Courses

Learn about Beethoven’s monumental 9th Symphony and forms of orchestral music.

Why should we care about Confucius? Explore ancient Chinese philosophy, ethics, and political theory to challenge your assumptions of what it means to be happy, live a meaningful life, and change the world.

Learn how to better understand the rich and complex ways that religions function in historic and contemporary contexts.

Learn about the rich diversity of Hindu sacred texts – hymns, narratives, philosophical thought – and their interpretations.

Learn how businesses thrive and grow while simultaneously solving some of the world's biggest challenges in this course from Harvard Business School (HBS) Online.

Explore the reunification of China under the Tang with a focus on aristocratic culture — from poetry to calligraphy to literature.

Learn about the Quran, the central sacred text of Islam, through an exploration of the rich diversity of roles and interpretations in Muslim societies.

Explore the archaeology, history, art, and hieroglyphs surrounding the famous Egyptian Pyramids at Giza. Learn about Old Kingdom pharaohs and elites, tombs, temples, the Sphinx, and how new technology is unlocking their secrets.

An exploration of the magnetic and ambivalent character of Shylock in William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice.

An in-depth look at the 1854 London cholera epidemic in Soho and its importance for the field of epidemiology.

Buddhist Literacy for Mental Health and Wellness Professionals

Learn how to read William Shakespeare's plays through his biography, Elizabethan and Jacobean history, and modern performance.

Gain critical communication skills in writing and public speaking with this introduction to American political rhetoric.

Explore the Maoist period of China, from the Communist Party to the death of Mao and the reopening of China.

An overview of modern Chinese history, including the fall of the Qing and the end of imperial China.

Learn how global warming impacts human health, and the ways we can diminish those impacts.

Examine how great modern writers capture the intricacies of our globalized world and how their works circulate within that world to find their own audiences.

Discover Handel’s Messiah in this installment of First Nights, which will explore five masterpieces of western music.

Learn how the Manchus conquered the Qing and established the last of the imperial dynasties.

Gain a foundational knowledge of American constitutional democracy while crafting your own civic voice and identity.

Study Japanese scroll art as text and as "little movies" that immerse the viewer through visual narration. 

Use the case study method to study China from the rise of Deng Xiaoping to the present.

Learn about the key beliefs and practices of Judaism through an examination of its sacred texts and their interpretation.

Build a viable, valuable tech venture that can profitably scale in this course from Harvard Business School (HBS) Online.

An introduction to the study of bioethics and the application of legal and ethical reasoning.

Learn about the Qin and Han dynasties, and how Buddhism and ideas of self-realization influenced the medieval period.

An exploration of the haunting figure at the heart of one of William Shakespeare’s most famous plays.

Embark on a global journey to explore the past, present, and future of world literature.

Learn about Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, one of the first operas ever written.