Island Studies at University of Prince Edward Island is an interdisciplinary program designed to promote an understanding of selected features of the world’s small islands, including their geographies, ecologies, cultures, political systems, histories, and societies. We offer both a Master of Arts in Island Studies (the MAIS program) and an Undergraduate Minor in Island Studies.

Master of Arts in Island Studies Program

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

Our program welcomes students from around the world. Our MAIS students come out of undergraduate programs from diverse disciplinary backgrounds and diverse degrees, or with professional workplace experience in the public, private, or resource sectors.

The program offers a challenging opportunity for students with:

• a special interest in researching islands: their societies, economies, histories, cultures, governments, geographies, and environments
• an interest in public policy and administration
• career aspirations within local, regional, national, and international governmental and non-governmental organizations
• career aspirations in the private and resource sectors
• a desire for the challenge of graduate education.

Students may adopt a comparative approach to study islands or explore a topic or issue that is crucial to one island. Either way, the program will prepare students with the practical research skills and knowledge they need to succeed in a world increasingly defined by interconnections and interactions among peoples and regions.

For application and admission information and complete course descriptions, please visit the Master of Arts in Island Studies page on the University of Prince Edward Island website.

Have questions or looking for more information? Contact the MAIS Coordinator at mais@upei.ca

Island Studies: A Global Classroom
Through this initiative, the MAIS program at UPEI has established linkages with other researchers and scholars from island universities throughout the world, encouraging and facilitating knowledge-sharing both in person and via video conference. Learn more

Undergraduate Minor in Island Studies

Island Studies is an interdisciplinary Minor program for undergraduate students at the University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) designed to promote an understanding of selected features of the world’s small islands, including their geographies, ecologies, cultures, political systems, histories, and societies.

The Island Studies Minor program at UPEI has three primary goals:

• to engage students in an emerging, international academic discussion of islands’ distinctive characteristics, challenges, and opportunities
• to study Prince Edward Island as a specific example of an island bearing these characteristics and playing out these challenges and opportunities
• to study islands in a comparative and international framework

Prince Edward Islanders may call PEI “the Island,” but they know that their island shares the world’s seas with many small islands. Each sea-bound stretch of land faces its own particular challenges, but international discussions among the world’s island peoples continue to reveal many characteristics that islands share.

Lessons from small islands come from many disciplines — from geography, sociology, education, and political studies; from biology and physics; from English and history. As an interdisciplinary program, UPEI’s Minor in Island Studies encourages students to make critical connections among studies from diverse fields to expand their knowledge of islands.

The University of Prince Edward Island is uniquely placed to offer Canada’s only Minor in Island Studies. The University already houses the Institute of Island Studies, one of the world’s leading small islands research and public policy institutes. The academic program in Island Studies balances the University’s traditional strength in researching and teaching Prince Edward Island topics with its increasing reputation for advancing international island studies.

For application and admission information and complete course descriptions, please visit the Island Studies Minor program page on the UPEI website.

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Have questions or looking for more information? Contact the MAIS Coordinator at mais@upei.ca