Syllabus for
Bachelor of Arts (English Honours)
Academic Year  (2020)

Programme Outcome/Programme Learning Goals/Programme Learning Outcome:

PO2: Apply critical thinking skills to cultural texts, socio-political contexts, movements, and events while participating in curricular, co-curricular, and extracurricular activities.

PO3: Generate research outputs by identifying and incorporating appropriate research methods and methodologies through engagements in the classroom, fieldwork, internship, and guided research.

PO4: Evaluate the discourses on citizenship, nation-state, gender and diversity, hegemonic practices and sustainability within regional, national and global contexts by employing the frameworks and concepts introduced in various courses.

PO5: Utilise writing skills to communicate effectively to support academic endeavours by consistent and systematic involvement in collaborative peer engagements and assignments, research, and internship projects.

PO6: Practise and display the skills of leadership and problem-solving by participating in and organising group assignments, national and international seminars, conferences, workshops, research projects, internships, apprenticeships, and co-curricular and extra-curricular activities.

PO7: Demonstrate an understanding of the value of interdisciplinary inquiry.

Assessment

The assessment methods developed by the course instructor (sometimes in consultation with the students) include three internal assessments, a mid-semester examination, and an end-semester examination. Some papers also provide for flexibility in the structure and the mode of administering these assessments. Details of such testing patterns will be available through the respective course instructors as well as the syllabus for the papers. Feedback would be provided to students on their internal assessment which will enable them to build on their knowledge of the specific papers.

To create a sense of ownership of issues related to CSR, Environment and sustainability of businesses.

Understand the basic concept of Sustainable Development (SD), the environmental, social and economic dimensions.

To teach how to critically analyze, evaluate and judge competing perspectives on the challenge of creating a sustainablefuture.

To understand the Sustainable development challenge for companies, their responsibility and their potentials for action.

Ability to create sustainable organizations

Meaning and Scope, Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, Sustainability Terminologies and Meanings, why is Sustainability an Imperative, Sustainability Case Studies, Triple Bottom Line (TBL)

Reasons to adopt sustainable strategy by firms, tools used by the firm to implement their sustainable development strategies, evaluation of firm’s commitment to sustainable strategies by the stakeholders.

Using Standards, Certification and other Systems to further SD goals Introduction, Global management systems exist to guide firms in establishing and implementing a strategy,how do these various approaches, including certification, encourage sustainable business practices.

Establishing priorities for sustainable future, Role of women in sustainability, Challenge of creating a green economy, Sustainability crisis in 21^st century, failures of global capitalism, transforming global capitalism, creating a restorative economy.

Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines, National Voluntary Guidelines on Social, Environmental and Economic Responsibilities of, Business, International Standards, Sustainability Indices, Principles of Responsible Investment, Challenges in Mainstreaming Sustainability Reporting, Sustainability Reporting Case Studies

2.      Concepts of Environmental Management for Sustainable Development

3.      Baxi C. V & Rupamanjari Sinha Ray, (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility: A Study of CSR Practices in Indian Industry, Vikas Publishing House.

4.      Corporate Goverance – Badi N. V, Vrinda Publications, 2012.

5.      Fernando A. C, (2011). Corporate Governance: principles, policies and practices, Pearson.

6.      Ghosh B. N, (2012). Business Ethics and Corporate Governance , Tata McGraw-Hill.

7.      Keshoo Prasad, Corporate Governance -, PHI.

8.      Lawrence and Weber, (2010). Business and Society, Tata McGraw-Hill.

CIA 2 - Mid sem Class exam (25 marks)

CIA 3 - Group presentation and report for pre allotted topics.(20 marks)

End sem - Class exam (30 marks)

To examine health in its truest sense, one must explore beyond the limits of medicine to engage a much wider set of questions embracing social, cultural, political, economic, moral and spiritual aspects of human experience. The course focuses on the knowledge and skills that students require to lead a healthy, productive and balanced life.

• Explain health as a multi-dimensional and dynamic concept, which necessarily integrates individual, societal, biomedical, spiritual, cultural and historical influences, and how this relates to health issues encountered in everyday life.
• Assess the inter-relatedness of health perceptions and practices across cultures.

Balanced diet & Nutrition, Macro and micro nutrients – Nutritive and non nutritive components of diet – Eating for weight control – healthy weight – The pitfalls of dieting – food intolerance and food myths – Food supplements for adolescents. 

What is sleep? – The phylogeny of sleep – Developmental course of sleep – Dreams- Functions of sleep – Daytime sleepiness and alertness – Sleep disorders.

Course Description:

The Mahabharata of the great Maharishi Veda Vyasa is a treasure trove of knowledge, principles and paradigms. It is written that what is not in the Mahabharata will not be found elsewhere. Written nearly thousands of years ago, the Mahabharata is as yet a source of knowledge, especially modern management principles.In essence it highlights the victory of Dharma in times of Adharma.This subject is a comprehensive learning on management lessons which can be inferred from the great epic. It gives a clear understanding and comparison of management Principles, practices and the various functions of management with the epic. The syllabus is structured to provide basic conceptual knowledge on the principles of management. It also deals with behavioral issues in the individual processes, group and interpersonal processes.

Course Objectives:

•  Discuss the epic by summarizing the various parvas/units in class in accordance with the management concept
•  Review and make a critical estimate of the epic with a focus on morals, ethics, legal and management concepts
• To develop competencies and knowledge of students to become effective professionals

• Students will get to know determination and hard work and its implication on business decision
• Students will be able to appreciate the role of general management for the success of an organization.
• This subject will enable them to enhance their Moral, social, ethical and professional skills
• To understand the manner in which strategic and competitive advantage is developed

The older generations-The Pandava and Kaurava princes- Lakshagraha (the house of lac)

Establishment of the kingdom-Administration and Management principles

Marriage to Draupadi- An event study approach.

Indraprastha-A new beginning- Pressure for change – Change process, Types of change, Factors influencing change, Resistance to change

The dice game- Cooperative strategies & Reasons for strategic alliances-

Exile and return- Risks and costs of strategic alliances

The battle at Kurukshetra - Strategic Planning and Management- levels at which strategy operates- Event approaches to strategic decision making,

The end of the Pandavas- Succession Planning,Authority and Responsibility

The reunion Organizing- Choosing the organizational structure

Rao, V.S.P., & Krishna, V.H., (2011). Strategic Management: Text and Cases. New Delhi: Excel Books.

Pratap Chandra Roy ,The complete Mahabharata translated into English prose directly from the original sanskrit text.(1^st Edition) oriental publishing co.

Source: Jaya - An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata

MSE   30 Marks

CIA 3 10 Marks

End Assesment 50 Marks

Any individual can have a real-time video conversation with someone on the other side of the planet, one can send and receive money without even taking out their wallet, and even can post content online that reaches millions of people in a matter minutes. Unfortunately, the same technology that enables all this new freedom and convenience also exposes us to new security threats that we've never encountered. Malware that infects your computer and watches everything you do, phishing scams that steal private information from millions of people - today's digital world is a criminal's playground. It makes the process of stealing money or even stealing someone's entire identity way more efficient. Hence it becomes very important to protect yourself and your private data from cyber intruders. This course outlines a step-by-step roadmap that one can follow to build a tight wall of security around your digital life.

Course Objectives:

This course gives the background needed to understand basic cyber security. Students will be introduced to the world of spyware, phishing, malware, spam, social engineering, hacking and other common internet spying techniques. Students will also learn the intervention methods in securing themselves in cyber space.

Why security matters – The importance of multi-layer security – the most common security threats – The dark side of Internet – The world of malware – phishing – social engineering – scams – hacking –cyber warfare.

Developing the right mindset and habits for security – the importance of skepticism – avoiding malicious sites and applications – Tools needed to browse the Internet securely - why software updates matter – knowing (and limiting yourself).

Why mobile security matters – setting up a passcode lock –importance of password security – best practices – using password manager- managing third-party app permissions – locating a lost or stolen smartphone.

Framework – types of mobile two-factor authentication – Two-Factor authentication: Google, Facebook, Twitter and other services - danger of rogue connected apps – managing connected apps on Google and Facebook – managing browser extensions/add-ons – staying secure with connected apps and extensions.

Encryption definition – How SSL (HTTPS) protects your passwords and private data - encrypting your web traffic with a virtual private network (VPN) – encrypting computer's hard drive – encrypting smartphone – firewalls – antivirus.

·        Arora, A. (2014). Information Warfare and Cyber Security. Jaipur: Book Enclave.

·       Santanam, R., Sethumadhavan, M., & Virendra, M. (2011). Cyber security, cybercrime and cyber forensics: Applications and perspectives. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference.

·         Ahamad, F. (2013). Cyber Law and Information Security. New Delhi: Dreamtech Press.

CIA II - 25 marks

CIA III - 20 marks

End Semester - 30 marks

Attendance - 05 marks

The Course presents several of the operational projects implemented by, or with the support of UNESCO, to illustrate how cultural tourism policies developed in the spirit of the principles and values contained in the texts, standard-setting instruments, declarations and recommendations adopted by UNESCO, are put into practice.

To open a debate on the complex questions that surround the relations between culture and tourism, tourism and development, and tourism and dialogue among cultures.

• To use Tourism as an instrument to bring individuals and human communities into contact
• To understand the role of cultures and civilizations in facilitating dialogue among cultures
• To recognise the capacity of Tourism in assisting the world’s inhabitants to live better together and thereby contribute to the construction of peace in the minds of men and women

Finding Meaning through Tourism, Tourism as a World of Paradoxes, The Centrality of Experiences, Changing Contexts and Emerging Challenges in the Context of Development

Culture, Heritage and Diversity as Tourism Resources, Understanding Culture and Cultural Resources in Tourism, Cultural Tourism as a Means of Economic Development, Developing the Cultural Supply Chain, Exploitation of Culture

Tourist – Host Encounters, The Role of Routers / Intermediaries / Media, Tourism – Tourist Education, Cross Cultural Understanding

Introduction to the Natural Environment, Tourism and the Spirit of Nature, Fragile and Vulnerable Ecosystems, Cultural Implications of Mobilizing Natural Resources for Tourism, From Ecotourism to Integrated Tourism

Developing Structures to Develop and Manage Tourism and Culture, Complexities and Challenges of Policy Making in Tourism and Culture, Responsibilities / Tensions and Actions, The Gender Dimension, Stakeholders and Collaborations

Cultural Tourism Itinerary, Raising Awareness about the Fragility of Heritage Sites, Education for Lasting Tourism

Case Studies from The Palestinian Territories, Central America, Western Africa, Mauritania and Angkor

Economic Empowerment and poverty Alleviation, Sustainable Tourism Development Strategy, Forging Innovative and Inter-Disciplinary Approaches, Indigenous Resource Management Systems, Empowering Communities through Tourism

Case Studies from The Aral Sea Basin, Local Effort in Asia and Pacific (LEAP), Mountainous Regions of Central and South Asia

Dissemination of Knowledge and Reconciliation with the Past, Local and Indigenous Knowledge Systems in a Global Society (LINKS), UNESCO’s Actions in the field of Tourism, Culture and Development

Case Studies on UNESCO’s Conventions, Seminars and Universal Declarations

Capacity Building and Youth Poverty Alleviation through Tourism and Heritage (PATH)

Case Studies on Sao Paulo’s Green Belt Biosphere Reserve

Appadurai A. (2002) Cultural Diversity: A Conceptual Platform. In K. Stenou (ed.) UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. UNESCO Publishing, Paris, pp. 9-16.

Appadurai A. (2003) Modernity at Large. Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

Boumedine R. S. and Veirier L. (2003) Towards a Strategy for the Sustainable Development of Tourism in the Sahara in the Context of Poverty Eradication. UNESCO Publishing, Paris.

Cohen E. (2004) Contemporary Tourism. Diversity and Change. Elsevier, London.

Hemmati, M. ed. (1999) Women’s Employment and Participation in Tourism, Report for UN Commission on Sustainable Development 7th Session. UNED.

Intergovernmental Conference on Cultural Policies for Development (1998) Final Report. (Also referred to as Stockholm Action Plan). UNESCO Publishing, Paris.

International Labour Organisation (2001) Human resources development, employment and globalization in the hotel, catering and tourism sector (Report for discussion at the Tripartite Meeting on Human Resources Development, Employment and Globalization in the Hotel, Catering and Tourism Sector, Geneva, ILO).

Komla E.E. and Veirier L. (2004) Tourism, Culture and Development in West-Africa: For a Cultural Tourism Consistent with Sustainable Development. UNESCO Publishing, Paris.

Posey D.A. (Ed) (1999) Cultural and Spiritual Values of Biodiversity. A Complementary Contribution to the Global Biodiversity Assessment. Intermediate Technology Publications, London (on behalf of United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi).

Robertson, R. (1990) Mapping the Global Conditions: Globalization as the Central Concept. In M. Featherstone (ed.) Global Culture: Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity. Sage, London, pp. 15-30.

Steck B., Strasdas W., and Gustedt, E. (1999) Tourism in Technical Co-operation. A guide to the conception, planning and implementation of project-accompanying measures in regional rural development and nature conservation. GTZ, Eschborn.

Tour Operators’ Initiative for Sustainable Tourism Development (2004) Supply Chain Engagement for Tour Operators: Three Steps towards Sustainability. UNEP-Sustainable Tourism, Paris.

Winkin Y. (2002) Cultural Diversity: A Pool of Ideas for Implementation. In K. Stenou (ed.)

UNESCO Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity. UNESCO Publishing, Paris, pp. 17-60.

CIA 2 - Mid Semester Examination (25 Marks)

CIA 3 - Group Activity and Written Submission on “Integrated Tourism by Mobilizing Natural Resources” (20 Marks)

Final Submission - An Individual Activity supported by Written Submission on “Designing a Structured Plan to Develop and Manage Sustainability through Tourism and Culture; An Inter-Disciplinary Perspective” (30 Marks)

This course deals with interaction between technology, its transformation and the impact it has in today's society. an interdisciplinary course giving overview about the various business models, platforms companies use for creating values among the people and initiatives taken by government related to technology for nation building. This course engage the students to confront the realities brought by disruptive technologies and the change in lifestyle of society.

COURSE OBJECTIVE

 This course attempts to be more effective in dealing with digital transformation and its impact on society.

Digital Transformation in the global enterprise, Digital business ecosystem, Multi-sided platform Business- Two sided platform Mediated Networks, Management challenges for Networked Business, Difference between platform and merchant models-Digital Business Models, Value co-creation, Data Business, Data Security.

Disruptive innovation-Transformation enabled by business analytics, Machine learning management, Internet of Things-AI& Human Intelligence, Cloud computing, Social media and social content strategies, Digital transformation in selected industry sectors.

Enterprise system-business achieving operational excellence, business achieving customer intimacy, challenges faced by enterprise application, next generation enterprise applications.

Indian government DST Agenda, Major development programs in technology in India, Contribution of technology in leveraging nation development.

Information technology and society- an introduction, Social shaping of Technology, Globalization and domestication, Social implications of online data, IT intervention and changes in lifestyle-Baby boomers, GenX, GenY, GenZ.

CIA II - 25 marks

CIA III - 20 marks

End Semester - 30 marks

Attendance - 05 marks

Technological development has contributed many innovations and ease of life for the human beings. However it has also generated problems .This course is offered to provide the basic knowledge of technology and the uses of technology in different areas of life basically hospitals and banks. The course focuses on identifying the technological benefits and finding solutions to the challenges generated by the technology in daily life. The course will be offered with an intention of enabling the students to visit the different institutions and to identify the technological needs and develops .Finally the course creates awareness about the dangerous of continuous usage of technology.

Course Objectives:

·         To know the history of technological developments in the daily life.

·         To Understand the impact of technology in different areas  of society

·         To identify the technological progress in the health care centre of Bangalore City.

·         To identify the technological progress in the Financial Institutions functioning in   Bangalore.

·         To find the solutions to the tech based problems of day to day life.

·         Practical knowledge of technological developments in the health and banking sector

·         Solution to the problems originated by the tech addiction.

Meaning- Definitions- evolution of technology-growth in the use of technology in daily life. Disruptive technologies transforming life, business and global economy- Disruptive technology trends in recent years. live reports and cases

Overview of Impact of technology on- Business-Society-Education-Agriculture-Banking-Health Care –Positive and negative impacts

Instruments requited in the field of Hospitals-Identify the different technologies used in the different hospitals –Need for new technology and the Plans of the Institutions to acquire-Identifying the affordable health services from the perspective of individuals.

Introduction to the different digital services offered by the banks and financial institution- Identify the different technologies used in the city- most demanded services-scope for introduction of new technical support by the banks and financial institutions

Themes about the future of well-being and digital life-The benefits of digital life

Concerns over harms-Effects on technology on the youths of today-Tech Experts big predications-Solutions to the technology driven daily life problems

Course Description

The primary aim of this course is to introduce students to the concept of institutions and the informal economy in a global context. The discourse examines the informal economy through the lens of institutional economics. The aim is to acquaint students to significant discourses and issues in policy design and intervention.  

Course Objectives

This course will:

• introduce students to the institutions and institutional change through major concepts in institutional economics;

• discuss the informal economy through concepts, theory and measurement;

• examine the linkages of formal and informal economy;

• train students to hone their writing and presentation skills to effectively discuss these complex ideas.

• understand the concepts and some of the theoretical discourses in the study of institutional change and informal economy;

• examine how the formal and informal economies are no longer separate watertight compartments but function together as an interactive system;

• effectively communicate these complex ideas through written and oral presentation.

Institutions, Economic Theory and Economic Performance; Informal Constraints; Formal Constraints; The Path of Institutional Change

Contracts and Property Rights: the Concepts of Exchange and Property, Critique of the Utilitarian Calculus; Transaction Costs, Bargaining Power; Markets as Institutions; Firms and Markets

Bureaucratic Form and the Informal Economy; Formal and Informal Enterprises: Concepts, Definition, and Measurement Issues; Linking the Formal and Informal Economy.

CASE STUDIES: The Impact of Regulation on Growth and Informality: Cross-Country Evidence; Blocking Human Potential: How Formal Policies Block the Economy in the Maputo Corridor; Enforcement and Compliance in Lima’s Street Markets: The Origins and Consequences of Policy Incoherence towards Informal Traders

Alston, L. J., Eggertsson, T., & North, D. C. (Eds.). (1996). Empirical Studies in Institutional Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Guha-Khasnobis, B., Kanbur, R., & Ostrom, E. (Eds.). (2006). Linking the Formal and Informal Economy: Concepts and Policies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Misztal, B. (2002). Informality: Social theory and Contemporary Practice. Routledge.

North, D. (1990). Institutions, Economic Theory and Economic Performance. Institutions, Institutional Change and Economic Performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Arias, O., Fajnzylber, P., Maloney, W., Mason, A., Perry, G., & Saavedra-Chanduvi, J. (2007). Informality: Exit and Exclusion. Washington: The World Bank.

Harris, J. (2006). Power Matters: Essays on Institutions, Politics, and Society in India. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mehta, P. B., & Kapur, D. (2005). Public Institutions in India: Performance and Design. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Nayyar, D. (Ed.). (2002). Governing Globalization: Issues and Institutions. Oxford University Press.

Oviedo, A. M. (2009). Economic Informality: Causes, Costs, and Policies: A Literature Survey of International Experience. Country Economic Memorandum (CEM).

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

This course is aimed at undergraduate students to introduce to them the prominent debates in the economics of corruption. The course discusses how corruption acts as a constraint on economic growth using the theoretical constructs in Political Economy. It allows students to delve into the causes and consequences of corruption. In particular, the course will examine how corruption affects the emerging economies.

This course will:

• consider some of the seminal papers on the economics of corruption
• acquaint students to significant debates about transparency, competition and privatization and its relevance to corruption
• analyse corruption in emerging economies through various case studies
• discuss issues from various perspectives, such as, viewing corruption as erosion of trust and abuse of power
• train students to hone their writing and presentation skills to effectively discuss complex ideas.

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• appreciate that nuances in the way corruption is defined and understood in different economies
• analyse the cause and  consequences of corruption
• examine some of the policies reforms aimed at tackling corruption
• investigate some impacts of corruption on emerging economies
• effectively communicate complex ideas through written and oral presentation.

Causes and Consequences of Corruption: What do we know from a cross-section of countries?, Democratic Institutions and Corruption: Incentives and Constraints in Politics, Bargaining for Bribes: the Role of Institutions

The Privatization of Rent-Generating Industries and Corruption; Corruption in Private Sector, Why the private sector is likely to lead the next stage in the global fight against corruption.

Corruption and Policy Reform; Anti-Corruption Authorities: An Effective Tool to Curb Corruption?  Corruption and Competition: Fair Markets as an Anticorruption Device

Auriol, E., & Straub, S. (2011). Privatization of Rent-generating Industries and Corruption. In S. Rose-Ackerman & T. Søreide, (Eds.). International Handbook on the Economics of Corruption, (Vol. 2). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Pub.

Burger, E. S., & Holland, M. S. (2006). Why the private sector is likely to lead the next stage in the global fight against corruption. Fordham International Law Journal, 30, 45.

Cartier-Bresson, J. (2000). Economics of corruption. Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. The OECD Observer, (220), 25.

Jain, A. K. (2001). Corruption: A Review. Journal of Economic Surveys, 15(1), 71-121.

Jain, A. K. (Ed.). (2012). Economics of Corruption (Vol. 65). Springer Science & Business Media.

Meschi, P. X. (2009). Government Corruption and Foreign Stakes in International Joint Ventures in Emerging Economies. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 26(2), 241-261.

Meyer, K. E., Estrin, S., Bhaumik, S. K., & Peng, M. W. (2009). Institutions, Resources, and Entry Strategies in Emerging Economies. Strategic Management Journal, 30(1), 61-80.

Nowakowski, K. (2010). Corruption in Private Sector.Economics and Law, 6(1), 345-360.

Rose-Ackerman, S. (1975). The Economics of Corruption. Journal of Public Economics, 4(2), 187-203.

Uhlenbruck, K., Rodriguez, P., Doh, J., & Eden, L. (2006). The Impact of Corruption on Entry Strategy: Evidence from Telecommunication Projects in Emerging Economies. Organization Science, 17(3), 402-414.

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

Course Description

Academic Skills and Literacy Practices are a blend of theoretical ability to recognize the nuances of linguistic aspects and hands-on training to exercise the acquired knowledge in reasoning, reading and writing. Academic Skills focus on developing research skills through careful reading and critical writing that are considered foundational and crucial in textual scholarship and knowledge production. The participants of this course will determine their areas of interest in conceptualizing their seminal work and constructing a reasoned argument. The course deals with receptive skills (reading) and productive skills (writing). The course prompts enable the participants to take their learning-receptive skills and productive skills in a purpose-driven and practice oriented mode on a contextual basis. This course facilitates the participants with varied practices, tasks, exemplars, sample papers to practice with context-driven reading material. The participants of this course will exercise their textual scholarship and translate their areas of interest into meaningful writing. This course directs the learners to produce basic academic presentations which should be career-oriented and of social relevance. The whole course and its structure involve Bloom’s taxonomy of knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, evaluation and synthesis, principles of Writing, features of writing, essay organization, academic presentation, and research aptitude


Course Objectives

On completion of the course, students will be able: 


·      To acquire critical and creative thinking 


·      To develop the taste for theory of knowledge


·      To be aware of professional and research driven presentation skills 


·      To apply the mechanics in academic writing skills


·      To use research skills to take a position in writing (writing a paper or presentation)


On successful completion of this module, students should be able to: 


·      Identify the various forms of academic writing.

·      Display a comprehensive understanding of academic skills and ethics.

·      Critically read and write academic english. 

·      Produce non-plagiarized academic content in form of presentations and papers.

·      Apply the learnings from this course in the creation and production various assignments across courses

·      Cohesion, Clarity, Logical Order, Consistency, Unity, Conciseness, Completeness


·      Anchoring the context 


·      Building Thesis 


·      Taking a position 


·      Organizing ideas 


·      Developing Paragraphs 


·      The Basics: What does a good essay need? 


·      Basic steps in writing an essay: Characteristics/ Features, Types, Research, Formal and Informal Essays, Focus on the writing stages


·      Pre-reading, Annotating, Outlining, Summarizing,  Finding oppositions,  Identifying thesis and related arguments, Three Pass Approach

·     What is research?,  Importance of Research, Type: Primary and Secondary Research; Research Methodology; Referencing: Introduction to MLA, Introduction to APA 

·      Abstract

·      Literature Review 

·      Annotated Bibliography 

·      Writing Introductions, chapters and conclusions

·      Academic Integrity and Research Ethics: Plagiarism

·      Starting a Presentation; Stating your purpose; Presentations – signposting; Presentations – Survival Language; A Friendly Face; Microphones; Nerves; Stand Up;   


·      Describing change – verbs;

·      Describing change – adjectives; 

·      Describing change – giving figures; 

·      Commenting on visuals; 

·      Dealing with questions; 

·      Rhetorical questions; Focusing attention; Cause and effect 


Bailey. S. 2015. Academic Writing : A Handbook for International Students. London and New York: Routledge.

Murray, N. 2012. Writing Essays in English Language and Linguistics, Cambridge University Press.

Swales, J.and C. Feak. 2012. Academic Writing for Graduate Students: Essential Skills and Tasks. Michigan University Press

    CIA 1: Writing bases assessment on critical reading exercise

    CIA 2: Seminar/Oral Presentations

    MSE Submission: An extended abstract should be written on the area of interest.

    ESE Submission: A full paper should be developed on the extended abstract.

English Language and Composition course is an intensive program for two semesters for all the students of the BA/BSc programmes  (ENGH, EPH, ECOH, JOUH, PSYH, MEP) that introduces students to a wide range of expository works in order to develop their knowledge of rhetoric and make them aware of the power of language. The course is designed to meet the rigorous requirements of a graduate level courses and therefore includes expository, analytical, personal, and argumentative texts from a variety of authors and historical contexts. It would provide students with the opportunity to work with the rhetorical situation, examining the authors’ purposes as well as the audiences and the subjects in texts.

The purpose of the course is to enable students to read analytically, formulate arguments based on the readings, and respond by composing articulate essays that utilize advanced elements of sentence structure, syntax, style, purpose, and tone. Thus, by the use of rhetorical principles, students will learn how to become critical thinkers, and apply that knowledge to their writing by revising and improving their essays, as well as critiquing and editing peer essays. In addition, students will be required to thoroughly research relevant topics, synthesize information from a variety of sources, and document their knowledge in a cogent well written report. Also, as the course is designed to engage students with rhetoric in multiple mediums, including visual media such as photographs, films, advertisements, comic strips, music videos, and TED talks; students would develop a sense to comprehend how resource of language operates in any given text. While the first semester focusses on understanding principles of rhetoric through multiple texts, the second semester is more thematic in nature familiarizing students with texts from multiple disciplines, especially in the context of India.

As part of the course students are expected to maintain a writing journal to monitor their progress in writing.

Course Objectives

To enable students to:

•       Enable students to become Independent critical thinker, who are aware of the power of language.

•       Enable students to become excellent communicators of the language.

•       Equip students with necessary skills for graduate course and for career.

•       Analyse and interpret samples of good writing by identifying and explaining an author’s use of rhetorical strategies and techniques

•       Analyze both visual and written texts.

•       Apply effective strategies and techniques in their own writing

•       Create and sustain arguments based on reading, research, and/or personal experience;

•       Demonstrate understanding and mastery of English Language as well as stylistic maturity in their own writings

•       Produce expository, analytical, and argumentative compositions that introduce a complex central idea and develop it with appropriate evidence drawn from primary and/or secondary source material, cogent explanations, and clear transitions;

•       Move effectively through the stages of the writing process with careful attention to inquiry and research, drafting, revising, editing, and review;

•       Write thoughtfully about their own process of composition

•       Revise a work to make it suitable for a different audience

•       Communicate effectively in different media by developing their LSRW skills.

The unit will focus on understanding Rhetoric and Various Rhetoric situation. The aim is to assert the idea that rhetoric is always contextual and there is a link between the speaker, audience and what the content of the text is. This will enable students to understand the significance of context while analysing and composing a text.

1.     Introduction to Rhetoric and Rhetoric Situation.

Lou Gehrig’s Farewell Speech https://www.lougehrig.com/farewell/

2.     SOAP Analysis: Through the analysis of the text the aim to look at the mode in which various factors like subject, occasion, audience and purpose impacts rhetoric.

Letter to Einstein and Reply. http://www.lettersofnote.com/2012/05/dear-einstein-do-scientists-pray.html

George W. Bush 9/11 speech http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/gwbush911addresstothenation.htm

Tryst with Destiny by Jawaharlal Nehru

http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/jawaharlalnehrutrystwithdestiny.htm

3.     Ethos, Pathos and Logos: Understanding Aristotle’s concept of Ethos, Pathos and Logos is significant in understanding an effective rhetoric. By looking at some of the famous rhetorical works the aim is to understand how the writer’s/ orators of some of the famous rhetorical pieces have used these elements to persuade the reader/ audience.

Ethos

a)King George VI King’s Speech (Can play part of the movie)https://www.awesomestories.com/asset/view/George-VI-King-s-Speech-September-3-1939

b) The Myth of Latin Women: I Just met a Girl Named Maria https://www.quia.com/files/quia/users/amccann10/Myth_of_a_Latin_Woman

c) Quit India Speech by Gandhi

Logos

a)SlowFood Nation by Alice Watershttps://www.thenation.com/article/slow-food-nation/

b) My Vision For India by Abdul Kalam.

Pathos

a) Richard Nixon, from The Checkers Speech http://watergate.info/1952/09/23/nixon-checkers-speech.html

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Order of the Day

b) https://www.whatsoproudlywehail.org/curriculum/the-american-calendar/order-of-the-day-6-june-1944

c) Bal Gangadhar Tilak http://speakola.com/political/bal-gangadhar-tilak-freedom-is-my-birthright-1917

Combining Ethos, Logos, and Pathos

a)              Toni Morrison, Dear Senator Obama http://observer.com/2008/01/toni-morrisons-letter-to-barack-obama/

b)             Crisis of Civilization by Rabindranath Tagore

Focus of the unit would be to introduce multiple ways of analysis, close reading, and usage of argumentative statements and diction. 

1.     Queen Elizabeth, Speech to the Troops at Tilburyhttp://www.luminarium.org/renlit/tilbury.htm

2.     Winston Churchill, Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat. https://www.winstonchurchill.org/resources/speeches/1940-the-finest-hour/blood-toil-tears-and-sweat-2/

3.     Ralph Ellison, from On Bird, Bird-Watching and Jazz http://www.unz.org/Pub/SaturdayRev-1962jul28-00047

4.     Joan Didion, The Santa Ana Winds https://tywls12ela.wikispaces.com/file/view/Didion+Los+Angeles+Notebook.pdf

5.      Virginia Woolf, The Death of the Moth

6.     Groucho Marx, Dear Warner Brotherhttps://archive.org/details/Groucho_Marx_Letter_to_Warner_Brothers

7.     Christopher Morley, On Lazinesshttp://essays.quotidiana.org/morley/laziness/

The unit will focus on how to read visual text and the impact it has on audience.

1.     ACLU, The Man on the Left(advertisement)

2.     Tom Toles, Rosa Parks (cartoon) http://thenexthurrah.typepad.com/the_next_hurrah/2005/10/rosa_parks.html

3.     http://webneel.com/rk-lakshman-editorial-cartoons-indian-cartoonist (Political Cartoons) India

4.     https://www.tatacliq.com/que/isro-launch-breaks-record-memes/ ISRO Launch (Times)

5.     Analysing Advertisements ( Fair and Lovely,…) , gender stereotypes in ads.

The unit will engage with the questions on why few texts are effective rhetorical pieces as opposed to others.  A few texts will be analysed to look at different rhetorical situations, and how it is effective and ineffective in persuading the audience/ reader.

1.     Jane Austen, from Pride and Prejudice

2.     PETA, Feeding Kids Meat Is Child Abuse (advertisement) 25

3.     Anne Applebaum, If the Japanese Can’t Build a Safe Reactor,Who Can? https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-the-japanese-cant-build-a-safe-reactor-who-can/2011/03/14/ABCJvuV_story.html?utm_term=.8

4.     Stop for Pedestrians (advertisement)

5.     The Times, Man Takes First Steps on the Moon

6.     William Safire, In Event of Moon Disaster http://mentalfloss.com/article/57908/event-moon-disaster-white-house-speech-worst-case-scenario

7.     Herblock, Transported (cartoon)

8.     Ted Talk: Speak Like a Leader https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGBamfWasNQ

By carefully reading the viewpoints of others and considering a range of ideas on an issue, one develops a clearer understanding of our own beliefs — a necessary foundation to writing effective arguments. The unit will focus on analysing elements of argument as a means of critical thinking and an essential step toward crafting argumentative essays. The unit will focus on making an argument and supporting it by synthesising multiple sources. 

1.     Understanding Argument https://csalexander03.wordpress.com/2012/12/04/why-investing-in-fast-food-may-be-a-good-thing-by-amy-domini/

2.     http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/11/opinion/felons-and-the-right-to-vote.html

3.     Using Visual text for Argument

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjjV_X5re4g

4.     Using sources to inform an Argument

5.     Using Sources to Appeal to Audience.

The compilation will be shared with the class. 

CIA - Evaluation Pattern

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

Course Description 

Reading is an essential skill in the development of one’s critical faculties. But it is also important to know how to read, to understand the politics and nuances of ‘texts’. This course aims to help students grasp and negotiate with the complex set of signifying systems we have come to call “texts”. Through this course students will learn to read not just written literatures, but also visuals, cultural signs, films and much more by understanding that anything that you one can engage with and make meaning can function as a text to be read. The course will begin with a module on Understanding English Studies and then carry on from there. 

Course Objectives 

The course hopes to enable the learner: 

·      to gain certain skills, like the ability to read, interpret and evaluate texts 


·      develop an understanding of literal and implicit meaning, relevant contexts and of the deeper themes or attitudes that may be expressed


·      recognize and appreciate the ways in which writers use English to achieve a range of effects


·      present an informed, personal response to materials they have studied


·      explore wider and universal issues, promoting students’ better understanding of themselves and of the world around them


·      Inculcate the habit of library work and consulting books/articles for reference.


Level of Knowledge

Students should possess the ability to engage with the world around them

·      Critically read and analyze a/any literary text.

·      Display their understanding of various genres

·      Construct and reconstruct the understanding of text through classroom debates and discussions.

·      Display a consistent reading habit in the form of multiple classroom engagements.

·      Demonstrate a critical understanding of the politics of language and meaning making

·      Demonstrate the ability to form opinions in and around literature

·      Reflect critically on the world around them

·      Assess and explore the library for their learning

This unit aims to enable students to situate themselves within the domain of English studies and understand their role and their possibilities, enabling them to see where they are and where they are going as an English Honours student.  

·      Tory Young: “The Discipline of English”


·      Tory Young: “The New English Student”


·      Gauri Vishwanathan: “Introduction” from Masks of Conquest


·      Satish Poduval: “To be in Eng. Lit., Now That…The Voyage Out”. 


This unit will enable them to understand the central idea of the “text”. This unit will attempt to enable students to understand what a text is and how important it is to engage with it.

·      Roland Barthes: Key ideas from “From Work to Text” 


·      Roland Barthes: Key ideas from “The Death of the Author”


·      Mario Klarer: “What is Literature, What is a text?” 

This unit will attempt to enable the student to understand the literary text in terms of its aesthetics and politics. It will enable the student to understand the nuances of what one has traditionally understood to be literature and problematize those traditional understandings.

·      Terry Eagleton : “What is Literature?” 


Prescribed Text: Tory Young: Studying English Literature: A Practical Guide

·      Reading and Writing


·      Narrating


This unit will introduce students to some formal aspects of literary and visual texts. It will introduce them to formal aspects of various genres like narrative voices, points of view, figures of speech, film techniques and such aspects. This unit is intended to enable the student to understand some basic concepts of Narratology in order to read a ‘text’ better. 

Prescribed Text: Pramod K Nayar: Studying Literature

·      Fiction


·      Poetry


·      Drama


·      Films


·      Music


All the texts prescribed for study as a compilation. 

Nayar, Pramod K. Studying Literature. Orient Blackswan, 2012.

Young, Tory. Studying English Literature: A Practical Guide. Cambridge UP, 2008.

Lodge, David. The Art of Fiction. Vintage, 2011.

Calvino, Italo. The Literature Machine: Essays. RHUK, 1997.

Eco, Umberto. On Literature. RHUK, 2006.

Esslin, Martin. An Anatomy of Drama. Hill and Wang, 1977.

Foster, Thomas C. How to Read Literature Like a Professor. Harper Perennial, 2014. 

Monaco, James. How to Read a Film. Oxford UP, 2009.

Klarer, Klarer. An Introduction to Literary Studies. Routledge, 2013.

MacCaw, Neil. How to Read Texts. Continuum, 2013. 

Sartre, Jean Paul. What is Literature? Rpt. Routledge, 2010.  

Van Doren, Charles and Mortimer J Adler. How to Read a Book. 1940. Touchstone, 2011.

CIA 1 (20 marks)

Any assignment that would enable students to understand the idea of a ‘text’ and that enables them to engage with it in a politically engaging manner. 

CIA 2 (MSE): Written Exam for 50 marks

CIA 3 (20marks)

Library work submission and a creative assignment that would enable students to produce and interpret a text (20marks)

CIA - Evaluation Pattern

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

Course Description

This paper titled ‘Introduction to British Literature I’ aims at introducing students to the growth and development of English Literature. It aims to equip the students with skills to engage critically and imaginatively with literary texts and their contexts. The constituent elements of the various Units of this paper have been selected on the basis of any one or more of the following ways in which Literature and the Humanities and British Literature in particular has been challenged:

a)    in terms of the text’s medium (for instance, film and visual arts)

b)    minor, lesser-known authors/genres in the period have been considered as texts that will destabilize a traditional notion of British Literature.

The paper is intended less as a survey and more as an introduction to literary moments and debates that have conditioned the development of English Literature across ages.

Course Objectives

The objectives of this paper are

•      to inculcate literary sensibility and a spirit of questioning in the students

•      to improve language skills –speaking, reading, writing and listening

•      to equip the students with tools for developing lateral thinking

•      to equip students with critical reading and thinking habits

Level of Knowledge

The students should have a relatively good command over the English language; they should have basic analytical skills to analyze the nuances of a text. 


At the end of the course, students will be able to: 

·      Identify and describe the various ages in British Literary history.

·      Locate the chief literary features and styles across the ages and present it in from of their writing.

·      Construct a connection between the text and the context and present it in form of multiple classroom engagements. 

·      Critically evaluate and debate the relevance of these texts in the contemporary times.

Note: The following Units are indicative in their content. The texts/authors that form part of the final course plan will be culled from this list on the basis of class dynamics/duration or time allotted to individual modules. The following texts have been chosen to illustrate the nuanced teaching methodology required to introduce first year undergraduate students to British Literature in our contemporary “technologized” age where the “text” itself is no longer confined to print media.

·      Cynewulf: The Dream of the Rood trans. Charles W. Kennedy

·      Layamon: Brut – selections;  Ed. G.L. Brook

·      Geoffrey Chaucer:Excerpts from The Canterbury Tales (General Prologue), The Parson’s Tale

·      Philip Sidney: Selections from Astrophel and Stella: Sonnets 1, 15, 27, 34.

·      Edmund Spenser:  Selections from Amoretti: Sonnets XXXIV and LXVII

·      William Shakespeare: Sonnet 130

·      Philip Sidney: An Apology for Poetry.

·      William Shakespeare: As You Like It

·      Christopher Marlowe: Doctor Faustus

·      John Donne: “The Canonisatio”

·      Andrew Marvell: “Bermudas”

·      John Milton: Paradise Lost, book X

·      John Dryden: Absalom and Achitophel (excerpts)

·      Alexander Pope: An Essay on Man (excerpts)

·      Jonathan Swift: “The Battle of the Books”

·      Addison and Steele: The Tatler (excerpts)

·      Thomas Gray: “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”

·      Aphra Behn: Excerpts from Oroonoko

·      William Blake-‘The Chimney Sweeper’ (from both The Songs of Innocence and The Songs of Experience)

·      William Wordsworth - ‘Lines Composed upon Westminster Bridge’.

·      Samuel Taylor Coleridge - ‘Kubla Khan’

·      Percy Bysshe Shelley - ‘Ode to the West Wind’. 

·      John Keats- ‘La Belle Dame Sans Merci’.

·      Mary Shelley - Frankenstein

Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. 8^th Ed. Wardworth, 2005. 

Maxwell, Richard, and Katie Trumpener. The Cambridge Companion to Fiction in the Romantic Period. CUP, 2008. 

Sampson, George. The Concise Cambridge History of English Literature, 3^rd Ed. CUP, 2005. 

CIA - Evaluation Pattern

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

CIA 2:  A written test for 20 marks. It can be an Open Book test, a classroom assignment, an objective or descriptive test pertaining to the texts and ideas discussed in class.  

CIA 3: This is to be a creative test/ project in small groups by students. They may do Collages, tableaus, skits, talk shows, documentaries, Quizzes, presentations, debates, charts or any other creative test for 20 marks. This test should allow the students to explore their creativity and engage with the real world around them and marks can be allotted to students depending on how much they are able to link the ideas and discussions in the texts to the world around them.

Modernity is generally understood as a specific form of social relations that people enter into in everyday life – but relations which are modified at the most fundamental level by the quality of intersubjectivity. Modern society is characterized by intersubjectivity as an ontological condition, and within which the difference between iso-ontology and poly-ontologies seems to be very vital in appreciating the distance between modern and pre-modern settings.. Modernity is ultimately about relations between people and not about traits in individuals. Keeping that in mind, the course is intended to provide the learner a board overview of the process, phenomena, and events which went into the construction of first, European modernities and a situation where Wars became inevitable. This course will introduce some of the enduring features of modernity which are often overlaid and hidden from view because of contemporaneous diachronic, or the coexistence of different temporal rhythms. The difference between ethical anonymity and morality will also be discussed. In addition, it describes the possible transformation of towards nation-states, and then to knowledge-states.

This course will also familiarize readers with some approaches that examine the intersections of modernity, time and history as concepts, and structures of ordering and explanation. The initial weeks will present contesting discussions within Europe over the origins, understanding and implications of modernity and the terms within which it has been discussed. Among these, discussions on how modernity produces and intersects with notions of time and history have been selected as a focus. These are drawn predominantly from critiques that trace the origins of specific and commonsensical usages of time and history as a consequence of modernity and of enlightenment thought. One point of focus in this course is to examine how modernity is reproduced and reconceptualized through its critique.

The final two units was designed as a mission to separate the modern from the contemporaneous, to revisit the idea of modernity and to de-link it from superficial traits of westernization. Discussing the difference between modernization and ‘westoxication’, the course will take a phenomenological treatment that is abstract and yet illustrative when discussing issues such as affirmative action, citizenship, and development with special focus on post-colonial India. This course argues that given the reality of mistaken modernity and the idealization of the past in many societies of the colonized world, it is necessary to make the case for modernity as uncompromisingly as possible. Because the concerns of the present very clearly, and self-consciously, provide context and perspective to events of the past in comparative history. And this context of the present justifies and provides the format for historical comparisons. Comparative history should inspect multiple visions of truth, and this should include stated evaluative positions of the analyst as well – which is something that learner should be able to internalize.

Discussing the difference between modernization and ‘westoxication’, the course will take a phenomenological treatment that is abstract and yet illustrative when discussing issues such as affirmative action, citizenship, and development with special focus on post-colonial India. This course argues that given the reality of mistaken modernity and the idealization of the past in many societies of the colonized world, it is necessary to make the case for modernity as uncompromisingly as possible. Because the concerns of the present very clearly, and self-consciously, provide context and perspective to events of the past in comparative history. And this context of the present justifies and provides the format for historical comparisons. Comparative history should inspect multiple visions of truth, and this should include stated evaluative positions of the analyst as well – which is something that learner should be able to internalize.

Course Objectives:

• The student is expected to get a basic know how of the forces and events which moulded

the transition to modernity in the West – and the process of the inevitable Wars.

• This course is meant to both enhance the student’s general intellectual growth as well as

foster a particular ability to think historically.

• An investigation of the global past allows students to understand the foundations of the

contemporary world as well as the ways modern historians view the past.

• While the course will have a theoretical thrust, it will also be grounded in empirical

history so that the learner will acquire a general understanding of the pre-world war I

period in western history, and then to understand why the Great Wars took place.

• The objective of the course is to enable students to understand modernity as a sociocultural

product in specific socio-historical contexts.

• The course exposes students to theoretical perspectives to look at modernity and its

constituents as a practice deeply embedded in culture and society.

• It will also familiarise students with encountering problems in their everyday life from

more rationalist perspectives.

• And finally, it will attempt to critically engage with and interrogate the multiple views on

modernity – as well as the experience of it from colonial and post-colonial perspectives as

well.

• Examine political, economic, and social changes of the last five centuries that have affected peoples across the world.
• Analyze the emphasis placed on the emergence of modern notions of production, consumption, and trade from a global perspective.
• Critically engage with prominent themes like growth and dynamics of colonization and decolonization, and the interplay of political, cultural, religious values, and modern imperialism and its influence on global societies, economies, and political systems. 
• Trace the evolution of contemporary problems that the world faces and also enable the leaner to develop critical thinking and analytical skills. 
• Acquire frameworks to analyse complex phenomena such as nationalism, resistance movement and revolution.

a) Significance of the European Insignificance: Idea of the Individual – Renaissance and the Enlightenment.

b) Asia Imperium: Gunpowder Empires – Ottoman, Safavid, Mughals; Japan, China and Korea.

c) Eastward Ho! : Industrial Revolution; Capitalism – Imperialism – Colonialism; The Original Manifesto.

a) Glorious Revolution – Reordering of English society.

b) American War of Independence – 1775-1783 – Early Capitalism.

c) The French Revolution – Libert?, Egalit?, and Fraternit? – Reign of Terror – The Code Napoleon.

d) Italian and German Unification.

e) Russian Revolution – Tsarist Russia – Intellectual currents (Menshevik and Bolshevik) – Aftermath.

a) Why We Lost Generations: Competition for resources – Intense Rivalries – Web of Alliances – Militarism.

b) The World at War: The Road from Sarajevo to Versailles.

c) The Twenty-Year Crisis: Great Depression; The Rise of Fascism and Militarism in

Europe – Appeasement – Japan and the Axis Powers.

d) The Great Cataclysm: Nuremberg to Nuremberg Trials – The Complete Cycle.

a) White Man’s Burden: Clashing Visions and Consequences of Modernity; The Idea of French and British Colonial ‘Modern’ Identity.

b) Learning to Forget: Accommodation of Differences and the Islamic States; African Experiences; Visions of Modernity in China and Japan.

c) The Indian Conundrum: Is Modernity a Colonial Gift?

Evaluation Pattern

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

Course Description:  

This course will introduce students to the major theoretical and applied debates as well as major moral puzzles and challenges in the field of global ethics. Ethics is gaining ground as an important humanities intervention in a fast-changing world. A course one thics is often an added advantage for students as it helps them shape a socially awre perspective of the social reality. Drawing on interdisciplinary perspectives and thematic issues in the fields of international politics, business, communications and law, the course will challenge students to reflect on major ethical theories and traditions as well as core problems such as corporate governance, global distributive justice, the ethics of making and sustaining peace, media ethics and legal dimensions of ethics. By combining the works of both classic and contemporary philosophers with contemporary applied global issues, students will be able to critically reflect on fundamental normative questions from an interdisciplinary perspective and reflect on the rights, responsibilities and challenges of ‘good global citizenship’.  

Learning Objectives: On completing the course, students will be able to:  

● Open-mindedly consider different viewpoints in moral controversies. ● Identify the strengths and weaknesses of different philosophical and popular arguments on the various topics. ● Demonstrate understanding of the major moral philosophical approaches and techniques in moral reasoning. ● Formulate and critically assess personal positions/convictions.  

• Analyse various ethical dilemmas present in the society and efficiently present it in form of classroom debates and discussions.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of various school of thoughts in the domain of ethics through their assignments.
• Appraise their views on various aspects of ethics and present it with clarity through multiple engagements in the classroom.

Global Ethics: Conceptual Definitions, Historical Origins & Present Challenges Introduction to the course Ethics, Morals and Values Cultural Relativism vs Universalism (case study) 

Rationalist Ethical Theories Contractualist ethics Deontological Ethics Utilitarian Ethics Discourse ethics, Alternatives to Ethical Rationalism Virtue Ethics Feminist & Care Ethics Postmodernist Ethics 

Ethics of International Aid and Development: Humanitarian Aid in Conflict Zones Global Distributive Justice and Global Poverty: Models for International Economic Justice Ethics of War: Torture in Abu Ghraib (Case Study)  

Rohingya Issues: Are humanitarian interventions justified? The case study of Myanmar/Burma Global Environmental and Climate Ethics: Trade Agreements and Global Environmental Ethics Global Business Ethics and Arms Trade: The Ethics of Capitalism (Film Inside Job) 

Natural Resources Extraction from the Kimberley process towards universal legislation (Movie: Blood Diamond),  Global Journalism Ethics, Digital Media Ethics and Whistleblowing Practices: Snowden and Whistleblowing Ethical Implications of Emerging Technologies: Genetics, stem cell and embryo research: Embryo research and women’s rights 

Graham, G. (2008) Ethics and International Relations, 2nd Edition. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

LaFollette, H. (ed.) (2003) The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Practice, Oxford: OUP 

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

This common core course aims to provide a basic introduction to understanding the discourses of science and technology as represented in select science fiction. The course will help students understand some of the basic questions about the human condition that are raised, debated, and negotiated in and through representative fiction. Keeping the contemporaneity of issues today, the course will also emphasize how there is a crucial intersection of various ideas that cut across several disciplines with regard to technology and life, thereby making it crucially relevant to engage with it in the contemporary context. Anyone interested in questions of science, fiction, and human condition may choose this course.

Objectives:

• To introduce students to the field of science fiction
• To help students identify and raise questions through these works of fiction some relevant questions in the contemporary context
• To direct students towards realising the intersection of various issues raised across different disciplines.

• Read and appreciate the literary aspects of science fiction.
• Reflect on the implication of science fiction in contemporary times and show in in their writings.
• Debate about various issues related to the portrayal of humanity in science fictions.
• Provide an inter-disciplinary perspective towards analysing science fiction.

This unit will provide students a basic overview of science fiction through some critical and conceptual lens. The New Critical Idiom Series, Science Fiction, would be used here to introduce aspects of SF to students. Locating the interdisciplinarity of the domain would be central in this module. Reference material would be handed out by the course instructor.

This unit will raise crucial debates in and around questions of ‘science’ and ‘reason’. The unit will also help students recognize the importance of raising these questions from various disciplinary points of view, an important one being philosophy.

·         Isaac Asimov short story “Reason”

·         Select Episodes of the series Stranger Things

·         The Matrix

This unit will engage with how technology becomes a crucial part of negotiating SF. What are the fundamental concerns that Sf raises regarding technology and the human condition? How does technology come to be framed within SF? How is gender and sexuality framed within discourses of SF? How does SF address the anxieties of technology and future would be some of the questions engaged with here. Any one of the following novels may be taken up for discussion along with the viewing suggestion given below.

·         Aldous Huxley Brave New World

·         William Gibson, Neuromancer

·         Margaret Atwood, Oryx and Crake

·         “Hated in the Nation” from Black Mirror Season 3

This unit will engage with the science fiction in the Indian context. One of the main points of discussion would be to understand how Indian SF writers have engaged with tropes of SF that we are familiar with and what kind of an ‘India’ is imagined thereof which has implications socially, politically and culturally.

·         Vandana Singh “Delhi”

Sumit Basu Turbulence

Bell, David and Barbara M. Kennedy. Eds. The Cybercultures Reader. Routledge, 2000. (Excerpts)

Carey, Peter. What is Post-humanism? Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press, 2010.

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

Course Description:

The influence and presence of the past is felt everywhere and every day in our lives. Movies, newspapers or the internet bombard us and expose us to the past – both familiar and unfamiliar. However, the barrage of information and the forces of globalisation have led to increasing questions on the relevance and the value of the past – indeed a denial even. This course will engage the students with the myriad ways in which the past, though no longer present – is a presence in our lives today. It will introduce the students to think historically, relate to their memories of their own past and make them aware of the multiple perspectives which will enable them to read, write and reflect on the past; or in other words, make history. 

This course will introduce students to the methodological and theoretical questions that animate and inform the practice of history. How do professional historians work? What is their goal? How do they locate and analyze source materials? What kinds of arguments do historians try to make? How, ultimately, is history produced? This course will ask how (or whether) historians’ particular sources – and their location in the archives – can give voice to the ordinary and of things ‘past’. Moreover, the course will address how the advent of the information age impact upon the historians’ profession by exploring how modern technology – whether film, photography, or the internet – changed the way historians work and address their audience.

Course Objectives:

• To familiarize the students with foundational concepts in history and historical enquiry such as fact, fiction, truth, narrative, memory, conservationism and counterfactuals.
• To identify and make students aware of the importance of historical awareness to arrive at independent and informed opinion and contribute meaningfully in local and global affairs and debates.
• To equip students with an understanding of ‘history’ and the characteristics of ‘the past’ in present day society.
• To help develop proficiency in research, analysis and writing; and to encourage wide, independent, selective reading on historical subject matter to foster a sustained, reasoned, well focused argument, based on a broad selection of evidence.
• To identify arguments in historical works in order to be able to critique evidence used in support of the arguments.
• To interpret varied sources and place them within their proper historical context to integrate secondary sources into their own original narratives and distinguish between different kinds of history.

• Students will discover how and why historians debate issues of evidence and interpretation and learn to distinguish between various schools or styles of academic history.
• Students will learn to critically engage with representations of the past in the present to enable them to analyze and use evidence in interrogating historical accounts.
• Students will be able to critically reflect and engage with the interface between the past and the present, fostering a healthy appreciation for history and its imprint on our present world.
• Students will understand how historical narratives are shaped by states, organizations, and individuals. 
• Students will better analyze the interaction between history and politics when following the news and in examining historical cases.
• Students will appreciate how issues of identity and memory factor into our historical understandings and how this can condition present day policies and decision-making.

a)     Doing History - The Place of the Past.

b)    Facts, Fiction and Lies: Interrogating evidence - paintings, films, novels.

a) Voice and the Subject: Narratives and Counter-narratives – Winston Churchill, Velupillai Prabhakaran, Pirates of the Caribbean, Tom and Jerry

b) Locating the Popular: Historical Fiction or Fictionalised History– Exploring the Fantasy Worlds of Ice Age, Hogwarts, Narnia, Westeros and Middle-earth.

c) The Past Today: The Ayodhya Debate and the Ram Janmbhoomi issue, Dwarka, Kapilavastu.

d) Historical Monuments and their Authorship/Ownership: The Temple Mount and Taj Mahal.

a)     History and the Visual: Photography, Film and the Image – Gladiator, Schindler’s List, 300, Gone with the Wind, Jodha Akbar and Mohenjo Daro

b)    Historical Re-enactments? Light and Sound Shows at Golconda, Red Fort and Khajuraho.

c)     Alternate Histories: Oral Histories, Sports Histories, Graphic Novels, Caricatures and Political Cartoons.

a)     Memory and History: Power and the Production of History –Museums and Memorials.

b)    ‘Truth’ and ‘myth’: History as Conspiracy – Insider and Outsider Perspectives – the Aryan Debate, Hindutva Ideology and Neo-Nazis.

c)     Private Lives and Public Affairs: The British Monarchy, the Nehru-Edwina Affair. 

d)    Suppressing the Text: State Secrets and Declassification – Wikileaks and the Netaji Files.

Mid Semester Examination

End Semester Examination

Course Description:

Media literacy is designed to help students develop an informed and critical understanding of the nature of an ever expanding and increasingly dominating mass media –as information sources, as entertainment, and as an industry–as well as to examine, interpret, and evaluate the messages contained within, and their social, cultural and political implications. This course exposes the student to the base complexities of media literacy, develop critical thinking skills, the provides the methods of analysis necessary to interpret media content as well as methods of critical writing appropriate to media analysis.

Course Objectives:

• Understand how media messages create meaning
• Identify who created a particular media message
• Recognize what the media maker wants us to believe or do
• Name the "tools of persuasion" used
• Recognize bias, spin, misinformation and lies
• Discover the part of the story that's not being told
• Evaluate media messages based on our own experiences, beliefs and values
• Create and distribute our own media messages
• Become advocates for change in our media system Learning Outcome.
• Will be able to apply the principles of ethics to the subject of study (area of research), while appreciating the context in which the medium functions.

• To lay the foundation of Public Relations practice
• To train the students in media relations
• To introduce the concept of Corporate Communication
• To familiarize the students with concepts like propaganda, public opinion, advertising, and public relations.

• Understanding what is media literacy?

• The Power of Media Literacy 

• Conditions for Media Learning

• Media Literacy Skills

• Key Concepts of Media Literacy

• The Media Triangle

• Surveys, Media logs and historical perspectives

• Understand, analyze and evaluate- finding hidden messages

• Digital Citizenship

• Deconstructing Ads

• Detecting Bias in News

• Critical Reading of Websites

• Hiassen C. (1998). Team Rodent: How Disney Devours the World. Ballantine Books. 96 pp

• Kilbourne, J. (1999). Can’t Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel. Simon and Schuster: New York. 366 pp.

• McLuhan, M. (1998) Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. Seventh Printing. MIT Press: MA 365 pp. (orig. pub. In 1911).