Earlier this spring semester, UNC Asheville Associate Professor of Management Deena Burris revised her class syllabus in LA 478: Cultivating Global Citizenship (Honors), so the class would cover Globalization and Healthcare before spring break. In late January, the class started tracking COVID-19 using the Johns Hopkins University & Medicine maps and trends and World Health Organization (WHO) information. You could say they saw the pandemic coming.
“We had discussions about it for weeks, right up until spring break,” Burris recalls. “We watched the whole progression knowing what was going to happen and now the class is asking the next questions of ‘who has the vaccines, who has the money, and who will get the vaccines first?’”
“More than any other class I have had the privilege of taking, Dr. Burris’ class has focused on the pandemic from the very beginning of its spread in China. Before anyone was taking COVID-19 very seriously in the United States, we were discussing its potential impacts, and Dr. Burris moved our Global Health unit up to happen earlier in the semester in light of all of this,” said Elsa Haun a senior environmental studies major taking the class part of the Honors Program. “Entering this time of remote learning, I have felt much better equipped with knowledge and perspective than many of my peers, specifically because of the discussions we had in Dr. Burris’ class. I have also greatly benefitted from remote lectures Dr. Burris has given on the economic responses by Congress and the Fed to assist our economy during this time.”
Students in both LA 478 and her MGMT 398 Global Management classes also studied the stimulus package to understand how it works and where the money is coming from. They’ve searched for and studied articles from around the world to understand the global impact of the pandemic. They’ve focused in on the airline industry as a case study.
“Despite the move to virtual learning, Professor Burris doesn’t fail to update us on the impacts, the policies (and lack there-of), and the consequences or benefits of these decisions, as the Coronavirus continues to spread. Our Moodle page has a whole section devoted to the virus on NPR’s Planet Money Podcast, discussing the coronavirus in America and the world and the impacts on the economy,” said Colleen Koehler, a senior majoring in psychology who enrolled in LA478 to fulfill honors requirements and graduate with honors. “If it were not for Dr. Burris, I do not think I would understand about 90% of the things I understand about the economy now (She makes it interesting! I really enjoyed her lectures!). And if it weren’t for this class, I would most likely not understand the deep and very real impacts this virus has across the globe, and how, what we choose to do in America to stay safe and recover from the virus, impacts the whole world severely, not just us.”
Now you can study the stimulus package too (complete with a pop quiz), as Burris has shared a few of her course videos and articles. Or you can sign up for her one of her next classes. Global Management, which fulfills and diversity-intensive requirement, and LA478: Cultivating Global Citizenship are offered again in fall 2020.
Whether the next course is in person or online, or a combination of the two, she has enjoyed this spring’s real-time research with remote learning. It’s reminiscent of her Ph.D. program, a hybrid program in international development from the University of Southern Mississippi. She also earned an M.A. from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies, and a B.A. in Business Administration and English from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
Learn more at https://www.unca.edu/person/deena-burris-ph-d/
Sit in on a Global Management class at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMgDE1oXUyM
Test your knowledge with a few of the test questions from UNC Asheville’s Global Management and Global Citizenship classes:
COVID-19 and the Economy:
- Identify and explain (in your own words!) at least 5 of the provisions/components of the stimulus package recently passed by Congress.
- Identify and explain at least three of the actions being taken by the Federal Reserve.
- Explain “buybacks”. How were they used by the airline industry? Given your answer, explain why many are upset that the airlines are now getting bailouts from the government.
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