Resource Center on Aging, University of California, Berkeley

The following are courses on aging or with aging content that are listed in the UC Berkeley General Catalogue of Classes. Please contact the instructor and/or the class schedule for the current semester and/or the department (underlined below) in which the class is taught if you whish to take any of these courses. THIS IS NOT A CURRENT CLASS SCHEDULE. To see courses on aging being taught during the current academic semester click here.

Anthropology

The Anthropology of Aging and the Life Course -- (ANTHRO) 117 [4 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: 3 is recommended.
Description: An anthropological approach to the study of age and aging and of the different periods of the life course: birth, infancy, childhood, youth and adolescence, adulthood and middle age, old age, and dying. How might we think--about time, the body, and what it means to talk about life--through a focus on age?
(F,SP) (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Bioengineering

Orthopaedic Biomechanics -- (BIO ENG) C176 [4 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion/laboratory per week.
Prerequisites: Civil Engineering 130; 102A, 104 recommmended, or consent of instructor.
Description: Forces and moments on human joints and bones for various activities; gait analysis and dynamic effects; mechanical properties of bone and musculoskeletal connective tissues; osteoporosis, aging, and fracture risk prediction of whole bones; bone remodeling; orthopaedic implants; applications of composite beam, beam-on-elastic-foundation, and Hertz contact theories to the design of artificial hip and knee joints. Also listed as Mechanical Engineering C176.
(F) Keaveny (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

City and Regional Planning

Transportation Policy and Planning -- (CY PLAN) C217 [3 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture/discussion per week.
Prerequisites: 213, Civil Engineering 290U, or consent of instructor.
Description: Policy issues in urban transportation planning; measuring the performance of transportation systems; the transportation policy formulation process; transportation finance, pricing, and subsidy issues; energy and air quality in transportation; specialized transportation for elderly and disabled people; innovations in transportation policy. Also listed as Civil and Environmental Engineering C250N.
(F) Wachs (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Demography

Population Issues -- Demography (DEMOG) C126 [4 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Prerequisites: 1 or 3 or 3AC or consent of instructor.
Description: Introduction to population issues and the field of demography, with emphasis on historical patterns of population growth and change during the industrial era. Topics covered include the demographic transition, resource issues, economic development, the environment, population control, family planning, birth control, family and gender, aging, intergenerational transfers, and international migration. Also listed as Sociology C126.
Wilmoth (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Aging: Economic and Demographic Aspects -- (DEMOG) 236 [2 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture/discussion per week for seven and one-half weeks.
Prerequisites: Advanced undergraduates may attend with consent of instructor.
Description: Population aging is a global phenomenon. Course considers demographic causes and future outlook; consequences for pension systems; labor supply and retirement; health and disability; institutional and familial assistance; poverty and family status; savings, wealth, and bequests.
(SP) Lee (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Health & Medical Sciences

The Death Course -- HMedSci 240 [2 units]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture/discussion per week
Prerequisites: Medical and graduate students or consent of instructor.
Description: This course is intended for medical and graduate students who share a keen interest in the problem of death. The topic will be explored from various religious, cultural, and personal perspectives through the use of literature, in-class writing and discussion, and occasionally film and music.
(SP) Micco

Literature and Medicine: What is Old Age? -- HMedSci 298 [2 units]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture/discussion per week
Prerequisites: Medical and graduate students or consent of instructor.
(F) Micco

Inter-Departmental Studies

Advances in Aging -- (IDS) 114A [2 units, Fall]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: High school biology and chemistry.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description: This interdisciplinary course will single out specific topics in aging of great current interest and present lectures on several aspects of each topic (biomedical, health, socio-economic, legal, and ethical). Each semester a different topic will be presented. Invited speakers with special expertise in these areas will participate.
Students have the option of doing a community service project
Sponsoring departments: Molecular and Cell Biology, Optometry, Public Health, and Social Welfare.
(F,SP) Timiras, Cole (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Advances in Aging -- (IDS) 114B [2 units, Spring]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: High school biology and chemistry.
Credit option: Course may be repeated for credit.
Description: This interdisciplinary course will single out specific topics in aging of great current interest and present lectures on several aspects of each topic (biomedical, health, socio-economic, legal, and ethical). Each semester a different topic will be presented. Invited speakers with special expertise in these areas will participate.
Students have the option of doing a community service project
Sponsoring departments: Molecular and Cell Biology, Optometry, Public Health, and Social Welfare.
(F,SP) Timiras, Cole (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Integrative Biology

Muscle Biology and Plasticity -- (INTEGBI) 121 [2 units]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Integrative Biology 131 and 131L or equivalent, Molecular and Cell Biology 32 and 32L, and Physics 8A.
Formerly Human Biodynamics 101
Description: The course provides a basic understanding of skeletal muscle structure and function. The changes of muscle during the processes of development and aging are discussed, as are the adaptations to physical activities characterized by different recruitment parameter and biomechanical loading characteristics, and to injury and regeneration. The importance of these topics to generate and sustain human movement is developed.
(from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Exercise Physiology -- (INTEGBI) 123B [3 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: 123A, 123AL.
Formerly Human Biodynamics 105B
Description: Discussions of the effect of exercise on skeletal muscle; exercise and cardiovascular disease; exercise in the heat, cold, under water, and at altitude; nutrition and performance; effects of drugs on performance; blood doping; sex differences and performance.
(F,SP) (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Molecular and Cell Biology

Physiology of the Aging Process -- (MCELLBI) 135K [3 units]
Course Format:
Prerequisites: Biology 1A-1B.
Credit option: No credit for 135K after taking 135M.
Description: The aging human body; structural and functional changes at organismic, cellular sub-cellular and molecular levels. Comparative epidemiological and environmental aspects. Theories of aging modification and life extension.
(SP) Timiras, Packer (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Dietary Determinants of Cancer, Heart Disease, and Aging -- (MCELLBI) C210 [3 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Biochemistry and nutrition or consent of instructor.
Description: The influence of diet on DNA damage, cancer, and aging will be discussed with an emphasis on micronutrient deficiencies as a major contributor to DNA damage, cancer, and aging. The influence of diet on atherosclerotic heart disease will be covered with an emphasis on the role of dietary constituents proposed to have either toxic or preventive effects in the artery wall. Readings will consist of papers from the literature. Also listed as Nutritional Sciences C210.
(SP) Ames, Tribble (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Optometry

Freshman/Sophomore Seminar: OPTOM 039B (Also listed as South & Southeast Asian Studies S E A S N 39B P 001) -- [2 units]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture per week for six weeks.
Prerequisites: Priority given to freshmen and sophomores. Freshman and sophomore seminars offer lower division students the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic (in this case, Aging in Developed and Underdeveloped Countries) with a faculty member and a group of peers in a small-seminar setting.
(F,SP) Enoch (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Public Health

Aging, Health, and Diversity -- (PB HLTH) 130AC [3 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Formerly 130
Description: The goal of this seminar is to provide a critical examination of aging and health from a broad, multicultural perspective. Political economy and life course perspectives will be among the key theoretical frameworks used to examine how race, class, culture, gender, and sexual orientation interact to help shape and determine the health and well-being of the elderly and their access to and use of health care. Key programs and policies for the elderly will be examined in sociohistorical perspective with attention to their salience in a multicultural society. The course will be offered at the undergraduate (upper division) level to meet the American Cultures requirement, but is also open to graduate students and will serve as an elective for the new Multicultural Health Specialty Area in the School of Public Health.
(SP) Minkler (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Introduction to Public Health Biology -- (PB HLTH) 150C [2 units]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture per week.
Description: The biology of health and disease taught from an evolutionary perspective. Topics include the biologic basis of human heredity, nutrition, development, reproduction, aging, behavior, and infections. The applications of biology to disease prevention will be emphasized.
(F) Boyce, Buehring, Crawford, Potts, Riley, Sensabaugh (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Aging: Value and Social Policy Issues -- (PB HLTH) 217A [3 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing in public health or related discipline.
Description: Examines key themes and issues central to understanding the complex linkages between public health education, public policy, and aging.
(F) Minkler (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Aging and Public Health -- (PB HLTH) 217C [3 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Prerequisites: Graduate standing or consent of instructor.
Description: The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of research, practice, and policy in the area of aging and public health. Topics will include the epidemiology of aging; race, class, gender, and aging; nutrition and the elderly; and current health policy surrounding aging. Themes running throughout the course and linking a number of the topics covered will include the diversity of the elderly; the importance of co-morbidity and functional health status in this population group; the family and broader environmental contexts in which aging takes place; and the influence of public and private sector policies on health and health-related behavior in the elderly. Weekly lectures by the faculty will be complemented by presentations by prominent Bay Area researchers in the areas of geriatrics and gerontology. This is the core course for the School of Public Health specialty in aging and public health.
(F) Minkler (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Social Welfare

Lesbian and Gay Issues in Social Work -- (SOC WEL) 210G [2 units]
Course Format: Two hours of seminar/discussion per week.
Description: This course will help students better understand gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered men's and women's lives by providing an opportunity to explore issues such as homophobia, oppression, identity-development, "teen-gays," HIV+/AIDS, domestic violence, safe sex, couple-counseling, gay marriage, parenting, and aging. Students will also acquire a greater knowledge of the community and national resources available to this population.
(SP) (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Social Policy and Gerontology -- (SOC WEL) 226 [2units]
Course Format: One hour of lecture and one hour of discussion per week.
Description: Major U.S. social policies and programs for the aging are analyzed from the point of view of consumers, policy makers, and providers of aging services. Course covers Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, housing, generational equity, family caregiving, gender and race issues.
(SP) Robinson (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Legal Issues in Aging -- (SOC WEL) 234C [2 units]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture/discussion per week.
Description: Legal information, policy discussion, and advocacy skills for social workers and other human service providers in the field of aging.
Staff (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Direct Practice in Aging Settings -- Social Welfare (SOC WEL) 246 [2 units]
Course Format: Two hours of lecture/discussion per week.
Prerequisites: 241.
Description: Comprehensive assessment of the elderly, normal and abnormal; dimensions of the aging process; and the range of direct intervention models for working with the elderly.
(SP) Scharlach (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Undergraduate and Interdisciplinary Studies

Women and Disability -- (UGIS) 112 [3 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Description: This course will explore the intersection of women's experience and disability issues, emphasizing the social and personal impact of disability and chronic illness on relationships, identity, employment, health, body image, sexuality, reproduction, motherhood, and aging. Through real stories of women's lives which reached the media in the last decade and before, students will move toward a dynamic understanding of the impact of a range of physical, emotional, and mental disabilities in the context of current social forces and public policy. We will explore historic perspectives as well as current trends in medicine, independent living, care-giving, insurance, public benefits, law, and community activism as they affect and are affected by disabled women and girls and their families. We will discuss controversial ethical issues such as prenatal screening, wrongful birth law suits, and physician-assisted suicide. Course readings will draw on the rich literature of disabled women's anthologies, biography and autobiograhpy, scholarly and popular literature of disability, feminist analyses, creative writing, women's art, film, and theatre.
(F,SP) Saxton (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

Introduction to Disability Studies -- (UGIS) 110 [3 units]
Course Format: Three hours of lecture per week.
Description: This course focuses on the social and personal meaning of disability and chronic illness. We will explore definitions and conceptual models for the study of disability, the history of disabled people, bio-ethical perspectives, the depiction of disability in literature and the arts, public attitudes, and legal and social policies. The course will investigate the interaction of disability with social factors such as gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, and class. The course is for students with and without disabilities, and may be of special interest to students preparing for careers in the health professions, education, law, architecture, social work, or gerontology.
(F,SP) Staff (from the 1999-2001 General Catalog updated as of 10/5/2000)

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