Our social worlds?our sense of what is

This class is not about where in the world to seek the perfect career and happiness. Rather, it is about how to understand yourself ? your values, desires, choices, and habits ? which would prepare you for a fulfilling career and lasting happiness. Self-knowledge is more difficult to gain than knowledge about the world, as the former requires our eyes to look inward, which unfortunately is not one of our born habits.

This seminar will explore the biology and behavior of the domestic cat from an evolutionary and ecological perspective. Students will be introduced to the evolution of mammals and wild cats. The seminar will explore the domestication process and how this shaped the current behavior and biology of the domestic cat and how cat ancestry left its marks on this companion animal. The positive and negative health impacts of domestic cats will be discussed. The seminar will conclude with a discussion of feral cats, their impacts on wildlife, and their management.

The 2016 U.S. Presidential election featured an effective, openly socialist candidate, Bernie Sanders. Socialism has a long history in the U.S., including Abraham Lincoln?s own contacts with Marx and the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, after whom our library is named. This course will survey the origins and history of socialism, joined at birth with the discipline of sociology, with a focus on the U.S. We will encounter socialist interpretations of race, class and gender inequalities, along with their critiques.

Over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. This time around, the cataclysm is us.

In this course, we will discuss the cell, genetic and molecular biology mechanisms and pathophysiology of selected diseases and conditions. These will include such diseases as diabetes, sickle cell anemia, African Sleeping Sickness, cancer with known etiologies such as Li Fraumeni Syndrome and Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Fragile X Syndrome and Huntington?s Disease. We will use a combination of readings and case studies to discuss various aspects of these diseases and conditions.

Each week, students will read and discuss short examples of American nature writing in chronological order, and have the opportunity to write and share Rachel Carson, Wallace Stegner, Wendell Berry, Terry Tempest Williams, and Gary Snyder.

As any journal-keeper or blogger knows, writing can be a good way to work through major changes in your life. And starting college is a major change! For most of you, you?ll be leaving home for the first time ever, moving into a dorm with hundreds of strangers, and beginning a phase of your education that will be more demanding, and more dependent on your own initiative, than ever before.

This course will discuss multiple perspectives involving contemporary public issues and problems. The topics covered will be defined by the students, but could include immigration, marijuana legalization, student loan debt, climate change, women in politics, divestment, healthcare policy, transgender rights, etc.

Art, Culture, and Literature @ UMass looks at the lively and vibrant arts and culture of UMass, including museums and galleries, rare books and manuscripts, one of America?s foremost literary magazines, innovative and historic architecture, a major international film archive, and other cultural resources on campus. The seminar will offer a history of the arts, writing, and design at UMass, and will include on-campus field trips to all the places and resources we learn about.