Humanities Courses

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.

Explore the underlying structures of everyday arguments and develop the tools to communicate effectively.

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.

Gain critical communication skills in writing and public speaking with this introduction to American political rhetoric.

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

Learn about Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, an iconic Romantic symphony that ushered in an era of narrative “program music.”

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.

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.

Led by Harvard Instructors and historians, you will discover China’s return to power through political, social, and economic growth in relation to other countries.

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

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.

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

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

Prepare your student for college-level writing now.

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

Join the first Harvard University–affiliated continuing education course in sports cardiology and gain practical, case-based insights that empower you to deliver evidence-driven care to athletes and active individuals across every level of performance.

An in-depth look at the 1854 London cholera epidemic in Soho and its importance for the field of epidemiology.

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