Fall 2020

Fall 2020 Courses
Course Preview Days
Urgent Problems and Enduring Questions
Enrollment Caps
Step-by-Step Lottery Info - with pictures!
Questions

 

Enrollment during Add/Drop

After the course registration deadline of Wednesday, August 26, Gen Ed instructors are responsible for admitting additional students. If there's a course that you're interested in adding, please contact the instructor directly to see if they are still admitting new students.

Update to Enrollments, Petitions & Lottery (4:17 p.m. 8/24/20)

The coordinated, ranked-choice lottery for Gen Ed courses has now concluded. Please look at your Crimson Cart to see if your petitions were approved (green check) or denied (red X). The red X will disappear after any update to your Crimson Cart (you validate it, you enroll in something, etc.), and it will be replaced by a "resubmit" option. This does not mean that you should resubmit for the lottery - it is just a function of the system. Therefore, if you see anything other than a green check by your course in your Crimson Cart, you were not granted a seat in the course. 

Please review the course's Canvas site carefully before writing faculty to ask for a spot on the waitlist or a seat in the course, as not all faculty are receptive to receiving additional petitions for their course at this time. Several courses were very competitive, some with up to five times the number of petitions than seats. There are still open spaces in other wonderful Gen Ed courses, so please come to our weekly drop-in office hours (links and times below) if you'd like to hear more about other options this term.

Update to Enrollments, Petitions & Lottery (8/22/20)

On Saturday, August 22, we began to approve petitions for courses where all petitions could be accommodated. Therefore, if you petitioned for one of the below courses before the lottery deadline of 11:59 p.m. Friday, August 21, your petition has been approved and you will see a green check mark in your Crimson Cart that denotes your ability to enroll in the course. Feel free to enroll at will. The below courses have had all petitions approved:

GENED 1018, Langmuir

GENED 1031, Huth

GENED 1037, Sadler

GENED 1053, Lee

GENED 1056, Surbeck & Hecht

GENED 1071, Olupona

GENED 1098, Meade

GENED 1123, Zeghal

GENED 1166, Eck

GENED 1167, Engell & Anderson

GENED 1170, Brandt & Katz

GENED 1171, Sandel 

The below courses had more petitions than seats, so the coordinated, ranked-choice lottery that includes all of them will be run on Monday, August 24. Please look for a green check or a red X in your Crimson Cart by that afternoon to find out whether or not your petition was approved in the lottery. 

GENED 1029, McCarty & Berry

GENED 1033, Shapiro

GENED 1034, Blair & Whittington

GENED 1036, Mitra

GENED 1042, Yoda

GENED 1051, Hall (all sessions lotteried)

GENED 1076, Merseth & Fay (both sessions lotteried)

GENED 1080, Wood (both sessions lotteried)

GENED 1102, Power & Sunstein

GENED 1130, Bronski

REMEMBER: All other Gen Ed courses not on these lists have NO ENROLLMENT CAP. You may freely enroll in any of them up to the course registration deadline of 11:59 p.m. Wednesday, August 26.

 

Fall 2020 Courses

Explore the exciting range of Gen Ed courses on offer this fall. While my.harvard and a course's Canvas site are the best place to get the most information about courses, the table below gives a snapshot of some important course components that you may be considering as you think through your schedule. 

You'll have a chance to learn more about Fall 2020 Gen Ed courses during Shopping Week.  Gen Ed is holding Course Preview Days at the following times:

  • Tuesday, August 18th, 1-5pm EDT
  • Thursday, August 20, 9am-1pm EDT

You can also explore Fall 2020 Gen Ed courses by the urgent problems and enduring questions they examine.

Course Number Course Name Faculty Category Required Books Good for those in multiple time zones?
GENED 1001 Stories from the End of the World Giovanni Bazzana A&C None. Yes - has two synchronous meeting options to fit multiple time zones.
GENED 1002 The Democracy Project Jill Lepore E&C or HSI (not both) Jill Lepore, These Truths Yes - will be flexible with scheduling synchronous meeting expectations.
GENED 1006 Music From Earth Alexander Rehding A&C None. Yes - will record lecture and schedule synchronous activities for those who can't attend lecture regularly.
GENED 1011 Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Problems Tarun Khanna & Satchit Balsari HSI Tarun Khanna, Trust: Creating the Foundation for Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries Yes - will be flexible with scheduling synchronous meeting expectations.
GENED 1012 The Art and Politics of Propaganda: The Nazis and Their Legacy Eric Rentschler A&C Jackson J. Spielvogel and David Redles. Hitler and Nazi Germany. 7th edition. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1018 How to Build a Habitable Planet Charles Langmuir STS Charles Langmuir, How to Build a Habitable Planet Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1029 What is Life? From Quarks to Consciousness Logan McCarty & Andrew Berry STS TBD Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1031 Finding Our Way John Huth STS John Huth, The Lost Art of Finding Our Way Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1032 Res Publica: A History of Representative Government Daniel Carpenter E&C or HSI (not both) Machiavelli, Discorsi; W. E. B. DuBois, Black Reconstruction; Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws; Danielle Allen, Talking to Strangers; Gordon Wood, The Creation of the American Republic Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1033 Conflict Resolution in a Divided World Daniel Shapiro E&C Fisher & Ury, Getting to Yes; Fisher & Shapiro, Beyond Reason; Shapiro, Negotiating the Nonnegotiable Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1034 Texts in Transition Ann Blair & Leah Whittington HSI or A&C (not both) Amaranth Borsuk, The Book; Michel de Montaigne, The Essays: A Selection; (recommended) Ted Chiang, Exhalation Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1036 Global Feminisms Durba Mitra HSI None. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1037 Great Experiments that Changed Our World Philip Sadler STS None. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1038 Sleep Charles Czeisler & Frank Scheer STS Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep; Steven Lockley & Russell Foster, Sleep: A Very Short Introduction Yes - has two synchronous meeting options to fit multiple time zones.
GENED 1042 Anime as Global Popular Culture Tomiko Yoda A&C Subscription to HBO Max and/or Netflix Yes - will record lecture and schedule synchronous activities for those who can't attend lecture regularly.
GENED 1051 Reclaiming Argument Ned Hall E&C None. Yes - will be flexible with scheduling synchronous meeting expectations.
GENED 1053 The Global Heart Disease Epidemic: Stopping What We Started Richard Lee STS None. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1056 Human Nature Erin Hecht & Martin Surbeck STS None. Yes - will record lecture and schedule synchronous activities for those who can't attend lecture regularly.
GENED 1071 African Spirituality and the Challenges of Modern Times Jacob Olupona HSI Jacob K. Olupona, African Religions: A Very Short Introduction; Jacob K. Olupona, ed., African Spirituality: Forms, Meanings, and Expressions Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1074 The Ancient Greek Hero: Mythology and Facing Death Gregory Nagy A&C None. Yes - will be flexible with scheduling synchronous meeting expectations.
GENED 1076 Equity and Excellence in K12 American Schools Kay Merseth & Jacob Fay E&C or HSI (not both) None. Yes - has two synchronous meeting options to fit multiple time zones.
GENED 1078 Disease, Illness and Health through Literature Karen Thornber A&C See syllabus. Yes - only a subset of the class must attend lecture each week; additional synchronous activities will be scheduled.
GENED 1079 Why Is There No Cure for Health? David M. Cutler STS None. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1080 How Music Works: Engineering the Acoustical World Robert Wood STS None. Yes - has two synchronous meeting options to fit multiple time zones.
GENED 1091 Classical Chinese Ethical & Political Theory Michael Puett E&C Philip J. Ivanhoe and Bryan W. van Norden, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, second edition Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1092 American Society and Public Policy Theda Skocpol & Mary Waters HSI TBD Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1093 Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Cares? Reimagining Global Health Arthur Kleinman, Paul Farmer, Anne Becker & Salmaan Keshavjee STS Reimagining Global Health (Farmer, Kim, Kleinman, Basilico); The Soul of Care (Kleinman); The Illness Narratives (Kleinman); Blind Spot: How Neoliberalilsm Infiltrated Global Health (Keshavjee) Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1094 Confronting Climate Change Dan Schrag STS David Archer, The Long Tail Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1098 Natural Disasters Brendan Meade STS P. Abbott, Natural Disasters 11th edition; S. Shah, Pandemic Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1102 Making Change When Change Is Hard Samantha Power & Cass Sunstein E&C or HSI (not both) Samantha Power, The Education of an Idealist Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1104 Science and Cooking Pia Sörensen & David Weitz STS Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking Yes - has several synchronous meeting options to fit multiple time zones.
GENED 1105 Can We Know Our Past? Jason Ur & Matt Liebmann STS or HSI (not both) Archaeology: Theories, Methods, Practice 8th Ed (W.W. Norton) Yes - has two synchronous meeting options to fit multiple time zones.
GENED 1120 The Political Economy of Globalization Larry Summers & Robert Lawrence E&C or HSI (not both) None. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1123 Islam and Politics in the Modern Middle East Malika Zeghal HSI Euben, R., & Zaman, M. (2009). Princeton readings in Islamist thought : Texts and contexts from al-Banna to Bin Laden Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1130 Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism and Gay Liberation Michael Bronski A&C Brown, Elaine A Taste of Power;Brown, Rita Mae Rubyfruit Jungle; Cleaver, Eldridge Soul on Ice; Firestone, Shulamith Dialectic of Sex; Greenlee, Sam The Spook Who Sat By the Door; Jay, Karla and Young, Allen Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation; Jong, Erica Fear of Flying; X, Malcolm Autobiography of Malcolm X Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1136 China: Power and Civilization Peter Bol & Bill Kirby HSI TBD Yes - will be flexible with scheduling synchronous meeting expectations.
GENED 1148 Moctezuma's Mexico Then and Now: The Past, the Present and Pandemics in North America William Fash & David Carrasco HSI TBD Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1150 Medicine and Conflict: The History and Ethics of Healing in Political Turmoil Soha Bayoumi E&C None. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1153 Shakespeare's Timeliness Marjorie Garber A&C Shakespeare: Hamlet; Othello; Measure for Measure; King Lear; Macbeth; Antony and Cleopatra; Coriolanus; Pericles; Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale; The Tempest Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1165 Superheroes and Power Stephanie Burt A&C Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics; Busiek and Immonen, Superman: Secret Identity; Tamaki and Jones, Supergirl: Being Super; Claremont, Byrne et al, X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga; McDuffie, Colon et al, Damage Control: The Complete Collection; Wilson, Alphona et al, Ms. Marvel: No Normal and Ms. Marvel: Generation Why; April Daniels, Dreadnought; Hannah Arendt, On Violence Yes - has two synchronous meeting options to fit multiple time zones.
GENED 1166 Pluralism: Case Studies in American Diversity Diana Eck E&C TBD Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1167 Climate Crossroads James Engell & James Anderson STS None. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1169 What Is the Good China Story? David Wang & Wai-yee Li A&C Wu Cheng-en (attr.), Arthur Waley trans., Monkey; Pu Songling, John Minford, trans. Stranges Stories from a Chinese Studio; Gao Xingjian, Mabel Lee trans., Soul Mountain Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1170 Confronting COVID-19: Science, History, Policy Allan Brandt & Ingrid Katz STS None. Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1171 Justice: Ethics in an Age of Pandemic and Racial Reckoning Michael Sandel E&C Sandel, Justice: What's the Rright Thing to Do?; Sandel, Justice: A Reader Maybe. Attendance is expected at synchronous lectures; check my.harvard for schedule information.
GENED 1172 Poetry in America: Writing America 1620-1850 Lisa New A&C None. Yes - will be flexible with scheduling synchronous meeting expectations.

Enrollment Caps

Some - but not all! - Fall 2020 courses in Gen Ed have faculty-placed enrollment caps. If a course has an enrollment cap, it will be noted in my.harvard with this note:

This course has an enrollment cap, so to be considered, you must request permission to enroll and rank your choices through my.harvard by 11:59 p.m. Friday, August 21. The Gen Ed lottery will run Monday, August 24, with approvals and denials sent out 11:59 p.m. that day. Visit the Fall 2020 Gen Ed web page for more information and step-by-step instructions.

Gen Ed will run a coordinated, ranked-choice lottery on Monday, August 24 for all capped courses that have more requests to enroll than seats. In order to participate in the coordinated lottery, you must do the following by 11:59 p.m. Friday, August 21:

  • Request a seat in the course by submitting a petition through my.harvard. Once you've put in a petition for any Gen Ed course, my.harvard will add you to the lottery event within 15 minutes. When you're entered into the lottery, you'll see a Gen Ed Lottery banner in your my.harvard account.
  • Rank your choices in the my.harvard lottery banner. You don't have to choose five courses; if you're only interested in one course, request it and rank it no.1. Sometime before the end of the day August 24, you'll see a green check in your Crimson Cart if your petition has been approved in the lottery. If you weren't successful in the lottery, you'll see a red X in your Crimson Cart. 
  • Register for the course(s) you were approved for in the lottery no later than the enrollment deadline (11:59 p.m. Wednesday, August 26). Your seats in a course won't be held any longer than that.
  • Note: When you create a petition in my.harvard, a blank box will pop up. There's no need to enter anything into that box, so please feel free to leave it blank. 
     
  • Send all questions to gened_enrollment@fas.harvard.edu. We're happy to answer!

                      Click here to see a step-by-step, illustrated process for petitioning and ranking your choices. 

Remember: Not all Gen Eds have enrollment caps this term. Below are the Gen Ed courses with enrollment caps; all other Gen Ed courses do not have a cap, and you may enroll in them freely once your advising hold is lifted. A lottery is not required for the courses without caps.

These courses have enrollment caps, so you must petition to enroll in them:

  • GENED 1034, Texts in Transition
  • GENED 1170, Confronting COVID-19
  • GENED 1130, Power to the People
  • GENED 1166, Pluralism
  • GENED 1167, Climate Crossroads
  • GENED 1051, Reclaiming Argument
  • GENED 1056, Human Nature
  • GENED 1031, Finding Our Way
  • GENED 1018, How to Build a Habitable Planet
  • GENED 1053, The Global Heart Disease Epidemic
  • GENED 1029, What Is Life?
  • GENED 1093, Natural Disasters
  • GENED 1076, Excellence and Equity in K-12 Education
  • GENED 1036, Global Feminisms
  • GENED 1071, African Spirituality and the Challenges of Modern Times
  • GENED 1102, Making Change When Change Is Hard
  • GENED 1037, Great Experiments That Changed Our World
  • GENED 1171, Justice: Ethics in an Age of Pandemic & Racial Reckoning
  • GENED 1033, Conflict Resolution in a Divided World
  • GENED 1080, How Music Works
  • GENED 1042, Anime as Global Popular Culture
  • GENED 1123, Islam and Politics in the Modern Middle East

All Gen Ed courses not listed above do NOT have enrollment caps, and you may enroll in them freely once your advising hold is lifted.

Questions about Gen Ed?

We’re happy to talk with you! Please join us at one of our virtual drop-in office hours via Zoom during shopping and registration.  All times are EDT.

  • Tuesday, August 18 - 3-5pm
  • Wednesday, August 19 - 9-10am, 2-3pm
  • Thursday, August 20 - 12-2pm
  • Friday, August 21 - 10am-12pm
  • Tuesday, August 25 - 3-5pm
  • Wednesday, August 26 - 9-10am, 2-3pm
  • Thursday, August 27 - 12-2pm
  • Friday, August 28 - 10am-12pm

If you're unable to make any of these times, please contact us at gened_questions@fas.harvard.edu to set up an appointment.  Please note that the Gen Ed office is closed on evenings, weekends, and holidays.

Other questions about Fall 2020?

We encourage you to consult with a member of the College’s advising team, who can connect you to appropriate resources. The College has trained a special team of advisers to help you work through specific questions you have. Please email fall2020advising@fas.harvard.edu to connect with an adviser.