Histories, Societies, Individuals

Living in an Urban Planet (Gen Ed 1103)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

How did our planet become so urban, and how can our cities be more vital, livable, and sustainable?

 

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Bruno Carvalho 

 

New Delhi

Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

It has become a cliché to say that more than half of the world’s population now lives in cities. The speed and scale of urbanization over the past century has been stunning, and we tend to underestimate the extent to which built environments and natural landscapes have become entangled. As both lived and imagined spaces, cities will continue to shape life on our planet. In fact, if we consider the flow of resources (and refuse), energy systems, the circulation of people and cultures, where do our cities actually end? This class starts from the premise that the urban today represents a worldwide condition in which nearly all political, economic, cultural, and socio-environmental relations are enmeshed.... Read more about Living in an Urban Planet (Gen Ed 1103)

Can We Know Our Past? (Gen Ed 1105)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

In a time when histories are being contested, monuments removed, and alternative facts compete with established orthodoxy, how do we evaluate competing narratives about what really happened in the past?

 

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Jason Ur and Solsire Cusicanqui Marsano

What happened in the past? How do you know? Even though today we take great pains to document every major event that occurs, more than 99% of human history is not written down.... Read more about Can We Know Our Past? (Gen Ed 1105)

Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Problems (Gen Ed 1011)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

How do you successfully design and implement solutions to intractable social and economic problems in the developing world?

 

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Tarun Khanna and Satchit Balsari

 

What problems do developing countries face, and how can individuals contribute to solutions rather than awaiting the largesse of the state or other actors? Intractable problems – such as lack of access to education and healthcare, forced reliance on contaminated food, deep-seated corruption – are part of the quotidian existence of the vast majority of six of the world’s eight billion people.... Read more about Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Problems (Gen Ed 1011)

Americans as Occupiers and Nation Builders (Gen Ed 1017)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

How have US military occupations abroad, such as in the Philippines, Japan, and most recently Afghanistan and Iraq, shaped both the United States and the world?

 

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Andrew Gordon and Erez Manela

The United States has launched numerous projects of military occupation and nation-building in foreign lands since the late 19th century. These have been contradictory enterprises, carrying ideals of freedom and self-determination "offered" by force or by fiat.... Read more about Americans as Occupiers and Nation Builders (Gen Ed 1017)

Texts in Transition (Gen Ed 1034)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

What makes some texts long-lived while others are ephemeral, today and in the past?

 

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Ann Blair and Leah Whittington

We live in a moment of “crisis” around regimes of preservation and loss. As our communication becomes ever more digital— and, therefore, simultaneously more ephemeral and more durable—the attitudes and tools we have for preserving our culture have come to seem less apt than they may have seemed as recently as a generation ago. This course examines how texts have been transmitted from the past to the present, and how we can plan for their survival into the future.... Read more about Texts in Transition (Gen Ed 1034)

The United States and China (Gen Ed 1068)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

Are the United States and China destined for conflict or can they lead the world in addressing common challenges?

 

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William C. Kirby

The United States and China are global economic and military powers. They have a rich history of commerce, friendship, alliance, and antagonism. Both countries have been shaped and re-shaped by the nature of their mutual relations. Their relationship is in crisis, the outcome of which will do much to define the world of the 21st century.... Read more about The United States and China (Gen Ed 1068)

American Capitalism (Gen Ed 1159)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

What is capitalism and how has it unfolded in American history?

 

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Sven Beckert

How did capitalism emerge, expand and transform daily life in North America over the past 500 years? In this course, students will gain an in-depth understanding of how North America turned from a minor outpost of the Atlantic economy into the powerhouse of the world economy, how Americans built a capitalist economy and how that capitalism, in turn, changed every aspect of their lives.... Read more about American Capitalism (Gen Ed 1159)

Ballots and Bibles: Why and How Americans Bring Scriptures into Their Politics (Gen Ed 1062)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

Why do Americans’ sacred texts have a close, frequently fraught relationship with their political history?

 

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David Holland

In 2018, in a public speech to law enforcement officers, the attorney general of the United States used a scriptural passage to defend tougher implementation of immigration laws. His reference bewildered observers who were unaware of a long tradition of citing Romans 13 in American political controversies, including such formative conflicts as the American Revolution and the sectional crisis over slavery.... Read more about Ballots and Bibles: Why and How Americans Bring Scriptures into Their Politics (Gen Ed 1062)

Law, Politics, and Trade Policy: Lessons from East Asia (Gen Ed 1119)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

Must the East Asian Growth Miracle always lead to trade wars or can international law bring cooperation?

 

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Christina Davis

How do states balance the challenges and opportunities of international markets? Importing ideas and resources while exporting manufactured goods underlies the East Asian growth miracle but also builds conflict with other governments. This course examines the transformative role of trade policy for Japan, Korea, and China. From the “unequal treaties” of the nineteenth century to the World Trade Organization today, trade law binds the interactions between East Asia and the world.... Read more about Law, Politics, and Trade Policy: Lessons from East Asia (Gen Ed 1119)

Vision and Justice: The Art of Race and American Citizenship (Gen Ed 1022)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

How does culture—from images of racial violence to Confederate monuments—determine who counts and who belongs in the United States?

 

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Sarah Lewis

How has visual representation—from videos and photographs to sculptures and memorials—both limited and liberated our definition of American citizenship and belonging? Art is often considered a respite from life or a reflection of the times, but this class examines how art actually has created the times in which we live.... Read more about Vision and Justice: The Art of Race and American Citizenship (Gen Ed 1022)

The Holocaust (Gen Ed 1118)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

How could the Holocaust have happened/how did it happen?

 

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Kevin Madigan

Photograph of menorah and swastika

Who is responsible for genocide? Through the lens of the Holocaust – perhaps the most-studied genocide of the modern era – we will grapple with the issues of good and evil, blame and responsibility, duty and dissent as they pertain to violence enacted at the personal and state levels.... Read more about The Holocaust (Gen Ed 1118)

The Political Economy of Globalization (Gen Ed 1120)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2023

How can a globalizing world of differing countries – rich and poor, democratic and authoritarian – best promote inclusive growth and human security by meeting the challenges of inequality, climate change, rising populism, and global disease?

 

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Lawrence Summers and Robert Lawrence

Why is populism becoming pervasive - and is there a revolt against global integration? What is the right balance between national sovereignty and international integration? Is the US equipped to sustain its role as a global leader? How does international trade affect prosperity and inequality?... Read more about The Political Economy of Globalization (Gen Ed 1120)

The Caribbean Crucible: Colonialism, Capitalism and Post-Colonial Misdevelopment In The Region (Gen Ed 1019)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2023

How does the growing inequality between and within nations—which is the major global issue of our times—impact the Caribbean region and, in turn, its U.S. neighbor?

 

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Orlando Patterson

This course explores the complex, formative role of the Caribbean in the development of Western colonialism and capitalism and the consequences for the peoples of the region. Four major themes will be examined. First, the importance of the region in the origin and early development of Western imperialism and capitalism: Why did both Western Europe and America begin their imperial and colonial expansion in this region and to what degree did the region’s slave based economies influence the nature and development of Western capitalism?... Read more about The Caribbean Crucible: Colonialism, Capitalism and Post-Colonial Misdevelopment In The Region (Gen Ed 1019)

Medical Ethics and History (Gen Ed 1116)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2023

Why have debates about medicine and public health (e.g., vaccination, abortion, etc.) become so polarized and contentious in the United States?

 

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David Shumway Jones

'The Doctor' painting by Luke Fildes
 

Students will encounter the ethical dilemmas of medicine and public health throughout their lives, whether with their own health, or with the health of their families and friends. This course will equip them with the tools of moral philosophy so that they can recognize, critique, and craft arguments grounded in appeals to utilitarianism, deontology, rights, or justice.... Read more about Medical Ethics and History (Gen Ed 1116)

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