Courses

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

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

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

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

An overview of divination systems, ranging from ancient Chinese bone burning to modern astrology.

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

Develop skills in digital research and visualization techniques across subjects and fields within the humanities.

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

Learn how electricity makes the neurons in your brain tick.

Learn about Christianity through a study of its sacred scriptures. We will explore how diverse Christians have interpreted these writings and practiced their teachings over a 2000 year, global history.

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

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

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.

Learn skills and tools that support data science and reproducible research, to ensure you can trust your own research results, reproduce them yourself, and communicate them to others.

Apply tools of single-variable calculus to create and analyze mathematical models used by real practitioners in social, life, and physical sciences.

Discover what makes your brain tick in this third course in our introductory series in neuroscience.

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

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

Learn about the Earth, life, and how we can search for life elsewhere in the universe.

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

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

Learn about China’s origins, its integral early thinkers, and competing states and schools of thought.

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

Join Harvard faculty in this online course to discover the physical history of the Jewish bible.

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.