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Fall 2021

Fall 2021 Gen Ed Lottery Update: The Gen Ed lottery has concluded, and all students who were offered seats in any enrollment-capped Gen Ed course have been notified via a green check mark in their my.harvard Crimson Carts. If you do not see a green check mark, you have not been offered a seat in a capped course. Please see each course's Canvas site for any information on options (if available). We ask that you do not contact faculty about enrolling in the course unless directed to do so. Please contact gened_enrollment@fas.harvard.edu with any questions.

 

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Fall 2021 Courses

An exciting range of Gen Ed courses is on offer this term.  You can explore these course offerings in a number of ways:

Choosing the Best Courses for You 
We want to help you make the best choice when determining which Gen Ed courses to take. Below, please find a table of all Fall 2021 Gen Ed courses that includes some information that may help you determine which courses to take. If the course has a number under "Enrollment Cap?," that means it is a part of the Gen Ed lottery (details below). If you have further questions, please feel free to join us during our open advising hours, available in person and via Zoom.

 
Course Number Faculty Course Title Cat.

Enrollment  
Cap?

Required Materials
GENED 1001 Bazzana, Giovanni Stories from the End of the World A&C 200 None.
GENED 1004 Berry, Andrew Understanding Darwinism HSI
STS 		105 Costa, "Annotated Origin"; Zimmer, "Tangled Bank"
GENED 1034 Blair, Ann Texts in Transition A&C
HSI 		50 Borsuk, "Book"
GENED 1175 Brandt, Allan
Katz, Ingrid
Alter, Galit 		Vaccines: History, Science, Policy STS No TBD.
GENED 1130 Bronski, Michael Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism and Gay Liberation A&C 60 None; texts available through Canvas.
GENED 1147 Chaplin, Joyce American Food: A Global History HSI No Mintz, "Sweetness and Power"; Diner, "Hungering for America"; Sinclair, "The Jungle"
GENED 1041 Chavers, Linda How Did We Get Here? From Slavery to #MeToo HSI 50 McGuire, "At the Dark End of the Street"; Jones, "Corregidora"; Collins, "Intersectionality..."; Roberts, "Killing the Black Body"; Butler, "Kindred"; Truth, "Narrative of Sojourner Truth"; Butler, "Parable of the Sower"; Larsen, "Passing"; Painter, "Sojourner Truth: Life, Symbol"
GENED 1079 Cutler, David Why Is There No Cure for Health? STS No None.
GENED 1038 Czeisler, Charles
Scheer, Frank 		Sleep STS No "Sleep: A Very Short Introduction"
GENED 1166 Eck, Diana Pluralism: Case Studies in American Diversity E&C 60 Eck, "A New Religious America"; Patel, "Sacred Ground"; Marty, "When Faiths Collide"
GENED 1105 Flad, Rowan
Ur, Jason 		Can We Know Our Past? HSI
STS 		240 Renfrew, "Archaelogy Essentials"
GENED 1177 Harkness, Nicholas Language in Culture and Society A&C No TBD.
GENED 1056 Hecht, Erin Surbeck, Martin Human Nature STS No Haidt, "Righteous Mind"
GENED 1116 Jones, David Shumway Medical Ethics and History E&C
HSI 		No None.
GENED 1011 Khanna, Tarun
Balsari, Satchit 		Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Problems HSI No Khanna, "Trust"
GENED 1136 Kirby, William
Bol, Peter 		Power and Civilization: China HSI No Osnos, "Age of Ambition"; Ebrey, "Cambridge Illustrated History of China"; Abrami, "Can China Lead?"; Debary, "Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. 1 &2"
GENED 1093 Kleinman, Arthur
Farmer, Paul
Becker, Anne
Keshavjee, Salmaan 		Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Cares? Reimagining Global Health STS No Ksehavjee, "Blind Spot"; Kleinman, "Illness Narratives"; Farmer, "Reimagining Global Health"; Kleinman, "Soul of Care"
GENED 1018 Langmuir, Charles How to Build a Habitable Planet STS No Langmuir, "How to Build a Habitable Planet"
GENED 1053 Lee, Richard The Global Heart Disease Epidemic: Stopping What We Started STS 60 None.
GENED 1002 Lepore, Jill The Democracy Project E&C
HSI 		No TBD.
GENED 1098 Meade, Brendan Natural Disasters STS 60 Abbott, "Natural Disasters"
GENED 1097 Mitchell, Stephen Tradition, Performance, and Culture A&C No Tatar, "The Classic Fairy Tales"; Brunvand, "The Study of American Folklore"
GENED 1074 Nagy, Gregory The Ancient Greek Hero A&C No None.
GENED 1071 Olupona, Jacob African Spirituality and the Challenges of Modern Times HSI No Olupona, "African Religions: A Very Short Introduction"
GENED 1174 Oreskes, Naomi Life and Death in the Anthropocene E&C No Oreskes, "Collapse of Western Civilization"; Raworth, "Doughnut Economics"; Kempf, "How the Rich Are Destroying the Earth"; Scranton, "Learning to Dine in Anthropocene"; Speth, "New Systems Reader"; Klein, "This Changes Everything"
GENED 1019 Patterson, Orlando The Caribbean Crucible: Colonialism, Capitalism and Post-Colonial Misdevelopment In The Region HSI No Palmie, "Caribbean"; Patterson, "Confounding Island"; Alleyne, "Construction & Representation of Race"; Chomsky, "History of the Cuban Revolution"; Wagenheim, "Puerto Ricans"
GENED 1091 Puett, Michael Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory E&C No Roth, "Original Tao"; Ivanhoe, "Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy"
GENED 1006 Rehding, Alex Music from Earth A&C No None.
GENED 1043 Rentschler, Eric American Dreams Made in Hollywood A&C 200 Cullen, "American Dream"; Mulvey, "Citizen Kane"; Rushdie, "Wizard of Oz"
GENED 1023 Robichaud, Christopher Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug E&C No TBD.
GENED 1094 Schrag, Daniel Confronting Climate Change: A Foundation in Science, Technology and Policy STS No TBD.
GENED 1143 Seow, Victor Dark Satanic Mills: How the Factory Made Our World HSI 50 TBD.
GENED 1033 Shapiro, Daniel Conflict Resolution in a Divided World E&C 80 Fisher, "Beyond Reason"; Fisher, "Getting to Yes"; Shapiro, "Negotiating the Non-Negotiable"
GENED 1092 Skocpol, Theda
Waters, Mary 		American Society and Public Policy HSI No Edin, "$2 a Day"; Mettler, "Government-Citizen Disconnect"; Levitsky, "How Democracies Die"; Skocpol, "Upending American Politics"; Rosenfeld, "What Unions No Longer Do"; Pierson, "Winner-Take-All Politics"
GENED 1044 Smail, Dan
Liebmann, Matthew 		Deep History HSI 50 None.
GENED 1120 Summers, Lawrence
Lawrence, Robert 		The Political Economy of Globalization E&C
HSI 		No TBD.
GENED 1111 Wang, David Der-Wei Popular Culture and Modern China A&C No TBD.
GENED 1104 Weitz, David
Sorensen, Pia 		Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science STS No McGee, "On Food & Cooking"; Brenner, "Science & Cooking"
GENED 1080 Wood, Robert How Music Works: Engineering the Acoustical World STS 100 None.
GENED 1145 Zahlten, Alexander Global Japanese Cinema A&C No None.

Live Preview Sessions

Live preview sessions for some Gen Ed courses will be offered at the following times.  Please see the course's Canvas site for Zoom link and more information.  Please note that you may need to add the course to your Crimson Cart in my.harvard to see the information about the preview session on Canvas.

 

Monday, August 23

Tuesday, August 24

Wednesday, August 25

Thursday, August 26

 

Enrollment Caps and Lotteries

UPDATE: The Gen Ed lottery has concluded, and all students who were offered seats in any enrollment-capped Gen Ed course have been notified via a green check mark in their my.harvard Crimson Carts. If you do not see a green check mark, you have not been offered a seat in a capped course. Please see each course's Canvas site for any information on options (if available). We ask that you do not contact faculty about enrolling in the course unless directed to do so. Please contact gened_enrollment@fas.harvard.edu with any questions.

Remember: a green check means you got in; a red x means you didn't. An orange clock means the system is still working through to deny your petition, as we have confirmed that all approvals have been updated with green checks. Occasionally, a red x will turn into a "resubmit" button if there's a change to your cart, but it still doesn't mean that you were accepted to the course. 

Some - but not all! - Fall 2021 courses in Gen Ed have faculty-placed enrollment caps. If a course has an enrollment cap, it will be noted in the grid above, and also 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. Tuesday, August 24, 2021. The Gen Ed lottery will run Wednesday, August 25 with approvals and denials sent out no later than 11:59 p.m. that day. Visit the Fall 2021 Gen Ed page for more information and step-by-step instructions.

Gen Ed will run a coordinated, ranked-choice lottery on Wednesday, August 25 for all capped courses that have more requests to enroll than available seats. In order to participate in the coordinated lottery, you must do the following by 11:59 p.m. Tuesday, August 24:

  • 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 three courses; if you're only interested in one course, request it and rank it no.1. Please remember that you MUST rank your choices; petitioning for only one course will NOT automatically rank it for you. Sometime before the end of the day August 25, 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. EST Thursday, 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 that allows you to type in any information you'd like. There's no need to enter anything into that box, so please feel free to leave it blank. 

    **PLEASE NOTE THAT ONLY HARVARD COLLEGE STUDENTS MAY PARTICIPATE IN THE GEN ED LOTTERY. If you are a student in GSAS or other schools, you will be able to petition for a seat in any FAS course as of Friday, August 27. For more information on the cross-registration process for all non-FAS students, please see this information shared by the FAS Registrar.**

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

 

You can still petition for a Gen Ed and participate in the lottery with an immunization hold. Click here to see how!

Please note that students pursuing simultaneous enrollment in a Gen Ed course and a non-Gen Ed course must attend the Gen Ed course.

Send all questions about enrollment and lotteries to gened_enrollment@fas.harvard.edu. We're happy to answer!

Questions and Advising

We’re happy to talk with you! Please join us at one of our drop-in office hours during registration and the start of classes.  Advising hours will all be online August 17-27 to ensure access for all students. We are happy to arrange in-person meetings for interested students.  Online advising hours take place via Zoom.  For in-person advising, visit the Gen Ed office on the fourth floor of the Smith Campus Center.

After August 30, advising hours will consist of a mix of in-person and online options.

  • Tuesday, August 17, 12-2pm (online)
  • Wednesday, August 18, 1-3pm (online)
  • Thursday, August 19, 10am-12pm (online)
  • Monday, August 23, 2-4pm (online)
  • Tuesday, August 24, 1-3pm (online)
  • Wednesday, August 25, 10am-12pm (online)
  • Thursday, August 26, 3-5pm (online)
  • Friday, August 27, 11:30am-1:30pm (online)
  • Monday, August 30, 2-4pm (in person)
  • Tuesday, August 31, 1-3pm (online)
  • Wednesday, September 1, 2:30-4:30pm (in person)
  • Thursday, September 2, 1-3pm (in person)

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.

You can also submit questions on the Gen Ed Questions page.