Teaching Business Ethics with Comics
ULAB School of Business conducted a seminar and workshop on Business Ethics which was the first of its kind in Bangladesh on 27th July. To motivate such desirable behaviour, graphic novels were used because gone are the days when comic books were considered as entertainment for kids only.
The seminar started with the welcome note from Professor William Derrenger, Dean of the ULAB School of Business. After that Professor Imran Rahman, Vice Chancellor of ULAB gave a short speech and shared his experience of having witnessed the practice of teaching with comics and graphic novels years back in the USA and welcomed ULAB's initiative in catching up with it.
Tahseen Salman Choudhury, Director of Paricharja and a comic researcher, was keynote speaker in the seminar and addressed business ethics, ethical dilemmas which had been captured by both local and international comic books. Paricharja is committed to a strong ethical stance aimed towards serving the people at affordable fees, and its specialist physicians charge less than even half of what the market rate is of other specialist physicians in the field.
After the keynote presentation, Asifur Rahman, writer and artist from Dhaka Comics talked about the comic industry of Bangladesh and Dhaka Comics. The seminar ended with a talk by Samir Asran Rahman, Creative Director, Mighty Punch Studios where he shared his own experience in this industry.
In the second part of the event, students had to identify ethical issues in business in the context of Bangladesh and create a comic story about it. With the guidance from the guest speakers, the students were successful in creating stories about the use of cow-fattening tablets; formalin in fruits and hiding information from consumers to sell unsafe products; and the overall practice of bribing across different industries.
The writer is Lecturer and Assistant Proctor at ULAB
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