J. Clarence Kelly Library   Penn State Greater Allegheny

This page contains an archive of projects submitted for Teaching India during the 2006-2007 academic year.

Student Projects

Teaching India Course Assignments

Spring 2007

ENGL 50 (M. Mickle)
One group will do a 20 Minute Presentation on the poem, "Indian Movie, New Jersey" by Chitra Divakaruni Bannerjee.

ENGL 100: English Language Analysis (Dinah Marcinik)
Students will be required to complete an "English in India" Project. Although this project does not have to be in the form of a research paper, students must document any and all sources that are used in MLA or APA format. Students must present their projects during the official campus Teaching India Presentations during Common Period on April 24th.

ENGL 184 (M. Mickle)
Students will read and discuss the following short stories by Indian writers:
1.  Good Girls Are Bad News” by Subhadra Sen Gupta, pp. 158-63 in Literature Without Borders on Reserve
2.  ­The Prophet ’ s Hair by Salman Rushdie, pp. 814-23 in Worlds of Fiction on Reserve
3.  Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, pp. 495-514 in 40 ShortStories; and A Real Durwan by Jhumpa Lahiri, pp. in Interpreter of Maladies on Reserve
4. A Father by Bharati Mukherjee, pp. 658-66 in Worlds of Fiction

Also one group will do a 20 Minute Presentation on "Interpreter of Maladies" by Jhumpa Lahiri.

ENGL 202D ( M. Mickle)
Unit 2 assignment on Business Research on India.  They are doing an annotated bibliography on aspects of business and/or culture in India and then a Feasibility Report on doing business in India or with an Indian company.

INART 005:  Performing Arts (Dr. Jay Breckenridge)
The class will spend some time on The Ramayana also, watching a video of a dance-drama version that I taped in Malaysia (an Indian dance company from Singapore) and learning about the epic and about the traditions of Sanskrit Drama in India in preparation for seeing the campus production at the end of the term.

MGMT 341: Human Resources Management (Lydia Lockhart)

Research Paper: India & Outsourcing/Offshoring of Jobs Research the topic of outsourcing/offshoring of jobs to India (or other Human Resources issues as they relate to India). Be sure to follow APA or MLA format guidelines for citing your sources.

Exercise #7

Based on a topic approved by your instructor, gather information from 2 articles from practitioner journals and 2 articles from academic journals (see lists of each below). Prepare a report summarizing what you learned about the topic from the sources. Include in the report your analysis of the similarities and differences as well as the strengths and weaknesses among the different types of sources of information that you used.

Academic Journals Practitioner Journals

Academy of Management Journal Academy of Management Executive

Academy of Management Review Across the Board

Administrative Science Quarterly Harvard Business Review

Human Resource Management HR Magazine

Human Resource Planning Organizational Dynamics

Industrial & Labor Relations Review Training

Journal of Applied Psychology Training and Development

Journal of Management Workforce Management

Journal of Organizational Behavior

Personnel Psychology

Exercise #15

Conduct research on the country of India and prepare a report addressing the following scenario.

The president of Piedmont Electronics, which produces paging devices, is considering a direct investment initiative to establish assembly and manufacturing plants in India. The report should describe the country’s:

• Labor and employment laws
• Wage rates and worker benefits
• Education and literacy of work force
• Labor force availability
• Living standards
• Cultural norms and values of the country

Discuss the implications of your research findings for how Piedmont should set up its human resources department in the host country.

MICRB 106 ( Amelia Mitchell)
The students will work in group and will be assigned a disease that is common to India. They will have to do a power point presentation on that disease. One group will be assigned "Vaccinations for India Travelers."  Posters can also be done for extra credit.

MRKT 471: Marketing Management (A. Kobylanski)

**Group project connected to *Teaching India*
Each team will identify a global (multinational) company which is conducting business on the international arena and have entered market in * India*. The selected organizations must be approved by professor in order to avoid duplication of projects. Your task is to conduct the analysis how the company entered this specific market. You need to present their marketing strategy (short term - when company first entered this market and long term - currently implemented; the evolution of their marketing strategy). You also need to present how this company is managing their marketing operations including the target market analysis and environmental influences.

- Written group report (10-15 pages, *excluding* appendices and references) with at least 10 references.

- 30-minute professional presentation by each group **

PSYCH 221: Intro to Social Psychology (M. Signorella)

Extra Credit
You may do up to six extra credit assignments from the following five categories. Each extra credit assignment is work 5 points. You can do a maximum of two of each type. All extra credit must be submitted by midnight on the last day of the semester (May 4, 2007).
1. As part of the campus focus on India, find an article in the New York Times on India and indicate how it relates to a unit concept or definition from the unit handout.
2. Find another New York Times article and indicate how it relates to a unit concept or definition from the unit handout.
3. Attend a campus speaker or event and indicate how it relates to a unit concept or definition from the unit handout.
4. This selection can only be done in the last week of the semester. Go to the textbook website and do either the practice midterm or the practice final and submit to me.
5. Participation in any approved Penn State research projects. These opportunities will be announced on ANGEL, and may or may not be available in this semester, depending on what projects are underway.

SOC 005: Social Problems (Dr. Veronica Montecinos)

I. Poster on Human Well-being in India

Students will prepare a poster on human well-being in India. The poster will be based on research done on a selected social problem. Basic socio-economic indicators (i.e. literacy rates) and explanations of the problem will be included. The focus will be on the efforts made to improve human well-being. Students’ attention will center on the actions taken by local and international organizations, as well as government policies.

Posters will be presented in class at the end of the semester.

II. Short Paper on Salman Rushdie’s essay: “ India at 5-0.”

III. Extra credit assignments

Students will write reports on selected films (i.e. Water, Born into Brothels) and readings (i.e. Pankaj Mishra’s Temptations of the West).

IV. Field Trips

Photo exhibit: “Faces of India” at the Carnegie Museum.

Indian restaurant

Hindu Temple

THEA 105:  Introduction to Theatre ( Dr. Jay Breckenridge)
I will include a discussion of Sanskrit Drama, especially what elements we might expect to see in the campus production.

I have ordered, for the library, several DVDs of Indian theatre and dance, which I am using in all three of these classes.  They include "A Case Book on Sanskrit Theatre," a video of a production of The Clay Cart, a study of a production of Shakuntala , and a dance drama DVD.

THEA 208U/282:  Theatre in Diverse Cultures/Production Practicum (Dr. Jay Breckenridge and Ms. Coni Koepfinger)
The classes will do a dramatization of the Indian epic, The Ramayana .  Our combined thirty students have so far been reading the short prose version of the epic by R.K. Narayan, improvising and drafting scenes from the story, and planning the elements of set, costumes, and props for the show.  The working script is now in their hands, and we have begun rehearsing the scenes, creating the set, making costumes, and finding props in preparation for the production on April 26 th .

Fall 2006 First-Year Student Common Readings: The short story "A Real Durwan" by Indian-American author Jhumpa Lahiri. A second suggested supplemental reading is the Time magazine article "India at Five-O" by Salman Rushdie.

Teaching India Assignments – Fall 2006

ANTH 083S (Tahirah Abdullah) – Students will read The Rushdie Files.

BA 322 (Michelle Hough) - The class is going to do a "Teaching India" research project entitled "Assessing U.S. Negotiation Efforts Related to the Indian-Pakistan Nuclear Proliferation Conflict."  They'll give their presentations on December 11, and the campus community is invited to attend. 

COM 370 (Kathy Taylor Brown) - Students will evaluate an aspect of the advertising industry in India using a current news article and concepts from Jon Steel's Truth, Lies & Advertising.

ENGL 003S: Traditions in American Literature (Mildred Mickle) --students will read and discuss 1-2 short stories or poems by Indian-American author/s

ENGL 263: Reading Poetry (Mildred Mickle) --students will read and discuss a few poems by Indian authors

ENGL 15: Rhetoric & Composition (Mildred Mickle) --students will do a short paper where they describe, analyze, interpret, and evaluate a short story or a poem by an Indian author, and then they will do an annotated bibliography of secondary sources on the author or text they discussed for the short paper, or on background information on India.

English 015: Rhetoric & Composition (Dinah Marcinik) - Students will apply what they have learned about rhetorical situations, audience, genre, constraints, etc. to create a project that will interest others in the Teaching India Project at Penn State Greater Allegheny.

Students will be required to complete a project individually, in pairs or in groups of threes. Each individual or group must submit a written description of the proposed project to the instructor for approval prior to beginning the project. Each project, regardless of its form, must include a written component in which students perform a rhetorical analysis that explains who their audience is, what the purpose of their project is, why the project is important, and how they used public writing to accomplish the project's goals. Students will be required to make their projects publicly available to the campus community in some form. Although the due date for this project is listed as being at the end of the semester, students may need to complete the public part of their projects prior to finishing the written component.

ENGLISH 50: Intro to Creative Writing (Cliff Manlove) – The short story by Lahiri being featured for Teaching India will be among the assigned short stories and poems that will be required for course reading. May assign a few other poems or a short story by Indian authors.

French 001 & 003 (Amy Guthrie) - I will be incorporating India into my French classes by discussing Indian cultural influences in francophone areas such as Mauritius and Reunion Islands. I will also have my classes learn about gypsy culture in France.

InArts 5H: Performing Arts (The Performing Arts) (Jay Breckenridge) - I hope to find a live production of Indian Dance Drama for the class to attend, and we will do an introduction and discussion section surrounding that.

L ST 100H: Information Search Strategies (Dawn Walton) - Finding International Information class - Use India when learning how to search for information about other countries, including country-specific
search engines and international government and UN websites, international news
sources and translating webpages (students will do an in class assignment). I will also encourage students to pick a topic related to India for their bibliography assignment.

Marketing 310 (Kathy Taylor Brown) - Students will develop and design a logo for an Indian festival of the students' choosing. This will be used in the Spring for the Penn State Greater Allegheny teaching India project.

Music 009: Intro to World Music (Doretta Whalen) - will study the music of India on October 10th. We will explore the differences between raga and the western scale.
We will see a short video of the Indian music, both northern and southern styles.
We will have a group activity achieving polyrhythm based on the Indian
method of time subdivision.

Anousha Shankar, Ravi Shankar's daughter, is presenting a concert on Wednesday, October 25, 2006, at the Byham Theater.
I will announce to students that this will be one of the concerts that
will earn 10 bonus points if they attend and then submit a 3 - page paper
explaining the event and how aspects relate to our coursework.

Psychology 217: Social Psychology (M. Signorella) - As part of the campus focus on India in 2006-2007, find an article in the New York Times on India and indicate how it relates to a unit concept or definition from the unit handout.

Attend a campus speaker or event and indicate how it relates to a unit concept or definition from the unit handout.

Sociology 005: Social Problems (Verónica Montecinos) – 1) Students will prepare poster sessions on social problems in India. The posters will be displayed on campus at the end of the semester. 2) During the semester, students will write several short papers on social problems in India.

Sociology 005 Honors: Social Problems Honors (Verónica Montecinos) –

1. Students will write a comparative research paper. They will select and analyze a social problem in India and compare indicators and policies with similar issues in another country. The starting point will be the Millennium Development Goals. The paper will include insights from sociological concepts and theories.
2. Students will write short reports on NY Times articles and other readings dealing with social problems in India.
3. Students will be invited to present the results of their research at the student conference at the end of the semester.
4. Students can write extra credit projects including an analysis of the novel Untouchables (1931) and Temptations of the West (2006), a non fiction book.

Theatre 105: Introduction to Theatre (Jay Breckenridge) - I will include a section on Theatre in India.

Theatre 282: Production Practicum (offered as Children's Theatre in the fall) (Jay Breckenridge) - I will be featuring Folk Tales from India.  The class will explore several tales for dramatization and then production at the end of the term.

WMNST 490/ ENGL 490: Women Writers and Their Worlds (Ellie Higgins) - I will teach one book by the Indian novelist Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things.