Tufts in Talloires Course Listing

NOTE: For course distribution and SHU information, please visit "Browse Course Catalog" in SIS.

CEE 59 “The Emerging Global Health Crisis:”

Professor David Gute

The Emerging Global Health Crisis. The global health community is urgently assessing the impacts of shifting budgetary priorities in the United States, but also in other nation states around the globe. Find out why the control of global disease requires not only solid science but also effective public policy and politics. This course examines the growing health challenges posed by both emerging and reemerging diseases associated with environmental degradation and climate change and the movement of people as a result of these factors. A dominant theme of the course is to consider the impact of the “infodemic” and the subsequent erosion of trust in both public and private institutions with regards to public health practice. We probe the pathologic basis of diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola, Mpox, H1N1, HIV/AIDS, malaria, anthrax, smallpox, avian flu, and the drug-resistant strains of familiar diseases such as tuberculosis, and review how they are transmitted and globally distributed. We will also provide opportunities for class participants to gain access and familiarity with the many international health and environmental organizations in Geneva to gain a more “hands on” appreciation of how global intervention strategies are conceived, implemented and assessed as to their efficacy.

CH 99 “From Burgers to Baguettes: Drivers of Community Health in France and the US”

Professor Jennifer Allen

Ever wondered why the French live longer, healthier lives than Americans—even though both nations enjoy similar wealth?  This course is your chance to find out. You’ll get a hands‑on introduction to community health—the study of how social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental forces shape the health of populations—and how to design strategies that actually make a difference.

We'll tackle real‑world challenges like nutrition, physical activity, and smoking, comparing how France and the U.S. approach them. You’ll engage in interactive discussions, lively debates, case studies, and excursions that bring the material to life.

Together, we’ll uncover how health behaviors and outcomes are influenced not only by biology and personal choices, but also by the policies, cultures, and social structures in which people live. By the end, you’ll understand why two highly resourced nations achieve such different health outcomes—and what lessons each can learn from the other.

CLS 149 “France in Antiquity”

Professor Bruce Hitchner

The historical identity of France owes much to the contact, interaction and accommodation that took place between the peoples of ancient Gaul, the Greeks who settled along its Mediterranean shore, and the Romans who conquered and ruled Gaul for almost five hundred years. This course will explore this rich process of cultural creation and identity formation through an exploration of the following questions: Who were the Gauls? How did they express their identity culturally, ecologically politically, socially in cult and ritual, and in material culture and productivity? Why did the Greeks migrate to and settle in southern Gaul? What did it mean to be a Greek in Gaul? How were the Greek poleis or city-states different if it all from those in Greece, southern Italy and Sicily, and Asia Minor? How did Greeks and Gauls interact and find a middle ground? How did the Romans become involved in Gaul? How did they engage with the Greeks and Gauls? Who were the Romans in Gaul? Why did Rome eventually conquer all of Gaul? And how did Roman, Greek, and Gallic culture combine to shape the early identity and cultural legacy of France? To answer these many questions, the course will draw on the richness of recent archaeological discoveries, the diverse accounts of ancient writers, the exciting new research and analyses of modern historians and archaeologists, and a study tour of the great Gallo-Roman town, Vienne. The course will begin with an overview of the history of the Ancient Mediterranean and the Roman Republic and Empire.

ECS 1 “ Introduction to the Earth, Resources, and Environments”

Professor Dylan Vasey

Talloires sits on the western edge of the French Alps and will serve as our natural laboratory for exploring the evolution of the Earth! By the end of this course, you will look at the landscapes and the environment around you differently and appreciate the evidence for the ongoing geologic processes that have shaped and continue to shape our Earth. As we progress from the study of minerals (the tiny building blocks of rocks) to the study of the major types of rocks and how they form, to how continents have moved about the face of the Earth, you will sharpen your observation and interpretation skills. The course topics are arranged to take you step by step

to our current understanding of the “architecture of the Earth”. We will use facts and observations that we develop through the first part of the course to provide evidence for the paradigm of plate tectonics and then apply all that we have learned to interpret the spectacular geological history of the region around Talloires. Nearly weekly field trips with easy to moderate hikes are required

ENP 93 “Ergonomics of European Sport”

Professor David Miller

Extreme and amateur athletes stress their bodies to the limit in the pursuit of athletic performance, supported by their equipment and training. In this course, we will be in Talloires, close to the headquarters of major sporting equipment brands, stages of major cycling and trail running races, and ski resorts with the opportunity to visit these venues and meet the engineers, athletes, and even possibly participate. In class we will cover energy systems and training effects; heat, cold, and altitude stress; biomechanics and design for different sized people; and design of sporting gear for safety.

ENV 105 “Flowers of the Alps”

Professor George Ellmore

“Flowers of the Alps” presents the spectacular and deeply memorable floral richness of alpine spring. The course offers counterpoint to what ecologists call "Nature Deficit Disorder". In it, we discover the value of scientific names for identifying plants throughout the world. Landscapes erupting in full flower are the crucial foundation for our course. The timing of Tufts-in-Talloires coincides with world-renowned spring wildflower season in the Haute Savoie. Having personal experience with native floral diversity in this alpine landscape and biodiverse hotspot is a life-affirming event for our students, one they communicate with their French families, and take with them for years. Based on student evaluations, the course is rigorous, mastered by patience and practice, and leaves students with the up-beat environmental message that "flowers are everywhere". Native flowers have been newly recognized to support native bees (2023), the most efficient cross-pollinators on the planet.

FR 21 – FR 22 “French in the Alps”

Professor Anne-Christine Rice

Immerse yourself in the language and culture of contemporary France through the lens of Alpine life. This course draws on films, a novel, and current local news to spark lively conversation and cultural exploration.

Students in FR21 and FR22 will share class time for film and reading discussions, sessions with guest speakers, and a collaborative final project. Grammar instruction will be tailored to each level and conducted separately.

Throughout the course, students will strengthen oral fluency, refine written expression, and deepen their understanding of life in the French Alps. By the end of the course, they will be able to speak with greater confidence and spontaneity, write with more precision, and leave with a deeper cultural understanding.

REL 63 “Global History of Christianity through the Middle Ages”

Professor Jennifer Eyl

 This class will examine the origin and development of Christianities from antiquity through the medieval period. We will encounter key Christian figures, texts, theological debates, and religious practices alongside political and historical events from Egypt, Nubia, China, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, and southern Europe. Central questions we will confront include: Who defines Christianity? Can we speak of Christianity in the singular? How do religious practices and beliefs become localized as they spread from region to region?

As a class taught on the Talloires campus, we will pay particular attention to an early theologian in France, named Irenaeus, who contributed to the formation of Christian “theological correctness” (also called orthodoxy) and heresy (the condemnation of competing forms of Christianity). We will take trips to local churches to look at saints relics and learn about how early Christians turned to their martyred dead for divine protection and healing. We will also examine the development of Christian monasticism (monks and nuns) as the “superheroes” of the Church—most notably St. Benedict, whose monastic order founded the Talloires campus.

SCP 127 “Field Studies: Art and Landscape in the Alps”

Professor Megan McMillan

The mountains, lake, and winding trails of Talloires become both studio and collaborator in this immersive art and landscape course. Through walking, drawing, listening, and field research, students explore how creative practice can emerge directly from the rhythms of the environment. Each week students create a Field Studies Zine, a handmade publication that translates sensory experience into drawings, text, and material form.

Field excursions may include a pilgrimage walk to the Ermitage de Saint-Germain, an urban mapping study in Annecy, and a full-day art-and-science visit to CERN in Geneva. Along the way, students may encounter artists and regional practitioners who engage the Alpine landscape through material, movement, and ecological process. The course culminates in a public vernissage on the Priory grounds, a collective installation and open walk that celebrates the landscape as both subject and medium. No prior art experience required. Open to students from all disciplines who enjoy exploring, observing, and making art in the field.

SOC 76 “The Sociology of Food: A Memoir in Talloires”

Professor Freeden Blume Oeur

In traveling to Talloires, we’ll travel along with food items as they’re produced, distributed, marketed, cooked, and consumed. What does food tell us about who we are and our relations to other humans, animals, and the natural world? Your introduction to food cultures, eating, and drinking in the Haute-Savoie will allow you to see and taste something new, and at the same time give you a chance to see your taken-for-granted food cultures and eating habits back at home (and in school in Medford) in a new light. A range of materials and observations in and around Talloires will whet our appetite for investigating issues from the local (e.g., terroir, or how meanings around food and drink are shaped by place) to the macro-historical and global (e.g., how France used the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as an opportunity to rethink energy consumption and food sustainability). Along the way, we’ll be sensitive to issues of power and how foodways are stratified along racial, gender, social class, and other lines of difference, as well as shaped by histories of colonialism and other oppressive and violent systems. We’ll address these questions using important methods for sociologists. As participant observers, we’ll carefully watch and listen to others in assorted environments and situate our observations in their broader social and historical contexts. As interviewers, we’ll chat with our host families about what food and eating means to them, to learn more about the residents and history of the region. Having watched how others eat, dine, and shop in France, for the final assignment, you’ll turn that analytic eye on yourself and write a critical autoethnography: a sociological memoir where you’ll use your new experiences in France to reflect on your own social location and how that shapes what, how, and why you eat what you eat. Bon appétit!