Class Schedules

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to the basic principles of research in psychology, with an emphasis on statistical techniques used in psychological science. We examine how to test psychological hypotheses using various statistical analyses, and we consider the pros and cons of experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational research designs. The course includes a weekly laboratory component in which students develop proficiency with statistical software, writing reports in American Psychological Association style, and familiarity with experimental techniques unique to behavioral research. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 Permission of instructor is required for first year students.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to the basic principles of research in psychology, with an emphasis on statistical techniques used in psychological science. We examine how to test psychological hypotheses using various statistical analyses, and we consider the pros and cons of experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational research designs. The course includes a weekly laboratory component in which students develop proficiency with statistical software, writing reports in American Psychological Association style, and familiarity with experimental techniques unique to behavioral research. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 Permission of instructor is required for first year students.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to cartography, visualization, and analyses of geospatial data, as well as hands-on experience with geospatial technologies in the GIS laboratory. Students will learn the basics of mapping/cartography (e.g. scale, projections, map design) and Geographic Information Systems. Students will create maps with commonly used digital data (e.g., aerial photographs, census boundaries, digital elevation models, etc.), and master basic methods of spatial analyses. Both concepts and techniques will be taught in this course. Hands-on assignments include classification of demographic data and query/analysis of vector and raster data. One and one half laboratory hours per week required. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease and health in human populations and the application of this understanding to the solution of public health problems. Topics include measurement of disease and health, the outbreak and spread of disease, reasoning about cause and effect, analysis of risk, detection and classification, and the evaluation of trade-offs. The course is designed to fulfill and extend the professional community’s consensus definition of undergraduate epidemiology. In addition to the techniques of modern epidemiology, the course emphasizes the historical evolution of ideas of causation, treatment, and prevention of disease. The course is a required component of the concentration in Community and Global Health.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introduction to ethnographic field interviewing learned in the context of individually run student field projects. Focuses on the anthropologist-informant field relationship and the discovery of cultural knowledge through participant observation and ethnosemantic interviewing techniques. Prerequisite(s): ANTH 101 or ANTH 111 or permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Poor and minority populations have historically borne the brunt of environmental inequalities in the United States, suffering disproportionately from the effects of pollution, resource depletion, dangerous jobs, limited access to common resources, and exposure to environmental hazards. Paying particular attention to the ways that race, ethnicity, class, and gender have shaped the political and economic dimensions of environmental injustices, this course draws on the work of scholars and activists to examine the long history of environmental inequities in the United States, along with more recent political movements-national and local-that seek to rectify environmental injustices.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Poor and minority populations have historically borne the brunt of environmental inequalities in the United States, suffering disproportionately from the effects of pollution, resource depletion, dangerous jobs, limited access to common resources, and exposure to environmental hazards. Paying particular attention to the ways that race, ethnicity, class, and gender have shaped the political and economic dimensions of environmental injustices, this course draws on the work of scholars and activists to examine the long history of environmental inequities in the United States, along with more recent political movements-national and local-that seek to rectify environmental injustices.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines issues of health, illness, and healing from a variety of anthropological perspectives. From a cross-cultural perspective, we will examine the diversity of beliefs about human health and sickness, and a variety of healing practices by which people treat them. From the perspective of critical epidemiology, we will wrestle with recurrent problems of socioeconomic inequalities, ecological disruptions, and their impact upon the differential distribution, prevention, and treatment of human diseases.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines issues of health, illness, and healing from a variety of anthropological perspectives. From a cross-cultural perspective, we will examine the diversity of beliefs about human health and sickness, and a variety of healing practices by which people treat them. From the perspective of critical epidemiology, we will wrestle with recurrent problems of socioeconomic inequalities, ecological disruptions, and their impact upon the differential distribution, prevention, and treatment of human diseases.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides students a basic understanding of the most important biophysical and social characteristics of the dominant landscapes of the Neotropics. The Neotropical realm refers to the biogeographic region that includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and South America's temperate zone. These areas provide a range of services-both locally and globally-including water sources, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. They are also home to various human populations and support the livelihood of local and global human populations. Among others, these include tropical rain forests, Andean páramos, tropical dry forests, wetlands, deserts and temperate forests of southern South America. For each of these landscapes, we will learn the key biophysical processes that govern their functioning. We also study the peoples that live in them including indigenous communities, afro-descendants, and mestizos. Finally, using examples of these areas, we also analyze human-environment interactions including land-use change, biodiversity, resource and cultural conservation, and climate change impacts and responses.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the experiences, causes, and treatments of the major forms of distress and disorder codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), including schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, stress disorders, and personality disorders. We critically evaluate theories and research derived from biological, genetic, psychological, interpersonal, and social-cultural perspectives. Group B course. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the geographical dimensions of health and disease, emphasizing global and domestic public health issues. Key approaches and themes include the social determinants of health; health equity; how place influences individual health; health equity; epidemiological mapping and spatial analysis; environmental health; environmental justice; the relationship among demographic change, economic development, and population health; the geography of pandemics; the disease ecology approach to infectious and vector-borne diseases; and the challenges of global health governance in the 21st century, with special emphasis on emerging infectious diseases.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course will equip you with the skills and intuition to think about politics in a more critical and organized way.  You will practice the scientific method - identifying a problem worthy of study, developing testable hypotheses, designing a research strategy, gathering data, analyzing data, and interpreting your results - and contemplate the philosophical conundrums that underlie our efforts to describe, explain, and interpret complex phenomena.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces and explores the major health problems facing developing countries, and the main approaches to remediation. The course considers the social determinants of health, and the need for public health programs to address the root causes of health inequities as well as illness itself. Focus is at the country, international-organization, and donor levels. Attention will be given to major indicators, recent trends, policies, and metrics for monitoring progress. A case study, such as international tuberculosis control, will be used as an applied analysis.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to the diverse field of microbiology, including prokaryotes, archaea, viruses, and eukaryotic microorganisms. We will explore the ways microbes interact with their environments, in particular their diverse and complex relationships with humans. The course includes regular discussion of primary literature and an emphasis on written and oral communication. In the laboratory, students will practice fundamental microbiology techniques and data analysis, and lead hypotheses-driven independent investigations. Three lecture hours and one three-hour laboratory each week. Prerequisite(s): BIOL 170, BIOL 190 and BIOL 200; CHEM 211 recommended.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

Econometrics is the theory and practice of analyzing economic data. We investigate and implement methods economists use to test theories, evaluate and establish causal inference, and conduct economic forecasts. Students learn to design, conduct, and evaluate empirical work in economics and other social sciences. We apply acquired skills through a final research project that integrates secondary research, economic theory, and econometric analysis. We take a "hands on" approach by practicing each week's material in the Economics Department's computer lab. This course counts as a Group E elective. Prerequisite(s): ECON 361; and one of the following: STAT 155 or GEOG 278 or PSYC 201. A grade of C- or higher required for all prerequisites.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Econometrics is the theory and practice of analyzing economic data. We investigate and implement methods economists use to test theories, evaluate and establish causal inference, and conduct economic forecasts. Students learn to design, conduct, and evaluate empirical work in economics and other social sciences. We apply acquired skills through a final research project that integrates secondary research, economic theory, and econometric analysis. We take a "hands on" approach by practicing each week's material in the Economics Department's computer lab. This course counts as a Group E elective. Prerequisite(s): ECON 361; and one of the following: STAT 155 or GEOG 278 or PSYC 201. A grade of C- or higher required for all prerequisites.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This is an advanced course on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexually and gender diverse (LGBTQ+) people. The course is designed to engage students in a critical examination of health and healthcare disparities among LGBTQ+ populations, and evidence-based health models that explain the root causes and drivers of disparities. Students will also learn about and gain experience in behavioral interventions: how these are researched, developed, and implemented to target disparities, and promote the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ populations. Class time will consist of didactic instruction, large and small group discussions, documentary film viewings, application activities, and student presentations. Counts as a UP3 course. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100; PSYC 201 or STAT 155; or permission of instructor

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This is an advanced course on the health of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexually and gender diverse (LGBTQ+) people. The course is designed to engage students in a critical examination of health and healthcare disparities among LGBTQ+ populations, and evidence-based health models that explain the root causes and drivers of disparities. Students will also learn about and gain experience in behavioral interventions: how these are researched, developed, and implemented to target disparities, and promote the health and wellbeing of LGBTQ+ populations. Class time will consist of didactic instruction, large and small group discussions, documentary film viewings, application activities, and student presentations. Counts as a UP3 course. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100; PSYC 201 or STAT 155; or permission of instructor

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

"Correlation does not imply causation." We've all heard this mantra, warding us away from reading too much into the association between murder rates and ice cream sales, between shoe size and reading ability, and the like. But this mantra leaves us wanting: how do we study causation? Questions of causation are essential when we try to understand the effects of new medical treatments, economic policies, or government programs. In this course, we'll examine frameworks of thinking, statistical tools, and study designs that enable us to learn about the causal effects of interventions. Some specific topics include causal graphs, experimental studies, and quasi-experimental study designs. This course is a capstone course with a significant project component. Prerequisite(s): STAT 155

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introductory statistics course with an emphasis on multivariate modeling. Topics include descriptive statistics, data visualizations, multivariate linear regression, logistic regression, probability, model building and interpretation (i.e., confounding variables, causal diagrams, data context), and statistical inference (i.e., confidence intervals and hypothesis testing).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to the basic principles of research in psychology, with an emphasis on statistical techniques used in psychological science. We examine how to test psychological hypotheses using various statistical analyses, and we consider the pros and cons of experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational research designs. The course includes a weekly laboratory component in which students develop proficiency with statistical software, writing reports in American Psychological Association style, and familiarity with experimental techniques unique to behavioral research. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 Permission of instructor is required for first year students.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Bioethics deals with a variety of ethical issues arising in the context of medical care and biomedical research. These issues include informed consent, euthanasia, reproductive rights, confidentiality, and the distribution of health care resources. The course uses ethical theory to shed light on issues in medicine, and issues in medicine to illuminate ethical theory.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course provides an introduction to cartography, visualization, and analyses of geospatial data, as well as hands-on experience with geospatial technologies in the GIS laboratory. Students will learn the basics of mapping/cartography (e.g. scale, projections, map design) and Geographic Information Systems. Students will create maps with commonly used digital data (e.g., aerial photographs, census boundaries, digital elevation models, etc.), and master basic methods of spatial analyses. Both concepts and techniques will be taught in this course. Hands-on assignments include classification of demographic data and query/analysis of vector and raster data. One and one half laboratory hours per week required. Prerequisite(s): Permission of instructor.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q2

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Epidemiology is the study of the distribution and determinants of disease and health in human populations and the application of this understanding to the solution of public health problems. Topics include measurement of disease and health, the outbreak and spread of disease, reasoning about cause and effect, analysis of risk, detection and classification, and the evaluation of trade-offs. The course is designed to fulfill and extend the professional community's consensus definition of undergraduate epidemiology. In addition to the techniques of modern epidemiology, the course emphasizes the historical evolution of ideas of causation, treatment, and prevention of disease. The course is a required component of the concentration in Community and Global Health (CGH).

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

An introduction to ethnographic field interviewing learned in the context of individually run student field projects. Focuses on the anthropologist-informant field relationship and the discovery of cultural knowledge through participant observation and ethnosemantic interviewing techniques. Prerequisite(s): open to Anthropology Majors and Minors only; or by permission of instructor

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an overview of health economics and is designed to introduce you to the issues, theory, and practice of health economics. We will discuss the various market participants, including patients, provider firms, the healthcare labor force, hospitals, and insurance providers in the United States. We will explore recent research in peer-reviewed health economics journals to learn about the causal effect of various policies, incentives, and interventions. The topics include the demand/production of health (and the importance of health endowments, pollution, education, etc.), the market for health insurance (with a focus on asymmetric information, adverse selection, moral hazard etc.), supply side incentives (including physician incentives, induced demand, and medical malpractice). This course counts as a Group E elective. Prerequisite(s): ECON 119 or ECON 129. C- or higher required for all prerequisites.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course provides an overview of health economics and is designed to introduce you to the issues, theory, and practice of health economics. We will discuss the various market participants, including patients, provider firms, the healthcare labor force, hospitals, and insurance providers in the United States. We will explore recent research in peer-reviewed health economics journals to learn about the causal effect of various policies, incentives, and interventions. The topics include the demand/production of health (and the importance of health endowments, pollution, education, etc.), the market for health insurance (with a focus on asymmetric information, adverse selection, moral hazard etc.), supply side incentives (including physician incentives, induced demand, and medical malpractice). This course counts as a Group E elective. Prerequisite(s): ECON 119 or ECON 129. C- or higher required for all prerequisites.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Poor and minority populations have historically borne the brunt of environmental inequalities in the United States, suffering disproportionately from the effects of pollution, resource depletion, dangerous jobs, limited access to common resources, and exposure to environmental hazards. Paying particular attention to the ways that race, ethnicity, class, and gender have shaped the political and economic dimensions of environmental injustices, this course draws on the work of scholars and activists to examine the long history of environmental inequities in the United States, along with more recent political movements-national and local-that seek to rectify environmental injustices.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

Poor and minority populations have historically borne the brunt of environmental inequalities in the United States, suffering disproportionately from the effects of pollution, resource depletion, dangerous jobs, limited access to common resources, and exposure to environmental hazards. Paying particular attention to the ways that race, ethnicity, class, and gender have shaped the political and economic dimensions of environmental injustices, this course draws on the work of scholars and activists to examine the long history of environmental inequities in the United States, along with more recent political movements-national and local-that seek to rectify environmental injustices.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course provides students a basic understanding of the most important biophysical and social characteristics of the dominant landscapes of the Neotropics. The Neotropical realm refers to the biogeographic region that includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and South America's temperate zone. These areas provide a range of services-both locally and globally-including water sources, climate mitigation and biodiversity conservation. They are also home to various human populations and support the livelihood of local and global human populations. Among others, these include tropical rain forests, Andean páramos, tropical dry forests, wetlands, deserts and temperate forests of southern South America. For each of these landscapes, we will learn the key biophysical processes that govern their functioning. We also study the peoples that live in them including indigenous communities, afro-descendants, and mestizos. Finally, using examples of these areas, we also analyze human-environment interactions including land-use change, biodiversity, resource and cultural conservation, and climate change impacts and responses.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the dying process and the ways that humans beings come to terms with their mortality in different societies. We will learn how people die in major illnesses and critically analyze controversial issues regarding brain death, suicide, and euthanasia. We will survey funerary traditions from a variety of cultures and compare the social, spiritual, and psychological roles that these rituals play for both the living and the dying. We will examine cultural attitudes towards death; and how the denial and awareness of human mortality can shape social practices and institutions. Finally, we will consider issues regarding the quality of life, the opportunities and challenges of caregiving, and hospice traditions around the world. Please note that this is a civic engagement course in which all students will train and work as hospice volunteers. All students must be interviewed before they can register for the course.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

In this course, learners will explore key topics in adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH). Topics will range from the impact of adolescent physical, sexual, and social development on sexual behavior to policy and programmatic issues influencing ASRH outcomes in low-resource communities around the world. Emphasis will be placed on the social, economic, environmental, behavioral, and political factors that affect adolescent's sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Important clinical topics such as contraception, adolescent pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted infections will be discussed from the United States and international perspective. Upon successfully completing this course, learners will be able to identify a range of issues important to adolescent sexual and reproductive health and understand key policy topics pertinent to adolescent sexual and reproductive health both in the United States and around the world.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This seminar-style class examines the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality in the history of medicine and health in the U.S. Our diverse topics for study include eugenics, sexuality, midwifery, cultural/spiritual healing methods, pandemics, race- and gender-based ailments and medical experiments (such as the science and politics of the birth control pill and the infamous U.S Public Health Service syphilis experiment in Tuskegee), gender reassignment surgery, and sex-testing in the Olympics. This wide range of topics will prepare students to explore a research topic of their own choosing for a final paper. Can count towards "Gender," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields​.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines the experiences, causes, and treatments of the major forms of distress and disorder codified in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), including schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety disorders, dissociative disorders, stress disorders, and personality disorders. We critically evaluate theories and research derived from biological, genetic, psychological, interpersonal, and social-cultural perspectives. Group B course. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

The linear and logistic modeling techniques from STAT 155 are augmented with the three foundational machine learning tasks: regression, classification, and clustering.  The course explores techniques central to these tasks, including methods of data exploration, supervised and unsupervised learning, parametric and nonparametric modeling, and model training and evaluation.  As required by the application of these sophisticated techniques, the course also introduces foundational statistical computer programming concepts. Prerequisite(s): STAT 155.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

The linear and logistic modeling techniques from STAT 155 are augmented with the three foundational machine learning tasks: regression, classification, and clustering.  The course explores techniques central to these tasks, including methods of data exploration, supervised and unsupervised learning, parametric and nonparametric modeling, and model training and evaluation.  As required by the application of these sophisticated techniques, the course also introduces foundational statistical computer programming concepts. Prerequisite(s): STAT 155.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course will equip you with the skills and intuition to think about politics in a more critical and organized way.  You will practice the scientific method - identifying a problem worthy of study, developing testable hypotheses, designing a research strategy, gathering data, analyzing data, and interpreting your results - and contemplate the philosophical conundrums that underlie our efforts to describe, explain, and interpret complex phenomena.

General Education Requirements:
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Social scientists have many methodological approaches to choose from in their research toolkit ranging from qualitative to quantitative to comparative historical. Each of these approaches allows us to see and understand society from different perspectives, sometimes offering us complementary snapshots and other times presenting us with contradictory information. How, then, can we engage evidence to make claims about the social world? What even counts as evidence and who gets to speak for whom? Social Science Inquiry is part of a methods training sequence that emphasizes quantitative social science inquiry. The course covers quantitative social science as an epistemology compared to other ways of knowing, engages with published quantitative work in the field as well as its critics, teaches the basics of quantitative analysis for the social sciences, and largely emphasizes a hands-on approach to conceptualizing and implementing a research project. Also covering themes related to research ethics, these topics will be approached from a non-extractive lens, emphasizing the need to situate our research in the needs, obligations, and relations asked of us by the broader community. Note: The course uses R and counts as a Q3 and WA requirement.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Quantitative Thinking Q3

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

After a brief but essential global history of drugs, this course will focus primarily on the 20th century to the present. We will examine histories of substance use and abuse, temperance and prohibition, the "War on Drugs," the shifting concept of addiction as a moral failing to addiction as a treatable disease, as well as study the history of the recovery movement and harm reduction. This course is not intended to be an exhaustive, comprehensive history of the subject-but it will provide you with a solid base from which to explore other aspects of this fascinating and contentious aspect of human history.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

After a brief but essential global history of drugs, this course will focus primarily on the 20th century to the present. We will examine histories of substance use and abuse, temperance and prohibition, the "War on Drugs," the shifting concept of addiction as a moral failing to addiction as a treatable disease, as well as study the history of the recovery movement and harm reduction. This course is not intended to be an exhaustive, comprehensive history of the subject-but it will provide you with a solid base from which to explore other aspects of this fascinating and contentious aspect of human history. Meets the post-1800 requirement, and can count towards "Gender," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines multiple, interactive factors that contribute to human health; we take a biopsychsocial approach to understanding how best to promote and maintain health, prevent and treat illness, and adapt and thrive in the context of chronic illness. We discuss the roles of stress, coping, immune response, social relationships, personality, and structural inequalities in the progression and prevention of disease. We also address some ways in which behaviors (e.g., physical activity, nutrition, substance use, sleep) can contribute to wellbeing or sickness, and we examine behavior change strategies that can help improve our own and our community's health habits. Group B course. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100 .

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course introduces and explores the major health problems facing developing countries, and the main approaches to remediation. The course considers the social determinants of health, and the need for public health programs to address the root causes of health inequities as well as illness itself. Focus is at the country, international-organization, and donor levels. Attention will be given to major indicators, recent trends, policies, and metrics for monitoring progress. A case study, such as international tuberculosis control, will be used as an applied analysis.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Doctor, occultist, magician. The great healers of the Renaissance fashioned themselves not as surgeons (how barbarous), but magi. They sought to cure ailing patients through a combination of drugs, bloodletting (with a knife or leeches), and magical remedies (amulets, casting, exorcism). What might it have been like to be a doctor or a patient in an age of enchantment? What did “holistic” medicine look like during the Renaissance and after the Reformation? How did literature shape cultural understanding of the doctor-patient relationship, nursing as gendered labor, and disease as a blight or a curse? In addition to reading plays, poems, and short prose romances, we will examine the writings of notable Renaissance doctors and healers, chart the rise of royal and civic hospitals, and learn about the transmission of scientific and medical knowledge from the East to the West. Students will have the chance to conduct independent and original archival research and hone their writing skills in community. This course counts for the Renaissance period requirement for the English major and the Community and Public Health Concentration. No prerequisites, but familiarity with early modern English is an asset.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to the diverse field of microbiology, including prokaryotes, archaea, viruses, and eukaryotic microorganisms. We will explore the ways microbes interact with their environments, in particular their diverse and complex relationships with humans. The course includes regular discussion of primary literature and an emphasis on written and oral communication. In the laboratory, students will practice fundamental microbiology techniques and data analysis, and lead hypotheses-driven independent investigations. Three lecture hours and one three-hour laboratory each week. Prerequisite(s): BIOL 170, BIOL 190 and BIOL 200; CHEM 211 recommended.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This course is an introduction to the diverse field of microbiology, including prokaryotes, archaea, viruses, and eukaryotic microorganisms. We will explore the ways microbes interact with their environments, in particular their diverse and complex relationships with humans. The course includes regular discussion of primary literature and an emphasis on written and oral communication. In the laboratory, students will practice fundamental microbiology techniques and data analysis, and lead hypotheses-driven independent investigations. Three lecture hours and one three-hour laboratory each week. Prerequisite(s): BIOL 170, BIOL 190 and BIOL 200; CHEM 211 recommended.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Quantitative Thinking Q1

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials

This seminar-style class examines the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality in the history of medicine and health in the U.S. Our diverse topics for study include eugenics, sexuality, midwifery, cultural/spiritual healing methods, pandemics, race- and gender-based ailments and medical experiments (such as the science and politics of the birth control pill and the infamous U.S Public Health Service syphilis experiment in Tuskegee), gender reassignment surgery, and sex-testing in the Olympics. This wide range of topics will prepare students to explore a research topic of their own choosing for a final paper. Can count towards "Gender," or "Race and Indigeneity," or "Law and Social Justice," or "North America" fields.

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Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course builds on skills learned in the introductory Geographic Information Systems (GIS) course, focusing explicitly on geospatial techniques used for analyzing problems in public health. Mainly through lectures, discussions, hands-on lab exercises, and collaborative group work, students will learn to use advanced GIS tools to visualize and analyze public health issues, including: health disparities; neighborhood effects on health; spatial clustering of disease events, such as cancers; environmental health and environmental justice; infectious and vector-borne disease; and accessibility of populations to health care services. The course builds skills in spatial thinking, statistical and epidemiological reasoning, logical inference, critical use of data, geovisualization, and research project design. Students will be required to complete a final independent project on a topic of their choice. Laboratory work is required. Prerequisite(s): GEOG 225 and permission of instructor; completion of GEOG 256 and/or STAT 125 is highly encouraged before taking this course.

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Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

What is "disability" and what does an understanding of disability tell us about human experience more generally? What is a "disability identity" and what implications might claiming that identity have for psychological well-being and social change? How do stereotypes of disabled people and expectations of "normality" affect everyone's lives (not just those with disabilities)? Why don't many Deaf people consider themselves "disabled?" What might we learn from shifting the "problem" of disability from the individual person to the social environment? How do sexism, racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia, and other forms of oppression influence how different bodies are viewed, treated, educated, and experienced? This course will explore questions that emerge from thinking about the experience of disability (and its intersection with identities based on gender, race, class, and sexuality). Our work together will be grounded in critical disability and Deaf studies frameworks that are themselves informed by and in conversation with feminist, queer, and critical race theories and perspectives. Through a consideration of the socially, culturally, linguistically, and historically constructed meanings of physical, sensory, and cognitive "impairments," the course will rely on theoretical and empirical readings from psychology and related disciplines, personal essays, film/video, and guest visitors as we explore the social and psychological meanings of disability. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 100; PSYC 201 or STAT 155; and one intermediate Psychology course.

General Education Requirements:
U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Econometrics is the theory and practice of analyzing economic data. We investigate and implement methods economists use to test theories, evaluate and establish causal inference, and conduct economic forecasts. Students learn to design, conduct, and evaluate empirical work in economics and other social sciences. We apply acquired skills through a final research project that integrates secondary research, economic theory, and econometric analysis. We take a "hands on" approach by practicing each week's material in the Economics Department's computer lab. This course counts as a Group E elective. Prerequisite(s): ECON 361; and one of the following: STAT 155 or GEOG 278 or PSYC 201. A grade of C- or higher required for all prerequisites.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

Econometrics is the theory and practice of analyzing economic data. We investigate and implement methods economists use to test theories, evaluate and establish causal inference, and conduct economic forecasts. Students learn to design, conduct, and evaluate empirical work in economics and other social sciences. We apply acquired skills through a final research project that integrates secondary research, economic theory, and econometric analysis. We take a "hands on" approach by practicing each week's material in the Economics Department's computer lab. This course counts as a Group E elective. Prerequisite(s): ECON 361; and one of the following: STAT 155 or GEOG 278 or PSYC 201. A grade of C- or higher required for all prerequisites.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the human determinants of infectious diseases ranging from Paleolithic parasites to 21st Century pathogens. Yet even as we examine the latest disease threats, we will find that their evolution and emergence in human populations are largely based on ancient and recurring themes – i.e. the ways that people have interacted with, and disrupted, their natural and social environments. These lessons will help us gain further understanding into current issues such as animal- human spillover events, the evolution of virulence, and the inevitable rise of antibiotic resistance. This course is especially geared for students who enjoy making connections between the social and natural sciences. Previous courses in biology and anthropology are recommended but not required.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

What does neuroscience reveal about free will, responsibility, and identity – and how do those insights challenge the ways we think about law, medicine, and society? This discussion-based seminar examines the ethical, legal, and societal questions raised by contemporary neuroscience. Topics include moral decision-making, brain-based lie detection, cognitive enhancement, psychiatric neurotechnologies, and the use of neural data in courts, clinics, and consumer settings. The course also considers how neuroethics intersects with broader questions of equity, disability, identity, and systemic bias. Course work involves reading and analyzing work from neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, and law. It also includes leading and contributing to inclusive discussions and applying ethical reasoning to real-world scenarios. A final project provides the opportunity to investigate a neuroethical issue in a format that fits individual interests, such as a research proposal, policy brief, public-facing resource, or legal case analysis.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

A one-credit culminating seminar, meeting weekly for one hour in the spring term, in which issues in community and global health are discussed from an interdisciplinary perspective. In addition to sponsoring lectures by notable public health professionals, the seminar will also provide opportunities for students to share the work they have done on their CGH project in a public presentation. Credit for the CGH project is earned upon successful completion of the senior seminar. Typically, this seminar will be taken in the student's senior year. S/SN grading only.

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Course Materials

A one-credit culminating seminar, meeting weekly for one hour in the spring term, in which issues in community and global health are discussed from an interdisciplinary perspective. In addition to sponsoring lectures by notable public health professionals, the seminar will also provide opportunities for students to share the work they have done on their CGH project in a public presentation. Credit for the CGH project is earned upon successful completion of the senior seminar. Typically, this seminar will be taken in the student's senior year. S/SN grading only.

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:

Course Materials

"Correlation does not imply causation." We've all heard this mantra, warding us away from reading too much into the association between murder rates and ice cream sales, between shoe size and reading ability, and the like. But this mantra leaves us wanting: how do we study causation? Questions of causation are essential when we try to understand the effects of new medical treatments, economic policies, or government programs. In this course, we'll examine frameworks of thinking, statistical tools, and study designs that enable us to learn about the causal effects of interventions. Some specific topics include causal graphs, experimental studies, and quasi-experimental study designs. This course is a capstone course with a significant project component. Prerequisite(s): STAT 155

General Education Requirements:

Distribution Requirements:
Natural science and mathematics

Course Materials