Current Courses

Anth 3234: Genes, Health, and Human History

This course uses human genes to study health and history. Through genetic data, we will see how human populations have grown, moved, and mixed. We will also see how humans have adapted to a changing environment, with results that are sometimes beneficial and sometimes unfortunate. The first part of the course provides background on evolution, the second uses genes to study history, and the last deals with adaptive and maladaptive consequences of evolution.

Anth5221/Biol5221: Human Evolutionary Genetics

An introduction to the theory and data of evolutionary genetics. It is about how populations respond to evolution, and also about how evolutionary history can be reconstructed from our genes.

Anth 5485: Graphical Data Analysis

Students will learn graphical methods of data analysis and then use these in projects involving real data. All projects will involve the R statistical package.

Anth 6200: ProSeminar II: History of Biological Anthropology

Anth 6969-001: Archaeogenetics

This course will introduce graduate students to the use of genetic data in the study of evolutionary history. Students will use genetic data in projects to draw inferences about the history of population size, subdivision, gene flow, and adaptive evolution.

Honor 2500: The Evidence for Evolution

Both sides of the argument about evolution, in historical perspective.

Old Courses

Anth 1050: Evolution of Human Nature

Our brains, like the rest of our bodies, were shaped by natural selection. But how much does this matter? Many social scientists would argue that it matters very little, since human behavior is transmitted culturally rather than genetically. This course will entertain a different hypothesis. It will seek to explain human nature---our desires and preferences, our virtues and faults, our similarities and differences---using the theory of evolution. Students are encouraged to be skeptical. After all, rational skepticism is the business of science.

Anth 636: Preparing Grant Proposals

Anth5471/Biol5471: Quantitative Models in Evolutionary Ecology (formerly Fundamental Methods of Evolutionary Ecology)

An introduction to the method and theory of evolutionary ecology for undergraduate students and beginning grads. The course will make extensive use of Maple, a computer program that simplifies equations, solves them, and plots the results.

Biol 5410: Molecular Evolution

How biologists go about making sense of genetic differences between species. Team-taught with Jon Seger (Dept of Biology) and Glenn Herrick (Dept of Biochemistry).