The Big Problems program is a senior capstone curriculum for students in the College. It offers elective courses about "Big problems" that are matters of global or universal concern. These courses use interdisciplinary team teaching, and seek to transcend familiar models of content, organization, and instruction.

For more detailed information about past and current course offerings, please download the Big Problems section of the college course catalog (PDF).

Courses 2009-10

Autumn 2009

Energy and Energy Policy
Stephen Berry, Chemistry
George Tolley, Economics

Winter 2010

Autonomy and Medical Paternalism
Daniel Brudney, Philosophy
John Lantos, Pediatrics

Biological & Cultural Evolution
Salikoko Mufwene, Linguistics
William Wimsatt, Philosophy

Sex & Ethics
Lauren Berlant, English
Candace Vogler, Philosophy

What is Civic Knowledge?
Bart Schultz, Philosophy
Margot Browning, Humanities

Spring 2010

Is Development Sustainable?
Yayoi Fujita, Anthropology

What Do the Genomes Teach Us About Evolution?
James Shapiro, Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Manyuan Long, Ecology & Evolution

Past Courses

Spring 2009

• Energy and Energy Policy
  Stephen Berry, Chemistry
  George Tolley, Economics
  Also see: Energy and Energy Policy Course Papers
• Memory, Commemoration, & Mourning
  Bert Cohler, Human Development
  Peter Homans, Divinity School Course
• The Organization of Knowledge
  Herman Sinaiko, Humanities
  William Sterner, Computer Science

Winter 2009

• Autonomy and Medical Paternalism
  John Lantos, Pediatrics
• Language and Globalization
  Salikoko Mufwene, Linguistics
  William Wimsatt, Philosophy

Spring 2008

• Love and Tragedy in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina
  David Orlinsky, Human Development
  Herman Sinaiko, Humanities
• What is Civic Knowledge?
  Bart Schultz, Philosophy
  Margot Browning, Humanities

Winter 2008

• Autonomy & Medical Paternalism
• Biology and Sociology of AIDS
• Evolutionary Theory and Its Role in the Human Sciences

• Empire
• Biological/Cultural Evolution

• Is Development Sustainable?
• Romantic Love: Phil & Lit Perspectives
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Romantic Love: Cult/Psych Persp

• Autonomy & Medical Paternalism
• Language & Globalization
• Biology and Sociology of AIDS
• Antonioni's Films: Real & Ambig

• Perspectives On Imaging

• Is Development Sustainable?
• Romantic Love: Cult/Psych Persp
• Neo-Liberalism / Neo-Imperialism
• Complex Prob: World Hunger
• Body/Soul: Approaches to Prayer
• Creation and Creativity

• Boundaries, Modules & Levels
• Medicine and Society: Things, Bodies, Persons
• Biological/Cultural Evolution

• Terror, Religion & Aesthetics

• Creation and Creativity
• Evil
• Globalization: History and Theory
• Globalization and Neoliberalism
• Is Development Sustainable?
• Language and Globalization
• Psychoneuroimmunology: Links between the Nervous and Immune Systems.
• The Complex Problem of World Hunger
• Utopias

• Antonioni's Films: Reality and Ambiguity
• On Love: Text and Context
• Rewriting the Past: Narrative, Ritual, and Monument

• Perspectives on Imaging

• Moments in Atheism
• On Love: Text and Context

• Globalization and Neo-liberalism
• Is Development Sustainable?
• Language and Globalization
• The Complex Problem of World Hunger
• The Organization of Knowledge

• Biological and Cultural Evolution

• Is Development Sustainable?
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Globalization and Neoliberalism
• On Love: Text and Context
• Rewriting the Past: Narrative, Ritual and Monument
• War

• Concepts of the Self from Antiquity to the Present
• Globalization and Neo-liberalism
• Is Development Sustainable?

• What Environmental Crisis?
• Is Development Sustainable?
• The Organization of Knowledge
• Science and Religion