History Courses

Explore the history of navigation, from stars to satellites.

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Explore the birth of modern China with a focus on the time between the fall of the Qing and the end of World War II.