Category Archives: Humanities

Exploring Water Challenges in Egypt and the US

Humanities, , , , , ,

CUNY Class Information

Instructor: Lamees Fadl

CUNY Campus: LaGuardia Community College

Class Title: Elementary Arabic I

Course number: ELA 101

International Class Information

Instructor: Mayyada El Sayed – Shahinaz Abd El Rahman

Partnership institution/ country: American University in Cairo

Class Title: Egypt Water Crisis: Challenges and Solutions CHEM 2001

Length of COIL Collaboration: 12 weeks

Project Description

This collaborative project between the American University in Cairo and LaGuardia Community College in New York will explore water challenges and factors affecting water quality and water distribution in Egypt and the US. We will discuss techniques of safeguarding the quantity and quality of water resources. Also, we will analyze the process of making decisions for water sharing among communities such as treaties of water-sharing policies. The students will learn about the world’s water crisis focusing on intentional, incidental or unintentional misuse of water resources in the two countries. The students also will evaluate the international treaties with respect to real world problems, focusing on socially responsible and ethical distribution of water resources. They will also create and conduct surveys with their communities to learn about people’s awareness about clean water resources, environmental water issues and factors that affect quality of water in their cities and countries.

Online Platforms

Zoom was used for synchronous discussions.
Padlet was used for asynchronous assignments.
Each instructor posted a weekly reminder for the tasks and activities due times on the
Blackboard.

COIL-Lamees-Fadl-ELA-101

History and Contemporaneity of Pre-Hispanic and Contemporary Art Practices

Humanities, , ,

CUNY Class Information

Instructor: Arianne M Fernandez
CUNY Campus: LaGuardia CC
Course Title: Latin American Art
Course number: HUA-196

International Class Information

Instructor: Cristián Salineros – Fillat
Partnership institution/ country: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in Santiago, Chile
Class title: Taller Central
ART0501-6-Fridays, 2-6pm (In person)
Length of COIL Collaboration: 6 weeks

Project Description

In History and contemporaneity of pre-Hispanic and contemporary art practices,
students will create an art project (can be a single large format work or a series) based
on one of five pre-Columbian pieces selected by the instructors. By re-interpreting the
piece, students will highlight the cultural, historical, and spiritual importance of these
artifacts and how institutions have appropriated them, and how their meaning changes
depending on the context. The objective of this task is to use the pre-Columbian work
as a starting point where the student will explore how such objects are appropriated and
recreate the piece while addressing a contemporary global problem in Latin America
(climate change, inequality, violence, post-colonialism, human rights, etc.) indirectly.
The piece can be in any material of choice or technique: painting, photography,
sculpture, printmaking, video, collage, etc.

Online Platforms

Throughout the duration of the project, students will be communicating via Zoom,
Slack and Padlet. There will be a session hosted by Prof. Fernandez on how to use
these tools.

COIL-Arianne-Fernandez-HUA-196

Comparative Analysis of Cultural Difference (U.S. + Morocco)

Humanities, Social Sciences, , , ,

CUNY Class Information

Prof. Robin Hizme
Queens College, CUNY, New York, United States
Course Title: ENGL 157.W – 001 Readings in Global Literatures in English
3hr. 3 credit course; fifteen week semester (COIL project for five weeks)
Mode of instruction: In-Person
Length of COIL Collaboration: 5 weeks 

International Class Information

Prof. Abdelmajid EL SAYD
Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Tangiers, Morocco
Course Title: Readings in Culture
Mode of instruction: In-Person

Project Description

Purpose / Goal: Students will engage in comparative cultural analysis to increase cross-cultural knowledge and develop international communication and collaboration skills.

After reading and analyzing late-twentieth century narratives by authors from Morocco and the United States, bi-national student teams will select topics (and questions) for comparative cultural analysis.

Collaborative project topics should arise from content in the literary texts, but the comparative exploration is not confined to discussion of the assigned readings; topics and questions may also address our contemporary cultural moment. Students should feel free and encouraged to engage in the comparative analysis with their own experiential knowledge as a starting point or as a unique lens to enhance other data and research resources. This comparative inquiry is aimed at developing and enhancing cross-cultural understanding and sensitivity.

(Possible topic examples: education, poverty / food insecurity, gender roles; social structures, customs of death and mourning, coming of age rituals, beliefs about (or access to) medical and health care, criminal justice, opportunity for social advancement, employment, modes of transportation, holidays and traditional rituals, et.al.)

Online Platforms

Google tools. We use Google Classroom to centralize the materials of the exchange, with student interaction via writing through questions / responses and on group Google docs and slides.
Student groups communicate via Google Meet, WhatsApp, and / or Discord.
Class-to-class synchronous sessions very challenging due to time-zones.

Full Module

Hizme_El-Sayd_COIL-OER-Module-Template_2024

Women’s Structural Violence

Humanities, Social Sciences

CUNY Class Information

Víctor M. Torres-Vélez, PhD, Assistant Professor

Hostos CC

Hispanic Migrations to the United States

LAC 132-604A (29159) \| Fall 2021

One semester.

International Class Information

Professor T. Gillum

The American University of Cairo

Community Psychology: Community-Based Learning

PSYC 3003, Fall 2021

One semester.

Project Description

This particular GSACS COIL project is a collaboration between Dr. Gillum, from The American University in Cairo and Dr. Torres-Vélez, from Hostos Community College, CUNY. In this collaboration, students from Prof. Gillum’s class, Community Psychology, and Prof. Torres-Vélez’s class, Hispanic Migration, will be working individually, in groups, and collaboratively on assignments seeking to address a shared inquiry-based question. The inquiry-based question will explore how structural violence affects women in Cairo, Egypt, and New York City, U.S.A. Topics to be discussed within this question are:

How does class positioning influence perceptions of gender inequality?

How does class positioning differentially affect gender inequality impacts?

What role do other intersecting hierarchical positionings, such as race and/or ethnicity, play in the uneven distribution of life chances?

In addition to readings, discussions, and presentations, both classes will address these questions through experiential learning, mainly by working with a community-based organization in their respective countries.

Online Platforms

At both institutions, each instructor will use their respective Knowledge Management Systems, in the case of Hostos the Blackboard platforms. All students have access to this by virtue of their enrollment in the class. All resources (articles, videos, etc.) and assignment submissions will be posted on this platform.

Padlet will be used by both instructors to facilitate joint students activities (i.e. introductions). This is free to students (and instructors for up to 6 Padlets per instructor) and easily accessible via any electronic device (computer, tablet. smartphone). The instructor needs to just send the link to the students for each Padlet.

Torres-Velez-2024-COIL-MODULE-v2-1Download

Comparative Literature Analysis

Humanities
Headshots of Jose Garcia Villa, Langston Hughes, and Eudora Welty
Public Domain Photos

CUNY Class Information

Instructor: Prof. Elyse Zucker

Hostos Community College/CUNY

Composition and Literature

English 111-314A/August-December/ 11 AM-1:45 PM (this is a stacked session, so each class is the equivalent of two classes)

Length of COIL Collaboration: 5 weeks 

International Class Information

Instructor: Two professors shared this class with me

College in the Philippines 

Psychology of the Self

Fall semester, 2023

Length of COIL Collaboration: 5 weeks

Project Description

Students in this COIL exchange read two works of fiction and a poem –one story written by a canonical American author, another by a canonical Filipino author and a poem by a canonical American poet –all with settings situated in their respective cultures. Additionally, students read excerpts from contextual articles about the prose selections to facilitate an understanding of the respective writers, their cultures and how those cultures shaped the particular works of fiction considered. In some ways all three selections convey universal themes. In other ways, they are indigenous to their respective cultures, customs, and countries, opening new vistas for students in both classes to contemplate. 

This project was accomplished so as to meet each course’s objectives and to help students gain insight into and information about the cultures, customs, traditions, values, psychology and history of the other class’s country –as well as (more) about their own. Throughout the exchange, students from both colleges met in their assigned groups to discuss the works of literature and the poem (and consider the supplemental material), and what the literary works indicate about their respective countries and cultures. Students shared one exact essay assignment and one overlapping essay assignment (based on the same selections but different prompts) yet both variations measure comprehension and other indicators of knowledge and skills, such as inference-making and identifying main ideas. After writing the reflective piece about the COIL experience and how it impacted learning and world view, students shared their reflective pieces with one another during the culminating event.

Online Platforms

In addition to IMMERSEU, as the platform required of the Filipino professors, students used WhatsApp, Zoom, synchronous and asynchronous sessions, and email.

Technology used for shared space: computers and cell phones

Technology used by students in bi-national teams: computers and cell phones

Zoom and IMMERSEU were the technological tools used and video/audio were projected on a Smart room screen.

Full Module

Comparing Gentrification

Humanities, ,

Theme

This COIL module invites students in two or more cultural contexts to explore gentrification in their area.

Three Activities in Brief

Students are grouped in team with their classmates at their home institution, and those groups are paired with groups at the international institution

1. Icebreaker: Students asynchronous prepare short videos which they post to shared Padlet space

2. Comparative analysis assignment:

  • Students learn about gentrification in their own neighborhoods; The binational teams split and the students first work with their home classmates and prepare presentations on gentrification.
  • The home institution student groups meet with their assigned international student group synchronously over Zoom, share their presentations, and conduct a comparative analysis. They document this by recording the Zoom presentations and complete a shared google form as an international team comparing similarities and differences.

3. The collaborative project in gentrification: the binational teams prepared a PowerPoint presentation working synchronously over What’s App which describes the project theme and the similarities and differences of gentrification in each country. The PowerPoint was presented at a student conference as part of the Steven’s Initiative, Global Scholars Achieving Career Success (GSACS) Program.

Tech Used

1. Students communicated via What’s App and Zoom

2. Shared Work Space: Padlet, screenshot below:

Discipline: Humanities

Length of Module: 4 Weeks

Author: Amy Ramson, adapted by Krystyna Michael