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Spring 2023

Spring 2023 Gen Ed courses still accepting students

The following Spring 2023 courses are still accepting students:

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Spring 2023 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 that includes some information that may help you determine which courses to take. If the course says "yes" under "Lotteried?," 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 advising hours. As you finalize your schedule, please remember that students pursuing simultaneous enrollment in a Gen Ed course and a non-Gen Ed course must attend the Gen Ed course 100% of the time.

Course # Faculty Title What's it about? Category Lotteried?
GENED 1023 Robichaud, Christopher Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug Fake news, echo chambers, conspiracies, propaganda, information pollution--what are these and other features of the post truth era and how can we successfully navigate them? E&C yes
GENED 1025 Rinard, Susanna Happiness Should we pursue happiness, and if so, how should we do it? E&C yes
GENED 1027 Lieberman, Daniel Human Evolution and Human Health How did the human body evolve to be the way it is, and how does that evolutionary history influence how we can promote health and prevent disease? STS no
GENED 1028 Hsieh, Nien-hê Work, Life and Purpose in an Uncertain World Almost everyone must work, so how will you choose what work to do, avoid ethical pitfalls at work, and shape the world of work for others? E&C yes
GENED 1030 Damrosch, David The Philosopher and the Tyrant In a time of rising authoritarianism and polarized debate, what role can the love of wisdom have in tempering the pursuit of power? E&C yes
GENED 1032 Carpenter, Daniel Res Publica -- A History of Representative Government What is a democratic republic, and can such a regime — one that trusts citizens to capably choose and monitor those in power, and one that trusts those in power to restrain themselves and each other while attending to the public good — survive and protect us from tyranny? E&C, HSI no
GENED 1037 Sadler, Philip Experiments That Changed Our World In what ways does reliving 12 groundbreaking scientific experiments teach us how our own efforts can remake the world? STS yes
GENED 1039 Klemencic, Manja Higher Education: Students, Institutions and Controversies Why do we seek higher education, how do we experience and conduct higher education and what do we do with higher education? HSI yes
GENED 1049 Li, Jie East Asian Cinema How can we critically analyze and creatively respond to films, meanwhile letting cinema open up a window to other cultures and histories while serving as a mirror for ourselves and our own times? A&C yes
GENED 1052 Hochschild, Jennifer Race in a Polarized America Is the United States a beacon of liberal, democratic, diverse values and practices, that also has a pattern of racial injustice – or is the US at its core a white supremicist society, in which some people aspire to creating a genuinely tolerant liberal democracy? HSI no
GENED 1059 Weir, Justin Moral Inquiry in the Novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky How can the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky help us think differently about everyday moral dilemmas that are often seen as the prerogative of religion, politics, or philosophy? E&C yes
GENED 1063 Goldie, Sue World Health: Challenges and Opportunities How do we analyze the health of global populations in a time of unprecedented crisis, and create new policies that address the social, political, economic, and environmental dimensions of health in an increasingly interdependent world? STS yes
GENED 1064 Hyman, Steven Brains, Identity, and Moral Agency Can we reconcile the scientific 'brain as a machine' view with our strong experience of moral agency? E&C, STS yes
GENED 1067 Atherton, David Creativity Where does creativity come from, how does it work, and how can we deepen its role in our own lives? A&C yes
GENED 1072 Pandian, Karthik Video Commune From gifs and memes to confessions and controversies, what can the riotous festival of contemporary expression in video teach us about living together? A&C yes
GENED 1083 Kim, Jinah; Wang, Eugene Permanent Impermanence: Why Buddhists Build Monuments Why do Buddhists build monuments despite the core teaching of ephemerality, and what can we learn from this paradox about our own conception of time and space? A&C yes
GENED 1084 Haig, David The First Nine Months What is a human individual deserving of rights? STS yes
GENED 1090 Stern, David What is a Book? From the Clay Tablet to the Kindle What is the nature of the object that has been the focus of your education since you began to read--and at the core of Western culture since its inception-- and why is it important to understand and appreciate its presence before your eyes even if it's all but transparent? A&C yes
GENED 1098 Meade, Brendan Natural Disasters What makes our planet so dangerous? STS yes
GENED 1099 Manuelian, Peter Pyramid Schemes: What Can Ancient Egyptian Civilization Teach US? How does ancient Egypt enlighten our times about what defines a civilization, and were those ancient humans, with their pyramids, hieroglyphs, and pharaohs, exactly like or nothing like us? HSI no
GENED 1110 Love, Rachel Classical Mythology: Myth in Antiquity and Today Why do some stories get told over and over for thousands of years, and how do those ancient tales still shape (and get shaped by) us today? A&C no
GENED 1112 Goodman, Alyssa Prediction: The Past and Present of the Future How and why do humans try to divine their own futures? STS no
GENED 1113 Bernstein, Robin Race, Gender, and Performance How do the performances we see every day--on screens, on stages, and in everyday life--make race, gender, and sexuality real? A&C yes
GENED 1115 Patterson, Orlando Human Trafficking, Slavery, and Abolition in the Modern World Why do slavery, human trafficking and other forms of servitude thrive today globbally, including in the USA, and what can we do about it? E&C, HSI no
GENED 1121 Risse, Mathias Economic Justice How can we understand and make progress on disagreements about matters of economic and racial justice that are divisive to the point of making societies fall apart? E&C no
GENED 1123 Zeghal, Malika Islam and Politics in the Modern Middle East What is the role that religion plays in the political life of Middle Eastern Muslim-majority societies today, and how does our understanding of that compare with conventional wisdom, including what we are often exposed to in the news media? HSI no
GENED 1125 Murthy, Venkatesh Artificial and Natural Intelligence What does it mean for a machine to be intelligent, how does current artificial intelligence compare with animal intelligence, and should we be worried? STS no
GENED 1133 Stauffer, John Is the Civil War Still Being Fought? How and why does the U.S. Civil War continue to shape national politics, laws, literature, and culture---especially in relation to our understanding of race, freedom, and equality? HSI no
GENED 1134 Asani, Ali Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies How does one understand a major global religion in a highly polarized and fragmented world? HSI yes
GENED 1137 McElroy, Michael The Challenge of Human Induced Climate Change: Transitioning to a Post Fossil Fuel Future What can we do now to avoid the most serious consequences of climate change, which poses an immediate problem for global society? STS no
GENED 1162 McLaughlin, Katie The Science of Stress What are the causes and consequences of stress, and what are the most effective strategies for coping with stress? STS yes
GENED 1177 Caton, Steve Language in Culture and Society How are language, culture, and society related? A&C yes
GENED 1178 Carballo, Jennifer Mexico and the Making of Global Cuisine What does the food we eat tell us about ourselves—as individuals, communities, and countries—and how has humanity’s relationship with food changed over time? HSI yes
GENED 1179 Lunbeck, Elizabeth Psychotherapy and the Modern Self How can we understand the appeal of psychotherapy, widely recognized as the preferred antidote to human unhappiness and misery, and what does it offer that friends, family, self-help, and psychopharmacological remedies do not? STS no
GENED 1182 Kim, Annabel Novel Thought: Being (In)Human 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? A&C yes
 

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! - courses in Gen Ed have faculty-placed enrollment caps. If a course has an enrollment cap, it will be noted in the grid above. Additionally, this note will appear with the course description in my.harvard:

This course has an enrollment cap and is a part of the coordinated, ranked-choice Gen Ed lottery. To participate in the lottery, you must request permission to enroll and rank your choices through my.harvard by 11:59 p.m. EST Tuesday, January 17, 2023. The Gen Ed lottery will run Wednesday, January 18; if you are successful in the lottery, your course petition in your Crimson Cart will turn to a green check that allows you to enroll. For timely updates on the Gen Ed lottery, please see https://gened.fas.harvard.edu/spring-2023.

Gen Ed will run a coordinated, ranked-choice lottery 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. EST Tuesday, January 17, 2023:

  • 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. Before 5 p.m. Wednesday, January 18, 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, January 19). If you do not enroll in a lotteried course by the course registration deadline, you will not be allowed to keep your seat.
  • 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. 

    IMPORTANT: Holds on your my.harvard account do not prevent you from participating in the lottery. You may still participate in the lottery even if an advising hold or immunization hold hasn't been lifted. 

Click here to see a step-by-step, illustrated guide for participating in the Gen Ed lottery.

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 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 a Gen Ed course after the lottery is complete.  Please note that each Gen Ed instructor determines if they allow graduate students to enroll in their course.  For more information on the cross-registration process for all non-FAS students, please see this information shared by the FAS Registrar.**

Send all questions about enrollment and lotteries to gened_enrollment@fas.harvard.edu. 

Questions and Advising

We’re happy to talk with you!  Gen Ed will be holding advising hours on Zoom at the following times in Spring 2023:

  • January 11 - 9-10am
  • January 12 - 11:30am-12:30pm
  • January 13 - 1-2pm
  • January 17 - 11am-12pm
  • January 19 - 1-2pm
  • January 20 - 11am-12pm
  • January 23 - 11am-12pm
  • February 1 - 1-2pm
  • February 8 - 1-2pm
  • February 15 - 1-2pm

We're also happy set up an in-person advising conversation. Please e-mail gened_questions@fas.harvard.edu to set up an appointment.

You can also submit questions to gened_questions@fas.harvard.edu and on the Gen Ed Questions page.