Course Catalog System (Course Inventory Management and Review System, CIMRS)

ECON 110: Introduction to Microeconomics

Dr. Khondker Aktaruzzaman(A)/Dr. Omar Osman(B) — 2024-12-13

This course is an introduction to Microeconomics from a very broad perspective. Microeconomics is the science of how people use resources. A large part is about decision making: Which is the best route for going to school, and should I walk or take the bus? Can I get a dog as a pet, should I buy vegetables in the market in the morning or in the afternoon, and why are the prices different in different cities? This course is a foundation course which is needed in order to follow higher level courses in the Economics module.

Prerequisites: None.

PHIL 200: Introduction to Ethics

Dr. Satya Sethy — 2024-12-13

In this course we will confront some of the major ethical issues that arise in our society—the treatment of animals (vegetarianism, experimentation), the beginning of life (abortion, in vitro, PGD testing), the ethics of war (when to go, how to wage), the ethics of politics (what ought our representatives do), the end of life (right to die, suicide, euthanasia), fear of death, the ethics of food, and the environment.

In Ethics, we seek not simply opinions or personal positions on these contentious problems, but hope to make a broader claim about right and wrong. These issues are ethical issues insofar as when we take a position on them we make a claim about what is the right or wrong thing to do. And we are not simply making the statement that this is right or wrong for me, but also for anyone else who is as properly thoughtful and informed as I am. That is, I think I have good reasons for saying such-and-such is right or wrong, and you ought to also be convinced by my reasons.

In order to have such convincing reasons, we will need to say what it means for something to be right or wrong in general. This is where ethical theories come in. An ethical theory makes a claim about what makes something right or wrong in general. If we know that, then we ought to be able to look at each of these specific problems and any cases in which they arise, and evaluate them to see how they ought to be resolved. That will be our goal in this course–to introduce and engage students in the theories of ethics and their application to practical ethical problems so that they develop the knowledge of each ethical theory and the ability to apply them to particular issues.

Prerequisites: None

ECON 301: Economics of Globalization

Dr. Omar Osman — 2024-12-13

This course will examine economic globalization—international trade, finance, and labor migration—from a variety of perspectives. We will highlight the evolution of globalization, with a focus on the roles played by technological change and government and multilateral policies. We will analyze who have been the winners and losers from globalization. Finally we will imagine how globalization is likely to evolve going forward, and what can be done to help ensure it is a force for global good.

Prerequisites: ECON 111: Introduction to Macroeconomics

SSST 410: Middle East: Politics, Protest, and Culture

Dr. Lina Kassem — 2024-12-13

This course examines the intersection of politics, culture, and protest movements in the modern Middle East. By analyzing diverse forms of cultural expression, including literature, music, film, art, and social media, students will explore how these mediums both reflect and influence political resistance, nationalism, identity, and social change. The course covers key themes such as the legacy of Western colonialism, the rise of nationalism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Arab Spring, Political Islam, and the ongoing struggles over state power, citizenship, identity, and justice in Palestine, the Arab world, and beyond.

[Although the example here focuses on the Middle East, other examples could include the US War in Vietnam (and neighboring countries), Russia-Ukraine]

Prerequisites: POL 100: Introduction to Political Science

PHIL 201: Introduction to Political Philosophy

Dr. Casey Doyle — 2024-12-13

This course introduces students to the questions, theories, and classic texts of political philosophy, engaging issues of ethics, citizenship, democracy, representation, shared resources and other features of theoretical approaches to politics. This course will introduce and critically engage students in the fundamental questions of how we are to live in the world with others.

Prerequisites: None

ECON 300: Developmental Economics

Dr. Khondker Aktaruzzaman — 2024-12-13

This course introduces students to key issues in development economics at both the micro and macro levels. We will examine the leading economic theories of economic development and consider historical and other empirical evidence. We will seek to generate insight into questions such as: Why do some countries grow faster than others? What sorts of policies have had success in reducing poverty in developing countries? What are the appropriate roles for the state, markets, and civil society? How does a country’s history affect its development? In the last part of the class, students will make use of course concepts and findings to make presentations on country case studies.

Prerequisites: ECON 110: Introduction to Microeconomics

PHIL 100: The Art of Argument

Dr. Will Buckingham(A)/Dr. James Batcho(B) — 2024-12-13

This course introduces students to questions about the art (or arts) or argument, and gives them the tools they need to better evaluate, think about and make arguments. The course sees argument as a social practice that exists cross-culturally, and draws upon a wide array of sources to explore the complexities of the human search for agreement and truth.

Prerequisites: None.

ECON 111: Introduction to Macroeconomics

Dr. Elena Nikolova (A&B) — 2024-12-13

This course is an introduction to Macroeconomics from a very broad perspective. Macroeconomics analyzes topics such as economic growth, inflation and unemployment. How can the central bank influence the economy in times of crises? What should the government do in order to counteract environmental issues? Why do countries trade with each other? Though ultimately based on the actions of individuals and firms (which we will analyze in Microeconomics), Macroeconomics is concerned with developments on the aggregate level: countries as a whole, government spending, taxation and Central Bank policies. This course is a foundation course which is needed in order to follow higher level courses in the Economics module.

Prerequisites: None.

POL 301: Power and Resistance

Dr. David Golding — 2024-12-13

How does power operate in contemporary society? How do subjects navigate power – are they able to resist, and if so, how is resistance able to manifest? The course will explore these respective domains and how they articulate together.

Prerequisites: POL 100: Introduction to Political Science

PHIL 251: Comparative Philosophy

Dr. Casey Doyle — 2024-12-13

This course will take a global perspective on the practice of philosophy. It will introduce students to a variety of philosophical traditions, and explore their continued resonance in the present day.

Prerequisites:

PHIL 100: The Art of Argument

PHIL 300: Philosophy and Gender

Dr. Anna Ezekiel — 2024-12-13

What is gender? What are sex and sexuality? What role does the gendered body play in the practice of philosophy? This course will take a cross-cultural approach to the philosophy of gender, while also taking a critical approach to the gendered nature of the world’s philosophical traditions.

In this course, students will explore how philosophy has always been gendered, from the very beginning. And they will explore traditions of critique towards the gender assumptions built into philosophy from ancient times to the present day.

Prerequisites: PHIL 201: Introduction to Political Philosophy

POL 230: Comparative Politics of Southeast Asia

Dr. Dan Wessner — 2024-12-13

This course examines Comparative Politics through the lens of the ten Southeast Asian member states of ASEAN. The subfield of Comparative Politics in the discipline of Political Science hones comparative and contrastive skills to discern the purpose and attributes of various political entities: principally states, societies, and subnational groups, but also militaries, media, and leaders. Drawing on the ASEAN context, this course will examine democratic, non-democratic, socialist, and communist regimes. It will study the political violence, political economy, and political cultures that have arisen in the historical context of Southeast Asian colonialism, capitalism, imperialism, militarism, and independence movements. Students will select one group of regional states to research, present, and write about in terms of ASEAN principles, precarity, and prospects in this age.

Prerequisites: None

POL 100: Introduction to Political Science

Dr.Dale Mineshima-Lowe(A&B)/Dr.Muska Dastageer(C) — 2024-12-13

The course is a broad introduction to the discipline of political science. Students will be introduced to subfields within the discipline: political theory, comparative politics, and international relations. Then, the bulk of the course examines major themes in comparative politics, including the formation of nation-states, political regimes, and political violence. We will also examine themes that cut across the subfields, including globalization, populism, and human rights.

Prerequisites: None

SSST 100: Craft of Social Inquiry

Dr. Dale Mineshima-Lowe (A)/ Dr. Dan Wessner (B) — 2024-12-13

This course is an introductory course for social studies. We will cover what social inquiry is and why it is important.
During this course we will look at different methods of knowing and making sense of the world. We will focus on typical questions that are asked in social science and specific approaches to answer these questions. You will learn the importance of interdisciplinary approaches to answering questions in the field of social science, for instance through a in-depth study on climate change. Selected readings from different social science disciplines will be used as an interdisciplinary approach to addressing questions in this field.

Prerequisites: None.

PHIL 410: Ethics of Technology

Dr. Casey Doyle — 2024-12-13

Recent times have seen a dramatic increase in the influence of computing technology, artificial intelligence, algorithms and other technology in our daily lives. This course considers ethical questions raised by this technology and their implications for policy. Topics to be considered include surveillance, the right to privacy, human enhancement, artificial intelligence, fake news, robots, and censorship.

Prerequisites:

PHIL 201: Introduction to Political Philosophy

PHIL 200: Introduction to Ethics

MDST 150: Visual Media and Our Mental Health

Dr. Andrey Tolstoy — 2024-12-13

This interdisciplinary course explores how images shape our perception, identity, social relationships, and mental health in a media-saturated world. Students examine the evolution of visual art from photography to digital platforms, developing tools for creating and analyzing works of visual art - and for taking care of themselves while they do it.

Throughout the semester, students engage in hands-on workshops, host guest speakers, develop theoretical and practical skills, and learn about developments in mental health research. The course emphasizes peer dialogue, self-reflection, and care for personal and communal well-being. Assignments combine creative production, analytical writing, and a close connection to the students’ lived experience. Final projects are student-designed within instructor guidelines, encouraging personal exploration of course themes.

Prerequisites: None.

ARTS 101: Design and Society

Zaw Lin Myat — 2025-01-22

This course is to provide students with a basic but critical understanding of major changes and developments throughout history from a design perspective, primarily architectural perspective. Discussion topics will include changes within architecture itself or other times by external forces. The readings and lectures investigate the interrelationship of architecture, design and broader cultural, social and political context. The course explores some of the significant moments of change in architecture that results from economic, technological, or institutional change in nature. Through a collection of historical precedents, we will learn about how change of course in history is often required and/or imposed by the demands of societal and technological pressures that challenge and disrupt the status-quo. Multiple viewpoints are explored and entertained in class to grasp the diverse nature of design and its impact on society.

Prerequisites: None

INST 106: Social Sciences Research Skills

Zahnur Rofiah — 2024-12-13

This fifteen-week workshop introduces students to the academic standards that are expected of them when studying at Parami. The goal is to equip students with the basic analytic and research skills needed for them to succeed in their studies. This goal is reached via a series of skill-focused seminars that involve reading target texts and viewing dedicated short videos.

The instructor will teach the course in synchronous learning sessions, at the same time, the students will be each assigned an academic advisor to guide them through their research proposal planning and writing.

Prerequisites: None

INST 105: Science in Daily Life

Dr. Win Maw Hlaing Oo — 2024-12-13

The Citizen Science program is offered to all first-year students, and is a science literacy foundation program that introduces students to use various approaches to scientifically analyze a chosen theme. While a focused theme may be different from year to year, the theme has the characteristics of general importance and relevance to society. The theme for the year 2024-2025 is “Digital Earth.”

Prerequisites: None

INST 101: Energy for Sustainable Development (Updated Class Day)

Dr. Win Maw Hlaing Oo — 2024-12-13

Quality of life depends on energy and it is at the heart of sustainable development goals. This course provides fundamental science to understand the natural and human influences on climate and atmospheric composition. Topics will cover concepts of energy, atmospheric radiation, fossil fuels, greenhouse gases and climate change.

Prerequisites: None

PHYS 103: Science of the Universe

Dr. Win Maw Hlaing Oo — 2024-12-13

This course is a general introduction to astronomy and cosmology for non-science majors. Topics will cover the latest discoveries about stars, galaxies and the universe as a habitat for life. The science of the universe relies on the tools of physics and astronomy, quantitative reasoning is an integral part of this course. However, previous knowledge of physics and astronomy is not required.

Prerequisites: None

CS 411: Text Mining

Dr. Nwe Nwe Htay Win — 2024-12-13

This course gives an overview over different text mining algorithms and related disciplines such as web scraping. Requirements for this class are completion of basic Mathematics and Statistics modules, as well as the Introduction to Python and Introduction to Machine Learning. Throughout the class, we will cover the specifics of text data and learn how to pre-process it to make it usable in algorithms. We will cover two different techniques for gathering text data, namely web scraping and working with APIs. And we will see some algorithms for Natural Language Processing.

Prerequisites:

CS 210: Programming with Python

CS 300: Introduction to Machine Learning

DATA 201: Data Communication and Ethics

Dr. Nwe Nwe Htay Win — 2024-12-13

The course is structured in two parts: Data Communication and Data Ethics. Data Communication is the last and the most visible step in the data pipeline. It is important to apply ethical thinking there but also holistically in the whole pipeline.

Prerequisites: CS 210 Programing with Python

CS 451: Advanced Machine Learning (Updated Class Days)

Dr. Nwe Nwe Htay Win — 2024-12-13

This course covers a number of more advanced Machine Learning algorithms and their applications. Requirements for this class are completion of basic Mathematics and Statistics modules, as well as the Introduction to Python and the Introduction to Machine Learning. Throughout the class, we will cover a range of supervised, unsupervised and reinforcement learning algorithms as well as directly apply them to relevant data. We will also cover hyperparameter tuning as well as model evaluation.

Prerequisites:

CS 210: Programming with Python

CS 300: Introduction to Machine Learning

MATH 210: Linear Algebra (Updated Class Schedule)

Dr. Mohamed Megheib — 2024-12-13

This course is an introduction to the techniques of linear algebra. Topics covered include, systems of linear equations, Gaussian elimination, vectors in Rn, matrices, inverses, determinants, eigenvalues and vector geometry.

Prerequisites: MATH 110: Calculus I

STAT 303: Time Series Analysis

Dr. Mohamed Megheib — 2024-12-13

The course will introduce students to a basic introduction to modern time series analysis. The course will cover topics such as time series regression and exploratory data analysis, Fourier analysis, ARMA/ARIMA models, model identification/estimation/linear operators, spectral estimation, and state space models.

The analyses will be performed using a freely available package astsa. Both R and RStudio will be required for this class.

Prerequisites:

STAT 100: Introduction to Statistics

CS 251: Statistical Programming with R

STAT 100: Introduction to Statistics

Dr. Mohamed Megheib(A)/Dr. Khondker Aktaruzzaman(B) — 2024-12-13

This course provides an introduction to the quantitative tools for monitoring, analyzing data, and evaluating data. Through practical and real-world applications, students learn statistical methods that can be used in quantitative analysis of real-world problems. This course focuses both on concepts underlying statistical methods as well as problem solving through the use of STATA, a popular statistical software package.

Prerequisites: None.

DATA 301: Data Structures and Algorithms

Dr. Aye Hninn Khine — 2024-12-13

This course is an overview over important algorithmic concepts and how efficient algorithms depend on the design of suitable data structures.

Prerequisites: CS 210: Programming with Python

ENCP 101: English Composition II

Karie Pieczynski(A)/Lori Enns(B&C)/Mia Sasaki(D)/Zahnur Rofiah(E&F) — 2024-12-13

English Composition II focuses on the process of argumentative writing, from initial development through drafting and revising to the final product. This course focuses on students' ability to use sources to form strong arguments in academic writing. In this course, students will design their own arguments using sources to write and present their ideas effectively.

Prerequisites: ENCP 100

SEM 201: Second Year Seminar II: Human Futures

Dr. Lina Kassem(A&B)/Dr. Dan Wessner(C)/Dr. James Batcho(D&E) — 2024-12-13

The four-sequenced seminar courses are part of a one mega-course (16 credits), that share the same objectives and learning outcomes.

Sophomore Seminar II introduces students to urgent contemporary questions about our shared human future. Drawing on both literature and theory, students will be challenged to imagine and reimagine the possibilities for our collective and individual futures.

The seminar will begin by looking at notions of utopia and dystopia, placing these in the context of the present: in particular in the social and economic frameworks of capitalism. Students will explore the ways in which imagining the future throws light on our present concerns and dilemmas.

Students will build on this foundation to ask about environmental and climate concerns, as some of the most pressing issues for those concerned with human futures. They will draw on the work of scientists and storytellers to ask how we conceptualize and re-conceptualize environmental degradation and climate emergency. And they will explore how both utopian and dystopian thinking may both play a role in how we navigate the threats that face us.

The seminar course will end by exploring the role of technology in the human future, and its possible limits: from AI and robotics, to technocratic climate solutions, post-human futures, and how technological change impacts human identity.

Prerequisites: SEM 200: Second Year Seminar I

SEM 101: First Year Seminar II: Ways of Knowing

2024-12-13

The four-sequenced seminar courses are part of a one mega-course (16 credits), that share the same objectives and learning outcomes. In Freshman Seminar I, students will take a cross-cultural perspective on human existence in the context of the many worlds we all occupy: natural, social and existential. Human beings, the philosopher Martin Heidegger once wrote, is "being-in-the-world." In this course, students will experience and explore a wide variety of ways in which we can conceptualize what it means to be situated in the world. Students will explore human existence in the context of post-Darwinian understandings of what it means to be a human animal. Building on this foundation, they will consider what it means to be radically and irreducibly social. Through exploring the work of both Confucian philosophers and evolutionary theories of ethics, they will ask what it means to be a social animal. And they will explore the rich traditions of existentialism to explore what it means to find ourselves here, evolved beings living in society with each other, conscious of our limitations, our freedom and our death. This Seminar I course will give students the ability to move between radically different frameworks of understanding, to derive rich and complex insights into the human experience.

Prerequisites: SEM 101: First Year Seminar I | 4 Credit Hours | Descriptors: DVID, LOGR, MIND