AUCT
140, Epidemics and AIDS, Spring 2008
Section 18956
TR
All classes will be held in either Dana 423
Warning: This course requires 20 hours of community
service. You cannot pass the course without completing the required
hours. It is best to begin it as soon as possible. A list of
possible sites is posted on Blackboard under Course Documents.
Attendance: Students who miss more than three classes, without a bonafide
excuse and/or prior notification of me, will be administratively
withdrawn from the course. There will be a sign-up sheet passed around in every
class. Don't miss it; that is the official attendance record! If you did not
sign it, you were absent.
Texts: There are three required books
for purchase and additional materials on Blackboard:
Shilts (S)
- And the Band Played On
Dudley
(OV) - Opposing Viewpoints: Epidemics
Usdin (U)
– The No-Nonsense Guide to HIV/AIDS
Additional
text materials and readings on Blackboard
Greatly expanded and footnoted versions of the material on
my website (uhaweb.hartford.edu/bugl)
will be posted on BlackBoard as pdf files. Please use these as printed materials
instead of those on the website, they will be more compact with
fewer pages and far more up-to-date. All announcements and assignments will be
posted on Blackboard, so be sure to check it regularly—at least every
day is not unreasonable.
From
my web page, there are links to a select group of other related web pages.
Throughout the semester, you should make a habit of consulting some of these
sites for news and updates.
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Class
Schedule |
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Day |
Date |
Topic |
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|
W/R |
1/23-24 |
Course Intro; AIDS Open Discussion |
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|
|
M/T |
1/28-29 |
U1 |
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|
W/R |
1/30-31 |
Group Discussion Session,
PLWA(?) |
OV:1.1–1.2; S-II |
|
|
M/T |
2/4-5 |
Race and Medicine; U2 |
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|
W/R |
2/6-7 |
Group Discussion Session |
OV:1.3–1.4; S-III |
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|
M/T |
2/11-12 |
|
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|
W/R |
2/13-14 |
Group Discussion Session |
OV: 4.1–4.4 |
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|
M/T |
2/18-19 |
S-IV |
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|
W/R |
2/20-21 |
Group Discussion Section |
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M/T |
2/25-26 |
Exam 1 |
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|
W/R |
2/27-28 |
OV: 2.1–2.2; |
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|
M/T |
3/3-4 |
Group Discussion Session |
OV: 2.3–2.6 |
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|
W/R |
3/5-6 |
|||
|
M/T |
3/10-11 |
Group Discussion Section |
OV: 2.3–2.4 |
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|
W/R |
3/12-13 |
OV: 2.5–2.6; S-VI |
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|
M/T |
3/24-25 |
Group Discussion Section |
Poppers; U4 |
|
|
W/R |
3/26-27 |
Emerging Infectious Diseases |
tba |
|
|
M/T |
3/31-4/1 |
Group Discussion Section |
AIDS and Drug Laws |
|
|
W/R |
4/2-3 |
PLWA |
tba |
|
|
M/T |
4/7-8 |
Exam 2 |
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|
W/R |
4/9-10 |
HIV and Civil Rights |
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|
M/T |
4/14-15 |
Group Discussion Session |
S-VII |
|
|
W/R |
4/1617 |
Media and AIDS |
S-VIII |
|
|
M/T |
4/21-22 |
AIDS Advertising
Videos |
|
|
|
W/R |
4/23-24 |
Society’s Response to AIDS |
U5 |
|
|
M/T |
4/28-29 |
International Issues |
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|
W/R |
4/30-5/1 |
Biological Warfare |
DA Henderson Interview |
|
|
M/T |
5/5-6 |
Exam 3 |
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Grades: Grading
will be multifaceted. There will be three independent exams, (at least)
ten (usually weekly) response papers, possibly quizzes on the readings (Shilts, Opposing
Viewpoints, and No-Nonsense Guide to
HIV/AIDS), and a
triple entry (what you did, how it affected you, and how it related to the
course) journal/paper of your required 20 hours of
community service work. Each exam will count
65%/3 = 21.67% of the grade; each response paper will count 1% of the
grade; the lab and community service will count 25% of the grade. A passing
grade of D is achieved with 62%. This is a lab course for four credits, so be
sure you have registered for a lab section. There will an opportunity to
improve your grade on each of the first two exams only. There is no final
exam, only the third hour exam.
Response
papers should be typed and either submitted in hard copy or emailed as attachments. The format of
all written work must be
11-point type in any san serif font (such as Arial, Comic Sans, Lucida Sans,
Tahoma, Trebuchet, or Verdana), space-and-a-half (not double
space), with a one-inch margin all
around [This is
not the default in Word, so you will need to change it.]. Do not put two spaces before the
start of a sentence! Your text-processor automatically adjusts that spacing for
you. Use tabs for paragraph indents and not spaces.
For response papers sent as the body of email message, enable word wrap—do not put a carriage return at the end of
each line.
Once
response papers on a topic are returned, no other submissions on that topic
will be accepted. Each paper beyond the ten
required will be used as 1% extra credit added to your final grade.
In previous incarnations of this course, there have been about 13 response
paper topics. That's a possibility of an extra 3% added to your final grade!
No
amount of extra credit work can raise your grade into the A-range! The highest it
can take you is a B+.
Overview
The
subject of this course is science and society, with the emphasis on science. The science is absolutely cutting-edge.
What you learn at the beginning of this semester is very likely to change by
the end of the course, if not sooner. More has been learned about infectious
diseases in the last 26 years than was known in all previous recorded history.
That's not all; the treatments are changing from month-to-month and even
week-to-week. This is your opportunity to see science in action—today,
not a hundred, not fifty, and not even twenty years ago. The results will
undoubtedly affect a great many people, some of whom you may now know or are
yet to meet.
Course Goals
1.
Develop an understanding of epidemics and their
history; how we study them; how we respond to them; their effect on societies;
and their political implications; the human cell; causative agents, symptoms,
medical care for HIV disease and related opportunistic infections.
2.
Learn how scientists think and science
progresses on a very short-term basis.
3.
Learn the most current facts about STDs and
HIV/ AIDS,
in particular.
4.
Learn some of the basics of human biology
and immunology.
5.
Understand the pathophysiology of HIV/ AIDS
and risk behaviors.
6.
Learn our role in the AIDS epidemic.
7.
Involve all of us in the AIDS epidemic.
8.
Have each person teach others about the AIDS epidemic and know why education is critical
to our future.
Other Fascinating
·
Burkett - The Gravest Show on Earth; a dated
and cynical view of HIV/AIDS by an
historian turned reporter.
·
Garrett - The Coming Plague; older; an
apocalyptic compendium; worth looking for.
·
McNeil - Plagues and Peoples; the seminal work
in the field.
·
Miller, Engelberg, & Broad - Germs: Biological
Weapons and America's Secret War; interesting and current, but take it with
a grain of salt because Judith Miller is an unfiltered conduit for government
propaganda.
·
Peters & Olshaker - Virus Hunter: Thirty Years
of Battling Hot Viruses Around the World; description by one of the prime
players, very personal.
·
·
Rotello - Sexual Ecology; a gay male's charge
to the gay community that has stirred some controversy. You may want to read it
and enter the discussion.
·
Stein – The
Power of Plagues; well-written and moderately technical.
·
Wills - Yellow Fever, Black Goddess: The
Coevolution of People and Plagues; well written, but does not shy away from
the technical details, some of which are left unexplained.
Who am I?: My name
is Paul Bugl; my office is D 241; my phone is (860.768).4406; my email address
is bugl@hartford.edu; for those taking
this course for credit, office hours are tentatively scheduled for MW