Many problems in the sciences are described and explored as dynamical systems - a set of mutually interacting differential equations. We will explore the qualitative structure of these systems and develop numerical methods for solving them. Specific topics include elementary differential equations, power series, and convergence. Computers will be used extensively, and the scientific context of calculus is emphasized throughout. Intended for students who have had a year of calculus elsewhere.

Contact Improvisation is a duet form of movement improvisation where two people move together in a playful physical dialogue, communicating through the language of touch, momentum, balance and weight support. From this seemingly simple premise arise rich embodied investigations of such issues as trust, touch, support, focus, permission, initiation, safety, verbal and non-verbal communication and shared power.

How do we make sense of a meaningless world? How do we render meaninglessness in fiction without making it meaningful? Are we satisfied with literature that doesn't explain itself? Can we read without trying to explain? This course will examine novelists grappling with these questions as they try to find place for literature in the modern world.

This course is designed for students transitioning from Division I to II to introduce the diverse methodologies employed in the social sciences, while critically considering the implications of method for the production of knowledge. What philosophical assumptions underlie our methodological choices? How does choice of method shape what we can know? Why are some methodologies privileged as more legitimate ways of knowing than others? When do methodological conventions work for or against other goals, such as community empowerment and social change?

The majority of this class will be held outside. Each week we will visit a different field site and spend the afternoon untangling the natural history of the landscape at that location. We will examine how plant and animal communities in western Massachusetts are shaped by processes such as geology, hydrology, weather, fire, and human land use. Students will be expected to learn skills in species identification and landscape interpretation. Class work will include a final group project as well as weekly assignments.

The main goal of this course is to examine the health issues/risks women face in the United States. We will examine the roles of medical research and the public health community in setting the health care agenda for women. Through the course students will gain a clearer understanding of the biology of life cycle changes, how health inequalities are generated and perpetuated, and how to think critically about their own health choices.

Genetics is traditionally the study of heredity - the passing of traits from parent to offspring. We have come to know that much of heredity is based on the information encoded in our genes. However, increasing evidence supports the notion that external factors can significantly influence this passing of traits. We will investigate many "traditional" areas of genetics, ranging from basic topics such as DNA structure and Mendelian inheritance to more advanced topics such as regulation of gene expression.

This course is for advanced (Division 3) students pursuing degrees in the fields of anthropology and human biology. Students whose research interests are within these fields face certain ethical questions and concerns inherent to these areas of study. For example, whom does their research benefit? What are the implications of the research to the individual or related cultural group? Does the field of research have ethical guidelines?

This course investigates the idea of geographies of exclusion through a multi-disciplinary inquiry which locates space and spatial production at its center. The course cross-thinks issues of exclusion across cities in the Global South and the Global North. It asks the following questions: what are geographies of exclusion? Who gets excluded, why, by whom, and how? What are some of the legal, spatial, socio-economical, ethical, and political apparatuses that produce segregated spaces of poverty and lavishness, violence and fear, connectedness and confinement?

A yearlong course that introduces the basics of Modern Standard Arabic language, this course concentrates on all four skills: speaking, listening, reading, writing. Beginning with a study of Arabic script and sound, students will complete the Georgetown text Alif Baa and finish Chapter 15 in Al Kitaab Book 1 by the end of the academic year. Students will acquire vocabulary and usage for everyday interactions as well as skills that will allow them to read and analyze a range of texts.