Syeda Beena
Butool
Department of Social Sciences,
Institute of Business Administration, Karachi, 75670.
Email: sbutool@iba.edu.pk
EDUCATION:
·
M.
Phil in International Relations from Centre of International Studies,
·
M.A
in International Relations, First Class, from
·
B.A
Honors in International Relations, First Class Third Position from
TEACHING
EXPERIENCE
Currently
working as Full Time Lecturer at the Department of Social Sciences, Institute
of Business Administration, Karachi (Since November 2009)
Adjunct
Lecturer, Department of Social Sciences, Institute of Business Administration,
Karachi (January-November 2009)
Adjunct Lecturer
for Foreign Policy (for M.A students,) Pakistan Study Centre, University of
Karachi (January- June, 2009)
Courses
Taught:
1)
Philosophy,
Logic and Ethics: Undergraduate
lecture course for 3 groups of 50 students having three distinct strands. This
course was designed to enhance critical thinking skills amongst students. Therefore,
initially they were taught the application of the three tools of
logic i.e. analysis, assessment and construction of arguments and then invited
o critically judge and deconstruct ideas of various philosophers. Later the
students were enabled to reason ‘’ethically” and construct ethical arguments.
2)
International
Relations: The main challenge of this course was to transform
the traditional Muslim mindset about world politics from that of an
apprehensive one to a more pragmatic approach.
For this purpose, I adopted a constructivist paradigm in which students
could gain an insight into a world ‘without’ a concept of state. Having given
them the required depth of the discipline, I then moved on to cover the breadth
of topics, linking each topic to the existing character of the international
state system. In line with the same
approach, the entire content of the course was then linked to the study of
Pakistan’s foreign policy, making the students understand that many of the
challenges Pakistan faced were typical to most weak states of the world order
and not a result of conspiracy theories.
Foreign Policy: Redesigned the
entire course so as to bring it up to the Masters level such that it would give extensive coverage to the theoretical
foundations of the discipline of I.R and
simultaneously explain the structure of the modern state and the character of
the new world order. This course was a focused one and concentrated on the
dynamics of power politics and the understanding of the foreign policy
processes.
Introduction to
Psychology: Undergraduate
lecture course for 3 groups of 50 students aimed at the study of consciousness,
human behavior and scientific methods in psychology .
Courses
under Development:
Political
Science
Socio-political
and Economic Philosophy of Islam
World History
Joint
Departmental Collaboration:
Currently
working with the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence to develop a probabilistic
reasoning model for teaching Inductive Logic to my students next year.
Engaged in
developing case studies on ethical issues inside Pakistan’s corporate arena
setting for graduate students.
Patron
of Social Sciences Club:
As part of this,
we are working towards calling a nationwide students’ convention on Social
Governance in Spring 2011 so as to educate students through simulation
exercises on the concrete ways of drafting bills, chalking out plans for public
management, coordinating with various ministries.
PAST
WORK EXPERIENCE
1)
At
Project management and Research Unit:
Worked
as Research Manager of the Project Management and Research Unit of
Projects
Managed:
1)
Professional
Competency Test for Award Incentive Package to Primary, Junior and High School
teachers under which the Government of
Sindh aimed at gauging the competency of teachers at various cadres and
awarding the deserving teachers with a raise in their salary(In progress.)
2)
An
impact study carried out on behalf of UNICEF and RSU to ascertain the efficacy
of the textbook and stipend distribution scheme in the government of schools of
Sindh. This study required the management of the overall research activity
carried out in the 23 districts of Sindh by 58 researchers. I was responsible
for managing and conducting:
a)
The
designing of instruments
b)
Plan
for field activity
c)
Training
of researchers before they were sent out in the field
d)
Close monitoring from head office as well as
through field visits were the tasks managed by me.
e)
Data
tabulation
f)
Report
writing
3)
A
4 month Educational Management Course for training 91 Education managers from
the various cadres of Education Department. The training was managed
simultaneously at two separate centers (Sukkur and
a)
Review
of modules
b)
Work
plan for both centers
c)
Identification
and correspondence with course instructors
d)
Coordination
with resource persons at both centers
e)
Monitoring
of the course at both centers
4) Prepared the
research design and project work plan for a research on ‘Blended Learning Model: A comparative study of
Malaysia and Pakistan’ to observe the impact of technology on the learning
habits of graduate students inside Pakistani universities belonging to various
disciplines.
M
Phil Research Coordinator:
Our unit closely
worked with
a)
Coordinating
with supervisors and students.
b)
Maintaining
updated record of students regarding their research progress.
c)
Arranging
seminars and workshops on various issues of research.
d)
Providing
feedback to students on their proposals, instruments and chapters.
2) Associate editor for the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, a quarterly journal, edited and published by the Centre of International Studies from January 2007 – September 2007.
3) Worked as convener to a research project {January-September, 2006) headed by Dr. Talat Ayesha Wizarat for the development of a textbook for the Master’s level course of ‘Science, Technology and International Relations’. I had developed the proposal of the project so as to get approval and funding from the Higher Education Commission. My tasks as convener included:
a) Studying the various research works both previous and latest in Science and technology that have a major effect on international politics.
b)
Planning and chalking out the roadmap
for the publishing of the textbook.
c)
Preparing for a conference that would
invite speakers from all around the world that are relevant to various topics
that would ultimately be included in the textbook.
d)
Keeping the head of the project informed
of the various trends in the field and suggesting new chapters for the textbook
by undertaking extra research work.
4) Research Assistant in a project called Afghan Project under the Program for Peace and Conflict Studies chaired by Professor
Dr. Moonis Ahmar [From
5) Internship with Karachi Education Office, Aga Khan Education Services of Pakistan (AKESP) under the direction of Mrs. Barbara Toye-Welsh (Chief Academic and Operations officer)[Attended From: 15th June 2000- 19th July 2000]
Published Work:
Syeda Beena Butool "Islamic Ethics
on Peace." In The International Encyclopedia of Peace. Edited by
Nigel Young. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2010.
“Pakistan:
An Islamic State with a Secular Attitude,” Proceedings of the Conference, “Pakistan: The Vision of Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah,” 20th November, 2007.
Butool, S. Beena,
Kaleem, Amna and Shakil, Muhmmad. “Role
of Cyber Space in Conflict Resolution.”In
Different Perceptions on Conflict
Resolution: Need for an Alternate Approach. Ed. Dr. Moonis Ahmar (
Unpublished Work:
Recently
completed a short study on ‘Dilemmas of Conflict Management: Pakistan in the
midst of the Realist-Pacifist Debate’ for the ‘Religion, War and Peace
Program’, Von Hugel Institute, St. Edmund’s College Cambridge. (I am now in the
stage of converting it into a journal article.)
Conferences and Workshops:
· Presented a
paper on ‘Pakistan’s Dilemma in
Mitigating the Tribal Militancy: Questions for Scholarly Research’ in a seminar held in IBA on “Pakistan- US Relations
: Desire for a Real Change” on 16th March 2009
·
A conference paper “Pakistan: An Islamic State with a Secular Attitude” presented on
20th November, 2007 at University of Sindh at Jamshoro.
·
“The Traitors
of the war of 1857” in the
Graduate Discussion Forum at the Department of International Relations on April
7th 2005.
·
Presented
a paper “Cyber Space and Conflict Resolution” in the Conference on’
Teaching and Research Methods in Conflict
Resolution’ held on 9th-10th October 2004
·
Selected to
represent University of Cambridge as a delegate in the Harvard Project for Asia
and International Relations (HPAIR) conference, held in Beijing from 17th-21st August, 2007, to discuss the challenge
of democracy in Asian societies.
·
Selected from
University of Karachi to be part of a students’ cultural exchange program with
the British students under the program “Connecting Futures” initiated by the
British Council. Under this program,
interacted with British students on video conferencing, travelled and lived
with them in Islamabad and took part in a media event.
·
Participated
in a Treaty Making Exercise under the coursework of International Law to
formulate a treaty on the “BAN ON PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE” and acted
out the role of Israel.
Fellowship and Awards:
OSI
Chevening Cambridge Trust Scholar for the year 2006 to pursue MPhil at
Media Experience:
·
Appeared
on BBC’s program “Asia
Today” with Paul Anderson sharing views on the U.S elections 2004.
·
Appeared
on GEO TV in the program “Follow
up with Fahad” to share views on the
experience gained in a dialogue with British students during a cultural
exchange program held by the British
Council.
Professional Membership:
·
Member of
· Associate Member of Pakistan Institute of International Affairs.
Language skills:
Fluent in English, Urdu and
Hindi (spoken).
Persian language (currently
stand at Basic level.).
Technical skills:
Software &
Applications: Windows XP – 3.x., MS
Office (i.e. Word, PowerPoint, basic knowledge of SPSS.