HIV: SEX, SOCIETY AND SCIENCE

Prerequisites & course information

Requisites: None Course Designation: Core GenEd - Natural Science & Wellness Breadth - Biological Science Level - Elementary L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Use science as a tool for understanding the world and solving problems. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Describe how scientific data, social context, and political decisions impact prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in different community contexts. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Identify obstacles to implementing effective disease interventions and understand ways to evaluate those interventions. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Describe the steps of the HIV viral life cycle. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Discuss how specific aspects of HIV's replication process lead to reduced immune function and AIDS. Audience: Undergraduate 6. Describe immune responses against viral infection and list reasons why these responses fail to clear HIV infection. Audience: Undergraduate 7. List reasons why it is challenging to cure HIV infection. Audience: Undergraduate 8. Discuss approaches for making vaccines against other pathogens and list reasons why it is challenging to apply these approaches to HIV. Audience: Undergraduate 9. Discuss and evaluate approaches for slowing the spread of HIV in the United States and other countries. Audience: Undergraduate 10. Describe the processes by which HIV emerged to become a human pathogen. Audience: Undergraduate 11. Discuss the sources of funding for the global response to HIV/AIDS and evaluate the efficacy of each in achieving its goals. Audience: Undergraduate 12. Apply the concepts learned in relation to HIV to other emerging and re-emerging pathogens, such as Ebola virus, Zika virus, and/or SARS-CoV-2. Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Use science as a tool for understanding the world and solving problems. Audience: Undergraduate 2. Describe how scientific data, social context, and political decisions impact prevention and treatment of infectious diseases in different community contexts. Audience: Undergraduate 3. Identify obstacles to implementing effective disease interventions and understand ways to evaluate those interventions. Audience: Undergraduate 4. Describe the steps of the HIV viral life cycle. Audience: Undergraduate 5. Discuss how specific aspects of HIV's replication process lead to reduced immune function and AIDS. Audience: Undergraduate 6. Describe immune responses against viral infection and list reasons why these responses fail to clear HIV infection. Audience: Undergraduate 7. List reasons why it is challenging to cure HIV infection. Audience: Undergraduate 8. Discuss approaches for making vaccines against other pathogens and list reasons why it is challenging to apply these approaches to HIV. Audience: Undergraduate 9. Discuss and evaluate approaches for slowing the spread of HIV in the United States and other countries. Audience: Undergraduate 10. Describe the processes by which HIV emerged to become a human pathogen. Audience: Undergraduate 11. Discuss the sources of funding for the global response to HIV/AIDS and evaluate the efficacy of each in achieving its goals. Audience: Undergraduate 12. Apply the concepts learned in relation to HIV to other emerging and re-emerging pathogens, such as Ebola virus, Zika virus, and/or SARS-CoV-2. Audience: Undergraduate