BIOL 154
The Tropics: Biology and Social Issues Fall 2020
Division III Difference, Power, and Equity
Cross-listed ENVI 154
This is not the current course catalog

Class Details

This course counts towards the Biology major but is also accessible to non-majors. It explores the biological dimensions of social issues in tropical societies, and focuses specifically on the peoples of tropical regions in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Oceania, and the Caribbean. Tropical issues have become prominent on a global scale, and many social issues in the tropics are inextricably bound to human ecology, evolution, and physiology. The course highlights differences between the tropics and areas at higher latitudes. It begins with a survey of the tropical environment, including major climatic and habitat features. The next section focuses on human population biology, and emphasizes demography and the role of disease particularly malaria, AIDS and Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2). The final part of the course covers the place of human societies in local and global ecosystems including the challenges of tropical food production and the interaction of humans with their supporting ecological environment. This course fulfills the DPE requirement. Through lectures, debates and readings, students confront social issues and policies from the perspective of biologists. This builds a framework for lifelong exploration of human diversity in terms of difference, power and equity.
The Class: Format: lecture; Debate
Limit: 24
Expected: 24
Class#: 2094
Grading: no pass/fail option, no fifth course option
Requirements/Evaluation: two hour exams, a short paper, debate presentation, and a final exam
Prerequisites: none
Enrollment Preferences: Preference will be given to biology majors, environmental studies majors and students who were previously dropped from the course.
Unit Notes: Counts for credit in the Biology major. Satisfies the distribution requirement for the Biology major.
Distributions: Division III Difference, Power, and Equity
Notes: This course is cross-listed and the prefixes carry the following divisional credit:
BIOL 154 Division III ENVI 154 Division III
DPE Notes: This course highlights differences between the tropics and areas at higher latitudes. For each section we focus on difference--different natural habitats and biodiversity, different patterns of population growth, different human disease profiles, different types of agriculture and impacts of climate change. For each section we highlight differences in power and the inequities of resource distribution. We then debate potential policies to ameliorate these inequities.
Attributes: ENVI Natural World Electives
EVST Living Systems Courses
GBST African Studies
PHLH Biomedical Determinants of Health

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