I like it! I would probably want to strongly suggest this to my students, rather than make it mandatory. Some students are heavily invested in projects for their major, and may be attempting to integrate ideas from this course into a thesis project that they are trying to develop.  I would not want to discourage such students from doing so. But I think that many of my U.S. students and Russian students will like the challenge that you are proposing. It is also often the case that we find students from both sides focusing on the same transnational issue that differently affect both countries. This happened, for instance, around the issue of oil drilling in the North Pole, where U.S. Corporations and nationalized oil companies in Russia are jockeying to influence future policy over the development of this area. The issue of indigenous rights (framed as collective cultural human rights) emerged as a common concern among students of both the U.S. and Russia.

John 
___________________________________________________
John G. Dale
Assistant Professor 
Department of Sociology and Anthropology,
Affiliate Faculty for the Institute for Conflict Analysis & Resolution,
Associate Faculty of the Center for Global Studies, and the Center for Justice, Law, and Society
George Mason University
4400 University Drive, MS 3G5
Robinson Hall B, Rm. 314
Fairfax, Virginia 22030 USA
Phone: 703-993-1444 
Fax:   703-993-1446
Email: [log in to unmask]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Coates, Rodney D. Dr." <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2010 4:11 pm
Subject: A revision to our Case Study Assignments

> Thanks to Natasha, I am suggesting that we alter the Case Study 
> assignments as follows -
> 
> 
> 
> Another idea - what if composing a group of let's say US and 
> Russian students we ask them to study the situations not in their 
> respective countries, but in their partner's country? Say US and 
> Russia students will form the survey topic and plan jointly, will 
> help each other with materials and analysis but the final 
> conclusions will be made by Russian with regard the American part 
> of studies and by US students with regard the situation in Russia. 
> This could teach them how different the same situation might look 
> for the person with different background, culture, etc.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I think this would be extremely useful in getting our students to 
> interact across cultures and more aptly fulfill the expectations 
> of our course..
> 
> 
> 
> rodney
>