Tufts in Talloires 2024 Course Listing
NOTE: For course distribution and SHU information please visit "Browse Course Catalog" in SIS.
CEE 59 – The Emerging Global Health Crisis
Find out why the control of global disease requires not only solid science but also effective public policy. This course examines the growing health challenges posed by both emerging and reemerging diseases associated with environmental degradation, the increasing mobility of people, global climate change, the growing diffusion of misinformation, and changes in human host factors. We probe the pathologic basis of diseases such as COVID-19, Ebola, H1N1, HIV/AIDS, malaria, monkeypox, anthrax, smallpox, avian flu, and the drug-resistant strains of familiar diseases such as tuberculosis, and review how they are transmitted and distributed globally looking across person, place, and time. 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.
David Gute
CH 01 – Introduction to Community Health
Why is there stark variation in life expectancy across individuals, communities, populations, and the world? Why does where you are born to predict when you die? How can we create a more healthy and equitable society? This course introduces students to the fundamental principles and methods used in community/public health. We will explore theoretical concepts that are key to understanding community health, such as the meaning of health, the origins of illness, the concept of community, and how community health problems are analyzed and framed. We then apply these concepts to specific community/public health concerns, such as communicable and non-communicable diseases, in the U.S., France, and globally. We will examine the role of social, cultural, historical, economic, political, and environmental ("social determinants") on health and how these result in inequities in the health of individuals, communities, and populations. We will also explore evidence-based programs, policies, and practices (or “interventions”) designed to improve health at the community and population level and discuss how the effectiveness and acceptability of these approaches may vary based on social determinants. Class sessions will actively engage students using small group discussions and activities, videos, case studies, and debates.
Jennifer Allen and Virgina Chomitz
CLS 149 – Roman Gaul: France in Antiquity
This class is an exploration of the ancient past of France, with a particular emphasis on its history in the long Roman period (c. 200 BCE to 700 CE). Our particular interest will be on the question of how the peoples, societies, and cultures of what is currently modern France and northwest Europe engaged with, were transformed by, and in turn transformed their conquerors, creating in the process a unique historic and long-lasting identity.
Bruce Hitchner
ECS 01 – The Dynamic Earth
The French Alps surrounding Talloires will serve as our laboratory for exploring the dynamic Earth and its history! By the end of the course, you will look at the landscapes and the environment around you differently, and appreciate the evidence for the active processes that have shaped 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 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. Weekly field trips with easy to moderate hikes are required.
Noel Heim
ED 130 – Human Development and Learning
The goal of this course is to invite students to consider questions including: What is learning? How does learning unfold? And is this true across cultures and continents? What should schools look like if the goal of education is learning? How does education intersect with race, class, gender, culture, and location, and how does this shape what we know and who we are? The study of education in a new culture invites questions about one’s own identity, the universality of human development, and the social context of learning and schooling. In an effort to explore these questions, this course introduces students to theories of child development and learning across cultures. Central to the study of human cognition, students start by examining the work of Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget. Following, students compare and contrast European models of education, including the methods of Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, and Reggio Emilia, taking a trip to a local Montessori school to observe this philosophy in practice. Classes emphasize the role of play in learning, and students help to plan and organize the Tufts in Talloires Kids Day. In class discussions students question the universality of human development, explore the influence of culture on learning, evaluate models of education and teaching, and compare French, European, and American attitudes toward childhood, learning, and schooling, grapple with ways to dismantle systemic racism and address educational inequalities, and consider what, why, and how students learn, and from and for whom, and where we go from here.
Erin Seaton
ENV 105 – Flowers of the Alps
Alpine communities cover more than 25% of the earth’s land surface and have captured about one-fourth of the world’s pool of soil carbon. Today, alpine species are called upon to make climate-proof landscapes and urban pollinator gardens. In this course we devote at least six hours per week studying the Talloires region's world-class display of montane and alpine floral diversity. Lectures (two per week, each 1.5 hrs) are devoted to plant structure and life history in enough detail to make use of professional dichotomous keys for identifying plants. Sessions highlight salient features of major plant families, important representatives of those families, human foraging of edible plants, pollinator ecology, and the design of dichotomous keys. Outdoor (field) sessions (4-5 h per week, including travel time) involve recognizing alpine species in their native environment, evaluating shifts in alpine vegetation, keying out new plants to the family level, and visually celebrating the alpine Spring.
George Ellmore
FMS 13 – Documentary: History and Practice
This course will look at how documentarians have approached themes commonly explored within the genre. By looking at still and moving images, students will gain an understanding of how advancements in technology, the arts, and culture have come together to tell the stories of our world. This class will focus on how each documentarian has found a distinct point of view through the lens of their camera. Through engagement with the works of photographers, filmmakers, and media artists, students will accomplish three things: gain an understanding of documentary history, grasp the theories at work behind documentary practice, and find inspiration for their work through engaging with the Talloires community and environment. This documentary production class emphasizes hands-on nonfiction fieldwork. By combining theory, history, and practice, students will gain an understanding of how documentarians find a distinct point of view in addition to gaining technical skills and inspiration for their own work. Using their cellphones or a small assortment of cameras and audio gear provided by Film and Media Studies, students will work individually and in groups on assignments that examine different aspects of the documentary fieldwork process using the environments and communities of Talloires as their subjects.
Natalie Minik
FR 21/22 - French in the Alps
Experiencing full immersion in a French-speaking region is the best way to improve rapidly and discover a new culture. The course aims to promote oral and written fluency in French. Thus, careful preparation of written assignments for the course and active class participation are essential. Consistent application in spoken and written French is the focus of the continuing grammar review at this level. Students will cover the grammar lessons of French 21 or French 22 separately but will work together on readings, discussions, and projects. For insight into contemporary France, the readings will come primarily from the local media to highlight the historical, social, and cultural aspects of the Alps region as well as the rest of the country and nearby Switzerland. Through weekly writing assignments, students will report on their experience and reflect on their observations. The term project will be to produce a newspaper, magazine or auto-fiction work, based on the students’ study of the various newspapers and materials discussed in class. Other course work includes reading articles and a short novel, written and oral grammar exercises, weekly papers, occasional short oral presentations, a mid-term exam, and a final exam. Taught in French. French 4 prerequisite.
Marie-Pierre Gillette
MUS 29 - French Popular Music
Édith, Johnny, Serge, Booba. These popular music icons are household names in France, but are virtually unknown in the U.S. This course offers an accessible and engaging exploration of French culture through a survey of commercial popular music produced in France and the francophone world from the 1930s to the present–––with an emphasis on the links between landmark musical genres, cultural trends, and critical socio-political issues at stake in each era. Topics include the relationship between French language and cultural identity; protest and change after May ‘68; transnational influences and the authenticity debate; public and private negotiations of race, immigration status, and religious difference; colonial and postcolonial transformations; evolutions in conceptions of gender and sexuality; and the role of technology in shaping musical values and communities. Students will develop a critical toolbox for analyzing French popular music in its cultural contexts through a close reading of primary sources (songs, albums, lyrics, music videos, music journalism) and secondary literature drawn from the interdisciplinary field of French Studies. Over the course of the semester, students will become better listeners–––for understanding popular music and the richness and diversity of French culture.
Melinda Latour
REL 63/HIST 09 – Global History of Christianity through the Middle Ages
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.
Jennifer Eyl