UAB Assistant ProfessorJoseph WoodOn different continents, the students were enrolled in concurrent courses, co-taught by UAB Assistant ProfessorJoseph Wood and ATSU Associate Professor Elisio Pantskhava. The course, titled Global Heroes,” was UAB’s first Collaborative Online International Leaning course, and it used virtual collaborations to enhance international and cross-cultural awareness. Wood has ongoing research interests in how English literature is being taught in the post-Soviet sphere, and he and Pantskhava came up with the idea for courses at UAB and ATSU that ran independently but were also linked via shared materials and regular talks over Zoom.

“Global Heroes” focused on epics from a variety of literary traditions, including the Georgian classic, The Knight in the Panther Skin, which is central to Georgian identity but rarely read in the U.S. Wood and Pantskhava wanted students to see how much epic stories have varied across centuries and across cultures. As Wood observes, “Most of the UAB students were surprised by how diverse the concept of heroism is.” In some traditions, heroism means adventure, but in others it is more associated with piety and family. Wood says that the reading material was challenging—but ultimately exciting—for UAB students because Central Asian and African epics come out of oral traditions that don’t rely on linear storytelling. Regular zoom conversations allowed UAB and ATSU students to share not only their perspectives on the readings but also to ask one another questions about favorite movies, family, stress, job plans—the things all college students share.