Courses

Indiana University Bloomington (2016 – present)

HON-H 251/HON-X 298 “Planetary Health & Global Climate Change in Costa Rica” / “Honors Research: International Fieldwork”: This four-week international field course provides a critical evaluation of key theories in planetary health, including the interactions between human, animal, and environmental health, conservation of biodiversity, environmental policy, and sustainable human systems, with an emphasis on place-based learning. Utilizing global climate change as a focus for our exploration of planetary health across Costa Rica, students visit a series of sites relevant to the current climate crisis, including wind farms, biological field stations, and organizations focused on sustainability.

ANTH-B 343/543 “Evolution of the Human Ecological Footprint”: Examines a series of threshold moments in the history our species that had great implications for the environment, with a focus on anthropogenic habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, pollution, and climate change over the past 200,000 years.        

HUBI-B 400 “EcoHealth in the Anthropocene”: Human health is tightly linked to environmental health and current environmental issues have major implications for future patterns of morbidity, mortality, and quality of life.  Therefore, this course examines three of the most pressing current threats to the environment: climate change, loss of biodiversity, and pollution, and how they also affect human health.

ANTH-B 340/540 “Hormones and Human Behavior”: From reproduction and social stress to infectious disease and diet, social and ecological interactions influence the hormones and behaviors of living organisms, including us and our closest-living relatives, the nonhuman primates, across multiple timescales. This course focuses on the roles of hormones in the evolution and expression of human and nonhuman primate behaviors in an ecological framework. Topics covered: endocrine disruption, reproductive regulation, food-hormone relationships, and changing environments.

HUBI-B 200 “Global Climate Change: Linking Human and Planetary Health”: We address the science and politics of climate change in this class using an interdisciplinary approach. An emphasis is placed on the role of climate change in ecological and evolutionary processes, how human activity interacts with these processes, and the consequences of this interaction on human health and sustainability.

ANTH-B 200 “Bioanthropology”: General introduction to the field of biological anthropology, including discussion of primatology, human evolution, and human biological variation.

St. Edward’s University (2013 – 2016):

“Primate Ecology & Conservation”: This course examines the diversity of primates from around the world, including apes, monkeys, and prosimians. We focus on how these different primates interact with members of their own species, other species in their environment, and humans.  In doing so, we explore current threats to their survival and ways in which these pressures can be reduced through conservation policy and management, as well as personal action. Key theories related to sociality, dietary strategies, and cognition are also examined.

“Human Diet”: examines the vital role food plays in both human biology and culture by exploring the relationship between humans and their cuisine from eco-evolutionary and biocultural perspectives.

“Global Health”: examines health issues as they relate to spatial location and environment, evolutionary history, and cultural and socio-economic variation using ecological health, evolutionary medicine, and bicultural perspectives.

“Population Ecology”: This course examines factors that influence the distribution and abundance of a particular species, or how abiotic and biotic components of the environment regulate the size of populations over spatial and temporal scales.  Key theories related to population dynamics, life history, habitat quality, food availability, competition, dispersal, predation, and parasitism are examined.  The application of these theories to environmental issues is also discussed.

“Community Ecology”: This course examines abiotic and biotic factors that influence the diversity, stability, and succession of species over spatial and temporal scales.  Key theories related to energy flows, nutrient cycles, species interactions, food webs, and patterns in species richness and diversity are examined.  The application of these theories to environmental issues is discussed.

“Applied Research”: This course provides experience with conducting novel research based upon principles discussed in “Population Ecology” and “Community Ecology”.  Students develop hypotheses, design research projects to test those hypotheses, conduct personal research, analyze their data in a statistically appropriate way, and present their findings in a professional manner.

“Environmental Science”: This course examines the abiotic (e.g., water, energy) and biotic (e.g., plants, animals) components of the environment, how they interact to form ecosystems, and how humans influence these components and systems.  A number of environmental problems that we currently face as a result of overexploitation or manipulation of abiotic and biotic factors are examined.  An emphasis is placed on the ecological and evolutionary processes that have created and maintain biodiversity and how human activity threatens these processes, including habitat destruction, climate change, and endocrine disruption.

“Ecology & Environment”: This is a freshman course introducing majors and non-majors to the field of ecology and a number of environmental issues at local (Austin), regional (Texas), and global scales.

“EcoLead”: Examines environmental leadership dealing with current issues such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and endocrine disruption.  Includes a week field course in Costa Rica.

“Topics in Global Environmental Management & Sustainability”: month-long field course in Costa Rica for master’s students in MSEM program

“Organisms & Populations”: one of two introductory biology courses focused on the organismal to global level.

McGill University (2012 – 2013):

“Primate Behaviour & Ecology”: an overview of primatology, including discussion of various aspects of primate diet, health, sociality, and conservation

“Primate Studies & Conservation”: field course in Uganda that emphasizes direct observations, research design, and developing field methods

University of California, Berkeley (2005 – 2011):

“Human Diet”: biocultural approach to understanding how the modern human diet differs from our ancestral diet and examines the potential health consequences of these differences

“Primate Ecology & Behavior”: an overview of primatology, including discussion of various aspects of primate diet, health, sociality, and conservation