Classes

The Ancient Greek Hero (Gen Ed 1074)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

How did ancient Greek heroes, both male and female, learn about life by facing what all of us have to face, our human condition?

 

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Gregory Nagy

How to face death? Concentrating on this central human question, we will explore some of the greatest works of ancient Greek literature in English translation. For the Greeks, a special way to address the problem of death was to think long and hard about what they called "heroes" in their myths.... Read more about The Ancient Greek Hero (Gen Ed 1074)

How to Build a Habitable Planet (Gen Ed 1018)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

The relationship between human beings and Earth is the central problem of our time; can an understanding of Earth’s history reveal a place for us in a process of planetary evolution that might influence our behavior?

 

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Charles H. Langmuir

Poster for Gen Ed 1018 - How to Build a Habitable Planet. Includes images of earth as well as a construction worker. Text describes course.

Is Earth one of many planets in an inhabited Universe, or is it the result of a low-probability accident? And what does the answer to that question tell us about humans’ relationship to our planet? The aim of this course is to place human beings in a universal and planetary context as we investigate the steps of planetary evolution and their significance to our current relationship to Earth.... Read more about How to Build a Habitable Planet (Gen Ed 1018)

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)

Faith and Authenticity: Religion, Existentialism and the Human Condition (Gen Ed 1069)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

How do the possibilities of faith and the demands of living authentically square with the developments of the modern west and its threats of nihilism?

 

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Courtney Bickel Lamberth and David Lamberth

This course engages some of the most fundamental questions of human existence through the philosophical, theological and literary works of 19th and 20th century authors many of whom are associated with the movement called “existentialism.” What is an authentic individual life?... Read more about Faith and Authenticity: Religion, Existentialism and the Human Condition (Gen Ed 1069)

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)

Finding Our Way (Gen Ed 1031)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024


How did/do humans find their way across the planet, and how can we replicate their wayfinding?
 

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John Huth

Imagine a situation where modern technology vanishes. How would you find your way around? We can look back in time at Pacific Islanders or the Norse and see how they engaged in wayfinding, using the Sun and stars as guides. In this course, we’ll explore time-honored techniques of navigation, and examine how they functioned.... Read more about Finding Our Way (Gen Ed 1031)

Confronting Climate Change: A Foundation in Science, Technology and Policy (Gen Ed 1094)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

How can we address the issue of climate change, reducing the damages by preparing for impacts already underway and fixing the problem by transforming our energy system?

 

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Daniel Schrag

This course will consider the challenge of climate change and what to do about it.   Students will be introduced to the basic science of climate change, including the radiation budget of the Earth, the carbon cycle, and the physics and chemistry of the oceans and atmosphere.... Read more about Confronting Climate Change: A Foundation in Science, Technology and Policy (Gen Ed 1094)

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)

Natural Disasters (Gen Ed 1098)

Semester: 

Fall

Offered: 

2024

What makes our planet so dangerous?

 

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Brendan Meade

Poster for Gen Ed 1098 - Natural Disasters. Image is a satellite photograph of a hurricane. Text includes course time (Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30-1145am) and location (Haller Hall, Geology Museum).

From Mexico to India, San Francisco to Tokyo, natural disasters have shaped both the surface of our planet and the development of civilizations. These catastrophes claim thousands of lives and cause tens of billions of dollars in damage each year, and the impact of natural disasters is only increasing as a result of human population growth and urbanization. This course uses the methods and skills associated with earth science to help you to develop an understanding of both the causes and impacts of these events.... Read more about Natural Disasters (Gen Ed 1098)

Novel Thought: Being (In)Human (Gen Ed 1182)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

How can the novel enable us to think in ways that other forms of knowledge production cannot and what does that allow us to understand about the world?

 

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Annabel Kim

French novelist Émile Zola famously conceived of the novel as a laboratory: a space to experiment with characters, treated as human subjects, and discover truths about humanity and society. This course takes seriously the idea that the novel constitutes a kind of laboratory that enables us to apprehend things about humankind that cannot be understood save through the experience of reading fiction. The novel allows us to know what we cannot know, to experience what we haven’t experienced, and in so doing, sheds light on parts of ourselves that we might otherwise want to leave hidden and unexamined: the inhumanity that is just as much a part of our humanity as the humane. Where the social sciences and hard sciences produce empirical data, the novel produces experience and holds open a space of possibility between the world as it is and the world as it might be. By reading a broad range of novels from the past century, you will hone your critical analytical and interpretative skills as a reader and come away with a better understanding of the (in)humanity behind the mass production, mass consumption, mass war, and mass death that led to the twentieth century shattering what humanity had been and making us what we are today.... Read more about Novel Thought: Being (In)Human (Gen Ed 1182)

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)

Tragedy Today (Gen Ed 1168)

Semester: 

Spring

Offered: 

2024

How can ancient Greek tragedy help us to address some of today’s most pressing sociopolitical problems?

 

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Naomi Weiss

“It’s a sad tale, it’s a tragedy / It’s a sad song…. We’re gonna sing it anyway.” So sings Hermes at the start of Hadestown, the hit broadway show that deals with capitalism, demagoguery, borders, and climate change. Based on the ancient artform of tragedy, this musical provokes its audiences to reflect on very modern concerns; it also, as the show’s creator Anaïs Mitchell says, “lets us cry.”

... Read more about Tragedy Today (Gen Ed 1168)

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