Dr. Hall’s scholarly publications have examined multiple sites of contemporary de/colonizing struggle in Canada, including resource extraction, property relations, caring labours, and interpersonal violence. Her dissertation, awarded the Mary McEwan Memorial Award for feminist research, examines the impact of the northern diamond mining industry on Indigenous women. Dr. Hall’s research interests come out of her community work in the Northwest Territories, and she is grateful to the workers at The Native Women’s Association of the Northwest Territories and to the communities in and around Yellowknife for their teachings and their generosity.

During the 2018-2019 academic year, Dr. Hall will be teaching, DEVS 220 (Topics in Aboriginal Studies), DEVS 392 (The Political Economy of Resource Extraction) and DEVS 803 (Research Methods).

Creating Counter-Narratives in Spaces of Privilege

Special report back from DEVS third year student Kelsey Sleep Jennings who has been working for the past term as an Intern for the City of Kingston with QUIP

My QUIP internship with the City of Kingston’s Cultural Heritage Department has taught me a lot about how to transfer my DEVS knowledge into real-life situations. Starting in September of 2017, I began my internship as a Digital Research intern; something you likely would not associate with a DEVS major, however my role soon shifted as I was thrust into conversations surrounding Sir John A. Macdonald and his legacy within Kingston. Although I was not employed due to my knowledge as a DEVS major it turned out to be a huge asset to my department and ongoing conversations of developing counter-narratives.

Working alongside the City Curator and Collections Technician we often discussed the divide that the Sir John A. legacy made in Kingston; Some viewing him in a heroic light, others understandably frustrated with his legacies of treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada. I was fortunate enough to be able to work alongside Kingston’s reconciliation process which included creating strong counter-narratives to help build a deep understanding of the complexities of the city itself. Creating a counter-narrative means that instead of “erasing history” as argued by many proponents of presenting the Sir John A. Legacy in Kingston, we would be creating alternative narratives which fall along the same timeline, yet reveal the reality of life for other demographics in the city. The majority of counter narrating that we have undertaken surrounds the Sir John A. Legacy and the livelihoods of Indigenous people in Canada.

One thing that students can look forward to seeing very soon is counter-narratives popping up in perhaps one of the largest spaces of privilege in Kingston; City Hall. With items brought forth by Indigenous community members, exhibits are being curated that will put on display one aspect of the Indigenous experience in Kingston through the use of traditional Cradle Boards. Creating these counter-narratives are vital to creating a Kingston that is accessible and addresses its past failures. It is completely okay that we acknowledge that Sir John A. did significant things to create the Canada we see today. However, it is not okay to ignore the other timelines that existed and it is certainly not okay to fail to address the horrific treatment of Indigenous people under Sir John A. Macdonald’s power. Creating counter-narratives has proven to be an effective way to be sure to address these colonial pasts while attempting to decolonize spaces of privilege and authority while bringing light to the realities of Kingston’s history.