Course Code: CSE 101
Course Title: Introduction to Computer Studies
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:Information Technology is very necessary for modern life. Computing is not limited to Computer Programmers and Computer Engineer. This course will help the students to know the functions of computer and the capabilities of it. The students will be introduced with the components of the computer system and will also be able to see the components practically. They will also get the basic idea about the computer programming, database, Networks, maintenance of computer, brief idea about the Security and Privacy of a computer and so on. Microsoft Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint, Internet and FrontPage will be taught in Lab.
Course Code: GED 209
Course Title: Environmental Science
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course will deal with various aspects of Environment. Topics include Global Change: Ecology and Climate, world geography, pollution, Humans and Nature and the Environments in the 21 century. This will provide a clear idea how global change will affect ecosystems, considering how temperature, rainfall, and land use can modify the distribution of organisms in the future, and reduce biodiversity. Physical processes that shape the Earth’s surface provide an inescapable context for human activity. Moreover, this will examine the physical principles that govern erosion and sedimentation, slope stability, river and coastal flooding, and groundwater flow, and analyze how these processes affect land-use philosophies and decision-making.
Course Code: GED 214
Course Title: Mathematics
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course is designed to study the basic fields of mathematics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. Topics include ancient mathematical texts, history of mathematics, notation, language and rigor, foundation and philosophy, applied mathematics, common misconceptions including mathematics and physical reality.
Course Code: GED 215
Course Title: Introduction to Political Thought
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course will focus on normative political thought. Political theory is a field of study, which engages the history of political thought and attempts to answer the normative question “What do we want our political world to be?”. The immediate goal of this class is pushing you to think critically about the ideas and philosophies that have shaped, and will continue to guide, contemporary political systems. We do this by reading and discussing a variety of influential political thinkers who advance competing ideas of how the political ought to be organized. The larger goal of the course is to provide you with the intellectual tools to become more informed and engaged democratic citizens, and perhaps, more thoughtful and considerate human beings. We will explore together some of the great contributors to the history of political thought. This historical investigation will be balanced by a close reading of select primary documents dealing with the fundamental problems of politics. The students will have to keep the following questions in mind as we conduct our investigation: What is the structure of reality posited by the thinker? How does the thinker view human nature? What are the practical outcomes if the thinker is taken seriously? What is the impact of political philosophy on the real life? Why do laws made by other people have authority for me? Can it be fair for one person to be wealthier than another? How free should society be? Is sexism like racism? Such questions are explored through a careful reading of some classic texts in political philosophy, from the fourth century B.C.E. to the present.
Course Code: GED 223
Course Title: Global Political Economy
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course is designed to study the interaction of politics and economics among the world’s nations. The most important of these interactions concerns foreign trade. Students of this course learn about the politics of international financial relations, regional political and economic cooperation, international environmental management, international investment patterns of multinational corporations (MNCs), foreign aid, and relations between rich and poor regions of the world. They examine how government policies affect economic trends and why nations adopt specific economic policies. They also seek to understand the foundations of global or regional economic cooperation in a world of growing, independent national governments.
Course Code: GED 231
Course Title: History and Method of Science
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course will examine the roots of the scientific knowledge in Ancient Greece up to the developments of modern science. The emphasis will be how the scientific thought was developed over time. Some history of mathematics will also be examined, particularly as it has been applied to solve scientific problems. After successfully completing this course a student will know about all great scientists and their contribution in different areas of science and they will be able to define philosophy, religion and science and differentiate between these notions.
Course Code: GED 232
Course Title: Introduction to Psychology
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course is designed to study various academic and applied disciplines involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior, perception, cognition, emotion, personality and interpersonal relationships. This includes many sub-fields of study application concerned with areas such as human developments, sports, health, industry, law and spirituality. Diverse schools of thought will be also discussed under this course.
Course Code: GED 233
Course Title: Introduction to Science Studies
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:What exactly is “science”? How do scientific ideas become knowledge? How does our society, government, and culture understand and respond to science and medicine? The interdisciplinary field of science studies is introduced through exploration of topics that include gender and science, cultural studies of medicine, and the “science wars.”
Course Code: GED 234
Course Title: Introduction to Mind and Behavior
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course will investigate the puzzling relationship between mind and matter. Most people can see the plausibility of two different institutions: (i) our minds and our bodies are different (our minds just don’t seem physical as our bodies do, even to the extent that the laws of physics do not apply); (ii) brains are the seats of minds, which makes minds very much material. To accept one option and take it that our minds are material means we have to explain how the world of matter can generate mental phenomena; and this is no easy task. The other option is also problematic: if we take mind and matter to be entirely separate substances, the how and why of their interaction is just mysterious. Indeed, the explanational gap is very similar in either case.
Course Code: GED 262
Course Title: Principle of Cultural Anthropology
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course examines what it means to be human in different cultures. A range of theories and methods used to study culture, including ethnography, the intensive and personal study of cultures that is a hallmark of anthropology will be studied under this course. Students will learn how anthropology contributes to understanding social problems like racism, genocide, disease, militarism, and social inequalities of all kinds.
Course Code: GED 301
Course Title: Development Studies
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course explores a range of substantive debates in development by drawing on empirical and theoretical work from the disciplines of economics, political science, sociology and anthropology. The course aims to provide students with a broad understanding of current debates on development. Topics include various theories of development and their history, demography, development economics, development anthropology, development geography, environmental development, development management, economic history.
Course Code: GED 304
Course Title: Anthropology and Global Social Problems
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course introduces anthropology approaches to some of the central problems humans face around the world, including environmental degradation and cultures of consumption, hunger and affluence, war, racial division and other forms of inequality. The goal is to challenge our beliefs about some taken for granted assumptions about human behavior and psyche by examining cultures with different conceptions of personality, self and cognition. Will examine the issues of the role of nature and nurture in development, the nature of intelligence, coming of age, the association of psychological characteristics with gender and the naturalness of emotions.
Course Code: GED 305
Course Title: International Human Rights
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course is planned to study human rights, primarily from an international perspective, including civil, political, social, and economic rights, self-determination, and minority rights. In addition to dealing with theoretical questions of universalism and relativism, it will also explore the controversies surrounding the contemporary practice of human rights, with special emphasis on the role of politics in their interpretation, implementation, and enforcement.
Course Code: GED 309
Course Title: Classical Sociological Theory
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course explores the work of the four founders of sociological thinking: Marx, Weber, Durkheim, and Simmel. Students will read on issues ranging from the transition from feudalism to capitalism, the rise of the nation-state and bureaucracy, and the division of labor in modern society, to the mental reaction to the metropolis. Through the reading of these complex writings, the course will provide a thorough understanding of the promises and curses of modernity, as they are perceived within competing sociological frameworks.
Course Code: GED 324
Course Title: Experiencing the Past
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course is planned to generate in the students a tactile experience of behavior and culture of the past. It will begin with a socio-political overview of a particular period of pre-modern history of Bengal. Thereafter, the students will explore, by means of field survey methods, one archaeological site of the period and record material evidences at the site with the help of various documentation techniques. Finally, they will reconstruct the past in the same landscape with the help of drawings, models, photographs, graphs, charts etc. The course will be offered during the semester break in the winter.
Course Code: GED 325
Course Title: Economic Development and Social Change
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course emphasizes on understanding the interrelations among economic, political, and cultural aspects of change in developing countries. The experience of currently developing nations is contrasted to that of nations that industrialized in the 19th century. Compares the different development strategies, which have been adopted by currently developing nations and their consequences for social change.
Course Code: GED 334
Course Title: International Law
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course covers the nature of legal reasoning in international relations, the interplay of international law and international politics, and the international legal process. Examines selected substantive fields such as state responsibility, the use of force, international human rights, etc.
Course Code: GED 335
Course Title: Globalization and Social Conflict
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course examines the effect of globalization on the economies and societies of the developed and developing world. Focuses in particular on how new forms of global production and exchange are transforming the traditional role of the nation-state, creating new patterns of wealth distribution, and generating new sources of social conflict and political contestation.
Course Code: GED 336
Course Title: Environmental Impact Assessment
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course focuses on the impact of bio-geophysical environment and on man’s health and well being of legislative proposals, policies, programs, projects, and operational procedures, and to interpret and communicate information about the impacts. Engineering economic and socio political assessments will be also discussed under this course.
Course Code: GED 338
Course Title: International Relations
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course examines the struggles of power and knowledge, which have constituted international relations history and theory. This survey stretches from the beginnings of the Western states system and its early exemplar thinkers like Machiavelli, Grotius, and Kant, to the current issues and contemporary theories of international relations. Focuses primarily on the ‘classical’ and ‘post-classical’ theories of international relations.
Course Code: GED 340
Course Title: International Trade
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:Theory of comparative advantage, trade, and income distribution is some special area of study under this course. Topics include gains from trade, evaluation of the effects of trade policy instruments-tariffs, quotas, subsidies, strategic trade policy, trade and labor markets, preferential trade agreements, and the world trading systems.
Course Code: GED 356
Course Title: Urbanization and Ancient Cities
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course examines major themes in the history of urbanism by concentrating on selected towns and cities in order to explore general issues (e.g. the relationship of town and countryside and the emergence of capital cities) and characteristic urban building (e.g. fortifications, designed squares, civic monuments).
Course Code: GED 409
Course Title: Literature of Bangladesh
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:(Second half of the 20th century)*
The course is designed to give the students a comprehensive idea of literature of Bangladesh of the 2nd half of the 20th century. The course includes theoretical discussions on selected works by major literary figures of Bangladesh, of the period. of some important works from Bangladesh by major writers of the period. The course is divided into following three sections: (I) Poetry: Farrukh Ahmed, Ahsan Habib, Syed Ali Ahsan, Shamsur Rahman, Hasan Hafizur Rahman, Abu Zafor Obidullah and Al-Mahmud; (II) Prose: Shaukat Osman, Syed Waliullah, Shamsuddin Abul Kalam, Abu Ishaq, Hasan Azizul Haq, Akhtaruzzaman Ilias; and (III) Drama: Syed Waliullah, Munier Chawdhury, Syed Ahmed, Syed Shamsul Huq and Selim Al-Din.
* This course will be taught in Bangla .
Course Code: GED 416
Course Title: Business Ethics and Leadership
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course will be designed to introduce and examine different leadership qualities and enable the students to reason about the role of ethics in business. The students will examine lives and works of 5-7 leaders. Also they will discuss real life ethical dilemma cases from marketing, operations, human resource, accounting, finance and other related fields.
Specific course objectives include:
1. To learn from leadership qualities demonstrated by leaders in the past.
2. To be able to recognize ethical issues in business. And finally …
3. To critically examine the students’ own ethics and leadership qualities and test them in conversation among peers.
Students who should attend:
This course requires heavy participation on behalf of the students in their learning. Almost 80% of the grades will depend on class participation and presentations.
Course Code: GED 416
Course Title: Global Migration and Citizenship
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The movement of people across borders is a defining characteristic of the modern age. Migrants’ contribute to the economies of the host and homeland, but also exacerbate inequality, enflame nationalist sentiments, and spread values that threaten existing power structures. This course explores the causes of international migration; how governments regulate it; and how it transforms our ideas of citizenship.
Course Code: GED 419
Course Title: Ethnic Identity and Nationalism
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course focuses on study of key issues debated by anthropologists regarding ethnicity and nationalism, with examination of concepts such as identity, cultural citizenship, transnationalism-globalization, gender, home, and acculturation-hybridity.
Course Code: GED 441
Course Title: Globalization
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course will consider how we should think, and act, in a world increasingly marked by global interconnectedness. This will study the intellectual and epistemological issues raised by cross-cultural exchange, and survey how theorists in both “the West” and elsewhere have thought about and formulated responses to issues like citizenship, human rights, feminism, and cultural identity.
Course Code: GED 443
Course Title: Gender and Society
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course focuses on various contemporary issues on gender and society. Topics include Theories of gender and their development, origin of family, feminist theories, feminist anthropology, women and gender, nature, culture and gender, patriarchy vs. matriarchy, kinship and gender, psychology of gender, women and religion, gender and society in the developing countries, gender and nationalism.
Course Code: GED 444
Course Title: Women Studies
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:The course is designed to study historical and cross-cultural introduction to the various strands of feminist theory, examine the connections and discomforts between theory and activism, and explore the impact of feminist theories on contemporary thought. Students will learn the implications of women’s presence in political institutions, issues of substantive and symbolic representation, public policy agendas and outcomes, and constituent level benefits of representation by women. An introductory investigation of women’s practices and beliefs in a wide range of traditions, ancient and modern, Western and Eastern will also be discussed under this course.
Course Code: GED 453
Course Title: Living with Conflict
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:Exploration into ways in which cultural groups perceive and approach situations of conflict and how these situations in turn shape cultural practices, beliefs, and norms within the group. Examples are taken from ethnographies of different parts of the world and include a discussion of customs that help mitigate conflict among members of the group as well as conflict between groups.
Course Code: GED 462
Course Title: Social Theory and Methods of Social Research
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course introduces the various social theories and their development. Central problems of social theory are evaluated in light of readings from important sociological founders (Marx, Weber, Durkheim) and contemporary theories (rational choice theory, functionalism, power theory.) Special emphasis is placed on developing usable social theory. This also introduces diverse methods of social research. Both qualitative and quantitative methods are examined. Students learn how to formulate research questions, gather data and evidence, and make reliable inferences. The course helps student to develop their analytical skills.
Course Code: GED 466
Course Title: Who Owns the Past?
Prerequisite: None
Credit Hours: 3.00
Detailed Syllabus:This course will examine what role the past plays in the present: Why study the past, and why preserve it? How has the materiality of the past been represented in different historical and cultural contexts and for what purposes? How do various indigenous, ethnic, and nationalist narratives of struggle give shape to and reconstruct a ‘true’ history? The course will employ archaeological, textual and ethnographic evidences drawn from a particular time-space bracket
in Bangladesh to explore how the past is interpreted and (re)presented to legitimize indigenous, ethnic, and nationalist conflicts and what their broader implications are.
