Meet Our Department Chair

Message from our Department Chair
Dr. Christopher Hartt

Welcome to the webpage for the Department of Business and Social Sciences (BSS). We focus on the Economics, Business and Social aspects of Food and Agriculture.  We accomplish this through a diverse set of academic and personal backgrounds.  Our full-time faculty have studied, trained, researched and met with other researchers across five continents and many academic disciplines. We further expand our horizons with part-time instructors, postdoctoral fellows, visiting scholars, PhD and Master students with even more diverse life experiences.

We offer our students the benefit of this diversity through undergraduate programs in Agricultural Business, Agricultural Economics, International Food Business, Small Business Management as well as a Diploma in Technology Business Management oriented to farm management.  You can find these in the Undergraduate Calendar or contact us for more information via email at fac.bss@dal.ca.

The Bachelors degrees include a Bachelor of Agriculture in International Food Business which offers an opportunity to study for one year in Europe and come away with two degrees (one from each Institution.)  Our Bachelor of Technology in Small Business Management is a two-year program for those who have a diploma from a community college or similar program.  The traditional BSc program in Agricultural Business or Agricultural Economics has an honours option for those considering graduate school.

Graduate programs are also available via a MSc or PhD in any area of study related to business, economics or social science with an emphasis on Food, Agriculture or Rural Life.  We have many graduate students from Canada as well as Asia and Africa currently with us.  In the past many of our graduate students have won awards for their work.

Teaching and research come together via our honours and graduate students.  Business and Social Sciences faculty and students present papers at prestigious conferences every year.  They also publish in academic journals, books, and other ways of sharing knowledge.  Working with the agriculture and food industries is a key place for research and a way of giving back to our community.

Dal-AC is involved with many international projects.  The business and social aspects of agriculture is central to most, if not all of this work.  Faculty and students participate in exchanges and take their knowledge to many countries as international outreach.  We have ongoing relationships in the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia as well as our relationships with several European Universities.  These offer students the chance to visit, study or meet with other students in many countries as part of the unique “Dalhousie Experience”.

Our graduates have a very high rate of employment in their chosen field.  We teach both a solid understanding of why the theory is useful and the practical tools. If you want to learn about the economic, social science or business of Food and Agriculture, we can help you.  Linked from this page are the pages for each faculty member listing some of their work, courses taught and interests.  Feel free to contact individuals for more information.

If you are looking for general information, please feel free to write to me Dr. Christopher Hartt (chris.hartt@dal.ca) Acting Chair.  You may also contact us through our general email at fac.bss@dal.ca or stop by our administrative office located in the Cox Institute, Room 357.