Development and Social Transformation

Welcome Message

The Symposium on Development and Social Transformation brings together graduate students and faculty from across the Maxwell School to discuss policy issues of relevance to the developing world.  It serves as a forum for the presentation of research and exchange of perspectives on social, political, cultural and economic change in developing countries.

Initiated in 1999, the symposium is held twice a year during the fall and spring academic semesters.  On average there have been 50 to 60 presentations per symposium, divided into panels on subjects ranging from the AIDS crisis in Africa to the sex trade in Asia to structural adjustment policies in Latin America.  Participants in the Maxwell School’s masters and doctoral programs are the presenters.  Each panel involves a mix of paper presentations and public discussion.  The best papers emerging from the symposia are published in a peer-reviewed publication, The Journal of Development and Social Transformation.

The nature of development and social transformation are contentious issues, open to debate and redefinition.  We hope the symposium encourages critical inquiry on these and other questions of relevance to governance and change in developing countries.

The Journal has been on hold over the past few years and we are trying to get it started up again in 2017.