Humanities Courses

Learn how American women created, confronted, and embraced change in the 20th century while exploring ten objects from Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library.

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

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

Explore what makes cities energizing, amazing, challenging, and perhaps humanity’s greatest invention.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

Power and Influence for Positive Impact, a Harvard Business School (HBS) Online course, helps individuals develop their own power to gain influence and make an impact.

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

Combine literary research with data science to find answers in unexpected ways. Learn basic coding tools to help save time and draw insights from thousands of digital documents at once.

This introduction to moral and political philosophy is one of the most popular courses taught at Harvard College.

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

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.

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

This introduction to moral and political philosophy is one of the most popular courses taught at Harvard College.

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

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.

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

Traces Albert Einstein’s engagement with relativity, quantum mechanics, Nazism, nuclear weapons, philosophy, the arts, and technology.

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.

Reimagine global health problems with some of the leading global health thinkers and actors through a case-based biosocial framework.

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

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.

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.