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Since its inception in 1998, The Payson Center for International Development has generated one of the fastest growing academic programs at Tulane University. Offering a coordinate undergraduate major in International Development as well as Master’s and Ph.D. degrees, the Payson Center prepares its graduates with a solid foundation of interdisciplinary theories and practices to improve the quality of life for populations in the developing world.
The Payson Center’s academic program emphasizes a comprehensive approach to standard international development analysis by incorporating not just economic, but social, environmental, and cultural dimensions as well. International Development, as a field of study, is relatively new. It emerged from critiques of post-World War II programs designed to alleviate poverty and promote economic, democratic and social development in second and third world countries after independence. International Development studies, therefore, promote a cross-disciplinary understanding of economics, sociology, political science, anthropology and language, among others.
