This course is designed to provide a comprehensive idea of the Indo-European parent speech, Indo-Iranian, Old Indo-Aryan, Middle Indo-Aryan, Old Bangla, Modern Bangla languages and the evolution of Bangla scripts.
* This course will be taught in Bangla
Course Catalogue
Course Code: GED 438
Course Name:
Origin and Development of Bangla Language*
Credit Hours:
3.00
Detailed Syllabus:
Course Code: GED 439
Course Name:
Science, Perceptions and Reality
Credit Hours:
3.00
Detailed Syllabus:
It is improbable that scientific discoveries could make us give up commonsensical beliefs. It is even less plausible that commonsense could make us reject established scientific theories. So when science and commonsense appear to clash, as they do over colors, solidity, mental content, values, and death, serious philosophical problems arise. The course will investigate possible responses to these problems.
Course Code: GED 443
Course Name:
Gender and Society
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 Name:
Women Studies
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 451
Course Name:
Qazi Nazrul Islam: Life and Works*
Credit Hours:
3.00
Detailed Syllabus:
This course will provide the students a clear notion of Qazi Nazrul Islam’s life and his creative works (poems, novels, short stories, plays, essays, letters etc).
* This course will be taught in Bangla
Course Code: GED 452
Course Name:
Rabindranath Tagore: Life and Works*
Credit Hours:
3.00
Detailed Syllabus:
This course is designed to offer the students a lucid impression about Rabindranath Tagore’s life and his literary works (poems, novels, short stories, plays, essays, letters etc).
• This course will be taught in Bangla
Course Code: GED 453
Course Name:
Living with Conflict
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 461
Course Name:
Religion
Credit Hours:
3.00
Detailed Syllabus:
What is knowledge? What is the extent and basis of one’s knowledge about physical objects, other people, oneself, the future, morality, and religion? This course will discuss a representative group of philosophical issues and problems that arise in connection with religious worldviews. Specific topics may include but are not limited to the following: concepts of a god, the existence and attributes of God, the problem of evil, miracles, religion and morality, faith and science, and the possibility of religious knowledge. Selected examples of religious belief and practice from around the world will also be included under this course. This investigates the culturally specific ways humans orient themselves in space and time, by means of language, the body, kinship, etc., and by the meanings provided by the symbols and frameworks of religion, public myth and ritual.
Course Code: GED 462
Course Name:
Social Theory and Methods of Social Research
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 Name:
Who Owns the Past?
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.