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Faculty: Bringing the World to our Classrooms
BRINGING THE WORLD INTO OUR CLASSROOMS
WHEN STUDENTS TAKE a Geographical Perspectives course, they expect to learn about interesting people across the world, but in the Judy Genshaft Honors College, those interesting people are the ones teaching the classes. With large global networks and a multicultural Tampa Bay population, Honors faculty often bring in diverse experts with a wide array of knowledge about topics such as global finance, human rights, health access, and music, to name a few. In addition to their areas of research, many faculty members have personal cultural experiences upon which they draw, adding their own unique perspectives in the seminarstyle, discussion-based Honors classes. Here are some examples of our global perspectives courses and the faculty who design and deliver them.
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ARMAN MAHMOUDIAN Course Title: A New Global Struggle: The Return of Cold War
I was born in Iran and spent most of my life and early youth there. After graduating from law school, I moved to Russia to earn a master’s degree in International Relations. Then, after a few years of living in Moscow, I came to the U.S. to begin my Ph.D. studies in Politics and International Affairs at USF. Since most of my work is focused on Russia, the Middle East, and International Security, my experience of living in Iran and Russia and my ethnic-religious background has helped me to establish an understanding of both Middle Eastern and Russian thinking styles and their perspective on the world, especially regarding how they see themselves.
I help my students understand the role of history in decision-making by explaining that national pride of past achievements and resentment towards failure is the source behavior. whenever on Russia, how they former U.S.
of today’s For instance, I teach a course I ask students would feel if a President starred in a fast-food commercial. Then I play the Pizza Hut ad that Mikhail Gorbachev, the former President of the Soviet Union, starred in. From there, we discuss Russia’s history and the fact that for centuries Russia was a major global power. This sets up the class to discover the chain of events leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union, instability and civil unrest, and the rapid financial crisis creating a vacuum in Russia’s proud history.
DR. LYDIA ASANA Course Title: (Global)2 Perspectives of Health: Exploring Components of Holistic Health in the Global North and South
I have lived, studied, and worked on three continents and I am multi-lingual, giving me a unique perspective and a heightened awareness that diverse perspectives abound. My Cameroonian heritage is a valued part of my life even though the majority of my life has been spent in the U.S. Like many diasporans, my day-to-day life is a mosaic of my two homes: Cameroonian and U.S. communications, traditions, and values, with some German influences sprinkled in. My current course provides a platform for students to gain not only valuable global health knowledge and academic skills, but also to explore diverse perspectives and grow in their awareness of multiple lenses through which global health topics can be viewed, understood, and addressed.
Through the contributions of guest speakers from diverse geographical and professional experiences, students are repeatedly reminded of the value and relevance of globally
and professionally diverse perspectives in the study, research, and applications of holistic health both locally and internationally as well as the understanding that everyone with an awareness of the fundamentals of global health can contribute to its overarching goal of reducing inequities in access to health. This has been illustrated through a former rotary ambassador to South America turned corporate marketing executive working globally, now leading a local nonprofit organization advocating for inclusion of people with Down Syndrome, or an environmental policy professional born on the African Continent who has advised European and Asian governments, illustrating the significance of environmental factors on local and global health, or a physicist turned global health leader pointing out local opportunities to impact global health.
DR. NAZEK JAWAD Course Title: Contemporary Middle East
As an Arab woman born and raised in Syria, I bring a unique international and interdisciplinary focus to my teaching, which stresses the historical ties and social interaction between the region of the Middle East and the West. During class discussions I highlight the value of cultural awareness and incorporate a global perspective that I have gained by living on different continents and earning my degrees in different countries, including Malaysia, Lebanon, and the U.S.
My class includes a virtual global exchange experience, where students develop a problem-based project with international students from Universidad del Norte in Colombia. In addition to the cultural exposure, this virtual collaboration provides a great opportunity for students to enhance their academic and professional skills and cultivate their global competencies. I think the ultimate lesson students gain from my class is learning about the commonality of the human experience across different cultures and appreciating the diversity of these experiences.
DR. OLUBUKOLA (BUKKY) OLAYIWOLA Course Title: Global Perspectives of Financialization
I teach from the cumulative experiences of being raised in the Global South (Nigeria), with both the containing and constraining effects of global capitalism and neoliberalism as an integral part of everyday life. For instance, I was relatively a young boy when the Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) was introduced by the Nigerian military government in the early 1990s. Though I did not understand what it was all about then, I heard some of the arguments, which center on the imminent failure of the policy in Nigeria due to the uniqueness of the cultural environment. My course takes conversations beyond perceived assumptions that global financial-economic activities rest in the hands of “smart” experts on Wall Street. The course explores various, often taken-for-granted financial activities in everyday lives of women and men whose survival strategies tie to the informal economy.
The course final project allows each student to conduct an independent mini-study in a marketplace (either periodic market or daily market) in the course of a semester. This project allows students to observe and conduct interviews among traders, asking questions related to how they mobilize funds for/support their small business. Students ask their interviewees to share stories of how they started their businesses and how they ensure they have enough stock to sustain them.
