Review of group process roles and responsibilities of public health professionals. Group dynamics, principles related to theories and concepts underlying public health community programs. Structured laboratory experience provided.

Survey of socio-behavioral theories commonly used in public health education interventions at the individual, group, and community levels.

The goal of the course is to better understand randomness and uncertainty, and develop tools to make more informed decisions under uncertain situations. In the beginning of the first semester, the instructor covers some fundamental and relevant concepts from probability, decision theory, and psychology. The presentation will be made in a way accessible to students from all majors and no advanced knowledge will be required. The goal is to lay the foundations for deeper investigation by students in their theses.

In this course, students will conduct an honors thesis by creating an instrument to pursue a biological science research question. Students will be encouraged to coordinate with an existing research enterprise on campus. In the first semester, students will develop a thesis proposal and construct a prototype instrument. During the semester, students will explore case studies about creating/deploying instruments combined with hands-on activities to develop technical skills for instrument development.

The purpose of this course is to better understand the links between science and public policy. Using social justice topics (e.g., food security, the built environment, health care access) as a stepping stone, students explore the questions: How does where we live influence our health? What determines the availability of healthful foods or safe places to live in our communities? What options do we have as engaged scholars to facilitate changes in a local community and beyond? How does our social identity influence the solutions we develop to address injustice?

An opportunity to discuss current state, national, and global issues and events with talented faculty, distinguished community members, politicians, and influential alums. Class time will be devoted to vibrant and challenging discussions based on critical reading and analysis of newspaper articles on current issues Requirements: Reading the front page stories from the New York Times and the Boston Globe daily. Supplemental reading as needed.

An opportunity to discuss current state, national, and global issues and events with talented faculty, distinguished community members, politicians, and influential alums. Class time will be devoted to vibrant and challenging discussions based on critical reading and analysis of newspaper articles on current issues Requirements: Reading the front page stories from the New York Times and the Boston Globe daily. Supplemental reading as needed.

Globalization will serve as the cornerstone of our study in this two-semester seminar as students undertake their honors thesis. By globalization I mean the increasingly integrated nature of our world's economy, culture and consciousness. Some of the main issues of globalization the course will explore are: strengthening borders against outsiders (refugees, immigrants); increasing borderlessness of technology, which reaches into all corners of the globe and the relationship between globalization and the distribution of income across countries.

This two-semester, 8-credit honors thesis/project course focuses on two of the most intractable structural issues confronting contemporary American society: immigration and mass incarceration. This course will place these two issues in historical context through a variety of academic, journalistic and autobiographical texts and documentaries, which will allow students to see how the contemporary phenomena of immigration and mass incarceration have common ideological underpinnings and common historical roots.

This two-semester, 8-credit interdisciplinary Thesis Seminar examines the complex problem of making weapons out of biological organisms. This includes understanding the history of research and development into creating biological weapons, as well as describing the extent and categories of actual use, including consideration of accidental and/or unintentional use, as in the historical exposure of indigenous cultures to European diseases.