The Master of Arts in Island Studies (MAIS) at the University of Prince Edward Island is a unique, interdisciplinary, and policy-driven graduate course that critiques islands on their own terms.

The program is open to students from around the world. They come out of undergraduate programs from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and diverse degrees, or with professional workplace experience in the public, private, or resource sectors, and they study a myriad of islands.

Faculty in the MAIS program come from a wide range of departments, ranging from Environmental and Political Studies to English, Education, and Economics.

Search "Master of Arts in Island Studies" to find out what some of our students and professors are doing.

Students are required to take six courses and write a thesis. The three Compulsory Courses, offered annually, are

* Themes...

Dolores LeVangie is a Master of Arts (Island Studies) student who has travelled to Chiloe Island, Chile. This island is roughly the same size as PEI with a population of around 150,000. Dolores travelled to the remote Williche community of Tweo, which is located on the southern tip of Chiloe and only accessible by boat. In March 2010, she returned to the island to do ethnographic field work for her Master's degree, working at the Williche Health Centre and travelling with the health team doing interviews in various communities.

Dolores plans to examine how “islandness” influences the effects that modernity has on illnesses and treatment in island populations. This research will explore how living on an island impacts the effects that post-colonialism, modernity, and capitalism have on types of illnesses of island populations and how this impacts the medical systems of islands...

A Magnificent Gift Declined: The Dalton Sanatorium of Prince Edward Island, 1913-1923 by Leonard Cusack (History), tells of the rise and fall of the state-of-the-art sanatorium donated by Charles Dalton to the Province of PEI. Built in 1913 on an isolated hilltop in Emyvale, the hospital was demolished in 1923. Cusack skilfully portrays the political manoeuvring and social context surrounding PEI's first TB hospital. (Island Studies Press)

Island Studies Journal (ISJ) is a scholarly journal dedicated to the inter-disciplinary study of our “world of islands.” Published twice a year (May and November), the first issue appeared in May 2006. Editor-in-chief is Dr. Godfrey Baldacchino, Canada Research Chair in Island Studies, based at the Institute of Island Studies, UPEI. The international Editorial Board is made up of island studies scholars from over 50 universities and institutions.

Advancing Interdisciplinary Research in Singing: AIRS

Singing, like speaking, is a natural human expressive ability. Yet, in comparison to speaking, less scholarly inquiry has been directed to it. Linked to social, cultural, and biological development, singing draws on many disciplines and submits to many forms of analysis and specific explorations. Recognizing a need for a comprehensive framework for such investigations, an international collaboration of over 70 scholars in the humanities and social sciences is motivated to Advance Interdisciplinary Research in Singing, its origins and implications. Together, the AIRS collaborators are integrating new multidisciplinary knowledge about singing from the perspectives of psychology, music, linguistics, sociology, anthropology, and education, assisted by computer science and audio engineering.

UPEI maintains a student exchange agreement with Gotland University, Gotland, Sweden

UPEI maintains a student exchange agreement with the University of Malta.

"Recent settlers to Prince Edward Island speak: positive 'selling points' regarding PEI" is a thorough compilation of a set of testimonials/quotations by "Islanders by Choice" - the 320 respondents to the 2005 survey entitled "Recent Settlers to Prince Edward Island: Stories and Voices."

Compiled by Dr. Godfrey Baldacchino, UPEI Institute of Island Studies, for the Prince Edward Island Population Secretariat.

This 84-page document, complete with a copy of the questionnaire used in the study, is freely and readily available from the website of the PEI Population Secretariat:
http://www.gov.pe.ca/popsec/index.php3?number=1020143&lang=E