MUSC1251 Applied Music Voice

Online sessions provide some opportunity for verbal participation, but my experience has been, especially with these particular topics, that students prefer to discuss them in discussion boards. Especially when discussing issues of religion, students have often told me that a text message during a live session or even a comment might be taken the wrong way or poorly worded under time pressures.  Thus, they prefer to have a discussion board that will allow them the time to craft their contribution.  As a result, while we will have live sessions, especially early on, the second half of the class does hinge largely on discussion boards.

 

Your comments are not graded according to their volume but they are based on the extent to which they move conversation forward, constructively offer insights respectfully, and critically consider one’s own as well as others points of view.

 

The participation score mainly covers the first seven weeks of the course because, as you will see the Religion Support Papers and Discussion feature their own bucket of participation.

At the suggestion of students in previous sections of this class, there will also be a weekly quiz based on readings and/or live sessions.

Throughout the term, we will be exploring world religions. The material I will be providing is designed primarily to illustrate the basic concepts, beliefs, and frameworks of the religions. In addition to this work, it will be helpful for you to see how religious beliefs have direct impacts on business affairs. That could be with respect to how business market to cultures with predominant faith traditions, employment practices, constraints with respect to acceptable kinds of business, or how religious/cultural practices impact developments of specific kinds of work ethics.

 

To accomplish this, summarize and analyze a book chapter, an article, or Internet source which discusses these kinds of issues. I am looking for no more than a half to one page summary and analysis with the source attached to the paper. Each paper is due the day of the scheduled date to discuss that particular faith and I am looking for a total of six such papers. 

 

There are two topic components to this assignment.  First, find a current business that has “bumped up” against religion in some shape or form.  Those provide concrete business situations that provide practicality.  Second, comment on the Hahn chapters assigned for that week’s readings.

You have two options for your final research paper.  Regardless of which one you choose, you should do some extensive research on the topic of your choice, relate the topic critically to at least two parts of the course, and figure that a well-done paper will range in length from 8-12 pages.

 

Option 1:  Independent study: This course is wide-ranging and should be thought-provoking.  As a result, it may spark ideas that you would like to pursue in depth.  You will need to run your idea by me, but I am open to thoughtful, creative, and impactful research topics.

 

Option 2: Find a company that you believe could make an enhanced contribution to peace and could do so, at least in part, by utilizing cultural artifacts.  What is that company doing now?  Based on what we have learned in the course, what should it be doing better?  Create a set of recommendations and follow-up implementation that you would propose for the company.  In writing this paper, the following serves as a “mini-rubric”

 

1. Research of the company in question, what they are doing, past practices and future opportunities (20%)

2. Application of Business-Peace Criteria to what they have done and what they could do.  This includes characterizing the business (Social Entrepreneur, Corporate Foreign Policy  Practitioner, or Unintentional Contributor), as well as the Four Contributions (Economic Development, Rule of Law, Community, and Track Two Diplomacy) (30%)

3. Use of Cultural Artifacts as a Way for the Business in Question to Build Peace where they work as well as harmony within the workplace  (30%)

4. Conclusion on the Proposal for the Way Forward (15%)

5. Quality of Presentation & Writing (5%)

(1) Identify and send me a link (YouTube, Spotify, etc.) for a song that you think exemplifies each of the following steps.  If you were to play this in a workplace, would it have the effect of one of these steps emotionally on listeners (understanding that different people can react to the same music in different ways)? 
(a) It is Us vs Them
(b) It is important to follow rules
(c) You should treat others as you would like to be treated
(d) What we are experiencing right now (in this music) is as good as it gets
(e) What we are experiencing right now (in this music) is something that we can apply in other walks of life
(f) What we are experience right now (in this music) provides a sense of transcendence
(f) How does one move among these levels authentically?

(2) Then write one or two paragraphs on each of these seven points that explain why you believe the music will have this intended effect.