Free Humanities Courses

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

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

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

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

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

Learn the fascinating history of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, one of the most challenging and rewarding ballets ever written.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

This course examines the Sikh scripture from a doctrinal and historical perspective by providing an overview of Sikh teachings as well as the historical context within which the scripture evolved and became canonized.

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

Explore the ethical controversies of financial markets.

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

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.

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