This article outlines theoretical insights generated at the crossroads of geography and development studies, and elaborates their implications for postgraduate education. Re ecting on curriculum design and teaching experiences at one university (the University of Colorado, Boulder), the analysis focuses on the strengths of geography as a disciplinary home for postgraduate training in development studies. To this end, and based on faculty and student projects, it examines the relevance of geographic debates around space, place and scale for understanding speci c development questions. While most postgraduate education in development geography already takes account of these themes, this article aims to make explicit the intellectual rationale behind such a focus, and to provide speci c substantive strategies relevant to putting geography at the centre of postgraduate development studies education.