About

Human Biology is a multidisciplinary major that provides students with a curriculum that emphasizes the analysis of humanity in a holistic framework that includes behavioral, cultural, social, and biological approaches. This major will guide students towards an integrated view of humans and our biology through a wide array of courses from departments including Anthropology, Biological Sciences, Psychology, Sociology, and Urban Public Health.

The Human Biology major curriculum is built on a core foundation of courses in biology, anthropology, and statistics. Students will choose one of the following three specialized tracks:

1. Body, Mind, and Health: Emphasizes biological knowledge within the context of human biology, with coursework that addresses how social factors have an impact on humans and human health.
2. Human Evolution and Variation: Emphasizes humans as an evolved species that is part of the natural world, with coursework focusing on physical anthropology.
3. Human Organizations: Emphasizes social phenomena, with coursework from multiple social science disciplines.

Finally, students will complete a capstone course in human biology (HMBIO 40100), where they will analyze some of the key contemporary topics and issues in human biology from multiple vantage points.

The Human Biology Program has 4 program learning outcomes:

• Students can identify key concepts, complete procedures, and demonstrate basic competence in human evolution, the biological sciences, and statistics.
• Students can discover, identify, and develop proficiency in understanding the differences between the disciplinary approaches that comprise the Human Biology Program.
• Students will examine, analyze, and write about a deeper area of expertise.
• Student can summarize, explain, assess, debate, and/or discuss  interdependence of biological and social explanations for topics relevant to human biology.