Lynn Miller

Students in Learning Activity Projects are encouraged to collaborate with others in their courses of study, for example, by joining student-led Experimental Program in Education and Community (EPEC) courses or informal learning groups. Students compile lists of learning activities based on their independent work during the semester. Each student will write a title, description and self-evaluation for every learning activity to be officially recognized for Learning Activity Projects credit. Students must also secure a signed evaluation of the work, written by someone familiar with both the subject matter and their course of study. The subjects of the learning activities need not be restricted to a particular discipline, school of thought, or arena of creative work.

Did you ever wonder why Jewish grandmothers who make gefilte fish from Norwegian sturgeon so frequently are parasitized by tapeworms? Maybe not, but who gets parasitized, when, and by what is highly significant to understanding the history of humankind. In this seminar we will read and think about the failure of modern (Western) medicine to eliminate most of the tropical diseases of Homo sapiens. We will also introduce the workings of Hampshire College. We will read R.S. Desowitz's Federal Bodysnatchers and the New Guinea Virus (2002) and P.J. Hotez's Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases, and other articles from the medical and scientific literature. Each student, for an evaluation, must write three essays and give one seminar on the public health, medical, social aspects of one of these parasitic diseases (malaria, schistosomiasis, trypanosomiasis, kala-azar, Guinea worm, etc.) focusing on the disease in one particular tropical or subtropical country. You are encouraged to work in small groups on one parasite. All students are expected to participate in the seminar, to write three essays from the original literature, and to lead one seminar. During the seminar, we will spend time thinking and working on the skills needed for successful college-level work: reading, study habits, seminar skills, and writing. Collaborative work is expected throughout.