BUSA 132 – Organizational Behavior
Freda Addu Dzradosi, [email protected], Ashesi University
How can managers motivate employees to go beyond the call of duty to get the job done? How can managers be sure their decisions are not biased? What influence tactics can managers use when they do not have formal authority to tell someone what to do? This course will help students understand life in complex organizations by covering topics that span microanalysis dealing with individuals and macro analysis dealing with the organization. The course is managerial in orientation and focuses on the processes necessary to organize, motivate, direct, and control people engaged in collective activities. The emphasis is on the understanding of concepts and strategies that enable students to become managers that are more effective and efficient. The course uses readings, cases, exercises, skits, group debates, and videos to illustrate the conceptual and applied aspects of the individual, group, and organizational behavior. [Expected enrollment: 70 (2 cohorts)]

BUSA 451-Development Economics
Stephen Armah, [email protected], Ashesi University
Why countries do countries with low incomes have similar problems such as hyperinflation, corruption, debt, teenage pregnancy, slums, poor governance, inadequate infrastructure, and weak institutions. What can be done about this? Can these economies transform into wealthy advanced economies? How did the Asian Tigers, Qatar, Ireland and China etc. become wealthy recently even though they were poor half a century ago and were in situations similar to Sub-Saharan African countries like Ghana at the time. This course discusses the problems faced by Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Lower Middle-Income countries and their efforts to improve the lives and well-being of their people. It incorporates different aspects of the development process including traditional development topics like economic growth, education, population studies, migration and rural-urban migration, and poverty as well as less traditional but equally pertinent topics like the role of leadership in development, how culture impacts corruption and development, economic and political institutions, competition policy & antitrust laws, foreign aid, and corruption.  [Expected enrollment: 30]

WTG 150 Academic Writing: Crossing Borders
Andra Yount, [email protected], Franklin University Switzerland
Designed as a discussion/workshop seminar, this writing course develops students’ awareness of scholarly discourse and their participation in it: what makes academic discourse different from other kinds of writing, how different disciplines approach analysis and evidence, and what counts as effective communication within scholarly communities. Through the study of borders — what they are, how they shape culture, politics and society, and why they change — the course helps students develop academic communication strategies that are applicable across the curriculum at Franklin. The main focus of the course is to help students develop strategies for joining the academic conversation, covering skills such as close reading and responding to texts; generating, supporting and sharing ideas in both oral and written form; and scholarly researching. [Expected enrollment: 15]

ENGL 110 Migration & Return in African Diaspora literature
Ernest Cole, [email protected], Hope College
The course explores the theme of migration and return through selected works of African writers in the continent and the diaspora. Drawing from migration narratives in the United Kingdom, France, and African writers in the United States including Taiye Selasi, Brian Chikwava, NoViolet Bulawayo, Benjamin Kwakye and Chimamanda Adichie, the course examines both the authors’ engagement with themes of disillusionment, institutionalized racism, reversal of expectation, and difference in Western societies, as well as the complications of return. Caught between the struggle to integrate in a new environment and nostalgia about their homeland, the works depict the struggles of characters to navigate the difficulties of integration in the adopted country and the complications of return to the home country. [Expected enrollment: 30 students]

ENGL 220 Partition Fiction
Fatima Syeda, [email protected], Forman Christian College
This course aims to introduce students specifically to short stories and novels about the Partition of the Sub-continent. These fictional works record the trauma of this historic phenomenon witnessing the mass migrations, brutality and psychological trauma of the division. The authors studied during this phase will include Saadat Hasan Manto, Khushwant Singh, Bapsi Sidhwa, Joginder Paul, Bhisham Sahni, Rajinder Singh Bedi and others. This will include stories written in English and translated into English from other languages. [Expected enrollment: 25]

CLCS 100W The Stories We Live By
Kate Roy, [email protected], Franklin University Switzerland
Stories are everywhere. We use them, consciously or unconsciously, to make sense of identities, experiences, and desires. And, at the same time, we are shaped by the stories that we absorb and interpret. This course explores how storytelling both reflects and shapes our lives. It introduces students to keywords and terms for reading and reflecting upon stories, both in the pages of books and in everyday life. The course considers a variety of narrative forms, including short stories, novels, fairy tales, self-help manuals, comics, films, podcasts, and political discourse. The course introduces students to fundamental questions about the nature of storytelling, while developing the vocabulary and critical skills for analyzing and discussing stories. [Expected enrollment: 15]

350 Advance Creative Writing
Mussarat Shahid, [email protected], Forman Christian College
Writing is both an art and a craft. Just as we cannot sit down at a piano and break someone’s heart as Beethoven could, or pick up a guitar and make it cry like Hendrix, we cannot “whip up” a story that will touch a universal chord in every human being. What we can do, however, is to find ways to connect with our inner feelings and activate our sensory pathways to unravel “our own true nature.”We will embark on this journey of creative writing with the understanding that writing is nothing but an extension of the human need to communicate however, it is more demanding, a more conscious and a more complex skill than is speech. Not only does it need the commitment to move another person’s emotions with written words, but it also necessitates creating an environment that is kind to the writer yet demanding of the story. The course will enable participants to discover a spark which has not yet been ignited; to tantalize senses that so far have been numb. And a promise to rekindle the passion for creative writing like never before. [Expected enrollment: 12 to 15]

Ling 217: Introduction to Linguistics
Dr. Ambreen Javed, [email protected], Forman Christian College
Introduction to Linguistics deals with the theoretical concepts and empirical findings of modern linguistics on a non-technical level. It highlights the connection between linguistics and other related disciplines. The course aims to differentiate various key components of linguistics such as phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, discourse, discourse analysis, pragmatics and diachronic/synchronic; paradigmatic/syntagmatic relations, langue and parole respectively. It also talks the basic concepts of sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics along with the computational aspect of linguistics. [Expected enrollment: 35]

CORE 1010 Freshman Seminar: Creative Expressions of Resistance
Yara El Masry, [email protected], The American University in Cairo
In Creative Expressions of Resistance, students are introduced to theories of Resistance Studies as well as the creative forms that this resistance often takes whether in form of Fiction, Film, Art, and/or Music. Through critical reading, class discussion, reflective writing and collaborative work students will consider how these genres have been utilized throughout time as a means to express human resilience and resistance to political and social injustice within specific contexts of suffering and/or encounters with power. We will focus on Middle Eastern contexts as well as diverge to more International contexts/issues though investigations of colonialism, racism, environmentalism, displacement and equality. The big questions that we will be reflecting on include the initial question of the relation between power and resistance, violent versus nonviolent means of resistance, as well as the many forms that this non-violent (creative) resistance often takes especially in the face of repression and censorship. [Expected enrollment: 17]

Math 128: History of Mathematics in the Islamic World
Nuh Aydin, [email protected], Kenyon College
This course examines an important and interesting part of the history of mathematics and, more generally, the intellectual history of humankind: the history of mathematics in the Islamic world. Some of the most fundamental notions in modern mathematics have their roots here, such as the modern number system, the fields of algebra and trigonometry, and the concept of algorithm, among others. In addition to studying specific contributions of medieval Muslim mathematicians in the areas of arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigonometry in some detail, we will examine the context in which Islamic science and mathematics arose, and the role of religion in this development. We will also discuss the reasons why Islamic contributions to science have been largely forgotten and the damage caused by a Eurocentric narrative of the history of science that has been dominant around the world. The rise of Islamic science and its interactions with other cultures (e.g., Greek, Indian, and Renaissance Europe) tell us much about larger issues in the humanities. Thus, this course has both a substantial mathematical component (60-65 percent) and a significant history and social science component (35-40 percent), bringing together three disciplines: mathematics, history, and religion. The course counts toward the Islamic Civilization and Cultures concentration but does not count toward any math major requirement. Prerequisite: solid knowledge of algebra and geometry. [Expected enrollment: 15]

MATH100-Quantitative Skills
Dr. Farheen Ibraheem, [email protected], Forman Christian College
This course is meant to help students build and strengthen fundamental knowledge of arithmetic, algebra and geometry which are crucial to enhance and develop numerical, logical, critical and problem solving skills. The course content includes Basic algebra and number theory, rounding, estimating and scientific notation, algebraic expressions, fractions, factoring, solving linear and quadratic equations, linear system and their applications to daily life problems, percentage problems, ratio and proportion, work problems, distance problems, basic geometry, mean, median, and mode. [Expected enrollment: 30]

CSCS202-Computational Linear Algebra
Farheen Ibraheem, [email protected], Forman Christian College
This course teaches students how to understand, work with, and use linear systems of equations and, more broadly, linear connections between variables. In a wide range of application areas, such as big data, machine learning, economics, physics, data visualization, engineering, and statistics, the concepts and methods learned in this course are immensely helpful. Students will gain a basic understanding of matrices, vectors, systems of linear equations, vector space, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, matrix factorization, and singular value decomposition through this course. In this course, mathematical solutions to problems from the real world are also covered, including those involving image filtering, Markov chains, Google’s page rank algorithm, and cryptography. For computation and application objectives, MATLAB software package is used. [Expected enrollment: 30]

CS3151 Software Engineering
Passent Elkafrawy, [email protected], Effat University, Collage of Engineering,
This course covers the fundamental concepts and methodologies of software engineering. It emphasizes on main phases of the software lifecycle, such as requirements, design, implementation, testing, project planning. Software product and process shall be clearly defined. Students will work in groups to analyze, design and build a prototype for a software of their choice. They should experiment the software production life cycle by gathering requirements from stockholders, proposing their design and verifying and validating their architecture. Based on object oriented based modeling they should submit a complete UML design. Also, support activities for software development will be explained and provided in their project. Teams should be able to recognize coding design patterns, version management systems, project management, and system maintenance activities. [Expected enrollment: 50]

DRPT101 Introduction to Visual Art
Suniti Vadalkar, [email protected], FLAME University
Folk arts all over the world are indigenous arts. History reveals that even before civilizations came into existence, human beings were painting. The caves in Altamira and Lascaux have paintings that date to 35,000 years ago stand testimony to this fact. Folk art paintings are seen all around the world. They depict the peculiar culture, and style of rendering of communities. In this course, we shall learn about seven Indian folk art paintings (Madhubani, Pattachitra, Pithora, Phad, Warli, Kalamkari and Tanjore) – their themes, narratives, methods of depiction, and uniqueness. We will also create our own visual stories (folk art) based on these Indian folk art paintings. [Expected enrollment: 20]

MLL 2055 Intermediate Spanish: Perspectives on Spanish-Speaking Cultures
Lucia Lopez Vazquez, [email protected], American University in Bulgaria
This course offers a contemporary, interactive, and interdisciplinary approach at the intermediate level to the study of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures. It introduces students to the analysis of topics such as education, family values, traditions, work ethic, urban life, multicultural society, migration, consumption of resources, politics, identity, stereotypes, and cultural heritage, as well as notions relevant for intercultural communication, such as politeness and formality of interactions. Aiming to promote an in-depth cross-cultural understanding, this course exposes students to a large variety of print and electronic media, film, music, literature, and other forms of Hispanic cultural expression. Students perform individual reflection tasks and work in small teams and other collaborative formats that allow them to consolidate and expand their understanding and their writing and speaking skills, as well as to refine their grammatical and lexical competence. [Expected enrollment: 20]

EDU 315 Learning Theories
Ammar Husnain Khan, [email protected], Forman Christian College
“Learning Theories” is intended to help the prospective teacher to better understand how students learn. It exposes a number of Learning Theories and looks at the pros and cons of each. A timeline of the development of the various theories also takes a look at the background that led to the development of each theory. It is for the aspiring teacher who is ultimately responsible for the kind of experience provided to the taught. Doing things differently so that students regardless of learner types benefit is the essence of this course. Not only will this course provide an insight into “learner ways” but will also highlight the interest and motivation that students display when teachers not only do things right, but do the right things. The course allows you to experience the joys of teaching coupled with the struggle that goes into creating and experiencing the privilege of educating! [Expected enrollment: 30]

CORE 2098: Selected topics: Building for Underdeveloped Egyptian Communities
Mohamed Darwish, [email protected], The American University in Cairo
Conventional and innovative low-cost housing systems in Egypt that are suitable for local communities around Egypt. Building with wood, bricks, straw-bale, sand bags and earth. The different stakeholders in the building process and how they drive the final livable space. Incorporation of the community-based learning within the process of delivering low-cost buildings for underdeveloped Egyptian communities and cost comparisons for different low-cost traditional building alternatives in Egypt. [Expected enrollment: 20]