Category Archives: Social Sciences

Introduction to Criminal Justice and International Crime

CUNY Class Information

Instructor: Dr. Cory Rowe

CUNY Campus: , LaGuardia Community College

Class Title: Introduction to Criminal Justice and International Crime

Course number: SSJ 101

International Class Information

Instructor: Carlos Augusto Jaramillo Gutiérrez

Partnership institution/ country: Universidad de Medellin

Class title: Ciencias Forenses

Length of COIL Collaboration: Entire semester

Project Description

In groups with students from Colombia, create a PowerPoint presentation and short paper that offers an overview of a controversial topic in international criminal justice. Students are assigned the following topics: human trafficking; sex tourism; pirates; drug smuggling; and narco-terrorism.

Include information on the following:

1. What type of crime did you explore?

2. What is ONE major controversy about this crime? Be sure to present both sides.

3. Compare the way the United States handles policing this crime, to the way Colombia polices this crime.

4. Offer TWO recommendations for how to improve policing of this international crime.

Online Platforms

Introductions to one another were made by both sets of students through Padlet. A sample is here: https://padlet.com/belojennifer/criminal-justice-coil-ztnolmgicjqsbkll

All students shared the last two hours of every class on Zoom and assignments were posted on Google classroom. Whatsapp was used by all students for group work. 

COIL-Cory-Rowe-SSJ-101

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

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

Studies in the Comparative Economic and Social History of West Africa

CUNY Class Information

Dr. Grace Davie
Associate Professor
Department of History
Queens College, CUNY, USA
History 111 [001 35343] History of Africa
Mon/Wed 10:45am-12:00pm

International Class Information

Dr. Tochukwu Okeke
Associate Professor
Department of History and Diplomatic Studies
University of Abuja, Nigeria
HIS 806 Comparative Economic
History of West Africa

Project Description

In this 10-week collaboration, 30 QC students and 30 UniAbuja students came together to explore the economic and social history of West Africa in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We began with icebreakers as a large group, followed by introductions and asynchronous team-building exercises. Next, each student submitted a 2-6 page paper responding to their team’s research prompt and readings. For the final project, all 10 teams produced 3-6 minute videos outlining their team’s findings, with one American and one Nigerian speaking for each group. Students also posted responses to the videos of other teams. Finally, students helped the instructors plan a virtual zoom class party to debrief and to celebrate their COIL experience. Overall, students overcame the 5-hour time difference and other challenges to complete their projects, discovering commonalities across cultures and forging new friendships.

Online Platforms

WhatsApp, Slack, Zoom, YouTube, and Blackboard

Full Module

COIL-Module-on-West-African-History.QC_.CUNY_.U.Abuja_.Spring.2024

Women’s Structural Violence

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.

Transnational Mental Health Stigmas

Transnational Mental Health Stigmas

Spring 2022

CUNY Course Information

Instructor: Nicole Kras

Guttman Community College

Course: SOCI 231 – Introduction To Urban Community Health

International Class Information

Instructor: Heyam Dalky

Jordan University of Science and Technology, Jordan

Course: Mental Health Nursing-Theory

Module Abstract: As part of GSACS fellowship, I collaborated with a professor from Jordan University of Science and Technology to develop lessons, assignments, and a final collaborative research project with her mental health nursing students and my online introduction to urban community health students. The research question that guided this work was What inequalities and stigmas exist in seeking mental health care in Jordan and in New York City? Students had the opportunity to learn about Jordan and many of the social and political issues that influence their access to mental health in comparison to New York City.

Inequality at Work

Inequality at Work

Spring 2022

CUNY Course Information

Instructor: Alia Tyner-Mullings

CUNY Campus: Guttman Community College

Class Title: Ethnographies of Work II

International Class Information

Instructor: Jaouad El Habbouch

Partner Institution: Abdelmalek Essaâdi University, Morocco

Project Description: Connecting to a class in Morocco, we explored workplace culture and inequality. Each student in the group visited and observed a workplace in the same industry (Sales, food services, social services, education, construction, transportation). Each student analyzed their notes and examined how their culture was present in the workplace and how inequality was present in the workplace.

Small Stores, Big Cities

Small Stores, Big Cities

Fall 2021

CUNY Class Information

Instructor: Samuel Finesurrey

Campus: Guttman Community College

Class Title: The History of Urban Life

International Class Information

Instructor: Momen El-Husseiny

Partner Institution: American University of Cairo, Egypt

Class Title: Urban Planning

Project Description: In 2021, undergraduate researchers in Egypt and the U.S. designed an ethnographic study of small businesses in New York City and Cairo, two of the world’s economic and cultural capitals. These parallel studies explored how each cities’ small businesses navigated a global pandemic, movements for social justice, vast inequity, and the uneven distribution of government resources. The results were uneven, sometimes heartwarming,, and other times unsettling. The experience of producing knowledge, however, proved transformative for the students involved.

Livable Campuses, Healthy Communities

Livable Campuses, Healthy Communities

Spring 2022

CUNY Class Information

Instructor: Kristina Baines

Campus: Guttman Community College

Class Title: Introduction to Urban Community Health

International Class Information

Instructor: Momen El-Husseiny

Partner Institution: American University of Cairo, Egypt

Project Description: This project engaged students from AUC and CUNY to investigate the urban-health challenges facing university students when accessing spaces related to physical and mental health at AUC (Cairo) and Guttman CUNY (NYC). Using online platforms for virtual exchange, students built a comparative analysis of how spatial, social and economic inequalities in campuses are constructed similarly and/or differently in both contexts. The project addressed the United Nations’ SDG10 that emphasizes the importance of reducing inequalities within and among countries. The experiential learning project is twofold. First, it is a cross-cultural experience with group-work and teams created across the Atlantic between the global north (US) and the global south (Egypt). Secondly, students are challenged to explore the inherited social, economic and spatial registers facing university-campuses when dealing with the pandemic and turbulent uncertainties at each respective community

Investigating Gender Inequalities in Morocco and NYC

Investigating Gender Inequalities in Morocco and NYC

Fall 2021

CUNY Class Information

Instructor: karen g. williams

Campus: Guttman Community College

Course Title: Introduction to Cultural Anthropology

International Class Information

Instructor: Aicha Bouchara

Partner Inestitution: Abdelmalek Essaadi University, Morocco

Project Description: This 8-week final project brought college students in Morocco and New York City together to explore the issue of gender inequality, in relation to the UN Sustainable Development Goal #10 of “ Reduced Inequalities. ” In this module, students learned how gender inequality manifests in the US and Morocco and conducted a survey project on gender inequality in our local communities

Comparative Healthcare Inequalities

Module Theme: This COIL module invites students in two or more cultural contexts to explore healthcare inequality in their area.

Three Activities in Brief:
Students are grouped into binational teams with at least 2 students from each class.

  1. Icebreaker:
    • Students asynchronous prepare short videos which they post to shared Slack space.
  2. Comparative analysis assignment:
    • Students learn about healthcare inequalities in their own neighborhoods. Students prepare presentations on healthcare inequalities in their own neighborhoods.
    • The home institution students and the international institution students meet in their binational teams and the two groups meet asynchronously over Slack, share their presentations. They conduct a comparative analysis and document this by posting their presentations on Slack.
  3. The collaborative project:
    • A binational team PowerPoint presentation prepared by students asynchronously over Slack which describes the project theme and the similarities and differences of healthcare inequalities 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.

Technology Used:

  1. Shared space: Slack (asynchronous discussion and projects)
  2. Students communicated via Slack (asynchronous discussion and projects) and Zoom (synchronous meeting)

Author: Helen Chang, Ph.D. (Hostos Community College, CUNY)

Courses: American Government (Political Science 101), Radiology, and Physical Therapy

Associated Discipline(s): Political Science, Social Sciences, Public Health, Nursing, Health Sciences

Duration of Module: 6 weeks