Course Descriptions

Spring 2010

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Stem Cells and Human Enhancement: Scientific Frontiers, Ethics, and Policy

The medical promise of embryonic and adult stem cells has generated enormous excitement because of their potential to cure human diseases for which no cure exists. However, societies must weigh the advancement of stem cell science against ethical issues that lie at the heart of the value of human life. This ethical dilemma is currently the subject of government legislation, public policy analysis and heated public debate. This University Seminar will provide a dynamic forum for its students to explore how societies can balance their desire for progress in personal health with their respect for alternative religious, cultural and societal views about the origins of human life. This seminar will delve into scientific, economic, theological and moral controversies that have tremendous impact on the well-being of individuals and societies. Ultimately, this seminar will allow its participants to be informed, empowered and fully-engaged in the debate over the development and use of stem cells and other similar conflicts, and will guide their understanding of the need to balance society's capabilities and conscience.

Faculty:
Jonathan Garlick
Professor
Director, Division of Tissue Engineering and Cancer Biology
School of Dental Medicine

Sheldon Krimsky
Professor
Department of Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning
School of Arts and Sciences

David Kaplan
Professor and Chair
School of Engineering

David O'Leary
University Chaplain
Professor of Religion

Time: Tuesdays, 4:30pm - 6:50pm

Location: Medford Campus

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Previous Courses

Child and Youth Development: International Perspectives on Children in Exceptionally Difficult Circumstances

Millions of the world's children encounter developmental contexts that present major challenges to healthy mental and physical development. Some children experience life in institutions such as orphanages, refugee camps, juvenile detention facilities, homeless shelters. Others are child soldiers, or experience trafficking or forced child labor. The magnitude of the issue is large both domestically and internationally: UNICEF estimates that there are 143 million orphaned children in the world; homeless and street children number globally in the tens of millions (UNICEF, 2005); and the United Nations High Committee for Refugees provides support for approximately eight million children in refugee camps across national borders. Globally, more than one million children are living in juvenile detention facilities. On any single night in the United States alone, approximately 100,000 children are homeless, living in temporary homeless shelters.
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This seminar will explore the following questions, among others: How do these children growing up in exceptionally difficult circumstances become thriving adults who make positive contributions to the social, cultural, and economic structures of their societies? What are the long term consequences of marginalized mental and physical health and low educational attainment? What programs and policies are in place, nationally and globally, to assure that these children?s potential contributions are maximized? In addition to attending classes, writing a reflection paper and preparing a final presentation, students will have a 5-10 hour service learning experience. Students will receive a final grade.

Faculty:
M. Ann Easterbrooks
Professor, Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Development
School of Arts and Sciences

Christina D. Economos
Assistant Professor, Public Health and Family Medicine
Associate Director, John Hancock Center for Physical Activity and Nutrition
Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy

Laurie C. Miller
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Director, International Adoption Clinic
School of Medicine

The Obesity Epidemic: Science and Food Economics (AY 2009-2010)

Obesity is unlike any other major public health issue, and comparisons with other disorders pale. Alzheimer?s disease, Parkinson?s disease and AIDS rarely afflict more than 10% of the population in any given country, while national surveys indicate a third of adults are overweight and another third obese in the United States. Moreover, nearly 1 in 5 children from 2 to 18 years of age are overweight. The World Health Organization reports that the obesity epidemic does not discriminate between affluent and developing societies. Simply put, it is difficult to imagine a global public health problem of compelling urgency that is more appropriate than the obesity epidemic as a theme for an interdisciplinary Tufts University Seminar.

Seminar participants will investigate the obesity epidemic through several lenses, including: the genetic, physiological and environmental variables that contribute to the obesity phenotype; clinical interventions; public health perspectives; and food economics and public policy. Students will participate in monthly seminars presented by leaders in the field of obesity, and attend regularly scheduled classes to discuss the history of obesity, techniques used to study obesity, previous research and recent experimental and theoretical advances in the field.? In addition, students will have the opportunity to work in small groups directly with experts in the field to produce a publishable review article.

Faculty:
Emmanuel N. Pothos
Assistant Professor of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
School of Medicine

Robin B. Kanarek
Professor of Psychology
School of Arts and Sciences

Susan B. Roberts
Senior Scientist
Professor of Nutrition and of Psychiatry
Director of the Energy Metabolism Laboratory
Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging

Water and Diplomacy: Integration of Science, Engineering, and Negotiations
It is often said that "water is the new oil." Indeed, water promises to be the resource that determines many countries' wealth, welfare, and stability in the 21st century. The nature of water as a resource is changing. Water resources are increasingly over-used, water quality is sub-optimal, and ecological integrity is excessively taxed. Such tensions are exacerbated at dynamic political, physical, cultural, and economic boundaries. A changing world requires a changing education. This interdisciplinary seminar -- co-taught by faculty from Arts and Sciences, Engineering, and the Fletcher School of Diplomacy -- is designed to encourage students to think across boundaries, emphasize knowledge integration, and link information to action. The goal is to combine multiple perspectives in order to explore solutions to water conflicts and the negotiations required to achieve those solutions. The seminar will emphasize collaborative learning opportunities, co-teaching of classes by students and faculty, and integrative activities that span disciplinary, physical, and political boundaries. Students will collectively produce a state-of-knowledge "white paper" that will be disseminated to a global audience and revised by future students and faculty.

Faculty:
Shafiqul Islam
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Associate Dean of Research
School of Engineering

William Moomaw
Professor
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy

One Health: Interdisciplinary Approaches to People, Animals and the Environment
Emerging challenges to human, animal and ecosystem health demand novel solutions. New diseases are emerging from unique configurations of humans, their domestic animals and wildlife; significant new pressures on once robust and resilient ecosystems are compromising their integrity; synthetic compounds and engineered organisms, recently introduced to the natural world, are spreading unpredictably around the globe. Globalization is also providing opportunities for infectious organisms to gain access to naive hosts, which in turn leads to changing patterns of disease distribution and virulence. Faculty from all three campuses will provide expertise and guidance for individual and group teaching and learning, to help better understand the complex nature of these problems and to reveal innovative solutions. Students will examine and represent their discipline's perspective and tools to other group members; learn and incorporate other disciplines into their own thinking; and collaborate with others on the development of new, synthesized solutions. The course will explore interdisciplinary team-oriented approaches to complex health problems and set a framework for similar cross-school collaborative learning and teaching experiences at Tufts.

Faculty:
Gretchen Kaufman
Assistant Professor of Wildlife Medicine in the Department of Environmental and Population Health,
and Director of the Tufts Center for Conservation Medicine
Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

Joann M. Lindenmayer
Associate Professor of Public Health in the Department of Environmental and Population Health
Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine

J. Michael Reed
Professor of Biology
School of Arts & Sciences

Elena N. Naumova
Associate Professor of Public Health and Family Medicine
Director of the Tufts Initiative for the Forecasting and Modeling of Infectious Diseases
Tufts University School of Medicine