Daily we are presented with a wealth of information in regards to health, fitness, and wellness. We hear about the next great diet, workout, or health strategy every time we tune into our local news programming or read our Facebook feed. It can be overwhelming for one to decide what strategy to follow to increase health, fitness/wellness, and or performance. This seminar is designed to discuss the cognitive and behavioral skills one needs to adopt a healthy lifestyle. Skills will be based on personal needs with the goal of promoting a lifetime of health, fitness, and wellness.

General Colin Powell once
said, ?Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.? In this
seminar, we will discuss many ideas and examples of leadership from people of African descent from
Frederick Douglass to Barack Obama, from Mary McLeod Bethune to Opal Tometi, the Nigerian-Ameri

GABA receptors are the most common inhibitory neurotransmitters in the vertebrate nervous system. They are bound by
a variety of drugs, including alcohol and benzodiazepines. How GABA receptors are expressed and regulated continues to
be of great interest to the medical and scientific community. Additionally, identifying and designing new drugs that bind
GABA receptors would be of great benefit to society.
This course will include an introduction to scientific literature and writing. We will focus on reading and

historical, literary, and filmic texts, this course examines major historical transformations that
have shaped the development, performance, and portrayal of identity in the twentieth and
twenty-first centuries. It focuses on the interlocking relationships and representations of whites
and blacks, as well as the sexes. Beginning with Birth of a Nation (1951), this seminar moves
along chronological and thematic axes to investigate racial and gender formation and the
reproduction of racial and gender ideologies and identities. Racial mixing, cross-racial, and

Video is one of the most powerful mediums today for educating, inspiring, and influencing others. In this project-based learning class, students will learn how to use the free equipment available at the UMass Amherst Library Digital Media Lab to create professional quality videos about a social issue of interest (e.g., fake news, homelessness, school to prison pipeline, student debt, public health, air pollution, deforestation).

We will explore the nature of mass extinctions over the Phanerozoic Eon, i.e., the last 542 million years. No two extinction events were alike. We will consider the types of evidence and hypotheses about the causes of extinction in the context of our planet?s dynamic history. We will explore several examples, and consider whether we are in the midst of a mass extinction today - the so-called 6th extinction

Nanotechnology can be a double-edged sword. The same unique properties that enable the beneficial use of nanomaterials in novel applications also make their unintentional interactions difficult to anticipate. Increasing entry of engineered nanomaterials into the environment has resulted in growing environmental and health concerns as the field of nanotechnology continues to expand. Nanomaterials are not only found in our latest gadgets, they are also

Without leaving her childhood home, Emily Dickinson developed a revolutionary poetic voice. She
refused the conventional roles of wife, mother, congregant, and protege, embracing poetry as her
vocation. Her poetic voice reflects her effort to compose herself through intense reflection on her
emotions and thoughts, but her spare poetic form invites readers to interpret the words through their own
experiences. To explore Dickinson?s poetry, this class will study her letters and poems, visit her home

What does it mean to be an older adult in today?s society? The topics covered in this course will answer that question. Based on the student?s majors or area of interest, students will explore issues related to aging. These issues may include topics related to health and function of older individuals, housing, travel, accessibility, social issues, international aging, the value of pets, etc.