Humanities Courses

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

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

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

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 exploration of the dynamics of contemporary China using the tools of close reading, discussion, and analysis.

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

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.

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

Learn how early American politics informed the U.S. Constitution and why its promise of liberty and equality has yet to be fully realized.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Learn about the forces in American politics that seek to influence the electorate and shift the political landscape.

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

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.

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.

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

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