Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• GMS FA 715: Forensic Pathology
  This lecture- based course will provide the student with an overview of the role of the medical examiner as it relates to death investigations. Specific lectures will cover autopsy procedures in the investigation of gunshot wounds, sharp and blunt trauma, drowning, asphyxia, child deaths, motor vehicle accidents and time since death determination. A general knowledge of anatomy is strongly suggested. 2 cr
• GMS FA 716: Expert Wit Test
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
  This course description is currently under construction.
• GMS FA 718: Special Topics in Forensic Anthropology: Outdoor Crime Scene
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
  This course will provide students with an overview of physical evidence found at outdoor crime scenes of buried or scattered human remains. Focus will involve the recognition, documentation, and collection of physical evidence and the review of real cases in which human remains have been recovered and how physical evidence was used to help solve the crime. 3 cr, Fall & Spring sem.
• GMS FA 755: Directed Studies in Forensic Anthropology
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
  Students will have the opportunity to develop a directed study in a specialized area of forensic anthropology or archaeology that is of particular interest. 4 cr, all sem.
• GMS FA 760: Research in Forensic Anthropology
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
  This course is designed to facilitate the students' thesis research. Var cr, Fall sem.
• GMS FA 761: Research in Forensic Anthropology
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
  This course is designed to facilitate the students' thesis research. Var cr, Spring sem.
• GMS FA 790: History, Method, and Theory in Biological Anthropology
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
  This course will cover the theoretical and methodological principles of the major areas of biological anthropology. Initially focusing on the history of biological anthropology and evolutionary theory, the course will expand to cover skeletal biology, forensic anthropology, and contemporary human variation. The last section will address the philosophy of science and anthropology and practical issues such as presenting and publishing papers and preparing grant proposals. It is intended that this course provide students with a thorough understanding of the correlation between the developments of the discipline of biological anthropology, evolutionary theory, and the practice of forensic anthropology in the United States. 3 cr, Fall sem.
• GMS FA 800: Field Methods in Forensic Anthropology
  This course will provide students with a sound basis for archaeological methods applied to a variety of forensic settings. Students will learn core concepts from academic archaeology and how forensic archaeology differs from traditional methods. 3 cr
• GMS FA 802: Applied Forensic Anthropology
  Students will gain extensive experience in forensic anthropological casework, to include experience in generating analytical notes and report preparation. Students will be exposed to a variety of casework situations that forensic anthropologists encounter in medical examiner offices, international realms, government laboratories and field situations. 3 cr
• GMS FA 804: Experimental Design and Statistics for Forensic Anthropologists
  The goal of this course is to provide a working understanding of experimental design and statistical analyses that are appropriate for various types of anthropological based experiments and for the analysis of skeletal remains for unknown individuals. Significant emphasis will be placed on discussions of Bayes Theorem and the use of factor analysis in the development and use of the FORE Disc database used extensively by forensic anthropologists to determine sex, age, stature and ancestry of unidentified skeletal remains. 3 cr
• GMS FA 805: Advanced Crime Scene Investigation
  Graduate Prerequisites: GMS FS 701 Crime Scene Investigation
  This hands-on and lecture-based course will provide students with methods and underlying theories related to specialized aspects of crime scene processing. Topics will include techniques and principles utilized in search and recovery of human remains. Forensic entomology, mechanisms of human decomposition, use of ground penetrating radar, soil composition, excavation, telltale disturbances in flora and the presence of animal activity will be examined. A semester-long practical exercise will include the search and recovery of mock remains and the reconstruction of events. 2 cr
• GMS FA 806: Advanced Human Osteology
  This course builds on the topics covered in GMS FA 712 Human Osteology by exploring human osteology in greater depth and will include lectures and extensive experience with radiographical material. 4 cr
• GMS FA 807: Taphonomy
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
  This course will provide students with an advanced basis for vertebrate taphonomy, both with specific focus upon forensic settings but also with a broader understanding of taphonomic processes covering archaeology, paleoecology, and zooarchaeology. 3 cr, Fall & Spring sem.
• GMS FA 808: Forensic Trauma
  This course description is currently under construction.
• GMS FA 810: Mortuary Archaeology
  This course will provide students with an advanced theoretical basis for cross-cultural comparison of mortuary behavior and its archaeological interpretation. The topics will cover the history of archaeological though in this topics, processual and post-processual theoretical frameworks, the prehistory of burial, regional archaeological studies, modern Western burial practices and symbolism, gender and class difference, trophy taking, cannibalism, beliefs in undead and how they affect mortuary practices, military memorialization and warfare, ethical issues involved in the analysis of cemeteries and human remains, repatriation, and modern homicide investigation of serial killings and body movement. 3 cr, Fall & Spring sem.
• GMS FC 706: Mol Metabolism
  Graduate Prerequisites: consent of instructor
  This course description is currently under construction.
• GMS FC 708: Professional Development Skills
  This course introduces basic professional development skills for PhD students in the following areas: communication skills, research compliance/law/bioethics, and personal professional development.
• GMS FC 709: Research Design and Statistical Methods for Biomedical Sciences
  The overall objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of basic concepts of research design and data analysis in the biomedical sciences. The primary didactic areas to be covered include framing hypotheses and objectives, the use of experimental designs and, to a lesser degree, non-experimental designs, problems of differential and non-differential error (including bias and confounding), foundational principles of data description and analysis (independent vs. correlated, parametric and non-parametric, measures of central tendency and dispersion), effect estimation, the use and limitations of statistical testing, and univariable and multivariable modeling. The course employs both didactic sessions and in-class discussion. 3 cr., Spring sem. Co-listed as NU709.
• GMS FC 711: Foundations in Biomedical Sciences I: Protein Structure, Catalysis and Interaction
  The second module of the Foundations in Biomedical Science course "Protein structure, catalysis and interactions" will provide students with a quantitative understanding of protein structure, function, posttranslational modification and the turnover of proteins in the cell. In addition, students will gain facility with thermodynamics, catalysis, kinetics and binding equilibria as they apply to proteins and also to other molecules in biological systems (e.g. nucleic acids, lipids, vitamins, etc.). This course is part of a series of four core integrated courses and additional elective courses aimed towards first year Ph.D. students in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences. The four cores will be integrated in content and structure, and therefore are intended to be taken as a complete, progressive sequence. 3 cr, Fall sem.
• GMS FC 712: Foundations in Biomedical Sciences II: Structure and Function of the Genome
  The first module of the Foundations in Biomedical Sciences course will focus on the mechanisms of biological processes that influence the inheritance, regulation, and utilization of genes. Genetic and genomic, molecular, cell biological, and biochemical experimental approaches to understanding these processes will be explored. In addition, we will discuss the possibilities of utilizing these technologies in medical treatments. This course is part of a series of four core integrated courses and additional elective courses aimed towards first year Ph.D. students in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences. The four cores will be integrated in content and structure, and therefore are intended to be taken as a complete, progressive sequence. 3 cr, Fall sem.