Trent University's Comparative Development Studies department will celebrate 25 years of academic excellence with a symposium focusing on, "Globalization and its Discontents: Re-embedding the Economy in the 21st Century."

The three-day event will examine the contradictory impacts of globalization - on the one hand the increasingly integrated world market and - the growing reactions to it from various quarters.

"In addition to celebrating the silver anniversary of the founding of Trent's Comparative Development Studies program, the symposium will celebrate those graduates of the program who work in a variety of development and professional leadership positions throughout the world," says Jacqueline Solway, Chair of the Comparative Studies Department.

The symposium begins on October 12 with a keynote address by Professor Philip McMichael, from Cornell University, Chair of the Department of Rural Sociology and Director of the Poslun Institute for Global Development.

Among McMichael's many publications are "Globalization: Myths and Realities," in The New Political Economy of Globalization, and "Sleepless Since Seattle: What is the WTO About?" published in the Review of International Political Economy. His most recent book is Development and Social Change: A Global Perspective.

Presenters, workshop leaders and discussion leaders include Trent alumni Kathryn Bezanson (Brock University), Silvia Caicedo (IDRC), and James Orbinski (former head of Médecins sans Frontières, and Honourary Trent degree recipient), as well as Harriet Friedmann (University of Toronto), Sulley Gariba (Development Associates, Ghana), Gerry Helleiner (University of Toronto), Judith Marshall (Steelworkers Humanities) and Paul Zeleza (University of Illinois).

The symposium is organized by Trent's Comparative Development Studies department with financial support from the International Research Development Centre (IDRC), the Canada Research Chair Program and several additional Trent sources. The event will be held in Peterborough October 12-14.

For more details about the workshops and registration visit the 25th anniversary web page at: www.trentu.ca/cds/25th.html. Members of the media are welcome to attend this event.