Did you ever wonder why Jewish grandmothers who make gefilte fish from Norwegian sturgeon so frequently are parasitized by tapeworms? Maybe not, but who gets parasitized, when, and by what is highly significant to understanding the history of humankind. In this seminar we will read and think about the failure of modern (Western) medicine to eliminate most of the tropical diseases of Homo sapiens. We will also introduce the workings of Hampshire College. We will read R.S. Desowitz's Federal Bodysnatchers and the New Guinea Virus (2002) and P.J.

This course looks at agriculture as a set of ecological systems and issues. It refers to ecology in both the sense of interactions between organisms (e.g., crops, pests, and predators) and their environment, and in the larger-scale sense of environmental impacts and related social and political issues. A broad range of topics will be covered, including pesticides and alternatives, soil fertility and erosion, the role of animals, genetically modified crops, biofuels, global vs. local trade, and more.

Worried about climate change and how we will live sustainably in the future? Join us to brainstorm and assess solutions together. This will be a course for first and second year students interested in learning how to evaluate potential solutions to current local and global environmental and social problems. The course will be co-taught by faculty across the curriculum at Hampshire and will include guest lectures from experts in the field of climate change and sustainability.

Floods, droughts, and hurricanes have all been predicted to increase in response to climate change. How will these and other effects impact our access to freshwater? How will we adapt to these changing conditions? This class will cover a brief introduction to the science behind climate change predictions and look specifically at the impacts to the water cycle. We will also discuss how the ways in which we have changed the landscape affect our ability to respond to changes in water availability.

This course is an introduction to fundamental principles of optics as applied to image formation and holography. Each student will have a chance to produce two white-light visible holograms in our lab, as well as to undertake an individual project dealing with three dimensional image reproduction, holography, or more broadly defined optical phenomena. Topics will include geometric and physical optics, the nature and propagation of light, vision and color, photography, digital imaging, the Fourier transform and holography. Aesthetic considerations will be part of the course as well.

This course can be summed up as: everything you wanted to know about aliens but were afraid to ask (a scientist). The course will explore the topic of extraterrestrial intelligence from the perspective of several different fields. We will look at the history of UFO sighting claims and analyze the reliability of eye-witness testimonies, explore psychological & sociological reasons behind claims of alien abductions, and analyze the current state of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) from the perspective of astronomy and planetary research.

One can do certain things just by using a special kind of a verb - a verb that names the very sort of act one is performing. For example, one can thank someone by saying "Thank you", fire someone by saying "You are fired", and apologize by saying "I apologize". One can also become married by simply saying: "I do". Does the force of these utterances require a special explanation, or can it be explained by a general theory of speech acts? The course will investigate classic and recent papers in linguistics and philosophy that try to address this question.

The rise of computers and large datasets over the past 30 years has led to the development of new methods for analyzing data. These 'statistical learning' methods blend classical statistical concepts with ideas from computer science and are widely used by data scientists to analyze complex datasets. In this class we will cover the basic concepts in statistical learning including: regression, supervised learning (classification), unsupervised learning (clustering and dimensionality reduction), cross-validation methods, and model selection.

This reading seminar is recommended for all concentrators and advanced students in cognitive science, regardless of discipline. Students with a background in psychology, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, neuroscience, animal behavior, education, new information technologies etc., are all welcome. Each week we will examine one current issue in cognitive science, drawing on recent journal articles and essays. We will seek to make the issues comprehensible across disciplinary divides and to highlight potential areas for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Students will work in interdisciplinary teams to create four digital games during the course. Each team member will serve in one of several possible roles: Programmer, 3D artist, 2D artist, Game designer, Audio designer, or Project manager. The course will use Unity 3D as the game engine, which is used in many professional game development projects. Students who have taken this course previously are welcome to take it again, since each game development experience is unique. For more information, see irafay.com/classes.