The International Journal of Humanities
Volume:32 Issue: 3, Summer 2025

Higher education has witnessed a rising demand for intercultural competence and global citizenship skills, which propelled the development of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) as a groundbreaking student exchange model that uses virtual collaboration to connect students from different cultures. The research study investigates student perceptions about their learning experiences and their anticipated readiness for global interactions through a COIL project. The study employs the theoretical frameworks of Intercultural Communicative Competence (Byram, 1997; 2021) and Global Citizenship Education (UNESCO, 2015). The qualitative descriptive research method allowed researchers to gather information from 37 EFL students who wrote reflective responses, which were subjected to thematic content. The findings revealed that students showed strong involvement along with enjoyment of the experience, experienced enhanced abilities in crosscultural communication, and demonstrated more readiness for future international collaborative work. The study expands the current knowledge base regarding virtual exchange in Southeast Asia while providing implementation guidance for culturally responsive COIL programs in language education.

This study explored the affordances and constraints shaping Iranian English learners’ linguistic investment through a multi-method approach, including interviews, digital ethnography, visual methodologies, and policy analysis. Findings showed that learners are motivated by economic opportunities, intercultural exchange, and social mobility, viewing English as a form of capital enabling access to global networks and professional advancement. However, ideological and pedagogical barriers such as state-promoted Arabic-centered policies, familial resistance, and inadequate resources create significant constraints. Learners navigate these constraints through covert digital practices and alternative strategies, highlighting the tension between individual aspirations and structural limitations. The study underscores the need for policy reforms that reconcile national identity with global linguistic demands and pedagogical approaches that prioritize communicative competence and digital literacy. Limitations include reliance on self-reported data, suggesting avenues for future research on longitudinal investment trajectories. This research contributes to broader discussions on language, power, and identity in contexts of ideological contestation.

The Mongol conquest of the Khwārazm-Shāhs (490-628/1097-1231) wasprimarily motivated by controlling the central trade routes including the silk roadsfor the flow of wealth and commerce from the China Sea to the Mediterranean.A generation after Chinggis Khān (c. 1162-1227), with direct orders from MöngkeQā'ān and armed with the special forces of Chinggis, Hulegu Khān was appointedto oversee the western fringes of the Mongol controlled territories. While Hulegumanaged to defeat the Ismā’ilis and move on to overthrow the ‘Abbāsids andconquer Baghdād (656/1258), he was opposed by Berke Khān, the MuslimCommander, whose forces under Negüder Noyān fled to the eastern provincesunder the dominion of the Il-Khāns. Apparently, they joined forces withQara'unās, vanguard of the Mongol forces on the borders of India and thusbecame a source of instability for the commercial routes in Kerman and Farsprovinces. During the rule of the Mongol Il-Khans, Arghūn Khān was dispatchedby the Central Mongols to Jiroft to protect the trade routes of the Oghān andJermān. However, gradually from mid-8th century onwards the dispatched unitsfor the purpose of ensuring security turned into rebellious self-serving groups,whether it was the Āl-e Mūzzafar or the Āl-e Īnju. In due time however, theywere absorbed into the new formidable forces of the Timurids. This study seeksto examine Ibn Khaldun’s theory of the ‘Asabiyya, as it applies to human society(‘Umrān). From Ibn Khaldun’s perspective, society is an organic whole guidedby the ‘Asabiyya (social cohesion). Nomadic and sedentary communities,compete for land, power and wealth, thus creating a cyclical system that leads tothe rise and fall of civilizations. It is the purpose of the study to examine howthis particularly chaotic period corresponds with Ibn Khaldun’s theory of‘Asabiyya.

Abolitionism emerged during the Enlightenment as a powerful movement aimedat ending slavery and the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies. It sought to expose the moral and economic contradictions of thesepractices through activism, literature, and social reform. This study analyzes twoabolitionist texts engaging Afro-Atlantic agency—Gertrudis Gómez deAvellaneda’s Sab and Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s The Runaway Slave atPilgrim’s Point—to explore how they articulate intersecting oppressions of race,gender, and colonialism. Utilizing Paul Gilroy’s Black Atlantic theory, whichviews the Atlantic as a space of cultural exchange and political solidarity shapedby shared histories of diaspora, this research employs thematic analysis toinvestigate key motifs such as resistance and empowerment, intellectual andpolitical leadership, transatlantic connections, intersectionality, revolution andemancipation, as well as narrative voice and representation. Both texts emphasizethe agency and inner lives of enslaved individuals while differing in theirnarrative forms and political expressions. Sab, a romantic novel, focuses onmoral introspection and feminist abolitionism within the context of Cubancolonial society. In contrast, Browning’s Victorian dramatic monologueembodies a spirit of defiance and direct political protest against Americanslavery. Despite their differences, both works offer a profound critique of racialand gender oppression while affirming a commitment to human dignity andtransatlantic solidarity. Nonetheless, their genres, tones, and strategies diverge:Avellaneda’s introspective and philosophical resistance contrasts withBrowning’s radical call for collective action. Additionally, Sab features acontemplative male narrator, while Browning presents a visceral female voice.Together, these texts illuminate the dynamic nature of Afro-Atlantic abolitionistliterature as a project that envisions freedom, justice, and collective emancipationacross temporal and geographic boundaries

Systematic designs are used to feature poems to elicit cognitive, emotional, and evaluative processes. Short rhyming poems are 'limericks' and 'abuthiyahs'. A limerick is a humorous poem of five lines with the rhyming scheme AABBA. The first, second, and fifth lines rhyme the same for verbal rhythm; the third and fourth are shorter and have separate rhyme and rhythm. Iraqi abuthiyahs are popular poems composed of four lines: AAAB; the first three have the same anagrams, and the fourth ends with the letters (ya ‘ی ‘and haa ‘هه(‘. The study's objective is to make meaning explicit through conducting a contrastive stylistic analysis and investigating poetic devices as they are recognized in 10 English limericks and 10 Iraqi abuthiyahs. This form of poetry is mainly associated with Edward Lear; therefore, the examples of limerick under stylistic investigation will be selected from his collection The Book of Nonsense (1846). For the same rationale, the Arabic examples are selected from Al-Kadhimi's Abuthiyat of Jaber AlKadhimi (2006). The method of analysis is qualitative-quantitative with Leech and Short’s (1969) model adopted. The results show that Limericks are funny, lighthearted, and have rhyme schemes, alliteration, and homographic puns. In a hilarious way, they depict fictitious characters in current events. The abuthiyahs communicate emotion with simple phrases, and grammar. Both poets employ cohesive strategies to link poems, but they are in different contexts and natures. In conclusion, both poets employ different linguistic strategies to enhance their poems for satire and emotional expressiveness. 

The family, as the oldest social institution, has been shaped by fundamentalhuman needs and has undergone numerous transformations throughouthistory. The Timurid period, with its unique socio-cultural characteristics,provides an important context for studying the evolution of family systemsand the status of women within them. This research combines historicalanalysis with the structuralism theory of Claude Lévi-Strauss to examine thestate of the family institution and the position of women in Timurid families,addressing the question of how transformations in the family system havealtered the status and roles of women as wives, mothers, and daughters. Theresearch employs a qualitative and historical-analytical methodology,gathering data through the study of historical written sources, documents,literary texts, travelogues, and ethical books. The data are analyzed within theframework of structuralist concepts, including opposing pairs (such asmale/female, power/submission). The findings indicate that the Timuridfamily system was primarily extended, patriarchal, and patrilineal, withpolygamous marriages being common among affluent classes. Despite thedominance of patriarchy, women played a significant role in many householdsas internal managers, actively participating in family affairs and maintainingsocial relationships. This study presents a structural analysis demonstratingthat transformations in the Timurid family system, while preserving traditionalframeworks, have created a noteworthy redefinition of women's statuses in theroles of wives, mothers, and daughters, leading to both new constraints andopportunities for women to fulfill their roles.