Culture Courses

Examine how cultures of the ancient world defined themselves through literature and how their vision of literature contributes to our understanding of civilization, culture, and literature today.

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

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.

Explore Chinese history and culture from the perspective of the individual through philosophical texts, literary works, and art.

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

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

Explore acts of storytelling in Shakespeare’s Othello alongside world-class artists who interpret Othello’s story in new forms and contexts today.

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

Gain an understanding of history, museum studies, and curation by looking at, organizing, and interpreting art, artifacts, scientific curiosities, and the stuff of everyday life.

Learn the music and cultural impact of three canonical operas from the 1800s: Les Huguenots, Das Rheingold, and Otello.

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

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

Explore China’s imperial period, with a focus on the Song dynasty and the role of the exam system in government.

Explore the impact of the conquest dynasties and the world of the Ming.

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