Harvard University homepage
HARVARD.EDU
Students listen in class.

HOME /

Course Catalog

Browse Gen Ed courses for the 2024-2025 academic year or explore the full range of Gen Ed offerings.

Background photo of students seated in a classroom.

Program in General Education Course Catalog

Items will instantly refresh upon filtering.
135 results found. First 50 results are being shown

Act Natural

David Levine
Gen Ed 1050    |   Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Wednesday, 12:00 PM – 2:45 PM
How do we draw the line between being yourself and performing yourself, between acting and authenticity?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

African Spirituality and the Challenges of Modern Times

Jacob K. Olupona
Gen Ed 1071   |  Fall 2024   |   Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
What can African spiritual traditions contribute to human flourishing in the contemporary age?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

AI, Computing and Thinking

Petros Koumoutsakos
Gen Ed 1187    |  
How can AI and Computing be integrated in our thinking for solving societal and scientific challenges?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

American Capitalism

Sven Beckert
Gen Ed 1159   |   Last offered Spring 2024
What is capitalism and how has it unfolded in American history? How did capitalism emerge, expand and transform daily life in North America over the past 500 years?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

American Dreams Made in Hollywood and Beyond

Eric Rentschler
Gen Ed 1043    |   Last offered Fall 2023
If we talk about American dreams and the many different ways they take shape in the mass-produced film fantasies made in Hollywood and beyond, what language are we to use and how are we to speak as we confront the diversity of experience portrayed in these designs for living; for whom is the American dream, one wonders, is it for everyone?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

American Food: A Global History

Joyce Chaplin
Gen Ed 1147   |   Last offered Fall 2021
If we are what we eat, well, here at the end of 2021, who the hell are we?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

American Society and Public Policy

Theda Skocpol and Mary Waters
Gen Ed 1092  |   Fall 2024   |   Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How do patterns of American economic, political, and social inequality shape our policy responses to working families, immigration, and poverty?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Americans as Occupiers and Nation Builders

Andrew Gordon and Erez Manela
Gen Ed 1017   |    Last offered Fall 2023
How have US military occupations abroad, such as in the Philippines, Japan, and most recently Afghanistan and Iraq, shaped both the United States and the world?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Anime as Global Popular Culture

Tomiko Yoda
Gen Ed 1042    |   Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
What can anime’s development in Japan and its global dissemination teach us about the messy world of contemporary media culture where art and commerce, aesthetic and technology, and producers and consumers are inextricably entangled with each other?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Artificial and Natural Intelligence

Venkatesh Murthy
Gen Ed 1125 | Last offered Spring 2024
What does it mean for a machine to be intelligent, how does current artificial intelligence compare with animal intelligence, and should we be worried?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Ballots and Bibles: Why and How Americans Bring Scriptures into Their Politics

David Holland
Gen Ed 1062   |   Last offered Spring 2024
Why do Americans’ sacred texts have a close, frequently fraught relationship with their political history?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Borders

Mary Lewis
Gen Ed 1140    |   Spring 2025    |   Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How have borders been formed historically, and what are the ethics of border construction, defense, expansion or transgression?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Brains, Identity, and Moral Agency

Steven Hyman
Gen Ed 1064    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
Can we reconcile the scientific ‘brain as a machine’ view with our strong experience of moral agency?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" and a justice scale icon with the words "Ethics & Civics".

Can We Know Our Past?

Jason Ur
Gen Ed 1105    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
In a time when histories are being contested, monuments removed, and alternative facts compete with established orthodoxy, how do we evaluate competing narratives about what really happened in the past?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" and a column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals".

Classical Chinese Ethical and Political Theory

Michael Puett
Gen Ed 1091    |   Fall 2024    |   Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
What if many of our assumptions about the self and about how to live fully are limiting and even dangerous, and what other possibilities might we be able to find in classical Chinese philosophy?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Classical Mythology: Myth in Antiquity and Today

Rachel Love
Gen Ed 1110    |   Last offered Spring 2024
Why do some stories get told over and over for thousands of years, and how do those ancient tales still shape (and get shaped by) us today?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Climate Crossroads

James G. Anderson
Gen Ed 1167    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
Irreversible climate change poses an unprecedented challenge to the stability of all societies: What are the scientifically viable pathways to a future that is sustainable and just?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Conflict Resolution in a Divided World

Daniel Shapiro
Gen Ed 1033 | Last offered Fall 2022
From the interpersonal to the international, are we destined to live in a world of destructive conflict—or can we negotiate our way out?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Confronting Climate Change: A Foundation in Science, Technology and Policy

Daniel Schrag
Gen Ed 1094    |    Fall 2024   |   Course Listing | Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
How can we address the issue of climate change, reducing the damages by preparing for impacts already underway and fixing the problem by transforming our energy system?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Consent

Elaine Scarry
Gen Ed 1138 | Last offered Spring 2022
How can we recognize the link between ethical acts of consent in personal life (marriage, sexual experience, contracts) and the essential role that citizenship plays in democratic states during both war and peace?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Contemporary Developing Countries: Entrepreneurial Solutions to Intractable Problems

Tarun Khanna and Satchit Balsari
Gen Ed 1011   |   Last offered Fall 2023
How do you successfully design and implement solutions to intractable social and economic problems in the developing world?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Creativity

David Atherton
Gen Ed 1067    |   Last offered Spring 2023
Where does creativity come from, how does it work, and how can we deepen its role in our own lives?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Dark Satanic Mills: How the Factory Made Our World

Victor Seow
Gen Ed 1143   |   Last offered Fall 2021
How have changes in the way that things are manufactured and made transformed the world beyond the factory and other sites of production?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Deep History

Matthew J. Liebmann and Daniel Lord Smail
Gen Ed 1044   |   Fall 2024   |   Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
Who are we, how did we get here. . . and how far back in time do we have to go to start asking the question?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Disease, Illness, and Health through Literature

Karen Thornber
Gen Ed 1078    |   Last offered Fall 2023
As healthcare costs soar and considerable suffering from disease and illness continues despite regular advances in medicine, what should we advocate for in our communities, our societies, our nations, and beyond to ease the burden of disease and illness on health professionals, family caregivers, and care recipients alike?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

East Asian Cinema

Jie Li
Gen Ed 1049    |   Last offered Spring 2023
How can we critically analyze and creatively respond to films, meanwhile letting cinema open up a window to other cultures and histories while serving as a mirror for ourselves and our own times?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Eating Culture: Past, Present, and Future

Joseph Nagy
Gen Ed 1195    |   Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
How and why do we humans “play” with the food we eat, and on which we depend for our lives, in so many different ways—creatively, profoundly, and consequentially?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Economic Justice

Mathias Risse
Gen Ed 1121 | Last offered Spring 2023
How can we understand and make progress on disagreements about matters of economic and racial justice that are divisive to the point of making societies fall apart?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Equity and Excellence in K12 American Schools

Katherine K. Merseth
Gen Ed 1076 | Last offered Fall 2022
How does the U.S. K12 education system reflect, reinforce, and reshape American society?
A justice scale icon with the words "Ethics & Civics" and a column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals".

Ethics of Climate Change

Lucas Stanczyk
Gen Ed 1015 | Spring 2025 | Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
What are individuals, scientists, businesses, and governments morally required to do to prevent catastrophic climate change?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Evolving Morality: From Primordial Soup to Superintelligent Machines

Joshua D. Greene
Gen Ed 1046 | Spring 2025 | Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
How can we understand the evolution of morality—from primordial soup to superintelligent machines—and how might the science of morality equip us to meet our most pressing moral challenges?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" and a justice scale icon with the words "Ethics & Civics".

Faith and Authenticity: Religion, Existentialism and the Human Condition

Courtney Bickel Lamberth and David Lamberth
Gen Ed 1069    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
How do the possibilities of faith and the demands of living authentically square with the developments of the modern west and its threats of nihilism?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Finding Our Way

John Huth
Gen Ed 1031    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How did/do humans find their way across the planet, and how can we replicate their wayfinding?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Gender and Science

Sarah Richardson
Gen Ed 1127 | Last offered Spring 2022
Does Science have a gender? Do gender beliefs influence the content of scientific knowledge?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Global Japanese Cinema

Alexander Zahlten
Gen Ed 1145    |   Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday, 9:00 AM – 11:45 AM
What can film from Japan tell us about the strange pair of intensifying global interconnections and rising nationalism in the world today?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Great Experiments that Changed Our World

Philip Sadler
Gen Ed 1037    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
In what ways does reliving 10 groundbreaking scientific experiments teach us how our own efforts can remake the world?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Grimm’s Fairy Tales: Echoes of the Past, Reflections of the Present

Ekaterina Pirozhenko
Gen Ed 1197    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing    |   Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
What do fairy tales reveal about universal human experiences such as birth, death, love, jealousy, discrimination, dreams, growth, resilience, and empowerment?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Guns in the U.S.: A Love Story

Caroline Light
Gen Ed 1073   |    Fall 2024   |    Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Why does America love guns?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Happiness

Susanna Rinard
Gen Ed 1025    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
Should we pursue happiness, and if so, how should we do it?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Harvard Gets Medieval

Daniel Lord Smail
Gen Ed 1160    |   Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
How did our world come to be suffused with medieval images and motifs, and what do we learn about the past and ourselves as we begin to explore the fascinating time on the other side of the stereotypes?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

How Music Works: Engineering the Acoustical World

Robert Wood
Gen Ed 1080    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 11:15 AM – 12:30 PM
Music and technology are two dimensions of humanity that have been interdependent for tens of thousands of years; what can this intersection teach us about our past and our future?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

How to Build a Habitable Planet

Charles H. Langmuir
Gen Ed 1018    |    Last Offered Fall 2023
The relationship between human beings and Earth is the central problem of our time; can an understanding of Earth’s history reveal a place for us in a process of planetary evolution that might influence our behavior?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Human Evolution, Human Health, and Climate Change

Daniel Lieberman and Kevin Uno
Gen Ed 1027    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How did the human body evolve to be the way it is, and how does that evolutionary history influence how we can promote health and prevent disease?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Human Nature

Joseph Henrich and Cammie Curtin
Gen Ed 1056    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
What makes us human and why does it matter?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Human Trafficking, Slavery and Abolition in the Modern World

Orlando Patterson
Gen Ed 1115   |   Spring 2025   |   Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
Why do slavery, human trafficking and other forms of servitude thrive today globally, including the USA, and what can we do about it?
A justice scale icon with the words "Ethics & Civics" and a column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals".

I Wonder Why: Science as a Culture of Curiosity

L Mahadevan
Gen Ed 1190 | Last offered in Spring 2024
How can a habit of curiosity, courage, and careful observation power an eternal adventure of unravelling the magic and mystery in the mundane worlds in and around us – forever uncertain, forever fruitful?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

If There is No God, All is Permitted: Theism and Moral Reasoning

Jay Harris
Gen Ed 1161   |   Last offered Spring 2024
Can we have confidence that our moral claims are true?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Ignorance, Lies, Hogwash, and Humbug

Christopher Robichaud
Gen Ed 1023 | Last offered Spring 2024
Fake news, echo chambers, conspiracies, propaganda, information pollution–what are these and other features of the post truth era and how can we successfully navigate them?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Infectious Diseases, Pandemics, and Social Injustice

Donald Goldmann
Gen Ed 1129 | Last offered in Fall 2023
Could we have been better prepared to mitigate the inequitable impact of COVID-19 in the US and globally had we learned the social injustice lessons from previous pandemics and epidemics of the diseases we will study?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Is the U.S. Civil War Still Being Fought?

John Stauffer
Gen Ed 1133   |  Spring 2025   |   Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
How and why does the U.S. Civil War continue to shape national politics, laws, literature, and culture—especially in relation to our understanding of race, freedom, and equality?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Islam and Politics in the Modern Middle East

Malika Zeghal
Gen Ed 1123    |   Fall 2024    |    Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Monday, 3:45 PM – 5:45 PM
What is the role that religion plays in the political life of Middle Eastern Muslim-majority societies today, and how does our understanding of that compare with conventional wisdom, including what we are often exposed to in the news media?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Justice: Ethical Reasoning in Polarized Times

Michael Sandel
Gen Ed 1200   |   Fall 2024   |   Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Tuesday, 9:45 AM – 11:45 AM
What is a just society, and how should we think our way through the ethical choices we confront in politics and in our everyday lives?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Language in Culture and Society

Nicholas Harkness
Gen Ed 1177    |   Last offered Spring 2023
How is verbal art — from story-telling to poetry and from hip hop to church song — created from linguistic and musical form, and how does its performance mediate social relations as well as construct cultural meanings that are central to our lives?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Law, Politics, and Trade Policy: Lessons from East Asia

Christina Davis
Gen Ed 1119   |   Last offered Spring 2024
Must the East Asian Growth Miracle always lead to trade wars or can international law bring cooperation How do states balance the challenges and opportunities of international markets?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

LGBT Literature, Politics, and Identity

Linda Schlossberg
Gen Ed 1176    |   Last offered Spring 2022
What is the relationship between LGBT literary representation and politics, activism, and culture?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Life and Death in the Anthropocene

Naomi Oreskes
Gen Ed 1174    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
What does it mean for us — both as a society and as individuals — to live in a world radically remade by the human hand?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Life as a Planetary Phenomenon

Dimitar Sasselov
Gen Ed 1070    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
Is there alien life beyond Earth?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Living in an Urban Planet

Bruno Carvalho
Gen Ed 1103    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How did our planet become so urban, and how can our cities be more vital, livable, and sustainable?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Loss

Kathleen Coleman
Gen Ed 1131    |   Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM
How are we to cope with the inevitability that some of what we most love in life we will lose?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Making Change When Change Is Hard: the Law, Politics, and Policy of Social Change

Cass Sunstein
Gen Ed 1102    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Wednesday, 12:45 PM – 2:45 PM
How does social change happen?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Making Things (Breaking Things)

Katarina Burin
Gen Ed 1191    |   Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Wednesday, 12:00 PM – 2:45 PM
How do we know ourselves through things and what does it mean to think with our hands, to innovate and to productively fail as a tool of self knowledge?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Medical Ethics and History

David Shumway Jones
Gen Ed 1116   |   Last offered Fall 2023
Why have debates about medicine and public health (e.g., vaccination, abortion, etc.) become so polarized and contentious in the United States?
A justice scale icon with the words "Ethics & Civics" and a column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals".

Mental Health and Mental Illness through Literature and the Arts

Karen Thornber
Gen Ed 1144   |   Last offered Fall 2022
How have mental illness and mental health been understood across time and space, and how have literature and the arts both perpetuated and undermined stigmas against individuals with mental illness?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Meritocracy and Its Critics

Michael Sandel
Gen Ed 1181   |   Last offered Fall 2023
If a society achieved truly equal opportunity, so that everyone could rise as far as their effort and talent would take them, would it be a just society?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Mexico and the Making of Global Cuisine

Jennifer Carballo
Gen Ed 1178   |   Spring 2025   |   Course Listing
What does the food we eat tell us about ourselves—as individuals, communities, and countries—and how has humanity’s relationship with food changed over time?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Moctezuma’s Mexico Then and Now: Ancient Empires, Race Mixture and Finding Latinx

Davíd L. Carrasco and William L. Fash
Gen Ed 1148   |   Fall 2024   |   Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
How does Mexico’s rich cultural past shape contemporary Mexico and the US in the face of today’s pandemics, protests and other challenges of the borderlands?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Modern Art and Modernity

Ewa Lajer-Burcharth, David Joselit, and Maria Gough
Gen Ed 1156    |   Last offered Spring 2024
What role do artistic practices play in the formation of modern culture and society, and how does art foster critical reflection and debate?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Moral Inquiry in the Novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky

Justin Weir
Gen Ed 1059   |   Last offered Fall 2023
If a society achieved truly equal opportunity, so that everyone could rise as far as their effort and talent would take them, would it be a just society?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Multisensory Religion: Rethinking Islam

Ali S. Asani
Gen Ed 1087    |   Last Offered Spring 2022    
What role do our senses play in shaping our understandings of “religion” and “religious experience”?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Music from Earth

Alexander Rehding
Gen Ed 1006    |   Last offered Fall 2023
How can music help us in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Natural Disasters

Brendan Meade
Gen Ed 1098    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM
What makes our planet so dangerous?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Nature

Joyce Chaplin
Gen Ed 1117 | Last offered Spring 2021
Saving the planet is necessary and will actually make us happy, right?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Novel Thought: Being (In)Human

Annabel Kim
Gen Ed 1182    |   Last offered Spring 2024
How can the novel enable us to think in ways that other forms of knowledge production cannot and what does that allow us to understand about the world?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Numbers in Policy and Society

Sheila Jasanoff and Sam Weiss Evans
Gen Ed 1173 | Last offered Spring 2022
How can we critically assess the data, models, and numbers used in making policy and hold to account those with the power to produce them?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Painting’s Doubt: A Studio Course

Matt Saunders
Gen Ed 1114    |   Last offered Fall 2023
How does a hands-on practice of image making (painting) lead us to perceive, represent and inhabit our world differently?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Permanent Impermanence: Why Buddhists Build Monuments

Jinah Kim and Eugene Wang
Gen Ed 1083    |   Last offered Spring 2024
Why do Buddhists build monuments despite the core teaching of ephemerality, and what can we learn from this paradox about our own conception of time and space?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Philanthropy, Nonprofits, and the Social Good

Shai M. Dromi
Gen Ed 1192   |   Spring 2025   |   Course Listing
How can we most effectively harness the power of philanthropic giving and nonprofit work to create positive social change and address society’s most pressing challenges?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Philosophy of Technology: From Marx and Heidegger to Artificial Intelligence, Genome Editing, and Geoengineering

Mathias Risse
Gen Ed 1194   |   Spring 2025   |   Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
Is technology good, bad, or neutral – and if good, should we make it central to solving all our problems; if bad, should we radically change our ways; and if neutral, then what else should be the focus as we look for solutions to global problems?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Poetry Without Borders

Stephanie Sandler
Gen Ed 1057    |   Last offered Spring 2024
Why do poems and poets today boldly cross the borders of language, geography, form, and how are those border-crossings charged politically, ethically, and aesthetically?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Popular Culture and Modern China

David Wang
Gen Ed 1111    |   Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
What is the “people,” and how “popular” can popular culture be in contemporary People’s Republic of China and beyond?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Power and Civilization: China

William C. Kirby and Peter K. Bol
Gen Ed 1136    |   Fall 2024    |   Course Listing    |   Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
What does China’s past mean for its and your future as China once again becomes the most powerful nation on earth?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Power and Identity in the Middle East

Melani Cammett
Gen Ed 1008   |   Last offered Spring 2024
How do material interests and identities shape the foundations of political order?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Power to the People: Black Power, Radical Feminism, and Gay Liberation

Michael Bronski
Gen Ed 1130    |   Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How does understanding political activists and movements in the past help us radically change the world today?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Prediction: The Past and Present of the Future

Alyssa Goodman
Gen Ed 1112    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Wednesday, 3:00 PM – 5:45 PM
How and why do humans try to divine their own futures?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Pride & Prejudice & P-values: Scientific Critical Thinking

Edward J. Hall and Douglas Finkbeiner
Gen Ed 1024 | 4 Credits (Spring 2025) | Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How can we (as individuals and as whole societies) better incorporate into our thinking and decision making the problem-solving techniques characteristic of science at its best?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Psychotherapy and the Modern Self

Elizabeth Lunbeck
Gen Ed 1179    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How can we understand the appeal of psychotherapy, widely recognized as the preferred antidote to human unhappiness and misery, and what does it offer that friends, family, self-help, and psychopharmacological remedies do not?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Pyramid Schemes: What Can Ancient Egyptian Civilization Teach Us?

Peter Der Manuelian
Gen Ed 1099   |   Spring 2025   |   Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
How does ancient Egypt enlighten our times about what defines a civilization, and were those ancient humans, with their pyramids, hieroglyphs, and pharaohs, exactly like or nothing like us?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Race and Justice

Tommie Shelby
Gen Ed 1146 | Last offered Fall 2022
What is racial justice, and through what justifiable means might it be achieved in the United States?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Race in a Polarized America

Jennifer L. Hochschild
Gen Ed 1052   |   Last offered Spring 2023
Is the United States a beacon of liberal, democratic, diverse values and practices, that also has a pattern of racial injustice – or is the US at its core a white supremacist society, in which some people aspire to creating a genuinely tolerant liberal democracy?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Race, Gender, and Performance

Robin M. Bernstein
Gen Ed 1113    |   Last offered Spring 2024
How do the performances we see every day–on screens, on stages, and in everyday life–make race, gender, and sexuality real?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Rationality

Steven Pinker
Gen Ed 1066 | Last offered Spring 2024
In an era of fake news, conspiracy theories, quack cures, science denial, and paranormal woo-woo, the well-being of the world depends on an understanding of rationality, why it is so easily eclipsed by irrationality, and how the rational angels of our nature can prevail.
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Reclaiming Argument: Logic as a Force for Good

Edward J. Hall
Gen Ed 1051 | Last offered Spring 2024
Argument and persuasion are features of all of our lives that can be as challenging and fraught as they are unavoidable and essential; what is the best way for us to handle them?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Rise of the Machines? Understanding and Using Generative AI

Christopher Stubbs and Logan S. McCarty
Gen Ed 1188    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM
If we’re living through the emergence of a highly disruptive technology, namely Chat-GPT and similar generative AI tools, what should we do about it?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Satire

Ambrogio Camozzi Pistoja
Gen Ed 1010    |   Last offered Spring 2024
Is satire a dying art, and do we need it?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science

David Weitz and Pia Sorensen
Gen Ed 1104    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
How can we use scientific principles to make better food, for ourselves and for the world?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Security

John Hamilton
Gen Ed 1020 | Spring 2025 | Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
How do the moral implications of security, a term with a long and provocatively ambivalent history, continue to be relevant in today’s understanding of community and social responsibility?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Sex, Gender, and Sexuality

Jocelyn Viterna
Gen Ed 1193     |    Why are questions of sex, gender, and sexuality so frequently politicized, and how does this politicization shape the social world, as well as our individual opportunities?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Sleep

Charles Czeisler and Frank A.J.L. Scheer
Gen Ed 1038    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday, 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM
How does sleep affect your health, your safety, and our society?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Sound and Music Perception

Eric Heller
Gen Ed 1106 | Last offered Spring 2024
Our whole life experience must pass through our sensory systems; are we getting the truth or are we being deliberately misled, and if so, to what purpose?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Stories from the End of the World

Giovanni Bazzana
Gen Ed 1001    |   Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 9:00 AM – 10:15 PM
How can and should we live at the end of the world as we know it?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Superheroes and Power

Stephanie Burt
Gen Ed 1165    |   Last offered Fall 2023
What makes superheroes popular, and how can their stories answer enduring questions about identity, power, disability, symbolism, law, and the state?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Texts in Transition

Ann Blair and Leah Whittington
Gen Ed 1034   |   Fall 2024   |   Course Listing   |   Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
What makes some texts long-lived while others are ephemeral, today and in the past?
A column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" and a paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

The Age of Anxiety: Histories, Theories, Remedies

Beth Blum
Gen Ed 1186    |    Last offered Spring 2024
How have authors throughout history channeled anxiety into meaningful and imaginative works of art?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

The Ancient Greek Hero

Gregory Nagy
Gen Ed 1074    |   Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
How did ancient Greek heroes, both male and female, learn about life by facing what all of us have to face, our human condition?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

The Art and Politics of Propaganda

Eric Rentschler
Gen Ed 1012    |   Last offered Fall 2022
Why did Nazi sights, sounds, and propaganda prove to be so captivating and compelling for German audiences of a modern nation and how do we explain the continuing impact of Nazi images and fantasies to this very day, which is to ask, what do “they” have to do with “us”?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

The Artfulness of Everyday Life

Sarah Craycraft
Gen Ed 1196    |   Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
How do groups express themselves creatively in everyday life, and how do these group expressions reflect our individual experiences of the world?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

The Border: Race, Politics and Health in Modern Mexico

Gabriela Soto Laveaga
Gen Ed 1089    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
If we want to understand our own history we need to look at the fringes, in this case the ongoing tensions and violence at the U.S.-Mexico border illustrates what we value and fear as a society.
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

The Caribbean Crucible: Colonialism, Capitalism and Post-Colonial Misdevelopment In The Region

Orlando Patterson
Gen Ed 1019   |   Last offered Fall 2023
How does the growing inequality between and within nations—which is the major global issue of our times—impact the Caribbean region and, in turn, its U.S. neighbor?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

The Challenge of Human Induced Climate Change: Transitioning to a Post Fossil Fuel Future

Michael McElroy
Gen Ed 1137    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
What can we do now to avoid the most serious consequences of climate change, which poses an immediate problem for global society?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

The Crusades and the Making of East and West

Dimiter Angelov
Gen Ed 1088   |  Last offered Spring 2022
How did we come to think of the world as split into East and West?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

The Democracy Project

Jill Lepore
Gen Ed 1002 | Last offered Fall 2021
How did/do humans find their way across the planet, and how can we replicate their wayfinding?
A justice scale icon with the words "Ethics & Civics" and a column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals".

The English Language Today, Yesterday, and Tomorrow

Daniel Donoghue
Gen Ed 1183   |   Spring 2025   |   Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How does the English language shape our world, and how does the world shape English?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

The Global Heart Disease Epidemic: Stopping What We Started

Richard Lee
Gen Ed 1053    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Monday & Wednesday, 9:00 AM – 10:15 AM
What are you willing to do for the health of others?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

The Holocaust

Kevin Madigan
Gen Ed 1118   |   Last offered Spring 2024
How could the Holocaust have happened/how did it happen?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

The Philosopher and the Tyrant

David Damrosch
Gen Ed 1030 | Last offered Spring 2023
In a time of rising authoritarianism and polarized debate, what role can the love of wisdom have in tempering the pursuit of power?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

The Political Economy of Globalization

Lawrence Summers and Robert Lawrence
Gen Ed 1120    |    Last offered Fall 2023
How can a globalizing world of differing countries – rich and poor, democratic and authoritarian – best promote inclusive growth and human security by meeting the challenges of inequality, climate change, rising populism, and global disease?
A justice scale icon with the words "Ethics & Civics" and a column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals".

The Power and Beauty of Being In-Between: The Story of Armenia

Christina Maranci
Gen Ed 1185    |   Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Tuesday & Thursday, 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM
How can one small, remote country change the way we think about the culture of the world?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

The Social Responsibilities of Universities

Julie Reuben
Gen Ed 1122    |    Fall 2024    |    Course Listing    |    Canvas Site
Wednesday, 9:45 AM – 11:45 AM
What do universities owe society?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

The Two Koreas in the Modern World

Carter Eckert
Gen Ed 1100    |    Last offered Spring 2022
Why is it that the Two Koreas (North and South Korea), sharing the same small peninsula, have followed such radically divergent paths in the modern world?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

The United States and China

William C. Kirby
Gen Ed 1068   |   Last offered Spring 2024
Are the United States and China destined for conflict or can they lead the world in addressing common challenges?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Tragedy Today

Naomi Weiss
Gen Ed 1168    |   Last offered Spring 2024
How can ancient Greek tragedy help us to address some of today’s most pressing sociopolitical problems?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

U.S. K-12 Schools: Assumptions, Binaries, and Controversies

Elizabeth City
Gen Ed 1189   |   Spring 2025   |   Course Listing
Tuesday, 9:00 AM – 11:45 AM
What if schools were for learning instead of education?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

Understanding Darwinism

Andrew Berry
Gen Ed 1004    |    Last Offered Fall 2021    |    Course Listing
How has our understanding of evolution evolved since Darwin?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" and a column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals".

Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies

Ali Asani
Gen Ed 1134   |   Last offered Spring 2023
How does one understand a major global religion in a highly polarized and fragmented world?
Column icon accompanied by the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals" with blue border.

Vaccines: History, Science, Policy

Galit Alter, Allan M. Brandt, and Ingrid Katz
Gen Ed 1175 | Last offered Fall 2022
Can vaccines solve the problem of infectious global pandemics?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Video Commune

Karthik Pandian
Gen Ed 1072    |   Last offered Spring 2023
From gifs and memes to confessions and controversies, what can the riotous festival of contemporary expression in video teach us about living together?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Water and the Environment

Kaighin McColl
Gen Ed 1158    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
How does the water cycle change us, and how do we change it?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

What is a Book? From the Clay Tablet to the Kindle

David Stern
Gen Ed 1090    |   Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 1:30 PM – 2:45 PM
What is the nature of the object that has been the focus of your education since you began to read–and at the core of Western culture since its inception– and why is it important to understand and appreciate its presence before your eyes even if it’s all but transparent?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

What is a Republic?

Daniel Carpenter
Gen Ed 1032 | Spring 2025 | Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
What is a democratic republic, and can such a regime — one that trusts citizens to capably choose and monitor those in power, and one that trusts those in power to restrain themselves and each other while attending to the public good — survive and protect us from tyranny?
A justice scale icon with the words "Ethics & Civics" and a column icon with the words "Histories, Societies, Individuals".

What Is the Good China Story?

David Wang and Wai-yee Li
Gen Ed 1169    |   Last offered Fall 2023
Why do stories have the power to bring China to the world and the world to China?
Paint palette icon accompanied by the words "Aesthetics & Culture" with crimson border.

Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Cares? Reimagining Global Health

Arthur Kleinman, Anne Becker, and Salmaan Keshavjee
Gen Ed 1093 | Last offered in Fall 2023
How can health care systems be restructured to provide high quality care even to the poorest and most vulnerable people on our planet?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Why Is There No Cure for Health?

David M. Cutler
Gen Ed 1079 | Last offered in Fall 2023
Given all our technological advances, why are we still not able to prevent preventable diseases, provide affordable healthcare for millions of people, and deliver cures for curable diseases?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Work, Life, and Purpose in an Uncertain World

Nien-hê Hsieh
Gen Ed 1028 | Last offered Spring 2023
Almost everyone must work, so how will you choose what work to do, avoid ethical pitfalls at work, and shape the world of work for others?
Justice scale icon accompanied by the words "Ethics & Civics" with orange border.

World Health: Challenges and Opportunities

Sue Goldie
Gen Ed 1063    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Monday & Wednesday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How do we analyze the health of global populations in a time of unprecedented crisis, and create new policies that address the social, political, economic, and environmental dimensions of health in an increasingly interdependent world?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.

Worlds Beyond: The Past, Present and Future of Solar System Exploration

Robin Wordsworth
Gen Ed 1184    |    Spring 2025    |    Course Listing
Tuesday & Thursday, 10:30 AM – 11:45 AM
How and why are space missions conducted, and what should the future of human activity in space look like?
A lab flask icon with the words "Science & Technology in Society" with green border.