The course is designed to introduce students to the concepts, approaches, methods, and goals of medical anthropology. In doing so we will undertake an examination of the interplay between biology and culture and how health, illness, medicine and therapy exist in different cultures. Central to this concern is the idea that culture plays a central role in definitions of health and illness.

Contact department for description.

Not available at this time

Integrates evolutionary biology, genetics, immunology, ecology, and behavioral ecology with sociocultural anthropology, politics, and economics. General evolutionary theory and an introduction to Darwinian medicine frame an examination of viral, bacterial, parasitic, and prion-based diseases along with their hosts, vectors, and other organisms. Particular attention to how humans have purposely and inadvertently created both biological and cultural environments for the transmission of different diseases. Considers media representations and misrepresentations.

The history of Native North Americans from their arrival on this continent, sometime between 80,000 and 12,000 years ago, up until their initial contact with Europeans. Archaeology as a source for the telling of history sensitive to voices often excluded from the written record. (Gen.Ed. HS, DU)

Thanks to programs like CSI (and its city-specific spinoffs), Fox?s Bones, A&E?s Cold Case Files, and Court TV?s Forensic Files, interest in forensics exploded. In this class, we will critique the methods used in these shows and compare them to the actual science of forensics. Television shows do not accurately portray the way forensic science is used to solve crimes. These popular programs glamorize work that is often difficult and tedious, giving a false impression that this work is possible without a background in the sciences.

Thanks to programs like CSI (and its city-specific spinoffs), Fox?s Bones, A&E?s Cold Case Files, and Court TV?s Forensic Files, interest in forensics exploded. In this class, we will critique the methods used in these shows and compare them to the actual science of forensics. Television shows do not accurately portray the way forensic science is used to solve crimes. These popular programs glamorize work that is often difficult and tedious, giving a false impression that this work is possible without a background in the sciences.

Thanks to programs like CSI (and its city-specific spinoffs), Fox?s Bones, A&E?s Cold Case Files, and Court TV?s Forensic Files, interest in forensics exploded. In this class, we will critique the methods used in these shows and compare them to the actual science of forensics. Television shows do not accurately portray the way forensic science is used to solve crimes. These popular programs glamorize work that is often difficult and tedious, giving a false impression that this work is possible without a background in the sciences.

Thanks to programs like CSI (and its city-specific spinoffs), Fox?s Bones, A&E?s Cold Case Files, and Court TV?s Forensic Files, interest in forensics exploded. In this class, we will critique the methods used in these shows and compare them to the actual science of forensics. Television shows do not accurately portray the way forensic science is used to solve crimes. These popular programs glamorize work that is often difficult and tedious, giving a false impression that this work is possible without a background in the sciences.

This course explores scientific and technical systems that permeate our lives. By way of facial recognition, IQ tests, vaccine protocols, hydroelectric dams, and other systems, we will focus on the all-too-human questions embedded in processes of scientific innovation and technological development. Together, we will address the following: What makes something a scientific fact? Who benefits and who is harmed by emerging platforms? How do social, political, and economic inequities shape technology and vice-versa? Can we engineer alternate futures? There are no prerequisites.