Is there an invisible energy force flowing inside our body?  Can the state of our mind and spirit either cause or heal our physical ailment?  These questions may sound irrational because they seem to be out of alignment with modern medicine.  Yes, there are the fundamental principles of a family of “unconventional” therapies that we now call Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM), such as Yoga, Reiki, acupuncture, meditation, therapeutic touch, Qigong, among others.  CAM has never been more popular in the U.S.  Nearly 40 percent of adults report using CAM for preventing and treating diseases and health conditions.  Regardless, there is still a widespread skepticism about CAM in the medical community and the general public.  The skepticism is largely stemmed from the lack of conventionally rigorous scientific evidence about the efficacy and safety of CAM therapies.  This seminar will allow students to learn and differentiate various levels of scientific evidence, to critically evaluate the existing CAM literature from experiential, theoretical, as well as evidence-based perspective, and to understand unique challenges researchers face when designing studies of CAM therapies.  In addition, students are expected to propose innovative research designs in which the CAM study validity can be enhanced.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: CAS credit only
GSB: Elective credit Only
CALS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS: Consult with Academic Advisor

Energy is a dynamic quantity that pervades space and time to their limits. Continuously changing form, morphing from one type to the next, never created nor destroyed, yet always decaying from a highly ordered state to one with many possibilities, energy is the stuff that manifests matter and the thing that manifests time. The dynamics of energy fabricate reality and elucidate existence, and yet, at the same instant, conceal the future from observation until it becomes the now.

Energy is a term that is often used in colloquial conversations yet is rarely subjected to rigorous definitions nor to critical thought processes and analyses. Even still, the scientists and engineers who make their livelihood studying, shaping, converting, and manipulating energy will necessarily admit, if they are honest, that even they do not truly know what energy actually is. That’s correct; there is very little scientific agreement as to what energy actually is. Yet enigmatically, humans have become incredibly proficient at quantifying, tracking, and manipulating energy.

A glib and unsatisfying definition of energy is that it is everything in existence. Yet, one might argue that this is, in fact, a quite accurate and rigorous definition as well. In this class, we will strive to fill in the spectrum between glib and rigor as we explore the transient nature of energy and its influence on our physical reality from the smallest of the microscales to the largest scales of the universe.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: Non-lab science
GSB:  Elective credit only
CALS: Physical Science
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult with academic advisor

HCOL 185B Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

This course addresses a paradox: how truly creative work might begin in what we steal from others. In literary contexts, we call such “theft” adaptation. The course will investigate the art of adaptation in a theoretical way—what is creativity? what is adaptation?—in an analytical way—by reconstructing how specific literary artists have adapted the work of their predecessors—and through our own creative efforts—by doing our own creative adaptations. Units for the course will include: 1) an introduction to the “Theory of Adaptation”; 2) “Hamlets,” in which we will consider everything from Shakespeare’s original borrowing from his sources to modern adaptations of the play; and 3) “Film Adaptation,” in which we will consider specific examples of how filmic art emerges from source-texts. Along the way, we might also consider examples of adaption ranging from Biblical adaptation to the modern novel, and our own creative efforts will include short mash-ups and longer group efforts.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS:  Literature
GSB:  Language & Literature Core, prior to Fall 2016; Humanities Core, Cataloge 2016+
CALS: Humanities, Social Science
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

HCOL 185C Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

Non-native biological invasions are second only to habitat destruction in causing declines in native species and are currently cited as one of the primary drivers of global environmental change. However, species invasions also provide unique opportunities for testing basic 
theories in ecology and evolution. In this course we will review the process and underlying mechanisms of invasions, effects of invasions on communities and ecosystems, management techniques, and examine the ethics of managing organisms. We will focus on conceptual frameworks in ecology, research approaches, and the overall process of “doing” science.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: Non-lab Science
GSB: Elective Credit Only
CALS: Biological Sciences
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor for further clarification
CESS: Consult with Academic Advisor for General Education Requirement Approval

HCOL 185D Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

This course examines new product development from a variety of perspectives including historical analysis, problem solving, creativity and ideation, and entrepreneurial thinking. Throughout the course, we consider the notion of product at its most broad to include offerings of goods, services, ideas, experiences, and causes. The course will be based on four main topics. We will look back to the history of innovation and its role in shaping the marketplace we live in today. From there, we review current perspectives on the forms of innovation and theories of innovation. Next, the course introduces students to a variety of creation/ideation techniques to apply in problem-solving and innovation efforts. The course concludes with analysis of the methods of communicating and evaluating innovation efforts.

Throughout the course, students will be creating a portfolio of work related to an innovation in the area (good, service, idea, experience, cause) of their choice. This portfolio will be built through research, current events analyses, presentations, and writings integrating course concepts and practices into the student’s chosen area for innovation. Ultimately, these portfolios will be presented in Poster Session format in an Innovation Fair, in lieu of a final exam. The portfolio itself will allow the student to showcase the semester’s work and to share that information with members of the UVM community.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS:  Elective Credit Only
GSB:  Entrepreneurship Theme Credit, Marketing Concentration Credit, Business Minor Cr.
CALS: Social Science
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

HCOL 185E Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

Evolutionary theory suggests that individuals are motivated by self-interest, a “survival instinct”, which promotes self-preservation sometimes at the cost of the interests of others.   On the other hand, it is hard to deny that many people behave altruistically, with moral regard for others, and in fact make extreme sacrifices for moral reasons to benefit others.  How then can morality be squared with the principles of evolution?  In this class, we will explore this issue in detail.  Several responses will be considered.  Perhaps altruism, and morality generally, is an illusion?  This is a response considered at the very origins of moral philosophy, in Plato’s Republic.  Perhaps behavior that seems to be other oriented is actually motivated by self-interest?  Egoism has a long tradition and has gained some support from evolutionary theory.  Perhaps moral norms are just mechanisms for controlling selfishness?  On the other hand, there may be evolutionary benefits conferred on groups that promote altruism and concern for non-members.  We will spend some time exploring some of the difficulties and resources of a group selection model of the evolution of ethics.  In doing so, we will explore a variety of cultural norms and beliefs that evolutionary anthropologist have used as evidence of a group selection model. We will also draw on resources in the growing field of moral anthropology that survey the variety of social and cultural norms in an effort to identify common features and principles that are trans-cultural.  In considering the conflicts between various cultures moral norms, we will ask whether an objective or universal notion of morality can be sustained, and if not, what becomes of ethics in light of evolutionary theory.  In doing so, we will be asking whether our ethical beliefs are attempts to describe objective features of the world we live in or whether they are merely the cultural artifacts of highly evolved and very diverse humans.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: Humanities
GSB: Humanities Core 2016+, Elective Credit Only prior to Fall 2016
CALS: Humanities
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS: Consult with Academic Advisor

HCOL 185F Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

In this course, students will be introduced to the causes and consequences of biological invasions, one of the main causes of species extinction facing the world today.  This course will cover both the scientific underpinnings of biological invasions as well as the socio-economic consequences of invasions in different parts of the world using examples from regions that are heavily infested with invasive species such as South Africa and students will research local, national and international policies about the introduction and control of invasive species.  Student will become familiar with local Vermont invasions (purple loosestrife, reed canary grass, Japanese knotweed, glossy buckthorn, zebra mussels) ad attempts to control them along with the state policy about invasions.  In addition to studying the biology of invasions, students will familiarize themselves with state and US national policies concerning invasive species importation and control and they will study international policies and agreements about biological invasions. The course will provide students with research experience by conducting a survey and analyzing the responses by different groups.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: CAS Credit only
GSB: Elective Credit Only prior to Fall 2016 Catalogue; Natural Science Core - 2016+
CALS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS: Consult with Academic Advisor

HCOL 185G Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

Why do modern Homo sapiens suffer from so many lifestyle diseases?  What makes HIV/AIDS such a troubling public health problem? Can an understanding of evolutionary biology help us design better therapies to treat cancer?  Where do diseases like Ebola come from, and why are they so lethal? Exactly, what kind of running shoes should I be wearing? And how am I supposed to run?

This course introduces a new field, Evolutionary Medicine, the study of disease, pathology, and treatment through lens of Darwinian evolution.  It will explore the very basics of disease and illness, asking questions such as the ones above, and many others. To present an integrated picture of various diseases and their evolutionary origin, this course will explore historical perspectives, narratives of disease experience and purer scientific approaches.  Materials used will range from primary scientific literature to exploratory essays, and personal narratives of disease. The course has no formal prerequisites, though an advanced level high school biology course and mathematics through pre-calculus are preferred.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS:  Science: Non-lab
GSB:  Elective Credit Only prior to Fall 2016 catalogue, Natural Science Core 2016+
CALS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT, MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

HCOL 185H Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

Contemporary Latin-American artistic representation is as diverse as its peoples, and encompasses a plurality of cultural expressions and complex relationships.  This course will explore the interdisciplinary landscape of “ecocriticism” as an emerging field in the environmental humanities and address how Latin American representation engages with the multidimensional aspects of environmental issues.  Case studies from Amazonia, Mexico and Easter Island will enable observations of how some of these issues manifest in specific time and scale.  We will discuss fictional and non-fictional texts, oral narratives, film and other expressive forms that reflect on diverse cosmologies from the region.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS:  CAS credit, Non-European Cultures
GSB:  Global & Regional Core – Catalogue 2016: Humanities Core
CALS: Social Science
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

HCOL 185I Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

The term “individualism” is often used to describe a pervasive tendency in the culture and politics of the modern West.  Since the 1820’s, critics have used it to describe the disintegration of community and tradition, the erosion of civic allegiance, the triumph of selfishness, and the pervasive experience of personal alienation.  Almost as soon as the term was introduced, however, others began hold it up as an ethical and political ideal.  To them, “individualism” (and the related term “individuality”) was a celebration of the power, beauty, and creativity of the self-reliant individual: the rugged frontiersman, the yeoman farmer, the artist, the rebel, or the self-made businessman.  Both points of view are still powerfully represented in contemporary literature, poetry, film, philosophy, and social theory.  The tension between them gives rise to a number of enduring questions.  Which forms of individualism, if any, are worth aspiring to? What are their dangers? And which forms should be resisted?  These questions pertain directly to the oldest of ethical questions: What is the good life? But they also have important implications for the related questions: What is the good society? And what are the proper aims (and limits) of government?

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: Humanities
GSB:  Social Science Core
CALS: Humanities
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisorRSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

HCOL 185J Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

Developing lasting political structures that are representative of and responsive to human needs is a subtle and challenging endeavor.  In recent years, many countries have sought to do this and shed legacies of political authoritarianism.  Operationalizing the democracy concept at the level of the nation-state, however, often proves tricky.  There are many issues to be considered in creating and adapting democratic governance institutions.  For example, should the system be presidential or parliamentary, or a hybrid incorporating elements of both approaches?  What elections systems should be used?  How should the executive branch be structured? 

This course provides an introduction to key concepts and is followed by focus on the executive branch, and then the legislature. It then considers election systems and administration, models of decentralization, and several country case studies.  The course ends with a concluding segment designed to pull together and summarize the proceedings over the semester.  The course is designed to be fast-paced, participatory and hands-on.  It is not designed to provide “yes or no” answers but will instead provide an understanding of key concepts in the field, how they are utilized, what successes and failures have been in the field of governance institution design, and what can be learned from them.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: Social Science 
GSB: Social Science Core
CALS:  Humanities, Social Science
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with academic advisor
CNHS: Elective – Consult with Academic Advisor for further clarification
CESS: Consult CESS advisor for General Education Requirement Approval

HCOL 185K Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

This course will explore what it means to think, learn, know and understand and the cognitive structures and processes involved with those activities.  We will look at learning as it occurs in formal learning environments (i.e., classrooms) because much of the research has taken place in those contexts with the goal of improving classroom instruction, but this course will extend what has been learned in classroom settings to learning in other contexts.

Topics will include learning by analogy, the transfer of knowledge across different domains, the development of expertise and what it means to be an expert, the role of motivation and emotion in learning, and learning disabilities/differences.  Recent developments in neuroscience have informed our understanding of how people learn will also be covered.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: CAS Credit only
GSB: Elective Credit Only
CALS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS: Consult with Academic Advisor

HCOL 185L Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

The 2014 blockbuster, The Monuments Men, the news stories about the Gurlitt horde and about investigations into the questionable provenances of objects in museums around the world have brought to a larger public some of the ethical, legal, religious, and political issues involved when art has been looted or destroyed during wartime.  As we will examine in this course, throughout history, especially in times of political and/or religious strife, art objects have been the target of thievery and destruction as a means by which a foe wreaks damage to its rival. We will investigate important case studies over a wide expanse of time and place in order to understand what happened (why particular sorts of art objects were destroyed or stolen, for example) and what the outcomes were. How powerful is art as a tool of war and protest? Should efforts to guard artistic patrimony be valued when loss of human life is at stake? How do war survivors (countries and individuals) reclaim art that was stolen from them? Should museums return looted art in all cases?

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS:   Humanities or Fine Arts
GSB:   Elective Credit Only prior to Fall 2016 catalogue; Humanities Core 2016+
CALS: Humanities or Fine Arts 
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor 
RSENR: Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Humanities
CESS: Consult with Academic Advisor

HCOL 185M Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

This course examines in detail both selections of Shakespeare’s work and the cultural context in which it first was written and performed, focusing on the classical tradition both as an influence on Elizabethan English culture in general and on Shakespeare in particular. Specific areas of interest include the intersection of history, literature, and theater; we focus on the classical tradition in terms of historical figures and events and also classical mythology as largely expressed by Ovid. This course is intensive in the areas of reading, writing, and participation as we consider how Shakespeare actively engages with the classical tradition. The semester concludes by considering how Shakespeare himself is part of the transmission of the classical tradition to the modern age. Four papers, a reading journal, several presentations/declamations, and a final exam are required.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: Literature
GSB: Language & Literature Core prior to Fall 2016 catalogue; Humanities Core - 2016+
CALS: Humanities
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor

RSENR: Consult with Academic Advisor
CNHS: Consult with Academic Advisor
CESS: Consult CESS advisor

HCOL 185N Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

Disease outbreaks linked to a variety of foodborne pathogens including Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria cause over 48 million people to become ill each year in the US. This course will address food safety issues by reviewing outbreaks caused by notable pathogens. We will explore the development of microbiological food safety policy through analysis of how science and risk assessment are used in establishing policy. Using selected case studies and readings, we will examine the factors which have created current food safety policies and explore how pending legislation can either protect or compromise public health. Students will become familiar with the roles and responsibilities of the FDA, USDA and CDC in shaping policy, as well as the use of tools such as HACCP, risk assessment, FoodNet and PulseNet in identification of emerging food safety issues. Through extensive class writings, students will become familiar and gain experience in submitting written public comments to Federal Register notices concerning changes in food safety policy.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: No CAS credit
GSB: Elective Credit Only
CALS: Social Science
CEMS: ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with your academic advisor
CNHS: Consult with your academic advisor
CESS: Consult with your academic advisor

HCOL 185O Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF

This seminar is situated at the nexus of history, German and European Studies, and international relations. It will explore a range of social, political, and cultural developments in the two German states that emerged from the rubble of the Second World War. Major themes will include how the German states coped with the legacies of the past and the political realities of the present. The division of Germany embodied the division of the world into two hostile blocs during the Cold War. Having unleashed a brutal war of conquest, and having perpetrated murder on a massive scale, Germany stood morally bankrupt in 1945. We will analyze how the legacy of the Holocaust affected German politics East and West, influenced the relations of the two German states with the other countries, shaped both German societies internally, and impacted on German reunification in 1990. Ever since German unity, the Germans also have to come to terms with the history of the German Democratic Republic (GDR), leading to a situation termed doppelte Vergangenheitsbewältigung – coping with the legacies and memories of two German dictatorships.

This class fills the following distribution/college requirements: (If you don't see your college, please contact your advisor.)

CAS: Humanities
GSB: History Core prior to Fall 2016 Catalogue; Humanities Core 2016+
CALS: Social Science
CEMS:  ENGR: Gen Ed Elective; CS, STAT,MATH: check with your academic advisor
RSENR: Consult with Advisor
CNHS:  Consult with academic advisor
CESS: Consult with academic advisor

HCOL 185P Fall 2017 Syllabus.PDF