3,546 courses. Harvest read no subject for these courses. That is a gap in our reading of the catalog, not in the college's catalog; each course is shown as we hold it until the reading is fixed.
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Economics 2110 and 2115 comprise a two-course sequence for first-year graduate students seeking training in econometric methods at a level that prepares them to conduct professional empirical research. Economics 2110 (fall) reviews probability and statistics, then covers the fundamentals of modern econometrics, with a focus on regression methods for causal inference in observational and experimental data. Prerequisites: undergraduate courses in probability and statistics, regression analysis,…
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This course focuses on how leaders of organizations, both large and small, public and private, translate good ideas into action. These ideas may be entrepreneurial in nature and entail starting new ventures, or they may be intrapreneurial in nature and entail implementing new initiatives within existing organizational structures. We will focus on how leaders can shape and influence complex decision processes regarding innovative and entrepreneurial ideas most effectively. We will examine both…
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Join us for a journey through the cultures, peoples, objects, and ideas of the millennium commonly described as "medieval", extending from the reorganization of the Eurasian world in the fourth century to its transformation in the fifteenth. With primary documents in translation and medieval books and objects in Harvard's collections as your guides, you will travel virtually through a series of medieval spaces and places-Jewish, Christian, and Islamic houses of worship, homes, palaces,…
In a world where data is growing larger and more complex, it can be a challenge to turn an abundance of information into the knowledge from which sound decisions can be made. As a discipline, statistics aims to bridge the gap between knowledge and information. This course will motivate statistical methods through data analysis and visualization, in addition to discussing the underlying theory. We will discuss topics such as study design, descriptive statistics, probability, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, linear regression, and Bayesian inference. A wide variety of applications from the economic and social sciences will be highlighted along with examples from biology, sports, politics, and more. Students with prior exposure to introductory statistics will find some overlap of material but be exposed to new applications and learn more advanced modeling techniques. This course makes use of the statistical programming language R, but no prior knowledge of computer science is required.
Over the last two decades, health scientists have grown increasingly concerned about a perceived methodological crisis centered on the reliable replication of research findings-a crisis exacerbated in the United States by growing public mistrust in health science and, more recently, government efforts to intervene in the independence of scientific institutions and knowledge production practices. This seminar draws on anthropological perspectives to examine critically what has come to be known as the "replication crisis" in health science. Framing the crisis both as a moment of danger and of radical possibility, together we will explore how debates over replication illuminate deeper questions regarding the nature, stakes, and commitments of health science and its objects of study, as mediated through themes of representation, causality, error, epistemic virtue, risk, uncertainty, and objectivity. In doing so, we will consider how scientific authority is constructed and contested; how the replication crisis affects public trust, lay participation, and broader engagements with health and science; and unexpected opportunities the crisis may present to advance the cause of health equity. Through ethnographic readings, case studies, and interdisciplinary scholarship, students will analyze the drivers of the crisis and consider its implications for the future of scientific knowledge-making and health care delivery. This class is intended for undergraduates and graduate students with an interest in the anthropology of biomedicine, social medicine, the history of science and medicine, and science and technology studies.
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This course focuses on recognizing, formulating, and solving convex optimization problems. We will introduce basic convex analysis, discuss convex optimization theory, introduce algorithms for solving convex optimization problems, and touch on some advanced topics. We will explore all these in the context of machine learning applications, as almost every machine learning problem can be formulated as an optimization problem. The objective is to provide students with the theoretical training to recognize and formulate convex optimization problems and to equip them with the tools and methods to solve the problems of interest.
How does the English language shape our world? And how does the world shape English? Our “world” includes our most intimate thoughts and feelings, but it also can expand into an ever-widening social network; either way, whether personal or global, the English language has a profound and reciprocal relation with its speakers. This is not a traditional grammar course, warning against dangling participles. Instead, you will discover that notions of correct grammar have a surprising and whimsical history. But our inquiry goes much further: Why is English spelling so weird? Is the language morphing online? Will innovations in HipHop and Spanglish become standard? How did an obscure medieval dialect expand to become a world language? What did Shakespeare sound like? How do we know? Is the spread of world Englishes endangering its coherence as a language? Is that a problem? The course is guaranteed to unsettle some common assumptions, and the English already familiar to you will become more quirky and fascinating. Besides thrilling your inner word geek, the knowledge you gain will sharpen your writing skills and make you a more perceptive reader. You will also gain greater confidence about the place of your English in your world.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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An advanced undergraduate class that will explore how one can use statistics and machine learning to learn on graph and network data. This type of data is ubiquitous with examples that can be found in social studies, in biology, in economy, in chemistry etc. Examples of topics include: community detection, link prediction, node classification, graph embedding methods, graph models, stochastic block models, and fairness.
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Music of Mexico and the Mexican Diaspora. This class is a survey of music practices among Mexican communities both in Mexico and in the U.S. Taking contemporary musical practices as a point of departure, the class explores the historical, cultural, and political significance of a wide variety of Mexican music traditions (including indigenous, folk, popular, and art music, dating back to the 16th Century) from a transnational perspective. Through a combination of lectures, class discussion, and individual and group projects, this class emphasizes the relation between musical practices and particular cultural, political, social, and economic issues that have historically affected Mexican communities in Mexico and in their U.S. diaspora. The class pays particular attention to questions concerning national identity, nation building, immigration, acculturation, and cultural hybridity in order to gain a relational knowledge of how a sense of Mexican community is constructed dialogically and transnationally beyond the borders of the nation state.
This course is open to second year BBS students. Others need permission of the instructors. Dates, times and locations for small group sessions are determined by the faculty running the small group sessions. Three in person lectures will provide guidelines for preparing drafts and peer reviews. Two small group sessions vary as scheduled by faculty instructors.
Economic improvement is more than just a matter of economics. The course explores where economic growth comes from, how it matters in material ways and what indirect consequences - some positive, others negative - it brings for citizens individually and for society. The course also examines the role of education, both in enhancing an economy’s growth potential and in either mitigating or exacerbating social inequalities. Approaches taken are mostly economic but also historical and philosophical.
Music in Islamic Contexts: South and Central Asia/Iran . This course focuses on the arts of sound practiced by Muslims in South and Central Asia (including Iran), and on procedures of recitation that grow from pre-Islamic roots among Arabic-speaking peoples. The purposes are two-fold: one is to understand from a musically informed perspective a set of interrlated musical practices that cut across these areas. The second is to understand how different ideologies, philosophies and texts - associated with Islam locally, nationally, and internationally - shape local understandings and constructions of sound.
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We will begin with Shakespeare's brilliant early history play, Richard III , and read works from the full course of his career, sampling all of his major genres: comedies, histories, tragedies, and romances. Along the way, we will consider one or more of the "problem plays" that challenge all generic categories. In addition to his writing for the stage, we will read his long erotic poem, "Venus and Adonis" and a selection of his sonnets. We will learn about the Elizabethan theater and publishing industry, the class system, and the effect of government regulation and censorship. And we will acquire a sense of Shakespeare dominant styles, his methods, and his recurrent obsessions. Film and life performance will be components of the course.
Is “immigrant literature” a useful category? In the American context, the category has facilitated an understanding of how the country’s social, political, and intellectual life has been refreshed and reshaped by immigrants. It has provided a challenge to the idea of American culture as primarily white, Anglo-Saxon, and self-contained. But the category has also been used to segregate American literature, suggesting that subcategories such as “Asian-American” or “Latinx” works of “immigrant…
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The Thesis Program encourages students to take advantage of the wide range of resources and research initiatives of the Graduate School of Design and its faculty to make a thoughtful contribution to the discipline. Thesis is a required component of the March I program, and an optional track for the March II program.
Following participation in the department’s fall thesis preparation seminar (GSD 9204), the spring term of the second year sees students complete, defend, and submit their thesis. Thesis students must register in GSD 9302: Independent Thesis, which counts for eight units. This is a critical period in the thesis process and one where a strong student-advisor relationship is essential. During the term, students work closely with their advisors to develop a final thesis that can pass the scrutiny of faculty and outside critics. Students present their thesis-in-progress in mid-term and pre-final reviews and defend the final project in a final review.
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Today, landscape architecture is a field in active transformation. At a broad scale, the climate crisis is transforming the built and natural environment surrounding us-putting frontline communities at risk of warming, expanding oceans, inland flooding, and pollution, scorching our cities and open spaces, destroying the foundation of global biodiversity, threatening agricultural production, and entirely reconstituting what it means to design for places in the midst of profound and uncertain change. At the same time, shifting market forces, supply chain crises, technological advancements, diversifying client pools, and evolving societal attitudes toward open space are reshaping practice as we know it, rapidly expanding the reach and scope of design services while grappling to value them appropriately.
Because of the advent and widespread use of the computer, there has been a widespread absence of freehand drawings in the profession these days. As such, there has been a lack of spatial awareness and a loss of ability to communicate graphically and freely. Students will address how to describe and express design ideas through quick coherent sketches. They will learn how to describe spatial and formal ideas by first mastering descriptive geometry, linear perspective, skiagraphy, stereotomy, and stereography, and then apply lessons learnt to actual design exercises by sketching.
Amid unprecedented corporate consolidation and renewed interest in labor organizing, this seminar examines how architects have historically designed organizations: the businesses, the profession, and the institutions that define, regulate, and reproduce architecture. Moving from history and theory to practice, students will investigate the legal and financial structures underlying various organizational forms-from sole proprietorships and partnerships to multinational corporations and unions, and from cooperatives to nonprofits-that make architectural practice possible. Through readings, contemporary case studies, debates, and the development of an organizing plan, students will learn how organizations function, when different organizational forms are appropriate, and why organizing can become a tool for transforming the conditions and structures of architectural work.
Structured as a collaborative research seminar, the course operates as a shared testing ground for this space of inquiry. This seminar is an experiment in developing a new profile of the technologies through which culture is assembled. Students are invited to explore the impact of these technologies primarily through listening, archival research, critical writing, discussion, and design experimentation. Each participant will develop an independent project investigating a technology of assembly through the medium most appropriate to their inquiry. Outcomes may include spatial proposals, films, performances, exhibitions, publications, sonic works, institutional prototypes, policy frameworks, or other forms of public intervention.
This course will address frameworks including Vision Zero / Systematic Safety / Safe Systems Approach, Complete Streets, Human Centered Design, and Transit Oriented Development. Technical skills include: network connectivity, Level of Bicycle Stress, separated bicycle facility design, protected intersections, roundabouts, pedestrian safety and traffic calming, people-first traffic signal design, bus priority, accessibility, green infrastructure, streetscape design, curbside management, and tactical urbanism / quick-build. Case studies of streets in the greater Boston area, both newly constructed and still in planning, will provide insights at a practitioner level. Local field work site visits will augment classroom learning. In addition, principles of Dutch street design will be incorporated into the course-we have some important lessons to learn from a country where over 25% of trips are taken by bicycle and there are one-third fewer road deaths per capita.
The methods presented in this course are organized around a dialogue between two broad traditions of spatial thought. The first understands the city as an object that can be decomposed, classified, measured, and rationally ordered. This tradition is associated with figure-ground analysis, typomorphology, zoning, land-use classification, master planning, and other methods that seek legibility through more obsolete forms of analytical decomposition. The second understands the city as a dynamic process: a field of relations, flows, adaptations, and emergent patterns. This tradition draws from ecology, systems theory, complexity science, self-organization, urban metabolism, network analysis, scene theory, and digital modeling. Rather than treating these traditions as opposites, the course asks how each methods reveals different dimensions of urban life and how their tensions can expand the agency of urban design and planning
Kate Wagner, The Nation’s architectural critic, recently wrote in an issue on the nation’s 250th anniversary, that the “most urgent question in architecture today” is “what do we do with the things that have already been built, the materials that have already been industrialized, the things we have already used? These are not just matters of conservation, preservation, or environmentalism, but a reckoning with the past. That past includes not only modernism but the mindset of disposability that has become untenable in a warming world.”
These propositions will be engaged in the seminar through readings and class discussions, and individual research projects. Over the course of the semester readings and discussions will focus on a series of theoretical frameworks that conceptualize emerging urban formations in categorically transitional terms - that is, in terms of post-industrial, post-Fordist, post-modern, post-Cold War, post-disaster, and other formations . These transitional categories are framed both in relation to historically based urban paradigms that posit a relationship between social, political, and economic processes and systems (industrial, Fordist, socialist, soviet, modern, liberal) and urban spatial forms. We will interrogate these concepts as epistemological categories, examine the paradigms on which they are based, and work to develop critical methods and visual techniques for site-based research of contemporary urban environmental conditions.
Great products don’t happen by accident - they’re the result of thoughtful strategy, deep customer insight, and strong execution. This course provides a comprehensive dive into the craft of product management, equipping students with the frameworks, tools, and mindset needed to turn ideas into successful products. You’ll learn how to identify real user needs, define and test product hypotheses, prioritize what to build, and lead cross-functional teams from concept to launch.
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The purpose of this course is to help PhD students in the field of strategy (or closely related fields) become better consumers and producers of theory - both from a conceptual and from a methodological perspective. The course will look both at the nature of good theory - what makes something a theory and what makes it a good theory - and the methods used to derive theory - from modeling and formal analysis over simulations to inductive and qualitative approaches. (It will not focus on field research, as there are more focused courses for that.) Whereas the course will discuss papers from strategy and closely related fields, it is not a survey of models in these fields or any subfield but will simply draw on these literatures to provide material to learn about theory and theory development. At the same time, the ultimate focus will be intently on the strategy field (and areas that feed directly into strategy).
This course is only open to HBS doctoral students who are teaching an HBS MBA course to fulfill their teaching and MBA course degree requirements. Select four units for a full-semester course and two for a half-course. Please see details on the HBS Doctoral Degree Requirements pages (https://inside.hbs.edu/Departments/doctoral/default.aspx?page=degree-requirements).
The goal of this course is to provide students with an overview of the process of conducting experimental research from both a theoretical and practical perspective. We will discuss the entire lifecycle of the research process, including hypothesis generation, study design, data analysis, and paper writing. The topics we cover will be relevant to students working in organizational behavior, marketing, psychology, and behavioral economics. Please note that this is not a statistics course. The focus of this course is on becoming familiar with experimental approaches used in the behavioral sciences, and to assist students in developing their own experiments and research agendas.
The course is designed for Ph.D. students in accounting and related fields interested in frontier research about financial reporting, capital markets, and corporate governance. Its primary objective is to survey contemporary research topics that energize the academic field, policy debates, or the current research activities of the Accounting and Management unit faculty. Upon completion of the course, students will be exposed to a wide range of issues at the frontier of financial accounting and corporate governance research, which will serve as a basis for developing dissertation ideas.
This course presents and discusses new developments in the field of financial economics. Students will present a recent academic research paper in the field and discuss its contribution, strengths, and weaknesses. Theory and empirical work will both be covered. Examples of specific topics include capital market pricing, financial intermediation, international finance, corporate finance, and household finance. This course is designed for doctoral students and will be moderated by faculty with relevant research expertise.
This course enriches standard economic analyses of belief formation and choice by incorporating modern psychological research on human attention, memory, perception, categorization, and mental models. The course uses the standard mathematical modeling and empirical methods employed in economic research. It is intended for doctoral students interested in research in economics and related fields; we also encourage undergraduates with appropriate preparation. Instruction is divided between Joshua Schwartzstein (1/2 of the lectures) and Andrei Shleifer (1/2 of the lectures).
In this course we analyze classic and frontier empirical papers to understand the economics and strategic issues central to the study of firm conduct in innovation-intensive industries, with emphasis on digital industries. The emphasis is on learning to ask an empirical question and critically read papers that use mainstream econometrics to address interesting research questions. This should help prepare students to understand the majority of empirical research in business economics and strategy, again, with emphasis on digitization economics. The course exposes students to empirical work covering a variety of topics, such as diffusion, new media, platform competition, R and D, contests, and the effect of market competition on innovative behavior. Students will be expected to read required papers and contribute to the discussions. In addition, each registered student must choose two papers for presentation in class. These presentations will last twenty minutes to half an hour and are designed to teach students how to quickly analyze and summarize research. Students will also be required to take an exam at the end of the semester. Open only to doctoral students.
A comprehensive course in economic theory designed for doctoral students in all parts of the university. Topics include consumption, production, behavior toward risk, markets, and general equilibrium theory. Also looks at applications to policy analysis, business decisions, industrial organization, finance, and the legal system. Undergraduates with appropriate background are welcome, subject to the instructor's approval. HBS Doctoral students should register for ECON 2020A
Economics 2110 and 2115 comprise a two-course sequence for first-year graduate students seeking training in econometric methods at a level that prepares them to conduct professional empirical research. Economics 2110 (fall) reviews probability and statistics, then covers the fundamentals of modern econometrics, with a focus on regression methods for causal inference in observational and experimental data. Prerequisites: undergraduate courses in probability and statistics, regression analysis, linear algebra, and multivariate calculus.
Social scientists are increasingly implementing field experiments to test theories and evaluate policies. Examples range from randomizing a company's advertising strategies to varying job offer details to prospective employees. Some field experiments are run in close collaboration with organizations, while others are run without any organizational involvement. Many companies and governments are also now running experiments at very large scale.
This seminar provides a forum to provide feedback for doctoral students on their research projects in innovation and operations management. The seminar also seeks to bolster research collaboration among students and between them and TOM faculty. The seminar is required of TOM doctoral students unless exempted by the TOM doctoral faculty coordinator. Other doctoral students with related interests may take this course with instructor permission.
This course will provide a research overview of the field of consumer behavior and consumer decision making. Drawing principally from research papers from the fields of economics, psychology, and sociology, the course will cover topics including preferences, persuasion, learning, and decision making. Students will be expected to prepare the readings, critically critique the research, and actively participate in discussions. An exploratory research paper will be required for completion of the course.
The course provides a broad, multi-disciplinary introduction to the study of business strategy, with a particular emphasis on its behavioral and economic foundations. Different schools of thought and their evolution will be analyzed, discussed, and compared. Open only to doctoral students.
Organizational Behavior (OB) Lab is a research workshop for those whose research interests center on micro-OB that is, research interests based in micro-sociology, psychology or framed in psychological terms and relevant to organizational behavior. The research may include any and all methodologies. OB Lab is devoted to helping its members develop early-stage research projects. We aim for a constructive, collaborative atmosphere in which we can share ideas for projects, methodological questions, and questions about how to interpret results. Our hope is to build a tight community of micro-OB doctoral researchers (and a few faculty) who know each others work well and give each other useful feedback at every stage of the research process.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
Cross-Registrant Auditors: This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit Course Planning Resources under Auditors and Harvard Fellows.
This course will be accepting ALI Fellows as auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will survey constructive religious reflection that is informed by an ecological worldview and accountable to various forms of environmental activism. Readings will be drawn from a variety of religious and spiritual traditions, among them Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Paganism, religious naturalism, and Indigenous spirituality. We will pay special attention to the interplay between ecotheology and various theologies of liberation. Students will be invited to develop their own constructive theological or atheological proposals in dialogue with the assigned readings. Throughout the semester, we will use optional book groups to explore additional ecotheological texts. All students are expected to complete one or more group projects and to provide oral and written feedback on one another’s work. Students will have the option of completing a major research paper. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1577.
This course surveys spiritual practices and movements that have been labeled as metaphysical, esoteric, pagan, occult, harmonial, and New Age. We will begin with a historical survey of esoteric spirituality from colonial-era astrology and alchemy to New Age and neopagan traditions, then consider some leading constructive thinkers within alternative spiritual traditions, such as Starhawk and Joanna Macy. The course will also feature field trips to a variety of spiritual organizations and communities. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1562.
The second of two parts, the course will continue to explore the theoretical articulation of sex, gender, and sexuality in feminist, queer and trans theory, with attention to the role of other differences-racial, ethnic, religious, and differences in physical ability-in contemporary work. Prerequisite: HDS 2692 Sex, Gender, and Sexuality I or consent of the instructor. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1573.
Carrying forth the preaching pedagogy of Rev. Peter Gomes, this course focuses on the practice of textual preaching from the Hebrew Bible and New Testament. The course is taught by Rev. Daniel Smith (UCC Chaplain at Harvard University). It emphasizes exegesis, worship context, sermon content and delivery. Participants will be expected to prepare and deliver three essays and three sermons.
This course provides an inclusive exploration of spiritual care and counseling, designed for individuals from diverse religious traditions, as well as those who do not identify with a tradition. As an introduction, the course focuses on understanding the idea of spiritual care, examining its role in fostering well-being and addressing the needs of individuals and communities through a lens that honors diversity and intersectionality. The course is also dedicated to developing practical counseling skills, including brief interventions, attending and listening techniques, and the safe and effective use of self in giving care. Students will engage in self-reflection and consider the roles of empathy, ethical boundaries, and self-care in spiritual caregiving. By integrating theoretical knowledge and applied practice, students will cultivate the basic skills and insights needed to provide thoughtful, compassionate care.
Examines trends, issues and debates in the comparative study of mystical literature. Close readings of primary works by Jewish, Christian and Muslim authors from the Middle Ages through the 16th century. Premodern authors include Saint John of the Cross, Saint Theresa of Ávila, Mechtild of Magdeburg, Hadewijch, Pseudo-Dionysius, Dante Alighieri, Bernard of Clairvaux, Margery Kempe, Bahya ibn Paquda, Solomon ibn Gabirol, Yehudah Halevi, Moses de León (Sefer ha-Zohar), Maulana Rumi, al-Hallaj, Ibn Farid, Ibn al-‘Arabi, and Fariduddin Attar. Topics include poetry and mysticism; allegory, symbolism and Scripture; body and gender; apophasis vs cataphasis; exemplarity and autobiographism; language and experience. Also examines creative engagement of pre-modern mystical literature in selected works by modern authors (Borges, T.S. Eliot, Rilke), scholars of religion (Bernard McGinn, Moshe Idel, Annemarie Schimmel) and literary / cultural theorists (Michel de Certeau, Michael Sells). Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Comparative Literature 211.
The course reinforces and expands knowledge of linguistic and grammatical structures, with emphasis on further developing the four skills. Readings include selections from contemporary Israeli literature, print media, and internet publications. Readings and class discussions cover various facets of Israeli high and popular culture. Note: Conducted primarily in Hebrew. Prerequisite: HDS 4015 (A and B) or passage of special departmental placement test. Jointly offered as Modern Hebrew 120A.
Specific topics to be covered in this course include demonic possession narratives from ancient Israel; nautical tall tales told by the rabbis of Sasanian Iraq; accounts of werewolves, witches, and vampires in Jewish writings from medieval Germany; Ladino ballads; Yiddish fairytales; and many others. This course is designed both for newcomers to the study of Judaism and for students with a background in Jewish studies who are interested in learning more about magic and folklore.
This course explores how Christian theology, scripture, and congregational life inform and sustain faithful public witness through transformative community engagement. Grounded in theological reflection, ethical inquiry, and practical training, the course emphasizes the role of relational power, leadership development, and collective action in addressing systemic injustice and cultivating the common good.
A close critical reading of the account of the early life of Moses in three contexts: (1) the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near Eastern world in which it took shape; (2) rabbinic Judaism in Late Antiquity; and (3) medieval Jewish commentary. Texts to be read in Hebrew include Exodus 2 and a selection of rabbinic midrashim and medieval commentaries on it. Includes a research-based paper. Prerequisite: three years of Hebrew or the equivalent (not a course for those lacking a secure grasp of Hebrew grammar). Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Hebrew 239.
This course introduces students to the theology and the practice of preaching within the Christian liturgical tradition, though students of any religious tradition or training - and of none - are welcome. Special attention will be paid to developing a theological, rhetorical, and homiletical understanding of both the preacher and the preached word, and students will be expected to prepare and deliver several sermons during the course of the term. This is a limited enrollment course. Interested students should email the instructor by April 10, 2024. The email should briefly state the student's reasons for their interest in the course, their academic program, and their anticipated graduation date. Notifications of placement will be shared by Monday, April 15.
This course focuses on the American evangelical movement from the 1740s to the present. Beginning with the rise of transatlantic evangelicalism in the eighteenth century, we will explore the role of evangelicals in the American Revolution, the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, the crisis caused by slavery, the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy in the early twentieth century, the emergence of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement, the controversies created by neo-evangelicalism in the 1940s, the relationship between evangelicalism and the civil rights movement, the political activism of the Christian Right, and contemporary evangelical attitudes toward gender and sexuality. Readings will introduce students to both evangelical ideas and practices. Throughout the course, we will focus on the historical development of evangelicalism and the relationship between evangelicals and American culture. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1497.
The first in a two-year program of courses designed to enable the student to read Buddhist canonical materials in Pali independently. In addition to giving the student a comprehensive understanding of all grammatical forms found in the texts, the program will also equip them with a range of interpretive techniques to help them draw out as fully as possible the meanings of the texts. This course introduces students to major elements of grammar found in Pali. It also introduces the language patterns found in standard prose works to facilitate independent reading. The course is geared toward getting the student to read canonical Pali texts as quickly as possible, and readings in the textbook are taken from key canonical texts. The student is thus engaging with key canonical materials from the very beginning of the course. Prerequisite: None. Auditors not allowed. Limited enrollment course. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants.
This course is a continuation of HDS course offerings in Pali (Elementary Pali and Intermediate Pali) and focuses especially on the reading and interpretation of Theravada Buddhist commentarial texts composed in Pali. Course will include learning how to read Pali texts printed in non-Roman scripts; in the fall term, some texts will be read in Thai script. Prerequisite: Intermediate Pali II or equivalent (with instructor's permission).
This course explores qualitative interviewing as a research strategy and as a practice. The course focuses on learning the craft of interviewing. This course is apprenticeship-based, designed to help students situate their own qualitative interviewing experiences within readings and discussions that critically engage with theoretical and methodological issues and debates. Students will engage in mentored interviewing practice through a research project. Interviewing can be thought of as a conversation in relationship, an inherently interpersonal and social enterprise. Students will build relationships with research participants that span from initiating the research to collecting data, discussing analyses, and reporting findings. We will discuss ethical issues in qualitative research and consider how the researcher's positionality, identity, and power dynamics between the researcher and participants influence the research process. Students will have the opportunity to develop their own personal approach to interviewing, where we support each other’s development as researchers.
This seminar explores the epistemology, conduct, and politics of ethnographic fieldwork. Along with engaging several classic and contemporary texts, seminar members will collect, analyze, and wrestle with ethnographic data. In service to the seminar's broad goals, members will engage in various stages of the ethnographic process: gaining access to a research site or population, taking field notes, conducting and transcribing interviews, and engaging in preliminary analyses of their data. We will also discuss the challenges of entering, being in, and leaving the field. The seminar is therefore designed for students who are willing to engage in focused, hands-on training on ethnographic theory and practice. To best take advantage of what this seminar has to offer, members are urged to come in with a preliminary sketch of a research plan that they would be ready to either directly study in the field or explore through field exercises. This will be a working seminar with members sharing field notes and experiences from the field as well as offering advice and constructive criticism at various stages of the process. This course structure requires a high level of responsibility, respect, and risk-taking among all members.
This course explores the facilitation of counseling, from foundational skills and techniques to its purpose and process, with the goal of equipping future counselors with intervention strategies and theoretical underpinnings as applied to individual counseling and psychotherapy with children, adolescents, and young adults in K-16 institutions and community settings. In addition to familiarizing students with select counseling theories, this course covers the process of counseling, from the first intake session and rapport-building to treatment planning and termination. Considerations of developmental, cultural, familial, and contextual factors are addressed with regard to their implications for case conceptualization and treatment planning. This course will shed light on the personhood of the counselor and the direct impact it has on the helping relationship and therapeutic alliance. Designed to help students develop a beginning knowledge of counseling skills and the relational process, this course is relevant for students who aspire to work with children and adolescents as counselors, psychologists, social workers, or other mental health and student support professionals.
This seminar will expose students to major strands of theory and research in culture, society, organizations, and institutions as they connect to education. Drawing on key theoretical and empirical readings in education, sociology, political science, history, anthropology, and organizational behavior, students will explore key issues such as the role of education in society, the interplay between structure and agency, the persistence of inequality and the potential to disrupt it, and the educational experiences of individuals and groups. In a collaborative learning community, students will develop broad and deep knowledge of their field of study, situate their developing research interests and motivations, and engage with each other as critical readers, writers, and thinkers.
The Human Development, Learning, and Teaching (HDLT) core seminar will offer students the opportunity for in-depth exploration of fundamental topics and tensions that relate to the seminar and context of developmental change and learning and teaching. Students in this seminar will identify cross-cutting themes related to learning and development, with the goal of providing theoretical grounding and deepening of knowledge in individual students' areas of interest, as well an introduction to the broader landscape of learning and development as is essential for scholars who will need to situate their own interests within a larger field. The course will allow for small group discussion of classic and more recent research, while simultaneously developing professional and practical skills for presenting, discussing, and conducting scientific research. Drawing on the expertise of HDLT-affiliated faculty, students will grapple with core issues related to learning, development, and teaching, including: questions of mental representation and the cognitive processes that support learning, the acquisition of language and literacy, causal reasoning and epistemic trust, the development of intuitive theories, understanding of mathematics and science, the development of social-emotional processes, memory, and executive function, and factors such as play, natural pedagogy, and early home environments that shape learning and development.
This seminar will expose students to major theories, analytic approaches, and conclusions from the study of policy formation, implementation, and effectiveness in the domains of early childhood, K-12, and postsecondary education, in the United States and internationally. Broadly, the seminar will address three main topics: (1) the social, political, and economic context in which education policy is developed and implemented; (2) the education policy process, from formation to implementation and evaluation; and (3) the evaluation of education policies. While the seminar will not offer formal training in evaluation methods, it will address issues such as potential criteria for program success, the value of evaluations of implementation in addition to those focused on causal impacts on outcomes, and the role of research evidence in the policymaking process. The seminar will also expose students to key findings from evaluations of policies in key areas. A substantial portion of the seminar will consist of case studies of specific policy reforms (e.g., Head Start, No Child Left Behind).
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Created by Dr. Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot four decades ago, portraiture is a method of social science inquiry distinctive in its blending of art and science, aesthetics and empiricism. This seminar illuminates the origins, purposes, and features of this method, placing it within the larger discourses of social science disciplinary frameworks, and mapping it on the broader terrain of qualitative research. Through researching and writing portraits of individuals, institutions, relationships, processes, or concepts, seminar members learn the tools and strategies of rigorous data gathering, systematic empirical description, discerning analysis, and narrative composition. This is a working seminar with class members serving as discussion leaders, critics, and respondents of each other’s work.
*Lottery-based Enrollment* This course introduces students to fundamental principles of microeconomics with a focus on questions relevant to education. The main goal is to train students to appreciate the power of precise and analytical thinking through the lens of economic models of human behavior. Given that these models have powerful implications for policy choices, emphasis will also be placed on the limits and strengths of such analytic thinking. Examples of policy problems are drawn from early childhood education, elementary and secondary education, and post-secondary education in a variety of countries. The course has at least two secondary goals, including: 1) helping participants link the implications of economic models to empirical observations and 2) linking models covered in the course to recent research when appropriate. A structured sequence of readings and problem sets are required of all students. Class activities will be interactive and will require prior engagement with the readings and, at times, video lectures. The course is an introduction to the principles of microeconomics with a focus on education; thus, students who have had intermediate microeconomics should not take this course. Students should be proficient at reading graphs and be competent in algebra.
From the classroom to the statehouse, education discussions today are rife with the idea that all students should graduate from high school "college and career ready," able to do the kind of advanced critical thinking that is so necessary for participation in modern life. But these expectations are placed on a school system that is not remotely equipped to realize them. American schooling assumed its modern form at the beginning of the 20th century and still bears the heavy imprint of its industrial era origins as a command-and control-bureaucracy. This course will examine what it would mean to rethink those assumptions and design anew a 21st-century system that would support deeper and more engaging instruction for all students. Students will move across levels, ranging from in-depth exploration of the nature of good teaching and learning at the classroom and school level, up through what district, state, and federal polices would support such a transformation, as well as how other countries have organized their systems to aim for high-quality schooling for all students. Readings will span these subjects. The latter part of the course will draw on design principles to ask students to redesign an aspect of schooling in a forward-looking way; these ideas will be presented in a culminating exhibition to a diverse group of educational stakeholders. Students will also learn concrete skills around evaluating instruction, as well as how to utilize the design process.
Through interactive hands-on activities you will learn tools for presenting, discussing, and acting on data. In whole-class sessions, you will work side-by-side with educators who have come to Cambridge to immerse themselves the Data Wise Leadership Institute . In integration sessions, you will discuss the implications of course readings for practice. Finally, in meetings with your team of HGSE students, you will grapple with the challenges of maintaining a relentless focus on evidence and hone your ability to take an equity lens to the work of improvement. By the end of the course, you will have co-created a plan for launching collaborative data inquiry in a school and completed reflective assignments that capture how your thinking has evolved around your role in disrupting patterns of oppression in the education sector.
Through case studies, lectures, simulations, discussions with leading national practitioners, and exposure to collective impact efforts across urban, suburban, and rural contexts, students will examine equity-centered strategies to mitigate the effects of intergenerational poverty. Additionally, students will analyze policy and advocacy strategies needed to address structural inequities and align sustainable resources through public-private partnerships. By the end of the course, students will gain a deeper understanding of cutting-edge models and approaches that leverage the power of cross-sector collaboration to create pathways to social and economic mobility for millions of young people and families in the U.S.
How do we raise children to become good people and lead good lives? This module explores these questions. We’ll focus on two main pillars of a good life-morality and romantic love-and on the capacities children need to develop to be moral and to engage in gratifying, ethical romantic and sexual relationships. How do we develop in children and teens the capacities, for example, to be caring, justice-minded and courageous? How do we cultivate in them moral purposes, i.e. goals that benefit others and their communities? How do we develop in them the capacity to love in ways that nurture and expand both those they love and themselves? How do we guide them in developing caring, ethical and gratifying sexual relationships? We will analyze how school and home environments, as well as major societal trends, are shaping the development of these capacities, and explore concrete school and home-based strategies for cultivating these capacities in children. We’ll also explore the challenges and opportunities in cultivating these capacities in children in these anxious, uncertain times. The module seeks to deepen students’ understanding of morality and love and to provide ideas and tools for developing these capacities in children and young people.
Children learn to read and write along a developmental continuum and through different instructional strategies. This course addresses the issues around literacy learning for typically developing and struggling readers as evidenced in the research and addressed in practice, taking a culturally sustaining stance. In this course, each student, paired with an elementary school-aged learner, will learn how to administer and interpret a battery of literacy assessments and then design an intervention plan for the learner. The course will connect research, theory, and practice through course readings, intervention work, and collaboration with colleagues. Students will share effective practices from their intervention and address the role of language, culture, and socio-economic background in the assessment and remediation of reading difficulties. Each student will be supported by a Reading Specialist/Literacy Coach mentor at their assigned school site and will be observed by the teaching team and the mentor. The Standards for Reading Professionals of the International Literacy Association serve as the guiding principles for this course.
This course focuses on how leaders of organizations, both large and small, public and private, translate good ideas into action. These ideas may be entrepreneurial in nature and entail starting new ventures, or they may be intrapreneurial in nature and entail implementing new initiatives within existing organizational structures. We will focus on how leaders can shape and influence complex decision processes regarding innovative and entrepreneurial ideas most effectively. We will examine both those decisions that were flawed and those that were successful in order to derive lessons about leadership and learning in dynamic, complex, and highly uncertain organizational environments, including the education sector, among others. The course will be largely discussion-based and include cases, exercises, and multimedia materials with examples of leadership from a diverse range of contexts. Students will be expected to come to class prepared and ready for discussion, and, if called upon, to role-play their recommendations and take a stand as well. Enrollment is open to all graduate degree candidates at HGSE. For students in the ELOE program, this course fulfills the ELOE Program Core Experience (PCE) requirement if taken for a letter grade and may also be taken as an ELOE elective. Space will be reserved for cross-registration. Auditors of the course are not permitted.
This course focuses on building creative and technical skills to transform data into visual reports for the purpose of engendering a shared understanding. Students will learn to use software to ingest, organize, and visualize data, with an emphasis on applying design principles to produce clear, elegant graphs and dashboards that capture the essence of an insight, message, or recommendation distilled from the data.
This course provides students with the theory and practice to design, operate and sustain supply chains that deliver public services. We will explore both product chains (e.g. personal protective equipment for hospitals and school lunches) and service chains (e.g. the delivery of criminal justice and early childhood education). The course begins with an exploration of the critical role of supply chains in service delivery through an examination of successes and failures. Next, the effective management of each link in the supply chain is studied. Then systems thinking is explained to see how comprehensive supply chains are designed and implementation requirements defined. The course concludes with an investigation of supply chains can be modified to achieve public purpose.
Preventing nuclear war is one of the truly existential challenges facing the human species. But nuclear dangers are rising as tensions among nuclear powers increase, nuclear agreements are challenged or discarded, and new technologies and arms competitions create new uncertainties. From Iran to North Korea, from U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Chinese nuclear competition to Syria's deadly chemical assaults, decisions about nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons can make the difference between war or peace and between safety or grave danger for people around the world. This course will give students an understanding of these weapons and the global efforts to prevent their use and control their spread.
This seminar is designed to support MPP-2 students writing their Policy Analysis Exercise in the areas of social and urban policy. The course is structured to support students as they identify the topic on which they will focus, clarify the problem they will be addressing, develop a strategy to gather information to address the problem, analyze their findings, develop recommendations, and produce the final product. Over the fall we will focus the class sessions on gaining an understanding of what a PAE is, clarifying the problem each student will address, and identifying and developing the research methods needed to study the problem. In the second semester we will focus on producing your final PAE: writing useful first drafts and refining them, effectively using graphics, and persuasively presenting your analysis and recommendations both orally and in writing. Students work individually or in small groups on a project that they select. Open only to MPP2 students.
Identifies political and economic influences on education policy, assesses relevant policy research, and discusses the practical challenges faced by today’s education innovators. Topics include teacher quality, collective bargaining, class size, school finance, accountability, early childhood, charter schools, and vouchers. Tuesday sessions focus on research approaches and findings; Thursday sessions discuss challenges faced by practitioners, who will be on campus to impart their experiences. The following practitioners will participate as Academic Visitors: Clint Bolick, Justice, Arizona Supreme Court; Derrell Bradford, President, 50CAN; Alberto M. Carvalho, Los Angeles Unified School District; Robin Lake, Director, Center on Reinventing Public Education; Joseph Olchefske, Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Education; Former Superintendent, Seattle Public Schools; George Parker, Senior Advisor, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools; Former President, Washington, D.C. Teacher’s Union; James Peyser, former Secretary of Education, Commonwealth of Massachusetts; Michelle Rhee, CEO, 7 Ventures; Former Chancellor, Washington, D.C. Public Schools; Lisa Snell, Senior Fellow, Stand Together Trust; Rocco Testani, Partner, Eversheds-Sutherland, Atlanta, Georgia; John White, Watershed Advisors; Former State Superintendent, Louisiana
This course provides an overview of the U.S. health care system and engages students in critically analyzing health policy issues. The course is focused around policy challenges that every health system must address: access to quality health care, equity in access, balancing costs against quality and innovation. Using an analytical lens, students will grapple with the complexity of the issues, learn to analyze policy arguments, evaluate evidence, identify tradeoffs, and recognize the limits of analytical and normative methods-critical skills for engaging constructively as informed citizens in a wide range of policy debates.
This course provides a broad introduction to surface transportation policy and practice in the United States in the 21st century, covering its development, current status and changes underway in transportation systems and policy at the local, state federal levels. Together we will explore how U.S. transportation policy has evolved and potential levers for changing the policies that shape how people access the places they want to go using motor vehicles, public transportation, passenger rail, micromobility, walking and biking. First we will examine the purposes of transportation and transportation policy and the tradeoffs and tensions among competing values and desired outcomes. Next, with the assistance of guest lecturers with both government and advocacy experience, we will cover the institutional, program delivery, and governance structures that shape policy and the financing methods that fund infrastructure projects. In the last part of the course, we will survey a series of current critical transportation policy debates, with students helping determine which topics to address.
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This course is a PhD-level research seminar open to Social Policy PhD students and PhD student fellows of the Stone Program in Wealth Distribution, Inequality, and Social Policy. The primary goal of the course and the related Stone Inequality and Social Policy Seminar Series is to advance the students’ research. Students will present their research and receive feedback, discuss fellow students’ papers across disciplines, and engage with invited scholars who participate as discussants.
This module offers a critical examination of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. It will consider: 1) the nature of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, 2) why the U.S. decision to pursue a grand strategy of “liberal hegemony” during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations was a failure, 3) why the first Trump administration’s efforts to alter this policy were unsuccessful; 4) why the Biden administration’s attempt to return to the basic outlines of liberal hegemony foundered, and 5) why the the radical departures begun during the second Trump administration are also likely to fail. The central aim of the course is to broaden students’ understanding of recent U.S. foreign policy and encourage independent thinking about key foreign policy choices.
Advances in technology have led to worries about “the reasonable expectation of privacy” since Warren and Brandeis wrote their seminal article on the subject at the end of the 19th century. These worries have continued and evolved as the technology of communication has been seen as a technology of surveillance. The modern world of computers, cell phones, CCTV-camera, and the emerging Internet of Things offer unprecedented opportunities for tracking everything everyone does. At the same time, policy around the right to privacy and indeed the definition of what privacy means have evolved in different ways in different countries. European laws attempt to protect the privacy of the individual from corporations, while U.S. law tries to protect the privacy of the individual from the government. Corporations doing business in multiple jurisdictions find themselves subject to conflicting and sometimes contradictory rules and regulations, while users find it difficult to know what rights they have with respect to their interactions. This course will look at the state of both policy and technology surrounding privacy. Is the technology capable of the kinds of panopticon-style surveillance that critics worry about? What laws cover the use and abuse of such technology, both in the United States and abroad? What is meant by privacy, and how can it be preserved in the face of ongoing technology? And how can nation-states regulate the gathering, access, and use of the information we generate with our technology to preserve some sense of privacy and autonomy? How does an individual’s right to privacy balance against the requirements of security or public health? Most of all, what problems have a technological solution, and what problems require oversight and policy changes?
A practical framework for people who want to deliver transformation in government, managing technology, from GenAI to legacy system modernization - not intimidated by it, from prototype to pilot to production. Students develop tools to manage risk, evaluate impact, navigate procurement, and drive adoption of technology-enabled policy solutions. Taught through case studies. Recommended for students interested in government leadership, technology policy, or public management.
This course explores global governance - the complex interplay among states, international organizations, and non-governmental actors in creating and enforcing the rules that govern the world. Global governance aims to ensure stability and world order, providing services and public goods. How are these rules made, and who do they benefit? How do states design international institutions and enforce international norms and agreements? Why do some international regimes encounter opposition and backlash? The course provides students with analytical tools for understanding key actors and current developments in global governance. We will integrate theoretical frameworks with insights from cutting-edge empirical research to explain challenges to global governance today. We will examine the functions and policies of some of the world’s major international organizations, and the political forces-both international and domestic-that influence their effectiveness. To bring these concepts to life, we will feature guest speakers from international organizations, incorporate an interactive simulation, and explore global governance in key policy areas such as peace and security, human rights, development finance, the environment, and global health. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to critically assess the strengths and limitations of global governance in addressing key issues of our time.
Can international law be a tool for promoting global justice? Or is international law increasingly obsolete in the face of multiple challenges in today’s world? In this class, we will explore these issues looking at diverse and important areas of international law: 1) international human rights law and accountability for mass atrocity; 2) international environmental law and climate justice; 3) the laws of war, especially the decision to go to war and wars of aggression; 4) international trade law, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and tariffs; and 5) international investment law and investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS); and 6) international refugee and migrant law. But if students wish to do a deep dive on any other international law issue, from cybersecurity to outer space law to law of the sea, you can select the topic of your choice for your two low-stakes assignments and your final paper topic. We will begin the course with an overview of international law, international treaties, and international courts such as the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). We will use a global justice approach to ask and try to explore the goals and impact of international law. A global justice approach stresses fairness, political and economic equality of both opportunity and outcome, and accountability. The central goal of the course is to familiarize students with legal, analytical and policy tools to enable you to think and act critically when drafting, implementing, or responding to policies related to international law. The course uses cases, role-playing, and simulations to help students learn how to work with international law. We use taped short videos on key class concepts and issues or talks by guest speakers that you can watch before class, so we can “flip” the class and open more class time for discussion and group activities.
This course will explore the role of race and ethnicity in American jurisprudence and history. Areas of focus will include changing legal definitions of race, conceptions of lawful and unlawful discrimination, elements of proof, federalism, and available remedies. The class will also explore how extrajudicial dynamics such as social protest, backlash, and popular culture have interacted with constitutional interpretation and enforcement. Discussion will include practical legal applications, critical analysis of cases, and alternative solutions and approaches.
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This is a comprehensive survey of the United States Bankruptcy Code, with special emphasis on corporate reorganization. We begin by asking whether federal regulation of insolvency is necessary. Are state laws inadequate for dealing with the financial distress of individuals and businesses? As we consider this question, we will develop a set of policies that optimal bankruptcy law should serve. These policies will help frame our discussion as we study the principal provisions of the Bankruptcy Code, such as the automatic stay, claim valuation, strong-arm powers, absolute priority rule, and cram-down. We will ask whether these provisions serve optimal bankruptcy policy. Although we will emphasize corporate reorganization, most of the Code's provisions apply equally to corporate and consumer bankruptcies. This class is highly recommended for anyone who intends to have a career working on the legal problems of businesses, whether on the transactional side or in litigation.
The main course material is divided into four parts. The first part presents the basic frameworks for the analysis of strategy. The topics include economic and game theoretic approaches to strategy, competitive advantage and industry analysis. The second part is concerned with organizational and contractual responses to agency problems. Topics include pay-for-performance, corporate control, and the design of partnerships and other business associations. The third part takes a broader view of business associations, considering the horizontal and vertical scope of the firm and the advantages of hybrid organizational forms such as franchising and joint ventures. The fourth part covers special topics in competitive strategy, including product differentiation, tacit collusion, facilitating practices, network externalities, market foreclosure, and innovation.
The course will cover a series of topics arising in the comparative study of constitutional systems. Concentrating on constitutional structure and law in the United States and in such other countries as Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and United Kingdom, it will examine selected problems of both constitutional design and constitutional adjudication. We will, for example, take up the varying foundations and structures of judicial review of the constitutionality of laws (e.g., how are courts that engage in constitutional review structured, how are their judges appointed, what is the source of their authority to engage in constitutional review), in light of recent controversies (including those involving the environment). We will also likely consider various constitutional approaches to addressing emergencies and emergency powers; we may consider constitutional law regulating the availability of abortion in selected jurisdictions (including the United States, Germany, Canada, Colombia, and Ireland). The course will consider the meanings of terms like “constitution” and “constitutionalism,” “liberal” and “authoritarian,” as well as the purposes and nature of legal comparison. Other likely topics include (1) relationships between "popular" branches of government and courts, including under constitutions that permit legislative ‘override’ of constitutional limits, (2) constitutional transitions, including from democratic constitutionalism to more abusive or authoritarian forms of constitutionalism, (3) different forms of constitutional federalism, (4) approaches to protecting minority groups (for example, federalism, affirmative action for racial/ethnic/linguistic minorities, or group-based rights), (5) gender equality; (6) freedom of religion, (7) freedom of speech and the role of “knowledge” institutions (e.g. free press, universities, civic NGOs), and (8) positive social welfare rights.
This is a survey course in environmental law. The course will proceed in three parts. The first part will focus on the emergence and history of environmental law and what makes environmental law difficult. The second part of the course will survey key statutes including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and Hazardous Waste Statutes. The final part will focus on how courts respond to environmental law especially the Supreme Court and appellate courts. The course is designed for any student interested in the practice of environmental law but is deliberately not limited to those students. The course more broadly teaches the skills necessary to master any complex area of regulation.
This course will explore past and present debates about the role of the legal order in economic development. We will explore the relationships among economic ideas, legal ideas and the development policies pursued at the national and international level in successive historical periods. We will focus on the potential for an alliance of heterogenous traditions from economics, law and other disciplines to understand development.
This course will introduce, examine, explore, and evaluate patent law. The course will consider how the United States patent system works, including the constitutional, statutory, and common law sources of the patent law, the roles of the Patent Office, district courts, and the Federal Circuit, and the role the patent system plays in the economy. The course will focus heavily on patent claims, including how claims operate and the law governing patent claim construction. It will address in detail the law of patentability, including the requirements of patentable subject matter, novelty, nonobviousness, written description and enablement, and definiteness. Then, the course will take a close look at the law of infringement, including the doctrine of equivalents, indirect infringement, legal and equitable defenses to infringement, and remedies - including injunctions, lost profits, reasonable royalties, and enhanced damages. Along the way, the focus will be both on how patent law operates today, as well as what the future of patent law could (or should) look like. In particular, the course will pay attention to developing policy issues, including standard essential patents, non-practicing entities, and patents on and by artificial intelligence.
This course covers the origins of colonization in the Americas and the fundamentals of modern federal Indian law in the United States. Beginning with its international law roots, we move to the relative bounds of federal, tribal and state jurisdiction over Indian reservations, tribal citizens and non-citizens. Hunting, fishing and gathering rights; Indian gaming; status of Native Hawaiians and settlement of Alaska Native land claims are also covered.
This reading group will consider the past, present, and future of the law and policy that shapes U.S. healthcare. We will evaluate how and why our health system evolved into its current morass. We will examine the role that law currently plays in achieving three societal goals: increasing access, controlling costs, and assuring quality. We will consider paths forward in a political economy characterized by consolidation, financialization, and inequality. Along the way, we’ll take up debates at the heart of healthcare financing and delivery: how to define health, how to allocate risk and responsibility, and whether to rely on public commitment or private action. Materials will be diverse, including scholarly writing, popular media, and film. Students will gain a foundation in the complex and often conflicting laws and policies that govern U.S. healthcare.
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A tort is a civil wrong not arising from contract. But tort law also reflects much deeper questions about when we have obligations to one another and what we must do to meet them. Studying everything from assault and battery to defamation, privacy, and negligence, this course examines the real-world functioning and theoretical foundations of tort law.
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This course will enhance understanding of research methods commonly used in basic and clinical immunology. Experimental controls, data outputs, and sources of experimental variation will be key considerations in each lecture. Application of knowledge and enhancement of writing skills will occur through composing multiple drafts of a fellowship-style research proposal.
Students will study research from the invited speakers of the Immunology departmental seminar the week before it occurs. And, gain proficiency in interpreting the results of journal articles. Students will be prompted to propose future experiments and engage in dialogue with their peers about the research. There are also opportunities to examine Immunology research and clinical developments in a historical and/or societal context. The course will culminate in a poster presentation to help enhance student's design and presentation skills.
Students will work closely with a Harvard Medical School faculty advisor in pursuing research in either Basic or Clinical Immunology. The advisor supervises the research project at the lab with which s/he is affiliated, and students are expected to analyze data, write and defend a thesis.
A required foundational course for students in the MMSc in Medical Education program. This seminar is divided into four modules that cover seminal topics in medical education: curriculum development; adult learning theory; educational technology; and assessment in medical education. The longitudinal seminar will also prepare students for other longitudinal activities they will take on as a community, including but not limited to the following: beginning to develop the thesis required in the second year of the program, leading and participating in journal clubs to specifically review and critique contemporary literature, and learning practical skills for medical education research. This seminar will also provide students an opportunity to engage expert faculty and guest lecturers who are leaders in medical education in small groups and cover special topics.
Students will rotate as team members in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit at Massachusetts General Hospital. The Team consists of an attending, a fellow, and 3-4 residents in pediatrics and emergency medicine. Students will admit patients into the pediatric intensive care unit with the help of a resident or fellow. Students will round on their patients daily, participate in their daily care, including arranging consults, studies and procedures, and expect to present them in morning rounds. A full admission note as well as daily progress notes for the medical record is expected for each patient followed by the student. The attending physician will supervise the student's work on a daily basis and provide ongoing feedback on the student's performance. Students will participate in daily lectures on pediatric intensive care topics as well as mock codes to expand their knowledge base of critical illness. The opportunity to attend daily pediatric conferences and weekly Grand Rounds presentations is also available.
Medical students are exposed to the broad range of Thoracic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital, including lung cancer, esophageal cancer, mediastinal tumors, tracheal diseases, benign esophageal disease, minimally invasive approaches and endoscopic techniques. Students are expected to attend daily rounds lead by the chief resident on all patients. You are encouraged to participate in the daily operative program and follow a small number of patients from operation to recovery. Weekly conferences and a seminar lead by attending staff enhance your understanding of thoracic surgical and oncologic topics. There is no night call. This course is suitable whether you consider a surgical career or simply an encounter with the extraordinary.
After framing the current state of safety and quality in historical perspective, this course builds on prerequisite learning modules to employ critical QI tools and understand the power of data. Students focus on how to collect, display data in the context of real-improvement work. This course shares examples of how data can change care at every level of the system.
This course prepares students to apply quantitative methods to ongoing QI work. Students will learn frameworks to pose study questions and select appropriate analytic methods. Didactics will focus on statistical methods that will allow them to analyze simple data and present their findings. Students will learn how to assess outcomes specific to QI research. Students will also begin to discuss general IRB issues.
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This bi-monthly grand rounds is a key clinical educational effort of the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. This forum is presented by the HSDM Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology Advanced Graduate Education students under the supervision of the division’s faculty members. Two clinical cases are presented each session from the Oral Medicine teaching clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital that demonstrate interesting, challenging, unique, and/or clinically important/relevant conditions. An in-depth discussion of the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management, as well as a succinct discussion of the condition and pertinent literature are provided for each case. The entire HSDM community is invited to attend this rich educational forum.
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Under the guidance of a research sponsor, students explore and develop an interest in a relevant special field of either biomedical science or health care delivery research. Students learn how to read and evaluate scientific literature; gather data and subject it to critical analysis; and develop abilities in scientific communication. During the research component of the curriculum, students strive to make a genuine contribution to the scientific literature. This culminates in the presentation and defense of a research thesis by the end of the fourth year.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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The journal Club is to educate students to critically evaluate the current progress of sciences and orthodontics. Students are required to moderate, present, and participate in the discussion of orthodontic and non-orthodontic papers. In order to enhance the science literacy, presenters will follow the problem-oriented format with critical thinking in analyzing the significance of research, methodology, result interpretation, and discussion. The moderators are required to organize and monitor the progress of presentation and discussion. The audiences are required to participate in the group discussion.
This course will review the cumulative periodontal literature with a focus on classic literature. It will also provide students with an updated knowledge in Periodontology and enable students to integrate the current concepts. Students will work together in a seminar format utilizing original articles as well as review materials to present a different periodontal topic each week. Formerly PE602, Classical Peridontal Literature Review.
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In this course, students are asked to present one of the cases assigned to them in the advanced specialty prosthodontic clinic. Clinical slides, mounted casts, and radiographs are used to present the case. Students have to develop a comprehensive treatment plan, present this plan during the seminar and explain the basic concepts of this process. Students will present approximately five cases over the duration of the course.
In this course, students are asked to present one of the cases assigned to them in the advanced specialty prosthodontic clinic. Clinical slides, mounted casts, and radiographs are used to present the case. Students have to develop a comprehensive treatment plan, present this plan during the seminar and explain the basic concepts of this process. Students will present approximately five cases over the duration of the course.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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Provides classroom or laboratory teaching experience under the supervision of faculty member(s). Students assist faculty by preparing instructional materials, leading discussion groups, and monitoring students' progress. Credit arranged on a case-by-case basis and reviewed by the department.
Preparation and analysis of financial statements. Focuses on why financial statements take the form they do, and how they can be used in evaluating corporate performance and solvency and in valuation of corporate securities. Introduces concepts from finance and economics (e.g., cash flow discounting and valuation) and explains their relation to, and use in, accounting. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.
Preparation and analysis of financial statements. Focuses on why financial statements take the form they do, and how they can be used in evaluating corporate performance and solvency and in valuation of corporate securities. Introduces concepts from finance and economics (e.g., cash flow discounting and valuation) and explains their relation to, and use in, accounting. Students taking the graduate version complete additional assignments.
Formulating, organizing, and presenting ideas clearly in writing. Reviews basic principles of rhetoric. Focuses on development of a topic, thesis, choice of appropriate vocabulary, and sentence structure to achieve purpose. Develops idiomatic prose style. Gives attention to grammar and vocabulary usage. Special focus on strengthening skills of bilingual students. Intended to be taken during the student's first year at MIT.
Formulating, organizing, and presenting ideas clearly in writing. Reviews basic principles of rhetoric. Focuses on development of a topic, thesis, choice of appropriate vocabulary, and sentence structure to achieve purpose. Develops idiomatic prose style. Gives attention to grammar and vocabulary usage. Special focus on strengthening skills of bilingual students. Intended to be taken during the student's first year at MIT.
Provides a comprehensive introduction to core concepts and applications of Participatory Action Research (PAR), an approach to research and inquiry that transforms the traditional "expert" role by bringing together community, researchers, and academics to investigate important societal problems. Explores theoretical aspects of PAR through the history, aims, ethical concerns, and theoretical and methodological foundations of PAR, while simultaneously building practical applications through core tools and best practices. Students are invited to bring own projects as application cases into the class.
Introduces methods for observing, interpreting, and representing the urban environment. Students draw on their senses and develop their ability to deduce, question, and test conclusions about how the built environment is designed, used, and valued. The interrelationship of built form, circulation networks, open space, and natural systems are a key focus. Supplements existing classes that cover theory and history of city design and urban planning and prepares students without design backgrounds with the fundamentals of physical planning. Intended as a foundation for 11.329.
Introduction to entrepreneurship and how it shapes the world we live in. Through experiential learning in a workshop setting, students start to develop entrepreneurial mindset and skills. Through a series of workshops, students are introduced to the concept of Venture Design to create new venture proposals for the built environment as a method to understand the role of the entrepreneur in the fields of design, planning, real estate, and other related industries.
Focuses on key business and legal issues within the principal agreements used to control, entitle, capitalize, and construct a mixed-use real estate development. Through the lens of the real estate developer and its counter-parties, students identify, discuss, and negotiate the most important business issues in right of entry, purchase and sale, development, and joint-venture agreements, as well as a construction contract and construction loan agreement. Students work closely with attorneys who specialize in the construction of such agreements and with students from area law schools and Columbia University and New York University.
Seminar, workshops, and fieldwork on strategies to use municipal land use regulations to shape urban growth and equity. Practicum workshop builds skills in civic engagement, policy-relevant research, zoning regulations, and physical design and planning. The workshop begins with implementation of qualitative and quantitative research into the existing built environment, social, economic, and political context. It continues with the planning, design, and implementation of community engagement strategies to shape goals and vision for the projects. The practicum then explores land use scenarios, design and innovative zoning and regulatory techniques, to improve equity in the areas of housing, environment, economic development, mobility, and the public realm. Projects arranged with small teams serving municipal clients experiencing pressures of urban growth and change in Massachusetts.
Provides a critical introduction to the shape and determinants of political, social, and economic inequality in America, with a focus on racial and economic justice. Explores the role of the city in visions of justice. Analyzes the historical, political, and institutional contexts of housing and community development policy in the US, including federalism, municipal fragmentation, and decentralized public financing. Introduces major dimensions in US housing policy, such as housing finance, public housing policy, and state and local housing affordability mechanisms. Reviews major themes in community economic development, including drivers of economic inequality, small business policy, employment policy, and cooperative economics. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version.
Concepts and techniques for analyzing financial decisions in commercial property development and investment. Topics include property income streams, discounted cash flow, equity valuation, leverage and income tax considerations, development projects, and joint ventures. An introduction to real estate capital markets as a source of financing is also provided.
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The purpose of this course is to provide cognitive and heuristic tools to public health practitioners to be well prepared to plan for, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the impact of health disasters precipitated by a variety of threats. The course will provide learners with an awareness of the wide-ranging collaborative processes necessary among public health and medical service providers, as well as cross sectoral dependencies on others such as energy, transportation, public safety, etc. Upon completion of this course, the learner will understand and be able to utilize tools and processes to save lives, reduce the burden of suffering, and speed communities to recovery in the face of disasters.
This course is designed to serve as the practice component of SBS 501 Community-based Participatory Research: Principles, Processes and Practices and builds on the foundational guiding principles, strategies and ethical considerations of participatory and action-oriented research covered in the prerequisite course. This 1.25 credit seminar seeks to deepen exploration of equitable and ethical partnerships for research and public health practice with communities, focusing on collaborative engagement processes to support a project co-developed for the course with our community partners. The seminar takes a flipped classroom approach and includes interactive workshop style sessions that involve high-level participation, critical thinking and self-reflection exercises. Classes may take place at the community partner site. Students are expected to work in groups with a community partner. This includes 1-2 hours/week of out of classroom time expected for group work and meetings with the community partners (this may occur off-campus).
The importance of public health is more evident now than ever before. Recognizing that public health is conducted by people in all professions, not just those with public health titles, it's crucial that public health education and training be accessible and applicable to a diverse array of people. This course provides a dynamic introduction to the intersection of education and public health. Our mission is to equip you with the introductory skills to develop and deliver purposeful learning experiences tailored to various contexts-academic, organizational, or community settings.
This course examines the challenges that contemporary American Indian nations face as they endeavor to rebuild their communities, strengthen their cultures, and support their citizens. The range of issues that Native leaders and policymakers confront is wide and encompasses political sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, cultural promotion, land and water rights, religious freedom, health and social welfare, and education. Because the challenges are broad and comprehensive, the course emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of current Native nation building. Research finds that effective nation building must be compatible with individual societies' cultures. Yet, American Indian tribes are culturally heterogeneous. Hence, there is not "one size" that fits all. Case studies and simulations derived from field research and experience are utilized to engage students in the multidimensional settings that confront Native societies. Scholars and leaders from the Harvard University Native America Program provide selected presentations. Prominent Indigenous leaders address the class daily, giving their perspectives on the choices and constraints they confront in their nation building efforts.
Health policy experts and system reformers - including government officials, health care leaders, civil servants, lobbyists, think tank scholars, and NGO leaders and advocates - must have skills to move ideas to scale and drive needed changes for healthier communities. They (and you) have the power to be accelerants on the fire of change, to move ideas from the conceptual to action. This course will help you build the strategic communications skills required to do so.
Over the past half century, the collective impact of humanity on the structure and function of Earth’s natural systems has increased exponentially changing the biophysical conditions that support human life. As a result, we have entered a new epoch called the Anthropocene. Very rapid human population growth combined with even more rapid growth in per capita consumption are driving an extraordinary transformation of most of Earth’s climate system, its oceans, land cover, biogeochemical cycles, biodiversity, and coastal and fresh water systems. These are the biophysical systems that underpin global food production, our exposure to infectious disease and natural hazards, and the habitability of the places where we live. There is growing concern that global environmental change is likely to be a major driver of the burden of disease over the coming century. As the pace and scale of human impacts on Earth’s natural systems continues to grow, there is increasing interest in understanding and quantifying the implications of these accelerating changes for human health. Recently this field has been termed “planetary health.” This course is geared toward graduate students from all schools, but open to passionate undergraduates interested in exploring the implications of global environmental change on nutrition, infectious disease, mental health, and other domains of wellbeing. Throughout the course of the semester, students will engage in diverse materials from many types of examples of planetary health research, from nutrition and mental health, to infectious and non-communicable diseases. We will tease out common themes around how changes in the structure and function of natural systems lead to impacts on different dimensions of human health. As we approach these case studies, students will be engaged in active processing of the material and in-class discussions to understand parallel themes from each successive week.
to train researchers to leverage data for decision-making in public health and medicine. This course assumes no prior knowledge of R or data science and serves as a gentle, practical introduction to data wrangling, visualizing, and modeling data using the R statistical programming language. We also emphasize the importance of reproducible research and effective data science communication.
Students in the Master of Public Health program are required to develop and conduct a supervised project (practicum) addressing a clinical or public health question of interest. The practicum is arranged by the student on an individual basis with a host organization and may include any aspect of occupational and environmental health and safety. The expected time commitment is 120 hours. Students work with a host organization under the supervision of a preceptor (site supervisor) for their practicum and are expected to arrange the details of their practicum with the preceptor and obtain guidance and feedback throughout the project. Students submit a brief proposal (the Learning Agreement) which must be approved by the preceptor and the course instructor prior to starting their practicum work. The course culminates with an on-campus presentation of the results of the practicum in Spring 2. The course does not have formal meeting times, as students are expected to meet with the course instructor independently to develop the practicum project and then at the end of the course for the presentation.
Provides an introduction to public health planning. Applies social science principles to community assessment, data collection, and prioritization. Foci will include identifying health-related needs and assets for individuals, communities, and organizations and will discuss the various challenges that practitioners encounter when doing work "on the ground". There will be a strong emphasis on community involvement throughout the course.
Provides an introduction to public health intervention implementation and evaluation in applied settings. Foci will include health-related intervention for individuals, communities, organizations and will discuss the various challenges that practitioners encounter when conducting this work "on the ground". There will be a strong emphasis on community involvement throughout the course.
This course introduces ethical and regulatory requirements for review, conduct, oversight and reporting of research involving humans. Topics include roles and responsibilities of Institutional Review Board (IRB), public health research ethics; regulations and guidelines governing investigational drugs and devices; financial and non-financial conflict of interest; research involving children, peer review, publication, and research misconduct. The course offers formal presentations/lectures, combined with classroom discussion of case studies covering a variety of topics. Students will also have the opportunity to obtain hands-on experiences such as participating in a mock IRB meeting .
This course will provide an introduction to the methods of biostatistics and epidemiology in the context of public health and clinical research. The focus will be on applications, providing students with the skills necessary to critically interpret issues related to study design and data analysis in the public health literature. The computer is used throughout the course. Lectures are complemented by seminars and weekly lab sessions. Topics include measures of frequency and association, study designs, bias, confounding, screening tests, probability distributions, estimation and statistical inference, sample size estimation, and regression methods.
The Integrative Learning Experience (ILE) is a culminating experience for your MPH 45 in Health and Social Behavior (HSB). The purpose of the ILE and the brief course is for you to: a) demonstrate the ability to integrate and synthesize specific MPH foundational and HSB field of study competencies that you have gained in your coursework and other parts of your MPH program; and b) to provide constructive and critical feedback to classmates.
The course discusses conceptual and practical issues encountered in the design, conduct, and analysis of epidemiologic studies. We begin with a description of tasks in clinical research: description, prediction, and causal inference. We then introduce the counterfactual conceptualization of causal effects and apply this principle as a framework for understanding epidemiologic methods from a theoretical and practical perspective. The course discusses the conceptual and practical issues encountered in designing and analyzing epidemiologic studies for description and causal inference. This will be the first course in a two-part epidemiological methods series.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course aims to provide a systematic introduction to various topics in high dimensional data analysis, focusing on large-scale sparse learning, and network and text data analysis. Large-scale sparse learning: Sparsity is a universal phenomenon in modern high dimensional data. Sparse structures are observed in many application settings and have many different forms, such as parameter sparsity, graph sparsity, eigenvalue sparsity, and so on. Exploring sparsity has become a common strategy in data analysis and has largely reshaped classical multivariate statistics problems. This course will investigate classical problems such as multiple testing, linear regression, classification and clustering, under the modern sparse settings. For each problem, the course discusses recent statistical methods for taking advantage of sparsity, and introduces the
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This graduate-level studio class is for advanced students in Film & Visual Studies and Critical Media Practice, who wish to develop their artistic practice in conjunction with their scholarship. Students develop individual and collaborative studio projects that explore the principles and potential of the visual and performing arts. Projects may be in drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, photography, video, film, installation, graphic design, or performance.
Putting Chinese politics on the map, this course asks how the government deals with the enormous challenges of ruling over a vast terrain with a diverse population, encompassing super-rich urban metropolises as well as poor rural peripheries. We begin with statecraft traditions from the late imperial era; and end with China's place on the future global maps of the 21st century. Topics include: macro-regions; priority zones of governance; Special Economic Zones; the Chinese equivalent of “blue states and red states;” rising inequality; ethnic minorities and borderlands; economic development models; urbanization and city planning; collective action in digital space; domestic and international migration; environmental politics; and the geo-politics of the “One Belt One Road” initiative. We will set aside class time for a hands-on introduction to producing and interpreting maps of China.
Beyond that genealogy, the course turns to the movement itself, beginning with the publication of Jean Toomer's Cane (1923) - the modernist work whose formal experiment set the tone for the works that followed. From here it moves towards Locke's landmark anthology The New Negro (1925), and to the fiction, poetry, and criticism of the writers whose works were pivotal to the “Renaissance,” including: Langston Hughes, George Schuyler, W.E.B. Du Bois, Charles Johnson, Marcus Garvey, Arturo Schomburg, Countée Cullen, Claude McKay, James Weldon Johnson, Anne Spencer, Angelina Weld Grimké, Nella Larsen, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Wallace Thurman, Eric Walrond, Walter White, as well as the art of Aaron Douglass and Reinhold Reiss. The course concludes with the publication of Sterling A. Brown’s Southern Road (1932), in the early years of the Depression, after which time the modernism of Cane would give way to the social realist documentary impulse that would reach its fullest manifestation in Richard Wright's Native Son. Throughout, the course attends to the movement's internal debates over the relation between art and politics, matters of form and representation, what constitutes a “renaissance,” and to its lasting influence on twentieth-century American thought, society and culture.
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The GenderSci Lab supports graduate students working at the intersection of the sciences and gender studies. The lab offers interdisciplinary training in theories and methods for the critical intersectional study of sex/gender in biology, medicine, public health, and the social sciences. Students participate in collaborative research, contribute to peer-reviewed publications, and engage in public outreach.
In this year's edition, we will use machine learning as a prime example to understand its unique requirements and challenges in the context of networking. As machine learning applications increasingly rely on larger models and faster accelerators, the demand for enhanced networking capabilities becomes imperative. Throughout this course, we will study cutting edge networking solutions and principles for co-designing networks with compute and storage, to meet the evolving needs of machine learning applications. The course will include lectures, in-class presentations, paper discussions, and a research project.
This course emphasizes the unique biology of animals that can regrow large body parts with perfection. Students will learn about the vast diversity of regenerative prowess across the animal kingdom. The goal will be to extract generalizable principles whereby super-regenerators activate and execute response pathways that enable them to create not only new tissues, but also to organize and shape them to replicate what was lost. We will analyze both invertebrate and vertebrate examples. The course will highlight regenerative strategies used by super-regenerators, contrasting them to repair mechanisms that operate in other species with more limited regenerative prowess. Synthesizing what we learn, the class will culminate in using our knowledge of super-regenerator biology to design hypotheses and strategies for applying these insights to improve regeneration in humans.
Identity-based conflict seems to be on the rise. Many countries in Africa, South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and the Former Soviet Union have witnessed wars and conflict and riots that are ostensibly waged for ethnic or religious reasons. Even if they are not the root cause of these conflicts, such identities often become politically salient as a result of violence targeting ethnic or religious “others” and, once activated, exhibit remarkable stickiness in social and political life. When intergroup tensions have ratcheted up, is it possible to reduce their importance? Can a shared civic identity be constructed in the wake of violence waged in the name of ethnicity or religion? This course explores these questions through relevant social science literature, in-depth analyses of case studies of conflict and conflict resolution, and critical assessments of diverse approaches to peacebuilding.
to a variety of traditional texts (forms of expressive traditional culture); contexts (the sites and occasions where traditional expressive culture is performed); and textures (aesthetics, or the culturally informed, group-based parameters that shape traditional culture). You will complete
Comparisons with fascism are yet again en vogue. Whether from the Left or the Right of the political spectrum, if statements about political opponents are to be believed, there are Nazis everywhere. Leaving aside such facile comparisons and analogies, this course offers an in-depth case study of Germany's path from a democracy full of promise and possibility to that democracy's collapse into tyranny, war, and the Holocaust. We will work extensively with primary sources including contemporary eye witness accounts, political and economic commentary, art, and literature to explore the rise of National Socialism in the context of the politics, culture, and economics of Germany after the First World War before turning to the way the Nazis managed to seize the state, remake German society after 1933, and plunge Europe into war and genocide by the end of the decade. The course will debunk the many myths about the roots of Nazism and work towards an explanation of its rise that does justice to the complexities of lived experience between the two World Wars. With an eye towards the active nature of democratic citizenship, the course will emphasize the many junctures at which the ascend of National Socialism could have been prevented by people from the various corners of interwar Germany's political spectrum.
This class takes an interdisciplinary approach to the long history of how people have struggled and coped with illness and death. We will move from patients to healers to societies to ask: How have people understood and managed human health and disease in the past? How have they judged individual and societal responsibility for caregiving? How might we think with and against these historical examples to imagine health care for the future? Drawing on historical case studies from across time and around the globe, with an emphasis on Europe and the United States, we will analyze the challenges inherent in healing the world. The course will prompt students to better understand their own position as future patients, healers, and members of society. Students will: become grounded in content through lectures; enhance their understanding of themes and methods through readings, supported by a reading lab; reflect on themes related to their daily lives in their journal; debate and deepen their understanding through discussion sections; and define and defend their positions in midterms and a final examination.
The course explores the moral and political implications of AI and other new technologies. Should predictive algorithms be used in hiring, lending, policing? Can a chatbot be a friend? Can AI help us find love? In an age of big data and social media, is privacy over? Is democracy? Does technology erode the distinction between actual and virtual human connection? Will technology change what it means to be human?
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What happened in the past? How do you know? Even though today we take great pains to document every major event that occurs, more than 99% of human history is not written down. How, then, can we determine with any certainty what people did, let alone thought about, hundreds, thousands, and even millions of years ago? This course addresses these and other fundamental questions: Can we ever really know what happened in the past? If the past is “dead and gone,” how do we know what we (think we) know about it? And what is our degree of certainty about the past societies and cultures that historians, archaeologists and others study today? Through hands-on interaction with artifacts, experiments and other analytical methods you will consider how these approaches relate to different “stakeholders” - groups of people whose understanding of themselves is rooted in a connection to history. By the end of this course, you will have a sense of how your knowledge of the seemingly-distant past is, in fact, intimately tied to your experiences in the contemporary world.
Latin America’s particular past makes it the perfect space to ask these questions. Having been a colony to multiple European powers for the better part of 400 hundred years, its independence in the 19th Century made it evident that there was no going back to a precolonial past, as their culture seemed intrinsically and inevitably linked to both the prehispanic and the European. And yet, this hasn’t stopped multiple presidents, ambassadors, intellectuals, artists, and academics from reclaiming their “rightful” ownership to everything that is not currently in their specific museums, archives, and institutions.
Organized into thematic units rather than disciplinary silos, this course introduces hard science alongside the societal debates it illuminates. By the end of the course, students will develop a multilayered understanding of dogs not only as animals, but also as biological and cultural artifacts of our own species. They will also be equipped to critically evaluate the ethical and societal questions that arise when human and animal lives become intertwined.
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“To thine own self be true,” runs the famous line in Hamlet. But which self? And why? And who’s judging? Does this injunction to be authentic even make sense today, when profiles proliferate online and surveillance is ubiquitous? Acting-the art of creating and reproducing selves-can help us navigate these questions. Just as every century’s approach to acting tells us something about their idea of personhood, so too can our own era’s quandaries around empathy, personae, identity, work, art-making and politics be explored through our approach to acting. This course will examine the construction of private and public selves across eras and disciplines, through a combination of lectures, screenings, readings, and talks. Sections and examinations will be practice-based, focused on a single basic task: students will be asked to turn into each other over the course of the term. THIS COURSE IS OPEN TO ACTORS AND NON-ACTORS.
This course looks at the modern history of borders, broadly construed, from national boundaries between sovereign countries, to supranational agreements such as the European Union. It uses a case study method that allows students to investigate how borders were erected or transformed at a select number of historical turning points. And it queries the legal, diplomatic, social, and ethical considerations that ensue from drawing a line between one side and another. We will also consider how actors within societies create internal boundary lines such as “gerrymandered districts,” “gated communities,” or “redlined zones,” that are sometimes extra-legal or even illegal, but have profound effects on the everyday lives of individuals and groups.
Being wedged between superpowers might seem like a recipe for ethnic assimilation and cultural conformity. Yet what if it made you stronger? In the case of Armenia, being “in-between” led to a vibrant, diverse, and resilient culture, a distinctive religious and national identity, and a dynamic diaspora. Travelling from antiquity to modernity, we will explore how Armenia and Armenians survived and thrived despite invasion, oppression, statelessness, and planned annihilation. We will explore the connections between Armenian culture and diverse traditions, including classical antiquity, the Ancient Near East, Sasanian and Islamic Iran, and the Byzantine empire, East Asia, and Europe, and the relations between Armenia and neighboring cultures of the Caucasus. We will follow the Armenian experience into the early modern period, when Armenians established a trade network reaching from the Indian subcontinent to Amsterdam, absorbing and informing a kaleidoscope of cultures along the way. We will wrap up with the survival of Armenian traditions in contemporary culture, the role of the Armenian genocide in shaping Armenian identity, including in neighboring Watertown. Finally, we will discuss the meaning of cultural heritage for Armenians today, and explore its role at the intersection of politics, diplomacy, law, scholarship, human rights, and activism.
To tackle these important issues, this course reviews the story of how humans evolved through a series of major transitions starting with our divergence from the apes continuing to the present day. At the same time, we explore how the earth’s climate has changed over the course of human evolution, driving these transitions, which in turn have major effects on human health. Finally, we will explore the feedback loop between climate change, health, and the future of our species and planet.
We will trace the history of globalization starting from ancient times to contextualize contemporary issues. Topics will include: (i) the fragmentation of international trade, now marked by tariffs, a trade war between the U.S. and China, and trade frictions between the U.S. and its allies; (ii) erosion of international norms such as multilateralism and territorial integrity; (iii) rising domestic polarization over immigration and inequality; (iv) challenges to the U.S. dollar as the world’s safe-haven currency; and (v) increasingly bleak prospects for collective climate and public health action.
Thus, students will be asked to observe how thinking about a catastrophic future is actually a means to reflect about the present, by identifying whether humans are doing something wrong, whether they have any chance to correct their mistakes, or what strategies can be deployed to face with resilience the aftermath of the end. In this perspective, for instance, God, aliens, or meteorites are metaphors representing our powerlessness, while sins, zombies, or climate change are wake up calls for humankind. “Prophets of doom” can be channels of liberating and progressive energy, but can also become instruments to set up for destruction people who look and act differently. Apocalyptic scenarios almost always distinguish humankind in the two opposed camps of those who are saved and those who are condemned, but in more modern apocalypses the Enemy (like the biblical Antichrist) looks more and more undistinguishable from our own selves.
In this course, students will learn to engage Japanese or Japanese-style animation (sometimes known as anime) through two-pronged approaches. First, the students will learn to evaluate the aesthetic and socio-cultural relevance of anime in relation to the criteria and perspectives developed through the study of more established artistic forms such literature, cinema and visual arts. We will cover topics including, anime’s generic conventions, formal aesthetic, and narrative motifs. Secondly, students will learn to address the cultural value of anime in manners that recognize the specificity of its media ecology, encompassing the modes of production, distribution, and consumption. In particular, we will pay close attention to the ways media technology, industrial production of anime, marketing, and fan culture are integral facets of anime eco-system. In this sense, we will study anime as a node in the global network, involving diverse commercial as well as non-commercial medias such as graphic novels, live-action films, video games, character merchandises, and fanzines and other fan practices. The course as a whole suggests that we need to work between these two approaches in order to understand anime as a medium of global popular culture today.
We all tell stories, adapting them to reflect our values and making them relevant to our times. By analyzing texts from Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s influential collection Children’s and Household Tales, comparing them to similar fairy tales from other cultures, and examining the contributions of visual artists to these transformations, we will explore pressing human questions such as love and desire, infertility and procreation, trust and betrayal, hunger and abundance, parental guidance and child abuse, and the discriminatory practices embedded in these texts, and demonstrate the universality and particularity of such stories and their impact on society at large. By the end of this course, you will have a thorough understanding of fairy tale archetypes and plot structures, various scholarly perspectives on these tales, an awareness of intertextuality, and the ability to analyze stories with multiple layers of meaning. You will also be able to reassess how you and those around you tell stories.
This course examines how humans experience, use, and build meaning around the shape of writing, focusing on East Asia across time, place, and media. Centered on a broad, enduring question about writing’s role in society, students engage with materials from literature, art history, history of the book, linguistic anthropology, archaeology, and philosophy. By using materials that are both immediate to, and yet distant from, students’ lives, the course seeks to enhance students’ aesthetic and interpretive understanding of the world, to provide students with an understanding of the social and historical contexts for the development of various technologies related to the production, transmission, and refabrication of the written word in association with power in a variety of ways. By exploring everything from urban graffiti and online protests to ancient tombs and Buddhist temples to petroglyphs and white-paper protests, students will analyze writing’s impact on identity, authority, spirituality, and artistic expression and learn through field works and hands-on experiences such as visits to Harvard’s East Asian collections and workshops on calligraphy and ink-making. The course encourages reflection on how writing mediates power and social change, offering insights into both historical and contemporary practices. All students are invited to think beyond nation-centered and Eurocentric models, developing a nuanced understanding of writing as both art and technology. The course equips students to think critically about the role of writing in an age shaped by generative AI and large language models. No prior knowledge of East Asian languages is required.
We will work on a broad canvas, both spatially and chronologically, looking at testimonies as various as Cicero’s reactions to the death of his adult daughter; interviews with refugees from the war in Syria; and poetry inspired by the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial. We will read four books: the memoir of a survivor of the tsunami in the Indian Ocean in 2004; a novel about a woman’s gradual loss of her mental capacity to Alzheimer’s Disease; and the accounts of two great twentieth-century authors, C. S. Lewis and Joan Didion, each struggling to survive the loss of their spouse. We will encounter tombstones with simple inscriptions commemorating the death of family pets from the Roman world and set these in the context of scientific research on the human-animal bond. We will study prayers for the dead in the major faith traditions, and visit (virtually) the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas, to consider the therapeutic effects of the somber walls of its octagonal interior. We will study photographs by Dorothea Lange documenting poverty and hopelessness during the Depression. We will learn how to listen to a Requiem Mass, whether we encounter it in a sacred building or (more likely) a concert hall.
How has modernity-understood as a socio-economic reality, technological condition, cultural discourse, and set of aesthetic practices-redefined the purpose and function of art over the past three hundred years or so? What role has modern art played in the constitution of the modern experience of subjectivity? Beginning in the early 18thC and concluding in the early 21stC, the course traces art’s transformation from a tool of power elites into an instrument also of broad public instruction and civic debate on controversial topics. By learning about the diversity of ways in which modern artists have contributed to the production and critique of cultural and social life you will acquire the skills to make the most of your experience of art exhibitions and museums. This knowledge of the long history of modern art will help you better navigate a cultural present characterized by the ever-greater importance in everyday life of the production and consumption of images. It will also enable you to gain a deeper awareness of how art participates in critical dissent and aesthetic speculation in today's troubled world.
In this hybrid lecture/production course, students will tune into the aesthetic, social, and political frequencies of video through individual and collaborative study, creation, and performance. Art history will commingle with social media as we put works of video art from the 1970s to the present into conversation with gifs, memes, and other forms of contemporary viral transmission. Lectures, discussions, and technical demonstrationswill be punctuated by guest presentations and collective workshops. Together we will examine and develop a range of approaches to thinking, feeling, and making with video, creating space to reflect on the instability of our times through its signature medium. Students will respond to this collective inquiry by creating and sharing one short video per week.
Mental health experts believe that globally, more than 1 billion people have a mental illness. And yet the biases and misperceptions surrounding mental illness, not to mention the dehumanization, isolation, and abuse in many communities of individuals with a mental illness, remains acute. This course uses literature and the arts to help students learn more about some of the prevalent biases/misperceptions/myths/stigmas against individuals with mental illness and how these biases can be (or in the past have been) ameliorated, ameliorating loneliness and suffering for all.
How to face death? Concentrating on this central human question, we will explore some of the greatest works of ancient Greek literature in English translation. For the Greeks, a special way to address the problem of death was to think long and hard about what they called heroes in their myths. Our purpose in this course is to extend that kind of thinking to the present. Assignments invite you to engage in personal reflections on the meaning of life and death in the light of what we read in Greek literature about the ordeals of becoming a hero.
The central question we will ask in this class is bafflingly simple: What might happen if someone picked up the Golden Record at the other end? What does listening actually mean on this broadest, interplanetary level? Of course, any answer must remain speculative, but this doesn’t mean that we must throw our arms up in the air in despair. SETI, the Study of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence, has identified a number of factors that we can safely assume to be universally recognizable across planets. Chief among them is the binary system of zero and one; it is also likely that sensory perception will rely on vibration patterns in a fluid medium. These give us a basis for some informed speculation. Concrete answers will likely remain evasive, but the creative and deductive work that goes into solving these puzzles are just as important as the answers themselves.
In this course, we’ll learn how sexual identity and desire are understood and represented in different social and historical circumstances, We’ll move beyond the binary of identifying images as “positive” or “negative,” paying attention to how depictions, definitions, and understandings of sexuality are shaped by specific historical moments, as well as the aesthetic traditions and personal experiences shaping these individual works. In addition to novels, we’ll look at op-eds, essays, poems, photography, and film with an eye to thinking about how different genres speak to the larger world of politics, activism, and popular culture.
Painting is an engagement between the self and the world. It is a practice of embodied making, and, as a language outside of words, can think around conditioned understanding. This introductory studio art course proposes learning to paint as a new experience of relating to the world, and through painting we will investigate not only what we have to say, but what we have to see.
This course explores the complex, formative role of the Caribbean in the development of Western colonialism and capitalism and the consequences for the peoples of the region. Four major themes will be examined. First, the importance of the region in the origin and early development of Western imperialism and capitalism: Why did both Western Europe and America begin their imperial and colonial expansion in this region and to what degree did the region’s slave-based economies influence the nature and development of Western capitalism? Second, what were the consequences of imperialism for the demographic and socio-cultural fate of indigenous and African populations? Is genocide a proper designation of the fate of exploited peoples of the region up to the end of the period of slavery? Third, we examine the post-colonial consequences of this history for the socio-political, economic and cultural development of the region. What have been the main paths toward sustainable development in the modern Caribbean? Why in spite of its long history of engagement with Western capitalism, has the region largely faltered in its efforts to develop? We examine the different paths to development through five case studies-neo-colonial dependency in Puerto Rico, communist dependency in Cuba, democratic socialism in Jamaica, Barbados’ neo-liberal strategy, and aid-dependency in Haiti. We also study the common problem of migration and transnationalism and the degree to which this process undermines national sovereignty. Fourth, we explore the distinctive features of racial classification and cultural representations in the Caribbean. What do we learn about race as a social construction from the Caribbean experience? How do Caribbean racism and colorism unsettle American notions of race and ethnic identities? Why has globalization not led to cultural homogenization? How do we account for the unusual influence of Caribbean music, especially that of Jamaica, on popular global culture?
How do states balance the challenges and opportunities of international markets? Importing ideas and resources while exporting manufactured goods underlies the East Asian growth miracle but also builds conflict with other governments. This course examines the transformative role of trade policy for Japan, Korea, and China. From the “unequal treaties” of the nineteenth century to the World Trade Organization today, trade law binds the interactions between East Asia and the world. Japan grew from an isolated samurai nation to a leading economic power but now confronts stagnating growth. Korea relied on business conglomerates for rapid industrialization and embraced liberalization to steer its way out of financial crisis. China turned to the WTO to anchor domestic economic reforms but now faces U.S. resistance to its export dominance. East Asia offers models of the success and problems that accompany globalization.
When does history begin? To judge by the typical history textbook, the answer is straightforward: six thousand years ago. So what about the tens of thousands of years of human existence described by archaeology and related disciplines? Is that history too? This introduction to human history offers a framework for joining the entirety of the human past, from the long ago to the present day, in a single narrative that stretches across many disciplines. We will explore a series of interrelated themes each of which invites questions that travel across time and space. The material presented through lectures, discussions, and activities will not only guide students through a collaborative exploration of human experience, but will also encourage them to contemplate how such experiences mirror and contrast with their own. To help anchor ourselves in the timeline of past and present, we will engage with the world-class collection of artifacts in Harvard’s museums, giving students a unique, hands-on opportunity to experience human history through material remains. Course notes: No prior college-level course in archaeology, history, or a related field is required or assumed, and First-year students are welcome. Because the course touches on ideas in many disciplines beyond history and archaeology, including art, economics, human evolutionary biology, psychology, and religion, we welcome a range of students who can bring unique perspectives and expertise to class discussion.
We often think of slavery as being a dark chapter in our past, but this is a tragic oversimplification. What defines slavery in the modern world, and what are the moral, political and social implications of its continued existence? As we explore its underpinnings, we discover that all of us may be in some way complicit in its survival. This course surveys the nature, types and extent of modern servitude such as transnational and domestic prostitution, forced marriage, labor trafficking and forced domestic labor, child soldiering and other forms of enslavement of children, organ trafficking and other health aspects of trafficking, debt-bondage, and the forced exploitation of other vulnerable groups such as refugees and stateless persons. Throughout the course, but especially in the final part, we examine anti-trafficking and anti-slavery measures and movements and ways in which you can increase awareness or become involved. You will, by the end of our exploration, be able to trace the moral and ethical arguments surrounding human slavery in its various forms, understand the ways in which this problem still affects so many people, and what can and should be done about it.
Today’s news headlines consistently point to the role that religion plays in the political life of Middle Eastern societies. But do these headlines tell the whole story? This course will challenge simplistic explanations of the dominant role of Islam in Middle Eastern politics by putting it in historical perspective. You will explore the genealogy of some of the most important debates about the role of religion in politics: the extent of Middle Eastern states' involvement in religion, the place of religious minorities, whether religious norms should infringe on individual freedoms, and the various political theologies at play in Islamist opposition movements, in liberal conceptions of religion, and in state religious interpretations. At the crux of these vigorous debates is the issue of the meaning of a "Muslim state," an issue that has shaped vibrant discussions and deep political disagreements that you will discover through textual and historical analysis of primary sources. Understanding who were the men and women who participated in these debates over the modern history of the Middle East, what they argued for and against, and the context in which they made their claims will provide you with the historical and textual perspective to make sense of the news headlines about religion and politics in the Middle East.
Most of us were taught that the Civil War between the Confederacy and the Union was fought on battlefields chiefly in the American South between the years of 1861-1865. In this narrative, the North won and the South lost. But what if the issues that resulted in such devastating bloodshed were never resolved? What if the war never ended? This course demonstrates the ways in which the United States is still fighting the Civil War, arguably THE defining event in U.S. history. In each class, we connect current events to readings and themes in the course, highlighting how and why the war is still being fought. From Nat Turner’s slave rebellion in 1831 to the recent riot (or battle) in Charlottesville, we trace how and why the South was in certain respects the victor, even though the Confederacy was destroyed and the Constitution amended. We explore the different kinds of war-ideological, political, cultural, military, and para-military-that placed the unfreedom of blacks-as slaves, serfs, and prisoners-at the center of larger conflicts over federal versus state and local rule, welfare, globalization, and free trade. We analyze the Civil War in literature, art, politics, photography, prints, film, music, poetry, speeches, and history, while also discovering how these cultural forms worked to shape our memory of the event itself. By the end of the course, we will be able to show how and why contemporary U.S. debates are rooted in this defining narrative, and we will better understand the dilemmas the nation faces today.
GenEd 1178 focuses on the archaeology and history of the last 10,000 years of Mexican cuisine as a case study to explore these questions. We examine Mexico’s diverse foods, drinks, and cultures across time and space, drawing on evidence from archaeology, anthropology, climatology, botany, genetics, history, and more to investigate how and why Mexican cuisine has changed. The origins of familiar menu items such as tacos, burritos, guacamole, and margaritas reveal critical shifts in global foodways-not just in Mexico-that continue to shape our everyday lives and the world around us.
This course addresses these questions by examining policy disputes around issues such as incarceration and policing, free speech, the role of biology in ancestry and medical care, electoral politics, activism, and movement across borders. We will examine class, nationality, and gender differences within and across groups, and how group boundaries are made stronger or weaker. We will consider how to reduce unproductive polarization, and how you --the new generation of citizens of the world -- can promote a better America even, or especially, when we do not agree on just what “better” entails.
In this course we’ll examine the evolution of morality on Earth, from its origins in the biology of unthinking organisms, through the psychology of intelligent primates, and into a future inhabited by machines that may be more intelligent and better organized than humans. First, we ask: What is morality? Many people believe that morality descends from above, as divine commands or as abstract, timeless principles akin to mathematical truths. Here we take an empirical approach to morality, viewing it as a natural phenomenon that rises up from below-born of the strategic interactions among lifeforms and societies struggling to exist. Next, we take a scientifically informed look at the foundational questions of moral and political philosophy. Many people believe that the “is” of scientific knowledge has nothing to do with the fundamental “oughts” of morality, that science and morality exist in separate realms (and belong in separate courses). Here we challenge this assumption, asking whether our scientific self-knowledge can, and should, change our views about what’s right and wrong and how a society should be organized. Finally, we consider the distinctive moral challenges posed by what may be the next stage in Earth’s evolutionary history: the rise of artificial intelligence. Many people believe that there is and always will be a fundamental division between human minds and machines. Here we challenge this assumption, going beyond the tropes of science fiction and drawing instead on the latest advances in cognitive neuroscience and neurally inspired artificial intelligence. Our conclusions will have implications for moral challenges of the near and more distant future: Can self-driving cars, military drones, and life-like robots be programmed to behave morally? Will artificial intelligence displace human labor? If so, how can our societies adapt? Could machines displace humans entirely? If so, how can we stay in control? If machines do take over, will they be our conquerors or our children? Across diverse topics, this course explores the implications of a single idea: that the wonder we see around us, and ahead of us, is the product of competition and cooperation at increasing levels of complexity.
Philosophers and politicians alike struggle to set the terms for living a good life in a world of conflict. Rulers seek guidance from their counselors, and philosophers have often dreamed of wielding real-world influence. Reading a series of masterpieces of philosophical thought and literary expression, we will examine some striking cases of relations between the pursuit of wisdom and the pursuit of power, from the extremes of conflict (the executions of Socrates, Han Fei, Jesus, Sir Thomas More) to the opposite dream of the philosopher king. How do seekers of wisdom speak truth to power? How do rulers understand their ethical responsibilities toward their often fractious subjects? How do rulers and subjects alike weigh the competing demands of liberty and order, self-fulfillment and self-restraint? Moving from ancient to modern examples, this course will see how the insights and methods of Plato, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, and Hannah Arendt can be useful in working through contemporary conundrums of wisdom and power.
To prepare you for a lifetime of civic engagement, this course examines enduring questions about the nature of conflict and interdisciplinary approaches for resolving it. We explore rational, emotional, and identity-based dimensions of conflict resolution and connect these insights to your own life as well as to organizational and societal challenges. Because conflict often involves difficult trade-offs and moral dilemmas, we also examine models for understanding its ethical and sociopolitical complexities.
What is the best way to live a fuller and more ethical life? Concretely what should we do to begin to live in a more flourishing and inspiring way? Questions such as these were at the heart of philosophical debates in China. The answers that classical Chinese thinkers developed in response to these questions are among the most powerful in human history. Regardless of whether one agrees with them or not, they should be studied and taken seriously by anyone who cares about ethics, politics, and the ways to live life more fully.
Students will encounter the ethical dilemmas of medicine and public health throughout their lives, whether with their own health, or with the health of their families and friends. This course will equip them with the tools of moral philosophy so that they can recognize, critique, and craft arguments grounded in appeals to utilitarianism, deontology, rights, or justice. But the course will focus on historical analysis of the debates so that students understand how social, economic, and political contexts have influenced moral reasoning. By clarifying their own thinking in the classroom, students will be better equipped to engage in the debates and contribute to the ongoing efforts by medicine to relieve human suffering.
Technology shapes how power is exercised in society, and thereby also shapes how the present changes into the future. Technological innovation is all around us, and new possibilities in fields like artificial intelligence, genome-editing and geoengineering not only reallocate power, but might transform human life itself considerably, to the point of modifying the essence of what it is to be human. While ethical considerations enter prominently, the philosophy of technology is broader than its ethics. It aims to interpret and critically assess the role of technology for human life and guide us to a more thoughtful integration of technology in our individual lives and in public decision making. This course aims to teach you to do just that, starting with basic stances and key figures in the field and then progressing towards a number of challenges around specific types of technology as they arise for the 21st century. At times it is tech optimism that dominates these debates (sometimes even techno-boosterism that sees technology as key to heaven on earth), at other times it is more low-spirited attitudes from Romantic uneasiness to doom-and-gloom Luddism and technology-bashing. A closer look at these attitudes - alongside reflection on how technology and power are intertwined - will help generate a more skeptical attitude towards all of them and contribute to more level-headed debates, which are badly needed.
You will be involved in education your whole life. As a taxpayer, voter, or parent, you will be connected with formal schooling. You will almost certainly be in the role of teacher at various points in your life, whether in a classroom, in another professional setting, or guiding someone in something you love to do. Leaders in any field are teachers and coaches--they develop the people around them to bring their full potential to some shared ambition. You will also be in the role of learner throughout your life in a variety of forms and contexts. Precisely because we are all learners and teachers and we’ve all had some direct experience with K-12 schools, everyone has interests and opinions about schools. Yet, U.S. K-12 schools are consistently failing to serve all children well. This course will prepare you to recognize the assumptions, binaries, and controversies that drive much of the sound and substance of U.S. K-12 education, and replace those with a different ABCs: awareness, both-and thinking, and context. Learning can get lost in all the noise of education. What would it look like to make schools less about achievement and attainment and more about learning--and what can be your contribution, no matter your future pathways?
Since their origins in medieval Europe, universities have been granted special privileges because they have been understood to contribute to the social welfare. Do these privileges incur corresponding obligations on universities? Should they influence how universities educate their students or create, share and preserve knowledge or conduct their internal affairs? Given that universities have a significant impact on society, what principles should guide their activities to ensure that they serve the public good? While universities have been expected to serve society, they also espouse values, such as academic freedom, institutional autonomy and neutrality, that some see as antithetical to social engagement. The image of the ivory tower, remote and removed from society, captures this vision of the university. As a result, there has been tension about how universities can both serve society and remain true to these core values. This course examines how questions about universities’ social responsibilities have been debated and enacted over the past century in the context of American higher education. Taking into consideration these lessons from the past, students will be asked to develop their own conception of how a university should engage in society.
This course counts toward the Certificate for Civic Engagement (CCE), within the Mindich Program in Engaged Scholarship (MPES). The Certificate for Civic Engagement recognizes Harvard College students who have demonstrated sustained participation in public service and civic involvement during their undergraduate experience.
Aiiieeeee! An Anthology of Asian-American Writers (1974) was one of the earliest attempts to collect writings that were, to quote the editors, “exclusively Asian-American.” Yet as their lengthy-and controversial-explanation of the selection process makes clear, Asian American literature defies neat categorization. This course is both a survey of Asian American literature and an introduction to ongoing debates about what constitutes Asian American literature. We will study a variety of literary genres and ask how formal and stylistic conventions, as well as shifting sociohistorical circumstances, have shaped conceptions of Asian American literature.
Initially, students can expect to read, discuss, and imitate the strategies of a wide range of poets writing in English; to investigate and reproduce prescribed forms and poetic structures; and to engage in writing exercises meant to expand the conception of what a poem is and can be. As the course progresses, reading assignments will be tailored on an individual basis, and an increasing amount of time will be spent in discussion of student work.
By focusing on literary narratives, cultural representations, and critical theories, this course explores ways in which issues related to migration create rich and complex interdisciplinary conversations. How do humanistic disciplines address these issues-human rights, cultural translation, global justice, security, citizenship, social discrimination, biopolitics-and what contributions do they make to the “home” disciplines of migration studies such as law, political science, and sociology? How do migration narratives compel us to revise our concepts of culture, polity, neighborliness, and community? We will explore diverse aspects of migration from existential, ethical, and philosophical perspectives while engaging with specific regional and political histories.
At once a crash course in ethnographic theory and ethics, and a practicum in qualitative methods, FM97 weds scholarly inquiry and academic study to practical experience in cultural documentation and personal involvement with local tradition bearers and folk communities. Guided by an interdisciplinary collection of texts, students will have the opportunity to study folklore from the ground up, not only through an academic lens, but through personal relationships, cultural participation, and inquisitive explorations of local communities. Throughout the semester you will be invited to develop skills in qualitative research, cultural documentation, proposal design, interviewing, and the arts of interpretation as you try your hand at fieldwork and ethnography. By examining folkways, expressive culture, traditions, and performances, and interrogating their import in the daily lives of individual and groups, we will aim to bridge the divide between grand theories and everyday practices, between intellectual debates and lived experiences, between the academic institution and the vernacular world. Ultimately, this course aims to bring “the folks” themselves into the center of the academic study, discussion, and debate. And it aims to give you the tools to help amplify and illuminate their voices, traditions, practices, and lore.
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An introduction to first-order logic (the basis of mathematical reasoning) from a meta-mathematical point of view. Topics include: The axiomatic method, the principles of first-order logic, the meta-mathematical point of view, the central theorems (soundness and completeness), and the expressive limitations (Löwenheim-Skolem).
This course will provide an overview of Ukrainian multicultural literature through the lens of the poetics of resistance. Our exploration will span the period from the genesis of modern Ukrainian literature in the 17th century to contemporary works emerging in the face of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Starting from the discussion of Ivan Kotliarevsky’s travesty of Virgil’s Aeneid , Nikolai Gogol/ Mykola Hohol’s hybrid identities and Taras Shevchenko’s resolutely anti-imperial poetry we will go on to discuss the groundbreaking feminist writing of Lesia Ukrainka and Olha Kobylianska. A significant part of the course will be dedicated to the Soviet period: we will study how Ukrainian modernists both reflected Soviet culture and subverted it; we will look at how Ukrainian dissidents defied the Soviet order and managed to create outstanding literary works even in the extreme circumstances of the Gulag. Finally, we will analyze some of the poetry, prose, and film that seek to articulate the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war, shedding light on its causes and stakes. In studying some of Ukraine’s literary masterpieces, we will tunnel to the heart of the phenomenon of resistance: its philosophy, aesthetics, cultural practices, and historical reverberations. Fundamentally, we will reflect on the nexus between literature and ethics, focusing on themes such as resistance against political violence and oppression, human rights discourse, feminist struggle as well as justice and solidarity.
Alabama is an endangered indigenous language from Muskogean family that is currently only spoken on the Alabama-Coushatta reservation in Texas. In this class we will discuss grammatical properties of Alabama (its phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics) and other Muskogean languages in light of the questions of language documentation and revitalization. How does one document different properties of a language? How can linguists help communities in language revitalization efforts? This class approaches these questions in a hands-on manner, with students directly engaging with the existing collaboration between Harvard linguists and the Alabama-Coushatta community.
This interdisciplinary and team-taught course provides an introduction to several of the approaches and methods through which the societies and cultures of East Asia can be studied at Harvard, including history, philosophy, literary studies, political science, film studies, anthropology and gender studies. We consider both commonalities and differences across the region, and explore how larger processes of imperialism, modernization, and globalization have shaped contemporary East Asian societies and their future trajectories.
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By guided reading, classroom discussion, one on one conference, and formal and structural experimentation, members of the Advanced Poetry Workshop will look to hone, deepen, and challenge the development of their poetic inquiry and aesthetic. Students will be required to write and submit one new poem each week and to perform in-depth, weekly critiques of their colleagues' work.
Can utopian thinking produce a new world? Can architecture bring about spaces radically different from those we inhabit today? This course examines utopia as a central project of twentieth‑century modern architecture. Drawing on key theoretical texts and case studies across political regimes and ideologies in Europe, North Africa and the Americas, we will analyze how architects have mobilized utopian ideas in search of liberty and emancipation while also supplying techniques of authoritarian rule. The course distinguishes between utopianism and utopia : between the speculative openness of imagining alternative futures and the authoritative closure of the architectural project. We will study the material, spatial and intellectual entanglements of architecture and political power; analyze the materials, aesthetics and organizational strategies through which architects establish their authorship; and consider how architecture can function as a tool for both critique and rule beyond its formal service to society and the state.
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The brain is among the most powerful and complex systems known, with neural network structure that enables intricate mental experiences and rich behaviors. Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence have led to computational systems with increasingly complex capacities, which provocatively utilize artificial neural networks and principles inspired from biology. With surprising translational breakthroughs between these fields, a new research area is emerging at this interdisciplinary intersection called “NeuroAI.” The premise and promise of this field is that insights from deep neural network models can help us understand the brain, and in reciprocally, insights from brain and cognitive science can help improve artificial intelligent systems. In this course you will learn the relevant foundational knowledge in both cognitive neuroscience and machine learning underlying these synergies, and gain an understanding of the major scientific advances and active frontiers. Coding-based problem sets, leveraging generative AI capacities, will give you hands-on experience of basic NeuroAI research. By illuminating the beautiful complexity of brains and simple powerful ideas of AI, this course aims to help you gain a deep understanding of the connections between natural and artificially intelligent systems, for the next wave of advance in this interdisciplinary frontier.
The aim of this course is to place human beings in a universal and planetary context. You will learn where we come from beginning with the Big Bang and ending with modern human civilization and our relationship to the planet from which we have evolved and on which we depend. You will understand the factual evidence for the Big Bang, the origin of the elements, plate tectonics, evolution and climate change. From this story a process of planetary evolution emerges and we will consider whether this process is likely to be common or a unique accident. Earth history has been punctuated by a series of revolutions where the planet molts to a new level of functioning. Viewed in this context, human civilization is the latest molting of the planet, giving Earth the possibility of a conscious presence to itself and in the galaxy. Are we as human beings an agent of planetary evolution, or instead a parasite or cancer to planetary systems? This question provides a novel perspective on current environmental problems and how we might deal with them, and moves the question from technology to personal philosophy and behavior. It also casts a different light on the likelihood of alien civilizations and whether we need to fear them. Climate change is seen in a much broader perspective of the relationship between people and Earth, and how our personal behavior is not trivial, but central. Readings include the book How to Build a Habitable Planet, short recorded lectures to deliver the scientific content, and discussion sessions each week to address any difficulties and explore the broader implications for human beings of what we are learning. At the end of this course, you will have a greater understanding of the past, present, and future of the planet we call home, and the planetary consequences of your life decisions.
Extraordinary changes in the world pose challenges for population health: shifting demographics, a rising burden of chronic disease, and transnational risks that ignore borders. Scientific advances offer new opportunities, yet rising nationalism, political polarization, and a divided international community threaten global health. This course will challenge your assumptions as you discover surprising similarities and unexpected differences between and within countries. Using cases from around the world, including the U.S., we explore diverse diseases, risks, and injuries, examine how social, political, and environmental factors shape health, and ask why gaps persist between the best off and worst off. With an interdisciplinary lens, we consider solutions within and beyond the health sector, at local, national, and global levels. You will build skills in data literacy, quantitative reasoning, critical thinking, and policy analysis, linking course concepts to current events and designing "problem-inspired" products that motivate action on global health challenges you care about.
Advances in brain science have the potential to diminish many forms of human suffering and disability that are rooted in disordered brain function. But what are the ethical implications involved in altering the structure and function of human brains? What’s at stake when we have the ability to alter a person’s narrative identity, create brain-computer interfaces, and manipulate social and moral emotion? In this course, you will ask and attempt to answer these questions, and discuss the implications of mechanistic explanations of decision-making and action for widely-held concepts of moral agency and legal culpability. This course will prepare you to be a thoughtful citizen of a world characterized by rapidly emerging understandings of human brain function, and by new technologies intended to repair or influence human brains.
What do landslides in Brazil, droughts in California, mass migration in Syria and the collapse of Mayan civilization all have in common? Water. This course introduces students to the terrestrial water cycle: how it works, how humans manipulate it, and how it manipulates us. Students will learn about the major components of the terrestrial water cycle, including precipitation, evapotranspiration, runoff and streamflow, and saturated and unsaturated subsurface flow. We will also learn about the causes and consequences of natural hazards associated with the water cycle -- including floods, landslides and droughts - and examine several case studies, with a focus on human impacts. The course will consider how the water cycle has contributed to the demise of past civilizations, and explore implications for modern society in a warming world.
From Mexico to India, San Francisco to Tokyo, natural disasters have shaped both the surface of our planet and the development of civilizations. These catastrophes claim thousands of lives and cause tens of billions of dollars in damage each year, and the impact of natural disasters is only increasing as a result of human population growth and urbanization. This course uses the methods and skills associated with earth science to help you to develop an understanding of both the causes and impacts of these events. Readings will be assigned from the textbook Natural Disasters by Patrick Abbott (11th edition), to deliver the scientific content - recorded lectures will be available throughout the course, and live lectures and discussion sessions will be held each week to address any difficulties with the material, to facilitate discussion, and to provide an opportunity for interacting with fellow students and the teaching staff. By the end of this course, you will be able to understand the ways in which societies can systematically anticipate and prepare for the kinds of natural disasters which many people have come to assume are inevitable.
What is it about Earth that enables life to thrive? This question was reinvigorated with the 2016 ground-breaking discovery of a habitable planet around the nearest star, Proxima Centauri. A decade of exploration confirmed that such planets are common in our galaxy, and the commonality of habitable planets has raised anew some age-old questions: Where do we come from? What is it to be human? Where are we going? Are we alone in the universe? And last, but not least, what are the dangers of becoming a multi-planet species? Life and planets are intricately linked through geological processes, chemistry, and ultimately, biology, all of which you will explore in this course as we endeavor to answer questions about our place on this planet and beyond. You will gain knowledge of some natural sciences fundamentals while exploring current issues in biotechnology and space exploration technology. This course aims to equip you with both a conceptual understanding of Earth and its place in the universe as well as the quantitative reasoning to think critically about it. Hands-on experiences are central to accomplishing these objectives.
Food and cooking are part of your everyday life. Whether you are a skilled chef or a home-cook, what you do in the kitchen is deeply rooted in science. This class brings together top chefs and Harvard scientists to explore how everyday cooking and haute cuisine can illuminate basic principles in physics and chemistry. Throughout the semester you will watch as chefs reveal the secrets behind some of their most famous culinary creations. Inspired by such cooking mastery, we will then explore the science behind the recipes. Students will gain a solid understanding of the properties and fundamental behaviors of soft matter materials. All food is made of soft materials, and cooking relies on many of their fundamental properties. Topics will include: emulsions, illustrated by aioli; elasticity, exemplified by the done-ness of a steak; and diffusion, revealed by the phenomenon of spherification, the culinary technique pioneered by Ferran Adria. The course includes laboratory work where students develop their skills as experimental scientists. Other assignments include weekly homeworks, in-class exercises, and a final project where students explore the science of a culinary topic of their choosing.
Health care should be about standing with the poor and the sick. It should be about fighting for those pushed to the margins, whose lives are ground down by poverty, trapped by unjust systems, and devalued by forces that declare some lives worth less than others. This course challenges students to reimagine disease, illness, and injury as biosocial phenomena - shaped as much by poverty, racism, and political violence as by pathogens. From rural Malawi to American prisons, from tuberculosis programs to the overdose crisis, we will trace the roots of global health inequities and examine the ideologies that sustain them. But this course is not only about identifying failures. It is about how we act alongside the sick and destitute to fight for a future where health is a human right.
We will explore how social scientists address empirical questions, the types of data that are available, how those data are analyzed, and the confidence with which causal statements are made. By the end of the course, you will be able to dissect a large question-such as how to reform American healthcare-into its technological, social, economic, and moral components, and weigh potential solutions according to these guiding vectors.
What makes us psychologically and behaviorally human? Why is this important? In what ways are humans similar to other species, and how are we different? What are the evolutionary origins of the behavioral and psychological features found across human societies, including parental love, sibling rivalry, pair-bonding, incest aversion, social status, war, norms, altruism, religion, language and cooking? At the same time, how can we account for the immense diversity we observe in behavior and psychology across time and societies? Tackling these questions within a broad evolutionary framework, the course will draw on the latest insights and evidence from evolutionary biology, primatology, anthropological ethnography, neuroscience, genetics, linguistics, economics and psychology. We'll contextualize contemporary behavior by examining studies of non-human primates, especially chimpanzees, and a broad range of human variation based on comparative studies of hunter-gatherers, herders, agriculturalists and-most unusual of all-people from societies that are WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic). Along the way, we'll see how culture has driven much of our genetic evolution and runs deep into our evolutionary history. We'll consider how understanding the evolutionary origins of human behavior, psychology, and culture informs how we approach contemporary issues such as patriarchy, polygamous marriage, sex differences, child abuse, mating preferences, homosexuality, racism, psychological differences among populations and the use of oral contraceptives.
A Humanities Colloquium: from Homer to Joyce: 2,500 years of essential works, taught by six professors. Humanities 10b will tentatively include works by Joyce, John Stuart Mill, Mary Shelley, Austen, Schiller, Augustine, Apuleius, Epictetus, Sophocles, and Homer, as well as the Bible. One 75-minute lecture plus a 75-minute discussion seminar led by the professors every week. Students will receive instruction in critical writing one hour a week, in writing labs and individual conferences. Students also have opportunities to participate in a range of cultural experiences, ranging from plays and musical events to museum and library collections.
Great art constantly morphs: novels become films, statues become poems, music becomes dance. This introduction class looks at how masterpieces from around the world transform as they move across languages, art forms, and renditions. In addition to written assignments, we do creative projects to explore each of those modal shifts. We also learn about the structure of a range of languages, and think about how those languages shape their literatures. This is a great class to take if you’re thinking about learning a new language in the future. It’s also a good entryway to other literature and language classes for first- and second-year students, as well as students concentrating in fields outside the humanities. This course also counts toward the Secondary Field in Translation Studies. Taught in English; no other languages required (just curiosity).
In this class, we will seek ways to mend our relationship to the earth. To prepare ourselves, we will study the stories, values, assumptions, and commitments that have been drivers of climate change and other environmental challenges. On the basis of this study, we will explore the potential for imaginative cultural work to foster a better future. Week-to-week, faculty guests from across Harvard will introduce us to perspectives and methods from an array of fields, including history, literature, music, design, art, philosophy, and religion. As the semester unfolds, we will use what we learn in these sessions to refine our understanding of the contradictory narratives, competing values, human frailties, and historical blind spots that have drawn us into our current environmental predicaments. From this foundation, we will imagine how cultural work might help extricate humanity from these predicaments and put us on a better path.
What do humanist scholars do and how do they do it? This preparatory course introduces students to the fundamental skills, techniques, and methods that are applicable for study in any one of the disciplines offered in the Humanities, including languages and literatures, philosophy and theory, music, performance and the visual arts, from antiquity to the present. Through a comprehensive and systematic explication of cross-disciplinary terminology, participants acquire the tools necessary for interpretation and analysis, for critically engaging with what has been produced, expressed, and argued by artists and thinkers across the world's epochs and cultures.
This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary study of cultural materials in their historical contexts. Weekly lectures, given by members of History and Literature's Committee on Degrees and other members of the faculty, will focus on types of primary sources (such as film, fiction, music, photography, and archival documents), approaching them from key theoretical and methodological perspectives. Class meetings will feature trips to campus museums, archives, and performances. Assignments will practice the fundamental skills of close reading and historical contextualization, culminating in a research project.
How to tell a story? How do writers discover character, imagine worlds, and shape narrative time? This open-enrollment creative writing course will focus on the cornerstones of storytelling. We will move through an expansive reading list-for there is no writing without reading-designed to showcase the many different shapes a story can take. Ask any writer why they became a writer, and they'll tell you that it's because they read. (Octavia Butler, who came from a poor family, once said that she became a writer because she had access to public libraries. Books, in other words; they showed her what was possible.) These conversations about “reading like a writer” will, in turn, inform the creative work you generate this semester: you will write your own stories, exploring different styles and literary techniques. You can expect to leave the course with a portfolio of creative work.
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A Humanities Colloquium: from Homer to Joyce: 2,500 years of essential works, taught by six professors. Humanities 10a will tentatively include works by Homer, Sappho, Sophocles, Plato, Virgil, Dante, Boccaccio, Shakespeare, Descartes, Du Bois, Kafka and Woolf. One 75-minute lecture plus a 75-minute discussion seminar led by the professors every week. Students will receive instruction in critical writing one hour a week, in writing labs and individual conferences. Students also have opportunities to participate in a range of cultural experiences, ranging from plays and musical events to museum and library collections.
What is Language? Is language “a uniquely human gift”? Is it central to the human experience, as many have suggested? Why do some writers say that Language is what “makes us human?” Do other animals have Language? Do AI models “know a language”? What does it even mean to ask questions like these? Do languages vary from one another without limit? Or is there an underlying common core beneath the surface diversity? How similar are languages across modalities (signed/spoken)? Do the languages we know determine the thoughts we can think? Do we think (only) in language? Are there right and wrong ways of speaking? Who decides? What’s the difference between a language and a dialect? Where do our words come from? It’s said that more than half of the world’s languages and maybe as many as 90% are “endangered” and may no longer be spoken by the end of the century. Are they “unsuited to the modern world”’ or are other factors at play? Are some languages more logical than others? Students in this course will be exposed to classical and new questions about language, and will gain practical skills in linguistic analysis along with an appreciation of how one can approach these questions analytically. Our aim is not to present answers, but to foster critical thinking in order to understand on the one hand what such questions mean, and on the other, how one might approach them and why various answers have been given from a diversity of perspectives from Linguistics, Philosophy, Languages and Literatures, Psychology, Computer Science, Anthropology, and related fields in the humanities and sciences. This course can also be used to satisfy any introductory prerequisites for more advanced coursework in Linguistics, and the distributional requirement in Arts & Humanities.
An introduction to the Semitic language of Akkadian, primarily through the Old Babylonian dialect and cuneiform writing system as used during the time of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BCE). Students learn the fundamentals of grammar and the writing system, as well as the most common cuneiform signs in official and cursive script. Readings span a variety of genres, including private letters, judicial documents, literary and religious texts, divinatory compendia, legal code, and royal inscriptions. The course also briefly introduces students to examples of texts from other periods and dialects of the Akkadian language for cultural and comparative purposes.
After Latin 10, students may take Latin courses at the 100-level, but are encouraged to consult with the Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Classics (classicsDUS@fas.harvard.edu) about their choice of course. Students may also take Latin 10 more than once, with the permission of the course head. No auditors. May be taken pass/fail (undergraduates) or SAT/UNSAT (graduate students) with instructor permission.
Greek 3 concludes the Ancient Greek introductory sequence, following Greek 1 and 2. You will continue to develop your Ancient Greek linguistic skills and apply your knowledge to the reading of authentic texts. The course will also include various enrichment activities, such as visits to museums and libraries.
Medieval Latin 10 offers close reading and analysis of post-classical literary texts, both prose and poetry, beginning at an intermediate pace. Participants will improve their reading proficiency while developing an appreciation for features of style, genre, and meter.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
In this advanced Portuguese language and culture course, you will explore Brazilian culture(s) through contemporary films. The course examines major Brazilian films in their historical, political, and social context. You will become familiar with relevant concepts in cultural studies and explore different modalities of Brazilian film in relation to the already established tradition of the 1960s "Cinema Novo". Students will have various opportunities to engage in interactive communicative activities, participate in discussions, develop their interpretive and presentational skills in Portuguese and participate in creative assignments, including a short film by the end of the semester. No previous experience with film study is necessary. This course is conducted entirely in Portuguese and films are shown in Portuguese with English subtitles.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This is an intermediate-level course of Classical Arabic for reading. Students will already have learned the Arabic script and the basics of morphology and syntax. Building on these basics, the course will focus on reading and translating selections from classical Arabic prose and poetry, with consolidation and review of grammar and an introduction to poetic meters. Daily preparation and active class participation are required.
An interactive introduction to Tamil, the oldest of the Dravidian languages of South India with a literary tradition that spans millennia. It is designed for students with no previous background in Tamil and progressively introduces speaking, listening, reading and writing using textual and audio-visual materials. After taking the TAM 101 series, students will have a working knowledge of the fundamental grammatical structures necessary to navigate colloquial and literary modern Tamil and to begin reading older Tamil literature as well.
A continuation of TAM 101A and TAM 101B, this course is focused on consolidating students’ grasp of fundamental grammatical structures, as well as expanding their Tamil reading, writing, and speaking skills. Students actively engage with a variety of textual and audiovisual materials and conduct regular class presentations in Tamil. After taking the TAM 102 series, students will be able to understand Tamil materials of increasing complexity and be able to communicate with greater ease.
Continuation of the basic course focusing on a basic mastery of listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. During spring term, the emphasis is on more advanced conversation and an exploration of Sweden's culture and civilization through selected texts and video. By semester's end, students will be able to carry on conversations in everyday Swedish, read news articles, and write letters and produce substantial creative work.
In this intermediate Italian course, inspired by the “colors” of Italian pop literature and culture, you will strengthen previously learned grammatical structures and master more challenging ones that will allow you to handle various communicative tasks, both in writing and in spontaneous conversation, such as: expressing and comparing preferences and experiences on various topics; narrating stories; presenting opinions and debating the opinions of others; formulating hypotheses; comparing situations. Through the exploration of a variety of authentic Italian materials (from romance to crime stories to graphic novels and even the Spaghetti Westerns movies) and a structured review of grammar, you will increase your language proficiency and broaden your vocabulary in a communicative and meaningful context. Targeted assignments throughout the semester will give you ample opportunities to practice your written Italian (letters, short essays, brief film reviews, summaries) as well your oral competence (recordings, in group discussions). In-class assignments will be supplemented with individualized conversations with native speakers of Italian to further expand your cultural awareness of il bel paese and to explore the diversity of cultural perspectives within Italian communities.
This studio course will introduce you to the conceptual, artistic potential of photography. Your understanding and use of the medium will be contextualized within contemporary and historic photographic art practices. Your own art practice will be developed alongside technical skills. We will discuss topics such as the ethics of photographing people, how to make meaningful images amid the proliferation of digital images, and traits that are unique to photography. This class is organized around presentations on artists’ work, presentations on photographic concepts, studio making assignments, individual meetings with the instructor and breakout meetings with peers to develop your practice, technical skill workshops, readings, reading discussions, group critiques, and visiting artist presentations.
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Through image presentations and readings, students will be introduced to the art movements from the 1960s to the present - POP, OP, Capitalist Realism, Neo Expressionism, New Image Painting, Figuration Libre, Junge Wilde, Transavantegarde, Neo Geo, Neo Pop, etc. Students will create paintings for critique that reflect these artists' beliefs and concerns.
An introduction to “sensory ethnography,” a media practice that seeks to rejuvenate and innovate in visual anthropology, cinema, and art. Students will learn to record and edit video and audio to produce original media works about embodied experience, culture, ecology, political-economy, and history. This is a year-long course that supports students' independent projects through the summer and the following semester.
This introductory course surveys the history of film and visual media in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will both explore the rise of major cinematic movements in their striving to define the “art of film” and shed light on the often overlooked parts and marginalized figures in the history of film. Building upon Rudolf Arnheim’s concept of visual thinking, this class puts special emphasis on creative practices and visual exercises that introduce students to new forms of visual expression and argumentation. Weekly video blogs, a visual essay, and a collaborative film festival project will further advance and diversify our multi-faceted approach to the history of film and visual media.
This studio course will introduce you to the conceptual and artistic potential of photography. Your understanding and use of the medium will be contextualized within contemporary and historic photographic art practices. Your own art practice will be developed alongside technical skills. We will discuss topics such as the ethics of photographing people, how to make meaningful images amid the proliferation of digital images, and traits that are unique to photography. This class is organized around presentations on artists’ work and on photographic concepts, studio assignments, individual meetings with the instructor, technical skill workshops, readings, reading discussions, group critiques, and visiting artist presentations. Curiosity, a strong work ethic, and a sense of adventure are required.
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Conducted through regular conferences and assigned writing. Limited to students reading specifically on topics not covered in regular courses. Open only by petition to the Department; petitions should be presented during the term preceding enrollment, and must be signed by the instructor with whom the reading is to be done. All applicants for admission should first confer with the Director of Graduate Studies.
A thesis in AFVS is optional for concentrators, but required for Joint Concentrators. Students must be enrolled in AFVS 99 to do a thesis. Students should arrange regular tutorial meetings with their project adviser. Senior theses and projects are led by individual faculty members; however the Director of Undergraduate Studies approves AFVS 99 in each student's Crimson Cart.
For research and independent projects in the archives, collections, and exhibitions of the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, the Harvard Film Archive, or the Harvard Museums and other campus arts institutions. Open only by petition to the Department; petitions should be presented during the term preceding enrollment, and must be signed by the instructor or staff member with whom the project is to be done.
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Along the way, you’ll work with a range of archival materials to uncover how the Irish expressed their identities, preserved, or in some cases adapted, their culture, and endeavored to make sense of the new world. Expect to engage with everything from personal correspondence to traditional songs and poetry-materials that bring the everyday immigrant experience vividly to life. This analysis will be contextualized by readings from an extensive research bibliography and contemporary newspapers. Together we will develop our critical understanding of language and culture as well as power, or lack thereof, and consider how this landmark era of Irish immigration has been represented and remembered. No prior knowledge of Irish language is required: all texts are available in translation.
This course explores the history of Irish folkloristics and the collecting of folklore and popular tradition in Ireland and abroad. Students will examine the work of early collectors in Ireland and North America, the contributions of key figures in the field, and the changing methods and theories that have shaped folklore scholarship from the late eighteenth century to the present. Throughout the course, students will work directly with primary sources, including the National Folklore Collection, UCD’s online archive Duchas.ie and the rich Irish manuscript holdings of Houghton Library, gaining hands-on experience in archival research on the collection of Irish folklore in Ireland and America. Representative oral narratives from the Gaelic tradition will be read in translation, offering insight into the stories, beliefs, and cultural worlds preserved in the folklore record.
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Introduction to the Welsh language as spoken and written today, designed for those with little or no prior knowledge of this vibrant Celtic language. Intensive conversation practice is provided, and students learn to write fluently. Internet, audio and video exercises using dialogue, music and film augment a contextualized grammatical survey, and use of authentic literary texts increases as the course progresses.
A continuation of Irish 132, developing students' fluency in spoken and written Irish. As our knowledge of the language expands, we venture into storytelling, journal writing and writing and performing short skits. Internet, audio and video resources complement the study of grammar and select prose texts.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Irish is the first official language of Ireland, and it has been officially recognized in Northern Ireland since 1998. Today Irish is spoken not only in the western ‘Gaeltachtaí’ (Irish-speaking regions), but also in cities like Dublin and Belfast. There is Irish-language television, film, radio, and print journalism, and many wonderful poets and fiction writers continue into the present a literary tradition that dates back to the sixth century.
In this graduate seminar, we will carefully read and study Plato’s dialogue on knowledge ( epistême ), the Theaetetus . Plato's Theaetetus is a foundational text of epistemology, and it had enormous influence on the development of Stoicism, ancient skepticism and Platonism, as well as on 20th-century philosophers like Gettier, Sellars and Wittgenstein. Is truth relative? Is knowledge sense-perception or empirical? Is it true belief or true belief together with an account justifying what is believed? Approaching the dialogue on its own terms, we will consider these and other questions with the help of contemporary and ancient scholarship.
Reading from the Hesiodic Theogony , Works and Days , and fragments such as "The Suitors of Helen." Added readings from the Homeric Hymns and from "Orphic" hymns. Also added readings from fragments of the Epic Cycle, including ancient retellings of such epics as "The Song of the Aethiopians." Particular attention to narrative techniques, poetics, myth, and connections with the Homeric Iliad and Odyssey . The course is based on the idea that no thorough understanding of Homer is possible without a parallel understanding of Hesiod, the Homeric Hymns, and the Epic Cycle.
This course explores the social history of work in Greek and Roman antiquity. What kinds of jobs did people have and to what extent was social mobility possible? What was the relationship between personal identity and one’s profession? What conditions promoted or hindered technological innovation and how did innovation impact labor? How much have women’s contributions to the ancient economy been overlooked? And how can we study the lives of those working at the margins of society, who left few material and textual traces-the enslaved, the urban poor, and the rural peasantry? We will address these questions and more, as we survey a wide variety of ancient textual sources (in translation), archaeological evidence, and important theoretical perspectives on work.
Aliens, lost civilizations, conspiracies, and more! Archaeology-the exploration of human history through the study of physical objects made in the past-has inspired countless bogus theories about human history. But how did a discipline grounded in rigorous methodologies, careful accumulation and analysis of data, and scientific method get wrapped up in these associations? This course seeks to explore archaeological fakes and fraudulent theories, otherwise known as pseudoarchaeology. We will investigate a range of pseudoarchaeologies and study how they developed and have been disseminated, including many that are circulating on television and the internet today. Our examination will include Atlantis, the Pyramids, Stonehenge, religious hoaxes, and other fakes or fictions of the past that have captured popular attention.
As in all ancient societies, infants and children in ancient Greece were both uniquely vulnerable to early death and valuable as social beings. Children represented the future of family, polis, military, economy, and the worship of the gods. The survival of the culture depended on their religious protection and social incorporation. What do we know of ancient Greek ritual responses to this stage of life? What special roles did children play in cult? What space was created for children’s toys, games, beloved animals, and emotions? How do infants and children appear in art? What were the roles of gender, ethnicity, class, and caste? What did ancient Greek philosophers think of the first years of human life? How were young bodies buried, and early deaths commemorated? Through primary sources, including literature, iconography, and the archaeological record, as well as recent scholarship, we will consider how infants and children were nurtured, socialized, and initiated, with attention to themes of their liminality and mediating power. How should we read the many myths of abandonment, killing, consumption, or sacrifice of infants and children at the hands of adults, often at the gods’ demand? We will also consider Roman and other ancient Mediterranean religions. Students will have an opportunity to develop their own research projects. Please write to Prof. Patton to express your interest: kpatton@hds.harvard.edu .
When did Greek-speakers first arrive in the Aegean? Was Minoan Crete ruled by peace-loving, nature-worshipping matriarchs? Did the Trojan War really happen? This course introduces students to the material culture of the Aegean, from the first traces of human habitation to the appearance of the Greek alphabet. We will consider the earliest inter-island networks, the emergence of powerful polities in a hyperconnected and fractious Mediterranean, and the aftermath of their collapse at the end of the Bronze Age. Students will become familiar with a wide variety of methods used to reconstruct political, social, economic, and cultural histories in periods with few or no texts, from art historical approaches to applications of archaeological science, such as survey and remote sensing, paleoclimatology, ancient DNA, isotope analysis, and more. Students will also be introduced to theoretical debates in archaeology which have shaped our interpretations of this data.
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This year-long course is designed to help students develop a map of ancient Greek literary culture and influential approaches to the interpretation of Greek literature. Greek 112a and 112b may be taken independently. (Both semesters are required for graduate students in Classical Philology.) The class prepares students to discuss ancient Greek literature in its historical and cultural context with chronology, genre, theme, performance, and reception context as organizational frameworks. Through prepared translation and analysis of assigned text, and discussions of assigned scholarly works, students will improve their reading fluency and enhance their ability to read, interpret, and teach a range of Greek texts. Greek 112a focuses on poetry, from Homeric epic to Hellenistic pastoral. Greek 112b focuses on prose, from Herodotus to the ancient novel.
This course presents an introduction to ancient Greek philosophy. It is focused on Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and the Stoics. We will start by looking at the view of philosophy and the philosopher embodied by Socrates, who relentlessly pursued truth and knowledge, at the cost of his own life. From there, we will consider how we ought to live according to Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and the Stoics. In doing so, we will investigate whether we can have knowledge and how we might get it; what reality is like such that we can know it; why one should be moral; what practical and theoretical pursuits we should engage in. We will see why Epicurus thinks pleasure is the highest good, and why the Stoics think it is possible to be happy even under physical torture. The course emphasizes direct engagement with the text and arguments of the ancient Greek philosophers. We will read Plato's Phaedo, a large portion of the Republic, and selections from several other dialogues. We will spend time with Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, and make a foray into his Physics and Metaphysics. Reading Cicero's On Moral Ends, we will get acquainted with the ethics of Epicurus and the Stoics. All texts will be read in translation.
Studies a short epic about an early Germanic warrior, Walter of Aquitaine, in the late Roman era of Attila the Hun. Considers date and authorship, heroism and gender roles, tribal and racial rivalries (including Franks and Goths) in Charlemagne’s time and later, manuscript transmission, and literary reception (from romanticism through the Nazi era to the present). Sets the style and content of the poem into both Germanic and Latin contexts, with comparison of versions in Old Norse and other languages in translation as well as sources and analogues in Latin.
The Heroides is an extraordinary collection of twenty-one letters in elegiac couplets by the poet Ovid. They represent a unique experiment with the female voice in Latin elegy, staging various heroines mostly of myth (e.g., Penelope, Medea, Ariadne) writing to their absent lovers. Fifteen single Heroides are followed by three pairs consisting of a letter and a response by the male lover. The collection is an interesting case study of issues of authorship, attribution and transmission: the fifteenth letter written in the voice of Sappho, for example, has long been considered spurious and the letters were extremely popular in the Renaissance when it became popular to write response letters to and by the Ovidian heroines. In this class, we will study the Ovidian collection and its reception within the history of both elegy and epistolography. Topics for discussion include epistolarity and the female voice; intertextuality; elegy and the female lament; letter writing and narrative; emotions and letter writing, reception of the Heroides in contemporary women’s fiction. We will read the majority of the corpus in Latin with supplementary readings in English.
By focusing on literary narratives, cultural representations, and critical theories, this course explores ways in which issues related to migration create rich and complex interdisciplinary conversations. How do humanistic disciplines address these issues-human rights, cultural translation, global justice, security, citizenship, social discrimination, biopolitics-and what contributions do they make to the “home” disciplines of migration studies such as law, political science, and sociology? How do migration narratives compel us to revise our concepts of culture, polity, neighborliness, and community? We will explore diverse aspects of migration from existential, ethical, and philosophical perspectives while engaging with specific regional and political histories.
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Examines theories of translation from various periods (Dryden, Schopenhauer, Schleiermacher, Benjamin, de Man, among others). Also looks closely at specific translated texts (e.g., various English translations of The Thousand and One Nights ), and considers such topics as the notion of unequal languages, the problem of cultural translation, translation post-9/11, and the possibility of untranslatability. Final project involves an original translation and commentary.
Between 1923 and 1970, Jorge Luis Borges wrote some of the most original poems, short stories, essays and film scripts in Latin America and anywhere in the world, and he redefined the meaning and scope of literature. In this course, we will examine the signifying power of Borges’ short stories, essays and poems, and we will consider his work as a literary machine whose output radically transforms aesthetic formations and imaginaries beyond Argentina and Latin America. Rather than thinking about what his literature means, we will concentrate on what it produces as a fictional-poetic machine: cities and worlds, love and treason, popular and high culture, politics and death, institutions of knowledge and traditions, and new ways of reading and thinking about aesthetic and social relations.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will provide you with a comprehensive historical overview of gender issues as they are represented in the great textual traditions of South Asia (these categories include Vedic materials, medical literature, treatises on law and sexual behavior, and texts that outline the great debates over questions of gender identity and salvation preserved for us in certain Jaina and Buddhist materials). To make these classical texts more relevant, readings in recent anthropological studies of religion, performance, and kinship will also be included to enable you to trace recurring themes, images, and symbols. You will thereby gain a sense of continuity of traditions and attitudes as well as generative innovations and contemporary variants and divergences within them.
This seminar will introduce students to the art of literary translation through a wide variety of approaches. Over the course of the semester, we will read various tracts, articles, and books on the theory and craft of translation from a wide range of Euro-American and South Asian stances and viewpoints. We will analyze editions of various classics from India that have been translated into English repeatedly, paying particular attention to the political nature of the act and art of translation in its colonial and post-colonial contexts. This seminar will also have a practical component, and one session each week will allow students to present translations-in-progress to their peers for comment and critique.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This introductory course is designed to provide a basic foundation in modern Korean language and culture by focusing on the balanced development of the interpersonal (speaking), interpretive (listening & reading), and presentational (formal speech & writing) skills. Students in Korean Ba begin by learning the complete Korean writing system (Hangul), which is followed by lessons focusing on basic conversational skills, cultural competence, and grammatical structures. To provide sufficient opportunities to apply what has been learned in class, there are small group drill sessions, language tables, and a number of other cultural activities.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
How does the historical past shape politics in the present? East Asia and its recent political developments provide a most striking universe of cases, where legacies of the past influence both domestic politics and international relations. Located at the intersection of history and political science, this course is grounded in theories of institutional development, introducing concepts such as path dependence, critical junctures, and unintended consequences. Beginning with China, the course discusses explanations of development successes grounded in grand narratives going far back in time; the impact of cultural norms, imperial techniques of statecraft, revolutionary practices; the uses and abuses of history in the service of the party state; and the long-term impact of Christian missionaries, Japanese colonizers, and a decade of warfare. Through the case of Japanese domestic politics, we explore how tradition is transmitted through habits and memories of individuals; through institutions such as the perennial ruling party; and through a broadly defined civil society. As examples of critical junctures, we will discuss North Korea’s early postwar history and South Korea’s democratization process, discovering their enduring influences on both political systems. Turning to international relations, this course asks whether foreign and security policy is the result of a deeply rooted strategic culture, how diplomats maneuver the divisions over historical guilt of World War II, and what narratives such as the “century of humiliation” reveal about actors’ strategic thinking. Throughout the course, we will pay attention to regional linkages.
This course is intended to develop a basic reading knowledge of Chaghatay, the classical antecedent of modern Uzbek and modern Uyghur, and the common literary language of all Central Asian Turks from the fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The course includes a survey of Chaghatay literature as well as a discussion of grammar, the writing system, and lexicographical resources; the class meetings will be devoted to both textbook-based instruction and (particularly in the second half of the semester) the reading of samples from Chaghatay texts drawn from printed sources and manuscript copies. This is a continuation of Chaghatay A.
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The short film, with its relatively lower costs of production and expanded distribution opportunities, has become one of the most disruptive, innovative modes of storytelling--and is often an emerging filmmaker's first step into a career. This course will introduce students to the basics of short form screenwriting, including narrative theory/structure, character design, and dialogue/voice. In the first quarter of the semester, we will hone dramatic techniques through several craft exercise assignments and in-class writing. In the following weeks, students will write two short screenplays. Throughout the semester, we will be workshopping and doing table reads of student work, discussing screenplays and craft texts, and screening a wide array of short films. The emphasis will be on discovering a sense of personal voice and completing two short screenplays (under 20 pages).
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This course examines the major fiction and nonfiction works of Richard Wright from a literary, philosophical, and political perspective. We will take an interdisciplinary approach to this wide-ranging and canonical American author, contextualizing him within the broader tradition of black letters. Readings include but are not limited to Uncle Tom's Children, Native Son, Black Boy, American Hunger, 12 Million Black Voices, The Outsider, Black Power, The Color Curtain, White Man Listen!, and Eight Men. The course also explores major influences in Wright's development including the work of Marx, Sartre, and Freud.
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In this seminar, we look at the ways in which a range of writers represent the mind on the page: the mind at thought, in agitation, at rest, at prayer, in distress, in rebellion, and just doing nothing (or apparently nothing). This examination allows us to scrutinize just over a hundred years of novelistic development and experiment - from 1813 to 1927, from Jane Austen to Virginia Woolf - a period that might rightly be considered the high-point of the novel’s rise. We will discover that as the novelistic treatment of consciousness changes, so the idea of what a mind (or a self) is, also changes: the form (the means of representation) modifies the content (what is represented). What might seem at first like a fairly small thing - a question of novelistic technique - will turn out to have massive and far-reaching consequences for our sense of self. Writers studied: Austen, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Fontane, Woolf.
Limited to faculty members teaching or conducting research in Renaissance literary studies and to graduate students working in the field. Enrollment is open to all such students, and is required of those who have been admitted to candidacy for the PhD and who intend to work on Renaissance topics.
What is religion? Why does it show up everywhere? Using archaeology, religious studies, and social thought, this course studies the major themes in the history of religions including encountering the holy, sports and ritual, crossing borders, sacrifice as creation, pilgrimage and sacred place, suffering and the quest for wisdom, music and social change, and violence, the Holocaust and cosmic law. Readings originate from Native American, African American, Latinx/+, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, and Hindu traditions. The course focuses on the tension between individual encounters with the holy and the social construction of religion. Readings include works by Gloria Anzaldua, Toni Morrison, Judith Sherman, Arthur Kleinman, the Popul Vuj, Mircea Eliade, and Emile Durkheim.
The unifying theme of the readings will be remedies to preserve the health of the human body. Old English literature offers an abundance of medical texts, including herbal remedies and magical incantations. Some come from ancient Greek and Latin sources, while others are local folk recipes. Some are fantastical, some are known to be effective, and others clearly rely on the placebo effect. The readings will move from simple prose to intricate poetry. An end-of-term project will assign each student a short Old English magical charm-think of it as a human utterance charged with power to control nature. With the help of personal coaching, each student will produce a literal and a creative translation.
A comparative study of what and how food and activities related to food "mean" in a variety of cultures, as reflected in folklore and oral tradition. Lectures, discussion, and readings will address issues such as: the ritualization of food and cooking in both sacred and secular settings; the symbolic prominence of food -- its preparation, distribution, and consumption -- in mythologies; fears and anxieties related to food as reflected in "urban legends"; food taboos and superstitions, eating preferences, magical properties of food, and notions of "comfort foods," all both culturally and individually determined; and the alternation of traditional "feast" and "fast" in the rhythm of social life.
e. INSTRUMENTS!!! Holden Chapel has them set up and waiting for us to make the music happen on day one! Both the musically proficient and non-proficient Will.Make.Music.In.This.Class! Just as you don’t need to be an expert to play with a toy, this course will teach the non-musician how to develop a relationship to an instrument (which is a polite, Harvardian way of saying “It’ll be like punk rock ;)
TDM production studios (TDM 90AR/BR/CR/DR) frame and involve participation in Theater, Dance & Media’s professionally directed and designed productions. Additional evening rehearsals throughout the semester and final performances at the end of the semester are required; more details and schedule are on the Canvas course page. Further details about TDM 90BR and enrollment processes will be updated in Fall 2026. Participation is limited to students involved with the production, either as performers or as members of the production team. Students who wish to be part of the production team should contact Artistic Producer James Stanley, jamesstanley@fas.harvard.edu.
Explores major works of imperial Russian culture (1703-1917), including literature, drama, opera, ballet, music, visual arts, and architecture. At the center of this course stand the works themselves, their artistic qualities, and cultural-historical contexts, as well as the intentions of their creators, and the responses of their initial audiences. What mythologies of national identity did these works propose? In what ways were these works radical: formally, aesthetically, ideologically? How did these now-famous works achieve canonical status beyond their own time? How have these works been variously reinterpreted since then? Works by Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy, and others.
This course introduces students to traditional Chinese literature by focusing on “tales of the strange.” We will examine how ghosts, demons, fox spirits, and other liminal creatures haunt the literary imagination, stretching the possibilities of storytelling. Students will gain familiarity with masterpieces of Chinese literature and their intriguing afterlives in performance, film, and popular culture. Our discussions will consider how literary accounts of ghosts and the supernatural grapple with issues of gender and sexuality, the cultural meanings of death, the boundaries of human community, and the experience of historical trauma. We will focus on developing skills in close reading, while critically engaging theories of the “strange.” No background in Chinese is required.
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Tattooing has been practiced in many different social and cultural settings, in many different time periods, to different ends. In the United States, tattooing was long associated with marginalized and stigmatized groups, but since the 1970s, has become increasingly popular and even mainstream. This seminar style class will explore distinct regional histories of tattoo, the development of tattooing in the US, and the different ways that contemporary tattoo practitioners situate themselves historically and negotiate boundaries of race, class and gender. We will also consider tattoo as an art form that both invites and resists aesthetic judgments.
Music and Language. This course focuses on the practical interfaces between "music" (forms, genres, and practices) and "language" (structures, patterns, and habits of use). Over the semester students will read a diverse selection of writings from ethnomusicology, historical musicology, music theory and philosophy, linguistics, and linguistic anthropology. Readings and assignments will balance attention to theoretical treatment of music-language relations with practical exercises in listening to diverse musical and linguistic materials. Examples are drawn from different parts of the world, with an emphasis on Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and the English-speaking world.
Continuation of Swedish 20a. Focuses on enhancing students' proficiency in all four skill areas with special emphasis on speaking/discussion and the control of different discourse registers. Extensive vocabulary-building exercises, a thorough grammar review, and an introduction to various Swedish cultural topics and current affairs through the use of literary and non-literary texts, multimedia resources, and the news.
This course examines Asian American cultural production and the political histories of various Asian American communities. We will place a wide range of primary texts, including fiction, poetry, film, television, and visual art, in conversation with larger political and cultural questions about race, gender, citizenship, imperialism and belonging in the U.S. The course will be organized around four major events in Asian American history: the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the subsequent exclusion of Asian immigrants in the decades that followed; the incarceration of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans during World War II; Cold War Orientalism after WWII; the racial politics of imperial war and Islamophobia in the post-9/11 United States; and the sharp increase in anti-Asian racial violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. We will also consider the historical movements and migrations of people of Asian descent to North America; U.S. wars in Asia; the conflicts of identity, community, and citizenship; the gender and sexual dynamics of Asian American racialization; and the relationship of Asian Americans to other communities of color. In doing so, this course grapples with what it means for Asian America to have been characterized and circumscribed by a multitude of cultural discourses-legal, geopolitical, and textual-throughout dominant as well as subversive narratives of U.S. history.
In the United States and beyond, various groups are making irreconcilable claims for greater recognition on the left and on the right. Against this background, how can we fashion more inclusive societies in a neoliberal context of growing inequality? How can we understand claims for dignity by those experiencing different types of insecurity and/or stigmatization? These questions will be explored through topics such as: 1) the role of dignity in relation to individual and collective well-being; 2) how people find hope in narratives when the future is especially uncertain; 3) how Gen Zs are dealing with the decline of upward mobility by embracing specific narratives; 4) how people bolster their dignity through work, environmental justice and politics; 5) how class cultures are changing at the top and at the bottom of the social ladder; and 6) how social movements and other agents of change provide cultural alternatives in the increasingly hybrid public sphere.
This course examines the challenges that contemporary Native American tribes and nations face as they endeavor to rebuild their communities, strengthen their cultures, and support their citizens. The range of issues that Native leaders and policymakers confront is wide and encompasses political sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, cultural promotion, land and water rights, religious freedom, health and social welfare, and education. Because the challenges are broad and comprehensive, the course emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of current Native nation building. Research finds that effective nation building must be compatible with individual societies' cultures. Yet, American Indian tribes are culturally heterogeneous. Hence, there is not "one size" that fits all. Case studies and simulations derived from field research and experience are utilized to engage students in the multidimensional settings that confront Native societies. Scholars and leaders from the Harvard University Native America Program provide selected presentations. The class features frequent presentations from prominent Indigenous leaders, who provide their perspectives on the choices and constrains they confront in their nation building efforts. Non-HKS graduate students from all schools and departments in the university are welcome by cross-registration. Grades will be based on quizzes, policy briefs and a final project.
This course will examine the history of race and racism - key analytical constructs that express fundamental issues not only of power and inequality, but also of justice, democracy, equity, and emancipation. The study of race in the social sciences and humanities is an established, dynamic, multidisciplinary, and international field. To understand race and racism with a global perspective, it is necessary to have a transdisciplinary, cross-cultural view to read critically the phenomena that intersect with this variable. Course readings are drawn from the fields of African and African American Studies, sociology, history, cultural studies, political science, anthropology, philosophy, journalism, and public health. The vast literature produced by scholars in diverse fields provides evidence of how race is based on narratives created to enslave, subordinate, exploit, and exclude millions of human beings across the globe. Assignments will address pressing real-world questions related to race and racism, as well as pedagogically significant areas of undergraduate intellectual and academic development.
The novels of Conrad, Naipaul, and Coetzee have a particular value to contemporary discourses on global culture. Writing from specific historical and cultural contexts, all three writers are profoundly concerned with the ethical and aesthetic projects connected to economic and political forms of governance. Our study will focus on the problematic nature of intercultural relations as they are constituted in global networks. The meticulous reading of primary texts is an essential requirement of the seminar, which will focus on figurative language and fictional forms as they are used to imagine community and communication on a global scale. Critical and theoretical writings will be introduced to further the discussion of questions and topics raised by seminar participants.
What does it mean to lose your home? Who are refugees? Why are there so many of them? How are they displaced? Where do they go, and why? This course inquires into the nature, causes, and consequences of contemporary forced migration in our globalized world. Students survey regional dynamics in the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. We examine the particularities of refugees compared to other migrants, and the changing nature of forced migration since the World Wars. Students explore historical precedents to contemporary forced migration, learn about different host society approaches to asylum, compare government and criminal mechanisms of forced migration, and examine why refugees are objects of suspicion and hostility around the world. Particular attention is paid to the connection between forced confinement and forced migration, the role of refugee camps and urban integration, and alternative strategies for global asylum management by bridge and destination countries.
How do love, care, and desire influence the value of work, and why is emotional labor - which is vital to child or elder care, domestic labor, nursing, teaching, and sex work - often considered to be something other than work? How and why do the racial and gender identities of workers affect the economic, social, and emotional value of their labor? How do political and social arrangements of labor help produce and reinforce racial categories while solidifying the boundaries separating masculinity and femininity? Through a mix of primary and secondary sources, this seminar explores histories of emotional labor and the power structures that give meaning to often taken-for-granted categories of work. These sometimes hidden histories are key to untangling the gender, sexual, and racial implications of the “intimate industries” that populate today’s transnational labor economies.
Though American Indian people make up 1.7% of the U.S. population, their importance outweighs the census numbers. Native American history and politics define critical issues in law, energy, land management, and government, while the culture industries inevitably confront the curious hold that indigenous people have on American culture. American conquest and colonialism invite connection and comparison across a global scale, particularly in settler states such as Canada, Australia, and Aotearoa/New Zealand. This course offers a broad introductory survey of these and other issues as it explores the development and current state of the history-based interdisciplinary field known as Native American and indigenous Studies.
For centuries, Vienna stood as the capital of a vast empire stretching from Switzerland to Ukraine and Poland to Bosnia. Last seat of Europe’s oldest ruling dynasty, this embattled fortress city experienced around 1900 a sudden, unparalleled burst of innovation. Viennese achievements in philosophy, psychology, medicine, biology, economics, jurisprudence, politics, architecture, urban planning, literature, music, and the visual arts were foundational for the modern age. Through close readings in literature, art history, and psychoanalysis, this discussion-based course explores this city as an uncanny space, homelike and terrifying, where the many of the dreams-and nightmares-of contemporary life were first dreamt.
This seminar for advanced students explores various debates in recent critical theory, with an emphasis on close reading and the philosophical evaluation of texts. Focusing primarily on exponents of Frankfurt School critical theory, we will explore basic questions such as: what is the relationship between critical theory and genealogy? Must critical theory subscribe to a philosophy of history? Does critical theory presuppose a idea of progress? What is the relationship between socio-historical description and moral evaluation? Does a critique of the social world commit us to a concept of human nature or other forms of essentialism? We will read authors such as: Jaeggi, Honneth, Rosa, Allen, Fraser, and Foucault.
Sweden and Swedish Finland have produced some of the most translated and beloved works of children's fiction in the world. In this intermediate Swedish language course, we will review the essentials of Swedish grammar and vocabulary as we explore some of these classic works of children's fiction, film, and comic books and the aspects of Swedish culture they illuminate. The final project for this class involves producing your own work of children's fiction or film.
A basic course focusing on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. During fall term, pronunciation and listening comprehension will be emphasized, as well as regular writing assignments. Literary, film, music and other cultural texts will be introduced relatively early on. By semester's end, students will have achieved a basic literacy in everyday Swedish.
Advanced language instruction through systematic study of the rules of grammar, their nuances, and their exceptions. Application of this knowledge through the meticulous reading and parsing of selections from sophisticated texts (Goethe, Kant, Novalis, Kleist, Nietzsche, Freud, Mann, Kafka) prepares students for any courses, internships, or work requiring advanced German reading skills.
A complete first-year course in one term for students with little or no knowledge of German. Provides an introduction to language and culture of the German-speaking countries. Students develop basic communication competencies (spoken and written), and will be able to understand and use high-frequency vocabulary and basic grammatical structures. Instruction is supplemented by a variety of texts, including poetry, songs, and visual media.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course explores Scandinavian cinema from the pioneers of the silent era to the globally successful hit films of the present day. Students will trace the development of Scandinavian cinema through the films of directors such as Viktor Sjöström, Carl Th. Dreyer, Lars von Trier, Ingmar Bergman and Lukas Moodysson and discover the profound influence the region’s films have had, and continue to have, on filmmaking in America and the world.
A philosophical and historical survey of major debates in modern German social theory over the span of a century, from Nietzsche's anti-foundationalist critique of morality and truth to Habermas's attempt to rebuild a pragmatic-transcendentalist theory for ethical and discursive reason after the collapse of metaphysics. Readings by Nietzsche, Weber, Heidegger, Adorno, Horkheimer, and Habermas.
This seminar considers the Frankfurt School's deliberations on film, radio, television, and mass culture. We will devote the majority of the course to three seminal figures: Siegfried Kracauer, Walter Benjamin, and T. W. Adorno. More generally, we will focus on the debates catalyzed by the emergence of modern mass media and an industrialized visual culture; we will also reflect on the pertinence of these debates for our own contemporary culture of media convergence.
This course will focus on exemplary films made in, around, and about Berlin. In the initial sessions, we will consider well-known features and look at how the metropolis has been represented during the course of Germany’s fraught 20th-century history and into the present: from the Weimar Republic and the Nazi era to the postwar period, the Cold War, the fall of the wall, and unification. In the final part of the course we will survey the various filmic shapes the city has assumed in the new millennium. To this end we will screen representative works and discuss pertinent selected readings.
Sophomore tutorial is a one-semester required course for concentrators in History & Literature that can be fulfilled in fall or spring. To fulfill the requirement, students should register for either HUM 7: Culture in Context in the fall semester or HIST-LIT 10: Introduction to Cultural Studies in the spring semester.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Contemporary Europe is a continent of contrasts: it’s home to some of the most peaceful, prosperous societies on earth, while continuing to be marred by war, economic stagnation, and division. This course explores how we got to the Europe of today’s headlines. We begin by investigating the apparent triumph of Western liberalism in the aftermath of the Cold War-what political scientist Francis Fukuyama dubbed “the end of history.” How did this supposed victory of Western values confront new realities of economic stagnation, migration, racial conflict, and war? And how did European states seek to preserve equality, economic prosperity, and social welfare at home in an unequal world? Course topics include the fall of Communism and German reunification, neoliberalism and inequality, class, gender, the 2008 financial crisis, the 2010s migrant crisis, and the rise of populist politics. We consider texts by Angela Merkel, Lea Ypi, Jenny Erpenbeck, Michel Houellebecq, Joan Scott, Tony Judt, and Timothy Garton Ash; and films like the 1993 French drama La Haine, the 2003 German reunification comedy Good Bye, Lenin!, the 2013 Italian portrait of decadence La Grande Bellezza ( The Great Beauty), and the 2016 German comedy Toni Erdmann .
What can we learn about the modern world through the prism of soccer? The game evolved as globalization intensified and cities boomed. In this seminar, we will explore historical, cultural, political, and aesthetic dimensions of this relationship. Soccer can both exemplify and contradict broader patterns of globalization. Likewise, stadiums and playing fields can be understood as microcosms of the city, or spaces of exception within it. Tracing histories and literatures tied to the game, we will examine how it has captivated the imaginations of so many across time and place, while also considering transformations in stadium design, mass media, and migration. In the process, we will discuss the uses of soccer by authoritarian regimes, as well as its more liberating potentials. Reflections on soccer’s place in changing global and local landscapes will invite questions of how, amid deep inequalities, the sport might function both as the proverbial ‘opium of the masses’ and as a powerful congregator. Special attention will be given to how Latin America, a relatively peripheral region in geopolitics, became a key protagonist in the global game. Discussions will draw on fields including philosophy, architecture, and journalism, engaging materials like fiction, essays, and film. No prior enthusiasm for the sport is required or expected.
Countless podcast hours and think-pieces are currently being devoted to the crisis in American masculinity, from boys’ lagging test scores to the “male loneliness epidemic.” Rather than try to solve these problems as such, this class will ask: why is this apparent crisis in masculinity a national problem, with implications for the well-being of the nation itself? When else has masculinity been in “crisis,” and what are the material, political, and cultural conditions that have typically produced crises in masculinity? Finally, why do crises in racial dominance structures, class, and sexuality so often go hand-in-hand with crises in the nature and definition of manhood? This class will trace these questions from the mid-19th century to the present, with a focus on the United States but with significant reference to histories and readings beyond the US as well. Course material features literature, film, music, political thought, and scholarly historical and theoretical sources. Possible texts by Herman Melville, Ida B. Wells, Teddy Roosevelt, Leslie Marmon Silko, C.L.R. James, Hazel Carby, Toni Morrison, Frank Capra, bell hooks, Gail Bederman, Hortense Spillers, James Baldwin, Martin Scorsese, Virginia Woolf, Johnny Cash, and others.Countless podcast hours and think-pieces are currently being devoted to the crisis in American masculinity, from boys’ lagging test scores to the “male loneliness epidemic.” Rather than try to solve these problems as such, this class will ask: why is this apparent crisis in masculinity a national problem, with implications for the well-being of the nation itself? When else has masculinity been in “crisis,” and what are the material, political, and cultural conditions that have typically produced crises in masculinity? Finally, why do crises in racial dominance structures, class, and sexuality so often go hand-in-hand with crises in the nature and definition of manhood? This class will trace these questions from the mid-19th century to the present, with a focus on the United States but with significant reference to histories and readings beyond the US as well. Course material features literature, film, music, political thought, and scholarly historical and theoretical sources. Possible texts by Herman Melville, Ida B. Wells, Teddy Roosevelt, Leslie Marmon Silko, C.L.R. James, Hazel Carby, Toni Morrison, Frank Capra, bell hooks, Gail Bederman, Hortense Spillers, James Baldwin, Martin Scorsese, Virginia Woolf, Johnny Cash, and others.
This course introduces students to the interdisciplinary theories and methods of cultural studies. Conducting rigorous analysis of landmark texts from the canon of twentieth-century critical thought, we’ll engage with theories of power, ideology, and identity. At the same time, we’ll consider how culture shapes and is shaped by its social, political, and historical contexts. This class will analyze a variety of cultural objects-including film, media, art, advertisements, and much more-alongside major works by Freud, Barthes, Foucault, Benjamin, Hall, Horkheimer and Adorno, Mulvey, and Said, among others.
Romancing the Archive explores 20 th and 21 st century romance fiction as cultural commentary produced in historical context. We will contend with whether romance fiction holds a tension at heart - the push and pull between resistance to tradition and resistance to change. Building on the Schlesinger Library’s premiere collection of romance fiction and author archives, we will study the history of modern American romance fiction, trace how the genre has changed over time, explore the complexities of reader reception, and evaluate cultural and political relevance. At the end of our course, we will chart the current directions and social stakes of this billion-dollar industry built on story-making and fantasies of romantic desire.
This seminar explores how music not only reflected but also shaped history and culture in the Americas during the twentieth century. Turning to writers, artists, and intellectuals who treated music as a tool for understanding the upheavals of modernity-rapid urbanization, mass media and mass migration, as well as changing conceptions of racial, national, and class identities-we will examine how the music of the Americas entered the modern imagination. How did new musical forms influence experiments in literature, film, sociology, and anthropology? And how did writers and intellectuals come to see music as a template for social action and political change? Course materials encompass works of literature, films, musical recordings, essays, photographs, and much more, and include works by figures like W.E.B. Du Bois, Machado de Assis, Langston Hughes, Mário de Andrade, Jean-Luc Godard, Federico García Lorca, William Faulkner, and Clarice Lispector. Across the semester, we will listen to music from a wide array of genres, including American jazz and blues, Brazilian samba, and Argentine tango.
The specter that haunted Europe when the Communist Manifesto was published in 1848 continues to shape American political discourse to this day. This course reveals how charges of fealty to radical "foreign" ideologies have operated as rhetorical and political strategies for much of U.S. history. The so-called First Red Scare, precipitated by World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, followed on fears and persecution of anarchists, socialists, and other labor radicals in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. In the Second Red Scare after World War II, the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), Senator Joseph McCarthy, the FBI, and others conducted widespread investigations of suspected communists and purged "subversives" from all levels of government, the entertainment industry, public and private schools, colleges and universities. Beginning with mid 19th-century fears that revolutionary uprisings could spread from Europe to the United States, "Red Scares" explores anxieties about subversion and perversion in American politics and culture. Readings will include texts by Karl Marx, Lucy Parsons, Emma Goldman, Eugene V. Debs, Sacco and Vanzetti, John Dos Passos, Claude McKay, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright, and Lillian Hellman, as well as films such as On the Waterfront, My Son John, Salt of the Earth, and The Manchurian Candidate.
lived and imagined spaces; interfaces between literacy, orality, and visual cultures; intersections between fiction, poetry, and social history; porous boundaries between built and natural environments; relationships between modernity, writing, and urban planning. Focus will be placed on major cities where Romance languages are spoken.
History and Literature’s Junior Tutorial is a year-long course that provides History & Literature concentrators with a unique opportunity to develop, explore, focus, or expand their intellectual interests. Juniors are clustered into small groups (usually three students) and matched with a tutor based on common interests.
Join us for a journey through the cultures, peoples, objects, and ideas of the millennium commonly described as "medieval", extending from the reorganization of the Eurasian world in the fourth century to its transformation in the fifteenth. With primary documents in translation and medieval books and objects in Harvard's collections as your guides, you will travel virtually through a series of medieval spaces and places-Jewish, Christian, and Islamic houses of worship, homes, palaces, schools, marketplaces, and the open road-meet the fascinating people who occupied them, and uncover how those people lived, the stories that they told, they voyages that they took, and the things that they made.
Centering on the response of photographers and conceptual artists to the Apollo program, but ranging throughout the world history of artistic engagement with the moon, this experimental course will explore what it might mean to adopt a cosmological (or at least off-world) purview for art history. We are at an urgent crossroads in our relationship to the spaces beyond Earth: the moon is about to be mined and colonized, Mars is not far behind, and it is quite possible that microbial life will soon be found on another body in the Solar System. Why should students of the humanities care about this? How does thinking seriously about the moon as both a subject of and a platform for thought change the way we understand our own planetary identity and our critical commitments on Earth? Topics will include Afrofuturism, exobiology, environmentalism, feminism, and themes such as "dust," "the dark side," "gravity," "gray," "the frontier," and "the overview effect." The reading will include significant scientific content.
By combining approaches centered on authorship and on thematic influences and representations, the seminar explores different conceptualizations of Afro-Latin American Art and highlights the possibilities of this field within the art history of Latin America. We cover different geographic areas, different socio-cultural groups as well as different political conditions. We will address various media, including painting, sculpture, architecture, printmaking, photography, video, and installation and study how this artistic production has evolved over time. The course follows a rough chronological order that becomes more media specific as we enter the end of the 19 th -century and finishing in the 21 st . For this seminar, a social historian of slavery and race and an art historian of colonial Latin America join forces to explore the contours of this field from multidisciplinary perspectives. Undergraduate students are welcome to join the seminar, previous consultation with the instructors.
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Starting with a selection of historiographical and theoretical concerns that structure the field today, each week we will read a recently published scholarly monograph (or its equivalent) in order to discuss its layout and organization, methods, use of evidence, theoretical compass, arguments and findings, and placement within the field. A primary aim of this course is to allow members to think with and analyze a range of recent methods in modern and contemporary architectural and design history that could aid in a consideration of objects, topics, and methods in other related fields as well. Final research papers will be object-based, can cover any time period or geography, and will be determined in consultation with the instructor. Papers must make use of at least one or more of the methods and approaches used in the scholarship that we will read over the course of the term.
This course will study buildings, objects, sites, and themes pertinent to architecture and design in South Asia from the eighteenth century to the present. Our examples will address topics including port cities and their architecture; building typologies such as bungalows, urban and suburban apartments, and village dwellings; silverware and textile objects; new cities and their infrastructure; and colonial and postcolonial institutions of architectural and design training. We will prioritize a cross-cultural history of contact, interactions, and exchanges that informed a significant portion of the visual and material culture of the Indian subcontinent, and consider the incidence of comparable typologies and objects in other parts of the world. Section meetings will allow students to build on key issues and questions that emerge from the readings and lectures, and learn the skills of looking, reading, analyzing, critical thinking, and writing that are crucial within the humanities more broadly.
DEADLINE: For all Fall 2026 workshops, applications will open by Monday, March 23 and are due via Submittable by 11:59pm on Sunday, April 5. Students will be notified of admissions decisions by 4:00pm ET on Thursday, April 9, and must accept/claim their seats within 24 hours. Workshops will meet the first week of classes.
Social media has changed how we ingest images. Racially motivated injustices, protests, collective grief and glory now play out in photos and videos with a speed unimaginable even a few decades ago, allowing-and compelling-us to call upon skills of visual literacy to remain engaged global citizens every day. But images have always played an important part in civic life. Over the course of the semester, we will consider visual representation as a form of “civic evidence,” “civic critique,” and “civic engagement” in American history. Together we will consider the role of art and aesthetics for the invention of race, the creation of and destabilization of U.S. segregation, narratives supporting and critiquing Native American “removal,” Japanese Internment, immigration, New Negro Movement, and the long Civil Rights movement.
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This course investigates the nature and structure of words through the lens of contemporary morphological theory. What's in a word? Topics include the place of word formation in relation to phonological and syntactic phenomena, morphological processes, and the nature of the lexicon. Emphasis on the analysis of morphological phenomena in a range of typologically diverse languages.
Individual tutorial with a faculty member for research and writing of the Linguistics honors thesis. An honors student who expects not to complete the thesis should consult with the Head Tutor about completing other substantial work to receive credit for the course.
Intensive study in a selected linguistic area such as phonology, syntax, historical linguistics, phonetics, morphology, semantics, psycholinguistics, acquisition, sociolinguistics, creole studies, or computational linguistics. Meets as two six-week small-group tutorials, in the spring term.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Meaning is highly context dependent, and this class will help you learn to make sense of it. Take for example a simple, basic word like "or." “We will hire either Sue or Mary” strongly conveys that we won’t be hiring both Sue and Mary. But in “Joan is smarter than either Sue or Mary” that same little word or means the opposite: it means that Joan is smarter than both Mary and Sue. How is it possible that the same word sometimes means ’not both’ and sometimes ‘both'? Similarly, "Can you open the window?" is typically not just a request of one's abilities, but a request for action. How do we navigate this all so effortlessly in some cases, and with sometimes difficulty in others? And how do children learn to do this? As it turns out, this variability of meaning is not unwieldily but rather logically grounded and predictable given an understanding about both language and how we use it. This class will tell you how. You will be exploring current models of language use, in ways that will enrich your awareness of the powers and dangers of human language in context.
Seminar examining alternate theories of language acquisition and assessing their empirical validity. Focuses on speech perception, word learning, semantic and early syntactic development, interactions between language acquisition and cognitive development, and children's online language comprehension.
This course is an introduction to the field of natural language semantics, which is a branch of linguistics concerned with meaning. What does it mean to know the meaning of a sentence? How do different parts of a sentence compose to form a sentence meaning? We will start by looking at sentence-level meanings and relations between them. Then, we will investigate how the meanings of sentence-internal elements (like verbs, subjects, and adjectives) are composed to form sentence meanings. During the process, we will cover some formal tools that allow us to talk about language in a precise way: set theory, propositional logic, predicate logic, and lambda notation. We will consider how the formal tools apply (and not apply) to natural languages and discuss how we can achieve a more comprehensive understanding of meaning.
This course examines the phonological structure of verse across three thousand years of the world's poetic traditions. We approach poetry as linguists, pattern-finding and puzzle-solving in the realms of meter, rhyme, alliteration, musical text-setting, phonaesthesia, and language games. We seek not only to describe such patterns, but also to explain them, grounding poets' metrical behavior in phonological theory and cognitive science. Modern metrics is informed by phonological theory, but the converse also holds: Poetry, being a kind of natural laboratory in which composers exploit, explore, and play with prosody, sheds light on questions of phonological theory. Prerequisite: A linguistics course or permission of the instructor; students should be prepared to engage with phonetic transcription and formal linguistic rules and constraints; the emphasis is data analysis (often of unfamiliar languages), not traditional prescriptions or literary interpretation."
Group tutorial led by the College Fellow with the participation of students' thesis advisors for research and writing of the Linguistics honors thesis. An honors student who expects not to complete the thesis should consult with the DUS/Head Tutor about completing other substantial work to receive credit for the course.
This course is an introduction to the study of linguistics as a science. It introduces several components of grammar (morphology, syntax, phonology, phonetics, and semantics) and surveys methods, findings and theories of linguistic research on the sound system and the structures of human language.
An introductory course on semantics in generative grammar. This course provides the formal tools to investigate the truth-conditional meanings of sentences. Topics covered include: compositionality, type theory and the fundamentals of clause structure, quantifier scope, and variable-binding.
Masterworks of art and architecture in Western Europe from the decline of Rome to the dawn of the Italian Renaissance. Explores the creative tension between the impulse to originality and the authority of classical models in the search for new art forms. Emphasis on representative works considered in their totality (architecture, painting, sculpture, and minor arts) as experiential wholes; and on the plurality of geographical and cultural contexts (Italy, Germany, France, and Spain).
Join us for a journey through the cultures, peoples, objects, and ideas of the millennium commonly described as "medieval", extending from the reorganization of the Eurasian world in the fourth century to its transformation in the fifteenth. With primary documents in translation and medieval books and objects in Harvard's collections as your guides, you will travel virtually through a series of medieval spaces and places-Jewish, Christian, and Islamic houses of worship, homes, palaces, schools, marketplaces, and the open road-meet the fascinating people who occupied them, and uncover how those people lived, the stories that they told, they voyages that they took, and the things that they made.
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The Idea of Singing. Singing is a near-constant fixture in human life, often associated with creation, community, civilization, love, storytelling, and protection; it has also proven useful in facilitating war, settler colonialism, and fantasies of racial supremacy. This course explores the materials, meanings, and modes of song in historical and cultural context. Across of range of genres and styles, we’ll interrogate the musical voice and its unstable relationship to the body from a variety of analytical perspectives. Topics include: the physiology of vocal production, systems of pedagogy and performance, human evolution and psychological development, aesthetic value and social function, queer and trans*vocality, social formations of race and class, and the political and ethical dimensions of the singing voice in the twenty-first century. Along the way, we’ll confront the liberatory possibilities of song through historical and contemporary performances that challenge notions of what a voice is or can do. No prior knowledge of music, practical or theoretical, is required to take or succeed in this course, but everyone is expected to complete weekly listening assignments and attend two live performances.
Course Description: How can music analysis inform the way we understand, listen to, and write about popular music? This course introduces tools and methods for studying features and compositional styles of popular music after 2000. Through weekly readings and aural skills exercises, students will become familiar with recent analytical approaches to song form, texture, rhythm & meter, instrumental and vocal timbre, sampling, and music videos. In weekly written work, students will conduct their own music analyses by implementing tools introduced in class and using various audio editing and analysis software. An ever-present concern of the class will be the ways in which analytical methods and insights interact with issues of race, gender, and sexuality. The course will focus primarily on U.S. popular music broadly construed, and students will have several opportunities to analyze and provide critical insight on the music of their own choosing.
New for the 2025-26 school year: students will not be able to request pre-formed groups or personnel preferences. All group personnel decisions will be made by the instructors. Please visit Canvas page for the most updated schedule. In addition to end-of-semester public performances, this course will have mandatory full-class meetings on select Tuesday/Thursday evenings. Additionally, coachings will be scheduled throughout the semester between each group and instructor. Students who are currently in the NEC/Harvard dual program or enrolled in Music 189 for the Fall 2025 semester do not need to audition for the Spring 2026 semester, although this does not guarantee acceptance. ALL students (including those exempt from a live audition) must fill out a questionnaire and submit it through Music 189's Canvas page. Students intending to enroll in both Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and Music 189R must audition for each course separately. This course is offered for letter-grade credit only when students are involved in one or more of the following: a Concentrator in Music; enrollment in a Department of Music course concurrently or in a previous semester (other than 189R); a member of a faculty-led music ensemble in the same semester; a student of the NEC/Harvard dual program. Students who do not meet one of these requirements may take the course for Pass/Fail credit, which must be done by petition after the first week of class.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Students who’ve taken the course before can take it again for credit since the content changes from year to year. The centerpiece of students’ work will be a research paper on a topic of the student’s choosing related to the course content. While not required, it will be helpful if students have some prior experience in philosophy of language, e.g., by taking PHIL 147 in the fall. Please consult the course website for details about permission to enroll will work.
This course serves as an introduction to ancient political thought. Rather than being a broad survey, this course will offer an alternative to the distracted media universe of our current age by building habits of sustained attention trained on a few key texts of ancient political thought: Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Ethics and Politics. Political philosophy began with the questions "How should I live?" "How should we live?" This course seeks to bring those questions to life in our current age, to unfold the deep and rich answers offered to these questions by ancient philosophers, to offer some comparative exposure to ancient Near Eastern, Chinese, Jewish, Christian, and Islamic political thought, and to show the connections between ancient and contemporary debates. 1060P puts Plato at the center of the course. 1060AR puts Aristotle at the center of the course.
The canonical British Empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, and Hume) take us on a journey from very sensible philosophical starting points to rather extravagant sounding philosophical conclusions. We will explore their influential arguments concerning such things as the self, the external world, mind and body, natural kinds, concepts, language, science, skepticism, and the role of philosophy itself.
In this course, we will work through Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason (1781/87). With this book, Kant hoped to revolutionize philosophy and usher in a new way of thinking about human beings, the world around us, and what might be beyond our reach. In this course, we will focus on the new account of metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of mind that Kant defends. We will explore questions about the nature of the human mind, experience, self, and freedom, as well as questions about the metaphysics of the world and the foundations of mathematics and natural science.
An introduction to the history of probability and outstanding questions in the philosophy of probability. Topics will include objective chance, subjective credence, the measure-theoretic treatment of probability, Bayesian epistemology, decision theory, and the relationship between probability and causation. Possible additional topics: information and entropy, de Finetti's theorem, random variables, imprecise probabilities, conceptual tools for statistics, and the use of probability in science and in the philosophy of religion.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Asceticism is a feature common to many religious traditions and refers to strenuous bodily practices or disciplines that are meant to facilitate self-mastery and confer the ability to live in accordance with an ideal of perfection. Like an athlete performing drills in order to excel in competition or a musician in training who practices scales and studies musical notation in order to be able to perform a sonata, so the ascetic engages in rigorous training of body, mind, and spirit, in order to acquire the skills and abilities necessary to live a just, good, and beautiful life. This course will focus on asceticism in the Eastern Christian tradition of medieval Armenia, with attention to the various disciplines themselves (fasting, vigil, solitude, cold exposure, sleeping outdoors, spiritual mourning with tears, etc.) as well as those texts that were meant to aid in ascetic training or which arose out of the ascetic environment. Due attention will be paid to the monasteries in which such texts were produced, read, copied, and circulated and comparison will be made to other medieval religious traditions. A knowledge of asceticism enables one to understand and appreciate premodern Armenian texts and material culture.
Asceticism is a feature common to many religious traditions and refers to strenuous bodily practices or disciplines that are meant to facilitate self-mastery and confer the ability to live in accordance with an ideal of perfection. Like an athlete performing drills in order to excel in competition or a musician in training who practices scales and studies musical notation in order to be able to perform a sonata, so the ascetic engages in rigorous training of body, mind, and spirit, in order to acquire the skills and abilities necessary to live a just, good, and beautiful life. This course will focus on asceticism in the Eastern Christian tradition of medieval Armenia, with attention to the various disciplines themselves (fasting, vigil, solitude, cold exposure, sleeping outdoors, spiritual mourning with tears, etc.) as well as those texts that were meant to aid in ascetic training or which arose out of the ascetic environment. Due attention will be paid to the monasteries in which such texts were produced, read, copied, and circulated and comparison will be made to other medieval religious traditions. A knowledge of asceticism enables one to understand and appreciate premodern Armenian texts and material culture.
South Asia has been a major center of Persian language and literature for nearly a millennium. This course is an introduction to the Persian literary writings from South Asia, often referred to as Indo-Persian. We will focus on different genres of Indo-Persian writing, including formal letters, imperial biographies, personal memoirs, scriptural commentaries, Sufi hagiographies, poetry, and literary criticism. We will explore Indo-Persian’s relationship to other South Asian languages such as Urdu, as well as consistently engage Persian writings from the broader Persianate world. This course pairs discussions of the original Persian with lessons on grammar, prosody, and reading techniques, while complementing the primary sources with secondary scholarship as well as a wide range of audio-visual resources, including music, digital archives, recitation, and documentaries. Students can expect to become deeply familiar with major styles of Indo-Persian writing, while gaining knowledge about the historical, cultural, and political contexts in which Persian thrived in South Asia.
This course investigates poetry and prose composed from the 7 th to 18 th centuries across contexts influenced by the Islamic tradition. Reading court poetry, love poems, belles lettres , mystical verse, national epics, and travel literature we will ask: What, if anything, makes literature “Islamic” or “Islamicate”, and what continuities in literary practice abided across the diverse cultural contexts in which Muslims composed? What were the criteria of eloquent and beautiful language in the pre-modern Islamic world, and how were these influenced by the language of the Quran? How was this literature shaped by the social contexts of composition and performance, from royal courts to Sufi lodges? Throughout the course we will return to the question: how do literatures of the premodern Islamic world reflect specific attitudes towards what it means to be human in all the complexity and ambiguity this involves? This is a gateway course with no prior knowledge expected. All readings are in English.
The Ottoman Empire is famously one of the most religiously diverse places in the early modern and modern world; although ruled by Muslims, in many parts of the Empire, Christians constituted the majority. This class takes as its focus the history of Jews in the Ottoman Empire, from the early modern period to the dissolution of the Empire after World War I. But Jews never lived in isolation, and in the Ottoman Empire their status was closely related to that of the other non-Muslims. For this reason, we also examine the history of various Christian groups, especially Greek Orthodox and Armenians, but also Catholics (of both Eastern and Western rites) and Protestants. We will engage with a number of themes in the historiography, including economic history, religious leadership, legal history, inter-communal violence, and the growing intervention of European states in the lives and politics of Ottoman non-Muslims.
This course will introduce students to the Qur’an, its content, style, structure, and history. How do we construct a framework for reading an ancient text (historical-critical, literary, canon theories)? It will also situate the Qur’an within the larger framework of the genre of Scripture. Most of the course will be analysis of chapters from the Qur’an with journal articles. The course will use case studies from the Qur’an to raise central issues in Qur’anic Studies (dating the text, biblical material, law, emendations, etc.).
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The course is a continuation of Islamic Civilizations 145 but may be taken independently. It explores the thought of some of the major Islamic philosophers and theologians in the 19th and 20th centuries: Muhammad Abduh, Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Husayn Tabataba'i and Abdol Karim Soroush.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The brief Yoga Sutras (only 195 sutras) of Patanjali (c 100 BCE-100 CE) is a vastly influential and fundamental text of yoga. It is the focus of the course, along with its primary commentary (Vyasa’s Bhasya), notes on other commentaries, and with some attention to BKS Iyengar’s famous Light on the Yoga Sutras. What was Patanjali up to? What are the Sutras for? What do the Sutras tell us about the meaning and purpose of yoga then and now? Though not a course about the practice of yoga or yoga in the modern world, it is always attentive to the implications for practice. Thus potentially of great use for practitioners and teachers today. Apt comparisons will be made with ancient Hindu and Buddhist parallels, Al-Biruni’s 11th c. Arabic translation, and modern Christian interpretations of the Sutras. Given our stressful situation, possibly some optional yoga practice together at start or end of class. Weekly written responses, plus two twelve-page course papers.
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Religion 91R is a course of supervised reading and research on a special topic in the Study of Religion. The course involves close reading and written work, both of which are evaluated by the faculty director with a letter grade and written comments. Students who wish to enroll in a 91R must receive the approval of the Director of Undergraduate Studies. 91R is ordinarily open only to concentrators. The instructor of the course must be a member of the Harvard faculty.
This course reflects on God - the idea, the reality, the significance - in light of Hindu and Christian scriptures, from philosophical and theological perspectives, and with reference to spiritual paths to union with God - all re-read in light of modern theological questions and doubts about the very idea of “God.” Issues include: the meaning of “God” and knowledge of God; reasons to believe (or not) in God's existence; God's relationship to the world, humans, all living beings; divine embodiment and salvation by God; theism and polytheism before and after secularism and atheism. Knowing both Hindu and Christian traditions on God clarifies each tradition, as we learn from their great similarities and great differences. And: how might studying God comparatively change our God-talk, God-practice, God-love here and now? Quiet course for noisy times. Weekly written responses, plus two 10-12 page papers.
Debates about the significance of the Earth are increasingly central to the humanities, as scholars wrestle with the impact of climate change in our work. Informed by these debates, this course explores imaginaries of Place, World, Planet at the intersections of Christian thought, colonialism, and geopolitics. It addresses questions such as: How has Christian theology and colonialism shaped these ideas? How should we approach their symbolic and religious dimensions? What points of view and modes of knowledge do they reflect? What desired or imagined world orders do they or should they convey? The class explores these questions by examining a wide range of materials, including geopolitical, theological, and geographical treatises, visual art, maps and globes, as well as relevant theoretical texts. It provides resources for students interested in current debates in environmentalism as well as for those seeking to understand religious dimensions of colonial imaginaries in the Americas.
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This advanced seminar will study the works of Caribbean theorist, Sylvia Wynter, focusing on her contributions to re-conceptualizing the human. What is the history of modern models for the human? How do those models need to change and why? And how do these interrogations relate to race, global poverty and climate change? The class will study her works in relation with some of her interlocutors, including Aimé Césaire, Franz Fanon, Édouard Glissant, and Michel Foucault, among others. It will also explore her theories of religion and coloniality.
Does thinking oceanically influence the study of Islam? Can we remember a people’s history of the Indian Ocean world? This course considers these questions and others as it focuses on religious worlds within port cities and the networks of Indian Ocean Islam. The course examines how religion in port cities and islands was centered upon a plethora of saints, missionaries, divinities and other agents of Islam, who have been marginalized in academic literature on the Indian Ocean. It simultaneously examines how oceanic religion was intimately connected to economic, political and technological developments. Students will be introduced to scholarship on oceanic Islam and monsoon Islam, before they are introduced to a variety of sources on transregional Islamic networks and agents of Islam, including biographies, hagiographies, travelogues, novels, poems and ethnographic accounts. Students will, moreover, be encouraged to consider ways in which approaches to studying Islam could be enhanced by a focus on religious economies and networks, as well as the lives of ‘subalterns’ who crossed the porous borders of the Indian Ocean world and shaped its religious worlds.
In conversation with Michel Foucault’s account of the complex relations between subjectivity and truth (and the importance of “techniques of the self”) in the ancient and late ancient worlds, this limited-enrollment seminar will explore various notions of the self in early Christianity. Focusing on the first four centuries of Christianity, we will investigate specific problems of theological anthropology (i.e., what it means to be human) that emerged for early Christian thinkers at the intersection between established modes of ancient thought and specifically Christian notions of scripture, creation, incarnation, resurrection etc. In view throughout will be questions related to the “hermeneutics of the self” that proved richly generative for the Christian tradition in its formative moments-and continue to animate the tradition today.
Examines trends, issues and debates in the comparative study of mystical literature. Close readings of primary works by Jewish, Christian and Muslim authors from the Middle Ages through the 16th century. Topics include poetry and mysticism; allegory, symbolism and Scripture; the rhetoric of ineffability; body and gender; apophasis vs cataphasis; exemplarity and autobiographism; language and experience. Also examines creative engagement of pre-modern mystical literature in selected works by modern authors and literary theorists.
What is Religion? Why does it show up everywhere? Using archaeology, religious studies and social thought, this course will study the major themes in the history of religions including ‘encountering the holy’, sports and ritual’, ‘crossing borders’, ‘sacrifice as creation’, ‘pilgrimage and sacred place’, ‘suffering and quest for wisdom’, ‘music and social change’, ‘violence and cosmic law’. Readings from Native American, African American, Latinx/+, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu traditions. Focus on the tension between individual encounters with the holy and the social construction of religion. Readings from Gloria Anzaldua, Toni Morrison, Judith Sherman, Arthur Kleinman, Popul Vuj, Mircea Eliade, Michael D. Jackson. Jointly offered in Harvard Divinity School as HDS3160.
This course surveys Jewish and Christian traditions about fallen angels beginning with the oldest attested articulations in relation to the Flood, especially in Enochic and related traditions, and tracing late antique and medieval reinterpretations within and between Judaism and Christianity, from the Epistle of Jude to Sefer Hekhalot. Readings will include selections from apocryphal, biblical, magical, mystical, Patristic, and Rabbinic corpora, and key themes will include the origins of sin, aetiology of magic and civilization, the enduring impact of non-canonical writings, and the shared ideas of an antediluvian past among different religious groups in Late Antiquity. Although the class will focus on premodern Judaism and Christianity, students will have opportunities to explore later trajectories and transformations, from Islamic angelology to Japanese anime.
How do early modern French texts produce, reinforce, or destabilise binaries? This course explores how, in the period around the ‘fixing’ of the French language by the Académie française into the regulated forms we are familiar with today, grammatical and material-social genders alike could be weird and unstable. How and why were binaries read in nature, and where did these threaten to break down? How did sexual difference and gender nonconformity register in scientific and social discourses? By tracing the histories of a series of major structuring binaries (including nature/culture, male/female, normal/monstrous), we will examine the unruly realities that these pairs would seek to organize, and the ways in which early modern textual forms themselves challenge binaries such as ‘literary’/’non-literary’.
How do early modern texts, images, and maps contribute to - or resist - colonization and extractivism? How are notions of ’nature’ and the ‘wild’ or ’savage’ mobilised in justifying the exploitation of land and indigenous peoples, and what symbolic and rhetorical strategies are used to unpick and unsettle these? What bodies do we find represented in the texts and images of the period, and how? Which voices do we hear in texts about indigenous peoples, and which voices are missing? This course aims to decenter the European colonial perspective, by developing a critical approach that attends to dissenting voices that can be heard in literary texts of the period. Starting with the critique of colonization in relation to utopia in Rabelais, we will read fiction and poetry (Navarre, Labé, The Island of Hermaphrodites ), travel writing (Cartier, Léry), theatre ( Les Portugais infortunés , Racine) and philosophical discourses and dialogues (Montaigne, Diderot) that are concerned with questions of the body (sex/gender, dehumanisation, racialisation) central to the functioning of colonization. We will study in close detail these early modern texts that engage with the destabilising questions posed by the ‘discovery’ of the ’New World’, placing them in dialogue with theoretical readings on coloniality and extractivism.
This course introduces students to a wide range of cultural ideas, practices, and aesthetic artifacts emerging from the Romance tradition - the cultures of the French-, Portuguese-, Spanish-, and Italian-speaking parts of the world. Featuring sessions with diverse faculty, we represent all four Romance languages with a global reach. The course invites students to engage slowly and deeply with alternative possibilities to the assumptions and practices of a too-fast world that often reduces education to instrumentalized knowledge. The invitation is to a personal discovery of Romance traditions and cultures in their diversity and along paths that can broaden experiences of thinking, feeling, and engaging with the world. In short, this course puts the human back into the humanities, and is designed to reconnect students with the “vocational” nature of education in the original sense of vocation as a calling. Students will consider and discern who, what, and how they are called to be, by learning about and from the cultures and histories of the Romance world, with shares in common a calling to the art of living.
Limited to juniors and seniors. Students wishing to enroll must petition the Undergraduate Adviser in Portuguese for approval, stating the proposed project, and must have the consent of the proposed instructor. Ordinarily, students are required to have taken some course work in the area as background for their project. May not be taken more than twice, and only once for concentration credit. This course is taught by members of the Department.
Limited to juniors and seniors. Students wishing to enroll must petition the Undergraduate Adviser in Spanish for approval, stating the proposed project, and must have the consent of the proposed instructor. Ordinarily, students are required to have taken some course work in the area as background for their project. May not be taken more than twice, and only once for concentration credit. This course is taught by members of the Department.
Both a literary form and a site of political imagination, the novel has participated in creating, contesting, and undoing political communities across Africa and Latin America. Rather than treating fiction as a mere reflection of national life, we will approach the novel as foundational for republics. Bringing African and Latin American texts into a South-South dialogue, will explore shared histories of colonialism, revolutionary struggle, and conflict in the aftermath of independence. How do novels invent ‘the people’? What forms of citizenship, belonging, race, gender, and futurity do they make visible or foreclose? The course features literary experimentation and political engagement.
PORTUGUESE 11S is a continuation of PORTUG 10s and keep on exploring semantic, grammatical, and phonological features of Portuguese that are most challenging for Spanish Speakers. This course will help you solidify your foundation in Portuguese by offering you opportunities to improve your linguistic skills in real contexts (via Teletandem), or close to authentic interaction situations, by interpreting and producing texts (oral, written, and multimodal) with various purposes. You will engage with literary work and examine aspects of Lusophone history and culture through music, film, literature, and social media.
This course introduces students to a range of analytical and theoretical approaches to “reading” fiction, poetry, film, and essays. We will pair critical writings and creative texts of importance to the Romance world to help students develop their own voice and analytical stance. Prepares students for advanced work in literary and cultural studies in Romance Languages and Literatures and related fields.
RLL's Junior Tutorial provides concentrators with the opportunity to design a course of study that will enable them to develop and explore their intellectual interests while honing their critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Each concentration track has its own tutorial section(s), and students will be matched with a tutor based on shared interests. The tutorial will provide concentrators interested in writing a thesis with a structured and supportive environment in which to work through their ideas for the thesis and produce a longer paper that will be or turn into a thesis chapter in the senior year. Concentrators not writing a thesis will have the opportunity to produce a longer paper that can serve as a capstone intellectual project for their concentration experience.
Successful completion of FRENCH 99A and FRENCH 99B is required of all thesis-track honors concentrators. Prior faculty approval of proposed senior thesis topic is also required. Students who do not complete a thesis are required to submit a substantial paper in order to receive course credit.
This intensive beginning class is for students with no previous formal training in Spanish, but with competence in at least one language other than English. In this class, students explore a host of social, cultural, and environmental issues that have historically impacted the lives and livelihoods of local, national, and foreign Spanish-speaking communities. Throughout the semester, students interact constantly with instructors, peers, and native Spanish speakers around the world as they explore culturally and linguistically rich content. Through discussions and critical analyses of authentic multimodal texts (e.g., written, audiovisual, visual) from many different sources (e.g., social media, newspapers), students develop a wide array of linguistic functions, such as the ability to make detailed descriptions or to narrate in different time frames. By the end of this class, students a) will have significantly advanced their linguistic competence, and b) will have deepened their understanding of the cultures and worldviews of Spanish-speaking communities in the United States, Latin America, and Spain.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Introduction to Russian phonetics, phonemics, morphophonemics, and inflectional and derivational morphology. Course goal is to give a deeper understanding and appreciation of the regularities and complexities of Russian through a close study of its sounds and words.
Departmental languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student. Please contact the Director of the Slavic Language Program, Steven Clancy (sclancy@fas.harvard.edu), with any questions. Interested students should consult with the Polish course instructor and prepare a coherent plan for the course based on the information provided in the “Note on independent language tutorials (“R” Courses)” found at: https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/pages/language-study
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Our seminar will focus on a single question: how, after February 24, 2022, to teach undergraduates about Russian culture and about the issues it surfaces, including authoritarianism and freedom, exile and diaspora, public rhetoric and hidden resistance? We will develop conceptual frameworks for several kinds of undergraduate courses: first-year seminars; general education courses which might be comparative; introductory Slavic department courses: and Slavic department courses for advanced undergraduates and graduate students. We will read a range of texts, including recent work by Maria Stepanova, Linor Goralik, Sergei Lebedev, Vladimir Sorokin, Oksana Vasyakina, and discuss films by Sokurov, Zviagintsev, Loznitsa, and others. We will assess what works in translation, discuss strategies for choosing material, and practice assembling background mini-lectures that foster lively discussion among undergraduates. We will construct syllabi and modules, collectively and independently. Our aims will thus be largely pedagogical, but we will also seek to create a community in our own classroom that can generate new translations and new scholarship based on contemporary material.
This tutorial will be offered MWF with 75 min class meetings. The department will make an effort to schedule the tutorial based on the availability of interested students. Please contact the Director of the Slavic Language Program (Steven Clancy ) with any questions. For information on meetings during the first week of classes, please see https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/language-courses. Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in GRGN Br in the fall and in the spring within the same academic year. - - - See language course notes on the Slavic Department website for information about sectioning, pass/fail, satisfactory/unsatisfactory, and auditing: https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/language-course-notes. Departmental languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student. Please contact the Director of the Slavic Language Program, Steven Clancy (sclancy@fas.harvard.edu), with any questions. Interested students should consult with the Georgian course instructor and prepare a coherent plan for the course based on the information provided in the “Note on independent language tutorials (“R” Courses)” found at: https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/pages/language-study.
This course will meet five days a week from 9:00am to 10:00am on MTuWThF. In addition, students will be required to attend three additional one-hour speaking practice sections each week on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Meeting times for the small group sections will be determined at the start of term based on students' availability. Any full course in Russian at the B-level (Russian Ba-Bb, Russian BTA-BTB, or Intensive Russian BAB) will prepare students for continued study of Russian at the advanced level (Russian 101) and for study or travel abroad in Russian-speaking countries. See language course notes on the Slavic Department website for information about sectioning, pass/fail, satisfactory/unsatisfactory, and auditing: https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/language-course-notes
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Interdisciplinary seminar in Ukrainian studies with broad regional and comparative perspective. Faculty and invited scholars discuss a variety of topics in the humanities and social sciences. Background readings and follow-up discussions help students put the specific lectures in broader context. Students also conduct an individually tailored reading and research project under the guidance of a faculty advisor and in consultation with other resident specialists. Part one of a two part series.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course is designed to equip learners of the basic skills in listening, reading, writing and speaking in Filipino, the national language of the Philippines. Along with vocabulary and basic grammar to facilitate language learning, this beginner’s course will also include introduction to some concepts relevant to Philippine culture adding context to the linguistic inputs in the discussion. Utilizing a combination of communicative, functional-situational, and task-based instruction, this course will capacitate learners to express themselves in the target language and understand basic texts in familiar settings of family, school, and community. It will also help them participate in conversations relevant to daily lives or simple transactions.
How does movement reshape our understanding of contemporary Asia? What happens when we shift our gaze from fixed places to flows of people, ideas, and things? In this introductory-level class in sociocultural anthropology, we explore how mobility creates new social landscapes across the region. Through anthropological methods-especially immersive fieldwork and ethnographic writing-we will examine how historical patterns of migration and present-day movements are shaped by structural dynamics of colonialism, imperialism, late capitalism, labor markets, trade networks, and supply chains. Through ethnographic encounters that reveal the complexity of mobility: from Indonesian migrant workers navigating escort infrastructures to Indo-Bangladeshi border-crossers evading security regimes to Indian Ocean maritime capital flows. Through these grounded examples, we explore how restrictive policies create new regimes of (im)mobility and forms of nationalism, while also examining the lived experiences of individuals and families involved in transnational lives. This seminar guides students through key themes including contested borders, infrastructure development, maritime connections, and global supply chains. At the end of the class, students will develop conceptual tools to examine the mechanics of mobility, equipping them to address the pivotal questions emerging from our interconnected world.
Not open to auditors; cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. Please contact the department to learn more. First Meeting times will be posted on the Department of South Asian Studies' website in shortly before the term begins: sas.fas.harvard.edu
Not open to auditors; cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. Please contact the department to learn more. First Meeting times will be posted on the Department of South Asian Studies' website in shortly before the term begins: sas.fas.harvard.edu
An introductory course designed for students with no background in classical Tibetan. Students begin with the Tibetan script, its standard transliteration into Roman characters, and pronunciation before proceeding to the basics of Tibetan grammar. After mastering a foundational vocabulary, students begin translating simple Tibetan texts.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Not open to auditors; cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. Please contact the department to learn more. First Meeting times will be posted on the Department of South Asian Studies' website in shortly before the term begins: sas.fas.harvard.edu
An Introduction to the modern standard form of the most widely spoken language in South Asia, Hindi-Urdu. Students are introduced to both writing systems: the Devanagari script of Hindi and the Nastaliq script of Urdu. The basic grammatical structures are presented and reinforced, and students are also exposed to the cultural and historical context in which Hindi-Urdu has existed over several centuries. The course also draws from the modern medium of film, in particular recent Bollywood songs, to reinforce structures and vocabulary. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit.
Sanskrit. It's easier than you think! Unlock the depth and complexity of South Asia in two semesters of study. In this course, students will gain mastery of the foundations of the Sanskrit language: the Devanāgarī writing system, correct pronunciation, all fundamental topics of grammar, basic writing and speaking. By the end of the academic year, students will be poised to read epic Sanskrit (the Mahābhārata and Rāmāyaṇa) with the aid of only a dictionary.
Not open to auditors; cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. Please contact the department to learn more. First Meeting times will be posted on the Department of South Asian Studies' website in shortly before the term begins: sas.fas.harvard.edu
This course is designed to focus on reading and comprehension. Selected readings will be both for academic purposes and for pleasure. Students will read newspaper and magazine articles; short stories; and passages covering topics such as history, science, politics, medicine, technology and more. This reading course will help students become more proficient with nuanced/implied meanings, bolster vocabulary and acquire familiarity with various professional jargon.
Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. Please contact the department to learn more. First Meeting times will be posted on the Department of South Asian Studies' website in shortly before the term begins: sas.fas.harvard.edu
In this course, we will discuss topics in Indian Buddhist epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, philosophy of action, and philosophy of mind. We will pay particular attention to the arguments that Buddhist philosophers used to defend their views and respond to their critics. In addition to understanding these arguments in their historical contexts, we will ask what we can learn from then today and, when relevant, assess how they are being used in contemporary philosophy.
Utilizing principles from Richard Maxwell, James Donlon, Charlie Oates, Anne Bogart, Blue Man Group and other ensembles/artists, we will attempt to anatomize an idealized ‘neutrality’, investigating the meaning and application of physical/environmental ’neutrality’ on stage. We will identify the roles personal idiosyncrasy and ‘disfluency’ can play in the pursuit of that neutrality, and the opportunities and challenges they present to the performer. We will investigate rudimentary components of story, uncovering along the way the most essential markers for perceiving story, emotion and thought in physical performance. We will explore the beginnings of creating character and story through gradual stages using both non-verbal and text-based story (solo body, body in relationship to object, bodies in interrelationship w/ each other). In the latter part of the semester, we will experiment with stylistic schools of physical performance, including mime, Blue Man Group, Charlie Oates sculpture work, clowning/acrobatics and Viewpoints, and will also investigate ensemble cohesion and material generation through games and improvisation.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
For students interested in working in theater, film, and television, this course applies advanced voice and speech skills to plays and other text written in heightened language. Building on foundational skills of breath release, resonance, and articulation, this class will integrate these skills with active and imaginative use of language structures in dramatic literature. We will investigate poetry and monologues by Sophocles, August Wilson, Caryl Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Federico Garcia Lorca, William Shakespeare, among others. In parallel with the exploration of voice and language, we will examine different mediums in which actors might perform these texts, in outdoor performance venues, proscenium theaters, and in small spaces in front of cameras. We will experiment with the changing demands on our voices in these changing relationships with space and audience.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Over the course of the semester each student directs 3 very short pieces (1-3 minutes) and then 3 longer pieces (5-8 minutes). Each student will make at least one of the three very short pieces a recorded and edited video, and one a live theater event. After that, for the rest of the semester, students can either choose to do all video work, all live work, or switch back and forth. Students may direct any type of material that is of interest to them, including writing their own stories if they’d like. Students will often choose to write their own stories to more closely reflect their lives and personal interests. The students create these stories outside of class (shooting and editing video or rehearsing with friends to create a story performed live). We watch all the stories together as a class, and then offer our thoughts based on trying to help each director refine the story they are trying to tell. No previous live theater or video experience is needed for this course. Students will use free video editing software to create their video work, and we provide links that help each student get a quick handle on basic video editing techniques.
This course serves as a transition between the survey nature of the sophomore tutorial and the independent senior thesis in Theater, Dance & Media at Harvard. We engage with methods and forms of theater, dance and media which may provide inspiration for your future artistic and scholarly work. Our strategy is to identify a number of contemporary and historical performances and performance archives and critically consider how they might influence your evolving identity as an artist working in live media, dance, and performance. We will delve deeply into genres of arts practices that could help you to imagine a way forward in your own work. In doing so, the goal is to advance your transition into a professional life in theater, dance, and media, and the identify your key concerns (both artistic and pragmatic) regarding a professional practice. Throughout the semester we will discuss how your personal goals and concerns intersect with political, social, and individual contemporary preoccupations in those fields.
This course introduces students to the collaborative process of creating a musical through an analysis of both revivals and new musicals. Students will learn about the key components of a musical including: book and adaptation; music and lyrics; choreography; and visual design through close readings of existing and new musicals and their source material, through viewings of film adaptations, and through readings by theorists and practitioners. The course will also feature engagement with professionals across the field through in-class conversations with artists and producers.
On stage, the visual world must be treated as an active force in storytelling, as essential as the play itself. Through analysis, discussion, and hands-on exploration, we will train our responsive eye to see more deeply and create with intentionality. Drawing from nature, visual arts, media, architecture, everyday experience, and our individual and collective imaginations, we will compose striking, meaningful visuals and explore how they might evolve into theatrical environments. Scenery, costumes, light, projections/video, and movement will all be considered.
This course delves into the core elements of technical theater management, focusing on operational strategy, backstage infrastructure, and effective leadership. Students will gain practical knowledge in areas such as stage management, lighting, sound, technical direction, costumes, automation, and production coordination while also developing the language and communication strategies essential for managing teams and collaborating with creatives, performers, and production staff. Topics include backstage operations, managing production logistics, coordinating meetings, and problem-solving in live environments. Whether you're managing a production team or navigating complex technical systems, this course prepares you to drive successful productions with confidence and precision.
Each week students are introduced to exercises from visionary teachers of visual and physical theater: Jacques Lecoq, Kari Margolis, Anne Bogart, Chris Bayes, Frantic Assembly. Through this training, concepts such as making time, the speed of fun, spatial storytelling, collective packets, the need to continue, pattern, choral movement, and the body’s lines of force inform the creation of original dramatic shorts. By improvising as a methodology for creation, students learn to synthesize their physical, intellectual, and intuitive bodymind in a state of performing. Draft performance pieces are considered in relationship to key concepts from the psychology of visual perception, puppet theater scholarship, clown studies, cinematic visual storytelling, the dramaturgy of objects, and insights from the above-mentioned physical and visual theater teachers and artists.
TDM production studios (TDM 90AR/BR/CR/DR) frame and involve participation in Theater, Dance & Media’s professionally directed and designed productions. Additional evening rehearsals throughout the semester and final performances at the end of the semester are required; more details and schedule are on the Canvas course page. All are welcome, no prior dance/movement background required. Participation is limited to students involved with the production, either as performers or as members of the production team. Students who wish to be part of the production team should contact Artistic Producer James Stanley, jamesstanley@fas.harvard.edu. This course satisfies the “Production Studio" requirement for TDM concentrators.
Gaga classes are predicated on a deep activation of the body and physical sensations. Instructions are designed to increase awareness of and further amplify sensation, and rather than turning from one prompt to another, information is layered, building into a multi-sensory, physically challenging experience. While many instructions are imbued with rich imagery, the research of Gaga is fundamentally physical, offering a precise process of embodiment. Inside this shared research, the improvisational nature of Gaga’s explorations invites movers to develop deeper connections with their own movement, both inside of, and beyond, the studio.
An exploration of theatrical practice, democratic engagement and the ways they intersect. Over the semester students will engage in lively dialogue with theater and multi-hyphenate artists, community organizers, activists and civic leaders from around the country to examine relationships between art making processes and protests, civic discourse and artistic activation.
Interdisciplinary seminar in Ukrainian studies with broad regional and comparative perspective. Faculty and invited scholars discuss a variety of topics in the humanities and social sciences. Background readings and follow-up discussions help students put the specific lectures in broader context. Students also conduct an individually tailored reading and research project under the guidance of a faculty advisor and in consultation with other resident specialists. Part two of a two part series.
An introduction to major historical, theoretical, performative, and aesthetic movements and trends in black popular music culture from the 19th century through the present day. Weekly listening assignments. Reading assignments will include music criticism, cultural criticism, ethnomusicology and journalism. Final projects may be written or creative/multimedia.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Since the arrival of Africans from Africa to America, their health and health care has been a critical issue for the nation. From the era of slavery to the present, African Americans have been disproportionately burdened by disease and ill health. Health disparities are the "inequalities that occur in the provision of healthcare and access to healthcare across different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups." This course examines this issue over the long time frame from the 17th century to the present. Currently, compared to the white population, African Americans are at an overall greater risk for many serious and life threatening diseases. This course will examine how these disparities emerged over time. It will explore the strategies and practices that African Americans and other ethnic groups employed to improve their health care. It will also examine the ways that cities, states and the federal government supported or ignored the health of African Americans and other marginalized communities. We will give special attention to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these communities.
This Charles Warren Center Seminar combines a year-long graduate course with a cohort of visiting Faculty Fellows. In sustained conversation with the Faculty Fellows, graduate students will produce original research (ideally, a dissertation chapter or publishable article) relating to the theme of "commemorative acts." We define commemorations as events, rituals, processes, material objects, and built environments through which a group endeavors to remember, and often honor, people, happenings, or values of the past. Commemorations will abound in 2026 as the United States recognizes the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the beginning of the American Revolution. This timing provides a rich occasion and context for examining commemoration as a national endeavor. Who is remembering what, and how? What is being erased, and why? What are the stakes of commemoration in the present?
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Students wishing to enroll must petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies for approval, stating the proposed project, and must have permission of the proposed instructor. Ordinarily, students are required to have taken some coursework as background for their project.
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Continuation of Twi A. Twi is one of the regional languages of the Akan speaking peoples of Ghana constituting the largest ethnic group in Ghana. Twi is fast becoming the lingua franca of the country. The Akan people are well known for their art and culture, especially the traditional colorful Kente cloth. Students are strongly encouraged to complete both terms of this course (parts BA and BB) within the same academic year.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course offers senior Government concentrators the opportunity to develop a capstone project centered on practical, real-world policy analysis. Class meetings guide students through key stages of policy development, including proposal writing, stakeholder analysis, and research methods. Peer review and formal presentations will help students hone their analytical and communication skills. By the end of the course, students will produce actionable policy analysis with real-word applications.
Cross-class fraternal associations were long central to African American civil society. Using unique primary sources as well as secondary works, this research seminar explores the development of a range of fraternal orders that flourished from the mid-1800s through the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. Case studies include the largest U.S.-centered transnational associations; fraternal groups founded and led by Black women; and the small number of groups that tried to include both Blacks and whites. Special attention paid to relations of Black fraternal orders to churches, businesses, unions, the NAACP, and other civil rights endeavors.
Social scientists are increasingly implementing field experiments to test theories and evaluate policies. Examples range from randomizing a company's advertising strategies to varying job offer details to prospective employees. Some field experiments are run in close collaboration with organizations, while others are run without any organizational involvement. Many companies and governments are also now running experiments at very large scale.
This course presents and discusses new developments in the field of financial economics. Students will present a recent academic research paper in the field and discuss its contribution, strengths, and weaknesses. Theory and empirical work will both be covered. Examples of specific topics include capital market pricing, financial intermediation, international finance, corporate finance, and household finance. This course is designed for doctoral students and will be moderated by faculty with relevant research expertise.
The Second World War profoundly shaped 20 th century history and its legacies continue to reverberate today. This course will take an expansive approach to the history of the war, both in time and space. We will begin with the legacies of the First World War and how they foreshadowed the next global conflict. We will examine the unfolding and impact of the war not only in Europe but also in Asia and around the globe. Finally, we will look at the war’s legacies in the postwar international order, including the emergence of the Cold War and the unfolding of decolonization.
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France was one of many countries during the Second World War that was occupied by - and whose government actively collaborated with - Nazi Germany. Its history offers a vantage point from which to consider political polarization and democratic collapse; collaboration, resistance, and the murky moral universe in between; Vichy government ideology and its impact on everyday life, individual rights, and the rule of law; antisemitism and the Holocaust; the complex status of colonies during the war; political reconstruction in the wake of war; and competing memories of wartime collaboration and resistance. Research skills will be scaffolded into the course.
This undergraduate seminar serves as an intensive introduction to historical and social studies of science and technology through classic and foundational works in these fields. Topics covered will include laboratory studies, sociology of knowledge, the history of trust and credibility, labor, quantification, gender, automation, and disinformation studies. Previous coursework in History of Science or related fields is helpful but is not required. The course is especially recommended for students from any concentration intending to write a senior thesis (or other research project) on topics related to science, technology and society.
Any visitor to China today is struck by the country's modern and extensive infrastructure. From the world's largest dams, to high speed railways, and gleaming new cities, the Chinese economic miracle of the past 40 years has been accompanied by a monumental infrastructural revolution. And yet, infrastructural ambition has long characterized successive Chinese states going back millenia. In this conference course (i.e. open to undergraduate and graduate students), we shall explore this history from a variety of perspectives. Although our focus will be on China, we shall, along the way, also interrogate what infrastructure is, recognizing both the power and the limitations of its plasticity.
An intro duction to foundational texts, concepts, and skills in the interdisciplinary study of gender and sexuality. Students will gain practice applying key concepts to the analysis of archival texts and to issues with which scholars grapple on a daily basis and within many academic disciplines . Crucially, this course encourages students to think and work collaboratively, to co-create productive conversations, and to integrate these theoretical explorations with a critical analysis of our own multiple locations.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course equips students to enter the field of American Studies as interdisciplinary scholars and professionals. Toward that end, the course provides graduate students with foundational knowledge of the field of American Studies: its history, its major questions and debates, and a diverse selection of its foundational texts. As students practice archival research and close readings, they explore what it means to combine historical thinking with textual analysis. Students also orient themselves to relevant resources at Harvard and consider America and the United States in transnational context. Required for all doctoral students in American Studies. Open to grad students pursuing a Secondary Field in American Studies.
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This language course explores the fundamentals of Middle Egyptian, the classical stage of Egyptian hieroglyphs used throughout much of ancient Egyptian history. Lessons in the Egyptian writing system, grammar, and culture, with weekly vocabulary and exercises, will introduce the language and verbal system in a systematic fashion. By the end of the semester, students may begin to read selections from Egyptian classic stories and historical texts. Visits to the Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in order to read ancient hieroglyphic inscriptions on the original monuments, may also be included. This course is supervised by Dr. Manuelian but taught by instructional staff.
Continues Middle Egyptian I. Students will complete the introductory grammar book lessons, and move on to read a selection of basic stories, historical and biographical inscriptions, in the original hieroglyphs. Visits to the Egyptian galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, in order to read some of the ancient hieroglyphic inscriptions on the original monuments, may also be included.
Special study of selected topics in anthropology, given on an individual basis and directly supervised by a member of the department. May be taken for a letter grade or pass/fail. To enroll, a student must submit a petition form, signed by the adviser with whom they wish to study, and a proposed plan of study.
Must be taken for a letter grade. Priority given to students in Anthropology and related departments. To enroll, submit a petition form, signed by the supervisor, the PM Director, and the Director of Undergraduate Studies, including a proposed research agenda, preferably during the term preceding the term of enrollment. See the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Anthropology or members of the Peabody Museum curatorial staff for more information.
Must be taken for a letter grade. Priority given to students in Anthropology and related departments. To enroll, submit a petition form, signed by the supervisor, the PM Director, and the Director of Undergraduate Studies, including a proposed research agenda, preferably during the term preceding the term of enrollment. See the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Anthropology or members of the Peabody Museum curatorial staff for more information.
How can we understand the lives of people who are excluded from the historical record? How might attention to the time and space in which words are spoken allow us to treat oral history as text, and text as oral history? This course explores storytelling as a foundational element of the human experience. It analyzes the myriad ways in which orality has been used to consolidate origin stories, document events, communicate embodied experience, and transfer ancestral knowledge. By centering methodology, students will learn to prepare, collect, analyze, and share oral histories in a variety of written, digital, and artistic forms. Topics of discussion include how to build relationships, conduct interviews around difficult topics, and use citational practices that honor nonhuman and other-than-human actors. Required readings pair classic and new oral histories with texts on the theory, practice, and ethics of storytelling. By centering works by Black, Indigenous, gender minorities, and writers of color, the course examines how storytelling is used to establish and redistribute power. At the end of the semester, students will become familiar with audio-visual recording technology, learn to navigate transcription and coding software, and be able to conduct, transcribe and analyze an oral history.
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The purpose of the practicum is to provide curatorial experience in the Peabody Museum (PMAE), directly supervised by a PMAE curator. The practicum is designed to designed to introduce students to contemporary museum curatorial practice, to provide hands-on experience working with PMAE collections, and opportunity for reflexive research based in historical context related to PMAE projects and initiatives. The course is developed with the PMAAE Senior curator the semester prior to enrollment.
Through transnational, comparative, and theoretical lenses, this seminar analyzes the crucial historical and cultural processes that shaped Brazil's emergence as a modern nation. It examines how global circulations of people, capital, ideas, and cultural forms have influenced Brazilian modernity from the nineteenth century to the present. Key dimensions will be analyzed, including images and self-representations, race and diaspora, regionalism and the revival of tradition, urbanization and violence, popular culture, money and consumption, and international circulation of cultural forms. Readings draw from anthropology, sociology, history, and cultural studies, emphasizing ethnographic and theoretical debates relevant to Latin America and beyond.
This seminar examines the cultural experiences and politics of disability and contested illness. Drawing on ethnography and academic scholarship alongside film and popular writing, it explores how bodies are shaped and rendered vulnerable across historical periods and social contexts. We move among distinct registers and scales, treating disability as an individual experience, a collective identity, a political movement, and a vantage point from which to probe cultural assumptions about productivity, intelligence, fitness, social value, and scientific/medical uncertainty. Opening the aperture wide, we will consider the roles of industrial toxins, pharmaceutical regimes, built environments, capitalist labor demands, war, and medical classification in the politics and experience of disability and contested illness. Even as the course seeks to trouble conventional binaries (medical versus social, personal versus political, for example), we will closely examine how these polarities are constructed and challenged. Organized largely historically, the seminar begins with the role of eugenics in consolidating long-standing ableist logics, as well as the movements that fought to dismantle them. It will trace how similar logics continue to resurface today across domains such as genetic screening, optimization culture, and immigration debates. We conclude with contemporary currents to examine the politics of chronic, contested, and difficult-to-define illnesses, such as long Covid, conditions linked to toxic exposures and other syndromes that establishment medicine has ignored or struggled to recognize, let alone treat. We will also briefly address the rise and appeal of alternative health approaches increasingly sought by patients seeking to manage these conditions at the periphery of establishment medicine. By addressing the history and contemporary struggles over disability, contested illness, and alternative care, the seminar centers on questions of bodily vulnerability and legitimacy to grapple with how societies value, manage, and sometimes sacrifice particular forms and ways of living and healing.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Workshop for seniors writing economics theses, taught in classes of approximately 12 students each. Emphasis on choice of research topics, methodology, and writing. Students are required to complete written and oral presentations of their work in progress. Part one of a two-part series; students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. This seminar is required for economics concentrators writing senior theses. Thesis writers in other concentrations writing on economics topics may take the seminar, space-permitting.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course examines the economics and finance of entrepreneurship and innovation, which drive economic growth, structural change, and long-run productivity. We consider the role of government, agglomeration and spillovers, who becomes an entrepreneur, how new firms are financed, and implications of the rise of AI, among other topics. The course has a strong focus on interpreting and critiquing strong papers, with the goal of improving empirical intuition for students with a broad variety of interests. In a final project, students submit a research proposal broadly linked to the themes of the course.
An introduction to multiple regression techniques with focus on economic applications. Discusses extensions to discrete response, panel data, and time series models, as well as issues such as omitted variables, missing data, sample selection, randomized and quasi-experiments, and instrumental variables. Also develops the ability to apply econometric and statistical methods using computer packages.
The main purpose of this course is for each student to write a serious empirical paper, preferably with new data, in the field of political economics. The course relies on frequent (approximately 5 times over the semester) office hour meetings with the instructor, as well as meetings with the TF. To enable such frequent interactions, the course is limited to 18 students.
Computing for Economists is a month-long course introducing concepts in software engineering and scientific computing that are essential for modern economics research. Concepts will be introduced via videos that students will watch in advance of class sessions. Class sessions will be devoted to supervised group work on exercises. Students can choose six out of twelve modules, including topics in software engineering (e.g., object-oriented programming, metaprogramming, parallelization, computational complexity), scientific computing (e.g., non-linear equation-solving, numerical optimization, integration, differentiation), data manipulation (e.g., data normalization, large-scale data handling, data visualization), and some other advanced topics (e.g. combinatorial optimization). The course is designed to accommodate students with all levels of programming background, providing a flexible and practical approach to applying computational tools in economics. The course is based in Python, but will convey computational concepts that are portable across programming languages. Class sessions will be synchronous and will feature both in-person and remote options.
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People face a daunting array of problems in managing their financial lives. Taking out student loans, managing bank accounts and credit cards, financing a home purchase with a mortgage, and saving for retirement are all major challenges. There is evidence that many people lack the skills they need to meet these challenges. This course has three goals. The first objective is to give participants a basic grounding in financial literacy: principles of finance that we can use in our own lives. The second objective is to introduce research on the ways in which households use the financial system, emphasizing common financial mistakes and financial products that seem prone to misuse. We will learn to read papers from the academic economics literature, focusing on the papers’ central ideas and empirical findings. The third objective is to explore ways in which the financial system can be improved to make it easier and safer to use. We will discuss the role of financial advisers, technological solutions (“fintech”), and public policy interventions including disclosures, default choices (“nudges”), and regulations restricting access to financial products.
Unstructured data - e.g., text, images, audio, and video - play a central role in economic analyses. Unstructured data are too high-dimensional and complex to use directly in empirical analyses, and instead economists extract low-dimensional, interpretable features. Deep neural networks are the state-of-the-art method for extracting this structured data from unstructured inputs. This course covers state-of-the-art deep neural network architectures and examines a range of applications in computer vision, natural language processing, and multimodal learning. It also covers econometric methods for unbiased, robust, and efficient inference with unstructured data.
This course covers topics at the intersection of the economics of climate change, global development, and international trade. We start with an overview of the empirical methods and models economists use to quantify the unequal costs of global warming throughout the world. Given the concentration of vulnerability in low-income regions, we next introduce concepts from the macroeconomics of development in order to examine the ways in which warming presents a particular challenge for economic growth and global poverty alleviation. In the latter portion of the course, we introduce topics from the theory of international trade and tools from spatial economics that will allow us to explore evidence on the ways in which global market integration can affect both adaptation to the effects of warming and efforts to reduce global emissions.
This course will demonstrate how one can use the power of the free market to address some of the most vexing social and economic problems of our time, with a particular emphasis on issues that plague minority communities and women. The course will give students an introduction to social finance and impact investing in a manner that does not require prior coursework in Economics. It is intended not only for those interested in finance or social justice, but also for students with a disruptor spirit. Students will study situations in which market-based approaches were used to solve problems in areas such as education, discrimination, economic mobility, crime, healthcare, food instability, and the future of work. In the context of these topics, the course will provide an introduction to basic principles in finance and for-profit enterprises, venture capital, and other alternative investment strategies. The course will include discussions with leading investors and entrepreneurs who are determined to have positive social impact and culminates in a team-based capstone project in which you build your own startup to take on an important social issue and demonstrate its commercial viability.
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Lectures are taught interactively. Students are very much encouraged to participate in the debate in class. (Each term, we have one guest lecture by a European policy maker.) Students will write a (short) response paper (9000 characters, with spaces - max 5 pages) as well as a (longer) term paper (38,500 characters, with spaces - max 20 pages). Students are supposed to choose their paper topics, with some guidance, of course. The ideas is to allow students to pursue research questions they are really interested in. (In mid-November, in a workshop-type environment, a preliminary version of term papers will be presented and discussed. In this smaller setting, students will also discuss the paper of a fellow student, leading off a debate in the group. The purpose of the workshop is to constructively support students in writing the final version of their paper. In early December, before submission of the paper, we will also have a “paper clinic”.) We pursue open door policy, i.e., encourage students to come to office hours.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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This course is limited to sophomores and Social Studies concentrators. This course is a prerequisite for sophomores applying to Social Studies. Students planning to take this class must attend the first lecture to be admitted. This course must be taken for a Letter Grade and cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Please sign up for the Thursday 12:45-2:45 section time. If you have a scheduling conflict, you may sign up for the TBD section time in order to register; however, we cannot guarantee an alternate section time.
The First World War was one of the largest and most devastating conflicts the world has ever seen. It was also one of the first wars that was waged across the entire earth - from Europe to Africa, China, and the Middle East. This course examines the First World War not only as a European conflict but as a truly global one. Students will explore the origins, course, and legacies of the war and the impact it had on politics and societies around the world. As such, this course will focus not only on the military and economic aspects of the war in its major European and Middle Eastern theaters but also on how the war transformed conceptions of democracy, the state, race, art, and technology around the world. This course will conclude by looking at how the war’s outcome permanently reshaped international relations and sowed the seeds for many future conflicts.
A survey course on major works in German literature, philosophy, and critique from the mid-eighteenth century to the twentieth century. Close reading of representative texts opens onto broader ramifications in cultural and intellectual history with further consideration of societal and political tensions.
Explores the radical break with traditions of thinking, building, seeing, and representing that occurred at the end of the 19th-century in Germany and Austria, and the new forms of architecture, painting, and literature to which this break led over the following 40 years (1890-1930). Topics include, among others, the loss or destruction of coherence in general, more specifically the loss of a sense of a unified self, alienation in the industrial and urban world, the rejection of unified forms, and a turn from systematic thinking and representation to new aesthetics and means of perception. The Modernist aesthetic rebirth we will witness - with its desire, search, and push for new ways of seeing, understanding, and interacting with the self and the world - still informs our daily lives a hundred years later and looms large in our immediate surroundings at Harvard.
This course will consider the challenge of climate change and what to do about it. Students will be introduced to the basic science of climate change, including theradiation budget of the Earth, the carbon cycle, and the physics and chemistry of the oceans and atmosphere. We will look at reconstructions of climate change through Earth history to provide a context for thinking about present and future changes. We will take a critical look at climate models used to predict climate change in the future, and discuss their strengths and weaknesses, evaluating which forecasts of climate change impacts are robust, and which are more speculative. We will spend particular time discussing sea-level rise and extreme weather (including hurricanes, heat waves, and floods). We will look at the complex interactions between climate and human society,
This course will examine major issues of solid waste (i.e. production, management, storage, treatment, disposal, infrastructure costs and financing, policy) in the developing world at various geographic locations and scales across municipal, industrial, electronic, biological/medical, and radioactive waste. Specific solid waste issues will be highlighted through in-depth case studies from Africa, Asia, Central and South America, Middle East, and Small Island Developing States. Analysis of the environmental commitment and regulations, appropriate technology availability and reliability, and key geopolitical factors that affect the amount of solid waste to be handled and how it is disposed of will be explored in all cases. To understand fundamentals in the developing world context, the course will compare how solid waste is managed in the developed and developing world at the local, state, and federal levels. Fundamentals cut across solid waste-related policies, transport, sources, collection, disposal/treatment, recycling, and material recovery. The course will emphasize - both quantitatively and qualitatively - the real-world challenges and systemic issues of the developing world that make solid waste planning and management complicated.
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Provides a survey, from the perspective of economics, of global climate change and public policies to address it, including international, regional, national, and sub-national policies. The political economy and politics of alternative policies are also covered. Methodological topics that are broadly relevant for other resource and environmental issues are featured.
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An introduction to the history, organization, goals, and ideals of environmental protection in America. Examines the shifts in emphasis from nature protection to pollution control to sustainability over the past hundred years and develops critical tools to analyze changing conceptions of nature and the role of science in environmental policy formulation. Of central interest is the relationship between knowledge, uncertainty, and political or legal action. Theoretical approaches are combined with case studies of major episodes and controversies in environmental protection.
“Natural climate solutions” are a set of conservation, restoration and improved land management actions that have been championed as low-cost, easy-to-implement sources of climate mitigation. Some have claimed that natural climate solutions can offer more than 30% of the required mitigation of “near-term” carbon emissions to hold global warming below 2°C. Others have criticized these claims for overstating the potential of biological carbon sinks, arguing that the advocates for natural climate solutions are motivated by conservation of biodiversity rather than mitigation of climate change. The significant role played by ecosystems in the carbon cycle makes natural climate solutions critical options for climate mitigation, yet there are many questions and uncertainties surrounding how best to utilize them. In this course, we will explore various dimensions of natural climate solutions, including reduced deforestation, reforestation, afforestation, wetlands restoration, biochar, no-till agriculture and other farming practices to increase carbon content of soils. We will examine the feasibility and potential limitations of each proposed action to deliver real climate impact. We will also explore policy dimensions for encouraging such efforts through direct subsidies, regulation, or integration into carbon pricing regimes including carbon offsets. By the end of the semester, we hope that all participants will have a clearer understanding of the potential role for natural climate solutions in national and international climate mitigation strategies.
This course will examine major issues of water resources (i.e. water sources, supply, quality, treatment, use, distribution and storage, policy) in the developing world at various geographic locations and scales. Specific water resources issues will be highlighted through in-depth case studies from Africa, Asia, and Small Island Developing States. Analysis of the hydrological, technological, legal, and geopolitical factors that affect the availability of water for human consumption and agriculture will be explored in all cases. To understand fundamentals in the developing world context, the course will compare how water resources are managed in the developed and developing world. Fundamentals cut across water-related policies, water flows, water sources, water supply, water and wastewater treatment, water distribution, and water storage. The course will emphasize - both quantitatively and qualitatively - the real-world challenges and systemic issues of the developing world that make water resources planning and management complicated.
Energy is the lifeblood of economic activity, indeed of human society. However, the planet's stores of easily accessed fossil fuels are limited, and the climatological cost of continuing to rely on fossil fuels is high. This course examines the long run and short run prospects for renewable energy. We start by understanding the technology of various renewables, including hydro, solar, wind, biomass, etc. We then examine the economics of these technologies, and how policies (subsidies, taxes, regulations) affect their viability. Special attention will be paid to the twin challenges of electrification and decarbonization, and the implications of meeting these challenges for the operation and modernization of the electric grid.
This seminar will critically examine the history of global climate change negotiations from the perspective of economics, politics, law, history, and - of course - the relevant science. Assigned readings will be from the scholarly literature, as well as from the best grey literature (including government reports, such as from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and various national governments), and blogs. This will be supplemented by the instructor’s 30 years of experience in leadership roles in four IPCC Assessment Reports (AR2, AR3, AR5, and AR6), as well as his participation for some 20 years in UNFCCC negotiations at the annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs) and other venues.
Empirical data demonstrate that the climate is changing and that these changes could produce increasingly serious consequences over the course of this century. Governments and private actors around the world are strategizing, debating, lobbying, implementing, and litigating mechanisms to both mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. This course will explore (i) the legal framework in which climate change action occurs in the United States, (ii) policy tools available to regulators, (iii) impacts on regulated entities and individuals and (iv) opportunities for private stakeholders to participate in and influence climate change decisions.
An introduction to environmental policy in the US with a focus on the Environmental Protection Agency. We will explore how policy is made at the federal and state levels and consider the actors who design policies, including legislators, agencies, advocates, regulated companies, and the courts. Through specific case studies, we will evaluate the policy options for environmental regulations and consider ways to measure whether a policy is successful. We will focus on a variety of environmental regulations including air quality, climate change, and clean water policies. We will also hear from policymakers and stakeholders to understand the challenges and opportunities for progress.
This class provides a theoretical and historical examination of such foundational questions. Instead of prescribing “what should be done”, we will be taking a step back and examine, in an attitude of critical curiosity, how and why issues of free speech seem so divisive. This is partly due to the ambiguity of the nature of speech as action and non-action; and of freedom as a right and as a responsibility. While today speech tends to be promoted and protected in contrast to action, in much of the history of political thought, speech was classified as a type of action. The process of separating speech from action was intertwined with the rise of several other phenomena: liberalism and the public sphere; the positive appraisal of democracy and an expanded suffrage; secularization and the separation of politics from religion. In examining these related processes, we will read works on the politics, ethics, epistemology, and legality of speech in relation to freedom. These include works by: Kant, Mill, Habermas, Foucault, Marcuse, Hirschmann, and MacKinnon.
How does public opinion shape government? Students will learn how pollsters ask questions in order to test ideas about politics and how public opinion data are used to make political decisions. Students will learn theories of public opinion and government accountability, fundamentals of public opinion research, and how to design and analyze surveys. Students will work with a national survey firm to design and analyze national sample surveys, and they will learn how to write an effective memo that uses survey data to advise a candidate or president about political strategies and decisions.
What is the relationship between politics and knowledge? Journalism, post-truth, echo chambers, misinformation, dogmatism, confirmation bias, mass ignorance, ideologies, persuasion, demagoguery, disagreement, polarization, epistemic injustice, skepticism, lying, intolerance, trust, testimony, the status of science in guiding public policy, and just plain error: these political phenomena all raise foundational epistemic issues about the nature, sources, and limits of political knowledge; and about the political bases of knowledge itself. This seminar will explore a variety of questions such as: What kind of knowledge must political actors obtain in order to take effective action? What are the sources of such knowledge? Are they reliable? What are the limits to attaining political knowledge? What must be presupposed about the nature and structure of the sociopolitical world, human nature, and human cognition in order to think that adequate and representative political knowledge is possible? Is a public, political sphere a necessary condition for, or a hindrance to, the formation of scientific knowledge? Readings will be drawn from the social sciences and philosophy.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Covers the political economy of policymaking and institutional change. Readings include a mixture of foundational approaches and recent research, covering a variety of methodological perspectives. The topical emphasis is on democracy, accountability, inequality, redistribution, and growth.
Provides an introduction to key concepts and theoretical approaches in comparative politics. Major themes include the causes of democratization, economic development, ethnic conflict, and social revolutions; as well as the role of the state, political institutions, and civil society. Examines and critically evaluates different theoretical approaches to politics including modernization, Marxist, cultural, institutionalist, and leadership-centered approaches. Compares cases from Africa, Asia, Europe, Middle East and Latin America to provide students with grounding in the basic tools of comparative analysis.
An introduction to public international law for students of international relations. The primary purpose is to enhance students' understanding of the ways in which international law orders international politics. Emphasis is on the substantive rules of international law, the relationship between law and politics, and cases that illustrate the issues. Topics include international human rights law, international economic law and institutions, the use of force, war crimes, and terrorism.
This course examines historical and contemporary forces shaping American K-12 education policy. It also reviews research and commentary on contemporary issues: class size, fiscal policy, teacher recruitment, compensation and tenure, accountability, school vouchers, charter schools and digital learning.
A research seminar designed to define an agenda for the comparative analysis of political developments among post-socialist systems. Emphasis placed on the formation of research proposals, methods of analysis, theory-building, and the presentation of comparative empirical research.
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The high period of German Idealism -- from 1781, the year of the publication of Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, to the death of Hegel in 1831 -- was one of the great revolutionary epochs in the history of philosophy. We shall study the thought of the period using the central notions of history and freedom as our guide. Our modern conceptions of the self and society were shaped by the ideas about history and human agency that emerged at that time. We conclude by looking at how Marx's critique of capitalism and his vision of communism emerged from his reworking of the ideas of history and freedom that he inherited from the Idealist tradition.
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This course will introduce students to the dominant issues in reproductive, maternal, and newborn health-including determinants of health care access, equity, quality, and outcomes-while exploring how evidence is generated and the complex translation of evidence into policy. We will consider a range of programmatic and policy approaches to improving maternal and reproductive health and unpack why some have worked and some have not. We will read and discuss research from a range of settings, including the United States and low- and middle-income countries. A primary goal of the course will be to sharpen students’ ability to think critically about the measurement and evaluation of health care programs and to expose them to the tradeoffs inherent in different approaches to evidence generation and dissemination. Readings and coursework will introduce students to, or deepen their familiarity with, approaches to causal inference, including randomized controlled trials and “natural experiments.” Throughout the course we will discuss the implications of health policy choices, health system designs, and clinical guidelines for maternal-reproductive health equity, both within and across countries. Some sessions will include guest speakers, who are experts in the field of maternal health, including clinicians, researchers, policy-makers, and advocates.
This course offers an introduction to the field of health care quality in the United States. Over the past two decades, quality of care has been recognized as one of the most important areas of medicine and health policy. In this course, students will be exposed to timely issues related to the current quality of health care and efforts to make improvements. Students will be grounded in the current state of the US health care system, with consideration given to where it excels (e.g., advances in diagnosis and treatment) and where it requires improvement (e.g., errors of commission and omission, threats to patient safety, flaws and waste in the delivery of services). Students will be introduced to methods for improving the quality of care. Problems in the quality of care experienced by selected populations will be explored. Throughout the course, students will hear from leaders in the field of health care who will present their own research and recommendations for improving the quality of health care in America.
This lecture course introduces students to the modern history and culture of Vietnam by examining major visions of “Vietnam” as a state and as a people that emerged over the twentieth century. Drawing on historical narratives and cultural productions, the course explores themes such as ideas about the origins of Vietnamese society and culture, Vietnam’s relations with its neighbors, colonialism, anticolonialism and nationalism, war, and postwar challenges. Rather than treating “Vietnam” as a continuous and unified entity stretching back to the prehistoric Dong Son culture, the course highlights competing understandings of “Vietnam” and of what it has meant to be “Vietnamese,” as they took shape at key moments in the country’s modern history.
How best to describe the Canadian-American relationship: special relationship, alliance of the likeminded, asymmetrical partnership, or heated rivalry? For two hundred years a major element in relations between Canada and the United States has been the management of continental challenges including border security, overlapping natural resources, economic opportunities, and national security, as well as coordination in response to global geopolitics like the two world wars, the Cold War, and the war in Vietnam. For Canada, the defence of sovereignty and independence have always been critical to Canadian-American relations. There have been moments of easy alignment, but also sharp clashes of values and priorities. The relationship has been marked by extensive integration and collaboration, as well as mistrust, resentment, and alienation. We will adopt a case study approach to examine the Canadian-American relationship since 1900. Today, the assumptions, networks, practices, and personal relationships that have made Canadian-American relations so resilient no longer seem to hold up. Are Canadian-American relations entering a new era? How can history help us to understand the future of Canadian-American relations?
This course will examine the relationship between law and colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia during both the early modern and the modern period. By reading some of the seminal works that have been published on the issue we will seek to understand how law both facilitated and limited colonialism and how colonialism, in turn, had modified the legal systems that had existed previously. Attention will also be given to law as a political, religious, social, and economic agent and to the legal arena as a sphere for conflict resolution, negotiation, and identity formation.
Synthetic materials-plastics, polyester, synthetic rubber-represent both technological marvels and environmental evils of the modern age. This course takes a global view of the rise of synthetics from the mid-nineteenth through the twenty-first century. Moving beyond a simple narrative of transition from natural to synthetic materials, we will explore how distinctions between “natural” and “synthetic” tell broader stories of empires and colonies, extraction and political economy, the business of war, the petroleum industry’s rise, and the global environment crisis. This course asks how our heavy reliance on synthetics has remade the world technologically, environmentally, and politically-and whether alternatives might exist.
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What makes a scandal? Scandals bring hidden behaviors and unspoken assumptions into the historical record. They spark state repression, political activism and moral panics. Scandals are both a route to understanding social change and a fundamental driver of governance. In this seminar, students study a series of scandals that erupted in Australia and the British imperial world across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries . Topics include imposture and fraud, frontier violence, urban youth, trial by media, war crimes, status anxiety and spies. We examine how these individual incidents emerged from and influenced their wider historical contexts and explore how scandals illuminate the past .
This course will analyze the Soviet Union as a multi-national state and ask to what extent it functioned as an empire and how its strategies of national rule evolved from the revolution to 1991. It will also analyze Soviet foreign policy towards other Communist states in eastern Europe and in Asia and ask to what extent these were imperial. Finally, it will look at how strategies of domination over non-Russians in the USSR and abroad interacted in the collapse of European Communism.
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Graduate reading course covering major topics in study design and quantitative research methods for health policy research. This course is designed to help students in the Methods for Policy Research track of the Health Policy PhD program prepare for their concentration exam. Part one of a two-part series.
Graduate reading course covering major topics in study design and quantitative research methods for health policy research. This course is designed to help students in the Methods for Policy Research track of the Health Policy PhD program prepare for their concentration exam. Part two of a two-part series.
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This course provides a foundational, interdisciplinary understanding of health policy for students who will undertake research that advances knowledge and leads to improvements in health. Topics include the determinants of health, insurance coverage, health care delivery, health data, and research methods. Disciplinary perspectives include ethics, political science, economics, statistics, management science, and decision science.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course provides a foundational, interdisciplinary understanding of health policy for students who will undertake research that advances knowledge and leads to improvements in health. Topics include the determinants of health, insurance coverage, health care delivery, health data, and research methods. Disciplinary perspectives include ethics, political science, economics, statistics, management science, and decision science.
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This one-semester junior tutorial is a research-oriented tutorial taken in small groups. Focuses on enhancing research and writing skills through the completion of a directed research paper on subject matter of the student's interest. May be taken in either the fall or spring semester.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) is undeniably among the most iconic scientists in history. His long career was defined by scientific controversy. From early disputes over his military compass to his telescopic discoveries and vocal advocacy for a heliocentric cosmos despite religious opposition, Galileo never shied away from a scientific dispute. This class explores the life and writings of Galileo and his family, disciples, and adversaries. We will appreciate Galileo’s inventive work and striking prose, critique his social and scientific strategies, and grapple with the deep impression that this figure has left on the history and future of scientific controversy.
Vaccination is among the oldest and most effective of medical interventions, yet paradoxically, it is also one of the most controversial. This course will examine the history of vaccination specific historical episodes in which it was utilized to prevent illness, disability, and death, as well as associated scientific, social, and political controversies. Although historians have long chronicled the development of vaccines and allied public health campaigns, the historiography of vaccination has shifted in light of the rapid development of Covid vaccines and the intense debates they have generated. Following an intensive reading of historical and other social science research on vaccines, each student will select a research topic to investigate during the course. Together the resulting papers will be included in a “course anthology” of the “new” history of vaccines, utilizing new methodologies and analytic approaches to vaccination in the past and the present.
Eugenics was the idea that humans could be improved through selective breeding of populations. It emerged in the late 19th century and by the early decades of the 20th century it was a world-wide movement involving biologists, physicians, politicians and educators. Based on early genetic ideas about the inheritance of human qualities such as intelligence, social behaviors, and complex diseases, the movement led to many practices that targeted the poor, women, and racial minorities. We will explore the long history of eugenic ideas and practices in science and medicine in the United States.
This course will examine the history of women in science in the US from the 19th century to the present exploring the contributions of women scientists and the barriers that women have faced in establishing scientific careers in the US. We will specifically examine the history of women in science at Harvard using the archival materials in the Schlesinger Library.
This graduate seminar will provide students with the resources to tell compelling histories of sciences, technology, and medicine across the premodern globe. The course will survey the trajectory of recent historiography and read sources from a range of contexts to think about the current - and sometimes enduring - questions that animate the field. The course is designed to help graduate students develop their own research agenda in conversation with historiographic debates, write review essays, and assess the state of the discipline.
This course seeks to reconcile the complicated and messy problems of patients with brain disease with the concise analysis of precisely defined cognitive functions in normal subjects. Students will learn to overlap cognitive functions on to the brain in disease - at the gross dissection and imaging levels - and to understand some of the complex interactions of individual cognitive operations in disease using the examples of famous landmark cases in the literature (e.g.Broca’s Monsieur Leborgne, Phineas Gage, HM and others). The course will include a dissection of a human brain, an examination of how the actual brain maps onto two dimensional neuroimages, and discussions of how the classic lesion based maps of cortical function are related to contemporary maps based on functional neuroimaging.
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Undergraduate and graduate students have few academic opportunities to engage with the profound themes of grief, loss, and death, even in an era of pandemics, climate change, and widening health disparities. In this seminar-style course, we apply a population mental health perspective that integrates work across a range of disciplines including psychology, psychiatry, neurobiology, epidemiology, anthropology, sociology, and critical race theory. From this interdisciplinary vantage point, we will uncover the surprising insights that emerge from the study of grief, loss, and death. This seminar incorporates an explicit focus on self-reflective learning grounded in a co-created supportive learning environment. Students can expect to acquire an understanding of the core theories and empirical methods in the study of population mental health, grief, loss, and death. Students will apply acquired skills and knowledge to achieve their learning goals within an ungrading1 framework.
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Buddhist philosophy describes a model of how the mind works, as well as a method, mindfulness meditation, that can be used as a tool to transform consciousness and reduce mental distress. Neuroscientists have begun to study the impact of meditation on brain structure and function, often using Buddhist philosophy to guide their hypotheses. We will review and discuss how the science relates to Buddhist philosophy, using the four foundations of mindfulness as the primary framework. We will also compare and contrast the Buddhist model with modern scientific models of how conscious experience is created in the brain, in order to gain a more nuanced understanding of consciousness that integrates philosophy, neuroscience, and personal experience. No prior knowledge of Buddhism is required. The course will be a mixture of lecture, discussion of two primary scientific articles that are assigned each week, and formal powerpoint presentations by students. Students will write a final paper on a topic of their choice that is relevant to the themes of the course.
The scientific study of sleep is an area of research that is both highly diverse and among the most interdisciplinary and unifying of topics in psychology and neuroscience. In the past several decades, exciting new discoveries on the neurobiology of sleep have been facilitated by technologies such as functional neuroimaging and molecular genetics. Nonetheless, sleep remains mysterious and controversial and, remarkably, there still is no generally agreed upon function for this behavioral state that occupies one third of our lives! Sleep science exemplifies the translational approach in biomedical science whereby human and animal research together continually advance the field of sleep medicine. In this seminar, lectures during the first half of each class will provide overviews of the physiology and behavioral neuroscience of sleep.The second half of each class will be devoted to student-led discussions of assigned study questions as well as free discussions. In a short term paper, students will research in depth a topic of their choice that they find particularly interesting related to sleep neuroscience or mental health.Students will also briefly present what they have learned about their topic during the final class meetings. Some topics students might choose are described in the following paragraph. In addition, students will keep a nightly sleep and/or dream diary for 2-3weeks at some point during the semester in order to learn more about sleep from their own experiences.They will then describe what they have observed in a short essay.In the past, students have found this exercise to be especially interesting. Lastly, there will be a short open-book, unlimited-time final exam on material from the lectures.Topics for term papers might include the characteristic abnormalities of sleep in mood, anxiety, psychotic, addictive or neurodevelopmental disorders.Scientific findings increasingly point to the importance of sleep for mental health and optimum performance, as well as to sleep disruption as both a result and a contributing cause of mental illnesses. Thus,one might focus on the contribution of primary sleep disorders to psychiatric and neurological illness,such as the circadian rhythm disorders in bipolar illness or insomnia as a risk factor for mood and anxiety disorders. Still other topics might focus on the contribution of normal sleep to emotional regulation, memory consolidation, and cognitive performance. For those with more cellular neuroscience interests, topics might focus on linkages between sleep and immunity or the role of sleep in disposal of abnormal proteinsas it relates to neurodegenerative diseases.
In 2013 at the Nancy Hanks Lecture for Americans for the Arts, cellist Yo-Yo Ma postulated that the scientific concept of “edge effect” could be applied to artistic and cultural development. In ecology, the “edge effect” describes the intense bioactivity that occurs where two divergent ecosystems meet. Ma contends that the ecological edge effect is an example of Nature’s creativity, explaining that “in that transition zone, because of the influence the two ecological communities have on each other, you find the greatest diversity of life as well as the greatest number of new life forms.” He went on to draw a parallel with the arts: that the greatest diversity of creative arts and new artistic “life forms” arise when artists learn from each others’ cultures. The field of arts in health and the integration of the arts into medical education is advancing rapidly. Medical caregivers and scientists are studying the neuroscience of aesthetic experience, looking at how the arts can be incorporated into healing, well-being and education. At the same time, musicians and artists are embracing their unique role in healing through the arts. This course encourages students to integrate the arts with science and medicine through readings, art immersion, didactic talks, and hands-on experiential learning.
What can we learn about the limitations of human neurobehavioral function through exposure and adaptation to extreme environments, as well as readaptation to “normal” environment, or onset of neuropsychiatric disorders? Within the translational neuroscience paradigm, this course explores the concepts of neurobehavioral adaptation, stress, resilience, and neuropsychiatric disorders, in relation to the underlying neurophysiologic mechanisms that regulate them. We will explore adaptations to extreme activities such as spaceflight, expeditionary (polar, underwater, desert exploration, military deployments), emergency response services (e.g. firefighting), and impact sports (e.g. football). These will be discussed in the context of mental and occupational health, gender differences, and understanding the etiology of neuropsychiatric conditions such as, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), intracranial hypertension, etc. This course may be particularly interesting to Mind Brain and Behavior students pursuing careers in translational neuroscience, psychology, medicine, and related fields. features expert guest lecturers (e.g. NASA researchers, Antarctic expeditionary physicians, underwater explorers, etc.), demonstrations of unique experimental methodologies and equipment (e.g. ambulatory brain and physiologic monitoring) used in extreme environments, and potential visits to field / operational facilities.
This course focuses on the study of the neuro-endocrine interactions that determine the organizational and functional effects of hormones in the brain throughout development with a focus on the role of sex hormones (estradiol, testosterone) in the brain. The course will address a) the role of hormones in the sexual differentiation of the brain; b) the role of the brain in the maintenance of the body homeostasis through the regulation of the different endocrine axes; c) central control of sexual maturation (puberty); d) regulation of the hypothalamic neuronal networks by peripheral factors (e.g. metabolism, stress, environment, endocrine disruptors); e) effect of hormonal cues on behavior; f) senescence of the neuroendocrine systems (e.g. the hypothalamus after menopause). At the end of the course, the students will gain basic knowledge of the interactions between the brain and the endocrine system, and how sex hormones play a crucial role in the development and function of the brain throughout life. These developmental and functional effects of sex hormones in the brain are essential for the full understanding of neurobiological processes.
Course Description: Cancer is fundamentally a biological disease driven by genetic and cellular changes, yet its development and outcomes are shaped by a wide range of environmental, behavioral, and social influences. It is well understood that health behavior change, like targeting modifiable risk factors (i.e., tobacco use, obesity, alcohol consumption), can influence cancer prevention, treatment, and control. There is also a critical role of mind-body medicine in screening behaviors, medical treatment adherence, quality of life, symptom management, survivorship, and end-of-life care decision-making. However, growing research and debate now focus on whether psychosocial factors may influence cancer progression and survival through interactions with neural, endocrine, and immune systems. There appear to be two perspectives on this matter, one popular and one scientific, which draw on insights from oncology, biology, immunology, psychology, and neurology. This seminar will explore the concordance, opposition, and tensions between these perspectives. We will review the long history of these beliefs, potential underpinnings, cultural influences and implications, and what constitutes scientific evidence to support a belief. The seminar addresses these questions by integrating concepts and methods from molecular and cellular biology, neuroscience, immunology, psychology, and the history and philosophy of medicine. Rather than seeking a definitive answer to the course question, the seminar emphasizes rigorous evaluation of medical beliefs, competing interpretations of evidence, and the scientific reasoning used to support or challenge them.
Functional brain imaging has revolutionized the study of systems-level behavioral neuroscience and psychiatric disorders, through the ability to localize and characterize distributed brain activity directly associated with perception, cognition, emotion and behavior in disorders where there are not gross brain lesions. This seminar will introduce students to translational neuroimaging methods at the interface of neuroscience, psychology and medicine. It will cover recent and ongoing advances in our understanding of fronto-limbic-subcortical brain circuitry across the range of psychiatric disorders (e.g. mood disorders, anxiety disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, addictions). It will discuss new, emerging biological (as opposed to descriptive) taxonomies and conceptualizations of mental illness and its treatment. It will explore the implications of such knowledge for issues such as consciousness, meaning, free will, emotion, resilience, and religiosity. It will incorporate clinical observations, scientific data and readings, and examine future directions in brain-mind medicine.
Our understanding of the brain, mind, and behavior depends on the tools we use to observe them, so what can such tools tell us about these systems? This interdisciplinary course introduces the students to various tools utilized to better understand the logic behind, mechanism, application, strengths, and limitations of the major tools we use to evaluate neural structure and function, mental processes, and behavioral patterns. With a focus on tools, methods, and measures, the course will explore foundational readings and empirical studies. The course includes a description of various measures, such as neuroimaging, electrophysiology, neuropsychological and clinical measures, as well as behavioral assessments. Using lectures, presentations, discussions, debates, and group projects, the students will have an understanding of the theory and application of measuring the most important systems known to man: the brain, mind, and behaviors.
Constructing a map of the connections between the 86 billion neurons in the human brain has been a goal of neuroscience since the field originated. Connectomics research, which aims to understand how the brain is wired together into this map, has shown the human brain to be a complex network with the same properties that other complex networks exhibit. Much like our social networks, the world wide web, and our travel systems, the brain demonstrates organization along similar principles as these networks and can be studied using techniques adapted from network science. Using this "network neuroscience" approach has shown that the brain's gray matter is organized into a functional connectome comprised of modules called brain networks that orchestrate their functions to support our everyday activities. More recently, advances in another MRI technique called diffusion MRI have made it possible to study the organization of the brain’s white matter "information highways", or structural connectome, that transmit information from brain region-to-brain region, brain network-to-brain network. MRI-based connectomics is a rapidly growing field, with new methods and applications evolving at an incredibly fast pace and there are now numerous large-scale neuroimaging initiatives across the world that are aimed at mapping the human brain connectome. These studies aim to map the human brain connectome across the lifespan, from in utero to the oldest old, and in brain disorders such as mental illnesses, developmental disorders, neurological disorders and other health conditions. The goal of this class is to understand how MRI can be used to study the living human brain connectome and the latest advances these approaches have revealed in our understanding of the wiring of the brain. We will also dive into some of the large-scale neuroimaging datasets to see how we can leverage these open access resources for connectomics research. This course is designed for students in the MBB programs who are interested in learning about how we study brain connectivity and how the brain is organized, including those who are interested in neuroscience applications and brain disorders and those interested in bioinformatics/computer science/statistics/physics applications in neuroimaging. To unlock the “black box” nature of the sophisticated MRI methods used for connectomics research, we will learn the basics of the workhorse MRI connectomics methods, functional and diffusion MRI, from a conceptual perspective. We will learn how each of these techniques is used for connectomics studies and some key methodological and interpretational issues for each. Then we will focus on the brain’s connectome. We will discuss brain organization, including how to construct a brain graph as the mathematical embodiment of the brain’s connectome and how to evaluate the brain’s network properties using graph theory and other approaches, the brain networks that have been reported in the literature, and the links between structural and functional connectomes. We will do a survey of widely used open access tools for connectivity and connectome analyses, and open access connectome datasets with sample sizes of hundreds up to a hundred thousand, including the Human Connectome Lifespan and Disease Connectome studies, the ABCD study, and the UK Biobank. These datasets will also be used as hypothetical data sources for your final research projects. Last, we will discuss ethical, computational, and statistical issues when working with these large open access datasets.
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Why does it seem that some people are so resilient and content? This course looks at psychological and physical health from the perspective of Positive Psychology. The major focus will be on mindfulness theory and its relationship to stress/coping; illness/wellness; decision-making; and placebos. The medical model, the biosocial model, and a unified mind-body model will be compared to examine their role in becoming mindful and thus healthier, happier and less stressed.
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This laboratory methods course provides students with hands-on experience in a lab that focuses on language development in children. Students will engage in all aspects of the scientific process including experimental design, data collection, and analysis. Participants will work closely with a mentor in the lab and will participate in meetings where key questions and findings in the field are discussed.
In this hands-on lab course, students have the opportunity to participate in all aspects of psychological research, including experimental design, data collection, and data analysis. Each student will work closely with a graduate student or post-doctoral mentor. Topics of research are divided across cognitive and social psychology. Cognitive projects focus on the neuroscience of complex thought: Humans can understand and reason about an effectively infinite number of different ideas. How do our brains accomplish this? Social projects are applied work focused on promoting cooperation, conflict resolution, and improved social decision-making. Methods include fMRI, neural network modeling, and online and in-lab behavioral experiments.
Students work directly on a research project and get hands-on experience with neuroimaging and cognitive neuroscience techniques, including functional MRI. MRI laboratory training consists of safety, instruction on running the scanner, and paradigm design. In addition to laboratory work, students attend a weekly research seminar where ongoing and proposed research projects are discussed.
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Introduction to the study of psychological dysfunction. Focuses on abnormal behavior as it relates to the definition, etiology, and treatment of major symptom domains. This course will emphasize critical evaluation of the causes and mechanisms of mental illness, with special attention paid to how these disorders present clinically.
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Approximately 70% of people will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime. Yet, while some individuals will recover naturally, others will experience lasting effects on how they think, feel, and behave. Together we will explore the many ways humans adapt to adversity and consider reconceptualizing disorders that arise from traumatic and stressful events (e.g., trauma- and stressor-related disorders, personality disorders, anxiety, depression, substance use, and more). The course will also provide an expansive view of how people adapt to adversity, including natural recovery and post-traumatic growth. We will take a deep dive into understanding diagnostic criteria of trauma-related disorders (and the application of criteria across cultural groups) and explore why some people are more vulnerable to developing traumatic stress. We will also consider factors impacting recovery, evidence-based treatments for trauma-related disorders, and related controversies in the field.
How do infants first learn the sounds that make up their native language? By what process do babies begin to understand and assign meaning to words? What allows young children to intuitively grasp the complex rules of grammar? This course will explore these questions and more as we delve into the fascinating research on one of the fundamentally unique abilities of our species: learning language. Since young children understand more than they can say, we will also cover how researchers figure out what kids know, based on naturalistic recordings and short in-lab experiments. For psychology concentrators and students on the Cognitive Science track of affiliated departments under the Mind Brain Behavior initiative, this discussion-based seminar offers an in-depth examination of the complex yet foundational processes by which we master our very first forms of communication.
This course focuses on the impressive human cognitive capacity, asking what a mind is and how we can find out. We will cover great debates, methods, and foundational topics within Cognitive Science and Cognitive Psychology, spanning questions like how we think, decide, remember, talk, perceive, and make meaning. Students in this course will gain experience (a) reading and evaluating classic texts, cutting-edge empirical research, and popular science, and (b) learning analytic skills they can apply to understanding basic cognitive phenomena, and how they can be measured, described, or predicted at different levels of representation. This is a lecture course intended as a foundational course for Psychology concentrators but also intentionally accessible for the Cognitive Science-curious in related areas like linguistics, philosophy, computer science, neuroscience, education, and anthropology.
What is personality? Are we born with it? Can we change it? Are some personalities better than others? Are we good judges of other people’s personality? The answer to these questions (and more) is ... it depends! This course will provide you with an introduction to personality psychology - the study of the characteristic patterns of thought, emotion, and behavior, together with the psychological mechanisms - hidden or not - behind those patterns. This course considers the major theoretical, application, research, and assessment issues in the study of individual differences. We will also explore some of the more commonly used personality assessment measures and cultural influences on personality theory. Through readings and activities, you will gain a deeper understanding of the psychological forces that contribute to the uniqueness of each person, and hopefully, learn more about yourself in the process.
This course introduces students to the diversity of methods that social scientists use to answer questions about the social and political world. We survey both qualitative and quantitative approaches, and consider how to make the most of each at all stages of the research process, from exploring ideas, to collecting evidence, to communicating findings. Students learn how to conduct interviews and focus groups, use archives and primary sources creatively, and design interesting case studies. Students also learn how to conduct in-depth ethnographic observation, use an array of quantitative tools, run surveys, and understand the logic of experiments and causal inference. We consider how deeper epistemological commitments shape our methodological choices, and how politics and power shape the scientific communities in which we work. Course assignments help thesis-writers explore potential topics and prepare them to immediately conduct productive original research. Sectioning will be scheduled after enrollment. This class is designed for juniors concentrating in Social Studies; sophomores, seniors, and students from other concentrations should contact the instructor before petitioning to enroll.
What is care? Who cares? And who cares? This course considers ethnographic approaches to the question of care as it is structured, valued, and contested within capitalism. Beginning with social science that has positioned care as a human experience that relies on moral processes, the course contemplates the idea of the human and care as a moral project through labor theory. Integrating foundational texts on care with feminist approaches to caring labor, we will examine the question of care through gendered, racialized, and classed dynamics and divisions. We contemplate care as an object, question, and method in social science. We will engage critical social theory, ethnography, history, and multimodal scholarship in our coursework together. Key scholars will include Rhacel Salazar Parreñas, Evelyn Nakano Glenn, Maria De la Luz Ibarra, Nancy Fraser, Carla Freeman, Silvia Federici, Arlie Hochschild, and Viviana Zelizer. As crucial to our work together will be archiving the contemporary-producing ethnographic research papers on care as it is produced, practiced, and negotiated in our immediate social world. This is a junior tutorial.
In this tutorial, we will explore technology, technologies, and the technological as a genealogically unique point of departure for studying the relational forms and formats through which we come to understand the social and act socially. If the inheritance of Martin Heidegger inspires an approach to technology which takes it as an abstraction, as an index of modernity, as a modality of relation in which the world is captured as a resource, a broad range of work in the social and humanistic sciences explores the how of technical activity, relations, and interactions. What happens when we see air as media, cities as computers, screens as culture, or race as infrastructure? What are the stakes of doing so? When we attempt to define technology, when we list examples of technological phenomena, what is the question we are seeking to answer? This course will center methodological experimentation, drawing on anthropology, geography, urban studies, science and technology studies, media studies, architecture, and art practice as well as guest lectures and workshops. This is a junior tutorial.
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The seminar explores the interplay of the arts, political culture, and civic life. It will draw on studies in art, history, political philosophy, literature, sociology, and photography. Among the questions we will address are: How is historical memory constructed, and what are the competing forces that shape it? What is the significance of public apologies, and does solidarity create moral responsibilities for historical injustices? How is cultural domination exerted, and how is it resisted? In what ways does rhetoric shape politics, and what role does it play in national narratives? Why does the contest to control images loom so large in politics, the media, and in our everyday lives? This is a junior tutorial.
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Liberal deliberative ethics often assumes that people with different perspectives can, through dialogue, come to agree-or at minimum, to understand one another. Yet recent phenomena, including rising polarization, the spread of bizarre conspiracy theories, and the proliferation of online misinformation, challenge this assumption. They raise the possibility of differences in perspective that are irreconcilable and non-eliminable. How should democratic societies respond to the proliferation of seemingly incompatible belief systems throughout the public? And, what does it mean to be an informed citizen in this fragmented informational environment? This tutorial examines these questions by combining empirical research on public opinion with theoretical approaches from social and political epistemology, ordinary language philosophy, and political theory. This course invites students to explore alternative models of democratic deliberation that do not hinge on restoring a possibly mythical condition of factual consensus but instead view shared understanding as an outcome of active engagement.
This course introduces students to key historical episodes and theories of class formation within the history of capitalism primarily in, but not limited to, the United States. It will explore the social, economic, and political dynamics of class formations and capitalist transitions through historical readings, archival sources, and competing theoretical frameworks that familiarize students with methodological disputes within labor history and the broader political stakes of those disputes. It considers not only the history of labor unions, but also how slavery and unwaged labor, racial and gender ideology, finance and banking, and informal markets and the law have shaped the history of work and labor movements. Throughout the course, students will explore the connection between material and ideological change over time from the abolition of slavery and industrialization to deindustrialization and the demise of labor union power. Students will thus be guided through the social history of how class is formed, decomposed, and recomposed with particular attention to the shifting conceptual vocabularies through which social relations are understood, contested, and changed. This is a junior tutorial.
How do we figure out who we are and, arguably more importantly, how do we get things done? Can we theorize a self or a group identity without relying on essentialist or perhaps harmful beliefs? What makes people stick together and what makes things fall apart? We will learn from theoretical debates in feminist, queer, Black, democratic, radical (left and right), postcolonial, and disability studies on questions of agency, solidarity, and liberation. We examine the kinds of solidarity and coalition that can exist across class-lines, across the world, from many different lenses. This course focuses on theoretical and historical methodology. This is a junior tutorial.
A common refrain both in the public discourse and within sociology courses is that race and ethnicity are social constructs. But what does it mean for race and ethnicity to be socially constructed, and what is the difference between those constructs in the first place? Students (and faculty), so ensconced within our disciplinary silo, often assume the social constructivist position is a settled matter. Empirical work demonstrates it is not. This course exposes students to debates about how sociologists conceptualize race and ethnicity and how those constructs are used as both tools and outcomes of analysis, focusing on quantitative methodology. We begin first with laying the theoretical foundation for race and ethnicity as ways of seeing the world-forms of “vision and division”-before evaluating the use of quantitative approaches to their study, focusing on examples across ethnoracial populations in the United States. The course has two core learning objectives: (1) expand students’ theoretical and empirical toolkits with respect to race and ethnicity and (2) develop the skills necessary to move from crafting a research question to writing an original piece of empirical scholarship. This is a junior tutorial.
How does politics shape our health? In this multidisciplinary class, students explore the historical origins of institutions like Medicare and Medicaid, the FDA, and the NIH. We seek to explain the politics of why American healthcare policy differs so dramatically from its peers, with narrowly targeted public programs and a dominant private insurance sector. Students learn how epidemiologists and clinicians today think about social determinants of health, especially racial disparities in care and outcomes. We conduct deep dives into topics like the sociology of mental illness, maternal mortality, the Affordable Care Act, Covid-19, and the medical ecosystem here in Boston. We consider normative questions, like how to balance cultural competency or patient autonomy with the medical mission to provide care and prevent harm. Finally, students also observe how public health researchers make use of social science methods, from the ethnographic case study to the clinical trial. This is a junior tutorial.
This seminar introduces major approaches to empires in social sciences, with a particular focus on the global and postcolonial turns and their critiques. We will discuss canonical works of postcolonialism, subaltern studies, and the Black Radical Tradition together with contemporary empirical work on empires. This seminar aims to 1) develop a comprehensive understanding of the conceptual toolkit of postcolonial thought and the Black Radical Tradition while addressing the sociopolitical contexts which gave rise to them, 2) compare postcolonial approaches to other major paradigms of anti-imperialist thought, and 3) survey approaches to empires and borderlands that do not conform to the categories of postcolonial thought. We will explore imperial legacies in social thought, political organization, and state formation from an interdisciplinary perspective.
States regulate sex, sexual violence, sexual taboos, sexual identities, and even how we talk about sex. In this junior tutorial we will explore how - and why. We study the role of sexuality in the state’s core monopolies, notably its monopolies on the legitimate use of force and on the capacity to administer human populations and movements. To this end, we examine instances when the state deploys sexual intimacies and sexual violence as tools for establishing nations, distributing citizenship entitlements, and jockeying for political legitimacy. By attending to the topic transnationally we will gain a better understanding of sexuality, statecraft, and the histories of their entanglement. This is a junior tutorial.
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Experiments are a powerful tool for researchers interested in causal inference. This course will introduce students to the logic, design, implementation, and analysis of experiments in sociological research. We will begin by developing an understanding of how experimental research designs can address some of the central threats to causal identification. The course will then cover the relative advantages and disadvantages of different experimental approaches, techniques for analyzing experimental data, strategies for dealing with the challenges that often arise with experiments, combining experiments with other methods of inquiry, and current debates and frontiers in experimental research. Throughout the course, the role of experiments in developing and testing social theory will be emphasized. The course will culminate with students developing an experimental research design related to their own scholarly interests.
Cross-class fraternal associations were long central to African American civil society. Using unique primary sources as well as secondary works, this research seminar explores the development of a range of fraternal orders that flourished from the mid-1800s through the Jim Crow and Civil Rights eras. Case studies include the largest U.S.-centered transnational associations; fraternal groups founded and led by Black women; and the small number of groups that tried to include both Blacks and whites. Special attention paid to relations of Black fraternal orders to churches, businesses, unions, the NAACP, and other civil rights endeavors.
This course covers classical works in organization theory and surveys the main paradigms that are now active in the field. In addition, we read works from business historians, economists, comparativists, and critical theorists that have shaped sociological thinking about organizations.
This class is an introduction to ethnographic methods in sociology. Ethnographers learn about the social world by doing immersive firsthand research, spending time alongside people and watching events unfold in their lives. In this class, each student will conduct their own semester-long ethnographic research project. We will also read recent ethnographic books about topics like a freshman college dorm, “drill” rappers in Chicago, an Orthodox Jewish neighborhood in Los Angeles, sex workers in Vietnam, and more. By reading these books and doing ethnographic research ourselves, we will learn about unique ways that ethnographers gather and present sociological evidence. We will also discuss the ethical questions that ethnographers must grapple with and consider how ethnographies can teach lessons about the social world that apply beyond the narrow cases they examine.
What is society? What is the role of the individual in it? How can we change our societies? This course introduces students to the field of sociology. By surveying social theory as well as empirical studies, students acquire what C. Wright Mills calls the "sociological imagination": the ability to think beyond our personal lives and to connect the experiences of individuals with large social structures. We examine common-sense assumptions about culture, politics, history, and psychology, and empower students to replace them with evidence-based reasoning. This gateway course introduces students to the intellectual insights and analytical tools of Sociology across the subfields of race, class, gender, politics, violence, culture, and inequality. Students are trained to critically analyze the evidence and research methods used in sociological research, and to communicate sociological ideas powerfully and succinctly through effective policy writing. Whether you plan to become a doctor who understands the social determinants of health, an education expert seeking to improve US schools, a not-for-profit worker supporting community organization, or a corporate consultant looking to improve organizational efficiency, the foundational concepts and research practices of sociology will empower you to understand, analyze-and maybe even change-our social world.
How do social scientists know what they know? This course strives to address that question by introducing students to the research methods used by sociologists and social scientists to understand the world around them. Key topics covered in this course include: 1) How to link social theory with empirical inquiry; 2) How to identify the relative strengths and weaknesses of different methodological approaches, such as surveys, experiments, ethnography, and in-depth interviewing; 3) How to critically understand and evaluate the claims made by social scientists about their research findings; 4) How to match research questions with appropriate methodological approaches; and 5) How to conceptualize and design a research project. Students should leave the course with the ability to evaluate and design empirical research about the social world.
This course examines the evolution of the modern organization, focusing on changing approaches to corporate strategy and to managing employees. We read both social scientific analyses and Harvard Business School cases to trace the history of management, from the harsh principles of the “drive system” to the latest theories of how “work teams” improve productivity and how focusing on a firm’s “core competence” improves the bottom line. The course covers research examining the efficiency and the equity of current corporate practice.
This course introduces students to the complicated, conflictual, and often contradictory theoretical origins of sociology as a discipline. We begin by reading the standard sociological “canon”-Marx, Weber, and Durkheim-and interrogating why their ideas were canonized over others. We then read scholars who have been historically “written out” of the social sciences to evaluate their important, yet historically underappreciated, contributions. By the end of the course, students should (1) master key concepts in classical sociological thought, (2) understand what it means to theorize, and what makes for good theory, and (3) learn to critically interrogate the relationship between power, standpoint, and the production of knowledge.
Why do we buy the things we buy? From the clothes we wear to the food we eat to the guilty pleasures we hide, where do our tastes come from and how do they become symbols of belonging or exclusion? This class examines consumption, the act of shopping, buying, and using material culture. Consumption, we will see, is more than just a simple economic transaction; it helps us construct identities, signal status, navigate relationships, and reproduce inequalities. Over the course of the semester, we will explore the tension between consumer agency-the joy and creativity of self-expression-and the structural forces limiting that agency-mass marketing, global inequality, environmental destruction, and more. Key themes we will discuss include conspicuous consumption, cultural capital, symbolic boundaries, "prosumption," and the aestheticization of daily life.
How can novels help us think sociologically about memory, power, and social change? To answer this question, this course treats narrative fiction as a site of social theory. We will read works of fiction that span different times, places, and crises-from early twentieth-century America and the legacy of genocide to the plantation past of U.S. slavery, small-town horror, postcolonial Egypt, and a biotechnological dystopia. Alongside these texts, we will study contemporary sociological theories of generations and “zeitgeist,” collective memory and trauma, freedom and domination, discipline and biopower, stigma and self-presentation, and postcolonialism and collective mobilization. Through close reading, discussion, and analytical writing, students will use scenes from these novels as empirical “data” for sociological interpretation. Assignments will ask students to read fiction not as a mere illustration of theory, but as a mode of theorizing in its own right. No prior experience with social theory is expected or required. The course is intended for anyone interested in thinking seriously about fiction and society.
Professors Joscha Legewie and Robert Sampson are organizing the “Urban Data Lab” (UDL) to support research by students and postdocs examining the urban condition in the 21st century. The emphasis is on the active discussion of theoretical and empirical research that is in progress, in addition to occasional discussion sessions on selected readings to be determined by the group.
Black people around the world have long drawn connections between their struggles and those of other marginalized groups, forming powerful solidarities that cross national and cultural boundaries. This course explores how Africans, Afro-Caribbeans, and African Americans have built transnational alliances for a range of political and cultural purposes, with particular attention to the roles that women, and gendered forms of resistance have played in shaping these connections. From anti-colonial movements to Black feminist internationalism, we will explore how gender and sexuality shape the ways solidarity is imagined, performed, and sustained. Through case studies in visual art, music, and literature, the course investigates the histories, aesthetics, and ideas that have animated Black transnational movements, and how these expressions challenge dominant narratives of power, identity, and liberation.
The course will explore the theoretical articulation of sex, gender, and sexuality in twentieth-century theory, particularly in psychoanalysis, philosophy, and feminist and queer theory. Readings will include texts by Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir, Jacques Lacan, Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Julia Kristeva, Monique Wittig, Judith Butler, Moira Gatens, and others. Jointly offered in the Divinity School as HDS 2692.
The GenderSci Lab supports graduate students working at the intersection of the sciences and gender studies. The lab offers interdisciplinary training in theories and methods for the critical intersectional study of sex/gender in biology, medicine, public health, and the social sciences. Students participate in collaborative research, contribute to peer-reviewed publications, and engage in public outreach.
An introduction to the radical American social change movements of the 1960s and 70s. We will examine the specific historical conditions that allowed each of these movements to develop, the interconnections and contradictions among them, and why they ultimately lost political power. Along with historical analysis, we will examine primary source materials, manifestos, autobiographies, and media coverage from the period, as well as relevant films, music, and fiction. The class will be a mixture of lecture and discussion.
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As members of a “free market” economy, we often think of ourselves as autonomous agents in a marketplace of endless consumer choices. We might think the consumer choices we make are straightforward reflections of our rational considerations of cost for use value. Yet the billions spent each year on market research reveal that consumers often behave irrationally when faced with a choice of similar products that carry different logos. This course offers conceptual tools and historical context to help us respond in a perceptive and (self) critical manner to effects of the consumer culture(s) we all inhabit. The concept of the “fetish” has a rich past that we will spend time excavating in the interest of grasping its influence as a driver of consumer desire.
The course is organized to support student success in writing a junior research paper. We will read a variety of texts and interrogate closely how topics are approached in literary and cultural studies, in social and historical studies, and in life-sciences, in order to become prepared to discuss critically different methodological approaches and theoretical frames. Students will also work in small groups with a tutor, who will guide them through their research and writing on the particular topic of their interest.
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From matriarchs to monarchs, spiritual mediums to anti-colonial activists, African women have always been central figures in the histories of their societies. But who is defined as a woman in African societies and when and where does this matter? In this course we will explore the idea of womanhood across various African communities and think through the ways that the category “woman” changes overtime and functions differently in relation to other social categories like class, age, and religion. Using these key concepts, we will also examine the ways African women participated in, responded to, and contested major historical processes such as slavery, colonialism, and decolonization.
The course will explore the theoretical articulation of sex, gender, and sexuality in twentieth-century theory, particularly in psychoanalysis, philosophy, and feminist and queer theory. Readings may include texts by Sigmund Freud, Simone de Beauvoir, Jacques Lacan, Luce Irigaray, Michel Foucault, Gayle Rubin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Hortense Spillers, Judith Butler, and others.
How does performance shape gender-especially as it intersects with race and sexuality? And how can gendered performances change the world, creating a new future? “Gender and Performance” engages different-and often conflicting-perspectives to answer these questions. In the first half of the course, we encounter concepts and theoretical tools that enable us to look anew at familiar performances (including those in media, sports, religious and secular rituals, theatre, activism, and our everyday self-presentation). In the second half, we examine activist performances from across a political spectrum. We ask, what forms of performance-based activism are effective, and why?
Is the ocean warming? Where and why is sea level rising? Where does the freshwater from Arctic ice melting go? Using real-world examples, this course will provide an overview of why and how we measure the ocean, focusing primarily on its physical properties. It will cover sensors, instruments and platforms, best field practices in data collection and calibration, fieldwork organization implementation, and ocean data analysis. During the course, students will build, test, and calibrate an ocean profiling instrument. Students will participate in a one-day research cruise where they will collect data using both the instruments they built and other traditional oceanographic instruments.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course asks: What makes us behaviorally and psychologically human? In what ways are humans similar to other species and in what ways are we different? What are the evolutionary origins of the behavioral and psychological features found across human societies including parental love, sibling rivalry, pair-bonding, incest aversion, social status, war, norms, altruism, religion, language, and cooking? At the same time, how can we account for the immense diversity we observe in behavior and psychology across time and across societies? Tackling these questions within a broad evolutionary framework, the course will draw on the latest insights and evidence from evolutionary biology, primatology, anthropological ethnography, neuroscience, genetics, linguistics, economics and psychology. We’ll fully contextualize contemporary behavior by examining studies of non-human primates, especially chimpanzees, and a broad breadth of human variation, based on comparative studies of hunter-gatherers, herders, agriculturalists and-the most unusual of all-people from industrialized societies. We’ll also consider how cultural evolution has shaped our genetic evolution, both over our species’ deep history and in more recent millennia. Along the way, we’ll consider how understanding the evolutionary origins of human behavior, psychology and culture informs how we approach contemporary issues such as patriarchy, polygamous marriage, sex differences, child abuse, mating preferences, homosexuality, racism, psychological variation among populations and the use of oral contraceptives.
The overarching theme is the Felix Klein dictum that places symmetry groups at the center of geometry. Topics include: affine geometry and symmetry types, smooth manifolds and Lie groups, Frobenius theorem; classical curves and surfaces; fiber bundles, principal bundles, connections, geodesics, curvature, torsion; Riemannian manifolds, Levi-Civita connection, Riemann curvature tensor; Gauss-Bonnet-Chern theorem; more Riemannian geometry.
We recommend that you take Physics 15a, Physics 16, or Physics 19 (or you have written permission from the Head Tutor in Physics). Mathematics preparation at least at the level of Math 21a is a prerequisite. Students wishing to take Math 21a concurrently must obtain written permission from the instructor. Vector calculus (divergence, gradient, curl) is used extensively in this course.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This junior tutorial introduces students to research at the forefront of astrophysics, through individual research projects guided by astronomers at the Center for Astrophysics. Students meet weekly for a discussion of reading materials provided by a guest speaker, and to provide updates on their individual research projects. The course culminates in a written report and an oral presentation (open to all scientists at the CfA). Offered in both Fall and Spring.
We will discuss the big questions of astronomy that have engaged scientists and the general public alike for centuries: How did the universe begin? What is the ultimate fate of the Sun? How do planets form? Is there life outside the Solar system? Students will engage with these questions through readings and problems based on contemporary questions and cutting edge research in astronomy and astrophysics. We will discuss how astronomy has evolved to use a combination of observations, laboratory experiments, and physical theory to try to understand the vast and dynamic cosmos we inhabit.
The interstellar medium (ISM) is the reservoir of gas and dust between stars. It is the nursery of new stars and planets, and the depository of energy and material from stellar winds and supernovae. This course will treat the often extreme physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium under its observed range of temperatures, densities, and radiation fields. It will cover the processes that govern the interactions between the ISM, stars and their host galaxies, including star and planet formation, and feedback from stellar deaths. The observational and laboratory methods and results that underpin the theories of interstellar environments will be highlighted.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
In this course we will learn the basic tools of modern astronomical research, including telescopes, detectors, imaging, spectroscopy, and common software. Emphasis will be placed on both the theory behind telescopes and their use, and hands-on experience with real data. Using this basic knowledge we will analyze science-level astronomical data from a wide range of telescopes and review the basic properties of stars, galaxies, and other astronomical objects of interest. The course includes a trip to the F. L. Whipple Observatory on Mount Hopkins, Arizona, to gather data with various telescopes.
A survey of the rapidly-evolving field of the detection and characterization of planets orbiting other stars. Topics includes proto-stellar collapse and star formation; protoplanetary disk structure; models of planet formation; methods of detecting extrasolar planets; composition and physical structure of planets; planetary atmospheres; habitable zones; greenhouse effect; and biosignatures.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Stars are the basic building blocks of the universe, and they are responsible for the production of most elements via nucleosynthesis. This course covers the energy generation and transport in stars, stellar atmospheres and radiative transfer, stellar evolution, asteroseismology & variability, compact objects and supernovae.
Fluid and gas dynamics with applications drawn from astrophysical phenomena. Topics include: kinetic theory, diffusive effects, incompressible fluids, inviscid and viscous flows, boundary layer theory, accretion disks, fluid instabilities, turbulence, convection, gas dynamics, linear (sound) waves, method of characteristics, Riemann invariants, supersonic flow, non-linear waves, shocks, similarity solutions, blast waves, radiative shocks, ionization fronts, magnetohygrodynamics, hydromagnetic shocks, dynamos, gravitational collapse, principles of plasma physics, Landau damping, computational approaches, stability criteria, particle based (Lagrangian) methods, adaptive mesh refinement, radiation hydrodynamics.
A survey course of statistical and data-driven methodologies widely utilized in astrophysics. Topics will include introductory Bayesian statistics, unsupervised methods (dimensionality reduction, density estimation, clustering), supervised methods (classification, prediction, inference), and deep learning techniques (neural networks, generative methods). This course will focus on both the theory behind these methodologies and their application to astronomical datasets. This course is open to undergraduate and graduate students.
This semester we will lay out a plausible story of how life emerged on Earth from chemistry that led to the synthesis of molecular building blocks, which in turn self-assembled to form cells. I will do that by reviewing two recent papers - the required reading for this course [1,2]. Each week we will also use, as necessary, relevant papers to the topics to be discussed. The list of topics is enclosed in the syllabus, as are some of the papers.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Emphasis of this course is effective scientific communication. Students will develop skills in writing and critiquing grants and scientific papers, learn about the grant application process, and present seminars that focus on structure, language, and content appropriate for technical and lay audiences. Topics covered will apply to research in the biological sciences across various disciplines related to public health and medicine.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), Langevin Dynamics, and stable diffusion alongside foundational linear algebra applications through QR and Cholesky Decomposition, and (3) dynamic programming. Beyond the algorithm aspects, the course emphasizes practical skill development, from coding proficiency and essential best practices to the use of computational tools such as Cluster and Linux environments, Git for version control, and techniques for reproducible research using RMarkdown and Jupyter Notebooks. It also covers software development practices with a focus on developing R packages, visualization and web design to effectively communicate findings, and exploring innovative coding approaches, including automation through advanced tools like ChatGPT. This comprehensive course is designed to equip students with the necessary tools and knowledge for navigating the complexities of statistical computing, with a strong emphasis on practical skills like reproducible research, effective coding practices, and the utilization of modern computational tools.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
General principles of the Bayesian approach, prior distributions, hierarchical models and modeling techniques, approximate inference, Markov chain Monte Carlo methods, model assessment and comparison. Bayesian approaches to GLMMs, multiple testing, nonparametrics, clinical trials, survival analysis.
Advanced topics in statistical inference. Limit theorems, multivariate delta method, properties of maximum likelihood estimators, saddle point approximations, asymptotic relative efficiency, robust and rank-based procedures, resampling methods, nonparametric curve estimation.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Introduction to genomic data, computational methods for interpreting these data, and survey of current functional genomics research. Covers biological data processing, programming for large datasets, high-throughput data (sequencing, proteomics, expression, etc.), and related publications.
An advanced course in linear models, including both classical theory and methods for high dimensional data. Topics include theory of estimation and hypothesis testing, multiple testing problems and false discovery rates, cross validation and model selection, regularization and the LASSO, principal components and dimension reduction, and classification methods. Background in matrix algebra and linear regression required.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Introductory course in the analysis of Gaussian and categorical data. The general linear regression model, ANOVA, robust alternatives based on permutations, model building, resampling methods (bootstrap and jackknife), contingency tables, exact methods, logistic regression.
BIOSTAT 233 is an intermediate-level graduate course in the analysis of continuous, categorical, and time-to-event response data, with a focus on regression modeling as a tool for data analysis. While most of the presentation will be from the frequentist perspective, estimation and inference from the Bayesian perspective will be also be presented for select topics. Specific topics include: Heteroskedastic continuous response data; Theory of generalized linear models; Analysis of binary response data; Analysis of count response data; Analysis of multinomial response data; Analysis of time-to-event response data; Basis methods.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Biophysical topics emerging from special interest research not normally available in established curriculum. The 2026-27 year's course (Spring 2027) is focused across 4 topic blocks: Making Sense of High-Dimensional Data; Chemical Sensing from Detection to Decision; Single Molecule Biophysics; and Translational Initiation Factors & Protein Synthesis.
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Internships are considered an integral part of a student's educational experience and should be viewed as a path toward a student's career development. As such, approved internships can receive academic credit via this course number. Students taking part in internships carried out during the summer should include this course as part of the following Fall semester course enrollment.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Limited to students writing a thesis in CPB. Students are required to submit a written proposal to the CPB undergraduate office in the summer for review by the Board of Tutors in Biochemical Sciences for enrollment that fall. Only those students whose thesis proposals are approved are eligible to enroll. Ordinarily may not be taken as a fifth course. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Students must complete basic laboratory safety training and other safety training required by the host lab prior to starting work.
Limited to students writing a thesis in CPB. Students are required to submit a written proposal to the CPB undergraduate office in the summer for review by the Board of Tutors in Biochemical Sciences for enrollment that fall. Only those students whose thesis proposals are approved are eligible to enroll. Ordinarily may not be taken as a fifth course. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Students must complete basic laboratory safety training and other safety training required by the host lab prior to starting work.
91 is research for credit. It cannot be taken as a fifth course. To be eligible to enroll, you must have a Harvard-affiliated principal investigator agree to mentor you for the semester. For this reason, students must reach out to labs and interview with labs ahead of the start of the semester. Students are expected to work an average of 15 hours/week during term time. Please note, this course is only open to CPB concentrators.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The Physical Sciences hold the key to solving unprecedented problems at the intersection of science, technology, and an array of rapidly emerging global scale challenges. The course emphasizes a molecular scale understanding of energy and entropy; free energy in equilibria, acid/base reactivity, and electrochemistry; molecular bonding and kinetics; catalysis in organic and inorganic systems; the union of quantum mechanics, nanostructures, and photovoltaics; and the analysis of nuclear energy. Case studies are used both to develop quantitative reasoning and to directly link these principles to global strategies.
Open to a limited number of chemistry concentrators who are accepted as research students. To be eligible to enroll, you must have a Harvard-affiliated principal investigator agree to mentor you for the semester. For this reason, students must reach out to labs ahead of the start of the semester. Before registering for the course, please obtain written permission of the professor to do research for credit in their lab by emailing them copying Dr. Gregg Tucci (tucci@fas.harvard.edu)and Dr. Lu Wang (wang29@fas.harvard.edu). At the time when you petition to join the course on My.Harvard, please write again in the comment the professor’s name. Must be taken Sat/Unsat.Students must complete basic laboratory safety training and other safety training required by the host lab prior to starting work.
Research under the direction of, or approved by, a member of the faculty of the Department of Chemistry. Open to a limited number of chemistry concentrators who are accepted as research students. To be eligible to enroll, you must have a Harvard-affiliated principal investigator agree to mentor you for the semester. For this reason, students must reach out to labs ahead of the start of the semester. Before registering for the course, please obtain written permission of the professor to do research for credit in their lab by emailing them copying Dr. Gregg Tucci (tucci@fas.harvard.edu)and Dr. Lu Wang (wang29@fas.harvard.edu). At the time when you petition to join the course on My.Harvard, please write again in the comment the professor’s name. Must be taken Sat/Unsat.
Research under the direction of, or approved by, a member of the faculty of the Department of Chemistry. This is a junior tutorial. Open to a limited number of chemistry concentrators who are accepted as research students. To be eligible to enroll, you must have a Harvard-affiliated principal investigator agree to mentor you for the semester. For this reason, students must reach out to labs ahead of the start of the semester. Before registering for the course, please obtain written permission of the professor to do research for credit in their lab by emailing them copying Dr. Gregg Tucci (tucci@fas.harvard.edu)and Dr. Lu Wang (wang29@fas.harvard.edu). At the time when you petition to join the course on My.Harvard, please write again in the comment the professor’s name. Must be taken Sat/Unsat.
This course covers theoretical background and practical hands-on applications of modern computational atomistic methods used to understand and design properties of advanced functional materials. Topics include classical interatomic potentials and machine learning methods, quantum first-principles electronic structure models based on wave functions and density functional theory, Monte Carlo sampling and molecular dynamics simulations of phase transitions and free energies, fluctuations and transport properties. Applications include atomistic and electronic effects in materials for energy conversion and storage, catalysis, alloys, polymers, and low-dimensional materials.
Fundamental concepts in genetics and genomics forming a critical foundation for biology approached from two perspectives: (1) as a body of knowledge pertaining to genetic transmission, function, mutation, and evolution in eukaryotes and prokaryotes; and (2) as an experimental approach providing a toolkit for the study of biological processes such as development and behavior. Topics include structure, function, transmission, linkage, mutation, and manipulation of genes; genetic approaches in experimental studies of biological processes; and analysis of genomes in individuals and populations. Related ethical issues also discussed include genetically modified organisms, gene therapy, genetic testing, personalized medicine, and genetic privacy.
This course takes a deep dive into the anatomy of the human body. We explore the structure, function, and evolution of the muscular, skeletal, nervous, circulatory, digestive, and reproductive systems using a combination of lectures and small-group teaching. Students also have the option to study anatomy in the traditional way by viewing human cadaver prosections at Harvard Medical School. HEB 55 fulfills the anatomy/physiology requirement for Human Biology, Behavior, and Evolution and is an excellent foundation for students pursuing research in the department, those who plan to attend medical school, or students who are simply curious about the human body and want to know what the different parts are named and how they came to be.
Supervised independent laboratory research focusing on discovering the developmental genetic and genomic mechanisms that control musculo-skeletal development in the context of human evolutionary anatomy. Students will be conducting research in Professor Terry Capellini's Developmental and Evolutionary Genetics Lab.
Archaeological science is the application of scientific techniques to study the human past. Methods in archaeological science build upon core concepts and methods in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences and use them in surprising and exciting ways to answer a wide range of questions, including: - How do we measure time? How do you date a stone tool? a bone? a pot? - Who were the Neanderthals? When were they last alive, and what happened to them? - What did the earliest farmers eat? How do we know? - Where was maize domesticated and how did it spread throughout the Americas? - Where did dairying begin and how did it transform Bronze Age Eurasia? - What caused the Black Death? Where did it come from? Did it exist in prehistory? - How do pathogens emerge and evolve? - How does our knowledge of the past inform our future? This course offers an introduction to eight major areas of archaeological science: (1) relative and absolute dating, (2) human osteology, (3) paleoethnobotany and micro remains, (4) stable isotopes, (5) organic residue analysis, (6) zooarchaeology and ZooMS, (7) proteomics, and (8) paleogenomics. Students will gain an understanding of the history of the field and its future directions, the method and theory behind how different tools and techniques work, and how archaeological science is transforming archaeology today. During the laboratory sections students will have practical session on each topic and engage in a semester long experiment determining taxonomic identifications and stable isotope values from archaeological animal bones.
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This class requires students to enroll in an untimed, placeholder section during registration and to submit time preferences as listed on the course website. Weekly section consists of discussion (75min) and lab (75min) at one assigned section time (150min total). Students will be asked to submit their preferred section times in advance before the end of registration. For more information about the section assignment process and how to submit time preferences, please see the course website. Sections will be assigned in my.harvard by April 24 for returning students and by Aug 21 for incoming students. This course, in combination with Life Sciences 1b, constitutes an integrated introduction to the Life Sciences.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
What genetic changes in the human lineage contributed to the evolution of the human brain? This class provides a survey of key topics, including principles learned from the study of evolutionary genetics in other organisms, genetics and genomics approaches applied to compare humans and other mammals, and the current major questions and challenges in the field. We will also examine how genetic changes during human evolution contribute to neurological disease susceptibility in modern humans. This seminar course will include lectures and critical paper discussions, and students will formulate a research proposal as a final project.
What is metabolism and how does it affect our lives? This course investigates human metabolism through several levels of organization and uses evolutionary theory to explore the unique metabolism of our species. We will establish the foundations of molecular and cellular metabolism, integrate that knowledge into an organismic model, and tie in ecology and the evolution of metabolism within primates and the human lineage. Throughout the course we will make connections to metabolic dysfunction and disease, and their rising salience in modern health.
Do you see squares or circles in the image above? People from societies that are Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic (WEIRD) often see only squares, while those from other societies see only circles. If you squint, you might glimpse the circles between the squares. People from different places literally see the world differently. This, the Coffer illusion, represents the tip of an iceberg of cultural variation in how people across societies think, reason, feel and perceive.
A first course in the mechanical sciences that introduces elements of continuum mechanics and explains how materials and structures stretch, bend, twist, shake, buckle, and break. Definitions of stress and strain. Strain-displacement relations. Stress-strain behavior of materials. Torsion, beam theory with applications to beam deflections, buckling, and energy methods. Statically determinate and indeterminate structures. Three laboratory sessions required. Strong emphasis on analytical skills and mathematics.
Permission of instructor. Field programs are selected individually by students with the advice and approval of the instructor. An upper level field course at another university can be substituted with approval of the instructor. Students must notify the instructor and Academic Programs Manager of intention to enroll by the course registration deadline of the preceding term.
The course provides an overview of Earth’s energy resources, with emphasize on the factors that control their global distributions and uses in our society. Lectures and labs will emphasize methods used to identify and exploit resources, as well as the environmental impact of these operations. Topics include: coal and acid rain; oil & natural gas, photochemical smog, oil spills; unconventional fossil resources (shale gas, tar sands); greenhouse gas emissions and climate; nuclear power and radioactive hazards; solar, hydroelectric, tidal, and geothermal power; energy storage (methane, hydrogen); and key materials (rare earth metals, lithium) required for the energy transition. Labs will emphasize datasets and tools (drilling methods, satellite remote sensing data, and subsurface imaging techniques) for discovering and developing resources, and assessing and mitigating environmental impacts.
The laws of thermodynamics. Equilibrium and spontaneous transformations in systems of variable chemical composition. Components, phase rule and petrogenetic grids. Calculation of phase diagrams. Applications to cosmochemistry, igneous and metamorphic petrology, and environmental geochemistry.
This course will provide formal mentorship in a variety of skills essential for an academic career in geosciences. Students will be guided through modules that provide practical tools to improve strategies for reading, paper writing, proposal writing, teaching, giving research seminars, informal networking, and peer review. Peer-to-peer feedback and group exercises will be used in addition to typical formats such as written assignments and oral presentations. The units are designed to complement the curriculum of graduate students as they prepare for the qualifying exam.
Senior honors candidates must take at least one term of this course (fall or spring) if writing a thesis; an oral presentation is required. To enroll, students must submit a registration form, which includes permission of their faculty sponsor, to the Academic Programs Manager.
Methods of interpreting complex geologic structures and subsurface fluid reservoirs for applications in regional tectonics, seismology, hazard assessment, and geoengineering. Students will complete projects using 3D CAD and other geologic modeling tools, with various geologic and geophysical datasets. Applications to earthquake science and hazard assessment, and subsurface energy production, storage, and carbon sequestration are emphasized.
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Usually intended for junior or senior concentrators in Earth and Planetary Sciences; open to sophomore concentrators under some circumstances. To enroll, students must submit a registration form, which includes permission of their faculty sponsor, to the Academic Programs Manager.
Permission of instructor. Field programs are selected individually by students with the advice and approval of the instructor. Students must notify the instructor and Academic Programs Manager of intention to enroll by the course registration deadline of the preceding term. This course fulfills the EPS sub-discipline requirement of either Climate, Atmosphere, and Oceans, or Geobiology, Geochemistry, and Earth History, or Geology, Geophysics, and Planetary Science.
Chemical and physical processes determining the composition of the atmosphere and its implications for air pollution, climate, and life on Earth. Emphasis is on the construction of engineering models and the application of chemical principles to understand and address current environmental issues. Nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon cycles. Climate forcing by greenhouse gases and aerosols. Stratospheric ozone. Oxidizing power of the atmosphere. Methane. Surface air pollution: aerosols and ozone. Deposition to ecosystems: acid rain, nitrogen, mercury.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A laboratory course that immerses students in a dynamic project-based research environment. Participate in experimental projects directly linked with ongoing faculty research. Students select a project from the following research tracks: neurobiology, microbial sciences, cell biology, and synthetic biology. New projects, including some in other research fields, are offered every term. In a highly collaborative atmosphere, students form a fully-functional and diverse research group based on the sharing of ideas and progress reports between projects. The spring microbiology project is part of the "genomes to Biomes" series.
This is an intensive two-semester, double course that introduces the natural sciences as an integrated whole to students who have a very strong interest in science. Our goal is to teach students how to solve scientific problems by drawing methods and concepts from biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. The course uses examples from biology as an integrating theme, principles from physics and mathematics to reduce complex problems to simpler forms, and computer simulation to allow students to develop their intuition about the behavior of the dynamical systems that control the physical and biological universe. The course includes bootcamps to introduce students to biological experiments and the computer language, Python. Each semester will include a project lab, in which students will work in small teams to do original research on unsolved biological problems.
Why is the human body the way that it is? This course explores human anatomy and physiology from an integrated framework, combining functional, comparative, and evolutionary perspectives on how organisms work. Major topics, which follow a life-course framework, include embryogenesis, metabolism and energetics, growth and development, movement and locomotion, food and digestion, stress and disease, and reproduction. Also considered is the relevance of human biology to contemporary issues in human health and biology.
This is an intensive two-semester, double course that introduces the natural sciences as an integrated whole to students who have a very strong interest in science. Our goal is to teach students how to solve scientific problems by drawing methods and concepts from biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics. The course uses examples from biology as an integrating theme, principles from physics and mathematics to reduce complex problems to simpler forms, and computer simulation to allow students to develop their intuition about the behavior of the dynamical systems that control the physical and biological universe. The course includes bootcamps to introduce students to biological experiments and the computer language, Python. Each semester will include a project lab, in which students will work in small teams to do original research on unsolved biological problems.
How are observable characteristics of organisms influenced by genetics? How do genomes change over time to produce the differences we see among species? This course takes an integrated approach, showing how genetics and evolution are intimately related, together explaining the patterns of genetic variation we see in nature, and how genomics can be used to analyze variation. In covering Mendelian genetics, quantitative genetics, and population genetics, this course will emphasize developments involving our own species.
Healthcare spending is rapidly nearing ~20% of GDP in many major countries. Digital technologies, AI and GenAI are redefining innovation. Dive into the world of biotech from a practitioner’s perspective, with real-world insights that will fundamentally alter how you think about and operate in the industry. The course will cover topics essential for students interested in starting a new venture, joining an existing company, or working on the investing side of the biotech or pharmaceutical industries. The course will have regular guests (industry experts, CEOs, investors), and will include a mix of lecture and HBS cases and case method discussions.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Fundamental methods, results, and problems of analytic number theory. Riemann zeta function and the Prime Number Theorem; Dirichlet's theorem on primes in arithmetic progressions; asymptotics for arithmetic functions; sieve methods; analytic estimates of exponential sums and their applications.
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Students who have already taken Mathematics 25a,b or 55a,b should not take this course for credit. Ordinarily, students who have already taken Mathematics 22a,b or 23a,b should not take this course for credit, but they may do so with the instructor’s permission. This course is offered in the Fall and Spring terms. Anti-Req: Not to be taken in addition to Mathematics 25a,b or 55a,b.
Calculus stands as one of the great intellectual achievements of the last millennium, developed by Newton and Leibniz to understand motion, growth, and change. This single-variable course introduces you to that achievement by focusing on these central ideas: how differential calculus describes rates of change, how integral calculus describes accumulation, and how the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus connects them. Throughout, you will see these ideas at work in concrete problems drawn from the physical sciences, life sciences, economics, and everyday contexts.
Become an effective instructor. This course focuses on observation, practice, feedback, and reflection providing insight into teaching and learning. Involves iterated videotaped micro-teaching sessions, accompanied by individual consultations. Required of all mathematics graduate students.
This course aims to provide an introduction to the modern field of special holonomy geometry. After discussing what might now be regarded as the “classical” story of holonomy, culminating in Berger’s classification theorem, we will delve into a detailed study of the special and exceptional cases in the classification. The setting for the first third of the course will be Kähler and hyperKähler geometry, with an emphasis on the use of geometric gluing techniques to construct fundamental examples. In the second third of the course, we will discuss the exceptional G2 and Spin(7) geometries. Our focus will again be on non-trivial constructions (for which the aforementioned special geometries will often serve as building blocks) involving clever uses of symmetry and geometric analysis. Such constructions will often live near the boundary of certain degenerations and thus we will find that “spaces”, by which we mean more singular objects than smooth manifolds, play a central role in the theory. In the final third of the course, we will introduce Harvey and Lawson’s notion of a calibrated geometry and study the interplay between special holonomy and special minimal submanifolds known as calibrated submanifolds. The geometric analysis developed in the first two-thirds of the course will serve us in constructing non-trivial examples of compact calibrated submanifolds and if time permits at the end of the course we will discuss related open problems involving non-compactness questions and putative enumerative theories.
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Limited to candidates in Mathematics who obtain the permission of both the faculty member under whom they want to work and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. May not count for concentration in Mathematics without special permission from the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Graded sat/ unsat only.
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This course will provide an introduction to the C*-algebraic formalism of quantum spin systems. Comfort with basic functional analysis of Banach and Hilbert spaces will be assumed. The theory of operator algebras will play a significant role and will be introduced as needed, but no prior knowledge of operator algebras is expected. We will cover Lieb-Robinson bounds and some of their many consequences for the ground states of such systems, such as exponential decay of correlations and quasi-adiabatic evolution. Following this, we will focus on entanglement properties and topological properties of ground states and their phases.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Ordinarily, each student will be limited to one internship during his/her PhD career. The internship must be discussed with the PI and DAC committee (or, program advisor, where applicable) prior to approval. Not all students may be eligible for internships, due to program requirements, academic standing or advisor input.
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This course is a required course for all OGE PhD students and all who receive support from NIH training grants. The goal of this course is to inform students about the appropriate conduct of research and the many ethical and social challenges that they may encounter during their research career in graduate school. The structure consists of highly interactive, in-person, small groups discussion sessions moderated by a faculty member, and live Zoom lectures. Challenges discussed include (but are not limited to) experimental design and practices, equity in research, conflict of interest, research misconduct, interactions with members of the laboratory and the mentor, and the ethical role of the scientist in society.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course is a required course for all OGE PhD students and all who receive support from NIH training grants. The goal of this course is to inform students about the appropriate conduct of research and the many ethical and social challenges that they may encounter during their research career in graduate school. The structure consists of highly interactive, in-person, small groups discussion sessions moderated by a faculty member, and live Zoom lectures. Challenges discussed include (but are not limited to) experimental design and practices, equity in research, conflict of interest, research misconduct, interactions with members of the laboratory and the mentor, and the ethical role of the scientist in society.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This general microbiology course will introduce students to the genetics, cell biology, and physiology of microbes, with an emphasis on mechanisms of host-microbe interactions. The goals of this course are to familiarize students with the diversity of microbes on planet Earth and equip them with fundamental concepts and methods to study these organisms. This course will consist of lectures and labs. Students will be evaluated on problem sets, three midterms and a final lab report. There is no final exam.
This class teaches students how to publicly present scientific papers to a diverse audience with emphasis on contextualizing the scientific problem under discussion, critically presenting the essential data, and using an engaging presentation style. Required for all first year graduate students in the Molecules, Cells and Organisms (MCO) Training Program.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The course integrates an introduction to the structure of macromolecules and a biochemical approach to cellular function. Topics addressing protein function will include enzyme kinetics, the characterization of major metabolic pathways and their interconnection into tightly regulated networks, and the manipulation of enzymes and pathways with mutations or drugs. An exploration of simple cells (red blood cells) to more complex tissues (muscle and liver) is used as a framework to discuss the progression in metabolic complexity. Students will also develop problem solving and analytical skills that are more generally applicable to the life sciences.
MCB 60 provides an introduction to the principles of molecular and cellular biology and their connections to biomedicine. The course explores how medical syndromes provide insights into biological processes and how biological mechanisms underlie human disease and physiology. Topics range from DNA repair, protein folding and vesicle transport to metabolism, cell migration, and cancer. Content for lecture topics comprising of reading and viewing material will be released weekly followed by mandatory, interactive live sessions with the instructors. Weekly sections will combine a laboratory that focuses on experimental design and data analysis, primary literature reading, and review of lecture materials.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
We will highly interactively study regenerative biology of the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), motivated by a focused and related set of human CNS disorders: This course will discuss molecular and cellular mechanisms of regeneration and repair in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS), motivated by prototypical examples in the motor control systems and circuitry of the cerebral cortex and spinal cord centrally relevant to spinal cord injury, ALS / Lou Gehrig’s disease (“amyotrophic lateral sclerosis”, and related disorders), and spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). We will take an approach integrating developmental and regenerative biology: we will compare and contrast aspects of embryonic neural development (molecular and cellular) with adult neural plasticity; discuss limitations to neuronal and axonal regeneration in the mature mammalian CNS following degeneration or injury; examine CNS regeneration approaches directed at overcoming intrinsic limitations; explore developmental molecular controls, gene manipulation, and cellular reprogramming to promote neurogenesis (birth of new neurons), axonal regeneration, and directed differentiation of progenitors and stem cells in diseased adult mammalian brain; and consider technology such as “brain-computer interfaces”. This course has always functioned as an interactive seminar rather than a lecture course, and includes the trajectory of knowledge and thinking over the past century, plus the state-of-the-art in these fields, emphasising the need for a healthy measure of skepticism in some fields. Sections cover advanced experimental approaches, critical reading of the literature, and conceptual thinking.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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How do our brains give rise to our minds? Specifically, how are mental processes related to neural activity? This course will explore these questions, as well as the methods by which cognitive neuroscience seeks to answer them. We will focus on processes within perception, attention, memory, language, action, emotion, and social cognition, and methods including neuroimaging, neuropsychology, and electrophysiology.
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This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A review of the behavior of animals under natural conditions, with emphasis on both mechanistic and evolutionary approaches. Topics include classical ethology; behavioral endocrinology; behavioral genetics; learning and memory; communication; orientation, migration and biological rhythms; optimal foraging; evolutionary stable strategies; sexual selection; parental investment and mating systems; selfishness, altruism, and reciprocity; and sociality in vertebrates and invertebrates.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Forests are among our most powerful allies in the fight against climate change-yet turning that potential into policy is one of the hardest problems in environmental science. This experiential course puts you at the center of that challenge. Each Friday, students travel to the Harvard Forest in Petersham, MA, one of the world's longest-running ecological research sites, to work directly with eddy covariance towers, long-term forest inventory plots, and active global change experiments. Through weekly field sessions and seminars, you'll build from the fundamentals of forest carbon measurement to regional-scale analysis and real-world climate policy. Guest researchers, land managers carbon market practitioners and state land sector policy makers will join us in conversations and help contextualize the science you’ll be doing in the field.
Course taken in one or more semesters to obtain credit for independent research, including research toward a senior thesis. Work should be directed by an OEB faculty member or have an OEB faculty sponsor. All students must submit registration materials for OEB 99r at the time of enrollment.
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The oceans contain 97% of Earth's water, and host the most disparate ecosystems on the planet. This course provides an introduction to deep ocean habitats, macrofauna and microorganisms. Emphasis is placed on the physiological adaptations of organisms to their environment, as well the role of microbes in mediating oceanic biogeochemical cycles.
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Mathematical theory, experimental data, and history of ideas in the field, including analytical methods to study genetic variation with applications to evolution, demographic history, agriculture, health and disease. Includes lectures, problem sets, and student presentations.
This discussion-based course will survey modern ideas about evolution and speciation, and how they have changed as a result of genomic approaches. As well as readings and discussions in class, the course will utilize some live online video sessions with major players in the field of evolutionary and comparative genomics.
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This is an interdisciplinary graduate-level and advanced undergraduate-level course in which students explore topics in molecular microbiology, microbial diversity, host-microbe associations in health and disease, and microbially-mediated geochemistry in depth. This course will be taught by faculty from the Microbial Sciences Initiative. Topics include the origins of life, biogeochemical cycles, microbial diversity, and ecology.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course is an introduction to electromagnetism, waves, optics and sound. Topics covered include: electric and magnetic fields, electrical potential, circuits, simple digital circuits, wave propagation in various media, microscopy, sound and hearing. The course will draw upon a variety of applications to the biological sciences and will use real-world examples to illustrate many of the physical principles described. There are six required laboratory sessions, and a weekly asynchronous discussion section.
The course assumes familiarity with mechanics, experimental physics, and computational techniques covered in Physical Sciences 12a offered during Spring Term (see course description). Students will further develop competence in both analytic (using pencil, paper, and multi-variable calculus) and numerical methods (using the Python programming language) to model simple physical systems and to analyze experimental data.
An immersive introduction to rapid prototyping, fusing physics, design, computer science, engineering, and art. Students will learn to safely use software and hardware to fabricate programmable projects. Tools and topics will include programmable microcontrollers, 3D CAD/CAM, electronic circuit design, and wireless networking (Internet of Things). Additionally, students will learn operational principles for techniques such as laser cutting, 3D printing, and computer-controlled milling. The course will culminate with an individual final project of the student’s own conception, integrating as many of the weekly topics as possible. The course emphasizes self-directed learning, and supports students in accessing resources to help advance the development of their unique projects. Applications may include personal fabrication, product prototyping, fine arts, and the creation of scientific research tools. Students will document work on each weekly topic in a personal website, thereby finishing the course with an online portfolio that not only illustrates their new skill sets, but also contributes to a collective repository of knowledge that serves as a foundation for continued learning.
This is the first term of a two-semester introductory course in physics. The focus is on quantitative scientific reasoning, with the first term exploring Newtonian mechanics. Topics include kinematics, linear and rotational motion, forces, energy, momentum, collisions, gravitation, oscillations, and waves, with a brief introduction to statistical physics. Examples are drawn from across the physical sciences and engineering.
An introduction to classical mechanics, with special emphasis on the motion of biological systems, from proteins to people. Topics covered include: kinematics, Newton's laws of motion, oscillations, elasticity, random walks, diffusion, and fluids. Examples and problem set questions will often be drawn from the life sciences and medicine.
The physics of crystalline solids and their electric, magnetic, optical, and thermal properties. Designed as a first course in solid-state physics. Topics include: crystal binding, crystal structure, and crystal lattice vibrations (phonons); the free-electron model followed by electrons in crystalline lattices and electronic band structures; the band picture of solids (metals, semiconductors, and insulators); semiconductor devices and applications (pn junctions, transistors, and quantum wells); electron dynamics and transport in crystals; collective excitations of electrons (plasmons); optical and magnetic properties of solids; thermal properties; and superconductivity.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course provides a foundational overview of the fundamental ideas in computational neuroscience and the study of biological intelligence. At the same time, the course connects the study of brains to the rapid development of ideas in artificial intelligence. Topics covered include the biophysics of computation, Hopfield networks and attractor dynamics, neural networks, machine learning, Bayesian models, theory of learning, deep convolutional and recurrent architectures, generative models, neural coding, control and dynamics of neural activity, and applications to brain-machine interfaces and connectomics.
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Introduces modern methods for survey sampling design and finite-population inference, with emphasis on probability sampling, design-based estimation, and the practical consequences of complex survey designs. Topics include simple random sampling, ratio and regression estimation, stratification and allocation, cluster and multistage sampling, systematic and PPS sampling, Horvitz-Thompson estimation, survey weights, nonresponse adjustment, calibration, raking, variance estimation, replicate weights, and survey-weighted analysis. The course also introduces contemporary topics including nonprobability samples, data integration, capture-recapture, small-area estimation, and analysis of public-use survey data, with computational examples in R.
Causal inference concerns the very difficult, challenging problem of addressing questions such as, "Would vaccinating children 16 and younger against COVID 19 lead to fewer deaths among public school teachers?" and "Would providing Harvard students access to a mobile health application designed to help them manage school stress, lead to improved school performance?" This class will include 4 modules. The first module introduces the nuanced world of causal inference along with a fundamental tool: the language of potential outcomes. The second module covers randomized experiments and how data from randomized experiments can be used to make causal statements. The third module introduces the rather tricky problem of using observational (non-randomized) data to attempt to make causal statements. The final module introduces a new and challenging area in which the goal is to make causal inference about the effect of sequences of treatments.
Multivariate inference and data analysis. Advanced matrix theory and distributions, including Multivariate Normal, Wishart, and multilevel models. Supervised learning: multivariate regression, classification, and discriminant analysis. Unsupervised learning: dimension reduction, principal components, clustering, and factor analysis.
Sequel to Statistics 139, emphasizing common methods for analyzing continuous non-normal and categorical data. Topics include logistic regression, log-linear models, multinomial logit models, proportional odds models for ordinal data, Gamma and inverse-Gaussian models, over-dispersion, analysis of deviance, model selection and criticism, model diagnostics, and an introduction to non-parametric regression methods.
There is a cap of 30 students for this course. Preference is given to Statistics concentrators; all students wishing to take the course must send a request along with a list of statistics/computer science courses already completed to the professor at gp@jimmy.harvard.edu. Please put Stat 117 in the subject line of the email. For Spring 2026, STAT 117 sections will meet in Maxwell-Dworkin in the following rooms: D001: T 4:30-5:45pm MD 134B D002: W 4:30-5:45pm MD 134B
This course will dive into the statistical properties of various machine learning methods that arise in supervised problems. The goal of the course is to introduce and prepare students for theoretical and methodological research in statistical machine learning. Topics we will discuss include nearest neighbors, no free lunch theorems, curse of dimensionality, structured learning, subset selection, shrinkage methods, principal components regression, double descent, implicit regularization and interpolation, optimism, effective number of parameters, cross validation, ensembling, transfer learning, multimodal learning, predictive inference, algorithmic fairness, causal inference using machine learning. In addition to problem sets but instead of exams, students will work in groups to synthesize and give short presentations on recent machine learning papers. Building upon these presentations, students will conduct individual course projects, based on which they will submit a final report and give either a presentation/poster presentation at the end of the semester.
Data Science 1 is the first half of a one-year introduction to data science. The course focuses on the analysis of messy, real-life data to make predictions using statistical and machine learning methods. Material covered integrates the five key facets of an investigation using data: (1) data collection - data wrangling and cleaning to obtain a suitable dataset; (2) data management - accessing data quickly and reliably; (3) exploratory data analysis - generating hypotheses and building intuition; (4) prediction or statistical learning - developing and applying models such as linear and logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors, decision trees, and probabilistic approaches based on Bayes’ rule; and (5) communication - summarizing results through visualization, storytelling, and interpretable summaries.
This course introduces statistical inference and computing through applications in public health, medicine, and the life sciences. Topics include data visualization, data wrangling, principles of data collection, probability, estimation, hypothesis testing, and regression modeling. Students will develop both technical skills and statistical literacy, with a strong awareness of the ethical issues that arise when collecting, analyzing, and communicating data. The course prepares students to be responsible statistical practitioners, equipped to learn and apply field-specific methods while critically evaluating how analyses are conducted and how results are communicated. Active learning is central to the course: students prepare through videos and pre-class assignments, then engage in collaborative problem-solving during class meetings. Students will learn a reproducible workflow for analyzing data with the statistical language R. No prior statistics or programming experience is required.
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Small groups of students (graduate students in statistics) will hold weekly office hours to provide free help to any researchers who come by with data analysis questions. The class will also meet as a full group once per week to discuss issues that arise in statistical consulting and go over cases from the prior week.
Provides students a comprehensive understanding to the questions as of what is, how and why Bayesian. Introduction to classic Bayesian models, basic computational algorithms/methods for Bayesian inference, as well as their applications in various domain fields, and comparisons with classic Frequentist methods. As Bayesian inference finds its roots and merits particularly in application, this course puts great emphasis on enhancing students' hands-on skills in statistical computation (mostly with R) and data analysis.
Are we destined to be our parents? In this course we will study topics in epigenetics and gene regulation to challenge some of Mendel’s ideas on genetic inheritance. To do this, we will learn about the biochemical processes that control the expression of genes as cells change across human development, aging and disease. Together with genetics, we’ll use science to discuss whether “nature or nurture” defines who we are. Finally, the human genome is huge, employing diverse mechanisms of epigenetic regulation, we’ll learn about data rich experimental tools and work together to use computational methods to study epigenetic processes within cells
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We ask in this class how fundamental science, pathophysiological insights, and AI can be harnessed to understand disease and to design approaches to improve human health. We begin with an introduction to some areas where fundamental knowledge -- for example in genetics, immunology, and oncogenes -- have led to striking recent changes in therapy. We then focus on two areas where medicine has made less progress: disorders of the brain and failure of organ systems. As in Frontiers in Therapeutics , the prior version of this class, each session will begin with a lecture by an expert in the field. This will then be followed by student-led discussions of papers relevant to the topic. Students will learn how to evaluate the relevance of fundamental science to seemingly intractable medical problems, as well as the credibility of proposed novel therapeutic opportunities.
The course focuses upon recent advances in fundamental biology that may have relevance to discovery of new therapeutics. There is a strong emphasis on primary literature and critical analysis of data. Students also work in groups to analyze a single mechanism underlying a drug candidate that is in early clinical trials, highlighting the scientific case for the medicine and biological issues with the approach.
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Students intending to enroll in the fall are required to submit a written proposal to the Course Director. Students may enter the course at midyear only with the permission of the Course Director. The thesis proposal must be approved by the Course Director and Head Tutors prior to enrolling in SCRB 99.
RNA is one of the major biopolymers of life and may have indeed initiated life as we know it, yet much of the study of RNA is as a passive carrier of information. This course focuses on how RNA operates as a highly bioactive molecule in the natural world and how we leverage these activities for therapeutic benefit.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Information about the biology of stem cells and their uses in understanding and treating diseases -- particularly those that cannot be studied adequately in non-human model systems -- has increased enormously in the last decade. In this seminar/lecture course, students will learn about transplanting functional human cells (such as pancreatic beta cells or dopaminergic neurons) derived from pluripotent cells to treat disease. They will also discover how to use these cells to model diseases, such as neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, with the goal of identifying more effective, possibly patient-specific, therapeutics. Students will hear about treatments, including small molecules (conventional medicines), whose therapeutic actions can be attributed to the regulation of tissue-specific stem cells that reside in key adult tissues including the bone marrow and brain, but, interestingly, not including the heart or pancreas. Finally, they will be exposed to relatively new work that demonstrates the possibility of creating new cells from old by using genetic methods to swap cell identities. A typical type of question that we will debate is: When should Parkinson’s disease patients be treated with a drug to slow the death of neurons, with transplanted neurons made from pluripotent cells or with a viral vector that produces new neurons from existing glial cells in the brain?
We ask in this class how fundamental science, pathophysiological insights, and AI can be harnessed to understand disease and to design approaches to improve human health. We begin with an introduction to some areas where fundamental knowledge -- for example in genetics, immunology, and oncogenes -- have led to striking recent changes in therapy. We then focus on two areas where medicine has made less progress: disorders of the brain and failure of organ systems. As in Frontiers in Therapeutics , the prior version of this class, each session will begin with a lecture by an expert in the field. This will then be followed by student-led discussions of papers relevant to the topic. Students will learn how to evaluate the relevance of fundamental science to seemingly intractable medical problems, as well as the credibility of proposed novel therapeutic opportunities.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course focuses on the molecular and cellular basis for reproduction. We will learn about how the reproductive tracts develop and change over the lifespan and the processes that initiate and sustain the development of offspring. Topics include: the development of gametes; sex chromosomes; menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause; early development in natural and synthetic embryo systems; ethical considerations surrounding reproduction.
This course focuses on state-of-the-art electronic-photonic integrated circuits for high-speed communication and computation. It emphasizes the importance of electronic-photonic co-design: maximizing overall performance by holistically co-optimizing electronic and photonic circuits together. Topics span multiple layers of the computing stack, including materials (group IV, III-V, II-VI semiconductors), electro-optic devices (modulators, lasers, photodetectors, semiconductor optical amplifiers), circuits (transceivers, data converters), architectures (distributed computing systems, network switches), and integration techniques (three-dimensional integration of electronics and photonics, optical interposers, monolithic integration). Advanced topics include active optical metamaterials, non-linear optical devices, and digital signal processing in the optical domain.
This course supports new PhD students in finding their research fit, building good research habits, and becoming a researcher. It consists of two 2-unit courses: 290a (spring of G1 year) focuses on adapting to a research group, developing strong reading and writing habits, and preparing students for teaching during their G2 year; 290b (fall of G2 year) focuses on oral communication and on preparing students for the qualifying exam. This course also develops other skills necessary for success in graduate school such as setting goals, peer feedback, research ethics, collaboration and teamwork, and negotiation.
This course supports new PhD students in finding their research fit, building good research habits, and becoming a researcher. It consists of two 2-unit courses: 290a (spring of G1 year) focuses on adapting to a research group, developing strong reading and writing habits, and preparing students for teaching during their G2 year; 290b (fall of G2 year) focuses on oral communication and on preparing students for the qualifying exam. This course also develops other skills necessary for success in graduate school such as setting goals, peer feedback, research ethics, collaboration and teamwork, and negotiation.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course covers a combination of linear algebra and multivariate calculus with an eye towards solving systems of equations and optimization problems. Students will learn how to prove some key results, and will also implement these ideas with code. Linear algebra: matrices, vector spaces, bases and dimension, inner products, least squares problems, eigenvalues, eigenvectors, singular values, singular vectors. Multivariate calculus: partial differentiation, gradient and Hessian, critical points, Lagrange multipliers.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Data Science 1 is the first half of a one-year introduction to data science. The course focuses on the analysis of messy, real-life data to make predictions using statistical and machine learning methods. Material covered integrates the five key facets of an investigation using data: (1) data collection - data wrangling and cleaning to obtain a suitable dataset; (2) data management - accessing data quickly and reliably; (3) exploratory data analysis - generating hypotheses and building intuition; (4) prediction or statistical learning - developing and applying models such as linear and logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors, decision trees, and probabilistic approaches based on Bayes’ rule; and (5) communication - summarizing results through visualization, storytelling, and interpretable summaries.
This course delves into the design principles and practices of high performance digital computing systems that are cost effectively and reliably manufactured with billions of near atomic scale semiconductor components. Key abstractions and foundational concepts are emphasized as the course covers the basic operation of CMOS transistors and logic gates, combinational and sequential logic including Finite State Machines (FSMs), digital memory subsystems, and machine code culminating with the implementation of a MIPS processor. Lab assignments will focus on the practical aspects of digital hardware design by utilizing Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Verliog (Hardware Description Language) and advanced CAD tools for the design, simulation and verification of digital computing hardware.
This course will provide students with an introduction to environmental science and engineering by providing an overview of current environmental issues, including climate change, air pollution, and water pollution. Students critically evaluate underlying science and knowledge limitations, and explore the nexus between scientific knowledge, regulatory frameworks, and engineering solutions to some of the world's most pressing environmental problems. The course will emphasize the interconnected biological, geological, and chemical cycles of the earth system including the multi-dimensional impacts of human activity.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
In this introductory graduate-level course, students will develop tools and follow canonical examples of understanding biological systems. We will focus on using the language of mathematics to clarify the problems to be solved, and to approach their solution. We will use simple cases to start with, and then see how they play out in modern problems. We will cover emerging machine-learning methods to reverse-engineer dynamical systems, and connect stochastic biology to single cell analysis.
This course trains Systems Biology PhD students in the skills of scientific writing, critical analysis of papers, and research proposal development. Anchored around the Department’s weekly seminar series, the class provides structured opportunities to analyze recent high-impact papers from leading systems biology labs and to practice writing and defending independent research proposals. Students will learn to identify the core narrative of a scientific story, evaluate methodological rigor and impact, and formulate creative, testable hypotheses that could serve as the basis for future fellowship and grant applications, and for their qualifying exams.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course is an introduction to abstract algebra and its applications. Topics will include rings, polynomials, and ideals, factorization of matrices and polynomials, exact and numerical algorithms for solving equations, and applications to data analysis, modeling, and optimization.
This course serves as an introduction to partial differential equations (PDE) and their applications across the sciences. The course will familiarize students with the process of starting with a model, deriving the appropriate PDE, and solving it. Examples include wave equations, diffusion equations, the Laplace equation, and several nonlinear equations such as the Burgers and KdV equations. To build intuition for the analytical solutions, simple numerical simulations will be utilized.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Abstracting the essential components and mechanisms from a natural system to produce a mathematical model, which can be analyzed with a variety of formal mathematical methods, is perhaps the most important, but least understood, task in applied mathematics. This course approaches a number of problems without the prejudice of trying to apply a particular method of solution. Topics drawn from biology, economics, engineering, physical and social sciences.
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Topics in linear algebra that frequently arise in applications, especially in the analysis of large data sets: linear equations, eigenvalue problems, linear differential equations, principal component analysis, singular value decomposition; data mining and machine learning methods: clustering (unsupervised learning) and classification (supervised) using neural networks and random forests. Examples from physical sciences, biology, climate, commerce, the internet, image processing, and more will be given. The approach is application-motivated, focusing on an intuitive understanding of the algorithms behind these methods obtained by analyzing small data sets. Programming assignments can be done using Python or Matlab. This course may be used to satisfy the QRD requirement.
Introduction to methods for developing accurate approximate solutions for problems in the sciences that cannot be solved exactly, and integration with numerical methods and solutions. Topics include: dimensional analysis, algebraic equations, complex analysis, perturbation theory, matched asymptotic expansions, approximate solution of integrals.
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Complex analysis: complex numbers, functions, mappings, Laurent series, differentiation, integration, contour integration and residue theory, conformal mappings. Applications to visualization, art (especially M.C. Escher). Anamorphic images. Fourier Analysis: orthogonality, Fourier Series, Fourier transforms. Signal processing: sampling theorems (Nyquist, Shannon), fast Fourier transforms. Applications to image, audio analysis: filtering and deblurring.
Introductory statistical methods for students in the applied sciences and engineering. Random variables and probability distributions; the concept of random sampling, including random samples, statistics, and sampling distributions; the Central Limit Theorem; parameter estimation; confidence intervals; hypothesis testing; simple linear regression; and multiple linear regression. Introduction to more advanced techniques as time permits.
This course provides an introduction to basic mathematical ideas and computational methods for optimization. Topics include linear programming, integer programming, branch-and-bound, branch-and-cut, as well as first-order gradient-based methods with an emphasis on modeling and data science applications.
Recently, there has been a surge of interest in exploiting geometric structure in data and models in machine learning. This course will give an overview of this emerging research area and its mathematical foundation, with a focus on recent literature and open problems. We will cover a range of topics at the intersection of geometry and machine learning including basic differential geometry, graph representation learning, manifold learning, graph neural networks, machine learning on manifolds, and geometric deep learning. Lectures will be complemented by student-led discussions of relevant papers.
This course will study the fundamentals of human movement, emphasizing applications in rehabilitation, athletics, and assistive devices. Topics will focus on the biomechanical principles of movement (muscle and tendon properties), experimental data collection techniques (motion capture, wearable sensing, and imaging), simulation with musculoskeletal modeling, and cutting-edge topics in assistive robotics (human-centered design, human-in-the-loop optimization, exoskeletons, etc.). A semester-long project will allow students to apply the topics to solve a problem of interest relating to human movement or assisted mobility.
A survey of systems and control theory with applications from bioengineering and physiology. Analysis: differential equations, linear systems, stability, the complementary nature of time and frequency domain methods, transfer functions, feedback, and biological oscillations. Applications: neural models, cardiovascular regulation, auditory system, molecular biology, feedback control systems.
This course is designed as an introduction to thinking as a bio/biomedical engineer and is recommended for first years and sophomores but open to all students. Simple mathematical models are used to represent key aspects of organ systems function. Core engineering concepts are explored through mechanical and electrical examples within the human body. The primary focus is on quantitative descriptions of organ systems function and control in terms of physical principles and physiologic mechanisms. It includes a foundation in human organ systems physiology, including cardiovascular, pulmonary, and renal systems. Emphasis will be given to understanding the ways in which dysfunction in these systems gives rise to common human disease processes.
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Fundamental engineering and biological principles underlying field of tissue engineering, along with examples and strategies to engineer specific tissues for clinical use. Students will prepare a paper in the field of tissue engineering, and participate in a weekly laboratory in which they will learn and use methods to fabricate materials and perform 3-D cell culture.
Approaches from robotics, control theory, and neuroscience for understanding biological motor systems. Analytical and computational modeling of muscles, reflex arcs, and neural systems that contribute to motor control in the brain. Focus on understanding how the central nervous system plans and controls voluntary movement of the eyes and limbs. Learning and memory; effects of variability and noise on optimal motor planning and control in biological systems.
This course introduces the principles and technologies used to measure and control biological systems electronically. Applications include electrophysiology, diagnostics and therapeutics, biomolecular synthesis and sequencing, and wearable and implantable devices. Students will examine bioelectronic systems across three interconnected layers: circuits and signal processing for electrical sensing and stimulation; electrochemistry and materials science at the semiconductor-bio interface; and biological function spanning molecules, cells, tissues, and organs. The course integrates theoretical foundations with practical considerations in device design, measurement, and experimentation. Because of its interdisciplinary scope, students are expected to have introductory knowledge of electrical engineering, chemistry, and biology, with a foundation in circuits being particularly helpful.
This course covers fundamental neuroanatomy, physiology, and the principles that guide the development and implementation of peripheral neurotechnology. This course will provide an overview of the state of art in neuroprosthetics, functional electrical stimulation, and other relevant devices. Clinical case studies will be used to frame the lectures.
This course will study advanced topics of human movement, emphasizing applications in rehabilitation, athletics, and assistive devices. We will rapidly review biomechanical principles of movement, experimental data collection techniques, simulation with musculoskeletal modeling, and cutting-edge topics in assistive robotics. The course will focus on current cutting-edge research in the fields of biomechanics and assistive robotics. A semester-long project will enable students to apply these topics to solve a problem of interest relating to human movement or assisted mobility and practice scientific writing.
Project-based course on the design of medical devices to address needs identified by hospital-based clinicians. Students work in teams with physicians to develop a novel solution to an unmet need. The design process includes: needs finding; problem identification; prior art searches; defining quantitative functional requirements; strategy and concept generation; estimation; sketch modeling; prototyping, and quantitative evaluation of the solution.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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This course covers the electrical, optical and magnetic properties of technologically important materials. It provides a quantitative description of their functional properties including dielectric, ferroelectric, and piezoelectric behavior, and their paramagnetic and ferromagnetic states. Electronic characteristics of semiconductors, dielectric materials, and superconductors will be covered, as well as the optical response including birefringence, Pockels effect, Kerr effect, and photoelasticity. In addition, special topics related to recent research will be addressed.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Covers material used in Computer Science 1200 (formerly CS 120), Computer Science 1210 (formerly CS 121), and Computer Science 1240 (formerly CS 124). Ordinarily, not to be taken after those courses or after courses such as Applied Mathematics 106, Applied Mathematics 107, Mathematics 101, and Mathematics 153.
Formerly CS 179, the course covers skills and techniques necessary to design innovative interactive products that are useful, usable and that address important needs of people other than yourself. You will learn how to uncover needs that your customers cannot even articulate. You will also learn a range of design principles, effective creativity-related practices, and techniques for rapidly creating and evaluating product prototypes. You will also have several opportunities to formally communicate your design ideas to a variety of audiences. You will complete two large team-based design projects.
Fundamentals of computer systems programming, including data representation, storage, process management, and synchronization. This course provides a solid background in systems programming and an understanding of the interactions between computer software and hardware. Topics include C++ and assembly language programming, operating systems kernels and system calls, memory hierarchy and caching, processes, threads, and synchronization.
What is privacy, and how is it affected by recent developments in technology? This course critically examines popular concepts of privacy and uses a rigorous analysis of technologies to understand the policy and ethical issues at play. Case studies: database anonymity, research ethics, wiretapping, surveillance, and others. Course relies on some technical material, but is open and accessible to all students, especially those with interest in economics, engineering, political science, computer science, sociology, biology, law, government, philosophy.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Imagine you are a developer at -- or regulating, from your position as CTO of the Federal Trade Commission -- a company that capitalizes on large amounts of personal data for use in a wide range of settings, from analyzing markets to advising judges on parole decisions, to selecting candidates to interview, to testing drugs. How might you think about incorporating societal values, such as privacy, fairness, and statistical validity? What mathematical guarantees are achievable, and what is impossible? How does privacy differ from cryptographic secrecy, and which concept is appropriate for which setting?
Information Theory originated in the seminal work of Shannon (1948) that aimed to formalize and quantify information. Since the 1990s tools and concepts from Information Theory have played a central role in theoretical computer science. Notable examples include the Parallel Repetition Theorem of Raz (1994), the development of the Information Complexity to understand Communication Complexity (2001). Today Information Theoretic measures and tools influence many aspects of CS theory including analysis of streaming algorithms, differential privacy and game theory. This course will introduce the basic concepts in information theory and then sample topics of interest to CS theory.
This course provides an introduction to reinforcement learning covering a range of problem formulations, algorithms, and theory. The four main themes of the course are (1) Markov decision processes (Bellman equations/optimality, planning, UCB, unknown environments, linear quadratic control, exploration, imitation learning), (2) bandits (epsilon-greedy, UCB, Thompson sampling, contextual bandits, linear bandits, exploration in MDPs), and (3) methods for large-scale systems (policy gradient methods, deep RL, Monte Carlo tree search, Q-learning). There will also be an Embedded Ethics lecture on ethical issues arising in reinforcement learning. The assignments will focus on a mix of algorithmic and statistical principles, along with their programming implementations.
An ES91r project must possess engineering content at a level similar to other technical engineering courses at SEAS and include many, but not necessarily all, of the following elements: modeling, simulation, design, measurement, and data analysis. Normally open to candidates accepted for work on a specific topic by a member of the faculty of the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Normally may not be taken for more than two terms; may be counted for concentration in Engineering Sciences with prior approval and if taken for graded credit. Applicants must file a project application form prior to the course registration deadline to receive permission to enroll. The project application form is available on Canvas.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Approaches from robotics, control theory, and neuroscience for understanding biological motor systems. Analytical and computational modeling of muscles, reflex arcs, and neural systems that contribute to motor control in the brain. Focus on understanding how the central nervous system plans and controls voluntary movement of the eyes and limbs. Learning and memory; effects of variability and noise on optimal motor planning and control in biological systems.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course is focused on aspects of environmental engineering related to the fate, transport, and control of pollution in surface water ecosystems. Course modules will cover ecological impacts of environmental contaminants; principles of water quality regulations and modeling; surface water aspects of engineering hydrology, including rainfall-runoff relationships; quantitative models of pollutant fate and transport in rivers, lakes, estuaries, and wetlands; best management practices for the prevention and control of nonpoint source pollution; and sustainable natural treatment systems for water quality improvement.
Part 1: Intersection of environment/industry, including decarbonization of the materials industry. Chemistries for cement and steel production without carbon dioxide emission, the smelting industry for extraction of metals from ores, present-day and possible futures for chemistry of a hydrogen economy, and chemistry of emerging battery technologies.
Chemical and physical processes determining the composition of the atmosphere and its implications for air pollution, climate, and life on Earth. Emphasis is on the construction of engineering models and the application of chemical principles to understand and address current environmental issues. Nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon cycles. Climate forcing by greenhouse gases and aerosols. Stratospheric ozone. Oxidizing power of the atmosphere. Methane. Surface air pollution: aerosols and ozone. Deposition to ecosystems: acid rain, nitrogen, mercury.
ESE/EPS 166 engages the new Harvard Climate Observatory that will fundamentally herald a new era in both climate research and the development of strategic approaches to advancing the climate impact on public policy. The central objective of the New Climate Observatory is to address this problem by introducing, for the first time, the development of a new generation of innovative technology that takes explicit advantage of recent major advances in Harvard-based instruments and optical designs in combination with advanced solar powered stratospheric aeronautical design. The new solar powered stratospheric aircraft that together constitute the Climate Observatory engage multiple recent design innovations in photovoltaics, energy storage, as well as guidance and control. Together these enable a combination of long duration solar powered observing systems, each targeted at the highest priority risk factors that threaten global societal stability. The resulting observations will, for the first time, provide the irrefutable evidence needed for quantitative forecasts of the dominant risk factors stemming from the global use of fossil fuels.
The course provides an overview of Earth’s energy resources, with emphasize on the factors that control their global distributions and uses in our society. Lectures and labs will emphasize methods used to identify and exploit resources, as well as the environmental impact of these operations. Topics include: coal and acid rain; oil & natural gas, photochemical smog, oil spills; unconventional fossil resources (shale gas, tar sands); greenhouse gas emissions and climate; nuclear power and radioactive hazards; solar, hydroelectric, tidal, and geothermal power; energy storage (methane, hydrogen); and key materials (rare earth metals, lithium) required for the energy transition. Labs will emphasize datasets and tools (drilling methods, satellite remote sensing data, and subsurface imaging techniques) for discovering and developing resources, and assessing and mitigating environmental impacts.
An introduction to the science of global warming/climate change meant to assist students in understanding issues that appear in the news and public debates. The course is meant for STEM students with basic math preparation, not assuming prior science courses. Topics include the greenhouse effect and consequences of the rise of greenhouse gases, including sea level rise, ocean acidification, heat waves, droughts, glacier melting, forest fires, expected changes to hurricanes, and more. An ability to critically evaluate observations, predictions, and risks will be developed throughout. The scientific basis for each subject will be covered, and students will be guided in a hands-on, in-class quantitative analysis of climate observations, models, and feedbacks using provided Python Jupyter notebooks. This course satisfies the QRD requirement.
The purpose of this course is to develop understanding and guide student research of human and environmental systems. In class we will explore agriculture, conflict, and human health. Study of each topic will involve introduction data, mathematical models, and analysis techniques that build toward addressing a major question at each interface: How does climate change influence agricultural systems? Has drought or other environmental factors caused conflict? And how does the environment shape health outcomes? These topics are diverse, but are addressed using common analytical frameworks. Analytical approaches include simple mathematical models of feedback systems, crop development, and population disease dynamics; frequentist statistical techniques including linear, multiple linear, and panel regression models; and Bayesian methods including empirical, full, and hierarchical approaches. You will be provided with sufficient data, example code, and context to come to your own informed conclusions regarding each of these questions. Furthermore, topics covered in class will provide a template for undertaking independent research projects in small teams. Research will either extend on topics presented in class or address other human-environmental questions. Historically, such student projects have sometimes led to senior theses or publication in professional journals.
Open to graduate students and AB/SM candidates only. This course is graded and is ordinarily taken with the approval of the Committee on Higher Degrees. AB/SM students must obtain CHD approval for this course to count toward their SM requirements and the course must be bracketed accordingly; it cannot be used towards also meeting AB degree requirements. Applicants must file an AC 299r Special Topics Form approved by the advisor before the course registration deadline; contact mastersprograms@seas.harvard.edu if you have any questions. The form is available on the course website.
Data Science 1 is the first half of a one-year introduction to data science. The course focuses on the analysis of messy, real-life data to make predictions using statistical and machine learning methods. Material covered integrates the five key facets of an investigation using data: (1) data collection - data wrangling and cleaning to obtain a suitable dataset; (2) data management - accessing data quickly and reliably; (3) exploratory data analysis - generating hypotheses and building intuition; (4) prediction or statistical learning - developing and applying models such as linear and logistic regression, k-nearest neighbors, decision trees, and probabilistic approaches based on Bayes’ rule; and (5) communication - summarizing results through visualization, storytelling, and interpretable summaries.
The capstone course is intended to provide students with an opportunity to work in groups of 3-4 on a real-world project. Students will develop novel ideas while applying and enhancing skills they have acquired from their core courses and electives. By requiring students to complete a substantial and challenging collaborative project, the capstone course will prepare students for the professional world and ensure that they are trained to conduct research. There will be no additional homework. There will be several mini-lectures, focusing on supplemental skills such as technical writing, public speaking, reading research papers, using version control software, identifying biases, etc. Since the projects concern real-world projects, datasets will likely be messy, and there is a focus on effectively communicating your progress to both the staff and partner organization.
This course covers theoretical background and practical hands-on applications of modern computational atomistic methods used to understand and design properties of advanced functional materials. Topics include classical interatomic potentials and machine learning methods, quantum first-principles electronic structure models based on wave functions and density functional theory, Monte Carlo sampling and molecular dynamics simulations of phase transitions and free energies, fluctuations and transport properties. Applications include atomistic and electronic effects in materials for energy conversion and storage, catalysis, alloys, polymers, and low-dimensional materials.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The primary objective of this course is to understand how modern AI systems are built, deployed, and maintained in real-world settings. Beyond developing accurate models, the focus is on turning them into scalable, reliable applications. The course centers on Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) and incorporates modern approaches based on Large Language Models (LLMs), and agent-based systems. Students will learn how to design end-to-end AI workflows, including data pipelines, training, evaluation, deployment, and monitoring. We also introduce key ideas such as prompt design, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and how LLMs can interact with tools and APIs in more complex workflows. The course combines conceptual understanding with hands-on implementation, enabling students to build complete AI systems.
Data Science 2 is the second half of a one-year introduction to data science. Building upon the material in Data Science 1, the course introduces advanced methods for statistical modeling, representation, and prediction. Topics include multiple deep learning architectures such as CNNs, RNNs, transformers, language models, autoencoders, and generative models as well as basic Bayesian methods, and unsupervised learning. Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in both the fall and spring course within the same academic year. Part two of a two-part series.
Expos 45, an elective within the Writing Program, is focused on developing civil discourse skills for engaging in meaningful dialogue, the basis for strong, resilient communities that can hold diverse viewpoints. Students will learn actionable techniques for building trust within a community, listening with curiosity, strengthening our ability to engage with complex issues, trying on different perspectives, and speaking with genuine openness.
More than 160 years after Darwin’s epochal account of evolution, some 75-85% of the world’s 8.2 billion people are religious, and the percentage is growing. What does religion do for human beings? What does an evolutionary and biologically informed understanding of the mind and brain lead us to think about where religion fits in human life? Harvard’s first psychologist, William James, engaged these questions in the late 19th century, bringing the cutting edge of empirical psychology to the philosophy of religion. Today these same questions animate neuroscience, where researchers are showing how affectivity, emotions and our evolutionary past come together to form the “self” philosophers have long thought to be primarily “rational,” and to drive our perception and behavior.
As part of your application, you must provide a brief statement on why you are interested in each seminar. You will be notified of lottery results for both fall and spring seminars at 5 pm on August 11. If you are unsuccessful in the lottery, you may still join any seminar with open seats. A list of open seminars and instructions on next steps will be available on the First-Year Seminar Program website August 11 at 12 Noon.
Throughout this period, the ghost of Galen continues to haunt hospitals and battlefields. It will not be until the 1930’s that Galenism is banished from the wards. Our study will track this history and conclude with a consideration of the management of combat casualties from the time of the first “modern” surgeon, Ambrose Pare, to that of contemporary forward surgical teams in Afghanistan and Iraq. The seminar will consist of weekly discussion, informed by assigned reading and independent inquiry. We will visit the site of the first use of ether anesthesia, and duplicate William Harvey’s experiments in the anatomy lab. From time to time we will be joined by other doctors with expertise in specific areas such as infectious disease, combat surgery and anatomy.
Controversial and contentious subjects are sought in these writings: the imbalance of power between physician and patient; how different religions frame the genesis and outcome of disease; the role of quackery, avarice, and ego in molding doctors’ behavior; whether character changes for better or worse when people face their mortality; what is normal and what is abnormal behavior based on culture, neuroscience, and individual versus group norms. The presentation of illness in journalism will be studied in selected readings from the New York Times’ and Boston Globe’s Science sections, as well as periodicals like the New Yorker, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, and the Atlantic Monthly.
We’ve all watched a great performance and wondered, “How did that actor do that?” Acting is undoubtedly the most popular, most widely appreciated of the performing arts, and yet, in many ways, it remains a mystery. This seminar will give students an opportunity to demystify the art of acting by introducing them to the basic tools of the trade-they will learn about the craft of acting by actually “doing” it. It will provide an introduction to acting by combining elements of a discussion seminar with exercises, improvisations and performance activities.
The effect of a person's genetic background on whether they will develop cancer, and when, is at the center of scientific and societal dilemmas which will be explored in this seminar. The seminar will include a brief didactic phase, followed by student‐led learning activities and by final debates, moderated by students. Learning will cover genetic inheritance of cancer; cancer evolutionary theories; conceptual and technical notions of probability and risk; and their use in personalized medicine.
Comets have been seen regularly since before the beginning of recorded history. They have often been regarded as disturbing portents. Asteroids, on the other hand, were not discovered until the 19th century, with the advent of astronomy with telescopes. Today we know of many more asteroids than comets, but we believe that there are vastly more comets than asteroids in the solar system. This seminar will start with the history of the study of comets and asteroids, including the “Great March Comet of 1843”, observations of which led to the establishment of the Harvard College Observatory and its Great Refractor, at that time the largest telescope in the Americas.
Some claim that there are 13 ideas or principles that can form the bedrock for a pretty good understanding of our physical and technological world. These are: 1) Boltzmann factor and thermal equilibrium, 2) Turbulence, 3) Reaction rates, 4) Indistinguishable particles, 5) Quantum waves, 6) Linearity, 7) Entropy and information, 8) Discharges and ionization, 9) Relativity, 10) Nuclear binding energies, 11) Photon modes, 12) Diffraction, and 13) Resonance. Each week we will discuss one of these principles and see how they explain certain things about the physical world. We will discuss these and connections with other principles, as well as how the principles show up in technology and, more broadly, in our technological society.
Our focus will be on developments today in fundamental physics, astronomy and cosmology, reviewing the current cosmological model based on the Big Bang theory and inflation and investigating what we might learn in the new future. We will also move beyond the standard theories into more speculative arenas, including theories of extra dimensions of space, as well as ideas about the nature of dark matter and black holes. We will consider the motivations underlying these theories, their current status, and how we might hope to test some of the underlying ideas in the near future. Note that this course will include more cosmology than previous incarnations.
Descartes wrote his Meditations (1641) because he realized that, although he had received the best education in the world, much of what he had learned was false or unfounded. This led him to embark on a systematic investigation to discover whether knowledge is possible. Harvard students face a similar predicament. Having dutifully learned what they were taught, and evidently learned it well, some find themselves questioning its cognitive adequacy. Much that they learned in school seems superficial, incomplete, oversimplified, or incorrect. Is it possible to know the way the world is? Can I know that I am not a brain in a vat being manipulated into thinking that I am an embodied human being? Can I know that the Louisiana Purchase occurred in 1803, that electrons have negative charge, that Hamlet is a masterpiece, that the sun will rise tomorrow? Can I know that Biden was fairly elected, that Covid vaccines are safe, that anthropogenic climate change is real?
Human rights practitioners confront numerous ethical, strategic, and legal dilemmas in their struggles for social justice. This first-year seminar explores the underlying legal frameworks in which human rights advocates operate and then use specific case studies to consider the various challenges they must grapple with in their work. The seminar is designed to encourage students to critically evaluate the human rights movement while offering an introduction to some of the essential tools and strategies used by human rights advocates, including advocacy, litigation, documentation, and report writing.
First, we approach child development as a dynamic force, one which simultaneously engages multiple domains: social/relational, cognitive, physical, and moral. We will then switch to examine stages of development in sequence, using our understanding of neurobiological, physical, cultural, and psychological factors to inform our assessment of how children change over time. Readings will include classic papers on development, textbook chapters that provide overviews of specific developmental stages, recently published research articles on genetic inheritance, selected contemporary children's and young adult literature, personal memoirs, and short stories written about childhood.
Economists have a very positive view of the role of markets. The intellectual foundations of this are the first and second theorems of welfare economics. The purpose of the seminar is to introduce the students to these results but also to their limitations. Most economists think that market outcomes will fail to be efficient in the presence of large-scale externalities/public goods, and government intervention is then justified.
What is the relationship between oil and empire? How has control over oil-the single most important commodity in the world-shaped the nature of power, politics, and environmental and social life in the twentieth century? How have different disciplines contributed to and at times undermined a critical understanding of oil politics? This interactive seminar will address these and other questions by examining the political, social, material, and cultural history of oil. Given the centrality of oil to modern life, control over this prized resource has resulted in a complex and often violent history. We will thus look at the ways in which the political economy of oil has shaped the rise and fall of empires, the fate of nation-states, the making of the economy, the nature of class, gender, and racial discrimination, and the production of historical knowledge and the built urban environment. By moving between primary source documents and films, multi-disciplinary scholarly analyses, in-class discussions and debates, and written assignments, students will learn to be principal investigators and thereby sharpen their own critical interpretive abilities. This seminar on the global history of oil will address trends and processes from Ecuador, Mexico, the United States, and Venezuela to Nigeria, Indonesia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia.
The goal is not to convert, adopt, or appropriate. Instead, it is to enrich and clarify your own path by understanding the "spiritual technologies"-the practices, mindsets, and rituals-that ground others. Paradoxically, this practice of looking outward is designed to strengthen, not dilute, your own worldview, fostering a deeper appreciation for your inherited traditions by seeing them in a new light. In this hands-on laboratory, we will move beyond the textbook. Through direct conversations with Harvard’s own chaplains and professors, we will explore the formative paths of Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Humanism. By witnessing how a Muslim’s day is shaped by prayer, or how a Humanist community builds an ethical framework, we gain a more profound vocabulary for articulating our own sources of meaning. You will leave not with a final paper, but with something far more valuable: a "Rule of Life," your own personalized charter of values, sharpened and inspired by a newfound appreciation for the world's wisdom."
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Successful completion of two terms of Special Concentrations 98r are ordinarily required of all honors concentrators in their junior year. Exceptions to this can only be granted with the consent of the Faculty Adviser and the Director of Studies of Special Concentrations.
Designed for seniors in their final term completing their senior project to meet the Basic (rather than Honors) requirements for concentration. May be repeated with the permission of the Director of Studies and the Faculty Adviser. Students must secure the written approval of the faculty member with whom they wish to study as well as the approval of the Faculty Adviser and the Director of Studies of Special Concentrations.
Open to Special Concentrations concentrators who wish to pursue supervised study for graded credit in an area not covered by courses currently offered by regular Departments and Committees. Students must secure the written approval of the faculty member with whom they wish to study as well as the signature of the Faculty Adviser and the Director of Studies of Special Concentrations.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
What is education? What are its goals? Why is education of value? Are these questions that can be settled once and for all, or do their answers depend on historical and cultural factors? In an effort to answer these questions, we will study works of philosophers such as Plato, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Du Bois, Washington, and Dewey. Two papers are required.
The duration of education is a strong predictor of health and longevity, but approximately 1 in 5 children with learning or attention issues have long-lasting negative consequences related to their academic, social, mental health, vocational, economic outcomes. In the US, over 2 million students struggle with specific learning disabilities (SLD), which represents roughly 35% of all students who receive special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Children with a learning disability are less likely to complete high school or enroll in postsecondary educational programs and have a heightened risk for developing mental health problems such as depression or anxiety. Currently, SLDs are primarily identified and addressed within the education system; however, these students also receive care and support outside of school and are members of various community settings. A streamlined approach that informs the coordination of general education, special education, clinical psychology, policymaking, advocacy, caregivers, and health professionals (e.g., pediatricians, speech-and language pathologists) is often absent and hinders the design of preventive approaches, identification strategies, and service implementation. It further leads to a siloed approach for care and policymaking, lack of community supports.
Education is a universal human activity, but how it is understood and practiced vary widely across cultures. When immersed in our own upbringing and educational experiences, we can easily take our beliefs and practices for granted, while overlooking cross-cultural variation and making inaccurate generalization about people from different backgrounds. That is why it is important to take a cross-cultural approach in the study of education. It not only helps us understand the diversity and universalities in educational practices around the world, but also invites us to see our own experiences in a new light and reflect on how our beliefs about learning, teaching, and parenting have been shaped by our cultural backgrounds.
In this course, students will learn about the current cutting-edge science of curiosity from a cognitive science perspective. In addition to engaging in course discussions of the scientific literature, students will apply this knowledge in group assignments that will focus on how curiosity may be studied in the lab and will brainstorm on how it can be deployed in the classroom. As part of these assignments, students will build skills in talking about curiosity - whether it be to
This course explores curricular and instructional debates about the learning and teaching of content areas taught in elementary and secondary schools - particularly mathematics, reading, and science. For at least the last 100 years, educators and educational researchers have continuously and vigorously argued about the best ways to teach math, reading, and science. The field widely recognizes the importance of these conversations and the centrality of consistency and clarity in how we conceptualize and advocate for the learning of school subjects. Yet frequently these debates have escalated to a type of “war” (e.g., the math wars, the reading wars) that plays out in both academia and in practice. In this course, we explore the fundamental arguments that have occurred about the learning and teaching of mathematics, science, and reading. We consider these debates theoretically, practically, and historically, looking mainly within the United States but with some consideration of Asian perspectives as well. Although the primary emphasis of the course will be on the learning and teaching of mathematics, science, and reading, students are welcome to explore other school subjects in course papers and projects. There are two intended audiences for this course. First, the course is designed for those who seek to develop broad knowledge about content learning in schools, including teacher leaders, policy makers, researchers, and district leaders who will be working with groups of teachers across several content areas. The course considers it essential that school leaders and policy makers understand learning challenges, curriculum controversies, and historical background that are specific to each content area. Second, the course is also intended for those with experience or knowledge in one content area who seek to develop knowledge about teaching and learning challenges in other content areas.
How might the study of our collective past and present through a comparative, humanizing lens support our ability to contextualize and confront the challenges of our present? This course introduces students to the origins, epistemologies, frameworks, key concepts, and central questions in the field and community of Ethnic Studies, while applying these concepts and questions to our own educational experiences and the various contexts that we navigate. The course begins with an examination and analysis of self and impact of dominant and counter narratives throughout history, which will provide a foundation for the second half of the course when we examine more recent histories and issues faced by communities of color, including the ongoing struggle for Ethnic Studies here at Harvard. Topics will include, but are not limited to: settler colonialism, race, racism, ethnicity, migration, labor, colonialism, social movements, oppression, intergenerational trauma and resilience, white supremacy, power, agency, liberation, intersectionality, community action, healing centered engagement, solidarity, and social change. This course is designed to be both an individual and collective journey that challenges each of us to critically reflect upon what it means to authentically exercise solidarity in ways that actively interrupt oppression and humanize all participants in classrooms, communities, and beyond.
Many children have difficulty learning to read proficiently. This course will explore the sources and mechanisms of reading difficulties, considering learning differences and disabilities as well as the sociocultural context. We will also examine evidence-based practices for preventing and ameliorating reading difficulties in school-age children. The course will address cognitive processes that underlie reading difficulties, as well as socioemotional domains that co-develop with reading acquisition. We will consider reading challenges using a strengths-based approach that privileges access to complex academic tasks alongside their grade-level peers and attends to the sociocultural contexts in which reading development occurs. Our focus will be on the United States context, with options for course members to explore reading from international perspectives. The course will emphasize practical applications of research evidence to support all readers, from the perspectives of educators of school-age students with reading challenges, school- and district-level administrators, and policy makers. In so doing, we will address common myths and misconceptions about dyslexia, supports for culturally and linguistically diverse students to leverage their funds of knowledge during reading tasks, the co-occurrence of other academic challenges (e.g., ADHD, math disability, etc.), and school-level policies that can optimize reading outcomes for all children. Doctoral and master's level students are welcome (undergraduates with permission).
The field of neuroscience can provide a biological-level description to better understand how students learn and explain individual differences. It can offer an alternative perspective on learning principles, skill development, and learning differences, including their underlying etiologies. At the same time, the application of neuroscience to education is debated. Findings are often misinterpreted or oversimplified, leading to “brain myths,” overgeneralizations, and ineffective and sometimes harmful educational practices and policies.
As the number of children who speak, or are exposed to, more than one language increases in U.S. classrooms and in classrooms around the world, educators at all system levels and across varied settings must be prepared to provide high-quality, rigorous education to ever more linguistically diverse groups of students. Designed for researchers and practitioners, this course focuses on the pressing issues related to bilingual students' language and literacy instruction. The term "bilingual" in this course will be used to refer to a variety of students who have diverse and unequal experiences in more than one language and who speak or hear a language different from the societal language at home, but who might receive bilingual or monolingual instruction at school. The course employs an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on sociocultural, psycho-linguistic, and educational frameworks of research conducted in the United States and in various international contexts. A number of societal factors related to language, literacy, and academic achievement will be explored: the many modes of being bilingual or multilingual, the role of linguistic minorities in society, the role of educational resources, and the impact of educational policies on bilingual populations. The course will provide opportunities to discuss and investigate the literacy development of bilingual learners, reflect on the important contribution of literacy skills to academic achievement, and learn and reflect about research-based instructional approaches.
Adolescence marks change on multiple levels (e.g., biologically, cognitively, and socially) and in multiple contexts (e.g., family, school, community, and peers). In fact, it marks the largest growth period in human development outside of infancy. Driven by enhanced thinking and reasoning capabilities, adolescents struggle with balancing their desires for autonomy and independence with their desires for guidance and connection. These dynamics result in renegotiating family and social relationships and engagement in school, impact the effectiveness of educational practices, and enhance adolescents' ability to think and plan for their future. This course is designed to provide a practical understanding of the developmental issues, assets, and trajectories of adolescent thinking and reasoning. Based in classic and current theory and research and using real problems of practice, students will learn, integrate, and apply knowledge of biological and cognitive development and of identity processes. This course will prepare educational practitioners to integrate developmental approaches to their pedagogy and provide a foundation for those interested in applied research on adolescence.
Public education has long strived to be society’s “great equalizer.” Yet, throughout its history, the American education system has failed to deliver on this promise. In this course, we will examine specific high-profile and popular system-level reform initiatives aimed at improving urban public schools. For example, we will investigate New York City’s efforts to improve high schools and develop a “college for all” culture, Boston’s focus on teacher quality, and Denver’s school choice initiative. We will meet key leaders of these reforms: district level policy makers, principals, teachers, non-profit leaders and funders who collectively developed theories of action, negotiated new policies, and implemented the reforms with students. We will dive deep into their work to understand how political, economic, and cultural systems have enabled and constrained it, and
A required seminar on Tuesdays at 9:00 a.m. during Fall 1 only, for six weeks. Hands-on research experience in one of the projects you selected, lasting throughout the entire semester. Students are expected to complete 8-12 hours of research work, including a weekly one-hour project meeting scheduled at a time that is convenient for all project team members, likely on Tuesday afternoons.
Introduction to key ideas underlying statistical and quantitative reasoning, and the practice of data science. Course topics include methods for organizing, summarizing and visualizing data; basics of probability; elements of study design; data ethics; parameter estimation and hypothesis testing in one- and two-sample problems; regression with one or more predictors; and basic analysis of categorical data. Students will learn a reproducible workflow for analyzing data in the R software environment. No prior statistics or computing knowledge is assumed.
A second course in Statistics -- analyzing sports data using data science tools. Commonly used measures and practices will be introduced to illustrate modern sports analytic thinking. The course will cover visualizing, analyzing, and modeling data from team and individual sports and other competitive games. Communicating these results to less technical audiences will be a focus. Modules will include methods for player, team, and coach evaluation; game planning; and decision making. The course assumes prior statistical and computing knowledge at the Stat 100/102/104 level including the use of R. No prior knowledge of sports analytics is necessary, but students should have, or be interested in obtaining, a basic understanding of the rules and terminology used in major team and individual sports.
Data Science 2 is the second half of a one-year introduction to data science. Building upon the material in Data Science 1, the course introduces advanced methods for statistical modeling, representation, and prediction. Topics include multiple deep learning architectures such as CNNs, RNNs, transformers, language models, autoencoders, and generative models as well as basic Bayesian methods, and unsupervised learning. Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in both the fall and spring course within the same academic year. Part two of a two-part series.
A comprehensive introduction to probability. Basics: sample spaces and events, conditional probability, and Bayes' Theorem. Univariate distributions: density functions, expectation and variance, Normal, t, Binomial, Negative Binomial, Poisson, Beta, and Gamma distributions. Multivariate distributions: joint and conditional distributions, independence, transformations, and Multivariate Normal. Limit laws: law of large numbers, central limit theorem. Markov chains: transition probabilities, stationary distributions, convergence.
Introduction to the principles and methods of statistical inference, as a framework for achieving the three main goals of statistics: describing data and a phenomenon of interest, predicting one variable using another variable, and drawing causal conclusions about the effect of one variable on another. Frequentist and Bayesian perspectives on model building, learning from data, and making decisions under uncertainty. A three-pronged approach is emphasized, combining theory, simulation, and data.
This course is an introduction to bioinformatics and statistical genetics. The course will cover basic technology platforms, data analysis problems and algorithms. We will study statistical procedures commonly used in mammalian genetics (e.g., mouse and human). Topics include sequence alignment, differential gene expression analysis, QTL mapping and genome-wide association studies.
Introduction to time series models and forecasting. Introduction to classical time series model: autoregressive, moving average, ARIMA models. Some concepts from stochastic processes: martingales, stationarity, Gaussian processes, Brownian motions, ergodic theorems. Some aspects of advanced time series: hidden Markov models, state space models, filtering, smoothing, Kalman filters, sequential Monte Carlo methods.
An in-depth introduction to statistical methods with linear models and related methods. Topics include group comparisons (t-based methods, non-parametric methods, bootstrapping, analysis of variance), linear regression models and their extensions (ordinary least squares, ridge, LASSO, weighted least squares, multi-level models), model checking and refinement, model selection, cross-validation. The probabilistic basis of all methods will be emphasized.
In recent decades, macroscale demographic and epidemiological trends have led to a marked increase in the number of older adults as a proportion of the global population. This transition is predicted to accelerate throughout the 21st century; indeed, by the year 2080, it is estimated that the global number of persons aged 65 and older will surpass the number of persons under 18 years of age. Nevertheless, elderhood remains an understudied stage of human life that, in many societies today, brings with it unique challenges, including increased risks of poverty, isolation, and chronic disease. This course will examine the role that ethnographic research and writing can play in illuminating the drivers, experiences, and moral stakes of those negotiating poverty and chronic disease in old age. Through a series of case studies drawn from anthropological literature, it will examine themes of elderhood, chronicity, belonging, identity, illness, kinship, infirmity, care, and a good death in relation to political economies of aging. Students will also complete a semester-long, independent ethnographic research and writing project to explore one of these themes, or a related theme, in greater detail. All along, students will explore what a public facing practice of anthropology can contribute to the social and health inequities facing impoverished elders and other structurally vulnerable communities. This seminar-style course is intended primarily for undergraduates; no prior coursework is required.
Health care should be about standing with the poor and the sick. It is about fighting for those pushed to the margins, whose lives are ground down by poverty, trapped by unjust systems, and devalued by forces that declare some lives worth less than others. This course challenges students to reimagine disease, illness, and injury as biosocial phenomena--shaped as much by poverty, racism, and political violence as by pathogens. From rural Malawi to American prisons, from tuberculosis programs to the overdose crisis, we will trace the roots of global health inequities and examine the ideologies that sustain them. But this course is not only about identifying failures. It is also about how we stand alongside the sick and destitute to fight for a future where health is a human right.
This course introduces students to the foundational topics, theoretical perspectives, and practical applications of medical anthropology. Medical anthropologists examine the role that cultural beliefs and practices, social and economic contexts, and modes of governance play in shaping patterns of health and disease, illness experiences, diverse healing practices, and health outcomes across different communities. Common topics include medical pluralism and diverse healing traditions, moral experience and stigma, illness narratives, structural violence, familial and professional caregiving, chronicity, the phenomenology of pain, mental health and wellbeing, and the political economy of health. Drawing on core ethnographic texts and films, the course will situate these topics, perspectives, and applications within the intellectual history of the field and its current trends. Seeking to link theory to practice, students will also explore the field’s complex relation to biomedicine, serving both as a source of critique of its limitations as well as a contributing discipline to its efforts to prevent suffering and deliver care. It is intended primarily for undergraduate students interested in health, culture, and society.
Social Medicine is a transdisciplinary field of study and practice that uses insights from the interpretive social sciences and humanities to improve medical theory and the delivery of health care. This course will explore the historical foundations of social medicine in the 19th and 20th centuries in Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and North America. It will then examine case studies of social medicine in the contemporary world that confront the social, political, economic, and cultural forces that shape the distribution of disease, access to care, delivery paradigms, and care outcomes for individuals and communities. All along, it will interrogate how social medicine analyses can be used to inform critical media interventions that seek to address social suffering and to promote health equity. At the end of the semester, students will have mastered the foundations of social medicine and developed the ability to apply its insights to independent scholarly and creative work.
Buried beneath modern cities, Roman amphitheaters, and Medieval churches lie subtle traces of Europe’s earlier occupants: campsites littered stone tools and animal bones, human bodies preserved in bogs and frozen in ice, and cave walls decorated with extinct animals. This course will explore European prehistory from the first settlement of Europe by Homo erectus, around a million years ago, to the building of Stonehenge, c. 2000 B.C. We will cover some of those most exciting topics in archaeology today: How similar were Neanderthals to us and why did they go extinct? When and why did groups subsisting on hunting and gathering take up farming? And finally, for what purpose were large stone monuments such as Stonehenge and Newgrange built?
In this course, students will learn what landscapes are and how to study them archaeologically. Landscape archaeology allows us to transit from more site-centered views to a more integrated approach. This helps us to comprehend archaeological sites in their much wider, rich and complex spatial context, their relationship with other sites, as well as with how are they are position within the physical and mythical geography. Rather than a particular time period, the course conceives landscapes as palimpsests and, thus, will analyze them throughout different periods, from paleolithic times, the Neolithic, Middle Ages, up to the present. Rather than a particular region or area, we will study and compare case studies from Europe, Africa, Central and East Asia, the Americas and the Pacific amongst others. Moreover, we will pay special attention to how funerary architecture, settlements, hunting camps, mines, battlefields, road systems, and particular worldviews were part and were used by humans to culturally construct their landscapes. In addition to explaining the theoretical bases and landscape conceptions, the course will pay special attention to the plethora of methodologies used in landscape archaeology, including archaeometry, toponymy, historical cartography, GIS analysis and remote sensing. Readings concerning landscape theory, key case studies and methodologies will be provided, and, for their final assignment, the students will have to select their own case study in order to create a landscape archaeology project/study.
Students will begin by tracing how those contributions were enabled by the achievements of early horticulturalists and the development of agriculture; life in early villages; the rise of craft production and regional exchange networks; the appearance of temples, towns, social hierarchy and urban life. All were pre-requisites for the emergence of states and empires in Highland Mexico. The final course discussions focus on the persistence and resilience of indigenous lifeways and belief systems and the role of cultural hybridity through the Conquest and Colonial periods, 19th century Independence and the Republican period, the 20th century Revolution and up to the contemporary scene. The Peabody Museum's remarkable collections are incorporated into class discussions and research. Students will be encouraged to contribute their own interests and relevant aspects of their background to class discussions and to the direction of our inquiries. Both undergraduate and graduate students are welcome. Undergraduate students, please note that this course counts toward the fulfillment of the Ethnicity, Migration, Rights Secondary Field.
What are the origins of Chinese civilization? What was society like before the development of the large states that would eventually merge to form the Chinese empire over 2000 years ago, essentially forming the basis of modern China? How does this process of development compare with other early civilizations? This course surveys the archaeology of China from the Paleolithic (ca. 1 million years before present) up to and including the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1050 BC), with an emphasis on great transitions in human history. The class will focus both on specific, detailed discussions of some of the most important archaeological finds from China, as well as more general discussions of various anthropological themes as they relate to data from early Chinese contexts and emerging complex society. The lectures are generally organized in chronological order, starting in Week 2 with the Paleolithic and subsequently focusing on the early and Later Neolithic and the Shang period of the Bronze Age. Students will develop a thorough familiarity with Chinese archaeological sites and cultures over the course of this term and also explore the way that Chinese archaeology relates to general issues in anthropological archaeology. Students of any level, from First Year Undergraduates to Graduate Students, are welcome. Important themes covered in the class include the emergence and migration of modern hominins, the origins of agriculture, animal domestication, and sedentary villages, early urbanism, changes in burial practices and religion, ritual, writing, and production, the development of complex society, and the presentation of archaeological information in modern contexts. The course will provide students with a basic understanding of these topics in relation to early China. Occasional discussions will review the lecture material and focus on clarifying, deconstructing and debating topics in Chinese archaeology about which there is little consensus. We will also explore Chinese materials in museum collections at Harvard and produce a small exhibit using these materials.
Well before the proliferation of historical documentation across the African continent after 9th Century CE, the archaeological record of Africa includes profound evidence of the development of sociopolitical complexity and the evolution of urbanism. This course uses archaeology to explore 5,000 years of African politics across multiple regions of the continent. We will take a deeper look at the material expression of ancient royal ideologies, made complicated by early ideas of gender and the rise of powerful queens. Then, by tracing the formation of elite classes in several regions, we will explore patterns in the concentration of political power, and also patterns in the resistance to concentrated power in various forms, including rebellion. Finally, we will explore the profound societal, economic, and geopolitical implications of the working of iron and the trade in African gold.
The Pyramids, Sphinx, tombs, and temples at Giza (ca. 2500 BCE) are arguably the most famous archaeological site in the world. Yet Giza still poses major questions about ancient Egyptian history, society, art, architecture, religion, and language. The Harvard University-Boston Museum of Fine Arts Expedition excavated much of the site (1905 to 1947), and Harvard is home to the Giza Project (and website: http://giza.fas.harvard.edu). Open to undergraduates and graduate students, this class examines Giza in the context of ancient Egyptian history, art, and (digital) archaeology and modern visualization technologies, along with ethical issues about cultural heritage and repatriation. After a series of introductory lectures, student presentations and discussions will explore topics from pyramid construction theories, tomb and temple architecture, to settlement archaeology, portraiture in Egyptian art, and the technological and ethical challenges facing archaeologists today in processing excavation records both old and new. We will touch on issues of ownership, archaeological racism, and cultural nationalism. The class will also visit the unparalleled Giza galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and exhibits at the HMANE (Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East), plus the archives in Pusey Library, depending on class size. For final projects, students may choose to prepare a standard research paper, an iMovie, or investigate the special features of a Giza object or tomb. No technological or Egyptological prerequisites are required to take the course.
This course surveys the concept of health and the major nutritional and infectious diseases that have impacted human populations over the past ten thousand years. Special attention is paid to the methods used to detect and identify disease in the past, including skeletal paleopathology, paleodemography, and pathogenomics, as well as human social factors that have influenced human disease exposure and susceptibility, including long-distance migration, agriculture and pastoralism, urbanization, and industrialization.
Harvard’s museum collections have often been used to interrogate the world outside of “us”: peoples, events, places, and things. In this course we will reverse that gaze and ask what the collections and the processes of collecting reveal about the history of Harvard and its institutional identity as “the” place of learning. We will unpack the historical circumstances surrounding the arrival of particular collections of photographs and objects at Harvard’s Peabody Museum: such ones related to imperial desires, scientific inquiry, academic curiosity, and the violence of colonialism. We will explore how critically examining this past informs present action and future strategies in contemporary museum practice at the Peabody Museum. This is a hands-on collections course that will be taught at the Peabody Museum and will include visits to other museums, archives, and libraries on campus.
This course introduces undergraduate students to the discipline of Sociocultural Anthropology. Lectures will develop and explain sociocultural anthropology’s central questions and discoveries, concepts and innovations, methods and theories, placing each in their historical and political context. The course will give special attention to two distinctive, interrelated, and sometimes controversial features of the discipline within the social sciences: culture as a foundational concept for social analysis, and ethnography as a foundational research method and mode of social representation.
This course introduces students to ethnographic research methods through a combination of reading, discussion, and practice. Students will read and engage with texts on various key elements of ethnographic research, with attention to the traditions of practice within the discipline of anthropology, critical methodological interventions throughout the discipline’s history, and new and emerging research methods. The readings and in-class discussions aim to engage students in the intellectual and ethical questions at stake in designing research projects. Students will also practice ethnographic methods discussed both within weekly discussions and in self-directed research projects. This hands-on work prepares students for ethnographic research through introduction to and dynamic feedback on ethnographic practice.
This course will explore how different cultures imagine death and the afterlife, drawing on insights from the anthropology of religion, medicine, science, and politics. Based on readings that range from classical ethnographies of death and dying in India, Tibet, Mongolia, China, Southeast Asia, Africa, South America, and Japan to contemporary debates surrounding death in North America and Europe, we will discuss cultural theories on what constitutes the moment of death and what happens after. The topics covered include conceptualizations of the body and mind, ideas of the spirit world, shamanism, witchcraft, mortuary rituals, royal and communist corpses, relic veneration, organ donation, end-of-life care, concepts of biopolitics and bare life, technoscientific immortality, and political lives of dead bodies.
This course provides an intensive and in-depth examination of a selection of fundamental concepts in immunology. It takes advantage of the unique expertise of members of our Immunology faculty to illustrate how these concepts have been established and continue to be developed based on seminal work in the field including contributions from their own laboratories.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
People use generative AI to build all kinds of artifacts, from travel itineraries to software systems, and these sorts of things require structure, a clarity of purpose, and an understanding of today's AI systems. Students will learn how to partner with AI to build complex tools from software components, for both personal use and sharing with others. This involves learning how to effectively direct an AI, understand what it did (and didn't do), employ software engineering techniques like testing and version control, and evaluate different AI models.
Data Science 2 is the second half of a one-year introduction to data science. Building upon the material in Data Science 1, the course introduces advanced methods for statistical modeling, representation, and prediction. Topics include multiple deep learning architectures such as CNNs, RNNs, transformers, language models, autoencoders, and generative models as well as basic Bayesian methods, and unsupervised learning. Students are strongly encouraged to enroll in both the fall and spring course within the same academic year. Part two of a two-part series.
An introductory course in theoretical computer science, aimed at giving students the power of using mathematical abstraction and rigorous proof to understand computation. Thus equipped, students will be able to design and use algorithms that apply to a wide variety of computational problems, with confidence about their correctness and efficiency, as well as recognize when a problem may have no algorithmic solution. At the same time, they will gain an appreciation for the beautiful mathematical theory of computation that is independent of (indeed, predates) the technology on which it is implemented.
Computation occurs over a variety of substrates including silicon, neurons, DNA, the stock market, bee colonies and many others. In this course we will study the fundamental capabilities and limitations of computation, including the phenomenon of universality and the duality of code and data. Some of the questions we will touch upon include: Are there functions that cannot be computed? Are there true mathematical statements that can't be proven? Are there encryption schemes that can't be broken? Is randomness ever useful for computing? Can we use the quirks of quantum mechanics to speed up computation?
Knowledge of how to write mathematical proofs, such as from Computer Science 20, Applied Math 22, or Math 22, is required; more advanced courses such as Computer Science 1200 (formerly CS 120), Math 23, Math 25, and Math 101 may be helpful but are not required. Basic programming skills, such as from Computer Science 32 or 50, are required; Computer Science 51 and/or 61 may be helpful but are not required. No specific programming language is required. Knowledge of discrete math and probability, such as from Computer Science 20 or self-study, is required. Statistics 110 may be helpful but is not required.
Introduces core topics in graph theory: forests, (k-)(edge-)connectivity, (outer)planarity, (induced) subgraphs, graph minors, matchings (in not-necessarily-bipartite graphs), colorings, and (nowhere-zero) flows. Discusses the Four-Color Theorem, that every planar graph's vertices can be colored with four colors, and builds up the graph-theoretic machinery necessary for an understanding of its generalization and successor as a major open problem, Hadwiger's conjecture.
Review of the fundamental structures in modern processor design. Topics include computer organization, memory system design, pipelining, and other techniques to exploit parallelism. Discussion of modern topics including GPU architectures, datacenter architecture, mobile/embedded SoC architectures, and machine learning acceleration as time permits. Emphasis on a quantitative evaluation of design alternatives and an understanding of performance and energy consumption issues.
In this course, students will learn how to utilize tools powered by large language models (LLMs) to address real-world design challenges, including the generation of code and circuits. This field represents the forefront of technology and is rapidly evolving, with new insights and lessons emerging frequently. For example, recent advancements in reasoning models have significantly improved the success rate of producing designs that are not only correct but also efficient. As a result, there is a growing emphasis on the computational efficiency of inference, which enhances deeper reasoning capabilities. Related research includes developing methods for automatically generating testbenches to evaluate and validate designs created by LLMs.
This course studies computer network topics including Layer 2/Layer 3 topology, routing, transport protocols, traffic engineering, network functions, programmable switches, and software-defined networking. Modern networks have grown to large scale (connecting millions of servers) and high speed (terabits per second) to meet the needs of cloud applications in business and society. Thus, in addition to learning the conventional concepts in networking, we will also discuss how to adapt these concepts to large-scale networks. These discussions will hopefully help deepen our understanding of networking technologies. This course includes lectures and system programming projects. More information can be found at https://github.com/minlan-yu/cs145-site
Interplay between computation and economics. Rotating topics in mechanism and market design, strategic aspects of machine learning and AI, information elicitation and forecasting, and other emerging areas. Readings in AI, theoretical CS, multi-agent systems, economic theory, and operations research.
Bad puns. Blasphemy. Codpieces. Corpse humor. Cougars. Cuckolds. Fart jokes. Dominant ladies. Funny drunks. Hypocrites. Incredible sex. Over-clever students. Priapic priests. Romance send-ups. Wimpy knights. Wit triumphant. These are some of the ingredients of humor covered in our survey of literature from 1100 to 1650. The ranges include drama, fabliaux, Latin lyrics, Chaucer, Middle Scots poetry, and other genres up to Rabelais and Shakespeare. With the help of Auerbach, Huizinga, Bakhtin, and other critics, you will develop an understanding of what constitutes humor from this period, as well as the serious institutions that invite a comic reflex.
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Building on the basic grammar and translation skills learned in English 102, this course introduces students to Old English literature in its most immediate context: the manuscripts that preserve the earliest copies of each text. The weekly task of translation will be supplemented by consistent attention to the unique manuscript contexts of Old English literature. Special class sessions will include a visit to the Houghton Library to examine the way early manuscripts were created, and a class visit by a professional calligrapher for a hands-on demonstration of the ancient art of writing with a quill pen and ink. The texts will include selections from a historical chronicle, the OE Genesis with its illustrations, the Exeter Book Riddles, Beowulf, and others. The course will guide students through basic principles of manuscript study, such as how the manuscript folios are made, how scribes prepared them before the first word was inked, and how they were gathered into a finished book. Even though we live in an age when more and more texts are encountered in digital form (you’re looking at one right now!), the physical book endures as one of the lasting legacies of the Middle Ages. The course will culminate in a collaborative edition of an Old English text, in which each student will transcribe two folios from a medieval manuscript and turn it, step by step, into a classroom edition.
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Why are some countries governed democratically while dictators seem to have a firm grasp on power in others? Why do people threaten and even kill each other in the name of ethnicity or religion in some places and times but not others? This course will give you a chance to explore these questions in the context of the Middle East, a region that has been widely perceived as a bastion of authoritarianism and a hotbed of ethnic and religious politics and political violence. In considering key questions and debates about politics, governance, and identity in the Middle East, you will develop a critical understanding of politics in the region, while simultaneously gaining the social-scientific vocabularies necessary to question the assumptions that are often made about Middle Eastern politics and people and, more generally, about politics in other contexts. In asking why and how the Arab Spring was possible, and how authoritarian governance has managed to persist following those uprisings, you will have an opportunity to engage some of the most urgent social-political questions of our time. You will leave this course with a clearer understanding of how dictators and militaries maintain their hold on power and how identity politics and conflict are constructed and change over time.
Facing the edifice of preexisting knowledge, how are breakthrough scientific discoveries made that contradict the existing canon? Ten great experiments that have transformed our understanding of nature will guide us, first through immersion in the scholarship and popular beliefs of the time. Next, how did the discoverer prepare? What were the motivations, prior experiences, and training that led to the threshold of a fruitful advance? Then, to the degree possible, we will carry out the exact same investigations, building our own simple equipment from scratch, duplicating the challenges of wresting patterns from noisy and incomplete data. Students will compare their results to both private and published versions of the original research. The course will examine the magnitude of the cognitive shifts experienced and the often uphill battle to acceptance. We will build an understanding of the nature of scientific progress, examining how the mastery of natural phenomena leads to new technologies and how these can contribute to further scientific discovery.
What is sleep? Why do we sleep? Why don't we sleep? How much sleep do you need? What are circadian rhythms? How do technology and culture impact sleep? This course will explore the role of sleep and circadian timing in maintaining health, improving performance and enhancing safety. We will evaluate the causes and consequences of the epidemic of sleep disorders and deficiency in our society, with particular attention to impacts on brain (learning and memory, mood and cognition) and body (appetite and metabolism, hormones and heart) functions. Personal and public policy approaches to issues such as drowsy students, drowsy drivers and drowsy doctors will be addressed.
This course is designed to give students the mathematical tools that will be helpful in their physics courses. Topics include: Fourier analysis, special functions, tensors, differential equations, contour integration, group theory, probability, statistics, variational principle, phase space, Green’s functions, transforms.
An introduction to electronic circuit design intended to develop circuit intuition and debugging skills through daily design exercises, discussion and hands-on lab exercises. The approach is intensely practical, minimizing theory. Moves quickly from passive circuits to discrete transistors, then concentrates on operational amplifiers, used to make a variety of circuits including integrators, oscillators, regulators, and filters. The digital half of the course treats analog-digital interfacing, emphasizes the use of microcontrollers and programmable logic devices (PLDs).
Quantum theory is our most empirically successful scientific framework. The theory reliably accounts for the measurement results of atomic clocks and particle accelerators to many decimal places, and much of our modern technology relies on it. However, the theory’s axiomatic foundations are arguably either inconsistent or incomplete, and there is still no consensus over what the theory entails about the world. This course will cover the century-long effort to resolve these mysteries and others, a story that features fantastical notions like parallel universes, pilot waves, quasi-probabilities, alive-and-dead cats, and spooky action at a distance. Throughout the course, we will engage with many relevant questions in philosophy, from determinism and causation to epistemology and the meaning of probability.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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One can consider this course as a general introduction and overview to theoretical physics, even though it centers on the theoretical aspects of classical mechanics. We will study problems in the mechanics of particle motion and also problems in continuum mechanics, including classical field theory. We will consider linear systems and non-linear ones. We stress the role of conserved quantities in studying the laws of physics, and emphasize the relation between conserved quantities and symmetry. We study Langrangian and Hamiltonian mechanics from the point of view of their relation to different fields of physics, including quantum theory. We discuss soliton solutions to some non-linear classical equations. Time permitting, we will discuss other non-linear phenomena that are important in physics.
Aimed at advanced undergraduates. Emphasis on the properties and sources of the electromagnetic fields and on the wave aspects of the fields. Course starts with electrostatics and subsequently develops the Maxwell equations. Topics: electrostatics, dielectrics, magnetostatics, electrodynamics, radiation, wave propagation in various media, wave optics, diffraction and interference. A number of applications of electrodynamics and optics in modern physics are discussed.
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Foundations of frequentist and Bayesian inference, and decision theory. Likelihood, sufficiency, and ancillarity. Point estimation, unbiasedness, maximum likelihood, method of moments, minimum-variance. Parametric and non-parametric hypothesis testing, confidence intervals. Selective inference: multiple testing, familywise error rate, false discovery rate. Bayesian inference, conjugate priors, credible intervals. Admissibility, Stein's phenomenon, empirical Bayes. Time permitting: post-selection inference and the bootstrap.
Many science and engineering problems don’t have simple analytical solutions or even accurate analytical approximations. Scientific computing can address certain of these problems successfully, providing unique insight. This course introduces some of the widely used techniques in scientific computing through examples chosen from physics, chemistry, biology, computer science and other fields. The purpose of the course is to introduce methods that are useful in applications and research and to give the students hands-on experience with these methods. The main programming language will be Python.
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Abstracting the essential components and mechanisms from a natural system to produce a mathematical model, which can be analyzed with a variety of formal mathematical methods, is perhaps the most important, but least understood, task in applied mathematics. This course approaches a number of problems without the prejudice of trying to apply a particular method of solution. Topics drawn from biology, economics, engineering, physical and social sciences.
This course provides an introduction to basic mathematical ideas and computational methods for optimization. Topics include linear programming, integer programming, branch-and-bound, branch-and-cut, as well as first-order gradient-based methods with an emphasis on modeling and data science applications.
Modeling and analysis of mechanical systems. Topics include 3D rigid body dynamics, resonance, damping, frequency response, Laplace transform methods, Lagrange's equations, multiple degree-of-freedom systems and an introduction to control and continuous systems. Analytical modeling will be supplemented with numerical simulations and lab experiments. Laboratory exercises will explore vibration, and stabilization using data acquisition systems.
Offered jointly with the Design School as SCI-6272. The course will be taught in two sessions per week, each with a different focus. One session will focus on Innovation Perspective and often contain guest lectures by innovators. The second session will focus on Innovation Practice and will contain interactive group work, case studies, and other educational formats about specific innovation ideas and tools. These may be taught on different days or both days, with first-half Perspective and second-half Practice. The course will be held in person. Some classes may be held at alternative times depending on the schedule of guest speakers.
*Linear algebra and multivariable calculus: matrix operations, positive definiteness of a matrix, determinants, complex numbers, eigenvalues and eigenvectors, partial derivatives and integration (e.g., Mathematics 21a,b, Mathematics 22a,b, Mathematics 25a,b, Applied Mathematics 22a,b). *Introductory mechanics: free-body diagrams with masses, springs, and dampers, vector forces and vector torques (e.g., Physics 15a, Physics 16, Physical Sciences 12a, Applied Physics 50a,b). *Programming experience (e.g., CS 50; MATLAB recommended).
The course then develops the foundations of quantum computing, including qubits, quantum logic gates, measurement, quantum circuits, and simple quantum algorithms, with comparisons to classical computation. Current physical implementations of quantum computers are reviewed. Additional topics include bound-state wavefunctions of atoms in optical tweezers, rigid-rotor quantum states, and spectroscopy. The course integrates foundational theory with applications at the intersection of quantum physics and emerging quantum technologies.
The goal of this multidisciplinary course is to enable students to learn how to create miniaturized devices. In addition to the weekly lectures, hand-on activities will lead students to become capable of creating micro-nano devices. Students will understand the physics of sensors and actuators, become familiar with thin-film fabrication technologies, and understanding how these concepts were commercialized. Learning is in small teams - together, students design, simulate, build, edit, discuss, and critique their work. Students will make basic structures using lithography, deposition, and etching. Next, they integrate such structures to create, testable, devices. At the end of the semester, they reverse-engineer some commercial devices and reflect on their fabrication and function.
Basic algorithm of thermodynamics. Entropy. Energy, space, matter. Free energy. Isolated, thermal, closed, open systems. Refrigerators and power cycles. Chemical Reactions. Phase and chemical equilibrium in multicomponent systems; chemical potential. Batteries, fuel cells. Laboratory included.
This course equips students with techniques for listening, thinking, and communicating about music, with a particular focus on the art music (i.e., classical) tradition of the modern West. We begin by establishing some baseline definitions before exploring how the tools and contexts of music-making have transformed over the centuries. Along the way, we’ll encounter a range of styles, genres, and forms from a variety of perspectives (cultural, socio-economic, theoretical) that will sharpen your ability to listen carefully and critically. You’ll also practice articulating your thoughts and opinions about what you’re hearing through listening diaries and in-class discussion. While the trajectory of the course traces a broad history of music (mostly literate and socially elite) around Western Europe and the United States, this is not a survey of “Great Works.” Rather, through interactive cases, students will learn to imaginatively engage with music in historical context. No prior knowledge of music, practical or theoretical, is required to take or succeed in this course, but everyone is expected to complete weekly listening assignments and attend two live performances.
This is an experiential learning course. The ensemble gives four main concerts each year, sometimes joining with the chorus to perform large-scale works. Repertoire includes major works of the classical symphonic repertoire, solo concertos (selected through an internal competition), contemporary or late 20th century music and special projects. Students are required to attend all rehearsals and HRO activities (including Wednesdays for large project rehearsals and Saturdays for concerts/special activities). Students are expected to practice their music outside the rehearsal time. Grades are given pass/fail based on attendance and participation. Students are expected to enroll in the course for the duration of the season (both Fall and Spring semesters).
In addition to being an accredited FAS course, Collegium is an independent 501(c)(3) organization, allowing members to gain valuable experience in arts administration, concert production, marketing, tour planning, and other facets of non-profit leadership. Graduates often embark on related careers, and lifelong arts and music education advocacy. Through music making and community building, Collegium aspires to a more just, inclusive, loving, and musical world. We strive to deepen our understanding of each other and strengthen the connections among us.
Understanding the music of Cuba requires learning about its social structures, complex immigration history and cultural heritage. Positioned on what is known as the key of the Gulf in the Caribbean, Cuba has embraced all of the musical traditions that arrived in the Antilles since the 1500s to the present day. This course will introduce the students to the musical legacy of six composers including Miguel Failde, Ernesto Lecuona, Sindo Garay, Arsenio Rodriguez Bebo Valdes and Enrique Jorrin . Their musical contributions represent distinctive historical moments in the evolution and definition of the Cuban identity. Their work helped shape new musical genres such as Habaneras, Contradanzas, Danzón, Trova Tradicional, Són, Cuban Zarzuela, Bolero, Mambo, Cha-Cha-Chá and Jazz.
The Harvard Glee Club sustains its core virtues of glee, good humor, unity, and joy, and sings timeless and timely choral works from a variety of eras and cultures. Enrichment opportunities in individualized vocal study, choral composition, advanced ear-training and sight singing, and choral repertoire may be explored optionally as students desire. Glee Club members will also design and implement community engagement projects guided by Harvard’s Mindich Program for Engaged Scholarship, including collaborations with the Ashmont Boy Choir in Dorchester.
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We use statistics, machine learning and algorithmic design to analyze high-throughput data generated in our lab (e.g. single-cell RNA-Seq) and model T cell regulation and function in tissue. We follow up on our predictions with in vivo perturbations (e.g. with CRISPR-Cas9) to validate and improve our models.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Where will the coming generation of Americans (say, today’s 18-year-olds) find jobs? And will the jobs be worth having? People have worried about losing their jobs to technology at least since the Luddites 200 years ago. In the aggregate, they have been wrong. The automobile put lots of stable boys and saddle makers out of work, but it created vastly more jobs making cars, fueling them, and repairing them, and it opened the way for whole new industries like roadside motels and restaurants. With robots increasingly performing the tasks once done by blue-collar labor, however, and computers and artificial intelligence now eliminating the need for many workers once thought to be immune because of their cognitive skills, today’s technological threat seems different.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Economics 1011a is similar to Economics 1010a, but more mathematical and covers more material. The course teaches the basic tools of economics and to apply them to a wide range of human behavior. Prerequisites for this course include Mathematics 21a or permission of the instructor.
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Analyses the libertarian perspective on economic and social policy. This perspective differs from both liberal and conservative views, arguing for minimal government in most arenas. Policies addressed include drug prohibition, gun control, public education, abortion rights, gay marriage, income redistribution, and campaign finance regulation.
We will study the use of data for business decision-making, including personnel, pricing, product design, and place. Students will work through intensive data analysis exercises outside of class. Students will also read and analyze academic papers, as well as business cases that describe organizations integrating (or failing to integrate) data analysis into their decision-making. Class time will focus on introducing key concepts and methods, discussing readings, and interaction with classroom guests. Students will write an original research paper using data to recommend a decision for a real organization.
This course integrates psychological and economic approaches to understand behavioral patterns in decision-making. It introduces psychological concepts such as social preferences, bounded rationality, loss aversion, and overconfidence, alongside economic concepts including equilibrium, utility maximization, rational choice, Bayesian beliefs, and game theory. Applications include saving behavior, procrastination, auction bidding, cooperation, and portfolio choice.
Game theory is the study of interdependent decision-making. In the early days of the cold war, game theory was used to analyze an emerging nuclear arms race; today, it has applications in economics, psychology, politics, the law and other fields. In this course, we will explore the “strategic way of thinking” as developed by game theorists over the past sixty years. Special attention will be paid to the move from zero-sum to nonzero-sum game theory. Students will learn the basic solution concepts of game theory -- including minimax and Nash equilibrium -- by playing and analyzing games in class, and then we will take up some game-theoretic applications in negotiation settings: the strategic use of threats, bluffs and promises. We will also study the repeated prisoner’s dilemma and investigate how cooperative behavior may emerge in a population of rational egoists. This problematic -- “the evolution of cooperation” -- extends from economics and political science to biology and artificial intelligence, and it presents a host of interesting challenges for both theoretical and applied research. Finally, we will consider the changing context for the development of game theory today, in particular, the need to achieve international cooperation on economic and environmental issues.
Game theory is the formal toolkit for analyzing situations in which payoffs depend not only on your actions (say, which TV series you watch), but also others' (whether your friends are watching the same show). You've probably already heard of some famous games, like the prisoners' dilemma and the costly signaling game. We'll teach you to solve games like these, and more, using tools like Nash equilibrium, subgame perfection, Bayesian Nash equilibrium, and the one-shot deviation principle.
Entrepreneurship is increasingly recognized as a major driver of innovation and economic growth. At the beginning of 2026, for instance, nine of the eleven companies worldwide worth more than a trillion dollars were less than half a century old, with venture capital financing playing a key role in the growth of each. Venture-backed firms have introduced many of the most important new technologies into the market, from social media to vaccines to artificial intelligence, with profound effects (for better or worse) on social interactions and employment opportunities.
This course surveys the most important results in microeconomics that have shaped the field in the years since WWII. It has two objectives: (i) To understand how the questions were posed, who the main researchers were, and what external influences drove them to approach the subject as they did. This ¼ of the course is the modern history of micro-economic thought. (ii) The major results themselves. This ¾ of the course is quite technical. Class participants will present proofs of the results drawn from the literature. A paper is required at the end of the term. The paper will take one result, or a tightly grouped set of results, and must address both of the objectives of the class as stated above.
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that affects millions globally and is the leading cause of dementia among adults. In this course we will develop an understanding for the characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias that contribute to brain degeneration, the effects that these diseases have on individuals, and the theories behind emerging treatments.
In this tutorial, we will explore dopamine’s diverse roles in reward, motivation, learning, and movement along with how its dysfunction contributes to conditions such as addiction. Drawing on recent systems neuroscience research, we will assess key conceptual frameworks, dissect seminal findings, and highlight unresolved controversies. Students will develop their ability to critically analyze primary literature and design an original research proposal that addresses a fundamental gap in our understanding of dopamine.
During a psychedelic experience, people report profound alterations in their sensation, perception, and consciousness, ranging from visual distortions to a loss of the sense of self to a feeling of “oneness” with the universe. While the psychedelic experience may last only minutes to hours, many people with these experiences report long-lasting changes in their thought patterns and perspectives for weeks to months afterwards. Psychedelic experiences can be induced by use of substances such as psilocybin, LSD, and ayahuasca, as well as by practices such as breathwork or meditation. How do psychedelic substances and other practices produce such impactful changes in the brain and in daily experience? We will discuss the neuroscience of psychedelic experiences, including neural substrates and circuity underlying psychedelic substances, how psychedelic experiences may shape brain network activity through neuroplasticity, and the latest scientific developments investigating the utility of psychedelic experiences as treatments for other mental health conditions.
Should you go to the gym or take a nap? This course considers the relevant factors and mechanisms that are important for making such cost/benefit decisions. We will discuss what makes something physically or mentally effortful and deconstruct the neural circuity that is critical for motivation and reward. We will explore how disrupted decision making can result in mood disorders and build an intuition for how clinicians target such processes to better diagnose and treat their patients. This student-led discussion course will also explore modern theoretical and methodological techniques in the field of computational psychiatry to provide an introduction to how computational models can be used to describe decision making behavior.
This course will draw from a diverse range of disciplines and approaches, including mathematics, neuroscience, and psychology. We will cover topics such as Graph Theory, Bayes theorem, Dynamical systems theory, among others. Through a multidisciplinary lens, we will examine how these theories intersect with neuropsychiatric research to provide novel perspectives on the workings of the mind, brain, and behavior. After having a more comprehensive understanding of the theories presented, the students will attempt to apply them to solve neuropsychiatry-related challenges.
Environmental factors acting during gestation-such as maternal exposure to pathogens or stress-can disturb the development of the mammalian brain, leading to profound changes in brain function. In this course, we will delve into the mechanism of three specific environmental insults and examine their impact on molecular and cellular functions in order to better understand how the brain is put together. We will first learn how the vulnerability of neural progenitor cells to infection by Zika virus can lead to structural neurodevelopmental disorders like microcephaly (reduced brain size). Next, we will study how Maternal Immune Activation (MIA) can interfere with neurodevelopmental signaling to create cortical structure abnormalities that result in behavioral changes even in the absence of a pathogen. Finally, we will explore how cortisol signaling in a stressed pregnant mother can modulate amygdala and hippocampus development in offspring, demonstrating a generational effect of stress. Students will also develop skills to analyze, critique, and discuss research articles in the field of neurodevelopmental disorders and beyond. To this end, students will start the course by discussing research articles figure-by-figure (guided by instructors), progress towards independent interrogation of overarching experimental design and limitations, and conclude by working in groups to present a published paper not covered in class. Armed with foundational neurodevelopment knowledge, the ability to discuss primary research articles vigorously and sensitively, and team-based scientific presentation skills, students will conclude the course competent and confident to tackle neuroscience literature more broadly.
The brain is constantly changing. Brain development continues over the course of an individual’s life, undergoing many steps of embryonic events, postnatal maturation, learning, and aging. Thus, our current thinking, sensing, and moving is structured by an enormous history of individual development. In this course, students will learn how the brain develops to shape our social and affective decision-making, with a focus on the neural mechanism of brain maturation. We will discuss how early life experiences leave sustained effects on brain function, potentially causing psychiatric symptoms in adulthood. Throughout, we will work towards understanding how pre-programmed developmental events are modulated by social and non-social environmental factors. In addition to gaining developmental knowledge, students will also learn how to critically read original articles and to present and discuss conceptual ideas and potential future directions.
Although the vast majority of neurons in the mammalian brain are excitatory, inhibitory neurons working via GABA inhibition shape excitability to play crucial roles in normal brain function. Consequently, GABAergic dysfunction features prominently in various neurological and neuropsychiatric disorders. This course explores molecular, cellular, neural circuit and behavioral mechanisms underlying brain disorders along with treatment strategies targeting this essential synapse.
Enrollment for this course will be via lottery with preference given to junior Neuroscience concentrators. Lottery instructions, deadlines, and a link to the google form can be found here: https://www.mcb.harvard.edu/undergraduate/neuroscience/neuro-courses/?course-button=tutorials. Only one Neuro 101 tutorial may count towards the Neuroscience concentration or secondary requirements.
How do neuron circuits transform sensory input into behavioral output? We will focus on findings from simple but highly refined insect model systems (ie, bees, moths, ants, fruit flies), and we will draw connections to analogous circuits and behaviors in vertebrates and humans. Special emphasis is placed on sensory integration, learning and memory, navigation, and decision making. We will investigate the computational goals of these behaviors, the strategies used to solve them, and their neural implementation in the brain.
The essential function of a neuron is to processe complex signals derived from the external world. In doing so, neurons employ diverse mechanisms that respond to chemical and electrical signals with incredible sensitivity and plasticity. In this course, we will study these electrical, molecular, and cellular processes using biophysical and biological approaches. Specifically, we will explore topics on excitable membranes, neurotransmission, ion channels, dendritic integration, intracellular signaling, and synaptic plasticity in the context of real cells and brain circuits.
There are 100 billion neurons and over 100 trillion synaptic connections in the human brain. Learning how these neurons interact to recall an old memory, construct sensory perception, and motivate behavior is no trivial venture. Computational techniques have expanded our understanding of the complex systems underlying functions of the brain. In this course, students will be introduced to a variety of tools from fields such as mathematics, physics, and computer science that have been adapted to investigate the principles of neural function. Students will learn concepts and practice skills through lectures, in-class activities, programming assignments, and a final project. Topics covered include biophysical models of neurons, sensory information processing, neural population dynamics, memory, deep learning, reinforcement learning, and techniques to analyze experimental data, among others. Tools will be applied across levels of analysis, from individual neurons to neural population dynamics. Familiarity-but not expertise-with coding and linear algebra will be assumed.
Modern molecular genetic approaches are teaching us a great deal on how the brain controls behaviors. This course will cover newly developed experimental strategies of molecular neuroscience, and how they have helped uncover the nature and identity of behavior circuit components. How genes and molecules affect behaviors will be investigated through key examples of mammalian behaviors with an emphasis on instinctive and social behaviors, their expression, development, and associated mental disorders.
This course focuses on our understanding of how the brain develops, adapts to its environment, and enters pathological states. Topics include cell birth and death; neural identity; axon guidance and synaptic specificity, adult neurogenesis. The topics are considered in relation to the onset of neuronal pathology and diseases such as Autism and Alzheimer's Disease. Course assignments emphasize critical evaluation of the literature, experimental design, and scientific writing.
At no time in life does the surrounding environment so potently shape brain function as in infancy and early childhood. This course integrates molecular/cellular biology with systems neuroscience to explore biological mechanisms underlying critical periods in brain development. Understanding how neuronal circuits are sculpted by experience will motivate further consideration of the social impact on therapy, education, policy, and ethics.
Limited to faculty members teaching or conducting research in Renaissance literary studies and to graduate students working in the field. Enrollment is open to all such students, and is required of those who have been admitted to candidacy for the PhD and who intend to work on Renaissance topics.
MDes Open Project is an 8-unit, project-based, design-research collaboration supporting individual projects and peer review. The class is required of, and only open to, all students in the Master of Design Studies program in the fourth semester of study. All sections are open to all MDes Domains although certain projects may be more suitable for students with a given interest or skill set. Enrollment takes place via lottery. Details on Open Projects will be provided at a later date.
MDes Open Project is an 8-unit, project-based, design-research collaboration supporting individual projects and peer review. The class is required of, and only open to, all students in the Master of Design Studies program in the fourth semester of study. All sections are open to all MDes Domains although certain projects may be more suitable for students with a given interest or skill set. Enrollment takes place via lottery. Details on Open Projects will be provided at a later date.
MDes Open Project is an 8-unit, project-based, design-research collaboration supporting individual projects and peer review. The class is required of, and only open to, all students in the Master of Design Studies program in the fourth semester of study. All sections are open to all MDes Domains although certain projects may be more suitable for students with a given interest or skill set. Enrollment takes place via lottery. Details on Open Projects will be provided at a later date.
Reflecting on NYC High Line’s social and economic challenges, in 2017 Friends of the High Line (FHL) established the High Line Network (HLN), a peer-to-peer community of infrastructure reuse projects that spans North America. Network partners at various stages of development lend their technical assistance and advice to one another about how to advance racial equity in their respective communities. Student research and recommendations will support these efforts ranging from ensuring social inclusion, managing gentrification to avoid displacement, institutionalizing public programming, and negotiating city revenues for project development.
Design can be characterized by its methods and media, as well as by its sites and subjects for work, and the dissemination and reception of its findings. Design is synthetic, incorporating information relative to a particular project from a diverse array of disciplinary, professional, social, and cultural sources. It is often characterized by its capacity to organize and visually represent complex arrays of information. Design is most often propositional, rather than simply empirical or descriptive. This projective condition for design is concerned with material, spatial, or temporal interventions in the world, rather than simply describing the world as found. In this respect, design is characterized by its capacity to propose alternative and better futures, particularly in contexts where traditional forms of knowledge production are found inadequate when faced with complex, nonlinear, open-ended, multivariate, and wicked problems.
This class will help students develop methods to make these systems legible as a necessary precondition for shaping them, particularly in how they distribute power, resources, risks, and access. Using real-world urban technologies as case studies, students will learn how to define the boundaries of the system and make it legible through research and techniques of knowledge representation. They will learn how to perform “close readings” of particular system components and artifacts. Finally, by understanding these systems, students will learn to locate the designer/planner’s agency: determining who could change what, with what authority, and to what ends.
The new technologies topic will explore recent technologies being utilized in the real estate environment including prop tech, smart buildings, artificial intelligence, construction management software, robotics. The course will ask these fundamental questions. When and how is it better to use new technologies and what are the risks associated with such use. How can real estate catch up to other industries that use AI and other software to support better outcomes?
During the summer term, students complete a two-month, full-time Practicum placement with a private, public-sector, or non-profit real estate organization. In their placements, students participate in real estate projects or initiatives that advance cutting-edge practices, including those promoting social and environmental best practices. The experience concludes with a final paper and participation in two days of presentations and discussion at the GSD during Orientation Week.
The seminar begins with the concept of “mountain and water”-shanshui in China, sansui in Japan, sansu in Korea-a Sinographic compound rich in artistic and philosophical meaning across Asia ( 山水 ) , reflecting traditions that combine vital elements of dynamic landscapes. Landscape architecture as a modern profession developed differently across regions, shaped by local traditions and specific socio-political and economic changes. Initially, landscape architecture in Asia emerged as states undertook large-scale projects to shape nature for specific social purposes, closely tied to political boundaries and modernist ideals.
This immersive course delves into the dynamic discipline of product design, equipping students with the knowledge and skills to create and lead innovative, user-centric, and sustainable solutions that meet the needs of the user, market and the environment. Drawing from complementary disciplines, the course emphasizes the importance of holistic thinking, and fosters a deep understanding of design's impact and influence on both society and industry.
Technology shapes how power is exercised in society, and thereby also shapes how the present changes into the future. Technological innovation is all around us, and new possibilities in fields like artificial intelligence, genome-editing and geoengineering not only reallocate power, but might transform human life itself considerably, to the point of modifying the essence of what it is to be human. While ethical considerations enter prominently, the philosophy of technology is broader than its ethics. It aims to interpret and critically assess the role of technology for human life and guide us to a more thoughtful integration of technology in our individual lives and in public decision making. This course aims to teach you to do just that, starting with basic stances and key figures in the field and then progressing towards a number of challenges around specific types of technology as they arise for the 21st century. At times it is tech optimism that dominates these debates (sometimes even techno-boosterism that sees technology as key to heaven on earth), at other times it is more low-spirited attitudes from romantic uneasiness to doom-and-gloom Luddism and technology-bashing. A closer look at these attitudes - alongside reflection on how technology and power are intertwined -- will help generate a more skeptical attitude towards all of them and contribute to more level-headed debates, which is badly needed.
What makes stories so pleasurable and revealing but also so enraging and dangerous? How are we to think about the strong emotions they evoke and learn to resist as well as appreciate their power? This course revisits Geoffrey Chaucer's classic fourteenth-century poem, The Canterbury Tales : the deepest and most caustically entertaining analysis of storytelling ever written. The Canterbury Tales consists of a series of tales told by members of a pilgrimage on their way from London to Canterbury, representatives of the internally divided social world of Chaucer’s England. Some are serious, others funny, obscene, or offensive; some are religious, others not at all; some deal with issues local to England, others range across the Europe and the rest of the known world; many are told against other pilgrims. Written in a long-ago past, the poem jumps off the page, in turns unrecognisably weird and startlingly modern. We read the poem in the language in which it was written, Middle English, easy and fun to learn with early help: no previous experience with the language, or with the medieval era, is necessary. We will also explore the poem's long-ranging impact on English literature, including several contemporary reimaginings. Classes include a short lecture on a tale, and class discussion, which continues in weekly sections. Course projects include an essay, a collaborative report on one tale, and a creative option. Students of all years and from all concentrations and programs are welcome. If you are a graduate student interested in taking this class, please contact Prof. Watson to indicate interest before term begins; there may be an additional graduate section if there is sufficient demand.
What was it like to read and write a novel at a moment before that term named a stable category and before the genre’s conventions were established? How did it feel to be a writer or reader in an era when the novel was (as Samuel Richardson and Henry Fielding each put it in the middle of the century) “a new species” or “new province” of writing? This class is devoted to the remarkable record of literary experimentation that forms the history of the early novel. As we study works by Aphra Behn, Madame de Lafayette, Daniel Defoe, Eliza Haywood, Samuel Richardson, Charlotte Lennox, Frances Burney, and Jane Austen, we’ll attend particularly to questions of genre and genre hierarchy, fictionality and realism. To investigate what was novel about novels, we will ponder, for instance, how novels differ from epics or histories or the news in newspapers. We’ll be thinking about early fictions’ documentary pretenses, their affinities for matters of fact and transcripts of real life, and their interrelations with travelogues, letters, and diaries. That thinking will give us rich new insights into the formal devices that empowered this new kind of fiction as it claimed--unlike its predecessors in the narrative line-- to tell the truth : a claim that would eventually, by the time of Jane Austen, underwrite the novel’s emergence as the crucial genre of modern times. At the same time, we will also investigate what this emergence can tell us about modernity itself--about love, sex, and marriage, crime, consumer capitalism, race and empire. We’ll cap our reading by pairing Austen’s Northanger Abbey with an extraordinary novel in letters from 1808 (only recently rediscovered, and anonymously published), The Woman of Colour: A Tale .
Our thoughts and feelings about identity, self-expression, and the power of the imagination draw on the British Romantic poetry of the Long Eighteenth Century-whether we've read any or not. Focusing on John Keats (his key poems, and his key ideas, about "negative capability", the "camelion poet", and so on), this course makes unconventional connections into the twentieth, and twenty-first century. Tracking issues of race, class, gender and sexuality, we'll bounce from Keats into war verse; African-American poetries; world/postcolonial writing; the literature of social class; feminist experimentalism; and constructions of masculinity. Concentrators will learn how to analyze poetry in both closed and open forms.
In this class, we will examine novels and short stories published since 1945 in Britain and the United States. Though certain themes naturally emerge -- belonging and not belonging; immigration and emigration; estrangement, race and post-colonial politics; liberalism and the importance of "noticing" others; the role of realism and the various postmodern movements in reaction to realism -- the primary emphasis is on learning how to read slowly, and learning how to enjoy, appreciate and properly judge a living, contemporary literature.
What are the natural worlds that define America? How did these landscapes - the towering redwoods of California, the uncanny geysers of Yellowstone, the vast plains of Nebraska - attain their status as symbols of the American nation? How have racial and ethnic identities historically mapped onto landscape? And how do relationships with nature evolve across time and space, and now into an era of climate change? These are some of the questions our course will seek to answer. Across nearly four hundred years of American literature, writers have been responsible for shaping how we see American landscapes and, consequently, how we understand this nation. At the same time, writers have struggled with how to represent natural worlds and the human role within them. In our course, we will survey American literature from 1785 to today, migrating through a series of landscapes that have variously defined American identities and our relationships to nature: the wilderness, the west, the refuge, and the city. Our course will include works by Washington Irving, Thomas Jefferson, William Faulkner, Harriet Jacobs, Jack London, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Willa Cather, Zitkala-Ša, Walt Whitman and Karen Tei Yamashita. Students will complete both creative and critical assignments, and will have the opportunity to visit Walden Pond and the Harvard Herbaria.
Democracy, inequality, and nationalism in America. The white working class and American politics. Class and race. Identities and interests. Conditions for socially inclusive economic growth and for the deepening and dissemination of the knowledge economy. Alternative directions of institutional change, viewed in light of American history. Democratizing the market and deepening democracy. Self-reliance and solidarity.
Is “immigrant literature” a useful category? In the American context, the category has facilitated an understanding of how the country’s social, political, and intellectual life has been refreshed and reshaped by immigrants. It has provided a challenge to the idea of American culture as primarily white, Anglo-Saxon, and self-contained. But the category has also been used to segregate American literature, suggesting that subcategories such as “Asian-American” or “Latinx” works of “immigrant fiction” speak primarily to the ethnic groups they represent and obscuring the fact that immigrant themes such as alienation, homelessness, and fractured identities have far broader import. This course explores the limits and usefulness of "immigrant literature," as a literary and market category, focusing on the literature of migration to the United States since 1965, when new laws ended the quota system that favored European immigrants, and ushered in a new era where the majority of the country’s immigrants hail from Asia, Latin America, and Africa. We will focus on questions on form: how has this new migration challenged the literary conventions of older forms of immigrant literature? We will also explore the legal and historical context that has produced categories such as the "illegal alien," and how these categories have been reaffirmed and challenged by contemporary immigrant writers.
How do we tell stories for the stage and the screen? What is the difference between playwriting and screenwriting? What qualities do they share? This open enrollment course introduces students to fundamentals of dramatic writing, with a focus on character, plot, and dialogue across a variety of genres. With particular attention to playwriting, screenwriting, and writing for television, students will explore the tools and techniques needed to make exciting work and craft compelling narratives for the stage and screen.
This course offers an introduction to and critical examination of Melville’s writings. Moby-Dick is the centerpiece of the course (and of Melville’s works, and arguably of 19th-century American literature). We devote five weeks to Moby-Dick. But we also read Melville’s first novel, Typee, a commercial success that made him famous; his magazine short fiction from the mid-1850s: “Bartleby, the Scrivener”; “Jimmy Rose”; and the brilliant novella, Benito Cereno. In the final weeks of the course, we read selections from his last published novel, The Confidence Man, a title that defined an essential American type; his poetic ruminations on the Civil War, Battle Pieces and Aspects of War; and his posthumously published masterpiece, Billy Budd. The readings are organized chronologically so that we can appreciate how Melville’s art evolved formally, philosophically, and politically. He took up new genres (magazine fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry) partly as a way to revivify his career, but also in an effort to represent a new, radically transformed world.
In this discussion-based course, we read Julian of Norwich’s Revelation of Love and The Book of Margery Kempe alongside one another, as well as in the light other women writers who drew inspiration from visions, revelations, or dreams, from the early Christian martyr Perpetua of Carthage in the third century CE to the reclusive New England poet Emily Dickinson in the nineteenth. We pay particular attention to Julian and Margery’s direct precursors, Angela of Foligno, Gertrude the Great, and Marguerite Porete, among others. We consider how it was that revelations were able to make an innovative, demanding and prestigious mode of thought and writing possible for women who were excluded by their gender from the formal education available to male contemporaries. We think about what revelations are, how they function as an embodied, kinetic, and dialogic mode of consciousness, and the stylistic and intellectual experimentation this mode of consciousness enables. We speculate on potential connections between the visionary and other non-natural ways of seeing the world. Finally, we consider the excruciating difficulty of being and writing as a visionary and the cultural and psychic pressures the role of visionary involved and involves. Although the main setting of the course is the world of Julian and Margery, we do not forget that we are reading them in the now.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A series of focused and intense design exercises requires students to investigate fundamental disciplinary issues of architectural thought, practice, and representation. As the introductory studio in the professional degree program, the curriculum addresses the varied educational backgrounds of incoming MArch I candidates. Students are encouraged to leverage their varied expertise in the sciences, humanities, and other disciplines to find provocative and unexpected motivations of architectural form and spatial thinking. Similarly, students are encouraged to draw parallels between studio and concurrent coursework in representation, history and theory, and the environmental sciences. The studio is a space for iterative exploration, and experimentation across various mediums such as drawing and modeling (both digitally and physically) will be required.
Major projects will engage with the challenges of affordability and climate change. Planners have had a longstanding concern with the effects of wealth and income inequality. While some elements of planning have accentuated growth dynamics that exacerbate inequality, other elements have played an active role in mitigating those effects, facilitating affordability and channeling the benefits of planning toward community well-being. Similarly, environmental planning has been a longstanding concern in the field. With accelerating climate disruptions, this concern has been evolving from a niche to the mainstream, where mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to impacts of climate change infuse many other domains of planning from housing, to transportation, to economic development.
Our work will be grounded in the intertwined challenges of the global polycrisis, i.e. climate change and biodiversity loss in the Anthropocene. We will engage conversations, projects and precedents that address our relationships to other species and the environments we share and on which our futures depend-and that operate across the scale of the metropolis. We will consider new and reciprocal relationships with the creatures that co-exist with us-exploring the implications of living with and living alongside those creatures and forces that exist in the world beyond our immediate human selves. We will explore the conceptualization and development of new hybrid assemblages, new infrastructural ecologies, new imaginaries that foster deeper relations, entanglements, and kinships between and among all of earth’s inhabitants. And we will do so on the remains of a peri-urban site, at the confluence of two altered rivers, in the context of existing, denuded, and former ecological and social networks in ways that re-establish space for water, wildlife, and people in relationship to-and in dialogue with-one another.
Elements of Urban Design is the required first semester advanced core studio for the post-professional Urban Design Program. Regarding learning objectives, the studio introduces critical concepts, strategies and technical skills associated with thinking about Urban Design and allows speculation on a designer’s spectrum of roles in shaping urban environments. More generally the studio aims to develop necessary literacies for architects and landscape architects to engage in the bridging practice of Urban Design and to understand questions related to urban environments and to produce compelling formal responses. Here a fundamental difference between Urban Design and Architecture and Planning is its concern for the ‘thingness’ in a Heideggerian sense, of urban settlement, which transcends the single building complex and involves competing claims and other unreconciled constraints needing to be resolved through design. Typically, cities are often parts of larger networks of communities and ecologies with both overlapping and complementary roles. Urban growth and change now range over a wider landscape, offering both opportunities, constraints and outcomes located in peri-urban, peripheral, and central locations. Within the scope and content of the studio, consisting of two Urban Design problems, each subdivided into exercises, evaluative reviews and crits will be accomplished by a series of fourteen presentations across topics within the two problems. Structural racism and effects of the Anthropocene Era, along with concomitant institutional issues and biases will be engaged with each specific exercise but also more generally through adherence to social actions, environmental awareness, and a cosmopolitan outlook. More specifically, in the first problem and exercises dealing with East Boston, housing affordability and other forms of discrimination will be challenged and discussed, along with the matter of Climate Change and sea-level rise. Similarly, in peripheral developments like Westwood in the second problem, the matter of access as well as environmental suitability will be topics of consideration. Throughout a sequence of topical presentations will be provided in an asynchronous format on these and related topics, including brownfield site amelioration, sea-level rise, landscape ecology, storm-water management, urban justice, and various forms of spatial development. The other first-term required course for incoming Urban Designers, titled GSD 4496 Urban Desing Contexts and Operations, will also bear on many of these and related topics.
The studio tackles the pressing need to rethink and repurpose the machine-like hospital building constructed in the decades following World War II. In America alone, thousands of these buildings were built following the passage of the 1947 Hill-Burton Act. These structures, once at the forefront of clinical architecture, have become outdated as medical practice and technology have progressed and hospital design has evolved to prioritize patient-centered care, new technical standards, and community integration. In an era where minimizing our carbon footprint is paramount, the adaptive reuse of existing buildings offers a sustainable alternative for certain aspects of hospital construction. This studio addresses a global challenge with a local solution, transforming an outdated hospital building into a rehabilitated place of care.
This studio examines the Catskills as a landscape already dense with cultural, aesthetic, and ecological meaning. Its identity has been shaped by nineteenth century discourses of the sublime, the Hudson River School, and Transcendentalism. In the absence of European architectural antiquity, American artists like Thomas Cole transformed wilderness into a cultural monument, making mountains and forests vehicles for national identity, spirituality, and environmental consciousness. This lineage, articulated philosophically by Emerson and Thoreau who defined nature as the arena for American spirituality and personal autonomy, moves from overwhelming spectacle toward sustained attention. Landscape reveals itself not merely as scenery but as atmosphere, memory, deep time, and spiritual ground. Dwelling here is an ongoing dialogue with natural reclamation, a condition framed by Georg Simmel’s “The Ruin,” which locates aesthetic equilibrium in the balance between human artifice and entropy.
Xilitla offers a new way of thinking about architecture and its relationship to nature. As opposed to the more defensive posture of fighting against nature that has characterized much of the last century, simply keeping it at bay, we are here confronted with an extraordinarily unique context that offers a symbiotic relation between the two. Las Pozas offers an architecture becoming part of larger processes of transformations - oxidation, weathering, biological growth, and erosion. Moss, rust, and wear are not accidents to be prevented; they are anticipated agents in the design and life of its structures. Its meaning depends on the tropical cloud forest, the liquidity of the atmosphere, the density of vegetation, the steep topography, the waterfalls and pools, the constant cycle of growth and decay. Architecture here is inseparable from the ecological forces acting upon it.
This option studio explores public works of water infrastructure-local and territorial, intimate and extensive-in the landscapes lying below the Continental Divide in Colorado. Over the course of the twentieth century, massive complexes of tunnels, pipes, and reservoirs ruptured regional geology for agriculture and urbanization, estranging ecosystems from atmospheric and ecological cycles. These mega-diversions are large in size but limited in scope. Against this context of altered regional hydrology, this studio seeks other states and behaviors of water that are less responsive to big, brittle infrastructure-not only runoff and creekflow, but also vapor, steam, ice, and slush. We will speculate on minor public works for new forms of physical encounter with the landscape, new programmatic possibilities of the interpretive center, and close-range, attentive modes of visual storytelling. Three coexistent and alternative kinds of public “diversions” structure the studio’s approach:
This seminar will analyze the history of architectural patronage and locate instances outside of the normative professional structures and relationships between architects, clients, and builders, both past and present. In considering an expanded role, the seminar will examine the capacity of the architectural profession to initiate the project, to define the client, to bypass the client or patron altogether, to exercise greater control of the terms of design and construction, and/or to assume the roles, responsibilities, and risk of the developer and/or builder. The seminar will question and critique the normative professional processes and the client or patron as a necessary precondition and starting point for architecture. The seminar will attempt to distill and establish a framework for different alternative modes for practice that enable greater architectural “agency,” simply defined as the architect’s power and ability to achieve their goals. This research and speculation on non-normative practice also has the potential to refocus the profession away from the interests of those clients directly commissioning work and their capital, and towards values and interests marginalized by and excluded from typical and existing professional practice structures, which may include users (separate and distinct from clients), a broader public, under-represented stakeholders and constituencies, and the environment.
The format of this course is that of a research seminar and will pick up from the exhibition that will be in the Druker Gallery all term. The exhibition is titled: I Infrastructure in a Time of Flux and foregrounds a body of architectural, engineering and urban innovations whose potential remains largely unrealized. Bringing together historical precedents and contemporary investigations, the exhibition examines methods of building that are lightweight, adaptable, deployable, and materially efficient, while asking why their broader social and design application has remained elusive. The exhibition poses a critical question: if architecture has produced such sophisticated methods for building with fewer resources, greater adaptability, and increased efficiency, why have these innovations rarely been directed toward the conditions that constitute the lived reality of a large portion of humanity? In reconsidering this question, the exhibition invites a broader reflection on the relationship between invention and implementation, and on the capacity of design disciplines to engage in a world defined not by permanence, but by flux. Students will study the situations that are identified in the exhibition (but expand the cases within the taxonomy) and will pick systems to explore their applicability at scale. Individual research proposal will be developed in discussion and consultation with the instructor.
The course, therefore, will provide students with a deeper understanding of structural systems and assemblies through eight distinct lenses - mechanic/statics, structural failure, embodied carbon, scale, representation, code, pathology, and compatibility - each of which is intended to build, in the student, an ability to become proficient in the language of structure. This is not intended to be a technical proficiency (although you will gain further technical insight and ability) but, rather, a conversational ability that supports deeper, more nuanced, and more thoughtful interrogation of design intent in the collaboration between architect and structural engineer.
Students will learn to combine this “top down” macroeconomic and geopolitical overlay (“country risk”) with a “bottom up” understanding of the risks and returns associated with specific real estate transactions including local real estate industry practices, supply and demand imbalances, the depth of relevant real estate capital markets, and exit strategies. Strategies to mitigate cross- border and cyclical risk will also be explored.
Viewpoint diversity is central in several ways. The course juxtaposes opposing conceptions of “good’ architecture and urbanism. Emphasis will be on the variety of objects serving, or having served, as monuments and on the diverse definitions of monumentality exemplifies the hermeneutic and critical breadth of these concepts in the Western tradition of art, architecture, and urbanism. We will take a fresh look at architectural, sculptural, and urban projects which, having been marginalized in academic scholarship, are inadequately known. The readings are almost entirely from primary sources, facilitating insight into how the projects embodied the values of those who conceived and first used them, values quite different from those common today. This emphasis on diversity in subject matter, in interpretive method, and in pedagogical intent, invites students to evaluate the built and written evidence for themselves and draw their own conclusions.
Modeling Light is part of a two-course sequence of lighting coursework, following the diurnal cycle over both semesters. Beginning at sunrise, Modeling Light focuses on interior spaces experienced from dawn till dusk, and whose primary audience is Architecture or MDes students. Picking up at sunset in Spring 2027, “After Dark: Ecology, Justice, and Joy in the Nocturnal Luminous Environment” will continue the diurnal cycle through the night, catering to all GSD students and offering special relevance for those in Landscape Architecture and Urban Design. While there are no explicit prerequisites to either course, a solid foundation in digital modeling tools is advised. Specific digital tools will include Climate Studio in Rhino, and 3ds Max.
This course is an inquiry into the boundaries of the Canons that dominate the discourse in Architecture and Urbanism globally. By posing counter narratives, we will interrogate the limits of the Canons propelled in the West - their histories and production cultures across material, political, economic, and social spheres. Over the centuries, the legacy of colonization, the industrial revolution and globalization have insidiously proliferated monolithic, singular truths, which have dominated architectural and urban imaginaries in most geographies around the world. The philosophical underpinnings of modernity and the establishment of the global normative have conditioned the conversations of space and time largely to responding to and privileging the facilitation of universal tenets and notions of efficiency. This course intends to transcend these conservative, ideological imperatives that determine the contemporary understanding of cultural significance in the discourse of Architecture and Urbanism globally, and to draw theoretical frameworks from practices that often have been ‘othered’ by Western dominance of the discourse in the academy as well as the professional media. The intention is to not locate the conversations in any one geography or in the various rubrics such as the global south1 etc., rather the intention is to develop theoretical frameworks around a shared or common set of issues and conditions that are shared by different geographies outside the west - (Europe and North America).
This class uses housing as a starting point for a sectional slice of inquiry that spans from the underground to the air that surrounds us. We will discuss how the design, policy, geography, ownership model, and maintenance of housing influence various public and environmental health metrics, and what levers are available to planners to influence those outcomes. We will explore and evaluate tools of assessment and intervention and identify points of leverage. Within this framework, students are expected to bring their own interests, disciplines, and experience to bear on a semester where our focus will range from affordable and simple tools at the housing-health nexus (smoke detectors, mosquito nets) to more complicated questions of ethics, objectives, and priorities.
This course, offered at HKS as DPI-202, examines moral leadership in the context of professional public service. It focuses on cultivating proficiency in a range of skills that together help to ground moral action. These skills include: 1) accurately perceiving the moral dimensions of situations that arise in public service, 2) adequately weighing moral tradeoffs that have to be made as part of strategic action, and 3) effectively putting into reflective equilibrium, the verdicts of the heart and those of the head. Additionally, the course promotes 4) the capacity to entertain different moral perspectives, that is, the ability to temporarily live in another person’s moral universe and see the world through their eyes. The ability to do this well is an essential component to successfully practicing the skills needed for virtuous action. The class will be largely case-based, but also introduce moral and political theory and material from adjacent fields as needed to work through the cases. We will also prominently integrate quite a number of movies, both for the sake of making the cases come alive and to conceptualize how media representation of human experience can influence how people think about challenges.
The accepted image of architecture on film has become acclimatized to conventional, static, ocular-centric, and binary representations of the so-called 'man-made environment.' In response to this position, the course will introduce the idea of the architectural essay film, as an alternative way to think of architecture, where openness, fluidity, and interdisciplinary create links between space making and film language. Drawing on the work of experimental filmmakers, such as Chantal Ackerman, Chris Marker, and Maya Deren, each session will interrogate how film, as a visual essay, can provide an infrastructure where tolerance and hope allow for a slow engagement with the complexities of architecture. Screenings will be accompanied with key texts by critical thinkers in the fields of film and architectural theory, such as Beatriz Colomina, Giuliana Bruno, and Vivian Sobchack, to build on a distinct analytical foundation, from where students will be invited to establish critical perspectives. Supporting ideas not merely advancing in a single direction, but which are interwoven and developed as a carpet, that delve between the gaps of each field of study, architecture and film. The intention is not to fulfill a preconceived goal, but to explore a space built on polysemy and multiplicity, which demonstrates the possibilities that arise from examining space-making from a cinematic dimension.
The seminar unfolds across four modules. Module 1 examines the ideological and historical foundations of community ownership, tracing how settler colonialism, racial capitalism, and speculative development have shaped urban space, while surfacing the traditions of resistance and alternative ownership that emerged in response. Module 2 introduces the contemporary landscape of community ownership-including community land trusts, limited-equity cooperatives, community investment vehicles and other emerging models-and compares them across their legal structures, governance systems, financial architecture, operational strategies, and theories of change. Module 3 follows the full arc of community-owned real estate development, from site acquisition and feasibility analysis through capital stack formation, design and construction, operations, and long-term stewardship, paying particular attention to the tensions that arise when the developer is also the community. Module 4 asks what it would take for community ownership to function not as a niche intervention but as a structural alternative to speculative development. Students will weigh competing theories of scale, including growth, replication, federation, field-building, and policy change, and evaluate the conditions necessary for community ownership to become a durable component of a more democratic urban economy without succumbing to co-optation.
When professions constrict and narrow, their emergent discourses often identify what is perceived to be lost, so the contemporary discourse around spatial ‘practices of care’ and architectural design ‘after comfort’ serve as contemporary clues or traces, indicative of such omissions from architecture’s historical record. To surface these, this seminar will explore domestic typologies through the lens of a single room. Selected specifically for its double sense of occupation - both as intellectual curiosity and as habitation - the domestic is the locus for countless permutations of live-work typologies. Additionally, domestic spatial typologies are historically imbricated with the qualitative values of comfort, care, taste, and conviviality. To be clear, the single room that we will use as a vehicle for exploration in this seminar is not a room found in a house, but rather a spatial typology rooted in the domestic. Specifically, we will explore domestic typologies associated with aesthetic creation - the architect’s or artist’s studio, the chef’s professional kitchen, the fashion designer’s atelier, the writer’s or artist’s salon, the diplomat’s embassy - and technical production - the bureaucrat’s office, the scholar’s library, the scientist’s laboratory. Whether aesthetic or technical in their orientation, these typologies embody the double sense of occupation, from initial domestic inhabitation through to the intellectual curiosity of the professions they ultimately engender.
This course explores mannerism as a critical tool for understanding the architecture of our time. Architecture cannot exist without or outside of a tradition; therefore, architects are always engaged in a dialogue, a comparison, or a debate with history and their predecessors, reinterpreting, modifying, or completely transforming their legacy. The mannerist condition refers to those practices aimed at the creative reuse of any chosen set of precedents: practices of “remixing” architecture.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) might be the most consequential technology humanity has ever created. Algorithms already decide who gets bail, credit, job interviews, or visas. Platforms exercise authority over democratic life at a scale no government has achieved. And looming in the background are questions - about general AI, about the moral status of artificial minds, about the survival of democratic self-governance - that no existing political or legal tradition was designed to address. The usual tools of policy-analysis look at change at the margins - but the magnitude and pace of change in AI is so large that these tools are insufficient to guide us through this change. This course develops the philosophical and political theory tools needed to analyze these problems and to translate that analysis into policy. It opens by asking what is at stake and which entities have moral status in an AI-transformed world - questions that precede and shape all ethical analysis. It then examines three major ethical frameworks (utilitarian longtermism, virtue ethics, Kantian deontology) before arguing that all three are insufficient for governance and that political theory is required to do the work ethics alone cannot. The remainder of the course applies this integrated framework to concrete challenges of the digital age, ranging from short-time governance challenges to long-term challenges that might arise if an intelligence explosion of sorts actually materializes. The field moves fast. Readings combine enduring philosophical foundations with recent empirical and policy-relevant material. Course materials will be updated as significant developments occur during the semester.
As the culminating effort for the Master of Architecture degree, a “Thesis” entails multiple expectations. It is a demonstration not only of competency and expertise, but of originality and relevance. A thesis is an opportunity to conceive and execute work that is both a specific project (delimited in scope, with a specific set of appropriate deliverables) as well as a declaration of a wider “Project” (possessing disciplinary value, and contributing to a larger discourse). This class will address both valences of the architectural “project,” while providing space for students to develop methodological approaches for their own thesis. Over the course of a series of lectures and seminars, we will study the theory and practice of the architectural thesis by examining its institutional history and disciplinary development, in order to understand the conventions and possibilities of the format. In workshop sessions, as preparation for their own theses, students will work towards the articulation of their topics. This will include: identifying relevant precedents and existing literature; defining a site and program (however broad); and working through first iterations of working methods. With these efforts, the aim of the course is for students to be equipped to undertake a thesis project in every sense.
This course studies how the adoption of fossil fuels has changed the spatial organization of human society, from new building typologies invented to manage an emerging working class to new urban archetypes designed to meet the demands of mechanized mobility and global consumption. From the steam engine onward, these architectural and urban configurations-what could be called carbon form -have enmeshed the cultural, economic, and political aspects of social life within an energy-intensive network of space and form. These are the spatial roots of the climate crisis and they remain largely understudied, unchallenged, and until recently, unnamed. And yet, carbon form not only holds the current energy paradigm in place but actively strengthens it. As such, studying its evolution and identifying its characteristics is essential work, as the crisis itself demands that architects look beyond the quantification of material and energy flows in order to address how the widespread adoption of fossil fuels has shaped architectural thought. Any proposal for the future must confront-and ultimately overcome-this cultural and architectural legacy.
This class aims to expose students to many different ways of approaching, starting, developing, leading, and, in some cases, leaving a practice. This course hypothesizes that only by being exposed to dozens of different ways to grapple with creating or transitioning a practice can someone begin to chart their own path. Apart from charting a path, practice is equally, if not more, about how one negotiates and reacts to unforeseeable opportunities and obstacles. Reaction is as important as action, and they are intimately intertwined. As the word denotes, practice is a form of constant learning from real-time conditions, which the practitioner often cannot imagine beforehand. Only by addressing ‘real world’ market conditions does one learn the skills required to develop a robust practice and start to recognize the emergent market patterns that often define practice. The ‘theory of practice,’ especially concerning domains compelled to engage and create in the physical world, is a quizzical field of study. Attempting to ‘teach’ practice, a process that embodies learning through action, is to make academic something intended to be explored outside the hallowed walls of academia. The theory of how to swim is not the same as practicing swimming. An overly theorized approach to practice removes the student from the actual source of learning while indoctrinating an ideology that often supports the professionalization of practice over the exploration of emergent characteristics of practicing. This course is not about ‘teaching’ practice but instead learning from the experiences of a wide variety of guest practitioners to develop a broader definition of practice and a greater understanding of the types of contextual and self-imposed obstacles that exist, some of which are manageable while others prove insurmountable.
The course will unfold in three parts: An exploration of the field guide as a form of knowledge collection and dissemination, research and field studies of tree crop species and their dynamic ecological and social communities, and speculation into the potential for these communities to thrive in a climate-impacted future. Research in the class will be supported by experiences in the field including on-site workshops in tree care at the Arnold Arboretum and Charbrook Nursery and a weekend-long trip exploring riparian agroforestry and regional food system security in the Hudson Valley. The outcome will be a field guide to action, at once a collection and a vision for the potential future of collectivity.
Drawing from concepts in architecture, cognitive science, and computer vision, this course explores methods for translating subjective human experience into quantifiable insights. Through lectures, critical readings, and conceptually driven projects, students will investigate human perceptions of scale, depth, attention, and memory, alongside computational techniques such as object detection, classification, and semantic segmentation. These core methods will be complimented with scientific approaches such as eye-tracking and immersive virtual environments, that offer different ways to capture and analyze experience. We will interrogate the limits of both human and computational perspectives and examine what it means to use perception as a design input, an evaluative tool, or even a dataset. Real-world case studies ranging from feedback loops in adaptive buildings to surveillance systems in cities, will ground our discussion of bias, ethics, and the risks of relying on computational technologies to understand and shape environments.
Mapping the Region approaches cartography as a representation method and mode of theoretical inquiry to reveal geographic relations and inform spatial practice. Drawing upon the entangled history of digital cartography, spatial analysis, and practice at the regional scale, this course offers both theoretical foundations and technical geospatial methods for regional definition and inquiry. Using Esri ArcGIS software, students will explore data models, methods of overlay, raster analysis, composite indices, network connectivity, remote sensing fundamentals, and spatial statistics in parallel with concepts of regionalism around infrastructures, climate, landscapes, and social formations.
The core hypothesis of the course is that design as a discipline, with its unique methods, outcomes and cultures, can be leveraged to describe, visualize, understand and ultimately transform complex organizations. To understand this claim more in-depth we will venture on a journey that at times will resemble a studio (albeit without the space and with much lower intensity), at other times will feature workshops and discussions, lectures, or site visits. The course will be a real time experiment, because our ambition will be to leverage a set of methods borrowed from the design disciplines in a context that they were not conceived for. This ‘methodological hacking’ will touch upon a variety of tangentially important fields including systems and organizational theory, organizational behavior, and psychology. These fields will be approached through readings, lectures and guest presentations, always through the lens of design. While theoretical foundations will be emphasized throughout the term this is ultimately a project-based class, which is how the various divergent strands weave together into strategic visualizations of the intangible.
Plants die. But how often do we see dead plants in digital landscape representation? In the corners of renders and animations, vegetation from digital asset libraries-collections built into tools like V-Ray, Enscape, or Lumion-is typically rendered in a lush climax state. These 3D models operate as an aesthetic shorthand for lush, green, and idealized nature, sanitizing digital landscapes that are modeling futures shaped by collapse and scarcity. What is often missing, however, is the visual language of disturbance that is made legible through the remains of plants and the plants that remain. These absences raise a critical question: what does it mean to design or depict a landscape without death, and what stories are lost when we do? Death in the landscape is not incidental; it is informational. Dead and dying plants index a wide range of causes for landscape change-drought, disease, pollution, invasive species, shifting climates, extraction, or neglect-each embedded in specific sociopolitical and ecological histories. Within scientific collections like herbaria and arboreta, plant remains are collected, catalogued, and preserved for their evidentiary value-though these material archives are also faced with their own forms of loss and disturbance. Botanical collections, living and dead, understand plant remains not as disappearance, but as data that traces of the past and indicates the future.
The region, at one of Europe’s most westerly points, has a rugged and heavily indented coastline shaped by the Atlantic Ocean. Poor agricultural land, and a lack of connectedness and opportunity, have historically contributed to extensive depopulation and the west currently depends heavily on tourism for economic opportunity. The Wild Atlantic Way is a structured rebranding of existing roads that follow this exposed coastline along the length of Ireland’s west coast. As the name suggests, the Wild Atlantic Way is exposed to some of the highest wind speeds in Europe. Wind energy is widely regarded as Ireland’s surest path towards energy self-sufficiency. Currently 40% of Ireland’s electricity is generated from wind energy with a goal to achieve 80% from renewable sources by 2030.
Rome’s central archaeological area, the symbolic heart and physical center of the city, is the focus of renewed and intense interest from both public administration and the general public. This interest stems from the fact that this area, arranged during the Fascist regime as a grand stage set designed primarily to showcase the empire’s magnificence, no longer serves as the civic and symbolic center of the city, despite its geographical centrality. Overrun daily by hundreds of thousands of tourists, lacking adequate services for both residents and visitors, and poorly connected to the rest of the city, this area risks becoming a “black hole” within the city. Students will consider how they can contribute to returning this part of the city to its citizens by transforming the central archaeological area into a large and multifaceted system of public spaces.
The studio is organized in three acts. First, working in groups, students will construct a climatic cartography of Brussels, revealing a mosaic of microclimates. By mapping heat, shade, wind, water, soil, vegetation, flood vulnerability, and patterns of occupation, they will identify areas of climatic urgency and their causes. Second, working individually, students will formulate strategies for selected sites and climatic challenges. Third, they will develop these strategies into spatial proposals and test their performance under different warming scenarios of 2, 3, 4 and 5 degrees Celsius.
Shenzhen’s rapid urbanization is undoubtedly a double-edged sword. While bringing economic and demographic dividends, the excessive pace of spatial development and population growth has led to severe land shortages. The rapid population increase has strained public infrastructure and supporting systems, creating significant imbalances. Issues such as energy and water shortages, along with an overtaxed environmental capacity, directly impact the quality of public life and the city’s sustainable future. The rapid development along the northern bank of the Shenzhen River epitomizes these challenges.
Each design proposal is developed to a high level of visual and conceptual articulation. Work is judged on three legs of urban production: design (a clear vision and form for the intervention), strategy (a near- and long-term plan for advancing it), and mechanism (how it is initiated, financed, and sustained). Given real capital scarcity, students must address market logic directly. This doesn't mean maximizing financial return but rather justifying the intervention’s cost in terms of social, cultural, and environmental gains. The studio is solution-oriented, and proposals are judged on what they can build, not on how well they describe the problem.
Lima provides a unique context for this exploration. As a coastal desert metropolis framed by the Pacific Ocean and the Andes, and home to more than 11 million people, Lima is Peru’s political, economic, cultural (with both millennia-old and colonial heritage), and gastronomic capital, as well as one of Latin America’s leading tourism destinations. The studio focuses on Lima’s evolving metropolitan centralities, where new mobility infrastructure, changing patterns of work and investment, the emergence of mixed-use urban environments, and growing ambitions for high-quality public spaces, sustainability, and urban livability are reshaping the metropolitan core. At the same time, these opportunities unfold within a broader metropolitan context marked by chronic traffic congestion, spatial fragmentation, and unequal access to urban opportunities, raising important questions about how growth, investment, and design can contribute to more connected, resilient, productive, and inclusive metropolitan futures.
How we power our lives dictates how we live together. Far from neutral webs of wires and meters, our energy networks are material architectures of political power, cultural desire, and social order-shaping everything from our definitions of personal freedom to the intimate choreographies of our daily routines. As we race to decouple from petromodernity, however, mainstream transition strategies risk enacting a punitive new era of green capitalism, where utility-scale solar and battery rollouts claim vast territorial frontiers while uncoordinated grid electrification triggers a financial “death spiral” for legacy gas networks.
Students will study housing systems that integrate architecture, public policy, planning, and development practices to support socially cohesive urban environments. Topics include mixed-tenure housing, anti-segregation planning, affordable, cooperative and collective housing models, density and the relationship between housing form and the public realm. Housing is positioned not merely as a building type, but as a socio-spatial framework through which broader questions of equity, governance, sustainability, and urban citizenship can be explored.
Obsolescence and reuse are the focus of the Afterlives studio. Architecture is often imagined as a process of formation, of construction - architecture’s debut. The other end of the process is often overlooked - its demise. What happens to architecture after its uses change, and its occupants move out, and the technology shifts, and no one cares for it anymore? What happens to architecture after it is rendered obsolete? The notion of obsolescence is integrally tied to notions of modernity and progress. Demolition is the corollary to construction, just as obsolescence is the flip side of modernity. Architectural historian Daniel Abramson argues that obsolescence is integral to understanding architecture under capitalism. Architecture is recast not only as a means of wealth creation as a real estate commodity, but also as a depreciating asset. Modernity also relies on the concept of obsolescence as an essential component of process.
This studio begins from the proposition that architecture possesses greater agency than contemporary development models allow. Rather than understanding buildings as the products of master planning, students will treat architecture as a mode of inquiry capable of revealing alternative futures for the contemporary city. Working at the scale of buildings, their immediate public realm, and the human experience between them, students will formulate fundamentally architectural hypotheses: design propositions that ask how specific forms, types, and spatial relationships might generate new modes of public life, cultural identity, and urban value. Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ura serves as the laboratory through which these hypotheses are developed and tested, building upon the research established in the GSD spring 2026 research seminar Contingent Grounds: Site Analysis for the 21st Centur y.
Students will work in pairs. During the field trip we will collectively shortlist four buildings, each taken up by two pairs working independently, so that every host yields two distinct propositions. Each pair determines the programmatic mix and defends it. The common frame is office converted principally to housing, with 25 percent affordable units, a 25 percent floor area increment earned in exchange, a community facility, and a reasonable measure of at-grade retail. Every residential unit should be tested for private outdoor space, whether balcony, terrace or loggia, and each project should propose a set of shared residential amenities. Structure, core and envelope are the given conditions, and they are open to being worked on. This is an experimental design studio, and formal exploration is encouraged across addition, subtraction, surfacing, and spatial invention, from volume excavated out of deep plans to the massing and expression of the overbuild itself.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course explores emergent approaches to addressing global challenges. Over six weeks, students explore frameworks such as the Sustainable Development Goals, wicked problems, decolonizing innovation, the intersection of artificial and collective intelligence and systems thinking applied to global problems. Taught by the founder of the United Nation’s largest innovation network and featuring practitioners from the global majority, the course will unpack creating social change related to problems in sustainable development. Students can expect to question how change and impact are made, who drives innovation and arrive at a basic understanding of the complexity in global problem solving. While the course may complicate how we understand making change, it is designed to unleash hope for how to make an impact on social and environmental problems. Learning objectives include designers’ roles in global change, designing interaction for collective intelligence, and understanding the dichotomy between scaling solutions versus working within complex adaptive systems. The curriculum challenges students to think critically about real use cases in social and environmental innovation and to design interventions to create common ground on wicked problems.
Content: The course will cover building systems and their technologies including the conventional and emerging HVAC systems, renewable energy systems, and other active building systems. It will also introduce daylight and electric lighting in buildings along with manual and computer-based methods for analyzing daylight design. The course also covers fundamental concepts of acoustics and their application in architecture.
This course introduces students to the analysis and design of structural systems. The fundamental principles of statics, structural loads, and rigid body equilibrium are considered first. The course continues with the analysis and design of cables, columns, beams, and trusses. The structural design of steel follows, culminating in the consideration of building systems design. The quantitative understanding of interior forces, bending moments, stresses, and deformations are an integral part of the learning process throughout the course. Students are expected to have completed all prerequisites in math and physics.
As the final component in the required sequence of technology courses, this professionally-oriented course develops an integral understanding of the design and construction of buildings and their related technologies: structural, constructional, and environmental. Building on fundamentals covered in GSD 6123: Construction Systems, the course looks in detail at examples of innovative construction techniques in wood, steel, and concrete structures. Building design and construction will be evaluated within the context in which technological innovation takes place by exploring the relationship of the principal project participants, such as designers, contractors, building product manufacturers, and the owner(s). On this, the course will introduce the fundamentals of managing design and construction projects as well as the principal project delivery methods and scheduling techniques. Aspects such as risk management and environmental and social impacts on projects will be introduced, as well as topics related to facilitating innovation and developing talent.
This course explores the science and design of materials. How do we classify materials? Why do we build with certain materials? What are the energy, health, and societal implications of materials? And what does the future of materials look like? The goal of this course is to enable students to understand the full systems ecology of materials and how to leverage this knowledge in building design.
We start at the end of the nineteenth century, when settler colonial expansion is assisted by the expansion of railroad networks and celebrated through multiple world exhibitions. Taylorism, efficiency studies, and first wave feminism inform the development of domestic spaces and social housing projectS; discussions over disease, ventilation, and eugenics participate in the development of architectural modernism. World War II sets the stage for accelerated technological development and increased symbolism in the construction and destruction of buildings and monuments. The car, the highway, and the suburb produce an oil dependent landscape with both global and local implications. Discussions over climate put pressure on the relative openness or closure of the building envelope, from the brise-soleil to the curtain wall. The return of monumentality is encouraged by developmentalism and nation-building. We follow the global 1968 moment and the expansion of postmodernism and neoliberalism. We conclude the course by reflecting on the role of history in current architectural conversations.
“Environmental Systems 1” will undertake the study of human needs, comfort, performance, and sense of well-being in relation to the physical environments, both natural and man-made, that occur in and around buildings. Recent environmental problems have been traced to the energy and waste products used or created by buildings. These environmental problems make it imperative that architects be familiar with the systems that affect building energy use.
An overview of construction systems will be provided including a review of wall, roof, envelope, and foundation systems. Students will learn about construction systems through lectures, readings, and a series of research assignments that ask students to apply methods of dissection (by drawing and modeling selected systems in detail) and to speculate on the larger societal and cultural relevance of architectural technologies. Students will be evaluated on the basis of their research assignments and attendances. Select course materials will be made available online for students to review outside of class hours for asynchronous engagement and discussion.
Content: In this course, students will acquire skills in computerized building performance simulation for architecture while simultaneously using these skills to explore fundamental design issues such as building massing and envelope design. The course includes discussion of the benefits as well as the limitations of these methods. Topics include fundamentals such as modeling strategies, underlying physical principles, understanding simulation assumptions, and interpreting results with an emphasis on developing the ability to translate the analysis into design decisions. Through practice with the software tools, students develop a better understanding of physics in architecture and hone their own design intuition.
Integration is the agenda for the third-semester architecture design studio. Architecture is fundamentally a part-to-whole problem, involving the complex integration of building components, systems, and processes into a synthetic whole. Structural systems, envelope design, and environmental and thermodynamic processes will be systematically addressed in the development of a single project during the course of the whole semester.
We will propose a persistent dialectic for the study of the activity of modern architecture as a response to the contexts of modernity-the Tower and the Sphere-which can incorporate the conceits and paradoxes of the needle and the globe from Koolhaas’s Delirious New York , the pyramid and the labyrinth from Tschumi’s “The Architectural Paradox,” and the sphere and the labyrinth from Tafuri. Roughly, we will propose that the one domain, the Tower, tends toward connectivity and overdetermination by external forces, mainly technology and reification (the threat of the Thing), represented, for example, by the architecturally inert grid-elevation machine of the American skyscraper. The other domain, the Sphere, tends to be internalized and substantive, heterotopic, focusing on the relative autonomy of the discipline and the discourse, and producing self-reflexive thought. These persistent terms are, however, themselves dialectical-the tower internalizing the repetition of the typical plan as an architectural device, the spherical volume viewed from the exterior becoming a solid, geometric form. These negations and affirmation are refracted and reflected, fragmented and remontaged, in modernity through an increasingly thin but all the more present architectural surface-an intensifying facade assembly, the tenuous membrane between the architectural object and the metropolis, and a fading critical disciplinary boundary. It is at this sheer surface-at the junction of the interior and the exterior, subject and object, the Tower and Sphere-that we will inquire into the spacing work of architecture.
The fourth and final semester of the core sequence, this architecture studio tackles the complexity of the urban condition through the design of housing. From individual to collective, from spatial to infrastructural, from units to systems, housing not only confronts the multiple scales of design but also exposes the values and ideals of its society. The semester will be an opportunity to imagine the possible futures of the city, recognizing the role of architecture at the intersection of the many interdependent as well as contradictory forces at play, and the negotiations that must necessarily take place.
The overarching pedagogical agenda for second semester is to expand upon the design methodologies developed in the first semester such that students acquire an understanding of the interwoven relationship between form, space, structure, and materiality. This semester extends the subject matter to include the fundamental parameters of site and program, considered foundational to the discipline of architecture. Through the design problems, students will also engage in multiple modes of analytical processes that inform and inspire the study of mass, proportion, and tactility.
Course format : Combination of lectures, guest lectures, and workshops. Each subject area contains supplemental material that provides standard references and supplemental case studies that highlight the boundaries and thresholds of practice. This is intended to provide students with an exposure to critical aspects of practice-from accounting to contracting and from project delivery to professional ethics. In addition, students will explore the wide-ranging roles of respective professional associations in shaping contractual relationships, public policy, and the parameters of practice itself. In more immediate terms, students will explore:
Complementary learning objectives follow from NAAB criteria, PC.5, Research and Innovation: how the program prepares students to engage and participate in architectural research to test and evaluate innovations in the field. A significant research-driven aspect of architectural practice involves analyzing material systems and developing details that consider their constraints. Correspondingly, Module II asks students to investigate material and design responsive connections. The course guides students in developing a research project, emphasizing building knowledge across a series of iterations. The final assignment turns outward, to the communal nature of research, as students must frame their work as an instructional drawing set that others can follow and build upon. Lastly, the course provides an introduction to and vocabulary for reading research papers in digital media and sources for keeping abreast of current developments in the field.
In one particular sense with the introduction of computational techniques in design a unified space opened in which engineering processes through the various simulation and structural optimization tools can be integrated into design workflows. Many of these methods depend on a very systematic approach starting from first principles of the mechanics of materials and building the complex finite element analysis algorithms that are commonplace nowadays. This has been going on for decades now. More recently the development in AI and Machine Learning introduced a new set of tools that can handle less deterministic aspects of design. Perceptual and aesthetic, questions of expression can be to an extend also modelled within these digital design processes. In addition, these new techniques enable the creation of unified models that can integrate both sets of constraints simultaneously through approaches like Physics informed neural networks.
Digital design and fabrication technologies have become integral to contemporary design and architectural practice discourse. The translation from design to realization is mediated by a range of tools and processes whose development is informed over time by material properties, skill, technology, and culture. As a whole, these systems are the vehicle by which design teams, manufacturers, installers, and, ultimately, users engage the materiality of architecture and design. Parallel technological developments relating to the way in which things are designed (digital modeling, simulation, generative design, AI, etc.) and the way things are made (automation, computer-controlled equipment including robotics, advanced materials, etc.) have afforded new opportunities and challenges related to the realization of new forms in architecture, part customization, user-centered design, and enhanced building performance.
Rather than focusing on large language-based generative AI models, we are going to explore the design potential and implications of some of their constituent components and the software frameworks that enable them. Through a series of workshops and small projects, students should develop an intuitive understanding of how model architecture, dataset curation, training and inference work, and what the opportunities are for injecting creative intent beyond the use of language and prompt manipulation. The emphasis will be placed more on the perceptual capabilities and idiosyncrasies of ML models, with some forays into proto-generative processes.
In this course, we will attempt to reclaim a stereotomic understanding of surface development towards the production of low-waste, inexpensive and reusable, sheet-derived mold forms. In contrast to many digitally enabled mold-making processes, we will not work subtractively (i.e. we will not use CNC or other routing techniques to carve a negative from a preexisting volume). Instead, we will apply sheet bending and joining techniques to construct a new kind of mold. Casting into these sheet-derived molds, students will test tectonic, structural, and material variables affecting the form and performance of cast architectural elements.
This is a project-based course that includes class wide, paired and individual elements. Last year, the class wide project involved construction of a wind tunnel, which will be used again for experiments this year. This year, the class wide portion of the work will include responsibility on the part of each student for a portion of the schlieren setup. Individually, students will begin from a precedent and design a series of models that will be tested in the wind tunnel, in the schlieren and in the rhino simulator. The collective comparative knowledge from these different kinds of tests will inform a more robust understanding of the interaction between air and form, which will be further supplemented by each student’s thermal measurement of a space at full scale. Students will use this new understanding to select and further develop one of the tests in pairs for additional calculations.
Focusing on this most ubiquitous of media may seem like an odd choice at first. Since nearly everyone uses it in some form, Grasshopper is usually taken for granted. In practice, however, while the low bar of entry and ease with which it delivers basic results have led to its widespread adoption as the lingua franca of design and computation, Grasshopper has become the victim of its own success. As the scripting language of choice in fields as disparate as architecture, thermal analysis, robotics, fashion design, and machine learning, Grasshopper is inevitably framed as the lowly enabler of far loftier endeavors, the lowest common denominator of computational design thinking, the plumbing underneath --best dealt with in technical workshops and evening tutorials.
The seminar aims to investigate and catalog plants that have a spiritual/emotional value to the public and individuals in the designed landscape. The seminar’s goal is to structure a collection and an archive of plants used during rituals and ceremonies in different cultures and beliefs. Moving from the four sacred medicines for the Native American people (tobacco, sweetgrass, sage, and cedar) to boneset for African-American People or pomegranates and citrons in Jewish traditions to plants that typify the Christian tradition (lilies for the Virgin Mary and thorny vines as an icon of the crucifixion, for example), we’ll unveil a more intimate and ritualistic relationship between human beings and nature in everyday life. This can inform and expand emotional connections between culture and landscape architecture. The seminar is divided into sections, each focused on the role of these plants during life cycle ceremonies such as birth, marriage, and death, as well as the religious and pagan cycle of festivals.
This course takes as its point of departure the historical and national origins of planning as a discipline, assesses its evolution over time and across developmental contexts, and situates our understanding of what has come to constitute “planning theory” in a deeper understanding of the political, economic, and social specificities and constraints on planning action. In understanding what might be referred to as planning praxis, we not only examine those social structures and economic as well as political power relations that enable or constrain preference for certain policies and processes of decision-making. We also examine the history of ideas about cities, debates over how the built environment should be designed and/or governed, and address longstanding conflicts over who should have the legitimacy or authority to undertake such decisions. The time span that we examine during this course begins in the late-19th and early 20th century and ends in the contemporary era.
Following in the footsteps of Aristotle’s Peripatetic School (from the ancient Greek, meaning “to walk about”), this course strolls conceptually and bodily through landscape history, tracing the deep roots of design history. Our investigation will begin with questioning the archive and how we define artifacts that speak to land-based histories. This meandering approach allows us to read land as a palimpsestic text, and thus to juxtapose the traditional “canon” with historically excluded narratives, new research on environmental history, a fieldwork-based approach to design, and the underlying relevance of time to all of these concepts.
How do we historicize the production of spaces and works of defiance? How do we trace systems and networks designed to promote non-compliance? We will look at histories of subjects that managed to escape or elide the reach of empire, as well as case studies of architects operating against the state and actors shaping the built environment outside the traditional boundaries of the discipline. We will discuss historians’ challenges in navigating representation, partisanship, and operative criticism, and the methodological complications of writing histories of disenfranchised, marginalized, and dispossessed groups as they design, produce, and claim space.
This course introduces students to a number of significant topoi or loci in the histories of landscape architecture. In general terms, it takes the form of a conspectus, a survey of the field, but one in which the underlying nature (made and found), boundaries, contours, and texture of this field-in fact several disparate fields-is made the object of close scrutiny. We will define landscape architecture as we survey it. In pursuing an intermittent chronological narrative, the lectures will place site-specific emphasis on a number of cognate disciplines (hydrology, forestry, geology, agronomy, geography, hunting, inter alia), in the context of endemic and transplanted visual and textual traditions. While inspecting the grounds of villas, cloisters gardens, parks, and cities, we will be attentive to surrounding formations of discourse (the pastoral, the picturesque, the emblematic, the Adamic and Edenic) that have and continue to imbue them with meaning.
Utopia’s fall from grace in the modern period is crucially tied to architecture's failure in giving shape to dreams of a new society wrought from social and political transformation. Its memorable articulations appear in a venerable philosophical and literary tradition, which includes Plato's Republic , Augustine's City of God , and Sir Thomas More's utopian city of Amaurote. Its significant disarticulations materialize in the writings of Michel Foucault and Manfredo Tafuri as well as the dismal outcome of modernist projects like Pruitt-Igoe. Utopia divulges the oscillation of a concept associated alternately with Arcadian pasts or ordered futures, naive idealism or repressive totalitarianism, phalansteries or simple living, mental escapism or technological promise. Its etymological variants-Eutopia, Outopia, Dystopia, Heterotopia, Extropia, Ecotopia, and so on-reveal an interdisciplinary complexity, which forces upon buildings, landscapes, and cities the intractable fabric of social realities, possibilities, and disappointments.
The course will trace the parallel trajectories of two of modern Japan’s most influential schools of architectural thought, represented by Tange Kenzō (1913-2005) on the one hand and Shinohara Kazuo (1925-2006) on the other, and situate their contributions in the broader development of international modernism in the postwar period. Tange and his protégés in the Metabolist group dazzled the world with radical proposals for urban communities built either on the sea or elevated in the sky. Shinohara rejected this techno-rationalist stance through the slogan “A house is a work of art” and turned to the single-family house shunned by the Metabolists. The House of White by Shinohara achieves an almost oceanic spaciousness through abstraction and precision. The course will be structured as a series of discursive narratives and debates, such as tradition, transparency, lightness, and technology, which defined architectural practice and criticism in Japan after 1945. Major figures, notably Itō Toyoo, successfully overcame these differences and established new paradigms. We will also position young Japanese architects today, Ishigami, Fujimoto, and Hasegawa, in terms of these historical genealogies and the evolution of a critical discourse.
Through weekly readings, discussion, and close study of sites and objects, we will consider how Roman precedents have informed-and been contested within-modern landscapes, from plantations to public parks and cemeteries. Attention will be given to the ways classical forms have been mobilized to authorize political projects, erase or naturalize labor, and articulate racial and cultural difference, as well as how artists and designers have unsettled or reimagined these inheritances.
This course explores the creative tension between the impulse for originality and the constraint of authoritative models in the invention of new artistic forms in Western Europe from the decline of Rome to the dawn of the Italian Renaissance, approximately 300-1300 A.D. Representative works-architecture, painting, sculpture, and minor arts-are considered in their totality as experiential wholes and placed within the geographical and cultural contexts of current day Italy, Germany, France, England, and Spain. We will analyze the forms, types, and styles, and the intellectual, theoretical, and cultural contexts of many exemplary monuments and places that are foundational for western art and architecture.
This class will explore the environment as a “promiscuous concept," in order to grasp how it is historically contingent, culturally situated, politically mobilized, and in many cases contradictory. The class starts from the premise that environmental categories in design are a constellation of knowledge largely dictated by Western epistemologies. We will therefore interrogate environmental practices as historical artifacts and explore how these entanglements limit the possibilities for more just, inclusive futures. To decenter these forms of knowledge, we will study their histories alongside radical critiques and non-Western conceptions of nature, place, and community. The goal of the class is to offer you an alternative canon for designing more-than-human environments that can begin to repair the violence that hegemonic conceptions of the environment have wreaked on landscapes, communities, and the planet.
This is a lecture course with a class discussion component which will feature small student groups presenting readings for the week for group discussion. Group assignments will be made at the end of Week 2. Appropriate provision will be made to accommodate hybrid learning through synchronous and asynchronous content as required should students have to participate remotely. Specific strategies will be outlined in the Syllabus. Evaluation will be based upon participation in the group readings and themed discussion, submission of a short analytical mid-term paper, and a choice of final project of the student’s choosing: either 1., an assessment and intervention design exercise on an undeveloped modest property, or 2., an analytical case study of the rehabilitation and transformation of a significant property.
The course will also raise theoretical questions such as what the terms material and structure truly mean, or how does architecture differ from mere construction. The historical significance of ornament in relation to structure and its contemporary return will also be discussed. Beyond its historical and theoretical scope, the ambition of the course is also to foster students' reflection on the recent evolution of the relationship between architecture and construction. Indeed, the rise of digital technologies applied to architecture and construction, from digital fabrication to AI, as well as the development of pressing environmental concerns challenge our received understanding of tectonics, materials, and ultimately design.
An introduction to policymaking in American cities, focusing on economic, demographic, institutional, and political settings. It examines inclusive and equitable economic development and job growth in the context of metropolitan regions and the emerging "new economy.” Topics include: federal, state, and local government strategies for expanding community economic development and affordable housing opportunities, equitable transit-oriented development and resiliency. Of special concern is the continuing spatial and racial isolation of low-income populations, especially minority populations, in central-city neighborhoods and how suburbanization of employment, reduction in low-skilled jobs, and racial discrimination combine to limit housing and employment opportunities. Current federal policy such as Opportunity Zones and tax credit initiatives will be examined relative to policy goals of addressing communities that have historically been discriminated both by the public and private sectors. During the semester, students will complete a brief policy memorandum, and participate in a term-long group project exploring policy options to address an urban problem or issue for a specific city.
This seminar examines the upsurge of megacity regions in China since the early 21st century, with a focus on how spatial planning, policy, and urban design have shaped this phenomenal process amid evolving state-market relations and growing global integration. We will analyze the development trajectories of select regions-including the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, and the China-Vietnam Red River Development Corridor-while examining their distinctive planning approaches and design strategies.
So, what definition of gentrification are we to rely on to improve our understanding of neighborhood change. The gentrification definition that relies on the statistics commonly measured by inflation in housing prices, increases in median household income, and changes in educational attainment, might confirm that neighborhood change through gentrification is real. Or what about the definition of neighborhood change as presented in the 2014 “Lost in Place” report highlighting that only 100 out of 1,100 urban areas saw reductions in poverty levels between 1970-2010, a change that may be a function of backfilling four decades of neighborhood population decline rather than the upward mobility of long time low-income households. This report is telling us we are obsessed with the wrong neighborhood change phenomenon- that instead of tracking the smaller percentage of urban areas that are truly “gentrifying”, we should instead be more focused on why the other 1,000 out of 1,100 urban areas and its residents are no better off than they were 40 years ago!
Planners’ understanding of social process and cultural values is often woefully inadequate, and their thinking is dominated by a “one-size-fits-all” approach and by excessive attention to the values of an international middle class rather than to local experience. In this course, we will read some urban ethnography inspecting the interactions among local people, planners, anthropologists, architects, and builders in order to think against the grain, especially in cases where disputes over whose heritage is at stake dominate the discourse. We will also examine the role of conflict in shaping urban space and ask whether attempts to smooth it over are necessarily to the benefit of local populations, especially where internal factionalism and political dissent are at stake. Finally, we will also examine the role of urban space in shaping people’s subjectivities and ask what that role tells us about governmental structures and the way they affect ordinary people’s lives.
This course will use the concept of the project, as both idea and implementation, to examine contemporary architecture and urbanization both reflectively and prospectively. Through a critical analysis of the historical evolution and contemporary conditions of Japanese cities and regions, and their encounters with disruption and continuity - such as World War II, the 1964 and 2020 Olympics, the bubble economy, and the 1995 Kobe earthquake - we aim to question and reimagine the future relationships between the physical and social worlds.
Infrastructure plays a decisive role in urban development and in the life of cities. This course will envisage this role from a historical perspective. History proves especially useful when dealing with the political dimension of urban infrastructure. From fortifications to smart technologies, infrastructure is inseparable from political intentions and consequences. This political dimension will constitute one of the threads of this lecture course. Other themes of the course will include the relation between cities and their hinterland, the progressive dematerialization of infrastructure, from walls or bridges to the invisible electronic networks that organize contemporary urban life, the rise of environmental concerns and their impact on infrastructural thoughts and practices, the key part played by infrastructure in social and racial inequality, the need to envisage infrastructure differently when dealing with informal settlements. Also of interest will be the changing relationships between cities, nature and infrastructure. More than ever, urban nature appears today as inseparable from infrastructure.
Real estate is not only the largest asset class in the global economy but also one of the most heavily regulated sectors. The Real Estate Law course reviews the varied roles that lawyers play in navigating this regulated sector for commercial real estate clients. These roles include negotiating and structuring transactions, navigating policies, laws, and regulations across the lifecycle of real estate assets, and resolving real-estate-related disputes. Through general readings and engagement with transactional documents, the course, in particular, explores central legal dimensions of the acquisition, development, operation, and disposition of commercial real estate. And throughout, the course considers broader legal ecosystems surrounding real estate markets in the United States and internationally.
You’ll explore the full lifecycle of real estate investments-acquisition, renovation, operation, and disposition-across key property types, including residential, retail, industrial, office, and mixed-use. You’ll learn how projects get built: from market analysis and site selection to project feasibility and construction. In addition, you’ll acquire tools of investment analysis and learn how to raise capital through debt and equity partnerships.
After negotiation basics, the course will focus on skills of planners as problem solvers. Students will learn to effectively prepare for negotiations individually, and with assistance from AI bots. Students will practice facilitation and mediation skills, including the ability to simultaneously consider multiple perspectives on issues amidst unbridgeable difference. They will learn to conduct situational assessments of complex problems on provided cases and cases of personal interest. Finally, efforts will turn to the design of processes for productive negotiations among diverse parties that integrate public input and technical information.
This half-semester course presents a curriculum of commercial real estate restructurings and distressed debt that involve risk analysis, legal considerations, and negotiation from the considered perspectives of owners, investors, lenders, tenants, employees, employees, policymakers, and society. The module utilizes real-world case studies that require a synthesis of structuring, valuation, and financial analysis.
The business model and investment objectives of capital purveyors depend on a variety of factors. Our classes will highlight key real estate investment concepts such as identifying risks and opportunities, real estate valuations, procuring investment capital, risk management and alignment of interests. Industry experts also will discuss the current macro environment, key market concerns, capital availability, cost of capital, acquisition and development economics, and opportunistic and thematic investment strategies. By the end of the course, students will have gained a functional framework and understanding of how real estate private equity and capital markets function, the state of the industry and markets going forward.
Cities are developed by a complex blend of public and private actors and actions. Using lectures, discussions, guest case studies, individual and team exercises, and readings, this course introduces students to the analytic methods, contextual frameworks, and implementation techniques needed by private for-profit, private not-for-profit, and public actors to understand, evaluate, and carry out development in cities. The course commences with instruction about core analytic methods, stressing real estate financial analysis while also addressing modified cost-benefit, economic impact, and fiscal impact analyses. Early classes additionally examine legal, institutional, political, and ethical frameworks equally essential to navigating public and private development. Together, the analytic methods and contextual frameworks form the basis for decision rules about appropriate tradeoffs and deployments of public and private resources as well as the choice of implementation techniques for pursuing urban development. Implementation techniques covered in the course include public subsidies, public land disposition through sale or lease. public land acquisition through eminent domain, public and private provision of physical infrastructure, inclusionary zoning, linkage, exactions, incentive zoning, community benefits agreements, business improvement districts, and “friends” groups. Although most of the implementation tools and examples explored in the course are drawn from United States practice, international tools and examples are introduced from time to time to demonstrate the range of variation. Critical viewpoints about the very model of public and private development will be regularly discussed.
This seminar approaches accessibility through a formal lens-examining architectural form as it operates on the threshold of human abilities. Moving beyond prescriptive standards and the notions of acceptable minimums or generous maximums, the seminar aims to expand the understanding of human abilities and their range, while critically investigating the origins and methods through which accessibility standards have been developed.
This course provides students with working knowledge of important land use and related environmental laws as well as the institutions that create, implement, and review them. The course also considers what distinguishes law from other fields, as well as the roles that planners, designers, policymakers, real estate professionals, and the public play in land use and environmental law. Through class discussions, the course engages with primary sources, such as zoning ordinances and judicial opinions, as well as secondary material, and requires no legal background. The course involves an exercise in proposing reforms to a component of a local land use law and a final exam.
The course begins with an overview of the design standards that shape contemporary building types within asset classes as demanded by building codes, development regulations, underwriting benchmarks, market preferences, and the global standardization of building components and furniture systems. Understanding the rationale for the plan configurations and circulation armatures of specific real estate types helps clarify the role of efficiency metrics as key determinants of building design and the way that space is best configured to create future financial, social, and environmental value. The course also covers the market- and regulatory-driven logic of site planning, including the relationship between streets, blocks, and development parcels.
Digital design and fabrication technologies have become integral to the discourse surrounding contemporary design and architectural practice. The translation from design to realization is mediated by a range of tools and processes whose development is informed over time by material properties, skill, technology, and culture. As a whole, these systems are the vehicle by which design teams, manufacturers, installers, and ultimately users engage the materiality of architecture. Parallel technological developments relating to the way in which things are designed (digital modeling, simulation, generative design, etc.) and the way things are made (automation, computer-controlled equipment including robotics, advanced materials, etc.) have afforded new opportunities and challenges related to the realization of new forms in architecture, part customization, user-centered design, and enhanced building performance.
These questions of analyzing, understanding and designing responsive environments will be tackled through both class discussions and also hands-on designing and prototyping of interactive, responsive installations. Readings and discussions will explore current and historical examples, theories of phenomenology, psychogeography, multisensory experience of architecture, body-centricity, proxemics, interaction design, installation design, and human-machine interface. Informed by this discourse, the first part of the course will engage students in measuring and quantifying the ephemeral and invisible qualities of space and human experience of space. This will form the foundation for students to design spatial and interactive interventions at various scales, ranging from wearables, interactive objects, to large-scale architectural installations. In the process, students will become familiarized with technologies that can change and augment our physical environment such as biometric sensors, electronics, processing, projections, and others.
Rapid global climate change has lent new urgency to our longstanding interest of growing materials to break the unstainable reality of material extraction, use and landfill. Today’s new buildings can be designed and built to operate without using fossil fuels, without emitting CO2 into the atmosphere, but their construction threatens to remain a growing source of carbon emissions. Can biological materials provide the answer? This seminar will explore biologically derived material systems ranging from plants and plant fibers to fungi, bacteria and other microorganisms. Our focus will be on buildings and consumer products, with consideration of the larger landscape and geographical scale. Through in-class lectures, case studies, and hands-on workshops, students will be exposed to some of the new biomaterials that are being developed at the intersection of material science, biology, and design. Other lectures will trace the impact of these material systems on the climate, explore the landscapes of production and their ecologies. The seminar will explore the embodied impacts of our material world and take a critical look at the production of bio-based materials and their geochemical flows. Students will explore various ways of fabricating prototypes with these biomaterials, seeking to understand how new regimes of real-time sensing may be overlaid onto these methods to gain new insights into the material. Students will be required to develop a term project of their choosing in teams relating to issues raised in the course at any scale - be it new material development, new fabrication processes, the design of a circular material economy, or an investigation into landscapes of production. Students from all GSD departments as well as from across the University are encouraged to enroll.
Over the semester, students will move through a scaffolded sequence of projects. Students will first engage data as input through sensing and representation [Project 1A: Latent Signals], then develop experimental framings that explore how these signals participate in broader human-spatial, human-environment, or human-machine relationships [Project 1B: Relational Fields]. This sequence will culminate in a final design intervention [Project 2: Affective Assemblies*] that synthesizes sensing, interpretation, and feedback into a responsive artifact, material system, or spatial condition. Projects may operate across multiple scales, from objects to spatial environments.
In this course, students will develop the foundational knowledge needed to understand the opportunities and limitations of this emerging space while gaining hands-on experience designing and conducting research within it. Students will review relevant literature, discuss emerging theories and speculative ideas, and work in groups of three on a series of small assignments using technologies covered in the course, including eye tracking and EDA; other technologies and methods may be discussed with the instructor. They will also engage in common practices related to human-subjects research, including preparing for IRB approval, designing surveys, administering tests, coding data, and conducting Exploratory Data Analysis. These small assignments may be undertaken as separate efforts or build together towards a semester-long project.
Diverse drawing experiments - no experience required! - explore unique potentialities of mark, tone, and line, and thereby open up different ways to see, feel, and represent spatial dynamics. Spatially-oriented twists on traditional techniques (such as blind contour and line-free tonal studies) expand our habits of looking, and can enrich visual representations of space. Subjects include architectural forms, intervals between objects, air itself, volumes within bodies and atoms; nude models who help us remember how humans occupy interior spaces. Arrive willing to play messy, which means both getting your hands dirty with charcoal, and prioritizing process (and perception) over product. Visits to specific sites and to study selected works at the Harvard University Art Museum and the Loeb Library Special Collections Archive enrich our visual vocabulary. Optional readings in fiction and philosophy contextualize dimensions of visual perception. Over the semester, each student will develop a final drawing project that will investigate some aspect of spatial dynamics, and/or of drawing spatially; this can build on a project from another course or relate to a personal curiosity.
In this seminar, we will consider the evolution of the floor plan across five iterations: proto-modern, modern, post-modern, plan-non-chalant, and, most importantly, the present. We will begin with a simple hypothesis about the present, namely that there is a new plan afoot. This plan has been making its way into architecture across a long gestation, declaring what it isn’t more often than what it is. Its terms are not those of the suck-the-air-out gangly hollowness of proto-modern experiments in iron and steel (as seen in train stations, department stores, and exhibition halls), nor the give-me-liberty-or-give-me-death plan of modernism (universal, free), nor the we-used-to-do-it-like-this-plus-je-ne-sais-quoi plan of post-modernism (neo-historical, juxtaposing, typological), nor the plan-non-chalant of recent reinvigorations of modernist architecture (data-driven, a-formal). Given it descends from these four earlier paradigms of plan thinking, I’ve provisionally labeled this new plan the ‘fifth plan.’
This course is designed to help students develop and apply the analytic skills necessary for informed decision-making. We will rely substantially on case analysis, applying theory and tools to problem definition, the design of policy alternatives, and their assessment. We will also devote a unit to cost-benefit analysis and to incorporating it into this analytical toolbox. Based largely on case discussions, the class will explore the choices facing decision-makers (in the public and nonprofit sectors, in the US and abroad) with regard to a wide range of urban issues, including public health, environmental protection, transportation, housing, economic development, and infrastructure. We will use a variety of cases to practice and become nimble in the logic and techniques behind urban policy analysis, rather than becoming an expert in any one subject area. Students will learn to communicate their findings and recommendations clearly, succinctly, and persuasively in written and verbal form.
This course introduces contemporary theories of landscape as a medium of urbanism and product of urbanization. The course surveys sites and subjects, texts and topics describing landscape’s embeddedness in processes of urbanization as well as economic transformations informing the shape of the city. The course introduces students to landscape as a form of cultural production, as a mode of human subjectivity, as a medium of design, as a profession, and as an academic discipline. Through lectures, discussions, readings, and case study projects, students will be introduced to landscape through the lenses of capital, labor, material, subject, and environment. The first half of the course revisits the origins of landscape in response to the societal and environmental challenges of industrialization and the attendant transformations in industrial economy shaping the modern metropolis. The second half of the course repositions recent discourse on landscape as urbanism in relation to the economic and territorial transformations associated with ongoing urbanization at the planetary scale.
Beyond theoretical knowledge, this course offers a unique opportunity for students to actively confront the environmental and human impacts associated with material management in the built environment. Through hands-on, design-led learning experiences, students will be encouraged to tackle these challenges by designing and building real-world prototypes through semester-long team projects that utilize industry and Harvard University material resources. Ultimately, students will develop a robust research framework to investigate, deconstruct, and invent new material-life-cycle design strategies that critically engage pluralistic design solutions toward a new regenerative architecture.
This seminar highlights the collaboration between architects and structural designers in the pursuit of new possibilities of form making. The guiding doctrine in this collaborative relationship has been that of structural rationalism, as expounded upon by the work of Brunelleschi and Viollet-le-Duc. Loads are the fundamental requirements of constructing architecture. We will look at the works on the collaboration of architect Louis Kahn with engineer August Komendant, Renzo Piano with Peter Rice, Rem Koolhaas with Cecil Balmond, Toyo Ito and Kazuyo Sejima with Mutsuro Sasaki, and Junya Ishigami with Yasutaka Konichi, among others. Through research and model making, the goal is to discover new methods that can generate rational and poetic forms. This seminar introduces students to the possibilities of close integration between structural concept and architectural design to engender an integrated holistic approach to architecture.
Infrastructure challenges are significant and rising. To meet these challenges, urban planners will need to acquire foundational knowledge and skills in the public finance discipline and gain a basic awareness of how such tools and levers are used by city leaders to raise money to fund infrastructure, neighborhood redevelopment plans, and other new capital projects. This course will introduce students to the spectrum of public finance strategies and approaches that are available to cities, states and localities and will elevate how each strategy can be considered in the development of urban planning strategies to enhance an urban planners work and position projects to achieve strong equity, sustainability, and other place-based outcomes. The goal of the course will be to educate students on tactical ways that public finance principles can be integrated into the urban planning process. To that end, students will learn how to make choices that position an urban planning project for stronger funding, for stronger economic development outcomes and to achieve growth that is inclusive. The course will combine various pedagogical methods that include lecture, discussion, and exercises that challenge students to consider their role as advisors to leaders in a city. Throughout the semester, students will learn how to evaluate the impact of alternative resource mobilization and public finance avenues that an urban planner may encounter by examining real projects. No prior course work or experience in public finance or economic development is necessary for students to succeed in the course, as the course will provide students with the necessary foundation to understand core concepts in the domains of public finance and economic development that will be covered.
This seminar-equal parts reading group and peer-feedback writing workshop-aims to discover something about essay-writing by practicing it. We will examine essays (architectural and otherwise) that offer distinct sensibilities about how we read the world around us, and we will consider current trajectories within architectural writing and publishing. After some introductory weeks that explore various histories and theories of the critical essay, our reading list will evolve collaboratively based on your topics of interest. We will undertake a series of short writing experiments together, before spending the second half of the semester developing your own essay (tailored to a real or imagined publication).
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The semester opens with an immersive pre-term symposium to learn first-hand from state, city officials, and NGOs on their multiple Boston plans, initiatives, and policies while experts share important precedents and critically assess the encounters. As an academic exercise, we will have the freedom to move beyond the “status quo” of present possibilities, to more desirable outcomes toward climatic resilience in the Near Future. While enhancing your imagination in the creative process of design, this might be precisely where our collaboration becomes more nurturing and catalyzing.
Course content includes lectures, workshops and discussions led by the instructors and guests from around the globe, and incorporates student research, readings and discussion. Though concepts appear iteratively throughout the term, early topics focus on design leadership and community agency, professional identity, firm marketing and business development, with visitors describing their career trajectories, firm development and working contexts, as well as their current endeavors. Topics then move to conventions and circumstances influencing legal, ethical, financial and operational aspects of practice, particularly those that can contribute to and detract from the success of firms and their projects. During the third part of the course, academic trajectory, future impacts on practice and historic documentation practices are featured, in addition to the sharing of ongoing research by students. During the course, lecturers and work by Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) and LBGTQI people will be present. Issues of diversity and equity within the profession and in our work endeavors will be discussed throughout the course.
Cemeteries, capable and perhaps charged to carry multiple meanings, are paradoxical spaces described by Foucault (1967) as ‘heterotopias’, a no place that, nonetheless, is. The studio will be exploring what the urban and social significance of the cemetery of the future could be, and ask what are the forms and cultural expressions the urban cemetery might project? How might the articulation of the material and physical space reinterpret the temporal experience of the cemetery, and how might the increasingly rich cultural diversity of a progressive society be celebrated through ritual and mediated through disparate processes of burial and internment? How might the cemetery critique and address the extensive environmental and social issues that are before us by proposing alternative organisational patterns and expression, a place that celebrates diverse beliefs and rituals, and a space as an important contribution to the city’s natural systems?
The course begins with reading the land and understanding the relationship between the ground surface and water flow. Topics move on to geomorphology; the process of grading and contour manipulation; the conventions of grading representation, terminology and communication in the construction industry; as well as accessibility codes. The second part of the course focuses on water quality and quantity, introducing techniques used to calculate the amount of water flowing over a site and the various ways that the topography can be manipulated to slow, convey, filter, collect or disperse water to help improve its quality and control water flow emanating from a range of storm events. The case studies and precedents presented throughout the course help to illustrate a broad range of approaches to problem solving and the act of sculpting the land.
What do you need to know in order to understand this landscape? How do design culture and design thinking transform over time? How are cultural values embedded in the design of landscapes? This course is framed in terms of the relationship of landscape architecture to the evolving theorizations of nature and culture. In each class, we will map various critical assumptions, ideologies, and aspirations that inform how landscape is designed and interpreted. By learning to read landscapes and related projects of landscape architecture, we will study the constructedness of landscape. Conversely, we will also examine the capacities of landscape architecture to shape identity and ecology, reproduce or contest power relations and inequality, and commemorate diverse cultural meaning.
Representation is approached as an activity of thinking and making in which knowledge is generated through the work. This facilitates an iterative process of reflection in action, enabling testing in which new knowledge informs subsequent design decisions. The course will introduce methods of associative and generative modelling, and quantitative and qualitative analysis visualized through multiple forms of media. These are decision-making models conceived to imbue interaction between evidence-based variables and design input.
This proseminar explores critical disciplinary frameworks for landscape architecture in two broad categories: first, intersecting areas of practice and pedagogy, and second, topics and techniques of academic design research. In the first, concerning practice and teaching, we will interrogate diverse modes of landscape architecture practice including normative and alternative practices along with what we might call “academic practice” by various GSD faculty who actively design projects. What are the specific ways in which practice directly informs teaching? How does the pursuit of an academic life help shape practice, and what are the values that motivate these overlaps? On the research side, we’ll investigate how design researchers form compelling research questions, devise defensible investigatory methods, and eventually contribute impactful forms of knowledge that keep landscape architecture responsive to the pressing questions of our time and drive innovation and change in the field. And how does design research support academic advancement in the university? What is the trajectory of a teaching career in design at an R1 research university? The robust learning outcome intended with this work is that students will build for themselves a grounded intellectual platform from which to make enlightened choices in the ensuing three semesters at GSD and then shape a promising trajectory for the years beyond graduate school.
Through a series of structured explorations, students engage a broad spectrum of representational techniques spanning both analog and digital media. Tutorials develop essential skills and workflows, including hand drawing, architectural drafting, physical modeling, and digital fabrication. Emphasis is placed on iterative processes of abstraction and translation, fostering an understanding of site and intervention as constructs that are conceived, shaped, and ultimately designed through representation.
This course recognizes plants as one of the most expressive materials of the artform - a living medium that distinguishes the discipline from the other applied sciences and fine arts. The goal of the course is to introduce the global potential of plants as a means of design for shaping the character of a place for individual and collective human experience. Investigations that straddle hand-drawn, digital and analog mediums will explore the universally accessible and adaptive power of plants in making healthy, resilient ecologies and socially dynamic spaces.
The class is lecture/workshop based. Existing structures will be analyzed in terms of structural principle deployed, materials used, and detail vocabulary developed for each individual structure. The case studies will also examine the structural design implications of sustainability. How material choice, structural logic, carbon content, and aesthetics interact in the design and making of the pergola and the pedestrian bridge.
This course will provide students with an understanding of water that will inform their professional approaches to landscape architecture, architecture, and planning, and contribute to protecting, improving, restoring, and sustaining water resources. Emphasis will be placed on both the science and the application of this science in designs for projects involving a wide range of interactions with water including coastlines, inland rivers and lakes, and urban stormwater. With ongoing global changes in climate, urbanization, and the use of water for energy and food production, the relationship between humans and water will continue to grow and evolve. We will learn about environmental and land justice issues and think about their relationship to our design work. We will learn from members of the Indigenous communities about the importance of land, water, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK). Students will come away from this course with a better understanding of our evolving relationship with water and the environment and how designs can account for hydrologic change and adaptation while also considering the local communities in which we work. While many varied case studies from around the U.S. and internationally will be discussed throughout the semester, much of the course content and assignments will involve hydrology, stormwater, and sea level rise in the Charles River and Boston Harbor; river and wetland restoration in Plymouth, MA; and stormwater and low-impact design in Washington, D.C.
With an emphasis on ecological principles and their application to design and planning, this course uses restoration as the basis for design and introduces the potential of leveraging capitalism to incentivize environmental restoration. We will explore new approaches to design and infrastructure at local and regional scales including water management, hardened coastlines, sediment and toxics management, marsh and wetland restoration, alternative renewable energy development, reclaimed water, and restored natural hydrology. Students will learn about utilizing the efficiencies and effectiveness of restored natural systems to aid in controlling flooding, remediating drought, and reducing heat island effect. Topics include understanding human impacts on natural systems through engineering and design, and the use of ecological principles and methods of landscape design and planning to achieve natural restoration, resilience, balance, and sustainability.
The seminar introduces and explores new value systems for the environment and alternative definitions of power, work, and energy to tackle this complex systemic suite of crises. This project-based seminar is structured around two phases; Phase One: Energy and Power and Phase Two: Energy and Ecology, . The teaching and learning schedule includes a series of guest lectures focused on articulating the relationship between the different positions and definitions of energy and the implications of their territorial and spatial formations. A range of critical mapping and representation techniques will be explored in order to generate an understanding and future speculations of a thickened ground of energy. The aim is to question who are the actors and agencies involved, what are the forms of governance, their territorial demarcations and land use, ecosystems, historical events and material flows and processes that determine the shape of the ever evolving form of ground and its planetary effects.
Aimed primarily toward soils and plant growth, and taught collaboratively by a landscape architect and an urban ecologist, this course provides basic understandings of soils in natural, human-impacted, and constructed landscapes. Students will be introduced to modern principles of soil science and ecology and the application of this knowledge to working with soil and other plant-growing media involved in the process of designing, constructing and maintaining or curating urban landscapes. Throughout the course, students will examine and critique impacts on soil health and plant performance by current practices within landscape industries, primarily within urban, post-industrial environments. Fieldwork and hands-on learning will be emphasized throughout the course, particularly in the three assignments. We will touch, smell, dig, and draw soil. Students will be introduced to methods for soil sampling and testing, characterize soils across different landscapes, and relate soil conditions to aspects of landscape performance (e.g. carbon storage, plant health). Through coordinated lectures, labs, and field exercises, students will develop field-based skills that may be applied to site assessments and inform their design practice. Though global conditions will be touched upon, the course will focus on practices within the United States.
We take nuclear matters as our test case, chosen precisely for their extreme complexity: no other subject binds technology, power, land, gender, ecology, deep time, and competing institutional interests so tightly into a single knot. The atom split for energy and for war casts a long shadow over bodies, territories, and time. What began with the Manhattan Project did not end there. The science that built the bomb also built the first computers, and with them the first stirrings of artificial intelligence; the same logic of extraction and control now runs through uranium mines, reactors, waste repositories, and the data centers that feed our machines, whose surging hunger for energy is reopening the case for nuclear power itself. Nuclear matters are our lens, but not our boundary: the same logic of technological acceleration producing existential risk as a byproduct runs through artificial intelligence, climate breakdown, and other ways humanity is learning to threaten itself at scale. These are not parallel crises but the same crisis, expressed through different systems, at different speeds, with different but overlapping consequences. Much of this is engineered to stay out of sight, and much of it is estimated to outlast human existence.
Recent discourse around climate change-including debates about the Anthropocene, Green New Deal legislation, the dire warnings of the IPCC, to name a few-increasingly make evident that climate change is much more than a technological problem of carbon mitigation. Taking recent geological and climatic changes as symptoms of deeper structural challenges, this class will address climate change as fundamentally a problem of social and environmental injustice. The class will argue for the necessity of studying theories of justice, inequality, and structural violence along with climate science, policy, and international diplomacy. In our search for climate justice, the class will trace various forms of climate activism within the history of environmental movements, explore non-Western forms of knowledge as key critiques and logics of action, and evaluate concrete suggestions for radical reform. We will discuss how climate justice as a framework of concern is both universal and specific, and we will critically engage ideas of justice at different scales, from the local to the global, with careful attention to context. We will ultimately ask what new kinds of practices, knowledges, and collaborations are necessary to build more just and responsible relationships between people and the nonhuman world, and with each other.
This class is intended for MLA, Planning, Architecture, and Design students. Their skills provide them the insights necessary to make such markets work. Students will investigate Providence, RI, to determine whether a developing credit market based on phosphorus trading and the introduction of a new take on wastewater treatment would help Providence meet its regulatory obligations while incentivizing the restoration of natural systems, enhancing flood control, building resilience to drought, and restoring habitat. Students will work with local advocates and city officials to produce a report on their findings and recommendations. Using Blue Cities/Stratifyx , a developing market platform, they will assess the damage existing infrastructure has caused while examining the benefits and potential for restorative change.
Cities by Design is concerned with the in-depth and longitudinal examination of urban conditions in and among selected cities in the world. The broad aims are: to engage in a comparative study for the purpose of broadening definitions of what it is to be urban; to identify characteristics that render particular cities distinct; to understand the manner in which geography, locational circumstances, and related infrastructural improvements both constrain and promote opportunities for city development; and to gain insight into the role of human agencies, planning institutions, and design cultures in shaping cities and their role in broader regions.
The course is a forum for conversations on contemporary urban design practices, theories and strategies. It is concerned with the economic, social, and political factors that shape urban environments and the efforts of individual actors, interventions, conceptual models, and practices to comprehend, gain control over, regulate, and shape those processes and environments. The course is structured around three overlapping discussions re: the foundation of urban design as a cross-disciplinary practice; critiques of different positions; contemporary and emerging conditions of practice across a broad geography and in relation to architecture, urban planning, landscape architecture, historic preservation and other cognate fields of urban study and practice. We will focus on key concepts and modalities of practice that allow us to explore a range of critical frameworks and methodologies for understanding the processes, debates, and projects that shape urban design practices, and connect them to the problems, struggles, and issues of poverty, violence, risk, climate equity, power and privilege constitutive of global urbanization processes. The objective is to develop a critical perspective that comes from a deeper understanding of theory, practice, and speculation.
This course investigates the environmental histories of the ancient Mediterranean world through a diverse array of archives-including cultural materials such as paintings, mosaics, excavated landscapes, and textual records; natural proxies like ice cores, ocean sediments, and dendrochronological data; and archaeobotanical and faunal evidence, such as ancient fish populations that inform us about past marine ecologies. By juxtaposing human and environmental archives, students will critically analyze how ancient societies perceived, interacted with, and were shaped by their environments. The course engages with ongoing scholarly debates about the potential for ancient modes of resource management, agricultural practice, and ecological adaptation to inform resilient solutions to today’s environmental crises. It further interrogates the methodological and interpretive challenges of translating ancient practice into modern application, asking what is at stake in forging environmental bridges between past and present. Through case studies, interdisciplinary readings, and hands-on analysis of select archives, students will develop skills to assess both the promise and the limits of learning from the environmental past.
This course goes down the proverbial rabbit hole in considering the fundamental, incidental, anecdotal, but above all the meaningful formal and structural analogies between books and other print media, and the spaces imagined and realized in and by architecture, landscape, and urban design and experience. The rabbit hole, it will be recalled, appears in the opening chapter of Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and was itself a passage furnished with bookshelves. There are texts within texts, and worlds within those texts, each and all producing planned and chance encounters between signifiers and signifieds, readers and writers. Questions of page layout, punctuation!, paratexts, narrative structure, paper-making, book-binding and ecocodicology, publishing houses and reading rooms, marginalia and marbled paper, the threaded histories of reading, writing, (though not so much ’rithmetic), illustration, illumination, and blank spaces, the vineyard of text, the mirror in parchment, a scribal world set into print-these and other topics will be addressed with regard to masterworks (major and minor) of literature (Perec, Mallarmé, Sterne, Douglass, Piranesi, Stein, et. al.) and an array of familiar and fantastical books ranging from the sexagesimo-quarto to the Audubonian double elephantine folio. We will always have in view, specifically in relation to architectural, landscape and urban culture, what Roger Chartier describes as the “space between text and object, which is precisely the space in which meaning is constructed.”
A unique feature of this course is the opportunity to work in tandem with the New York based organization Urban Design Forum. Students will be paired with groups of Forum fellows as they set out to analyze international housing contexts and extract valuable lessons for addressing New York City's ongoing housing crisis. This provides students an extraordinary chance to apply theoretical knowledge to real-world challenges, fostering innovative thinking and practical problem-solving skills.
Understanding the events and forces that shaped modern American cities is essential to the successful practice of urban design and planning in the twenty-first century. This course explores the growth, planning, and design of major North American cities from the early European settlements to the present. The object of the course is to use history to inform the thinking and practice of contemporary planners, policy makers, and designers. Its format consists of lectures, films, class discussions, and student presentations in which students explore urban topics of their own choosing.
Participation is a way of confronting our preconceptions, revealing our blind spots, and/or supporting our intuitions in a context where architecture, urbanism, and other design-related fields are becoming more and more complex and multilayered. Participation is not an end, it is a means: a powerful tool that establishes new connections and boosts both creativity and the production of new ideas. Likewise, participation allows the construction of a collective dialogue that will engage people in different ways, formats, and temporalities. Participation is a method to enable the creation of more democratic, inclusive, and open-ended environments, redefining the very concept of citizenship.
This course starts from the premise that urban politics and governance arrangements shape the character, form, and function of cities as well as the planning strategies used to make them more just, equitable, and sustainable. Using a focus on cities in the developing world, the course examines an array of governance structures (centralized versus decentralized institutions; local versus national states; participatory budgeting, etc.) and political conditions (democracy versus authoritarianism; neoliberal versus populist versus leftist party politics; social movements) that are relatively common to cities of the global south.
The aim of the course is to introduce students to key concepts and tools in quantitative analysis and research. Most importantly, however, the goal is to develop students’ intuition regarding data analysis and the application of statistical techniques. By the end of the course, students will be familiar with how common techniques of quantitative analysis can be applied to a wide variety of data. Students will also gain a sense of the strengths and weaknesses of quantitative data analysis and under what circumstances the tools learned in the class are best applied in practice. The course seeks to train technically competent, intellectually critical practitioners and scholars who are able to apply quantitative methods in a wide range of settings, and who are also aware of the wider analytic context into which these approaches fit. There is a focus throughout the course on epistemology and the ethics of claim-making. Over the course, students will deepen their understanding of how claims are made, how claims are connected to different forms of evidence, and what makes different kinds of claims credible.
One task of an urban planner is to grapple with and understand a series of complicated processes that directly affect the organization and experience of a place. Social, cultural, political, and economic forces all influence the complexity of a site. The planner must interpret these forces, arrive at a position in response to them, and make them legible to a wide array of stakeholders. Beyond the proposed plan and strategy, another critical contribution of the planner is to communicate, persuade, and be an agent for reaching consensus among competing agendas. Communicating through a variety of means, visual representation of abstract concepts and processes is a skill needed to speculate and make intelligible ideas on the future of urbanism and the environment. Effective visualizations not only support verbal proposals-they can perform as stand alone as standalone artifacts that communicate new information to their audience.
Planning decisions are often idealized as being “evidence-based” or “data-driven.” Spatial data often comprise the data and evidence that support such these decisions. In this course, you will learn how to create spatial datasets, both by assembling them from existing sources and by collecting data in the field. You will also learn data visualization and analysis techniques to identify spatial relationships within and between spatial datasets, including techniques for incorporating artificial intelligence into your spatial analysis workflows. You will learn to identify the arguments that mapmakers make through their maps and to use spatial data visualization to make your own arguments.
The second semester core planning studio expands the topics and methodologies studied in the first semester core studio, GSD 1121, aiming to prepare students for the mix of analytical and creative problem-solving needed to be an effective planner. In this studio, students work on a real project in a real place (with a real client) that allows them to interact with the public; define a vision; collect, analyze, and represent data that supports that vision; develop a proposal that reflects public input; and present work in a sophisticated way that is relevant, legible, and useful to those who are not planners. By the end of the studio students will be familiar with a number of dimensions of community engagement, data analysis, plan making, and implementation.
Emphasizing hands-on learning, the course guides students through the process of designing qualitative research projects tailored to community and organizational contexts. A range of data collection and analysis methods will be covered, including artifact review, place observation and ethnography, interviewing, group engagement, and visual techniques for both interpreting and presenting data. Students will also learn to use conceptual frameworks to organize qualitative evidence into compelling outputs, such as diagrams, case studies, scenarios, evaluations, and assessments. Students will leverage weekly exercises as an opportunity to practice and refine these approaches.
Cities are the most productive, innovative, and unequal places humans have ever built. They also contain the vast majority of real estate wealth and opportunity. These module courses give students the economic tools to understand why. You will learn why cities exist, what drives their growth, and how to answer questions regarding major urban trends reshaping cities today using the core concepts of economics. How does the market value land and buildings, and what are the implications for development profitability, housing affordability, transit investment, and municipal fiscal health? How are cities adapting since the remote work revolution? Why does the housing crisis persist? How quickly will the market eliminate excess inventory in the office sector and what policy measures are required to speed this process?
Cities are the most productive, innovative, and unequal places humans have ever built. They also contain the vast majority of real estate wealth and opportunity. These module courses give students the economic tools to understand why. You will learn why cities exist, what drives their growth, and how to answer questions regarding major urban trends reshaping cities today using the core concepts of economics. How does the market value land and buildings, and what are the implications for development profitability, housing affordability, transit investment, and municipal fiscal health? How are cities adapting since the remote work revolution? Why does the housing crisis persist? How quickly will the market eliminate excess inventory in the office sector and what policy measures are required to speed this process?
The next several sessions of the course focus on government interventions into housing in the United States from the beginning of urbanization up to the 1960s. Classes cover early efforts to eradicate slums and improve housing for the poor; systematic efforts to enforce segregation by race in the early 20th century including the practice of redlining; federal involvement in homeownership and suburbanization; the policy motivations and design of early public housing and urban renewal programs; and local interventions to regulate the development of housing and access to it, particularly in suburbs. We then focus on a second wave of interventions arising in the 1960s in response to unanticipated consequences of earlier interventions, including public housing and urban renewal, as well as responses to demographic and economic shifts and the Civil Rights and citizen participation movements. This section of the course examines policy interventions aimed at affordability, including rental subsidy programs and community development programs, and new ideas about who should be in charge of revitalization plans and where federal assistance should be targeted.
Designers with a robust representational repertoire will be best suited to communicate their ideas and impact change in the coming generation. Students should take this course to learn how to maximize the impact of the images they create. They will learn to integrate image-crafting into the design process. They will also gain the foundation for harnessing the power of imagery to supplement their intellectual and design ambitions. Students will create impactful visual content structured by meaning, beauty, and emotion. They will develop an eye for strong images and understand how individual details-such as composition, tone, texture, and light-strengthen the larger picture. A student who fully engages with the course will emerge with the conceptual and technical capacity to create compelling images that challenge conventions of representation while also speaking to a broad audience. By representing cities at various scales, students will gain the ability to read diverse urban conditions and engage directly with contemporary pluralistic urbanism.
What does it mean for an urban redevelopment project to be transformational? Only a select group of projects earn this distinction, those that achieve lasting change through inclusive community engagement, sustainable design, innovative policy and financing, and a thoughtful balance between the historical and the new. These projects demonstrate how the built environment can serve as a catalyst for equity, resilience, and long-term transformation. ReBuild offers a unique, case-based approach to learning from 4-6 real-world examples of transformational urban redevelopment across American and international cities. Through interactive analysis and discussion, students will unpack the complex interplay of public policy, design, financing, and community priorities that shape these projects. The case studies include large-scale public and private investments that aim to significantly revitalize their built and natural environments, incorporating infrastructure upgrades, adaptive reuse, new construction, and public space creation. Each case provides students the opportunity to simulate real-world roles, evaluate competing priorities, and propose solutions grounded in practice and theory. Students will: Gain insights into the social, economic, and environmental forces at play in transformational redevelopment efforts. Build practical skills in urban analysis, stakeholder engagement, decision-making under complexity, and integrated design thinking. Strengthen their ability to generate context-specific insights that inform more equitable and effective planning and development strategies. Case studies are the core of this course’s pedagogy. Each case presents a richly detailed, real-world scenario with complex problems, stakeholder tensions, and multiple decision points. Students will explore these cases through: Collaborative discussion and facilitated debate. Problem-solving workshops simulating real-world planning and design challenges. Role-playing and scenario analysis to understand competing perspectives. This active learning model moves beyond passive lecture-based instruction. It immerses students in the decision-making process, helping them develop critical thinking, persuasive communication, and the confidence to shape real urban futures. By the end of the course, students will not only understand how transformative redevelopment happens-they will be prepared to lead it.
In order to meet the emission reduction goals that will allow us to minimize the climate impacts of our cities, urban populations will need to shift towards low-carbon transportation modes. Public transportation, in the form of high-occupancy vehicles transporting passengers on fixed routes and schedules, is one such mode. In this course, students will learn methods for evaluating transit service at the level of the region, the route, and the station in terms of operational and financial feasibility as well as in terms of the passenger experience. Students will develop the skills to plan transit service and develop conceptual designs for transit infrastructure. Students will demonstrate their learning through hypothetical and realistic weekly transit planning assignments.
The effects and burdens of climate change are unequal, contributing to increased social and economic disparity and often exacerbating historic patterns of inequity. The impacts are multiple and diverse, as are the many cultures and communities that must respond and adapt. Therefore, a universal, one-size-fits-all approach is not an adequate response. To develop design tools that respond to these conditions, we need to understand not only the science but also the political, social, economic, and cultural contexts on the ground, where design projects and movements are rooted. This requires a community of learning committed to deeper analysis of the patterns of change and the potential roles designers may play in reducing carbon emissions and adapting to the many changes the future will bring. We must ask critical questions and interrogate existing systems of knowledge. What are the risks and conditions associated with a rapidly changing climate? How have design and planning played a role in constructing conditions of risk? What are the tools and techniques designers can use to adapt to these risks? How effective are they? Whom do they serve? And on what terms?
This is, in part, a consequence of the paradigm that organized modern housing discourse in the twentieth century: affordability, standardization, and efficiency. In the postwar era, the urgent need to provide basic hygiene and shelter quickly and at mass scale was met with the tools of industrialization. These priorities achieved real gains but came at the cost of social diversity, ecological sensitivity, and long-term adaptability. Mass housing was built according to the paradigm of functional zoning, a mode of urban planning that separated living, working, and leisure as if these aspects of life had no influence on one another, pushing industry to the margins of cities and treating it as separate from domestic life.
This course provides an overview of the institutional and legal framework for planning through comparative lenses. It will examine how institutional structures and legal rules provide the sources and limits to planning authorities in different societies, and how planning systems regulate urban and regional issues through different approaches. Four national planning prototypes will be specifically addressed in the course: American, British, German, and Chinese, but comparisons from other countries will be drawn on certain topics. Students will be encouraged to explore such comparisons in their targeted countries or city regions.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
For a century, Western Pennsylvania was called the Steel Capital of the world, pulsating year-round, day and night, with the production of steel for rail, bridges, ships, and buildings. As a bookend to Pittsburgh, McKeesport stood out in the Monongahela Valley as an urban hub. Downtown McKeesport had the tallest buildings outside Pittsburgh, busy streets, streetcars, the fancy stores, parades, and great parks. Then, seemingly overnight, industry stopped cold. Beginning in the 1970’s, competitive steel manufactured in Japan, South Korea, and other countries slowed down the demand for US-produced steel. US Companies were reluctant to modernize, inducing obsolescence. Higher costs of labor, energy and transportation accelerated the decline. By the 1990’s many mills in the Mon Valley had substantially scaled back production or altogether shut down-in some cases, without prior warning to the workforce. Thousands of people were left jobless, hollowing out communities and leaving hulking blast furnaces dark and silent. Pittsburgh rebounded. McKeesport did not. Two-thirds of its population was lost, and what was once a bustling downtown is run down and half empty. An effort is underway to reenvision the city’s downtown, tapping McKeesport most valuable asset: pride of place and community resilience. Another key asset is geographical: the downtown adjoins two rivers, the Monongahela and the Youghiogheny, the latter offering rare unincumbered access to the waterfront. National trends pointing to the affordability and benefits of small town living also portend a brighter future.
There will be a focus on the implications of environmental and social performance on asset valuation, investment risk, and urban development. The curriculum is structured around key stakeholder groups (e.g. asset owners, investors, regulators, and communities) and considers how each contributes to and is impacted by the drive toward decarbonization, health and wellness, affordability, and climate resiliency. Attention is also paid to the uneven distribution of sustainability’s benefits and burdens, including the importance of equitable urban development and operations. By the end of the course, students will be prepared to assess sustainability strategies and solutions as they impact assets and communities, with a critical eye toward real estate's role in shaping inclusive and low-carbon cities.
This course introduces Landscape Architecture students to the fundamentals of ecological science. We will use urban ecology and the social-ecological-systems framework as a lens through which to interpret human-influenced landscapes, assess ecological management and design decisions, and generate interventions. Through lectures, case studies, discussions, and field trips students will develop a working understanding, or ecological literacy, of ecological systems, function, and dynamics at multiple scales. Students will synthesize and apply these analytical skills in a series of assignments that integrate methods from field ecology, research, and design.
This course is intended for students interested in the affordable housing crisis. Can governments alone solve this problem or are public-private approaches an answer? The course explores how affordable housing is created, preserved, and managed, as well as how community development strategies incorporate and extend beyond the provision of affordable housing. Specific methods to sponsor, permit, finance, design, construct, manage, and preserve affordable housing are presented, including use of public subsidies and regulatory mandates.
In this course, you will learn about the institutional structures - such as laws, regulations, policies, the workforce, and the relationship between the public and private sectors - through which, and because of which, data and artificial-intelligence systems operate. The course addresses how designers and planners can understand and incorporate into their work this “human side” of data and AI: the institutions that determine whether data is created, how data is used, who is involved in the data lifecycle, and, ultimately, how data and AI can best aid practitioners, and when it cannot. This “human side,” just as much as the technology itself, is an integral component of data and AI systems; “data-driven decisions” are not possible without “decision-driven data”: humans exercising agency to determine whether, when, or how to employ data.
Students will use their studio projects as departure points to become familiar with the tools for iterating with AI. Broadly, the sequencing of the three modules should align with that of a semester-long design project. Module 1 will focus on site research and geospatial data as the language of design. Module 2 will use in-progress, unfinished designs as seed for hallucinatory resolutions. Module 3 will conclude with a manifesto based on a study of texts and on the semester’s learnings. Note that it is not required that students take a semester-long design studio in conjunction. Please reach out to the instructor to discuss alternative project approaches.
This course is an introduction to key design principles and techniques for visualizing data. It covers design practices, data and image models, visual perception, interaction principles, visualization tools, and applications, and introduces programming of web-based interactive visualizations.
Section 2 focuses on critical concepts and skills required to build performing real estate portfolios and successful real estate companies. Section 2 covers up to seven additional topics: (6) real estate market cycles and investment/management considerations, (7) portfolio construction and techniques for optimizing long-term risk adjusted rates of return, (8) REITs and the IPO process, (9) raising private equity capital for real estate projects, portfolios, and companies, (10) developing a financial business plan for a startup, (11) PropTech, CleanTech, and FinTech in real estate, and (12) leadership of real estate companies.
The course combines instructor lectures on necessary skills with student-led initiatives for assembly of information, analysis, and production of a development proposal. Each site has one Development Project instructor. MRE students will also engage where appropriate with the relevant studio instructor and design and planning students in those studios. Small teams of real estate and studio students will be formed at the beginning of the semester to work together on the sites and related work products. To facilitate opportunities for collaborative interactions, The Development Project’s four-hour meeting on Tuesdays 2:00 to 6:00pm overlaps schedule-wise with the studio. Note that option studio students, who meet twice weekly for four hours each session, have as their central mission the exploration and realization of design and planning outcomes rather than full-blown outcomes encompassed in a development proposal prepared by the MRE students. The option studios will each have their own syllabi, schedule, and work product deliverables.
This course explores how to conceive, build, and lead successful real estate organizations. Students learn how to create an initial strategy, craft and implement a business plan, manage an organizational culture, and compete in a world in which the only constant is change. The mediating role of ethical standards is emphasized throughout the course, helping students identify specific challenges in real estate settings and strategies to guard against ethical failures.
The Practicum involves a two-month supervised placement of an MRE student within a United States or international private for-profit, private not-for-profit, or public real estate organization to participate in ongoing real estate projects that advance beneficial spatial, social, and environmental outcomes. Practicum placements are arranged by the MRE program and matched to the interests of each student and Practicum partner. Students will attend a Practicum Prep seminar during fall and spring terms, meet remotely from time to time during the summer with fellow students and faculty, and finally return to the GSD for a several-day concluding session during which they will engage in discussions and presentations.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
During the summer term, students complete a two-month, full-time Practicum placement with a private, public-sector, or non-profit real estate organization. In their placements, students participate in real estate projects or initiatives that advance cutting-edge practices, including those promoting social and environmental best practices. The experience concludes with a final paper and participation in two days of presentations and discussion at the GSD during Orientation Week.
This course teaches the fundamentals of real estate finance for all major property types and land uses. The course begins with a focus on real estate finance tools. Methods of using discounted cash flow analysis for income property, for-sale property, permanent mortgage loans, and the acquisition and disposition of existing real estate assets are explored. Teaching cases and simulations are designed to place students in decision-making situations commonly faced by real estate professionals. Optional review sessions focusing on real estate financial analysis will support the course.
This module continues the instruction from 5256, module 1, and extends it to redevelopment, value-add, and ground-up development of real estate. Analytical approaches to valuation will be extended to the more complicated situation of valuing proposed development. Discounted Cash Flow analysis and related techniques will be customized to the more dynamic and variable cash flows of pre-development, construction and sale/lease-up period. Cases and assignments will extend earlier principles of strategy, management, and judgement to the less predictable process of development, construction, stabilization and disposition. Partnership structures and legal aspects of real estate will be applied to better understand common approaches to development and finance.
The proseminar situates ecologies in design within a broad, cross disciplinary framework linking living and non-living entities with their social, cultural, political, and environmental contexts. The plurality implied by “ecologies” is explored through five lenses: Environment, Materials, Climate, Systems, and Tools. We map the issues they encompass and the interrelated systems they form, moving between theory and practice, across fields and across scales-from material assemblies to territorial systems. Topics include the climate polycrisis; rights of nature and the tragedy of the commons; landscape urbanism and adaptation; urban, material, and construction ecologies; metabolism and circularity; environmental machines; and non-human agents.
The notion of “Mediums” lies at the heart of understanding and shaping our designed world. Mediums are not merely passive channels, but active agents that both constrain and expand the ways in which ideas, experiences, and environments are conceived, communicated, and transformed. In this proseminar, we will take a critical look at the current and emerging landscape of design technologies and technologically-driven design. We will examine new and evolving tools, technologies, and methods that help us augment ourselves and our environments, developing a critical perspective on their significance within today’s cultural contexts.
In our Proseminar, we will grapple with a selection of critical discussions on word and image as these have been formulated in aesthetic philosophy, literary criticism, media studies, and art and architectural history. The encounter between graphic form and written discourse has been construed as a seamless exchange, a contentious rivalry, or an outright war between incommensurable modes of expression. By setting this encounter against design-related tropes and themes (these might include, but are not limited to, Sign, Figura, Shadow, Threshold, and City), we will assess a debate that ranges from the doctrine of ut pictura poesis to visuality and textuality, the rhetoric of the image, and the mediation of cultural techniques.
Public, as a noun or adjective, is not confined to a single discipline, practice, narrative, or theory. It is instead a complex construct that a) impacts the rules and regulations that order our cities; b) reveals the cultural, political, and economic priorities of a society; and c) establishes the faultlines of both city form and urban action, either individually or collectively, including who has the right to the city and its spaces. With this in mind, this proseminar seeks to define what constitutes the Public, historically, spatially, and socially: how, when, and why it becomes legible and desirable; who gets the right to create it and for whom; and whether different historical moments or political and/or spatial contexts enable, constrain, or transform the "social production of the public." Among other things, through lectures, discussions, debates, and design we will interrogate what it means to be public; of the public; in the public; for the public, with the public, or by the public. Each proposition holds a different implication for democracy, processes, and populations when overlaid with the compounding issues of our time, such as economic and social inequality, climate change, population growth and decline, territorial conflicts, health and violence epidemics, aging infrastructures, and eroding trust in democratic governance. These pressures do not stay local, and neither do the publics that form around them, each entangled with wider systems that reach well beyond any single boundary. As publics are increasingly formed online, algorithmic processes reshape how they gather, producing new kinds of hyper politics, spaces and infrastructures that sustain them. The slow, deliberative publics of classic theory now coexist with platform-based publics that assemble and disperse in hours, forming quickly and everywhere at once, yet thinly organized and quick to fragment.
Borrowing and expanding scientific terminology, we will classify and examine machines according to the different domains they operate in: in vitro (in labs), in situ (on site), in silico (in simulations), in vivo (in living materials), and more. We will draw on the history and philosophy of technology, ecology, systems thinking, robotics, digital fabrication, landscape and architecture to define eco-machines through the mediums they operate in and the ways they interact with their surroundings. Each weekly session will focus on a specific operation medium or aspect, from context and material-tool encounters through questions of agency, intelligence, and ultimately the ethics we face when robots meet nature.
Neural networks, whether biological, artificial, or otherwise, are systems whose behavior emerges from large numbers of relatively simple components acting together. They are difficult to see, challenging to describe, and especially tricky to represent across scales. This workshop asks how design and visualization can make the structure and activity of neural systems perceptible without pretending to make them simple. We'll look at LLMs, brains, and other neural nets and work to understand how these information landscape respond to queries about space, meaning, power and landscape.
In the past several decades, design has been impacted by the digital revolution as well as by a series of challenges linked to the advent of a new era in the relationship between humans and planet earth, an era often characterized as the Anthropocene. This situation necessitates the need to rethink some of the fundamentals of the design disciplines, including: their relationship to nature as well as to space and time, questions of scale, tectonics and ornament, what is implied by the notion of inhabiting and its link to issues of subjectivity. Finally, the political relevance of design is more than ever at stake.
MDes Open Project is an 8-unit, project-based, design-research collaboration supporting individual projects and peer review. The class is required of, and only open to, all students in the Master of Design Studies program in the fourth semester of study. All sections are open to all MDes Domains although certain projects may be more suitable for students with a given interest or skill set. Enrollment takes place via lottery. Details on Open Projects will be provided at a later date.
MDes Open Project is an 8-unit, project-based, design-research collaboration supporting individual projects and peer review. The class is required of, and only open to, all students in the Master of Design Studies program in the fourth semester of study. All sections are open to all MDes Domains although certain projects may be more suitable for students with a given interest or skillset. Enrollment takes place via lottery. Details on Open Projects will be provided at a later date.
MDes Open Project is an 8-unit, project-based, design-research collaboration supporting individual projects and peer review. The class is required of, and only open to, all students in the Master of Design Studies program in the fourth semester of study. All sections are open to all MDes Domains although certain projects may be more suitable for students with a given interest or skill set. Enrollment takes place via lottery. Details on Open Projects will be provided at a later date.
MDes Open Project is an 8-unit, project-based, design-research collaboration supporting individual projects and peer review. The class is required of, and only open to, all students in the Master of Design Studies program in the fourth semester of study. All sections are open to all MDes Domains although certain projects may be more suitable for students with a given interest or skill set. Enrollment takes place via lottery. Details on Open Projects will be provided at a later date.
MDes Open Project is an 8-unit, project-based, design-research collaboration supporting individual projects and peer review. The class is required of, and only open to, all students in the Master of Design Studies program in the fourth semester of study. All sections are open to all MDes Domains although certain projects may be more suitable for students with a given interest or skill set. Enrollment takes place via lottery. Details on Open Projects will be provided at a later date.
The second semester MDE studio provides an opportunity for students to expand, hone, and deepen project-based design engineering capabilities acquired in the first term through a focus on advanced methods, skills, and theory critical to relevant design practice within our rapidly changing 21st century context. Beginning with a targeted exploration of the scientific and cultural mechanisms upon which contemporary design impact is contingent, the bulk of the term will focus on the iterative development of a single design engineering project through a rigorous cadence of design prototypes. The studio brief, entitled Our Artificial Nature: Designing for More-than-Human Systems, is designed and deployed across a series of cumulative assignments and corollary deliverables to address core areas of advanced project-based design engineering knowledge in response to the imperatives of our time.
The Independent Design Engineering Project (IDEP) is a two-semester project during which students in the Master in Design Engineering (MDE) program work on understanding a concise, real-world problem, and develop a prototypical solution. Methodologically a continuation of the MDE first-year studio, each student frames a complex problem and engages with stakeholders in order to understand its multi-scalar, multi-disciplinary aspects. Work on a solution involves a combination of analytical and visualization skills, technical skills, and design methods, culminating in the development, prototyping and evaluation of a solution.
Operating at the frontier of the natural and the artificial, the curriculum pushes students beyond their existing disciplinary boundaries. The semester demands a high tolerance for ambiguity as students tackle novel AI systems forensics, synthesize massive global datasets, and engineer robust, field-deployed mechatronics to address complex global challenges.
The world we inhabit is designed. The technologies we use, the organizations we work within, and the institutions that shape our lives all reflect decisions about how people should behave, what should be valued, and what futures should become possible. Yet many of the most important consequences of those decisions remain difficult to see until they become embedded in everyday life.
An introductory course in the design, fabrication, and assembly of mechanical and electromechanical devices. Topics include: Engineering graphics and tolerances; Structural design and material selection; Machine elements and two-dimensional mechanisms; DC motors; Design methodology. Emphasis on hands-on work and team design projects using professional solid modeling CAD software and numerically controlled machine tools.
The Independent Design Engineering Project (IDEP) is a two-semester project during which students in the Master in Design Engineering (MDE) program work on understanding a concise, real-world problem and develop a prototypical solution. Methodologically a continuation of the MDE first-year studio, each student frames a complex problem and engages with stakeholders in order to understand its multi-scalar, multidisciplinary aspects. Work on a solution involves a combination of analytical and visualization skills, technical skills, and design methods, culminating in the development, prototyping, and evaluation of a solution. The two-semester long IDEP is the required second-year component of the MDE program. Each student receives guidance from an advisor from SEAS and an advisor from the GSD. Initial domain outlines for the IDEP are due at the end of the second semester. Course group meetings serve as platforms for workshops, updates, and the sharing of progress, and allow for feedback on methods from the project coaches. Presentations and reviews will be scheduled during the fall and the spring semester to facilitate feedback by advisors, stakeholders, Harvard faculty, and guests. The final presentation at the end of IDEP includes an oral presentation, visuals, and a demonstration of the solution.
This is the first course on Biological Signal Processing, the science of collection, representation, manipulation, transformation, storing of biological signals, and the use of modern scientific computing tools (Python, Jupyter notebooks) to interpret biological signals and tell engaging and informative stories using biological data. The signals of interest can be deterministic, semi-periodic, transient, random, stationary, non-stationary, etc., depending on their source and generation mechanism. We will use EEG, EKG, temperature data, neural spiking data, and data from Covid-19 as examples. Our focus will be on foundational signal processing concepts that can be applied in a variety of biological applications. Examples include the Fourier Transform, Principal Component Analysis, Clustering, etc. Applications include those to patient monitoring, diagnostics, patient prognostics, online monitoring, and the computation of wellness measures. For many of us, one frustrating aspect of Covid-19 is our inability to understand figures that are reported, such as infection rates and numbers. We will introduce you to a powerful suite of mathematical and scientific computing tools will enable you to evaluate and make decisions based on evidence and data.
An introduction to key design principles and techniques for visualizing data. Covers design practices, data and image models, visual perception, interaction principles, visualization tools, and applications. Introduces programming of web-based interactive visualizations.
For design engineering initiatives to achieve your desired impact, they need to survive and thrive in the real world. This usually means that they need to be brought to life by an organization or as a business. This module explores the decisions you will have to make from strategy, to planning, to expression, to execution so you can make it happen.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A thesis is a thematic proposition offered for discussion and debate. A thesis is typically developed through a piece of original research specific to an academic discipline, often at the culmination of a program of study. Theses are produced through various methods as appropriate to the disciplinary commitments of academic fields across the research university. Design theses are pursued through the methods and media specific to the design disciplines, through design research. Design research most often refers to the process and products of knowledge produced through design, as distinct from knowledge produced by research methods associated with the humanities or the sciences. Design research can be characterized by its means and methods, as well as by its sites and subjects for work, as well as the dissemination and reception of its propositions.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
What does it take to complete a graduate thesis in the Department of Urban Planning and Design? The seminar introduces different types of theses that might be produced by students, whether textual, design-focused, or based in some other medium, such as film. It addresses topic and question identification, research methods, case selection, the craft of thesis production, managing the student-advisor relationship, and techniques for verbally defending a thesis.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Candidates may arrange individual work focusing on subjects or issues that are of interest to them but are not available through regularly offered coursework. Students must submit an independent study petition, and accompanying documentation as noted on the petition, after securing approval of the faculty member sponsoring the study. Faculty must be teaching a course in the semester in which the independent study will take place, and must also be a voting faculty member.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
In totality, this seminar will examine the planning, design, and stewardship opportunities-and constraints-frequently encountered when valuing cultural landscapes in the public engagement process. This seminar will also tackle how we may develop a personal ethic when bridging the artificial and often segmented divides between design and historic preservation, as well as nature and culture, which can result in an expanded, holistic, and more nuanced site-specific planning and design strategies that can underpin, inform, and advance design engagement. Our shared mission in this work will be to make visible, instill value, and engage multiple audiences in the public arena when fostering viewpoint diversity for managing change.
From Jersey barriers to Cape Cod berms, Arizona crossings to the Rikers (Island) soil series, Chicago caissons to Portland cement, Stockholm tree pits to the Missouri gravel bed method-place names in material practices and techniques proliferate throughout the making of the built environment. However, how and why these techniques emerged from (or refer to) specific cultural and climatic conditions-and how they circulate to new geographies through social and professional networks, rather than through marketing-is relatively underexamined. Countless other techniques and materials-gootee propagation, barbed wire, tile drainage-arose from highly specific environmental contexts before they were disseminated or appropriated globally. In tracing these operative practices-and deliberately bracketing off narrow economic explanations of market segmentation-the seminar investigates alternative modes of landscape regionalism that have emerged between standardization and craft, between a globalized industry and the situated particularities of matter, ecology, and culture.
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Students must register for a total of 16 credits in order to maintain full time status. Students enrolled in the PhD in Business Administration, Organizational Behavior, or Health Policy (management track) should utilize this course to indicate time spent researching and reading outside of classes. Credits are variable and can be adjusted as needed to maintain full time status.
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Field research involves collecting original data (qualitative or quantitative) in field sites. The course will combine informal lecture and discussion with practical sessions designed to build specific skills for conducting field research in organizations. Readings include books and papers about research methodology, as well as articles that provide exemplars of field research, including both theory driven and phenomenon driven work. Specific topics covered include variance versus process models, blending qualitative and quantitative data (in one paper, one study, or one career), collecting and analyzing different kinds of data (observation interview, survey, archival), levels of analysis, construct development, and writing up field research for publication. A core aim of the course is to help students understand the contingent relationship between the nature of the research question and the field research methods used to answer it, and to use this understanding to design and carry out original field research. Course requirements include several short assignments assessing readings and a final paper designed to help students' further their own field research goals. This seminar fulfills a requirement for HBS Organizational Behavior and Management students. Students are required to be in or beyond their second year of study.
Economics 2110 and 2115 comprise a two-course sequence for first-year graduate students seeking training in econometric methods at a level that prepares them to conduct professional empirical research. Economics 2115 (spring) covers topics (different methods) in current empirical research. Faculty members from across the university will teach modules each covering a different method of causal inference, including but not limited to instrumental variables, panel data methods, and regression discontinuity and kink designs. The course will emphasize a mixture of theory and application, with problem sets focused on the replication or extension of recent papers utilizing these methods.
"Examines empirical research in corporate finance. Covers empirical research methodology, financial institutions, and financial policy. Major emphasis is on how to do well-executed and persuasive research in corporate finance. Structured to minimize overlap with HBSDOC 4243. Seminar format; students write referee reports and a research paper. Offered jointly with the ECON as 2727. HBS PhD students should enroll in ECON 2727"
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This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This course will be accepting Harvard Fellows and postdocs as auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This course enriches standard economic analyses of belief formation and choice by incorporating modern psychological research on human attention, memory, perception, categorization, and mental models. The course uses the standard mathematical modeling and empirical methods employed in economic research. It is intended for doctoral students interested in research in economics and related fields; we also encourage undergraduates with appropriate preparation. Instruction is divided between Joshua Schwartzstein (1/2 of the lectures) and Andrei Shleifer (1/2 of the lectures).
A comprehensive course in economic theory designed for doctoral students in all parts of the university. Topics include consumption, production, choice under risk and uncertainty, markets, and general equilibrium theory. Topics will be motivated by appealing to related recent theoretical and applied economics research.
A comprehensive course in economic theory designed for doctoral students in all parts of the university. Topics include consumption, production, behavior toward risk, markets, and general equilibrium theory. Also looks at applications to policy analysis, business decisions, industrial organization, finance, and the legal system. Undergraduates with appropriate background are welcome, subject to the instructor's approval.
Also offered by the Economics Department as Economics 2110 and the Business School as 4170. The two-course sequence is open only to qualified PhD and DBA students from HKS, HBS, HGSE, and HSPH, but occasionally others may be admitted at the discretion of the instructor (if the instructor is convinced that such individuals can perform well and would not negatively affect the nature and pace of the course).
Economics 2110 and 2115 comprise a two-course sequence for first-year Ph.D. students seeking training in econometric methods at a level that prepares them to conduct professional empirical research. Economics 2110 (fall) reviews probability and statistics, then covers the fundamentals of modern econometrics, with a focus on regression methods for causal inference in observational and experimental data. Prerequisites: undergraduate courses in probability and statistics, regression analysis, linear algebra, and multivariate calculus.
This course will show how "big data" can be used to understand and address some of the most important social and economic problems of our time. The course will give students an introduction to frontier research and policy applications in economics and social science in a non-technical manner that does not require prior coursework in Economics or Statistics, making it suitable both for students exploring Economics for the first time and more advanced students. Topics include equality of opportunity, education, innovation and entrepreneurship, health care, climate change, and crime. In the context of these topics, the course will also provide an introduction to basic methods in data science, including regression, causal inference, and machine learning. The course will include discussions with leading practitioners who use big data in real-world applications.
This course will show how "big data" can be used to understand and address some of the most important social and economic problems of our time. The course will give students an introduction to frontier research and policy applications in economics and social science in a non-technical manner that does not require prior coursework in Economics or Statistics, making it suitable both for students exploring Economics for the first time and more advanced students. Topics include equality of opportunity, education, innovation and entrepreneurship, health care, climate change, and crime. In the context of these topics, the course will also provide an introduction to basic methods in data science, including regression, causal inference, and machine learning. The course will include discussions with leading practitioners who use big data in real-world applications.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
Micro Topics in Organizational Behavior is a survey course oriented toward understanding people’s behavior and experiences in organizational contexts. The course reflects the inherently multi-disciplinary and multi-level nature of the field, for example by covering the study of individual, dyadic, small group and intra-organizational behavior. Examples of topics include motivation; work structure and job design; self and identity; cognition, judgement, and decision making; affect and emotion; culture, climate, and norms; groups, networks, and diversity; and power, status, and leadership. Most sessions will include a broad discussion of a topic, along with a more focused discussion of specific readings. We will have guest faculty join us on occasion. We expect the class sessions to be highly interactive. By engaging in extensive reading and active debate on these topic areas, you will gain skills in developing and evaluating theory, articulating research questions, and critiquing existing research in OB.
Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Entrepreneurship and Innovation explores scholarly work from economics and finance disciplines regarding entrepreneurship-the formation and growth of new firms-and its implications for innovation and growth. While work on this topic dates back to Schumpeter and even earlier, academic research regarding entrepreneurship has exploded over the last decade. The nine-week “core” component will the connections between economic theory-particularly in contract theory, organizational economics, and corporate finance--and empirical work. Among the topics that will be covered are the rationale for entrepreneurial firms, the structure of arrangements between entrepreneurs and investors, the relationship with larger entities, entrepreneurial strategy, the development of new ideas and its relationship to organizational form, and the decision to go public. We will also seek to understand key data sets for research . At the same time, these are dynamic fields, with new topics attracting academic (and real world) interest. Reflecting this dynamism, the nine core weeks will be followed by four weeks of special topics that will vary from year-to-year.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Goals of self-governance and perseverance of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe's (MWT's) autonomy have intertwined with Harvard's founding educational and religious mission for 400 years. Collaboratively conceived with members of the MWT Historic Preservation Commission, this course explores indigenous, English, and American responses to the university's mandate to educate "English and Indian youth," in "knowledge and godliness." Reversing the longstanding practice of Wampanoag educators traveling to Harvard to help students understand the region in which they live and study, students will travel to Mashpee to engage the tribe and its institution. They will contribute to understanding of the braided histories of tribe and university through research on topics identified by the MWT Historic Preservation Commission, including indigenous sovereignty, land stewardship, and MWT access to education and control of Christian Institutions.
The Meccan Sanctuary, also known as the Kaʿba, is a focal point of worship for Muslims, who pray towards it daily and strive to make a pilgrimage to it at least once in their lifetime. This course is an advanced graduate seminar centered on a host of primary sources (in Arabic) which provide information about Mecca and its shrine in the pre-Islamic and early Islamic periods. We will read sources in the genres of historiography, geography, exegesis, law, hadith, and poetry. We will also engage with secondary academic literature on Mecca, the Kaʿba, and West Arabia's other sacred spaces and festivals.
Syriac is the Aramaic dialect that became the principal language of Near Eastern Christians in antiquity. It was widely spoken and written in Mesopotamia, Persia, and beyond, and a vast corpus of Syriac Christian literature survives. This full-year course offers a thorough introduction to Classical Syriac. Readings will include passages from the New Testament and early Christian literature. The course will also introduce important themes and figures from the Syriac tradition.
This course will survey the rich and diverse array of writings produced by early Christians in the first few centuries of the common era and usually put under the label of "Apocrypha". Combining the direct reading of primary texts with that of modern literature, the course will highlight the historical, literary, and theological significance of the "apocryphal continent". Through a series of focused case studies selected from different dates and genres, the course will discuss several traditional and emerging themes in the research on apocryphal texts, e.g., the definition of "apocryphon" and its relationship with the canon formation, the social dimension of apocryphal literature (on themes like the role of women in narratives or the attitude towards enslavement), the treatment of Jews and Judaism, or the influence of apocrypha on the Christian imagination and contemporary popular culture. This course includes the possibility of writing a research paper.
From TikTok to Ted Talks, the art of the spoken public narrative has never been more important or accessible. In this course, we will explore the art of preaching and public speaking as an aspect of leadership, drawing insights from a diverse range of thought leaders in religious and spiritual fields as well as comedy, business, health, psychology, and government. Through engaging readings, viewings, and in-class workshopping, students will learn how to write, craft and deliver compelling speeches and sermons that resonate with contemporary audiences. By focusing on non-Christian sources, we will broaden our understanding of effective communication and leadership in today's multicultural world.
What is the meaning of secularization? Do greater modernization, education, and existential security lead to the decline of religious belief? Or is such a conclusion an ideological construct? In this class, we will address these and many related questions taking an interdisciplinary and global approach. Our goal is to gain conceptual clarity regarding the meaning of secularization, distinguishing between the social process of institutional differentiation (church/state, faith/science, etc.) and the decline/privatization of religious belief. To do so, we will study key historical developments from the Reformation era to our time, in the context of Western Christianity; while paying attention to parallel developments in areas where Christianity was/is not dominant. We will examine how those key developments shaped multiple patterns of secularization in the globe and will try to ascertain their significance for religious faith and practice in our time. Readings include the work of social theorists and anthropologists such as Charles Taylor, José Casanova, Pippa Norris and Ronald Inglehart, Hans Joas, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood, Marilyn Ivy, among others.
Required for cross-registration into Boston Theological Interreligious Consortium (BTI) courses. In addition, HDS students must complete the on-line process at http://www.bostontheological.org/btiportal. When the on-line BTI cross-registration process has been completed, and approved, the information for the course, as indicated on the host school's site, will be entered for the student. Enrollment limited to students in HDS degree programs.
Ecclesiology is the branch of theology concerned with comparative, critical, and constructive reflection on the identity and purpose of the Church, in its local, universal, and cosmic/mystical forms. Both philosophical and practical, traditional and innovative, institutional and radical, ecclesiology is perhaps the most integrative and creative of the theological disciplines, uniting systematic, biblical, and liturgical theology with questions of authority and mission. This course aims to empower students to identify and release visions of Church rooted in nostalgic, oppressive, or colonialist systems and structures, and to imagine and claim an ecclesia that reflects God's love, justice, and abiding concern for the most vulnerable. Readings will range widely across Christian history and denominations (including Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, Orthodox), and will include voices from the global south, feminist, womanist, queer, and liberation theologians. Alongside "What is the Church?," we will ask "What should the Church look like today?" in an age of ever-widening global inequality and overconsumption, rising secularism and fundamentalism, institutional decline, and climate crisis. Students will design a final project focused on a tradition of their choice and reflecting their vocational aspirations.
This course engages students in historical, theological, and practical study of preaching and worship in the Black Church tradition. Readings in black homiletics and practical theologies of worship introduce students to a variety of approaches for the development and delivery of sermons and for the construction and ministerial leadership of worship within black Christian church contexts. The course considers these proposals for ministry practice against the backdrop of the social, political, economic, and cultural dynamics that shape the contemporary context of black communal life in the United States. The purpose of the course is to increase students' ministerial capacity through the incorporation of theological and practical wisdom from the Black Church tradition into their own understandings and uses of ritual and rhetoric.
Field education is designed to provide an integrative learning opportunity while students work in various approved sites for 350-400 hours, during which they engage in theological reflection with trained supervisors. The course requires concurrent enrollment with Meaning Making, HDS 2933 A/B or 2934, for the first academic-year placement. HDS 4516 A/B is the course that awards the credits for the field education placement(s). MDiv students must complete field education as part of their degree requirements. MTS students are eligible to participate as an elective for their program. All participants must attend Introduction to Field Education as part of their enrollment. Consult course website for up-to-date information on dates, times, and room locations. All students enrolling in their first academic year field education placement must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year to receive credit.
This course is designed for students in their first field education placement concurrent with the academic year. It focuses on exploring the wisdom of their religious, spiritual, or secular traditions in relation to dimensions of students' field education experience. Meaning Making explores the various ways that members of religious, spiritual, philosophical, and wisdom traditions place inherited resources (e.g. scriptures, commentaries, stories, songs, practices, etc.) in dynamic conversation with lived experiences to generate new insights, practices, and ways of being. The course uses the case study method as a starting place for reflection; explores the student’s inherited reflection methods and methodologies; and guides students in the process of composing their own reflections in relation to the lived experiences. It helps students integrate academic study, personal devotion or practices, and professional functioning by moving towards insight through experiences during field education. Attendance at the introductory sessions is required of all course participants. At the introductory session, students will sign up for a class meeting time for the remainder of the year. Students will be assigned to one instructor and will meet with the same group at the same day and time for the whole year. This is an indivisible year-long course. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Strict attendance policies apply.
A close critical reading in English of the Book of Genesis with an eye both to the storytellers' techniques and to the theological dimension of the text. Primary emphasis will be given to literary and religious rather than historical and editorial issues. No prerequisites, though an introductory course in critical biblical studies would be useful. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1134.
This course is a close and rapid reading of the books of Samuel and Kings. It is designed to help students increase their speed and fluency in reading biblical prose (plus some poetry). Special attention will be given to expanding Hebrew vocabulary, strengthening command of verbal and nominal morphology, and mastering key aspects of Hebrew syntax. Students will also learn how to navigate and interpret the Masora and critical apparatus in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Along the way, students will develop familiarity with the contents and literary structure of these books. Depending on students’ interests, the course will also offer opportunities to a) deepen their knowledge of Hebrew historical linguistics; b) explore how the Book of Chronicles engages with the narratives of Samuel and Kings; c) interact with current scholarly discussions on Samuel-Kings.
Most of the writing on the history of Christianity is organized around national histories and religious denominations or traditions. By contrast, this course aims to build on work by historians of all kinds, not just historians of religion, suggesting that traditional explanations of religious, social, and cultural change have undervalued the role of international networks and transnational encounters in shaping the dynamics of religious change and innovation. By looking at a selection of such international networks, and nodes and nuclei (or junction boxes) as sites of encounter among different traditions and cultures, the course will analyze patterns of change and transmission that will challenge conventional historiographies and modes of explanation. In terms of chronology, the course will concentrate predominantly on the period c.1500-2000, from the print revolution to the digital era, and will include international religious networks such as the Catholic religious orders (Jesuits), Protestant benevolent and missionary societies, migratory populations resulting from colonialism and other factors, the rise of transnational Pentecostalism, print networks, and so on. There will be opportunities for students to research religious networks and junctions of their own choosing, and to develop their own interpretation of religious change. The first half of the semester will concentrate on networks, the second part on nodes and nuclei and the third part of the semester will be devoted to student research projects.
Healthcare chaplaincy is a specialized, unique field of ministry continuing to increase in demand in clinical settings like hospitals and hospice centers. This introductory course will explore the theory and practice of clinical chaplaincy in hospitals and focus on developing the foundation and skills necessary for providing effective interfaith care and spiritual counseling interventions in the medical setting. Course content will include readings, group discussions, and counseling practice, and will emphasize six main areas of clinical chaplaincy: 1) basic counseling intervention skills, 2) interfaith spiritual care, 3) ethics in the medical context, 4) end-of-life support, 5) clinical standards and due diligence in the institution, and 6) self care. A prior course in introduction to pastoral counseling or the equivalent is a prerequisite. Instructor permission required.
Screenwriting with the Mystics asks how mystical traditions can illuminate the dramatic at the heart of storytelling. Students study character, desire, conflict, and resolution alongside concepts of longing, trial, annihilation, and return. Readings will include Hollywood screenplays, screenwriting texts such as Robert McKee’s Story, and mystical narratives; examples may include Majnun Layla, The Lost Princess, and The Dark Night of the Soul. Through reading, film analysis, and screenwriting workshops, students explore how traditions can inform contemporary storytelling while developing work from their own religious, ethical, or intellectual inquiry. The course culminates in an original short screenplay grounded in each student’s own practice and designed for feasible production.
The brief Yoga Sutras (only 195 sutras) of Patanjali (c 100 BCE-100 CE) is a vastly influential and fundamental text of yoga. It is the focus of the course, along with its primary commentary (Vyasa's Bhasya) in several translations, and with the 20th century commentator of Swami Hariharananda, a mystic practitioner. What was Patanjali up to? What are the Sutras for? What do the Sutras tell us about the meaning and purpose of yoga then and now? We will both stress the importance of the Yoga Sutras and be mindful that the Sutras are not the only normative authority regarding yoga. Though not a course about the practice of yoga or yoga in the modern world, it is always attentive to the implications for practice, and thus potentially of great use for practitioners and teachers today. Apt comparisons will be made with ancient Hindu and Buddhist parallels, other syntheses of yoga, Al-Biruni's 11th c. Arabic translation, and modern Christian interpretations of the Sutras. Weekly written responses, plus two twelve-page course papers. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1661.
Introduction to ancient Greek emphasizing the grammar and vocabulary of the New Testament. Course has additional section hour to be arranged. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants. Permission to enroll in the course will be granted as petitions are received.
This course is intended to hone reading and translation skills in Latin by introducing students to the writings of the fourth-century, North African bishop Augustine. The primary purpose is to increase facility and familiarity with the Latin language, developing skills begun in previous coursework conducted in either classical or Christian Latin. The secondary purpose is to be introduced to the study of Christian Latin literature, as well as the resources scholars use to study it. Special attention will be paid to Augustine’s theology, scriptural interpretation, preaching, and literary pursuits.
With the resurgence of psychedelics in research and clinical settings, the field of psychedelic chaplaincy has burgeoned. The spiritual, existential, religious, and theological experiences that psychedelics engender positions chaplains to compassionately and skillfully provide care to those receiving treatment in these settings. This course focuses on the theory and practice of spiritual care for people receiving psychedelic treatment with particular attention paid to spiritual care competencies, assessments, and interventions; the history and contemporary state of therapeutic psychedelics; and the development of one’s identity as a spiritual care provider. Students will gain the ability to articulate the role of a chaplain in the preparation, guidance, integration, and community support for patients undergoing psychedelic treatments; facilitate spiritual health and growth; and attend to the unique epistemic, spiritual, and even ontological aspects of non-ordinary, mystical, and transcendent states of consciousness.
Presentation and discussion of the research of doctoral candidates in American religious history. Available, with instructors' permission, to Harvard doctoral students in other fields of religious studies or American studies. Note: First half of an academic year bi-weekly course. Credit will not be earned unless both the fall and spring semester of the course is completed. Course may be taken on a Sat/unsat basis only. This course is limited to doctoral students with interests in North American religions. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 3505A.
Introduction to Ministry Studies (IMS) serves as the foundational classroom experience for Master of Divinity (MDiv) students, as well as those who may be considering the MDiv degree. The purpose of IMS is to provide students with the tools and the time necessary to construct a working model of ministry studies as a framework for integrating the various components of the MDiv program (course work, supervised field work, co-curricular experiences, and spiritual formation) into a coherent practice of intellectual, spiritual, and vocational formation. In IMS, students will be introduced to a methodology for critical and constructive theological/religious reflection that emerges from rigorous contextual analysis and is aimed toward renewed visions for ministerial and ethical leadership practice. In addition to this methodological exploration, IMS also considers the institutional and communal dynamics that make Harvard Divinity School (HDS) a unique context for religious and theological studies in service of a multi-religious and multi-vocational approach to professional ministerial education.
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This required seminar is restricted to MRPL candidates and meets weekly for the full year for the equivalent of two full courses. In the fall (A), students will learn a critical theory approach to understanding religion in public life, explore a variety of case studies, and refine their MRPL final project proposals in a collaborative context. In the spring (B) students will focus on completing their final projects as the primary work of the seminar, sharing work in progress and receiving feedback from peers, the instructor, and relevant faculty members. Students must complete both terms (parts A and B) within the same academic year as a requirement for the MRPL degree. Both MRPL Seminar A and B may only be taken for a letter grade.
Introduces students to the phonology and script of classical/modern standard Arabic and covers the basic morphology and syntax of the written language. Emphasis on the development of the four skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing). Samples of modern (contemporary) and classical styles of writing introduced into basic syllabus, and audio-visual material from the contemporary Arabic media. Required textbooks: (1) Alif Baa (with multimedia), 3rd edition. (2) Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya :, Part I, 3rd edition. Note: Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken sat/unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Arabic AA.
A thorough review and continuation of literary (classic and modern) Arabic grammar with emphasis on reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. Course materials draw from both classical and modern Arabic literature and culture. Required textbook: Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-Arabiyya , Part II with DVDs, 3rd edition. Prerequisite: Elementary Arabic (HDS 4345 A and B). Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken sat/unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Arabic BA.
A thorough review and continuation of literary (classic and modern) Arabic grammar with emphasis on reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. Course materials draw from both classical and modern Arabic literature and culture. Required textbook: Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-Arabiyya , Part II with DVDs, 3rd edition. Prerequisite: Elementary Arabic (HDS 4345 A and B). Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken sat/unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Arabic BA.
Introduces students to the phonology and script of classical/modern standard Arabic and covers the basic morphology and syntax of the written language. Emphasis on the development of the four skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing). Samples of modern (contemporary) and classical styles of writing introduced into basic syllabus, and audio-visual material from the contemporary Arabic media. Required textbooks: (1) Alif Baa (with multimedia), 3rd edition. (2) Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya :, Part I, 3rd edition. Note: Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken sat/unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Arabic AA.
A thorough review and continuation of literary (classic and modern) Arabic grammar with emphasis on reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. Course materials draw from both classical and modern Arabic literature and culture. Required textbook: Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-Arabiyya , Part II with DVDs, 3rd edition. Prerequisite: Elementary Arabic (HDS 4345 A and B). Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken sat/unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Arabic BA.
Introduces students to the phonology and script of classical/modern standard Arabic and covers the basic morphology and syntax of the written language. Emphasis on the development of the four skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing). Samples of modern (contemporary) and classical styles of writing introduced into basic syllabus, and audio-visual material from the contemporary Arabic media. Required textbooks: (1) Alif Baa (with multimedia), 3rd edition. (2) Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya :, Part I, 3rd edition. Note: Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken sat/unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Arabic AA.
Introduces students to the phonology and script of classical/modern standard Arabic and covers the basic morphology and syntax of the written language. Emphasis on the development of the four skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing). Samples of modern (contemporary) and classical styles of writing introduced into basic syllabus, and audio-visual material from the contemporary Arabic media. Required textbooks: (1) Alif Baa (with multimedia), 3rd edition. (2) Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya :, Part I, 3rd edition. Note: Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken sat/unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Arabic AA.
Introduces students to the phonology and script of classical/modern standard Arabic and covers the basic morphology and syntax of the written language. Emphasis on the development of the four skills (reading, speaking, listening, and writing). Samples of modern (contemporary) and classical styles of writing introduced into basic syllabus, and audio-visual material from the contemporary Arabic media. Required textbooks: (1) Alif Baa (with multimedia), 3rd edition. (2) Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-'Arabiyya :, Part I, 3rd edition. Note: Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken sat/unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Arabic AA.
An introduction to French grammar, syntax, vocabulary and translation, with reading selections at an elementary level related to theological and religious studies. Limited enrollment course. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants.
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Review of grammar and syntax. Special attention given to increasing facility in reading and interpreting the Greek New Testament. Selected readings from the gospels and epistles with occasional readings from LXX or early Christian writers. Prerequisite: Elementary Greek or the equivalent. Limited enrollment course. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants.
Throughout most of Jewish history, the form of the Hebrew language that most Jews have encountered is the language of Jewish prayer found in the Siddur (Jewish Prayer Book), including but not limited to the daily prayers that structure lived Jewish time. Course offerings in Hebrew within universities like Harvard, however, are typically limited to Biblical Hebrew and Modern Hebrew, with not much in between. Despite its centrality to Jewish life, the Siddur has received far less academic attention than the Bible and the Talmud. This course combines close reading of such materials in Hebrew with analysis of Jewish prayer from both historical and phenomenological perspectives. Students are required to have some background in Hebrew, equivalent to at least one year of biblical or modern Hebrew.
The main goal of this course is to help you develop fluency and confidence in reading texts from the Hebrew Bible in their original language. To this end, we will focus on reading selected narrative passages from the Bible, paying attention primarily to vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. We will also systematically review the most common vocabulary found in the Hebrew Bible as well as various aspects of grammar covered in first-year Hebrew. In addition, some attention will be given to how Hebrew narrative functions as a literary genre.
This course offers a thorough and rigorous introduction to Classical Hebrew grammar. In this first semester, students will learn the Hebrew script and the basics of Hebrew morphology. This will allow students to begin reading and translating biblical prose in the second semester. By the end of the year, students who have taken both semesters will have covered all the basics of nominal and verbal morphology and will know the foundations of Classical Hebrew syntax. Daily preparation and active class participation mandatory.
A close historical-critical reading of the Book of Lamentations in Hebrew and a careful reading, also in Hebrew, of a generous sample of midrashim from Lamentations Rabbah. Emphasis upon the theological and literary dimensions. Prerequisite: Three years of college-level Hebrew (any period) and some previous experience with historical-critical methods. Not a course for those with a weak grasp of biblical grammar.
The course introduces students to the phonology and script as well as the fundamentals of morphology and syntax of Modern Hebrew. Emphasis is placed on developing reading, speaking, comprehension and writing skills, while introducing students to various aspects of contemporary Israeli society and culture. Cannot be taken Sat/Unsat. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Modern Hebrew BA
This course constitutes the third year of the Modern Hebrew language sequence. The course emphasizes the development of advanced proficiency in all skills. Readings include texts of linguistic and cultural complexity that cover contemporary Israeli literature and culture. Note: Conducted in Hebrew. Not open to auditors. Prerequisite: Modern Hebrew (HDS 4040 and HDS 4041), or equivalent level of proficiency. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Modern Hebrew 130A.
A thorough and rigorous introduction to the Ugaritic language, with a focus on grammar and the reading of a variety of genres of Ugaritic literature (epistolary, ritual, legal, administrative, myth, epic, etc.). The course will also provide students with the opportunity to explore themes in the religion and society of Ugarit and to reflect on their importance for understanding the literature and religion of ancient Israel. Prerequisite: Knowledge of Classical Hebrew or another Semitic language, such as (especially) Akkadian or Arabic. This course is supervised by Dr. Rhyder but taught by instructional staff.
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This course is the third part of a two-year program designed to allow the student to read Buddhist canonical materials in Pali independently. The readings are taken from the canonical collections and are chosen and arranged thematically, exposing the student to key aspects of the teachings of Theravada Buddhism. The course readings are chosen to enrich the student's understanding of these teachings, at the same time as strengthening language skills. Prerequisites: Elementary Pali II or equivalent (with permission of the instructor). Note: Auditors not allowed. Limited enrollment course. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants.
Syriac is the Aramaic dialect that became the principal language of Near Eastern Christians in antiquity. It was widely spoken and written in Mesopotamia, Persia, and beyond, and a vast corpus of Syriac Christian literature survives. This full-year course offers a thorough introduction to Classical Syriac. Readings will include passages from the New Testament and early Christian literature. The course will also introduce important themes and figures from the Syriac tradition.
This course introduces students to Spanish grammar, syntax, vocabulary, and translation with the goal of developing students’ vocabulary and reading comprehension skills. Students will read and translate selections related to theological and religious studies from across time periods, traditions, and genres. In addition to the course readings, students will have the opportunity to work with and translate a text of their choice from their own research discipline. Limited enrollment course. Enrollment priority given to HDS students and other Harvard faculty cross-registrants.
This course aims to build skills for imaginative and shared leadership in religious, not-for-profit, and academic institutions. Students will develop skills within three areas: managing self-awareness for leadership, developing strategic approaches to complex situations, and interpreting meaning. At the heart of each class session will be interactive learning experiences that include case studies, role-play, debating, and team-based interviewing of a wide range of administrators and leaders. Because many HDS MDiv and MTS graduates are contributors to communities that encounter complex problems, students will be taught how to shepherd meaning through shared communal processing. This course teaches students how to develop contextual and communal approaches to leadership and administration as opposed to dictatorial forms of leadership. Students will learn that ethical leadership and moral administration begins with humility, keen listening, compassionate engagement (to self and others as well as to new information), and the interrogation and evaluation of their own moral compasses, values, strengths, and immunities to certain forms of change. This course will pay close attention to the complex layers of communal conflict and/or challenges by distinguishing between technical and adaptive challenges. Students will be taught to attend to what matters most in each situation and how to motivate substantive and sustainable responses to adaptive problems. Additionally, the course also shows leaders how to do more than “solve problems”. It teaches students how to forge a more productive understanding of the human interactions, motivations, and fears that play crucial roles in the development of a community’s capacity for change and courageous action.
This course explores starting points, attitudes, and specific forms of spiritual care distinctive to Hindu traditions, in light of general qualities and norms expected for ministry and spiritual care today in any tradition. Attention paid first to starting points in Hindu scripture and practice, and to classic texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Ramayana. Subsequent classes focus on cases: e.g., hospital chaplaincy and care for the dying; campus ministry; counseling of individuals facing life issues; guidance for couples preparing to marry and planning a family; responses to the suffering, death, and disruption caused by natural and social evils. Visiting lecturers, experienced in Hindu spiritual care, enrich the course throughout. Students of all backgrounds welcome, including those planning to practice spiritual care in other traditions, and those interested in multifaith spiritual care. Weekly written reflections required, and a theoretical or practical project/essay required, started midcourse and turned in at the end.
This course is an orientation to the theology of the Lutheran church with special attention to the uses that it has made of the witness of Martin Luther. The course will examine themes and debates within the Lutheranism at its formation in the sixteenth century, as well as explore current issues in confessional theology and church practice. Particular attention will be given to the chief ecumenical proposal of the Lutheran movement - namely, that human existence is justified by faith apart from human striving - and the difference this proposal makes for the great traditional topics of Christian reflection.
This course is designed to establish and develop the student's working knowledge of the constitutional structure of the Presbyterian Church (USA). The primary focus is on current Presbyterian polity and programs, with attention to the denomination's roots in Reformed theology and tradition. A thorough reading of the Confessions and The Book of Order will serve as a basis for discussion of cases that illuminate the implications of reformed theology and polity in the praxis of the church. Offered every other year.
This course explores the complex relationship between spiritual care and mental health, examining how spiritual caregivers can support individuals in maintaining optimal well-being amid diverse mental health challenges. Students will engage with a range of mental health conditions-including those rooted in cognition, neurology, emotional regulation, and behavior-while also considering the personal, social, and spiritual stressors that exacerbate psychological distress. Recognizing that mental health exists within a broader cultural and systemic context, this course also critically examines the ways in which oppression, discrimination, and structural inequities shape mental health experiences. We will interrogate dominant frameworks of mental health and pathology, asking how cultural biases influence diagnoses and care practices, and how spiritual caregivers can respond with cultural humility and attentiveness to diverse needs for healing. This course is designed to help students develop essential caregiving skills, including reflective listening, ethical discernment, and trauma-informed care. Students will engage in role-playing exercises and guided reflection to strengthen their ability to offer presence, compassion, and support across a variety of mental health situations.
This course will engage in a critical reading and analysis of well-known Muslim prophetic traditions and a study of the practices of the Prophet Muhammad. Through analysis of Muslim prophetic traditions, such as “Hadith Jibril,” we will develop an understanding of the Islamic value systems, Islamic manners/etiquette and Prophetic Character. The fundamental building blocks such as Islam (the physical surrender of the body), Iman (internal truth), and Ihsan (excellence and beauty) will be closely examined. We will focus on Muslim spiritual care through these building blocks during the semester. We will also develop a framework for understanding core Islamic sciences, such as: Jurisprudence, creed/theology, and spiritual purification. Throughout various modalities and exercises, we will study how this framework can enable a deeper understanding of the practical issues affecting the lives of Muslims. We will have expert guest speakers from different disciplines such as pastoral care/chaplaincy (ministry), poetry & literature, counseling, psychology, education, social work, and medicine throughout the semester. These specialists will give us perspectives and practical tips on how prophetic traditions are applied in a Muslim’s life. This course will provide a basic understanding of the Islamic religion through the eyes of Muslims, while providing an in-depth understanding of the various dimensions of Islamic practices. Students from different backgrounds, with or without prior experience with Islam, will find much enrichment in this course diving into the practice through the lenses of prophetic traditions.
This course, as part of the new HDS Initiative on Muslim Spiritual Care & Leadership, is intended for students preparing for vocations in a variety of settings in which they will provide Islamically-inspired service and support. The course will acquaint students with Islamic approaches to Muslim ministry, chaplaincy and general community leadership.
This is a limited enrollment course and will use a waitlist. Students can add themselves to the waitlist by adding the course to their Crimson Cart and using the "enroll" button. The course will then appear in the "Waitlist" portion of the Crimson Cart. Near the start of the term, the instructor will review and approve students from the waitlist.
This course will provide a basic historical introduction to critical issues in the study of the New Testament. What are the contents of these texts that make up the second portion of the Christian Bible? In what ways do they reflect the major issues, concerns, and struggles that were taking place among the earliest Christ-followers? How did they get to be grouped together in a single book called the "New Testament"? In addition to these historical questions, we will also attend to the New Testament's ongoing role as Christian scripture to consider the following: what does it mean to study a religious text critically? How might the study of the New Testament's social and historical context relate to its ongoing role as sacred and/or authoritative in the Christian tradition? And what are some of the diverse ways that contemporary readers bridge the gap between the New Testament's ancient Greco-Roman context and their own interpretation and application? We will explore these questions through careful study of the New Testament texts themselves, while also attending to issues of historical context, methodology, and hermeneutics.
Women remain the most active supporters of Buddhist institutions across Southeast Asia despite widely held understandings of women's karmic inferiority. This central tension in the study of Buddhism will form the core of our study of women's devotion to the Buddha in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, and Sri Lanka. The course advances through close study of ethnographic case studies, auto/biographies, and other vernacular works (in translation).
When, if ever, are we obliged to forgive? What should forgiveness look like in the aftermath of violence? What conditions should be attached to its offer? Does forgiveness foster peace at the expense of justice? Should it? This course will examine the complicated problem of forgiveness through an examination of several diverse sources: theological, philosophical, and literary. The aim will be to develop a sophisticated understanding of the promise and problems of forgiveness in human lives, and to foster the critical application of such lessons to contemporary contexts and moral problems. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 145.
In this course we will examine the various iterations and motifs of exile, Diaspora, and trauma in the Jewish tradition from the Hebrew Bible and its reception to the advent of Zionism. The concept of exile (galut) is not only a description of the Jewish "state-of-being" but may be the very cornerstone upon which Judaism as we know is founded and continues to exist. While exile stands at the center of Jewish self-fashioning and ritual as a theological category, Diaspora (golah) is a more value-free historical term describing the dispersion of the Jews throughout the world. Tension between exile and Diaspora emerged with the advent of Zionism when questions of messianism problematized the concept of exile as an operational category. In addition, trauma filters through the entirety of the Jewish theological and historical experience as both a real and imagined category of identity and posture toward the world. All readings will be in translation.
This course is designed to prepare students to effectively engage with Islam, members of the Muslim community, and the Muslim world broadly speaking. The first portion of the course provides students with a broad, historical survey of Islam, including its origins, central institutions, and its religious, social, legal, and political approaches. In exploring Islam’s journey outside the Arabian Peninsula, the first part of the course will prioritize its focus on Islam’s complex ethnic and cultural diversity. This portion of the course will culminate with exploring Islam’s venture into US soil and consequently the effect of this on the American political and public sphere.
Bridging filmmaking frameworks with spiritual inquiry, this course approaches storytelling as both a creative craft and a disciplined contemplative practice. Students will examine narrative structure, character, conflict, transformation, symbolism, and visual storytelling alongside Sufi concepts such as the journey, longing, annihilation, and return. Readings may include selections from Aristotle, Ibn ʿArabi, and contemporary writers on cinema and spirituality. Through analysis of films from Hollywood and global cinema, students will consider how visual storytellers represent faith, transcendence, and encounters with the unseen.
In the United States and around the globe, many scholars and activists committed to the cause of social justice are becoming increasingly frustrated with the language of democracy and human rights, and its alleged defense of the dignity of all people. Similarly, they are becoming increasingly impatient with churches and other forms of organized religion. Their frustrations are the consequence of the many failures-religious, moral, and legal-to embody the ideals behind the defense of the dignity of all people. And yet, faith, hope and resistance seem to always emerge in moments of great crisis. In this class we will study the complex relationship between faith, hope, and resistance, and hopelessness and pessimism. We will do so by examining different responses to this relationship coming from Catholic theology and spirituality in the 20th and 21st centuries in Latin America and the United States. Readings include the work of Miguel de la Torre, Gustavo Gutiérrez, Ignacio Ellacuría, Ada María Isasi Díaz, Nancy Pineda Madrid, Shawn Copeland, Tony Alonso, among others.
Over the past century, influential philosophers such as Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, together with feminist thinkers, have criticized the divide between reason and emotion as one of the conceptual foundations of conflict and violence in practice. They argue that the elevation of reason over emotion has contributed to deeper structures of exclusion, repression, and violence. In their reading of intellectual history, this hierarchy begins with the passage from mythos to logos and the rise of rational philosophy, a transformation they trace to Parmenides and see as taking a more systematic and influential form in Aristotle. Yet this compelling critique rests on a particular interpretation of intellectual history. This course examines that interpretation and asks what happens when the legacy of ancient Greek philosophy continues in the works of its Muslim heirs. How far does this account of reason and emotion hold true within the Islamic intellectual tradition? Through close readings of primary texts by Muslim philosophers, theologians, and mystics from the medieval period through the eighteenth century, we will explore how they understood the relationship between reason and emotion. Some affirmed the authority of reason, while others reversed this hierarchy and granted greater authority to the heart and to love. Still others rejected the dichotomy itself and developed accounts of knowledge that reached beyond rational understanding.
Worldview conflict can arise in what we think of as private contexts (e.g., business transactions) or public contexts (e.g., domestic healthcare policy negotiations, bilateral trade disputes, and wars) and at a local level (e.g., land use disputes), societal level (e.g., the abortion debate), or global level (e.g., climate change policy). We will consider the potential and challenges of negotiation in diverse contexts at all levels, taking up topics such as the comparative advantages and disadvantages, and interplay among, litigation, civil resistance, and negotiation as tools for social change; a bounded theory of pluralistic relativism as a response to the reality of moral diversity; and how social norms function and evolve.
Religions have functioned throughout human history to inspire and justify the full range of human agency from the heinous to the heroic. Their influences remain potent here in the 21st century in spite of modern predictions that religious influences would steadily decline in concert with the rise of secular democracies and advances in science. Professionals in a wide range of fields need to understand these complex religious influences in order to understand modern human affairs across the full spectrum of endeavors in local, national, and global arenas. In this course, we will focus on religious literacy in professions such as journalism, arts and popular culture, government, humanitarian action, education, and organizing. How can a nuanced and complex understanding of religion enhance the ability of professionals in these fields to serve their populations? Students will explore multiple methods for comprehending the ways that religions shape, and are shaped by, different social, cultural, and political contexts and will apply that method to case studies in diverse professional sectors. This course is open to all but required for those pursuing a Certificate in Religion and Public Life. Course must be taken for a letter grade if pursuing the certificate.
The course will be devoted to a close reading and interpretation of the Gospel of John. The Greek text will be discussed with specific attention paid to literary structures, textual critical issues, historical context, and history of interpretation. Students seeking admission to the course should email the instructor at gbazzana@hds.harvard.edu by April 15th and indicate, in two brief paragraphs, the reasons of their interest in the course and their background in New Testament studies.
This course considers how we can write histories of religious animals and the Unseen. Students will be introduced to academic literature that has criticized scholarly and popular conceptions of humans having a special status, and assumptions that the religious sentience of non-human animals and the materiality of spirits cannot be studied academically. Students will then be introduced to a variety of sources containing rich information on religious animals and the supernatural from Islamic societies of the globe. In doing so, the course pays particular attention to how human and non-human animals were understood to be religious beings whose bodies and activities were always tethered to the Unseen. Students will be encouraged to explore how the divide between human and non-human animals might not have been evident in societies of the past and the present. Students will moreover be encouraged to engage how these sources may prompt us to remember, or rather realize, that all aspects of material life, including animals' bodies, physical resources and technologies, were inextricably linked to the imagined non-material realms of the Unseen. On the whole, this seminar class takes steps towards recounting histories of religious animals and the Unseen. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1014TS.
Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar was a key political leader and thinker as well as a religious leader and thinker in twentieth century India. Dr. Ambedkar is remembered as a political thinker for his central role in crafting the Constitution of the Republic of India while he is remembered as a religious leader for his conversion to Buddhism in 1956 together with more than 350,000 followers, marking a public rejection by Dalits of continuing caste discrimination in independent India. Dr. Ambedkar’s political and religious thought is subtle and manifold and, centrally concerned with rethinking the place of religion in multireligious societies, it goes far beyond what these two memories, on their own, might suggest. Rejecting any reduction of religion to identity, Dr. Ambedkar combined criticism of religion with a deep sympathy and appreciation of it. He especially helps us to develop critiques and understandings of religion as a political phenomenon in multireligious societies. This colloquium will explore Dr. Ambedkar as a political and religious thinker who can be a teacher to us today, here.
This course will explore the grounds for compassion, ethical commitment, and kinds of human self-restraint in light of an increasing appreciation for the value of animal life. The course will work through new adaptations of Buddhist attention and meditation techniques to elevate our affective connection with - and moral obligation to - our animal kin on planet Earth. This will entail close scrutiny of some amazing anim al videos in class, as well as outdoor attention assignments. Also contributing to our deliberations will be robust discussion of human-animal living conditions and human exploitation of animal resources. All along the way, we will reflect on readings in Western philosophical ethics, critical theory, and anthropology as they intersect, or not, with the Buddhist metaphysics of interdependence and the phenomenology of compassion.
A study of the history, mythologies, ritual practices of the urban centers of Maya, Aztec and Toltec traditions in pre-Hispanic and early colonial Mesoamerica. Attention to the archaeology of these traditions as carried out by Mexican and other archaeologists. Working with pre-Hispanic and colonial codices such as the Codex Laud, Codex Mendoza, Mapa de Cuauhtinchan and the Digital Florentine Codex is a highlight of the course. Visits to the collections in the Peabody Museum at Harvard.
This course will look at the long historical trajectory of Jews and race, beginning in the Middle Ages and focusing primarily on European modernity, America, including the complex alliance of Jews and Blacks from slavery to BLM, the role of race in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict and the rise of Islamophobia. The goal of this course is to better understand the nature of Jews as a genos/race/ethos/people as they are labeled by others as well as how they self-identify. Jews identified as a "race," and were identified as such by others, until the 1930s, after which ethnos served as a substitute. The question of "whiteness" loomed large for Jews in America; are Jews white, and if so, what are the implications of their "whiteness"? Finally, we will explore more recent iterations of this vexing issue in contemporary politics that includes "Jews of Color," Zionism, Israel/Palestine, conversion to Judaism, and progressive politics in America.
In this iteration of the course, we will focus on the tradition of (Catholic) feminist theology. We will trace the origins of theological feminism, the problems to which it responds, and then we will turn to a close-reading of some of the key representatives of this tradition. Readings will include the work of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Elizabeth Johnson, María Pilar Aquino, Delores Williams, Ada María Isasi Díaz and Nancy Pineda-Madrid, among others. This seminar offers students an opportunity to write a research paper.
Liberation theology and decolonial theory offer significantly different assessments of the role of Christianity, modernity and colonialism in the Americas. In this course we will examine these differences through a close reading of some of the most representative texts of each tradition of thought. The course begins by reading Gustavo Gutiérrez's monumental Las Casas, together with other key writings on modernity, coloniality, and religion coming from the tradition of liberation theology. Then we turn to the work of decolonial theorists such as Walter Mignolo, Catherine Walsh, Anibal Quijano, Santiago Castro Gomes, and Silvia Rivera Cucicanqui to explore what might be missing in the work of liberation theologians, while considering whether decolonial theory offers a coherent alternative. This seminar offers students an opportunity to write a research paper.
The American Transcendentalists lived, thought, and wrote in an age of upheaval. Historical criticism challenged the authority of scripture; modern science transformed prevailing conceptions of truth and nature; chattel slavery exposed the moral bankruptcy of established political and religious institutions; and industrialization unsettled inherited forms of labor, community, and selfhood. This course approaches Transcendentalism not as a genteel literary movement but as a sustained, often anguished response to these crises-an attempt to discover what remains of the sacred, the true, and the good when traditional foundations give way. Part I focuses on the tradition's fountainheads: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, and Henry David Thoreau. We begin where the movement's public controversy began, with Emerson's Divinity School Address, delivered in 1838 in the very building where this course meets, and proceed through close reading of the major works: Nature, "Self-Reliance," "Circles," and "Experience"; Fuller's Woman in the Nineteenth Century, her Conversations, and her New-York Tribune dispatches from revolutionary Europe; and Thoreau's Walden, "Resistance to Civil Government," and late natural history writings. Throughout the semester, we attend to the personal crises-grief, religious doubt, love, illness, friendship, and political conflict-that shaped these writers' lives, treating biography not as background but as a source of philosophical insight. The deaths of Emerson's first wife and young son, Fuller's struggle against the constraints placed on women's intellectual lives, and Thoreau's confrontations with the state each became occasions for enduring works of religious, philosophical, and literary imagination. Students will develop skills in the close reading of primary texts and in connecting those texts to the historical and personal circumstances of their composition. Assignments include weekly reading responses, a mid-semester interpretive essay, and a final essay engaging one figure's response to crisis in depth.
This course is a survey of the sources and development of Islamic law through an exploration and analysis of the essential topics of what is known as the Sharia. The objective of this course is to provide students with an understanding of Islamic law along with its major topics as a product of the lived historical and contemporary experience of Muslims and Muslim communities broadly speaking. This course is vital for professionals and practitioners working in both clergy and non-clergy capacities who may encounter members of the Muslim community. This course is divided into three parts:
In conversation with Michel Foucault’s account of the complex relations between subjectivity and truth (and the importance of “techniques of the self”) in the ancient and late ancient worlds, this limited-enrollment seminar will explore various notions of the self in early Christianity. Focusing on the first four centuries of Christianity, we will investigate specific problems of theological anthropology (i.e., what it means to be human) that emerged for early Christian thinkers at the intersection between established modes of ancient thought and specifically Christian notions of scripture, creation, incarnation, resurrection etc. In view throughout will be questions related to the “hermeneutics of the self” that proved richly generative for the Christian tradition in its formative moments-and continue to animate the tradition today. This is a limited enrollment course. Please email the instructor (bdunning@hds.harvard.edu) with a short introduction including relevant background and reasons for wanting to enroll in the course. Students will be notified of acceptance before the enrollment deadline.
This course will bring a womanist theological lens to black women’s fictional literature. Black women’s fictional literary tradition is a source for understanding black women’s social and religious experience as it creatively tells the story of how black women have navigated the multi-layered and multi-nefarious dynamics that have shaped their living. As such, this literature provides keen insight into black women’s moral, spiritual and theological imagination. Black women’s literary tradition is, therefore, a primary source for womanist theological and ethical reflections. This course explores black women’s literary tradition as a resource for expanding the moral imaginary regarding the meaning of freedom and justice. It will utilize selected works from 18th-21st century writers such as Phyllis Wheatly, Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Ann Petry, Octavia Butler and Toni Morrison.
Black and indigenous scholars have long argued that archives are often violent and dismembering, especially as the universities which house them preserve the physical and immaterial remnants of slavery and colonialism. Religious studies scholars, especially historians of religion, have attended to this quandary while sifting through archives of slavery, colonialism, conquest, and sexual violence. At Harvard, this conversation has re-emerged in unique ways through Harvard & the Legacy of Slavery: Reckoning with the Past to Understand the Present , and the question of what lies in university archives has taken center stage. This course examines these archival dilemmas and the violent hauntings of the past with an eye towards the historical study of religion in the Americas. We will read work by such scholars as Saidiya Hartman, Christina Sharpe, Solimar Otero, Toni Morrison, and more. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as African and African American Studies 109 and Religion 1092.
Discussions will center on the theological and artistic, cultural implications of these styles and traditions. The course may address topics such as music in religious activism and protest traditions; the role of sacred and secular sound in movements for racial, social, and political justice; global devotional performance practices; and the theological, ethical, and affective dimensions of musical expression in collective action. The course focus then places an emphasis on the dual nature of music as a cultural product, expressing artistic, social, political, and theological world views.
This graduate seminar course provides a critical survey of and introduction to major themes, debates, and trajectories in the field of African American Religious History. We will examine the multiple and manifold meanings of "African American religions" with attention to Christian denominational histories and extra-church, non-Christian, and quasi-Christian religious formations and interventions among people of African descent in the United States. To do so, students will be introduced to key historical events, prominent and unsung religious actors and institutions, and a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches to investigating, analyzing, and narrating the archives of African American religious life and culture. Jointly offered as Religion xxxx.
This course is a practicum on reading Buddhist stories, learning from them, and living with them. We will engage some exemplary Buddhist stories from three orientations: how to read them well using resources of Narratology; how to use them in moral reflection and ethical understanding; and how they can illuminate who we are as moral beings and help us develop richer lives. We will also explore the connection between narrative ethics and other forms of ethical reflection as well as the relevance of recent cognitive studies about "the moral brain."
Assignments : Brief written responses to each required text or video will be posted to the Canvas site on the due dates. Prior to our week of immersion, each student will be asked to choose a text from a supplied bibliography to read and to present to their peers in short seminar format during one of the Spring seminars. Each person will be expected to keep a journal of their experiences throughout the week, due to be posted to the Canvas site on the due date. Students will also be required to write a substantive paper, 10-12 pages in length, comparing a significant aspect of the Buddhist and Christian monastic movements or experiences as well as exploring its potential present implications for those who live beyond monastic communities. Alternatively, students may elect, in consultation with the instructor, to undertake an extensive creative project, with a similar focus. All final papers and projects will be due no later than 5:00 PM on Thursday April 23, 2027.
This course will explore the place of the New Testament and early Christianity in the history of gender and sexuality. Through a close examination of relevant primary literature, we will seek to understand how the early Christian tradition was shaped by the sex and gender protocols of the ancient Mediterranean world; how it, in turn, reshaped that world; and how the texts and practices in question have played a foundational role in the history of Western thought, and continue to impact cultural and religious debates today. We will also work to become familiar with the increasingly developed (and complex) scholarly conversation surrounding these issues. This is a limited enrollment course. Please email the instructor (bdunning@hds.harvard.edu) with a short introduction including relevant background and reasons for wanting to enroll in the course. Students will be notified of acceptance before the enrollment deadline.
This course is a historical overview of the global Pentecostal/Charismatic movement from the 18th century to the present. It traces key movements, people, events, experiences, and theological ideas in the development of what is now the fastest-growing movement within World Christianity. The course will emphasize 20th century developments and discuss, among other topics, Pentecostal historiography, the Azusa Street Revival, the Catholic Charismatic Renewal in Latin America, gender roles, and expressions of Pentecostal/Charismatic Christianity in the global South. Given the experiential nature of Pentecostalism, students will be introduced to the tradition not only in written texts, but also in audio, film, music, and an in-person visit to a Pentecostal/Charismatic worship service. All course materials (assignments, announcements, readings, grades, etc.) can be found on Canvas, and students will have the opportunity to write a final research paper.
Debates about the significance of the Earth are increasingly central to the humanities, as scholars wrestle with the impact of climate change in our work. Informed by these debates, this course explores imaginaries of Place, World, Planet at the intersections of Christian thought, colonialism, and geopolitics. It addresses questions such as: How has Christian theology and colonialism shaped these ideas? How should we approach their symbolic and religious dimensions? What points of view and modes of knowledge do they reflect? What desired or imagined world orders do they or should they convey? The class explores these questions by examining a wide range of materials, including geopolitical, theological, and geographical treatises, visual art, maps and globes, as well as relevant theoretical texts. It provides resources for students interested in current debates in environmentalism as well as for those seeking to understand religious dimensions of colonial imaginaries in the Americas.
How do rituals work? What makes them succeed (or fail)? For whom do they work? Why do we perform them? Which experiences do rituals elicit? In this class, we will explore these questions, by looking at evidence from the ancient world in light of modern theories of ritual. The study of ritual draws from many disciplines, ranging from religion, philosophy, anthropology, and history to sociology, psychology, and biology. We will draw connections between all these disciplines and the ancient data, so as to come to a broader understanding of what ritual is and how it works.
This course will examine how these three religions imagine themselves in relation to the other two. We will examine strategies of disputation as well as dialogue, theological argumentation as well as implicit adoption of each other’s symbols, customs and fantasies, and consider the role of envy, both holy and vengeful.
We will consider types of sacrifice, blood and bloodless offerings, and recurrent religious concepts: e.g., cosmogony, consecration, thanksgiving, communion, reciprocity, substitution, efficacy, violence, transgression, expiation, catharsis, human and divine hierarchy, gendered and racialized dimensions, and sacerdotal authority. We will also consider leading theories of sacrifice. Students will be encouraged to develop their own research and understanding. In the second semester, we will study the history of sacrifice in the Ancient Near East and ancient Mediterranean (Greece, Rome, Carthage, Egypt, and Israel), and in the Abrahamic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).
We will consider types of sacrifice, blood and bloodless offerings, and recurrent religious concepts: e.g., cosmogony, consecration, thanksgiving, communion, reciprocity, substitution, efficacy, violence, transgression, expiation, catharsis, human and divine hierarchy, gendered and racialized dimensions, and sacerdotal authority. We will also consider leading theories of sacrifice. In the first semester, cases will be drawn from Mesoamerican, Incan, Vedic and Hindu, Celtic, West African and diasporic traditions. Students will be encouraged to develop their own research and understanding.
This course reflects on God reconsidered in light of modern and postmodern doubts about the very idea of “God,” in cultures where belief in God, and even understanding of God, is waning. What does needing God mean, for whom? The questions are raised in light of Hindu and Christian scriptures, from philosophical and theological perspectives, and with reference to spiritual paths to union with God in these great traditions. What is missing, if God is missing? Readings, subject to revision, will include some of these: 19 th and 20 th century essays on theism and atheism; selected scriptural texts in the Vedic and Biblical traditions; mystical texts by medieval poet thinkers, Sri Śaṃkara's Goddess hymn, Ocean of Beauty (8 th century) and St. Gertud of Helfta’s “Mystical Union” chapter of her Spiritual Exercises (13 th century); the 19 th century mystics Ramakrishna and Térèse of Lisieux; 20 th century prophets of compassion and justice, Mohandas K. Gandhi and Dorothy Day. Comparing Hindu and Christian traditions on God challenge 21 st century ideas of God, religion, self, but the course strongly welcomes insights from other traditions ancient and modern. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Science as Religion 1059.
Does thinking oceanically influence the study of Islam? Can we remember a people’s history of the Indian Ocean world? This course considers these questions and others as it focuses on religious worlds within port cities and the networks of Indian Ocean Islam. The course examines how religion in port cities and islands was centered upon a plethora of saints, missionaries, divinities and other agents of Islam, who have been marginalized in academic literature on the Indian Ocean. It simultaneously examines how oceanic religion was intimately connected to economic, political and technological developments. Students will be introduced to scholarship on oceanic Islam and monsoon Islam, before they are introduced to a variety of sources on transregional Islamic networks and agents of Islam, including biographies, hagiographies, travelogues, novels, poems and ethnographic accounts. Students will, moreover, be encouraged to consider ways in which approaches to studying Islam could be enhanced by a focus on religious economies and networks, as well as the lives of ‘subalterns’ who crossed the porous borders of the Indian Ocean world and shaped its religious worlds. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1821 and Islamic Civilizations 136.
This course will introduce students to the mysterious early Greek philosopher Pythagoras (c. 570-495 BCE), famous for teaching that the cosmos was composed of numbers and ratios, which correspond to a kind of cosmic music or "harmony of the spheres," and that souls are immortal and reincarnate ( metempsychosis ). Pythagoras' life and teachings are shrouded in mystery, but legends abound. He and the Pythagorean movement he inspired exerted enormous influence on ancient philosophy (including Plato and Aristotle) and science, and medieval and modern esotericism in the West and the East. There are no prerequisites, but previous coursework in ancient philosophy is recommended.
As in all ancient societies, infants and children in ancient Greece were both uniquely vulnerable to early death and valuable as social beings. Children represented the future of family, polis, military, economy, and the worship of the gods. The survival of the culture depended on their religious protection and social incorporation. What do we know of ancient Greek ritual responses to this stage of life? What special roles did children play in cult? What space was created for children’s toys, games, beloved animals, and emotions? How do infants and children appear in art? What were the roles of gender, ethnicity, class, and caste? What did ancient Greek philosophers think of the first years of human life? How were young bodies buried, and early deaths commemorated? Through primary sources, including literature, iconography, and the archaeological record, as well as recent scholarship, we will consider how infants and children were nurtured, socialized, and initiated, with attention to themes of their liminality and mediating power. How should we read the many myths of abandonment, killing, consumption, or sacrifice of infants and children at the hands of adults, often at the gods’ demand? We will also consider Roman and other ancient Mediterranean religions. Students will have an opportunity to develop their own research projects. Please write to Prof. Patton to express your interest: kpatton@hds.harvard.edu.
This seminar is dedicated to reading in English translation selected works of the 6 th -9 th century Tamil-language Vaishnava saints of South India known as the alvars (popularly translated as “those immersed [in God]”). Tentative list of works include: the 100-verse poems of the first three alvars; a 120 verse philosophical poem of Tirumalicai Piran; the two works of the sole woman alvar, Antal, her 30-verse winter hymn of the young women, and collection of songs on various themes; the ten verses of Amalanatippiran, the sole untouchable among the alvars; selected portions of the four works of Nammalvar, the sudra saint honored as the foremost of the alvars; Maturakavi’s ten-verse work honoring Nammalvar as his sole guide and refuge. Themes include: Who are these poet saints? Context and precedents? What accounts for the sudden flourishing of such poetry? Attention to the interplay of poetic form, ecstatic love, and theology manifest in these works; some attention to parallel poems dedicated to the deity Siva; the later Srivaishnava reception of the poetry; insofar as a course using translations allows, discussion of the challenges inherent in translating this poetry. No language prerequisites, but students knowing Tamil will be warmly encouraged to use it in their reading and their writing assignments.
The birth of Islam in the seventh century C.E. was a momentous historical turning point, but many aspects of this crucial process remain vigorously debated in modern scholarship. Did the Prophet Muhammad preach monotheism to a group of crude idolaters, or were his opponents already monotheists (if imperfect ones) who were also familiar with biblical ideas about God and history? Was Mecca an important center of Arabian pilgrimage and commerce before Islam, or was it a small town of local significance that grew in influence only after Islam? Did the followers of the Prophet and the residents of Arabia imagine themselves as sharing a common ethnic identity as “Arabs,” or did they subscribe to a multiplicity of local tribal or geographical identities and developed a shared sense of being “Arab” after they conquered the Near East? Did the early Muslims believe in the imminent end of the world or not? Was Islam originally an ecumenical monotheistic movement open to Jews and Christians, or did Islam’s earliest adherents consider it a new and exclusive religion separate from Judaism and Christianity? Is the Qur’anic text a record of Muhammad’s own preaching or the result of a collective effort that continued after him (and perhaps had begun before him)?
Throughout historical and contemporary periods, Persia (Iran) has occupied a central role in global religious thought and spirituality. The ancient Persian religions, including Zoroastrianism (Mazdayasna) and Manicheanism, had highly developed theological and philosophical worldviews with monotheistic and dualistic theologies. These included cosmologies of Light and Darkness, Good versus Evil, End-Times messianism, and resurrection that have greatly impacted world religious and philosophical traditions, including Greek philosophical schools, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, among others. In the post-Islamic period, Persia retained a distinctive place in the development of various Islamic philosophies, including among scholars, sages, poets, and philosophers such as al-Farabi, Avicenna (Ibn Sina), Sohrevardi, Attar, Rumi, Hafez, and Mulla Sadra. This has included highly mystical (Sufi/Irfani) understandings of religion that have shaped Islamic thought and culture to the present time, especially in Iran as the main center of Shi'a Islam, heavily impacting the development of Shi'a Islamic thought, philosophy, and identity. This course provides an introductory survey of several Iranian religions and philosophical-mystical traditions from the pre- to post-Islamic periods, ending with Muslim scholars of the 20th century and the Islamic Revolution of 1979 in Iran. It also examines the Western reception of Persian thought and religion, especially in American religion and contemporary popular culture, exploring the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harold Bloom, and other media.
This course explores the contents of the Quran and probes its place in the history of human civilization. We will explore and critically reflect on the following subjects: 1) the Quran's core ideas, concerns, stories, laws, and arguments; 2) the historical context in which the Quran was first proclaimed and codified; 3) the relationship between the Quran and the preceding literary traditions of the ancient world, in particular the Bible and post-biblical Jewish and Christian writings; and 4) Muslims' engagement with the Quran across time and within various religious, intellectual, social, and cultural settings. To meet these goals, we will read a substantial portion of the Quran in translation and draw extensively on modern academic scholarship on the Quran. In addition, lectures will contextualize and complement our encounter with the Quranic text and secondary scholarship. By the end of the semester, students should have the ability to utilize various resources and concordances in order to independently conduct further investigations and critically evaluate claims made about the Quran. Course will have a required discussion section (and possibly an Arabic section for interested students who have at least two years of Arabic).
In the early seventh century, a man named Muḥammad son ofʿAbdallah founded a movement that in time grew into a global religion, empire, and civilization. This course explores three discourses that developed around the life and character of the Prophet Muhammad. First, we will survey some of the biographies that Muslim scholars, both ancient and modern, have written about the life of their prophet. Second, we will explore how the Prophet's life, teachings and persona have served as subjects of Islamic devotion. Finally, the course examines some of the ways in which non-Muslims, again both ancient and modern, have perceived and portrayed Muhammad in polemic against Islam or dialogue with Muslims.
Animality has been linked to gendered oppression and dehumanization, but it has also served visions of broader kinship and ethical transformation. We’ll explore questions of animal ethics, feminist thought, and ecological entanglement across a range of Jewish genres and languages, including the Talmud, folklore and philosophy, and modernist poetry translated into English from Yiddish and Hebrew.
This course surveys Jewish and Christian traditions about fallen angels beginning with the oldest attested articulations in relation to the Flood, especially in Enochic and related traditions, and tracing late antique and medieval reinterpretations within and between Judaism and Christianity, from the Epistle of Jude to Sefer Hekhalot. Readings will include selections from apocryphal, biblical, magical, mystical, Patristic, and Rabbinic corpora, and key themes will include the origins of sin, aetiology of magic and civilization, the enduring impact of non-canonical writings, and the shared ideas of an antediluvian past among different religious groups in Late Antiquity. Although the class will focus on premodern Judaism and Christianity, students will have opportunities to explore later trajectories and transformations, from Islamic angelology to Japanese anime.
This class surveys the history and literature of ancient Judaism and the Jesus movement. The first half of the class considers our evidence for Jews and Judaism in the Second Temple period, focusing on apocalyptic literature, sectarianism, messianism, and eschatology. The second half of the class focuses on the first century CE and our evidence for Jesus and the earliest movement surrounding him, focusing on debates about Jesus and Judaism, both ancient and modern. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1213.
Modern concepts of "book" and "authorship" often do not fit much of our ancient Jewish and Christian evidence for literary production. In many cases--from biblical and NT literature to the Dead Sea Scrolls to LXX to Old Testament pseudepigrapha to New Testament apocrypha to Hekhalot literature--our evidence resists the limitation of "authorial creativity" to one closed and complete moment of composition, let alone a single "author," instead reflecting processes more akin to what we call redaction, compilation, anthologizing, etc. The same units can be repeatedly reconfigured into new orders and structures. Translations can shift a text's identity or setting. Excerpts can sometimes take on a life of their own. Anthologies can have orchestrating logics of meaning-making beyond their contexts. This advanced seminar explores these questions through a series of test-cases, with the aim of bringing multiple corpora and special subfields into productive conversation. Patterned on a laboratory, there will be many student-led textual discussions, collaborative in-class work with primary sources, etc. Enrollment for this course is limited and by application; interested students should email the instructor outlining their ancient language background and any relevant previous coursework as well as describing one text or textual tradition on which they would like to focus in this context.
The rise of nationalism in the nineteenth century raised a variety of issues relating to the role of religion in that European project. This course will focus on the challenges, obstacles, and role religion played in the national project Our case study will be Jewish nationalism also called Zionism. We will explore religious Zionism and religious anti-Zionism as competing philosophical movements within Jewish modernity. The focus will be less on historical events, though they are important, and more on the philosophical and theological foundations of a variety of Jewish reactions to nationalism. We will read across the plethora of Jewish voices who weighed in on the monumental Jewish project in modernity.
A wide-ranging introductory exploration of the Jewish religious tradition, from its inception in biblical Israel though its rabbinic, medieval, and modern iterations. The central focus lies on the literary meanings and existential questions of the classical tradition, as well as on the relationships between texts, religious claims, and practices. We shall also consider some of the restatements, reformulations, and challenges to tradition that have arisen in modern times. No prerequisites. By permission only: students should submit a letter of application to the instructor by January 18, 2027.
Although herself a poet, and describing poetry as the site of contemporary writing's most intense creativity, Eileen Myles argues that "a lot of things that people like are beginning to need to happen in the same pieces of writing and those things may be gossip, theory, sexual description, or simply an implication that it's there or just happened (art)." We will explore this principled disobedience -- an aesthetic, philosophical, and perhaps also a theological act -- through the reading of important pieces by contemporary writers whose work is often classified more by the demands of the publishing industry than anything intrinsic to the texts themselves. Particular attention will be given to the work of Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, Bhanu Kapil, and Kate Zambreno. The last weeks of the course will be spent on student projects leading to a substantial research paper. Enrollment will be limited to twelve students. I will ask for a written statement of your interest in the course by the beginning of the fall term in order to decide enrollment. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 2492.
This seminar will consider philosophical approaches and perspectives offered by five Western twentieth-century thinkers on ethics, religion, politics, and our (self) understanding as human beings. Works from Du Bois, Arendt, Fanon, Levinas, and Ricoeur will taken up to interrogate phenomenological, social, political and religious interpretations of the human condition, and our corresponding possibilities and responsibilities. Background in philosophy or theology is suggested but not required.
Unitarian Universalist lifespan faith development practices have been evolving in response to changes in the religious and cultural landscape. Intentional faith formation for all ages is more crucial than ever to the spiritual health of people and our world. This seminar will explore how theory and practice from our forebears offer a foundation for innovation in faith development programming to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow. Exploration of material from past and present theorists, our own experience and understandings, as well as guest presentations from current religious education innovators will encourage students to bring a faith development perspective to all aspects of their congregational and community ministries.
This seminar examines the Virgin Mary as a theological and gendered figure in material culture, with particular attention to how her body is mediated through objects of dress. The motif of the Virgin Mary's red shoes serves as a central case study, situating it alongside other iconographic elements and spacial placement of her body.
This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of demonology in early Christianity. The course will begin with the sudden explosion of interest in demons in ancient Judaism in the 3rd c. BCE, the role of demons in the Christian New Testament, and their role in early Christian thought, especially in the writings of Origen of Alexandria (d. 185-253 CE). The course will then move into early monastic demonology and focus on such figures as Antony the Great, Athanasius, Evagrius Pontus, Pachomius, Shenoute, and others, and such texts as the various collections of apophthegmata patrum , or "Sayings of the Fathers." Among other things, the course will question of the category of "demon" understood as an evil spirit or entity, its relationship to the pre-Christian notion of the daimōn , and how demons were understood to be related to angels and humans. If time permits, the course will look at the development of Christian demonology in early medieval Eastern Christianity.
This advanced seminar will study the works of Caribbean theorist, Sylvia Wynter, focusing on her contributions to re-conceptualizing the human. What is the history of modern models for the human? How do those models need to change and why? And how do these interrogations relate to race, global poverty and climate change? The class will study her works in relation with some of her interlocutors, including Aimé Césaire, Franz Fanon, Édouard Glissant, and Michel Foucault, among others. It will also explore her theories of religion and coloniality.
This course covers past (twentieth century) and present (twenty-first century) trends in World Christianity from historical and social scientific perspectives. It explores many of the tensions in World Christianity today related to, for example, colonial/post-colonial realities, contextual theologies, race/racism, and global issues such as the climate crisis and religious freedom. This course has a particular focus on gender in World Christianity, where women make up the vast majority of churches worldwide yet are often denied leadership roles and decision-making opportunities. The course addresses topics unique to each continent (with a global South focus) as well as major Christian traditions -- Catholics, Protestants, Orthodox, Independents, Evangelicals, and Pentecostals/Charismatics. Students will interact with relevant literature, debates, methods, and conversations in World Christianity studies and have the opportunity to write a research paper on a topic of their choice with professor approval.
In this discussion-based course, we read Julian of Norwich’s Revelation of Love and The Book of Margery Kempe alongside one another, as well as in the light other women writers who drew inspiration from visions, revelations, or dreams, from the early Christian martyr Perpetua of Carthage in the third century CE to the reclusive New England poet Emily Dickinson in the nineteenth. We pay particular attention to Julian and Margery’s direct precursors, Angela of Foligno, Gertrude the Great, and Marguerite Porete, among others. We consider how it was that revelations were able to make an innovative, demanding and prestigious mode of thought and writing possible for women who were excluded by their gender from the formal education available to male contemporaries. We think about what revelations are, how they function as an embodied, kinetic, and dialogic mode of consciousness, and the stylistic and intellectual experimentation this mode of consciousness enables. We speculate on potential connections between the visionary and other non-natural ways of seeing the world. Finally, we consider the excruciating difficulty of being and writing as a visionary and the cultural and psychic pressures the role of visionary involved and involves. Although the main setting of the course is the world of Julian and Margery, we do not forget that we are reading them in the now.
What is Religion? Why does it show up everywhere? Using archaeology, religious studies and social thought, this course will study the major themes in the history of religions including 'encountering the holy', sports' and ritual', 'crossing borders', 'sacrifice as creation', 'pilgrimage and sacred place', 'suffering and quest for wisdom', 'music and social change', 'violence and cosmic law'. Readings from Native American, African American, Latinx/+, Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu traditions. Focus on the tension between individual encounters with the holy and the social construction of religion. Readings from Gloria Anzaldua, Toni Morrison, Judith Sherman, Arthur Kleinman, Popul Vuj, Mircea Eliade, Michael D. Jackson. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Anthropology 1475 and Religion 16.
This course provides a comprehensive understanding of how psychological principles inform spiritual care practices. It reflects on individual, communal, and contextual theories of consciousness through a rigorous engagement with psychological and religious thinkers who contemplate notions of self, relationship, community, and personal development in light of religious experience and spiritual judgment. The course will equip students with both theoretical knowledge and practical skills to integrate psychological insights into their evolving spiritual care methodologies, preparing them to care for the complex spiritual and psychological needs of individuals and communities across diverse religious settings. Readings include texts by William James, W.E.B. DuBois, Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Phillis Sheppard, Layli Maparyan, Audre Lorde, among others.
This course will survey constructive religious reflection that is informed by an ecological worldview and accountable to various forms of environmental activism. Readings will be drawn from a variety of religious and spiritual traditions, among them Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Paganism, Unitarian Universalism, religious naturalism, and metaphysical spirituality. We will pay special attention to the interplay between ecotheology and various theologies of liberation. Students will be invited to develop their own constructive theological or atheological proposals in dialogue with the assigned readings.
Students are required to write a 35-40 page paper or complete an artistic or pastoral project of similar scope. All papers and projects must integrate various methodological approaches to the study of religion with the vocation of ministry. The paper or project is completed in close consultation with a faculty adviser, seminar leader, and colleagues in the Senior Seminar. An oral conference is held in April with the student(s) and faculty readers. Students will also present a portion of their work at a public festival in April. Required of and limited to MDiv students in their final year of study. The Senior Seminar meets throughout the academic year. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Strict participation policies apply throughout the year. This course may only be taken for a letter grade. Prerequisite: successful completion of 4510. May not be taken for Arts of Ministry credit.
Students are required to write a 35-40 page paper or complete an artistic or pastoral project of similar scope. The paper or project should integrate various methodological approaches to the study of religion with the vocation of ministry. The paper is written in close consultation with a faculty adviser, seminar leader, and colleagues in the Senior Seminar. An oral conference is held in April with the student(s) and faculty readers. Students will also present a portion of their work at a public festival in April. Required of and limited to MDiv students in their final year of study. The Senior Seminar meets throughout the academic year. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Strict participation policies apply throughout the year. This course may only be taken for a letter grade. Prerequisite: successful completion of 4510. May not be taken for Arts of Ministry credit.
This course surveys spiritual practices and movements that have been labeled as metaphysical, esoteric, pagan, occult, harmonial, and New Age. We will begin with a historical survey of esoteric spirituality from colonial-era astrology and alchemy to New Age and neopagan traditions, then consider some leading constructive thinkers within alternative spiritual traditions, such as Starhawk and Joanna Macy. The course will also feature field trips to a variety of spiritual organizations and communities.
Close readings of primary works by Jewish, Christian and Muslim authors from the Middle Ages through the 16th century. Topics include poetry and mysticism; allegory, symbolism and Scripture; the rhetoric of ineffability; body and gender; apophasis vs cataphasis; exemplarity and autobiographism; language and experience. Also examines creative engagement of pre-modern mystical literature in selected works by modern authors and literary theorists.
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It has been argued that the poetic “I” in premodern literatures is not a vehicle for self-representation, but an archetype of the human. The course will examine this thesis against the rise of autobiographical writing in medieval and early modern Europe. Readings include spiritual autobiographies (Augustine, Kempe, Teresa of Ávila), letter collections, maqama literature, troubadour lyric, Hispano-Jewish poetry, pilgrimage narratives, medieval allegories, Dante and the picaresque novel. Theoretical perspectives by Spitzer, Lejeune, Zumthor and DeCerteau.
The course reinforces and expands knowledge of linguistic and grammatical structures, with emphasis on further developing the four skills. Readings include selections from contemporary Israeli literature, print media, and internet publications. Readings and class discussions cover various facets of Israeli high and popular culture. Conducted primarily in Hebrew. Offered jointly with the Divinity School as 4040.
The course introduces students to the phonology and script as well as the fundamentals of morphology and syntax of Modern Hebrew. Emphasis is placed on developing reading, speaking, comprehension and writing skills, while introducing students to various aspects of contemporary Israeli society and culture.
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The course introduces students to the phonology and script as well as the fundamentals of morphology and syntax of Modern Hebrew. Emphasis is placed on developing reading, speaking, comprehension and writing skills, while introducing students to various aspects of contemporary Israeli society and culture.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Specific topics to be covered in this course include demonic possession narratives from ancient Israel; nautical tall tales told by the rabbis of Sasanian Iraq; accounts of werewolves, witches, and vampires in Jewish writings from medieval Germany; Ladino ballads; Yiddish fairytales; and many others. This course is designed both for newcomers to the study of Judaism and for students with a background in Jewish studies who are interested in learning more about magic and folklore.
This course introduces students to the indigenous oral literatures of the Northwest Coast of North America. After overviewing the cultural history and linguistic diversity of the region, we will embark on a series of case studies focusing on Clackamas Chinook, Kwakw a k a ’wakw, Nuxalk, and Haida oral traditions. We will read narratives regarding the origins of the world and of the societies that inhabit it; accounts of heroic journeys to otherworldly realms above the sky and beneath the sea; shamanic initiation stories; and oral histories of migration, intertribal diplomacy, and early interactions with Europeans. Attention will be devoted to the formidable interpretive challenges that indigenous oral traditions pose when they are studied in the Western academy, as well as to the ethical complexities of this endeavor. It is hoped that students will gain an appreciation for the immense cultural diversity of the Northwest Coast’s indigenous peoples and for the vastness of their oral-literary heritage.
Folklore, mythology, and oral literature are mysterious areas of study; some of the most pressing questions these topics pose remain as open today as when they first began to be researched. In this course, we equip ourselves to explore such questions anew by tracing the development of major theoretical orientations in our field. While the course will focus primarily on contributions dating from between the late-19th and late-20th centuries, some attention will also be devoted to theoretical approaches currently in the process of being born.
This course introduces folk traditions involving dangerous encounters between humans and otherworldly beings. Our primary areas of focus will include medieval through modern European elf and fairy lore, as well as twentieth- through twenty-first-century accounts of UFO abduction. The course will examine the historical conditions in which these traditions emerged, and in which they have developed. It will also explore the premise that while the contents of otherworldly abduction/intrusion narratives often show remarkable similarities between one cultural context and another, storytellers from different times and places have deployed these traditions in substantially different ways. We will investigate possible reasons both for these similarities and for these differences, drawing especially from relevant scholarship in folklore studies, anthropology, and the comparative study of religion.
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A close critical reading of the account of the early life of Moses in three contexts: (1) the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Near Eastern world in which it took shape; (2) rabbinic Judaism in Late Antiquity; and (3) medieval Jewish commentary. Texts to be read in Hebrew include Exodus 2 and a selection of rabbinic midrashim and medieval commentaries on it.
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This course focuses on the American evangelical movement from the 1740s to the present. Beginning with the rise of transatlantic evangelicalism in the eighteenth century, we will explore the role of evangelicals in the American Revolution, the revivals of the Second Great Awakening, the crisis caused by slavery, the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy in the early twentieth century, the emergence of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic Movement, the controversies created by neo-evangelicalism in the 1940s, the relationship between evangelicalism and the civil rights movement, the political activism of the Christian Right, and contemporary evangelical attitudes toward gender and sexuality. Readings will introduce students to both evangelical ideas and practices. Throughout the course, we will focus on the historical development of evangelicalism and the relationship between evangelicals and American culture.
Open, with instructor's permission, to doctoral students in other fields of religious studies or American studies. Course meets bi-weekly. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Offered jointly with the Divinity School as 2390A.
[SMK.4] Understands the importance of the difference in social and academic language in planning, differentiating, and delivering effective instruction, especially for English learners at varying levels of English language proficiency and literacy. [HES.2] Uses evidence-based, culturally and linguistically sustaining instructional practices to provide equitable opportunities for grade-level learning. [II.1] Uses inclusive practices to accommodate and support individual differences in students' learning needs, abilities, interests, and levels of readiness, including those of students with disabilities (in accordance with relevant IEPs or 504 plans), English learners and former English learners, academically advanced students, and students who have been historically marginalized. [II.2] Uses appropriate inclusive practices such as tiered supports, educational and assistive technologies, scaffolded instruction, and leveraging students' native language and linguistic resources to make grade-level content accessible and affirming for all students. [CSLW.1] Leverages families' cultural and linguistic knowledge and expertise to enhance learning environments.
Throughout U.S. history, Black educators and families have engaged in organized efforts to live in their inherent beauty and educate their own. Yet, the Eurocentric hegemony of knowledge in many educator preparation programs often means that educators, including Black educators, have little or no opportunities to study Black educational thought and praxis. This 2-credit module centers on the pedagogies and practices of the Black liberatory education tradition, focusing learning on and from intentionally All-Black K-12 education school spaces with liberatory aims. In this module, we will explore Black-led schooling movements (spaces organized by Black educators/communites as intentional sites of Black education, centering and serving Black youth) in the U.S. historically post-1954 (e.g., Black Panther Liberation Schools) and in the present day (e.g Independent Black Institutions, Afrocentric charter schools, and Homeschooling) as well as out-of-school Black education spaces. We will also explore the philosophies and teaching approaches of liberation-focused Black teachers in all-black schools. Collectively, we will ask: What have been the goals, priorities, and purposes of intentionally all-Black education initiatives for Black children in the United States post-Brown? How have Black educators conceptualized, articulated, and actualized liberatory Black educational praxis in the face of endemic Anti-Blackness, systemic marginalization, and resistance in the U.S.? How have intentionally all-Black schools sought to leverage education spaces as a pathway for healthy identity-building, healing, resistance, and social change for Black children? What can we [and should we] learn from the historical and contemporary teaching pedagogies and philosophies of intentionally all-black education initiatives that we can apply and incorporate into how we be, love, and do in our own education practice?
Students will be asked to submit two reflections each semester for a total of four over the course of the year: (1) one specific to a presentation or other session of the seminar, and (2) one at the end of the semester reflecting on their learning overall. We will host a year-end event to celebrate and share accomplishments from the year.
Students will be asked to submit two reflections each semester for a total of four over the course of the year: (1) one specific to a presentation or other session of the seminar, and (2) one at the end of the semester reflecting on their learning overall. We will host a year-end event to celebrate and share accomplishments from the year.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Despite decades of defining K12's North Star role as “college and career readiness” and a college degree being seen as a passport to economic opportunity, data shows that large shares of today’s graduates fall woefully short of these goals. Across the nation, many innovations in policy and practice are aimed at bridging the traditionally siloed fields of K12, higher education and workforce in order to prepare students better. One promising group of efforts has worked to hybridize high school and college into “early college high schools.” More recently, a growing group of efforts have focused on “career pathways” through "modern youth apprenticeships" based on the world-leading Swiss model as well as other approaches such as next generation Career and Technical Education (CTE), internships, work-based learning, and career exploration. Finally, for more than a century, many colleges have offered "co-op education" programs helping place students into six-month stints of full-time, paid employment at intervals in their college progression. A leading think tank in this space calls these emerging efforts to integrate K12, college and career The Big Blur. This course will address both the policy and practice dimensions of these efforts through a set of case studies surveying a handful of the most exciting and promising efforts. We will look at how current policies generally reinforce silos and how innovative ones can transcend them. We will look at how on-the-ground efforts work to make these goals real. Each case study will include a guest lecture from a policymaker, institutional leader, teacher and/or student to bring us as proximate as we can be to the work. The course Lecturer is a direct participant in this field as well. The course is designed to be of interest to students with a focus on any or all of K12, higher ed or workforce and is especially intended for those who seek to lead on local, state and even national policy to drive to better outcomes and greater equity.
What is good teaching? How do we ensure all students receive good teaching - particularly those students who have historically been denied access to a quality education in US schools? In this course, we begin by asking what all K-12 students need to learn and what teaching will lead to that outcome. After establishing our vision for excellent teaching, we look at the current reality: what does learning and teaching typically look like in US schools today? Finally, we explore what instructional leaders can do to move from our current state to our vision of quality. As a course for practitioners seeking instructional leadership roles, this course focuses on school-level outcomes and strategies, specifically those designed to ensure all students thrive. Examples of class activities include: reflection to build self-awareness, regular analysis of teaching (through video), extensive small group work to align on quality teaching, and use of a case study to apply learning over several classes. Students are required to work with a group of peers to observe in at least one K-12 classroom during the semester and must have flexibility to do this within their schedules.
During the semester, we will develop a robust toolkit of theories and frameworks from the fields of developmental psychology, sociology, and student affairs. This collection of ideas from across disciplines will allow us to center contemporary research on the student experience and to consider how to build policies and practices that genuinely meet their needs. To do this, we will test and apply our course ideas to a range of institutional contexts while we work to modernize and adapt them to fit the changing landscape of higher education. We will also hear directly from leading student affairs professionals who will share insights into their institutions and the students they serve along with current puzzles of practice for us to explore.
Through real-world case studies, co-design labs, and community dialogue, students will develop the tools to create culturally-responsive, strengths-based youth programs that are deeply rooted in wellbeing, identity, purpose, and social change. Whether working in education, public health, youth organizing, or social work, participants will leave this course equipped to design programs that center not what's wrong with young people-but what's right with them.
This course explores curricular and instructional debates about the learning and teaching of content areas taught in elementary and secondary schools - particularly mathematics, reading, and science. For at least the last 100 years, educators and educational researchers have continuously and vigorously argued about the best ways to teach math, reading, and science. The field widely recognizes the importance of these conversations and the centrality of consistency and clarity in how we conceptualize and advocate for the learning of school subjects. Yet frequently these debates have escalated to a type of “war” (e.g., the math wars, the reading wars) that plays out in both academia and in practice. In this course, we explore the fundamental arguments that have occurred about the learning and teaching of mathematics, science, and reading. We consider these debates theoretically, practically, and historically, looking mainly within the United States but with some consideration of Asian perspectives as well. Although the primary emphasis of the course will be on the learning and teaching of mathematics, science, and reading, students are welcome to explore other school subjects in course papers and projects. There are two intended audiences for this course. First, the course is designed for those who seek to develop broad knowledge about content learning in schools, including teacher leaders, policy makers, researchers, and district leaders who will be working with groups of teachers across several content areas. The course considers it essential that school leaders and policy makers understand learning challenges, curriculum controversies, and historical background that are specific to each content area. Second, the course is also intended for those with experience or knowledge in one content area who seek to develop knowledge about teaching and learning challenges in other content areas.
This course is a redesigned version of T595, which was offered in the previous two years. The main difference is that this version moves at a quicker pace, shifting from a full-semester course to a Fall 1 course. In addition, the final project is no longer a stand-alone research or design project, but is instead more closely tied to the readings and activities throughout Fall 1. These changes are intended to give students a timely and accessible introduction to current AI research while allowing the course to remain responsive to the rapid evolution of the field and emerging questions about AI and children’s learning and development.
In the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program's Field Experience course, Teacher Candidates are provided with a rich, immersive experience in a school environment. This course requires a commitment of between 150-600 hours in a practicum school. The Field Experience course is designed to foster meaningful learning opportunities, with a focus on leading a classroom and understanding the dynamics of a school environment. It aims to create intentional, bidirectional connections between the field experience and TTL coursework, enabling Teacher Candidates to build their teaching knowledge and skills, reflect on their practice, and prepare to lead impactful anti-oppressive learning environments that are culturally and linguistically supportive for all students. Grounded in the TTL Indicators for Effective Teaching, the Field Experience Objectives include:
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* The purpose of this course is to provide an overview of the role and impact of state governments in setting and implementing K-12 education policy in the United States, with a focus on major issues that affect instructional practice and student outcomes. In the complex intergovernmental partnership that comprises U.S. public education, states have the primary responsibility for establishing local school systems, ensuring adequate and equitable resources, training and certifying educators, implementing common assessment and accountability systems, and overseeing compliance with regulations to ensure equal access. It's impossible to understand current education policy without a thorough grasp of the role, responsibilities and challenges facing state governments as they exercise their leadership over public education.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* This course will address several areas of disability law, including physical accessibility, digital accessibility, service animals and emotional support animals, the process to request and receive accommodations, and other related areas. Note that this course is designed to discuss both K-12 and higher education disability law, and will focus primarily on the Americans with Disabilities Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Fair Housing Act as it applies to residential services on post-secondary campuses and related rights. It will discuss generally the technicalities of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (commonly known as "IDEA"), given that law could subsume the entire course. Even though not focused on every aspect of the IDEA, we will discuss how the special education process works at K-12, from duties on school districts to locate and evaluate students with disabilities, through program development, and up to and through litigation when school districts and students cannot reach resolution. A similar approach wll be taken with regard to the process at post-secondary institutions.
There is widespread agreement in education that schools must engage young peoples’ cultural experiences as resources for learning and fulfilling the promise of education in a pluralistic democracy. School leaders, policymakers, and researchers understand that diverse learners come to school with funds of knowledge that differ from the cultural logics upon which schools are founded-and view youth culture as a strategy for supporting greater equity in education. Arts education has a vital, if underutilized, role to play in realizing this educational vision. Through the arts, we engage in symbolic practices to make sense of our experiences, sustain our sense of connection to our communities, and allow us to imagine and enact self-defined futures. In this course, we will engage with theoretic readings, current events, and active discussion to think expansively about the role of the arts in supporting youth culture, creativity, and civic engagement. Ultimately, this course is intended to equip students with deepened understandings about the roles of the arts in young peoples’ lives, and with background knowledge to think critically about the affordances and challenges inherent in supporting youth culture through arts education.
Education is a universal human activity, but how it is understood and practiced varies widely across cultures. When immersed in our own upbringing and educational experiences, we can easily take our beliefs and practices for granted, while overlooking cross-cultural variation and making inaccurate generalization about people from different backgrounds. That is why it is important to take a cross-cultural approach in the study of education. It not only helps us understand the diversity and universalities in educational practices around the world, but also invites us to see our own experiences in a new light and reflect on how our beliefs about learning, teaching, and parenting have been shaped by our cultural backgrounds.
This course focuses on how leaders of organizations, both large and small, public and private, translate good ideas into action. These ideas may be entrepreneurial in nature and entail starting new ventures, or they may be intrapreneurial in nature and entail implementing new initiatives within existing organizational structures. We will focus on how leaders can shape and influence complex decision processes regarding innovative and entrepreneurial ideas most effectively. We will examine both those decisions that were flawed and those that were successful in order to derive lessons about leadership and learning in dynamic, complex, and highly uncertain organizational environments, including the education sector, among others. The course will be largely discussion-based and include cases, exercises, and multimedia materials with examples of leadership from a diverse range of contexts. Students will be expected to come to class prepared and ready for discussion, and, if called upon, to role-play their recommendations and take a stand as well. Enrollment is open to all graduate degree candidates at HGSE. For students in the ELOE program, this course fulfills the ELOE Program Core Experience (PCE) requirement if taken for a letter grade and may also be taken as an ELOE elective. Space will be reserved for cross-registration. Auditors of the course are not permitted.
An independent study is individual, highly specialized research in a field of special interest to the student that is also of interest to an HGSE faculty member. Independent Studies can be completed for four credits (approx. 96 hours) or for two credits (approx. 48 hours). Given the vast array of available HGSE courses, Independent Studies should be rare, with rigorous readings, discussions, and deliverables, on par with equivalent credit-bearing courses and modules.
Questionnaires are among the most common data collection methods that educational researchers and other social scientists employ. Thus, surveys wield tremendous impact on the data based decision making that increasingly permeates our educational system and in society more broadly. Yet producing high-quality survey measures is not a straightforward task. Survey designers must choose between open ended, ranking, or rating items; between asking questions or posing statements for respondents to agree/disagree with; how many response options to offer; and the organizational logic of their survey. Empirical studies exist to guide each of these choices and maximize the quality of the data collected. This course will familiarize students with the steps and procedures that are essential to developing high quality surveys. The major topics of the course include defining constructs; creating items and item wording; response anchors; organizing, ordering, and formatting surveys; and bolstering response rates. The course is not designed to cover sampling procedures, analysis of survey data, or interviewing. As a final project, students will design a short questionnaire.
This course is appropriate for HGSE students in internships (other than those required for licensure) who would like to hone the reflective skills and habits of mind that are necessary for immediate and on-going professional growth. The course asks students to examine how their personal assumptions, expectations, and beliefs about their internships’ professions and organizations influence how they experience working in novel contexts as well as how they can use such reflection to enhance their current and future professional development.
What does it mean to "lead strategically" in your professional life? How might strategic mindsets and tools apply across all dimensions of your life? How do you avoid typical pitfalls, like trying to do too many things or strategy living in the leader’s head rather than being shared and driven by a variety of stakeholders? How can you be proactive rather than reactive? How does strategy translate to the daily work of organizations and leaders? This module prepares you to be a more strategic leader by partnering to answer these and other questions leaders face when trying to accomplish great things in complex contexts. The module is designed for leaders in a variety of environments - preK-12 schools and school systems, higher education, non-profits, mission-based for-profits, state and federal education agencies, entrepreneurial endeavors, U.S. and international. The module is hands-on and interactive, including self-assessment, peer interaction, and practice with tools you can use at the organizational level and in your own daily and regular work.
This module provides a toolkit of research-based strategies for effectively designing, leading, and collaboratively learning in teams. You will explore and apply strategies from both the classroom, such as cooperative learning and peer-to-peer teaching, and the broader field of team learning and performance, including concepts like psychological safety, group conflict resolution, and feedback routines. Each week, you will engage in hands-on activities to apply these concepts by designing, observing, and participating in collaborative learning experiences. As part of a critical reflective practice, you will work in teams to use these tools to enhance your own learning in class. The module will focus on real-world examples of teams learning in various contexts, such as schools, musical groups, hospital teams, and athletic teams. Collaboratively, you will design a final project that documents and analyzes team learning in action. Ultimately, this module offers to equip you with practical tools applicable to your university courses and for your future professional practice.
What does it take to achieve policy change in public education? In this module, we will study how and why education policy shifts (or doesn't) by looking at examples at the federal and state levels. We will explore and test a classic political science framework (John Kingdon's) for how policy agendas are set. Each week, we will focus on a specific policy change effort ranging from recent classic examples (Race to the Top under Obama/Duncan) to currently unfolding policy issues such as “free college” and whatever is emerging from the current political and policy landscapes. We will look at how individuals and institutions work to drive change and analyze their effectiveness. We will consider how to update Kingdon for today’s world with explicit deep dives on how social media changes policy agenda setting and how the recent polarization and trend towards federal executive action impact agenda setting. Finally we will look at what might come next on the education policy agenda. We will draw on the instructor's own experience in seeking policy change and hear from weekly guests who are current leading advocates, participants, and critics to study the process and practice of policy change in American education.
*Lottery-based Enrollment* This course will engage students in an exploration of what it means to be a courageous and transformative leader in U.S. higher education. Over the last two generations, neoliberalism and its fixation on profit, productivity, and performance has left higher education in a state of deep moral crisis, far afield from the values of "democracy" and "diversity" it regularly espouses. Naming and changing the vast forms of inequity and hypocrisy in higher education requires a bold integration of theory and practice-praxis-that is at once strategic, visionary, and ethically committed to transformation. This course will explore diverse case studies of brave leadership in higher education in the United States from the 1960s to the present. It will also offer our students the opportunity to both reflect on their own lived experiences with higher education and develop tools for transformation as they work to become courageous and transformative leaders in their own right.
*Lottery-based Enrollment* ONLY OFFERED FOR OEL STUDENTS* Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on race and ethnicity in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* This course is designed for students who want to write more powerful, compelling, and thoughtful essays. Through drafting, revising, and examining responses to their own written work, students will learn how to persuade, inform, and delight readers. The best of today's essayists and bloggers draw on a long tradition of essay writing, and this course will provide multiple opportunities to explore the lyrical and analytical features of classic and contemporary essays. We'll study the means by which essays and essayists insinuate themselves into our lives as readers and writers. Students will write each day and will participate in small groups and workshops to discuss their writing.
In this module students will explore the nature of workplace learning, the learning theories on which experiences and programs are built (e.g., social learning theory, adult development, situated learning, etc.), and key research-based concepts that enable their success (e.g., psychological safety, informal learning, self-determination, etc.). Students will engage with organizational learning leaders and learn from a variety of examples from real organizations that excel at embedding learning into workplaces. The course will offer opportunities to meet and discuss challenges of workplace learning with leaders involved in Project Zero’s Learning Innovations Lab (LILA) . For over twenty-five years, the LILA research project has convened leaders of learning from sectors such as health care, technology, manufacturing, finance, education, government, pharmaceuticals, and transportation.
How People Learn (HPL) is designed to help you develop a flexible, foundational understanding of how people develop over the lifespan; how people learn; and how educators might successfully design, lead, and create systems to support others’ learning and growth. In HPL, you will become familiar with current research and practice on human learning and development and use core concepts to analyze real educational initiatives around the world through HPL’s in-depth, media-rich “Field Studies.” You will grapple with problems of practice that educators in varied roles are confronting-the kinds of dilemmas that you will face in your career in education. You will have opportunities to personalize your learning experience by choosing to focus on materials and problems tied to your professional interests and aspirations, selecting which areas to explore in depth, engaging with your peers in discussion, and crafting your own proposed design for a learning experience or initiative grounded in course concepts. The course allows for flexible asynchronous progress but features numerous optional opportunities for live, synchronous engagement with the teaching team and peers. HPL is four credits and takes place June 1 to July 15.
Cambridge-Harvard Summer Academy fieldwork provides candidates with supervised practice in the role of a secondary or middle school teacher of History. Fieldwork, which is integrated into other required program coursework, includes teaching and assuming other clearly defined instructional responsibilities in a classroom, working closely with school practitioners, and participating in an advisory seminar. This course is limited to and required for Teacher Candidates in the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) Program.
Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on gender and sexuality in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on language in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on class in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on class in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
The dilemmas we face as education professionals seeking to advance equity and opportunity require us to make sense of, evaluate, and prioritize different kinds of evidence. This course equips students with the foundational skills and knowledge they’ll need to interpret the most common forms of evidence in education settings and apply them to their practice. We ground our exploration of these issues in a persistent, pervasive, and provocative challenge: improving achievement in foundational academic subjects for lower secondary students in São Paulo, Brazil. We will use evidence to frame the problem, evaluate the quality and relevance of the evidence about possible solutions, and consider what additional evidence we would need to strengthen our conclusions. The course uses an innovative team-based learning pedagogy, including “flipped” lectures, whole- class discussion, and small-group activities. By the end of the course, students will be able to weigh the unique affordances of different types of evidence in making decisions about complex educational dilemmas and will acquire a powerful set of tools for analyzing and applying evidence to improve education systems.
The dilemmas we face as education professionals seeking to advance equity and opportunity require us to make sense of, evaluate, and prioritize different kinds of evidence. This course equips students with the foundational skills and knowledge they’ll need to interpret the most common forms of evidence in education settings and apply them to their practice. We ground our exploration of these issues in a persistent, pervasive, and provocative challenge: improving achievement in foundational academic subjects for lower secondary students in São Paulo, Brazil. We will use evidence to frame the problem, evaluate the quality and relevance of the evidence about possible solutions, and consider what additional evidence we would need to strengthen our conclusions. The course uses an innovative team-based learning pedagogy, including “flipped” lectures, whole- class discussion, and small-group activities. By the end of the course, students will be able to weigh the unique affordances of different types of evidence in making decisions about complex educational dilemmas and will acquire a powerful set of tools for analyzing and applying evidence to improve education systems.
The dilemmas we face as education professionals seeking to advance equity and opportunity require us to make sense of, evaluate, and prioritize different kinds of evidence. This course equips students with the foundational skills and knowledge they’ll need to interpret the most common forms of evidence in education settings and apply them to their practice. We ground our exploration of these issues in a persistent, pervasive, and provocative challenge: improving achievement in foundational academic subjects for lower secondary students in São Paulo, Brazil. We will use evidence to frame the problem, evaluate the quality and relevance of the evidence about possible solutions, and consider what additional evidence we would need to strengthen our conclusions. The course uses an innovative team-based learning pedagogy, including “flipped” lectures, whole- class discussion, and small-group activities. By the end of the course, students will be able to weigh the unique affordances of different types of evidence in making decisions about complex educational dilemmas and will acquire a powerful set of tools for analyzing and applying evidence to improve education systems.
The key learning goals that are built into the design of this course are: 1) understanding of the global education trends and ecosystem and 2) understanding the process of national policy formation and its relationship with global trends and institutions and 3) be introduced and “get to know” your fellow students in the course. The course will enable students to become familiar with the academic and professional resources available; meet other students in the program; and become acquainted with key faculty and teaching staff and the other resources.Additionally, we hope the assignment in this module will enhance your skills in three areas: analysis, reflection, and advice-seeking. Our intention throughout the program is to give you material that can help you develop a better understanding of your work and issues and also your colleagues.We also intend for the interactions with other participants in the program in this course to encourage you to reflect on your current professional role and the one you aspire to. As current and future leaders, we are often so busy that we fail to stop, step back, and think about and beyond the immediate task at hand. Although your two years in this program will be demanding as you balance academics with other demands, we hope that your HGSE studies will stimulate you to take the important time to reflect on your work and on yourself as a current and future leader.Finally, the best leaders turn to others for advice and counsel. The assignment for this module asks that you share your ideas and insights with classmates so that they can enrich your learning, a practice that we hope will continue throughout the remainder of your courses and your career.
Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on race and ethnicity in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on race and ethnicity in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on dis/ability in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
Leading Change is a Foundations offering that is designed to help students learn how to lead change in organizations, teams, and systems so that they can effect positive change in the larger education sector. This foundational experience will provide learning experiences, concepts, and tools about dynamic change-leadership approaches. A distinctive element of this course is the focus on teaming. Change efforts are rarely done by individual leaders who come in as heroes to “save” a school, venture, or system. Rather, leaders must work collaboratively, often in or through teams, to effect change. Therefore, teams and collaborative work are central to this Foundations course. Leading Change seeks to help students understand how to drive change at multiple levels - the micro or individual level, the meso or team level, the macro or organization level, and the meta or system level. Students will engage in varied activities to consider change at each of these levels. To examine issues at the meta and macro levels, students will engage in two case discussions that examine organizational and system-level change. To focus on change at the meso level, students will work in teams in a simulated team-based exercise, gaining feedback on their performance both as individuals and in teams. To explore the micro level, students will engage in a self-reflection exercise to consider areas for personal growth and development as change agents. The course ends with an action planning session to help students prepare to apply their learning to future coursework and the next stage of their careers
Leading Change is a Foundations offering that is designed to help students learn how to lead change in organizations, teams, and systems so that they can effect positive change in the larger education sector. This foundational experience will provide learning experiences, concepts, and tools about dynamic change-leadership approaches. A distinctive element of this course is the focus on teaming. Change efforts are rarely done by individual leaders who come in as heroes to “save” a school, venture, or system. Rather, leaders must work collaboratively, often in or through teams, to effect change. Therefore, teams and collaborative work are central to this Foundations course. Leading Change seeks to help students understand how to drive change at multiple levels - the micro or individual level, the meso or team level, the macro or organization level, and the meta or system level. Students will engage in varied activities to consider change at each of these levels. To examine issues at the meta and macro levels, students will engage in two case discussions that examine organizational and system-level change. To focus on change at the meso level, students will work in teams in a simulated team-based exercise, gaining feedback on their performance both as individuals and in teams. To explore the micro level, students will engage in a self-reflection exercise to consider areas for personal growth and development as change agents. The course ends with an action planning session to help students prepare to apply their learning to future coursework and the next stage of their careers
Leading Change is a Foundations offering that is designed to help students learn how to lead change in organizations, teams, and systems so that they can effect positive change in the larger education sector. This foundational experience will provide learning experiences, concepts, and tools about dynamic change-leadership approaches. A distinctive element of this course is the focus on teaming. Change efforts are rarely done by individual leaders who come in as heroes to “save” a school, venture, or system. Rather, leaders must work collaboratively, often in or through teams, to effect change. Therefore, teams and collaborative work are central to this Foundations course. Leading Change seeks to help students understand how to drive change at multiple levels - the micro or individual level, the meso or team level, the macro or organization level, and the meta or system level. Students will engage in varied activities to consider change at each of these levels. To examine issues at the meta and macro levels, students will engage in two case discussions that examine organizational and system-level change. To focus on change at the meso level, students will work in teams in a simulated team-based exercise, gaining feedback on their performance both as individuals and in teams. To explore the micro level, students will engage in a self-reflection exercise to consider areas for personal growth and development as change agents. The course ends with an action planning session to help students prepare to apply their learning to future coursework and the next stage of their careers
Leading Change is a Foundations offering that is designed to help students learn how to lead change in organizations, teams, and systems so that they can effect positive change in the larger education sector. This foundational experience will provide learning experiences, concepts, and tools about dynamic change-leadership approaches. A distinctive element of this course is the focus on teaming. Change efforts are rarely done by individual leaders who come in as heroes to “save” a school, venture, or system. Rather, leaders must work collaboratively, often in or through teams, to effect change. Therefore, teams and collaborative work are central to this Foundations course. Leading Change seeks to help students understand how to drive change at multiple levels - the micro or individual level, the meso or team level, the macro or organization level, and the meta or system level. Students will engage in varied activities to consider change at each of these levels. To examine issues at the meta and macro levels, students will engage in two case discussions that examine organizational and system-level change. To focus on change at the meso level, students will work in teams in a simulated team-based exercise, gaining feedback on their performance both as individuals and in teams. To explore the micro level, students will engage in a self-reflection exercise to consider areas for personal growth and development as change agents. The course ends with an action planning session to help students prepare to apply their learning to future coursework and the next stage of their careers
In this course, students will learn about the current cutting-edge science of curiosity from a cognitive science perspective. In addition to engaging in course discussions of the scientific literature, students will apply this knowledge in group assignments that will focus on how curiosity may be studied in the lab and will brainstorm on how it can be deployed in the classroom. As part of these assignments, students will build skills in talking about curiosity - whether it be to a scientific research funder, school administrator, or policy maker. A final group project will allow students to hone the knowledge and skills gained in the course by receiving feedback from a group of expert panelists.
In this course, we will explore the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), the special education process, special education litigation, IEPs, and disability categories through a critical lens. This course will begin by unpacking intersectionality and Disability Critical Race Theory (DisCrit) as tools to support our analysis of the impact of discriminatory attitudes, policies, and practices on the lives and schooling experiences of children/adults with (dis)abilities in the United States. We will engage special education policy in our current context through a historical lens, this is particularly important given the continued existence of practices that serve to exclude students identified with (dis)abilities at the intersections of race, gender, socioeconomic status and other identities. As stakeholders in education, we will also critically analyze our own practices as a way to disrupt racism and ableism in our own work.
Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) are tools that must be leveraged to support students with (dis)abilities in the classroom, but how do we translate than plan into practice? In this course, we will leverage case-based problem solving to tackle dilemmas that arise when teaching students with a diverse range of academic, functional, social, and emotional needs. We will leverage asset-based pedagogies to help disrupt the potential for lowered expectations of students with (dis)abilities while tackling how to respond to the actual day-to-day needs of our students. You will also have multiple opportunities to share your own problems of practice and walk away with tangible frameworks and tools to support your students.
In The Souls of Black Folk, W.E.B. DuBois famously wrote, “The problem of the Twentieth Century is the color line-the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.” The color line endures - and education has been a primary site of racial conflict, harm, and inequity. In this seminar, students will explore sociological theories of race, racism, and power, and interrogate how race has shaped the purposes of schooling in the US, the formation of knowledge, teaching, and pedagogy, and the experiences of communities, families, students, and educators. Through engagement with leading scholars in the sociology of education via class visits and theoretical and empirical scholarship, students will interrogate some of the most enduring debates in the sociology of race and education. It is recommended that students have taken prior courses in social theory, race, and racial inequality within schools.
This practicum supports careers that require both AI literacy and AI fluency in quantitative research settings. Literacy goals include critically evaluating AI-assisted analyses, understanding the capabilities and limitations of current tools, and maintaining transparency, replicability, and ethical responsibility in AI-assisted research. Fluency goals include using AI tools and agents productively across the research process and teaching these approaches to collaborators, students, and research teams. Common next steps include academic research and faculty careers, postdoctoral research trajectories, research and policy think tanks, governmental and intergovernmental organizations, educational technology and data science roles, and the wide array of for-profit and not-for-profit organizations actively integrating AI tools into their quantitative research practices.
In the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program's Field Experience course, Teacher Candidates are provided with a rich, immersive experience in a school environment. This course requires a commitment of between 150-600 hours in a practicum school. The Field Experience course is designed to foster meaningful learning opportunities, with a focus on leading a classroom and understanding the dynamics of a school environment. It aims to create intentional, bidirectional connections between the field experience and TTL coursework, enabling Teacher Candidates to build their teaching knowledge and skills, reflect on their practice, and prepare to lead impactful anti-oppressive learning environments that are culturally and linguistically supportive for all students. Grounded in the TTL Indicators for Effective Teaching, the Field Experience Objectives include:
This course provides a faculty-led collaborative learning experience for doctoral students in the data collection, data analysis, and/or narrative composition phases of a qualitative research project. Seminar members will engage in a workshop-style seminar where we take turns discussing the dilemmas of our works-in-progress, offer feedback and constructive critique, and enrich our qualitative research skills and knowledge. Seminar members could bring in drafts of interview protocols, observation protocols or other data collection instruments; transcripts of interviews, field notes, or interpretive memos; samples of coded texts, tentative outlines, draft diagrams, or tables; and drafts of any portion of a research narrative (article, dissertation chapter, etc.) or talk/presentation. In addition to sharing their work, seminar members will be asked to provide a focus for the feedback they want and/or a clear articulation of the dilemma(s) to resolve. Course members commit to thoroughly engaging with colleagues’ work, preparing feedback and questions to provoke further thinking, and reflecting on processes that help collective and individual learning.
This course is designed for OEL students working across all levels of the formal and informal education sector. The course will appeal to those who aspire to design, build and/or lead innovative and equitable initiatives, programs and/or organizations that address a specific need in a diverse context. Whether they come with experience in large governmental bureaucracies, small independent startups, or anywhere in between, this course will introduce students to the considerations, strategies and processes involved in developing a solution to an identified need. Students enrolling in this course will be able to apply their learning and experiences in entrepreneurial endeavors, where they design and build a new organization to address a need, and intrapreneurial work, where they develop new structures, programs and initiatives within an existing organization.
How should a good teacher stand? How do they move through a room? What does the good teacher sound like? And when faced with a genuinely hard situation in the classroom, what do you actually do? The answers are necessarily different depending on our contexts, our students, and, of course, ourselves. The course is less interested in the platonic ideal of the good teacher than in how each candidate - as themselves, with their particular histories, voices, and bodies - learns to navigate the challenging and often unpredictable dynamics of a real classroom. This foundational course asks teacher candidates to sit with those questions seriously through cases, simulations, critical reflection, and the embodied work of practice. Rather than arriving at easy answers, students develop the contemplative and ethical frameworks they need to navigate teaching’s genuinely complex moral landscape: one that demands both self-knowledge and deep attention to student dignity, cultural responsiveness, and the lived reality of classrooms. Case analysis, debrief, and reflection are central to the work. Students leave with more awareness, confidence, and the capacity to read the power dynamics of their classroom and their own place within it.
How can we use the creative potential of AI to manifest our wonderful ideas in code? We find ourselves amidst a fundamental shift in who can code and how code gets created, as generative AI challenges longstanding barriers to programming. In this six-session module, we'll explore this shift through "vibe coding": an intuitive, tinkering approach where imagination becomes software through AI collaboration. Rather than learning syntax and algorithms, we'll explore how to design with AI as a creative partner. One of the best ways to understand AI is to play with it. As such, each week, our learning community will investigate the opportunities and limitations of AI by trying new tools, creating digital artifacts (like web apps, games, and interactive art) through hands-on exercises, reading critical texts, and reflecting on our creative processes. Through supportive peer collaboration and guided exploration, you'll develop practical skills in prompting, critiquing, and iterating with AI while creating a portfolio of digital projects.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Many educators spend a lot of time in meetings-faculty meeting, department meetings, grade level meetings, task force meetings, committee meetings, and so on. And yet, how many of those meetings are focused on understanding and improving the day-to-day teaching and learning that happens in our classrooms and schools? In this course, we’ll focus on how to leverage ordinary meeting time for meaningful professional learning: how do we work together with colleagues to identify and make headway on the core questions about teaching and learning that are most important in our particular contexts and communities? In interactive sessions, we will explore tools and processes for sparking, sustaining, and deepening learning conversations among colleagues. These tools and processes include protocols for guiding and supporting collegial conversation; strategies for documenting learning (both students’ and our own); practices for thoughtful listening, observation, and question-asking; and the broader process of collaborative inquiry and what it takes to sustain it. We will spend class time practicing with these tools and processes. Participants will keep a reflective journal and develop a set of next steps that they can take in their own contexts to support their own learning and the learning of colleagues. ***Please note that attendance at the first class session is mandatory.***
*Lottery-based Enrollment* ONLY OFFERED FOR OEL STUDENTS* Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on race and ethnicity in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame.
In the ELOE program, we are striving to make positive change that increases access, equity, agency and excellence in education in the U.S. and around the world. But to transform education, we must shift how we think about problems, how we work on problems, and how we navigate complex contexts. In this class, you’ll learn how to lead and facilitate work in teams through a semester-long simulation focused on addressing the most durable problems in education一problems that have no easy solutions and deserve collective action. Specifically, you will learn how to work with a team to examine problems and root causes, draft theories of action and develop strategies and plans for implementation-- all while managing group dynamics, navigating the politics of change and communicating to diverse stakeholders. You will leave the course with practical frameworks, tools, resources, and processes to apply to your future work transforming the education sector in collaboration with others. The course is ideal for students who want to hone their understanding of the program’s core competencies in a community of experienced professionals that value teamwork, personal reflection, and applied practice.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* This course provides a general introduction to and overview of the financial management practices and problems of nonprofit organizations. Specific topics will include financial accounting, budgeting/resource allocation, cost containment and retrenchment, and strategy development/strategic planning. Course activities will include lectures, discussions, case analyses, exercises, and outside readings. Grades will be based on written case analyses, class participation, and a final examination.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* This course examines the potential of modern and contemporary art in young children’s learning today. We will explore the history of visual art in childhood theories, including Montessori, Reggio Emilia, and New Materialism, as well as its positioning in the public school curriculum in the United States today. What is the significance of the arts in children's learning today? How can we design learning environments that connect with the processes and practices of contemporary artists? How can we evaluate children’s creative learning? Each week, students will engage in a 1-hour 15-minute theoretical workshop in which we will discuss, debate, and reflect on education theories and philosophies outlined in the readings and make connections with the overarching course questions. Students will then participate in a 2-hour studio workshop in which they will learn about contemporary artists, experiment with art materials, and explore ‘pedagogical curation’ - a strategy that can be used to design learning environments that connect contemporary art practices and children’s play. This strategy includes practical steps for sourcing materials, researching artists, and scaffolding learning through the selection of materials, tools, vocabulary, and techniques. Through group discussions, readings, art museum visits, and hands-on making, students will gain a rigorous understanding of innovative theories and practices for integrating contemporary art into early childhood education. The course also features guest presentations from artists, curators, and early childhood experts who will share case studies from the field. This course is ideal for graduate students studying the Early Childhood and Arts and Learning concentrations.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Students will become deeply familiar with the contemporary American postsecondary education landscape, gaining an understanding of its great strengths and many challenges, and will develop their own professional vision around their contributions to the field for years to come. First, we will examine key data and trends to better understand the student journey into and through postsecondary education. Our analysis will include how different groups of students are served before, during, and after their postsecondary education experience relative to race and ethnicity, gender, income-level, and other factors. We will then turn to an exploration of selected major issues that postsecondary education administrators and policymakers will likely continue to grapple with into the future and develop strategies about ways forward. Throughout the class, students will develop and strengthen fundamental professional skills and have opportunities to reflect upon career options and develop professional networks.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* The primary goal of this course is to prepare aspiring and growing leaders for impactful work in the education ecosystem, with an emphasis placed on school leadership, nonprofit leadership, and entrepreneurial leadership. The course will focus on three dimensions of leadership. The first dimension focuses on understanding the impact we’re seeking to have and how that impact happens in multiple parts of the Pk-12 Education Ecosystem, which is a framework Dr. Scott has developed. The second dimension relates to the ways (skills, characteristics, and dispositions) we lead within the ecosystem. This dimension utilizes HGSE’s Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship framework along with an amendment to include two complimentary elements: 1) REDI, which stands for Race, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and 2) Leading Learning. The third dimension utilizes Ron Heifitz’s and Marty Linky’s idea of technical vs. adaptive frame in understanding how to build your analytical skills in understanding the challenges one faces in current and future roles. By the end of this course, aspiring leaders will be able to clearly envision themselves as leaders, who strategically navigate the education ecosystem to realize maximal impact.
In the summer, we worked on reflection, understanding ourselves, and our place in the community as we simultaneously created it. We began to cultivate and create our “teaching practices” and approach to teaching as critical ELA teachers. This fall, we enter deeper into some topics we lightly touched this summer, and some we have never seen. This course requires deep engagement in core skills and ideas that help equip and prepare English teachers for the field. Classes are a combination of modeling and experiential learning, mixed with rehearsal and role-play-based classes. Students should think of Fall Methods as a learning lab - wherein we use our community of practice to explore and experiment with new teaching practices and learn together in public. The culmination of the fall methods course will be a complete unit plan of the TC’s choosing.
In this course, educators investigate and enact teaching methods that position students as powerful math problem solvers. We frame math classrooms as sites of distinct cultural activity, where teachers build the structures, practices, routines, and techniques that equip and motivate students to be active thinkers and doers of rigorous mathematics. Mathematical themes of sense- and mistake-making, motivation, fluency, curiosity, relevance, discussion, achievement, and collaboration are explored alongside specific methods that we will regularly practice in small group and whole class teaching episodes. This course is not a traditional seminar. Rather, all participants should be prepared to be on their feet in each session, doing and discussing math, enacting the pedagogies we’re learning about, teaching each other, and actively collaborating with peers in rehearsal and workshop settings.
Public narrative is the leadership practice of translating values into action. To lead is to accept responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. Because narrative engages the "head" and the "heart," it can both instruct and inspire, teaching us not only why we should act but also moving us to act. Storytelling is a discursive process with which individuals, communities, cultures, movements and nations can articulate values they share, construct shared identities rooted in those values, and enable mindful, agentic response to disruptive challenges to those values by accessing hope over fear; empathy over alienation; and self-worth over self-doubt. In short, we can use public narrative to assert the value of our own humanity, articulate the value of our shared humanity, and motivate action respectful of that humanity. We also give particular attention to enabling ourselves and others to deal with the challenges of loss, difference, domination and change.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* The rising generation of educators must learn how to communicate with courage and lead with integrity in an increasingly diverse, disrupted, and divided world. This course will help strengthen your capacity to do so--in whatever context or community you choose to work. Approximately one-third of our time together will be devoted to lessons and group discussions on various aspects of Professor McCarthy's B.R.A.V.E. communication and leadership framework. The other two-thirds will consist of smaller sections where you will deliver speeches and receive feedback from your peers and the teaching team. This course is designed for people who want to become better and braver communicators than they are right now. Students are required to attend a weekly Lesson on Monday evenings and one 90-minute section scheduled at another time each week.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* This course is a hands-on course on making and digital fabrication in education. Students will learn to prototype learning toolkits, educational toys, science kits, and technology-enhanced manipulatives using state-of-the-art fabrication machines (e.g., 3D printers, 3D scanners, laser cutters, sensors, robotics). A special focus of the course will be to design low-cost, appropriate technologies for a wide range of learners.
To understand the unique features of the education marketplace - including the sales cycle, funding sources, industries- inform students’ projects. Teams will create a Go-To-Market plan by answering such questions as: How do you use Competitive Analysis to design a marketing program? How do you create a dynamic financial plan to raise funding? How do you design and leverage a value proposition to differentiate your products and decision-making processes, and business structures - students will explore data sources and analyze market segments. Working in teams, students will learn how to evaluate competitors, integrate product development, funding, marketing, and sales and combine these components in a business plan.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* Our nation’s youth who are incarcerated are arguably our most disenfranchised population. They are disproportionately children of color, children with special needs, children living in poverty, and children who identify as LGBTQIA+ or non-conforming. Many of them dropped out - or were forced out of school and funneled through the school-to-prison pipeline. Each year, more than 450,000 cases are heard throughout our nation’s juvenile courts. Depending on a person's age and nature of the offense, some children are automatically transferred to an adult court and serve their time in adult facilities. Due to a primary institutional focus on safety and security , children who need education as a means to lead productive lives and to positively contribute to society often receive little exposure to high-quality education programs. What must we do to ensure the opportunity gap these children face does not continue to persist? The premise of this course is that educators, researchers, policy makers, and advocates are prepared to: work effectively with, support, and/or advocate for this disadvantaged and often ignored population. This course provides a lens for examining our nation’s juvenile justice educational settings, practical tools for teaching and leading in institutional settings, and a space for urgent dialogue about how we, as a society, will address the learning needs and equitable treatment of marginalized youth. Students will participate in a field visit to a juvenile justice facility and reflect on effective educational practices for the youth who are incarcerated. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity elective requirement of the Equity & Opportunity Foundations experience by: (1) studying and discussing incarceration’s historical contexts (Historical & Contemporary Understanding); (2) understanding how systems structure opportunity and (in)equities (Structural Understanding); (3) examining how systems vary across regional or cultural contexts (Comparative Perspective); (4) reflecting on individual identities, intersections, and commitments to participate in advancing justice (Personal Responsibility); and, (5) identifying and incorporating advocacy strategies (Strategies for Action). HGSE students wishing to take this course must enroll in the lottery. All other Harvard affiliated students interested in taking this course must email registrar@gse.harvard.edu to ensure you are added to the lottery.
After completing this course, learners will:● Have a basic level of knowledge of the brain, its structure and function, and how it develops. ● Know the basics of the most common neuroimaging methods, how they work and what they measure.● Be able to spot and dispel common misconceptions about the brain and reading development. ● Be able to critically evaluate scientific claims and approaches related to brain development and “brain-based programs and curricula”. ● Know the typical neurobiological and developmental patterns experienced by most children, alongside specific disabilities in the domains of language, reading, math, executive functions, emotions, and social interactions.● Gain an overview of how environmental factors can alter developmental trajectories. ● Be able to translate scientific findings in the domain of brain development into practice within the field of education.● Have developed an understanding of the role of neuroscience in the field of education.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* What types of growth and change are possible for us in adulthood? Can we intentionally foster development in adulthood, and if so, how? As our world grows ever more complex, adults face increasing demands to develop. The possibilities for profound growth and change over the course of our adult lives are now well-documented and widely accepted. And we are becoming increasingly clear about the conditions and practices that support this type of growth. This course is not a survey of many theories in the field of Adult Development. Instead, we explore one theory deeply, Robert Kegan’s theory of adult development. Why this theory? It is uniquely powerful and rigorous and provides a very useful vantage point on other theories in the field. Kegan has also extended and applied his theory, developing processes and practices that support transformational growth for individuals and collectives. We’ll apply this learning to ourselves, challenge ourselves with transformative practices, and consider the implications for our work roles and personal lives. Evaluation will be based on several short written exercises during the semester and a concentrated end-of-term paper.
*Required for School Counseling Students; Lottery-Based Enrollment for all others* Across the United States, educators are struggling to determine the most effective ways of creating learning spaces that are loving and transformational for all students. To do this requires building school climates that are nurturing and inclusive for students from diverse racial, cultural, socio-economic, and political backgrounds, and who come to school with diverse identities, learning styles, and challenges. Feeling safe and welcome at school has direct and measurable effects on students' academic achievement; but how do we create loving spaces for learning amid global authoritarianism and unrest? This module will explore empirical evidence that supports the creation of safe, loving schools and provide examples of best practices for educators seeking to prevent bullying and discrimination. By the end of the module, students should be able to: (1) communicate to educational stakeholders and policymakers the importance of building safe and loving spaces in schools; (2) analyze and critique programs that seek to prevent bullying and discrimination; and (3) apply their knowledge in a practice, policy or research context of their choice. To accomplish these goals, in the first half of the course we will explore theoretical and empirical research on safe, supportive, and inclusive schools, including the prevention of bullying and discrimination. Here, we will consider the ways that multiple stakeholders define safety. During the second half of the course, we will explore practical approaches to creating safe and loving educational contexts for young people. Here, we will focus on strategies that empower young people to be active agents in building loving spaces. The course will also provide opportunities to consider specific types of identity-related bullying, such as homophobia, xenophobia, ableism, and racism. Although K-12 schools will be the central setting examined, course materials are also applicable to community-based settings and higher education.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* This is a practitioner-focused course introducing frameworks, tools, and skills to effectively manage negotiations in a variety of professional and personal settings. Our approach is primarily experiential, and we will engage in hands-on negotiation simulations and/or exercises in every class session. These simulations are designed to enhance skills, demonstrate particular concepts, and provide opportunities to experiment with various negotiation techniques. We will cover negotiation topics such as preparation, value creation, distribution, power, identity, difficult tactics, advanced listening, difficult conversations, and multiparty negotiation. Our approach is guided by theories of principled or interest-based negotiation, as outlined in Getting to Yes and other texts. A central feature of the course will be self-reflection: students will develop a practice of reviewing their negotiations and developing best practices. In particular, this course will ask you to do some personal work and reflection on how you came to be the negotiator you are. This is a team-taught course.
By the end of the course, students will be able to: ● Explain key pedagogical frameworks and research on learning that can inform equitable learning experiences for learners with diverse identities, needs, and lived experiences. ● Analyze the affordances, limitations, and potential unintended consequences of using technology to support equitable learning across different contexts. ● Evaluate how cultural, economic, social, political, and infrastructural factors shape the design, delivery, use, and potential impact of technology-enabled education interventions. ● Critique existing education technology interventions based on their pedagogical quality, inclusivity, contextual responsiveness, feasibility, and potential for sustainability. ● Engage critically and constructively with experts and practitioners, evaluate their perspectives and assumptions, and draw on dialogue with them to inform students’ own thinking and design decisions. ● Develop and iteratively refine an evidence-informed, technology-enabled learning solution that responds to the needs and experiences of learners in a specific context. ● Apply relevant research, stakeholder feedback, and user testing to justify design decisions and improve a proposed intervention. ● Formulate actionable recommendations for adapting, implementing, or scaling technology-enabled learning interventions while strengthening their benefits and minimizing their limitations and risks. ● Articulate the trade-offs and complexities involved in designing equitable and sustainable learning experiences across cultures and contexts.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* Independent schools teach fewer than 10% of America’s children, yet their role can be significant, and opportunities for students, teachers and administrators who want to make an impact on the world can be profound. This module provides an introduction to different dimensions of working in and leading an independent school. The course will explore the importance of mission, vision, and the evolving ways in which independent schools are addressing issues of diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. Using numerous case studies, discussions will focus on leadership challenges: from admissions and financial aid policies to hiring faculty, from building a budget to handling disciplinary cases -- and through all of this the ethical, legal and pastoral dimensions of headship. Recognizing that all schools today face profound questions of both what and how to teach, the course will also explore questions of curriculum and pedagogy. Between readings, cases, and spirited discussion, students will better understand the nature of independent schools, their evolving mission, the great opportunities they provide for both students and faculty, and the particular challenges of independent school leadership.
This course focuses on African American history in education, exploring both the histories of African American education during the 19th and 20th centuries as well as fundamental questions about the teaching of African American history in US schools. By delving into black educational history and the teaching of black history, two fundamentally aligned areas of inquiry, students will develop critical historical perspectives about key educational issues while also focusing on a specific matter of educational practice. The course experience includes lectures, small and large group discussions based on assigned texts, guest speakers, and close reading of historical scholarship and archival sources. Students will have opportunities to apply historical analyses to contemporary educational questions, conduct original historical research, and develop curricular and professional development resources informed by African American educational history.
Through this course, students develop a comprehensive understanding of the practices, policies, and perspectives that shape the teaching of learners with diverse abilities in inclusive classrooms. In classroom practice, students will engage readings, simulations, and exercises to learn and apply their growing knowledge of learner variability to plan effective differentiated instruction and meet the needs of learners both socially and academically in their classrooms. Through examining laws and policies, students understand the identification process, the full range of disabilities and services, and how individual education plans (IEPs) work. Students learn how to use Multi-Tier System of Supports (MTSS) such as Response to Intervention (RtI) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to serve all learners. By reflecting on different perspectives, students increase their own awareness of how beliefs and experiences impact classroom decision making.
Designed for researchers and practitioners, this course focuses on the pressing issues related to bilingual students' language and literacy instruction, as well as policies guiding language and education at school. The term "bilingual" in this course is used to refer to students who have diverse and unequal experiences in more than one language, with a focus on those who speak or hear a language different from the societal language at home but who might receive bilingual or monolingual instruction at school. The course employs an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing on sociocultural and educational theory and research to explore societal factors related to language, literacy, and academic achievement in the United States and in various international contexts. Together, we will examine questions related to the many modes of being bilingual/multilingual, the role of languages in society, and the impact of educational resources and policies on bilingual populations. The aims of this course are to investigate and understand how sociocultural contexts affect bilingual students' learning and identities, why literacy plays a crucial role in academic achievement, and which instructional implications are supported by the latest research with bilingual learners. The ultimate goal is to prepare students to contribute to the field in research-informed, yet innovative, ways. This course is intended for students who anticipate working with linguistically diverse populations as practitioners, curriculum designers, educational leaders, policymakers, or researchers.
Students will understand what critically oriented participatory action research is, what assumptions it holds, and how these assumptions overlap and/or sit in tension with other types of research. Students will be able to articulate multiple points in the research process when questions of power, positionality, and structural inequity interact with purpose and participation to shape the project experience/flow. Students will be able to describe the research cycle, including some key aspects of study design, protocol development, piloting, data collection, analysis, and research products. In addition to these research-based skills, students will develop pedagogical skills and an understanding of positive youth development, through their direct work with adolescents. Students will fully integrate the knowledge that they are never done learning, that who they are has everything to do with what knowledge they can and will produce, and that we should be working to analyze data/generate knowledge in community. Students will gain new insights into root causes of inequality in their/a local context.
What should students learn to face the challenges of the future - and how can policy actually get education systems there? This course equips you to answer that question with rigor. Through a flipped format that pairs pre-recorded lectures with intensive Friday sessions - case discussion, simulations, and conversations with guest practitioners - you'll build the analytical toolkit of a professional policy analyst: problem definition, comparative evidence, systems thinking, and the five perspectives on educational change (cultural, psychological, professional, institutional, political).
Community artmaking practices play an integral role in strengthening the field of education. For nearly a hundred years, community arts organizations have provided a context for investigating local cultural concerns, amplifying placed-based creativity and knowledge production, and affirming meaningful traditions-activities that are all vital to the pursuit of a culturally sustaining education. Students in this course will build on these propositions to found and steward HGSE’s Community Art Commission, a student organization responsible for leading participatory arts education experiences at HGSE. In doing so, students will gain familiarity with a broad range of community arts organizing tasks, from learning design and public engagement to project management and documentation. To support these activities, students will draw on the theoretical foundations of community-based art and education while working with peers in a highly collaborative, hands-on learning environment to develop and test their evolving ideas about the goals, methods, and mechanisms of community arts education. This course will equip students with deepened understandings about how arts practices can support the holistic aims of education and with hands-on leadership and learning design experience.
The purpose of the course is to provide students the opportunity to engage with and discuss the historical, ideological, and contemporary issues surrounding community-based programs engaging youth. Drawing on theoretical and empirical literature and current events, students will think critically about how political and social context shapes community-based education. Students will examine how educational policy and the confluence of power, race, class, gender, and broader systems of oppression shape community-based programs, the lives of youth workers and community-based leaders, and youth participants. This course explores how these spaces inform the educational experiences, political identity development, and organizing and activist lives of multiply-oppressed and vulnerable youth. Topics will include: grassroots organizing and activism, academic outcomes and access to higher education, full-service community-schools/school-community partnerships, social identity development, liberatory and culturally sustaining pedagogy, funding and philanthropy, healing justice, neoliberalism, and privatization in community-based afterschool education. Students will examine the paradoxical nature of community-based youth organizations as nurturing spaces of resistance for youth and sites of conflict and social reproduction. Ultimately, this course will challenge students to think critically about community-based youth organizations and their capacity for educational, political, and social change for youth and communities. Community-based leaders and youth work professionals are fully integrated into the course as guest lecturers and thought-partners.
What are best practices in using coaching as a strategy for capacity-building of individuals? And how can we use this strategy to shift educational institutions to become more equitable? This course invites you to explore how coaching can help individuals lean into their strengths, recognize their biases, and coach with an awareness of the ways in which social identity and dominant culture impact the coaching relationship. As part of our class time, each week you will engage in a coaching practicum where you use a research-based coaching format to work with peers to practice key skills related to coaching with equity in mind. These skills include developing rapport, building trust and psychological safety, actively listening, effectively questioning, working through levels of dialogue and providing actionable feedback.
In this course, we will explore the political and politicized lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer peoples living in the United States since World War II. Centering an intergenerational, intersectional, and coalitional analysis, as well as an historical critique of “progress,” we will focus our attention on the interrelationship between protest (how LGBTQ+ people have come out and organized themselves), politics (how LGBTQ+ people have confronted and navigated the “culture wars”), and policy (how LGBTQ+ people have challenged and shaped laws and rights) from the Homophile Generation (1940s and 1950s) to the Stonewall Generation (1960s and 1970s) to the AIDS Generation (1980s and 1990s) to the Marriage Generation (2000s to present) and beyond. We will explore significant movement moments, examine a diverse range of change agents, and analyze specific legal and legislative inflection points. Ongoing and targeted discrimination against LGBTQ+ people is a pressing modern phenomenon, yet too often it is treated as an afterthought in discussions and debates about human rights, social justice, law and public policy-despite the fact that such practices of prejudice and abuses of power continue to perpetuate stigma and violence against queer people in myriad ways. The modern LGBTQ+ movement in the United States offers some vital lessons about the long and difficult struggle from repression to rights, marginalization to acceptance, oppression to liberation. We won't cover everything or figure it all out in one semester, but students who are interested in knowing this history and changing our world will be welcomed and valued in this course.
Grounded in Critical Theory, with an emphasis on feminist theory, queer theory, disability theory, Black Crit, and decolonial theory, this critical qualitative survey course aims to introduce all educators (teaching artists, teachers, school leaders, counselors, and educators working in non-profit organizations) and doctoral students to a strand of qualitative research approaches that fall under the broad umbrella of emancipatory research. These collective ways of asking questions and gathering knowledge explicitly address power, inequality, and injustice, and they prioritize human relationships and interactions within research. Emancipatory research approaches ask, among other things: How do we engage in research in ways that center relationships, elevate agency, and attend to power dynamics? How are we attentive to who and what is included or excluded in research? How do we expand what is considered knowledge and who is recognized as a knowledge producer? Finally, emancipatory research approaches insist that any knowledge generated be used to advance a more just society. Using a practice-based and exploratory model, this course will survey several methodologies, including arts-based inquiry, narrative inquiry/storytelling, embodied and walking methodologies, and critical community-based/participatory action research. Ultimately, the course provides an overview of both the theoretical foundations and the practical steps involved in emancipatory approaches to knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. For the final project, students will either (a) complete an original inquiry project investigating a justice-oriented question using the philosophies or methods explored in the course, or (b) develop a detailed proposal for an inquiry project they plan to undertake in the future.
This course explores the relationship between race and schooling by analyzing historical and contemporary studies on education in the United States. Students will read canonical and recent scholarship on the subject, allowing them to study how racial ideology has shaped the development of educational policies and practices over time, while also tracing how educational processes have contributed to the development, contestation, and transformation of racial ideas in society. Through this course, students will develop a critical vocabulary to discuss prominent issues around racial inequality in education, while also learning about the distinct racialized educational experiences of various groups (e.g., black, native, and white Americans) and how those distinct experiences relate to one another within the broader American social order. The course experience includes lectures, small and large group discussions, and student presentations.
In each intensive practicum, students will serve as design consultants to a business or nonprofit “client,” gaining hands-on experience developing a design proposal, including working prototypes, for a new product, delivery platform, data infrastructure, or feature for an existing program. The client-an educational content provider, publisher, or funder-will provide background information on the market, educational goals, and operational aspects of an authentic design challenge, including potentially proprietary information. Under the guidance of the instructor, who has over 40 years of experience developing educational products, students will work in small teams to produce research-based proposals, frameworks, and prototypes. Completing robust weekly deliverables, with periodic feedback from the client, will be critical to meet the timing demands of a real world need. Expect rapid iteration on problem definition, underlying research, design constraints, evidence of impact, and targeted “minimum viable products” (MVPs). At the end of the course, students will submit to the client a summary of research on the learning need and promising interventions; construct definitions and maps; analysis of implementation constraints and affordances; a feature-by-feature proposal with supporting research and suggestions for collecting evidence of change; an annotated bibliography and list of potential expert advisors; and/or select MVPs. The client will credit students for any design ideas used in a future product, and students will be free to include their proposals (minus any proprietary information) in their professional portfolios.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Across the United States, students in rural, suburban, and urban communities experience persistent educational inequities shaped by under-resourced schools, systemic inequality, and fragmented support systems. At the same time, faith communities-churches, mosques, temples, and other religious organizations-play a significant and often underexamined role in supporting young people, families, and educators through academic assistance, mentoring, social capital, and meaning-making. This course examines the intersection of faith, education, and community leadership through an ecosystem lens. Drawing on empirical research, case studies, practitioner frameworks, and student reflection, participants explore when faith-education partnerships enhance educational opportunity-and when they risk exclusion, coercion, or harm. The course emphasizes ethical leadership, partnership design, governance, and sustainability, with particular attention to educator well-being and community voice. Students leave the course with a research-informed, ethically grounded partnership design and a sharpened capacity to lead across difference.
Educators, policymakers, and designers are navigating a digital landscape engineered for attention and, increasingly, intimacy. Young people are disproportionately affected by these systems, yet their voices and insights are rarely centered. Rather than treating youth as puzzles to be solved, this course invites adults to interrogate their own assumptions, habits, and mindsets. Together we ask: What do we need to understand - about technology, market forces, and ourselves - to navigate these systems and guide others? What does the latest evidence really say (and not say) about technology's effects on young people? What are adults missing that teens most want us to know? And how can educators cultivate agency, equity, and empathy amid rapid technological change? Through fireside chats with experts, reflective design sprints, and data sense-making sessions, we will: (1) examine our own digital lives and assumptions, (2) gather insights from young people about their digital experiences, (3) explore evidence-based approaches to digital thriving, and (4) develop nuanced perspectives on how technology affects learning and connection.
Schools, like all organizations, are social systems. This means successful school outcomes cannot be achieved by simply having the right policies, programs, and routines. Social relationships also matter for school outcomes. This course uses the conceptual, analytical, and technical tools of social network analysis to help students think more systematically about how social relationships in schools matter. By the end of the course students will be able to answer questions such as: How does the strength of teachers' relationships to one another affect their instructional practice? Why do different kinds of social relationships evolve in different contexts? How do the features of a school's social network affect policy implementation, advice seeking, and social capital? How can the dynamics of social relationships and networks be leveraged to better design and evaluate effective reform policies? As part of the course, students will be introduced to the social network software UCINET and will apply their knowledge to identify ways to improve schools at the building, system, or sector level.
This course draws students from across HGSE and Harvard, and invites you to collaborate on the design of a large-scale informal learning initiative. To accomplish this, you will acquire skills in conceiving an ambitious project founded on clear objectives, designing media and face-to-face activities to carry out the project, testing your designs in the field, making a persuasive pitch to an expert panel, and summarizing your project in a compelling written proposal. All these skills are essential to successful innovation in education or in any other field of endeavor.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Harvard’s famous anthem Fair Harvard sees “calm rising thro’ change and thro’ storm.” But school leaders are the ones who have to take the tiller and figure out the way to get through the storm. The thrust of this case-based, discussion-based course is to challenge students to problem-solve the widely varied kinds of problems - and yes, crises - that school leaders face. They range from the immediate - the death of a student, the threat of an armed person on campus, a racist incident, a hurricane - to less urgent but no less real crises: a slashed budget, a sharp decline in enrollment, crumbling infrastructure, reports of sexual assault. And of course it is hard to imagine more challenging situations than the recent pandemic and the ongoing struggles over racial justice and culture wars. By working through specific cases, this course will illuminate larger operational and strategic issues that are part and parcel of the work of a school leader. While some cases will be drawn from the instructor’s direct experiences in leading an independent school, the issues addressed will be central for students aspiring to lead all manner of schools: public, charter, faith-based, and private. Readings will be drawn from several sources that focus on the nature of leadership, from the world of schools to explorers and even to the American presidency.
The arts play a significant role in advancing struggles for social change in settings across the globe. Through the arts, people create self-determined stories and visions of public life, forge solidarities across lines of difference, and learn to organize new publics. This course will provide students with an opportunity to examine and complicate these propositions through a field experience seminar in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Students in this course will connect with artists and educators in Puerto Rico and will engage in community artmaking practices in real time. In the process, students will learn about the history and culture of Puerto Rico and will gain valuable insight into how arts education practices can be organized to support shared goals in civic life.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* This course provides a comprehensive overview of education finance, equipping students with the skills to navigate the complex financial landscape of both K-12 and higher education institutions. Students will analyze core financial statements, learn strategic budgeting, and evaluate institutional performance using key financial metrics. The curriculum emphasizes strategic decision-making by exploring critical tradeoffs, risk management, and ROI analysis for educational programs and capital projects. Through a combination of case studies and practical exercises, students will develop the communication skills necessary to advocate for resources and align financial strategies with academic priorities.
Students will also engage in experiential learning activities that allow them to integrate healing-centered leadership principles into their own leadership styles. These activities will include leadership simulations where students will practice leading through healing-centered and community-focused lenses in challenging, real-world scenarios; collaborative group projects in which students design and implement leadership strategies for hypothetical organizations, with a focus on integrating the four pivots; and community engagement exercises where students will connect with local organizations or groups to develop action plans that promote healing and transformative leadership practices.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Leading Change is a Foundations offering that is designed to help students learn how to lead change in organizations, teams, and systems so that they can effect positive change in the larger education sector. This foundational experience will provide learning experiences, concepts, and tools about dynamic change-leadership approaches. A distinctive element of this course is the focus on teaming. Change efforts are rarely done by individual leaders who come in as heroes to “save” a school, venture, or system. Rather, leaders must work collaboratively, often in or through teams, to effect change. Therefore, teams and collaborative work are central to this Foundations course. Leading Change seeks to help students understand how to drive change at multiple levels - the micro or individual level, the meso or team level, the macro or organization level, and the meta or system level. Students will engage in varied activities to consider change at each of these levels. To examine issues at the meta and macro levels, students will engage in two case discussions that examine organizational and system-level change. To focus on change at the meso level, students will work in teams in a simulated team-based exercise, gaining feedback on their performance both as individuals and in teams. To explore the micro level, students will engage in a self-reflection exercise to consider areas for personal growth and development as change agents. The course ends with an action planning session to help students prepare to apply their learning to future coursework and the next stage of their careers.
In each intensive practicum, students will serve as design consultants to a business or nonprofit “client,” gaining hands-on experience developing a design proposal, including working prototypes, for a new product, delivery platform, data infrastructure, or feature for an existing program. The client-an educational content provider, publisher, or funder-will provide background information on the market, educational goals, and operational aspects of an authentic design challenge, including potentially proprietary information. Under the guidance of the instructor, who has over 40 years of experience developing educational products, students will work in small teams to produce research-based proposals, frameworks, and prototypes. Completing robust weekly deliverables, with periodic feedback from the client, will be critical to meet the timing demands of a real world need. Expect rapid iteration on problem definition, underlying research, design constraints, evidence of impact, and targeted “minimum viable products” (MVPs). At the end of the course, students will submit to the client a summary of research on the learning need and promising interventions; construct definitions and maps; analysis of implementation constraints and affordances; a feature-by-feature proposal with supporting research and suggestions for collecting evidence of change; an annotated bibliography and list of potential expert advisors; and/or select MVPs. The client will credit students for any design ideas used in a future product, and students will be free to include their proposals (minus any proprietary information) in their professional portfolios.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Resistance within traditional higher education to anything more than incremental change is profound. We will in this class explore the causes for this resistance and explore questions including the following: Why is an industry populated by so many people who identify as politically liberal so conservative when it comes to its own practices? Why are scholars whose disciplines are constantly evolving so reluctant to embrace institutional evolution? Why do colleges and universities that so often speak in their mission statements about the transformative power of education find it so difficult to transform themselves? After considering the reasons why change is necessary, we’ll examine topics including incentive structures, the dominance of the disciplines, shared governance, and tenure. We’ll end by looking at some possible paths forward.
Unique to this combined offering will be a dynamic exchange of perspectives between HGSE graduate students and practicing educators-professionals who will be coming to HGSE for a week of learning to address pressing dilemmas and opportunities in their schools and districts. Throughout the week, students will examine and challenge their own beliefs about family and community roles in education; analyze case studies and current research on the impact of partnerships; engage with panels of experts and practitioners on promising practices and insights from the field; and collaborate in interactive discussions, small-group activities, and real-world projects. For the final paper, students will have the opportunity to propose a family engagement initiative using the learning from the course.
This course is for future education and social-impact leaders who want to use data as a practical tool to inform better decisions, foster continuous improvement, and create greater impact. Students will learn foundational concepts of data literacy and evidence use, examine cases from public, private, and non-profit (independent) sector organizations, and practice turning real-world data into concise stories that connect evidence to action for impactful change.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* This course is designed for students who want to write more powerful, compelling, and thoughtful essays. Through drafting, revising, and examining responses to their own written work, students will learn how to persuade, inform, and delight readers. The best of today's essayists and bloggers draw on a long tradition of essay writing, and this course will provide multiple opportunities to explore the lyrical and analytical features of classic and contemporary essays. We'll study the means by which essays and essayists insinuate themselves into our lives as readers and writers. Students will write each day and will participate in small groups and workshops to discuss their writing.
Climate Change is an existential threat to life on Earth. The responsibility for creating atmospheric CO2 is not shared across the world’s populations or successive generations and yet it has wrought environmental injustice impacting the most vulnerable populations and has created intractable challenges for young people and future generations. How we teach about climate change is critical to our response as a global population. Educators adopt a longitudinal view on the outcomes of their daily efforts-guiding each generation with hope and possibility. How do we communicate with urgency despite the uncertainties in the exact outcomes even while we are certain that climate change is real and is happening around us? How do we communicate the loss of what might be called a pact between the generations to the next generation? What can we do to "get it right" and to live sustainably on a changing planet? This course offers an intensive opportunity to explore issues related to teaching climate change in K-12. It invites a series of conversations about the following topics: 1) How do scientists explain the dynamics of climate change and what are some of the challenges in learning the science concepts?; 2) How does attending to climate change fit with what is known about the cognitive and emotional architecture of human minds and what are the implications for instruction?; 3) What are ways of knowing and being in relation with Earth and nature that respect the connectedness, systems dynamics, and language of nature. How can we learn from and bring pluralistic and diverse epistemologies to our teaching?; 4) How can we support young people in navigating between anxiety/despair and hope/action?; 5) How do the politics of climate change interact with our teaching? The course meets for all day for two weeks with a structured three-hour morning session (includes mini-lecture, activities, active processing, simulation games) and brainstorming/workshopping afternoon session to support students in developing a project to build and reveal their understanding of course concepts. This is followed by events including films, guest lectures, simulation games, and discussions.
What differentiates this course from other AI-related technical courses offered by SEAS, HBS, HKS, or MIT is its starting point: we begin with educational needs as the driving force for conceptualizing what AI systems should look like. All discussions and applications are grounded in authentic educational contexts, rather than abstract or purely technical scenarios. This approach not only helps students quickly connect AI concepts and techniques to their own thinking and needs as education practitioners and researchers, but also fills a critical gap in existing course offerings - providing a curriculum specifically designed for those working at the intersection of AI and education.
For those interested in learning in school settings, an understanding of educational psychology, including theories of how students learn and what motivates students to learn, is fundamental. This course offers a broad introduction to psychological theory and research that has attempted to better understand students' learning and motivation. The course begins with an exploration of theories of learning, including behaviorist, cognitivist, and situated perspectives. This is followed by a deep dive into motivational constructs such as self-efficacy, goal orientation, and self-determination theory. The course concludes with an examination of additional, selected topics from educational psychology that may include individual differences, gifted/talented education, ADHD, learning styles, and international/cultural differences in learning and teaching. Course readings will be grounded in theoretical and empirical literature related to theories of learning and motivation. Application of theory, including case studies, will be foundational to class sessions, as a way to ground our discussion of theory and research.
In this J-Term course, students will create an educational product using digital fabrication, the process of making or building by using tools controlled by a computer or digital data (for example laser cutters, 3D printers, electronics, micro-controllers, physical computing, and more). Students will learn how to define a problem of interest, ideate, prototype, test, and iterate on several prototypes. The prerequisite for enrolling in this course is to have a project that could be built using digital fabrication tools, for example a physical toolkit or learning environment. This J-Term course is especially appropriate for students who have been working on an educational product in the Fall Semester (e.g., in T550, T522) or who have an educational project that lends itself to digital fabrication.
In this module, we will seek to understand and improve the quality of human interactions across a wide range of developmental contexts (both cultural and institutional), from orphanages to classrooms and from early childhood to youth development. The driving question is: How do we encourage, enhance, and empower the human relationships around children and youth in adversity? By learning from what ordinary people do extraordinarily well in relationships with one another in simple, everyday moments, we can nurture intuition into intention, grow communities of practice, and plant seeds for sustainable systems change. The course weaves together "understanding" and "applying." Part of the course will focus on applying developmental theories to examine actual practices (on video) in authentic field settings of human development. Part of the course will focus on developing and using a relationship-focused tool and theory of change to improve practices, programs, and policies. The contexts chosen for this module focus on children experiencing adversity in both US-based and international settings.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Colleges and universities are facing unprecedented challenges and uncertainty relating to student enrollment. From dramatic demographic shifts in college-going populations to new policies relating to the admissions process and the use of standardized tests, these changes require strategic enrollment management solutions that cut across traditional institutional boundaries. This module provides an overview of strategic enrollment management, including recruitment, marketing, admissions, financial aid, student retention, and strategic enrollment planning. Students will participate in class discussions of readings and will collaborate on a multi-week group exercise that models the real-world considerations of working in an admissions office of an institution of higher education. Although the primary goal is to build students' understanding of foundational enrollment management processes, the course will also engage students in controversial topics and current debates that have a significant impact on the field, including race-conscious admission and ethics in the use of predictive analytics. Most readings and cases center on the undergraduate context; however, select examples may be drawn from graduate and international admissions and enrollment, depending on students’ interests.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* Full Attendance at all class sessions required* This is a practitioner-focused course introducing frameworks, tools, and skills to effectively manage negotiations in a variety of both professional and personal settings. Our approach is primarily experiential, and we will engage in hands-on negotiation simulations and/or exercises in every class session. These simulations are designed to enhance skills, demonstrate particular concepts, and provide opportunities to experiment with various negotiation techniques. Simulations and class exercises also require working with, and receiving feedback from, a partner and therefore full attendance at all class sessions is required. We will cover negotiation topics such as preparation, value creation, distribution, dealing with difficult tactics, advanced listening, managing difficult conversations, and the role of emotions, power, and identity in negotiation. Our approach is guided by theories of principled or interest-based negotiation, as outlined in Getting to Yes and other texts, which are used as points of departure for class discussion. A central feature of the course will be self-reflection: students will develop a practice of reviewing their negotiations and developing best practices. In particular, this course will ask you to do personal work and reflection on how you came to be the negotiator you are. Written work will consist of regular self-reflective journal assignments. This is a team-taught course with sessions featuring a mix of pair work, as well as small and large group discussion.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* Full Attendance at all class sessions required* This is a practitioner-focused course introducing frameworks, tools, and skills to effectively manage negotiations in a variety of both professional and personal settings. Our approach is primarily experiential, and we will engage in hands-on negotiation simulations and/or exercises in every class session. These simulations are designed to enhance skills, demonstrate particular concepts, and provide opportunities to experiment with various negotiation techniques. Simulations and class exercises also require working with, and receiving feedback from, a partner and therefore full attendance at all class sessions is required. We will cover negotiation topics such as preparation, value creation, distribution, dealing with difficult tactics, advanced listening, managing difficult conversations, and the role of emotions, power, and identity in negotiation. Our approach is guided by theories of principled or interest-based negotiation, as outlined in Getting to Yes and other texts, which are used as points of departure for class discussion. A central feature of the course will be self-reflection: students will develop a practice of reviewing their negotiations and developing best practices. In particular, this course will ask you to do personal work and reflection on how you came to be the negotiator you are. Written work will consist of regular self-reflective journal assignments. This is a team-taught course with sessions featuring a mix of pair work, as well as small and large group discussion.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* Full Attendance at all class sessions required* This is a practitioner-focused course introducing frameworks, tools, and skills to effectively manage negotiations in a variety of both professional and personal settings. Our approach is primarily experiential, and we will engage in hands-on negotiation simulations and/or exercises in every class session. These simulations are designed to enhance skills, demonstrate particular concepts, and provide opportunities to experiment with various negotiation techniques. Simulations and class exercises also require working with, and receiving feedback from, a partner and therefore full attendance at all class sessions is required. We will cover negotiation topics such as preparation, value creation, distribution, dealing with difficult tactics, advanced listening, managing difficult conversations, and the role of emotions, power, and identity in negotiation. Our approach is guided by theories of principled or interest-based negotiation, as outlined in Getting to Yes and other texts, which are used as points of departure for class discussion. A central feature of the course will be self-reflection: students will develop a practice of reviewing their negotiations and developing best practices. In particular, this course will ask you to do personal work and reflection on how you came to be the negotiator you are. Written work will consist of regular self-reflective journal assignments. This is a team-taught course with sessions featuring a mix of pair work, as well as small and large group discussion.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* *Residential Students may enroll in S010B* Questionnaires are among the most common data collection methods that educational researchers and other social scientists employ. Thus, surveys wield tremendous impact on the data based decision making that increasingly permeates our educational system and in society more broadly. Yet producing high-quality survey measures is not a straightforward task. Survey designers must choose between open ended, ranking, or rating items; between asking questions or posing statements for respondents to agree/disagree with; how many response options to offer; and the organizational logic of their survey. Empirical studies exist to guide each of these choices and maximize the quality of the data collected. This course will familiarize students with the steps and procedures that are essential to developing high quality surveys. The major topics of the course include defining constructs; creating items and item wording; response anchors; organizing, ordering, and formatting surveys; and bolstering response rates. The course is not designed to cover sampling procedures, analysis of survey data, or interviewing. As a final project, students will design a short questionnaire.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* The advent of automation, robotization, artificial intelligence, and the gig economy are key forces shaping the future of work. The future of work, in turn, is shaping the demand for traditional education credentials, like college degrees. Fortune 500 companies, such as, Apple, Google, and Microsoft, in fact, no longer require Bachelor’s degrees for incoming workers, opting instead to hire based on skills. In this course, we will examine the technological changes that are driving the future of work and the future of education. We will cover topics related to the history of education and technology, recent impacts of new technological innovations, and responses by the education sector to provide new credentials, as well as new delivery mechanisms for existing credentials. We will consider how the future of work and education alters the social contract between technologists, firms, workers, educators, and policy makers.
The course is organized around research-practice partnerships in education. Each module pairs a policy problem with an empirical approach: descriptive diagnosis in a K-12 setting, regression discontinuity in early childhood education, and a randomized trial in open-access higher education. Across the cases, students examine both the evidence and the partnership work that made it possible, including data access, privacy, implementation, trust, and communication.
For much of the 20th century John Rawls' Theory of Justice has provided a normative framework for much policy-making in the U.S. and elsewhere. In this course, students explore an alternative theory of justice that places greater emphasis on democracy, doing a deep dive on works that have laid the foundation for this alternative ranging from Amartya Sen to Philip Pettit to Elinor Ostrom to Elizabeth Anderson to Melvin Rogers. In addition, we will spend time on how political philosophy comes to intersect with policy domains, looking at a few concrete applications including the economy, education, and artificial intelligence.
This course offers tested theories and frameworks grounded in real-world case studies to help you understand the current landscape and take an active role in reshaping education. Whether you are a (future) founder, a learning designer, a policymaker, or an administrator, this course will equip you to analyze different organizations/companies/country systems and push for change at various levels of impact-from the system to the classroom. The theories we study will also explain why some innovations succeed while others fail.
A supervised research experience provides HGSE Ed.M. students in the HDE program* with the opportunity to conduct academic research within the existing research portfolio of an approved HGSE faculty member for credit toward the degree. Each student enrolled in S995 is supervised by the HGSE faculty member overseeing the lab, center, or project in which that student is conducting research. In 2026-27, only projects related to human development and overseen by one of the participating researchers listed below may count toward S995. Exceptions may be granted in rare instances for HDE students who submit a petition to conduct human development-related research under supervision of an HGSE-affiliated academic researcher (principal investigator).
The Faculty Leader and Teaching Fellows will provide guidance and support throughout the course. The course has been designed to ensure that the engagement will be a rewarding experience for the students (for learning) and the client. Groups of students (3-4 students per group) will frequently interact with the external client, producing a thorough assessment of the challenge and drafting a set of recommendations that is proposed to address the immediate and underlying causes of the identified challenge.
The concentration prepares students for the full range of roles in this sector, from learning and development leaders and chief learning officers to instructional designers, workforce development program leaders, edtech founders, and the funders and policy people who shape the system around them. By the end of the year, you should be ready to step into one of these roles, fluent in the current science of how adults learn and clear-eyed about the nuance and complexity of putting it to work inside real organizations.
Hundreds of urban, suburban, and rural communities across the US are coming together to design coordinated systems of opportunity and support that complement high-quality schooling and address the broader conditions shaping young people’s lives. Cradle-to-career place-based partnerships bring together stakeholders across school systems, government, business, philanthropy, nonprofits, higher education, and community-, youth-, and faith-based organizations to solve complex problems and improve population-level outcomes in geographically defined places. By elevating the voices and lived experiences of residents and aligning resources and strategies, these partnerships work to meet local needs, build on community assets, and create coherent pathways that enable more young people to reach their full potential. The underlying assumption behind this work is that flourishing neighborhoods produce flourishing families which then can rear flourishing children who can come to school “ready to learn.”
Ethical principles are not forged in solitude. They emerge imperfectly and provisionally, under pressure and in conversation with others who do not share our views. This course focuses on that very process. Drawing on normative case studies in philosophy of education that feature complex educational dilemmas in policy, leadership, and the classroom, and on research on dialogue across difference, this course immerses students in the messy, unresolved work of ethical discussion. We will use transcript analysis, experimentation, and live facilitation practice to understand how principles emerge across group conversation and what makes genuinely contested discussions possible. Students leave with a deep grounding in educational ethics and a self-developed personal toolkit that integrates their own self-knowledge with new strategies for managing, holding, and working productively with conflict-- one that is uniquely their own and built for the groups, organizations, and contexts they will inhabit.
Across the United States, students in rural, suburban, and urban communities experience persistent educational inequities shaped by under-resourced schools, systemic inequality, and fragmented support systems. At the same time, faith communities-churches, mosques, temples, and other religious organizations-play a significant and often underexamined role in supporting young people, families, and educators through academic assistance, mentoring, social capital, and meaning-making. This course examines the intersection of faith, education, and community leadership through an ecosystem lens. Drawing on empirical research, case studies, practitioner frameworks, and student reflection, participants explore when faith-education partnerships enhance educational opportunity-and when they risk exclusion, coercion, or harm. The course emphasizes ethical leadership, partnership design, governance, and sustainability, with particular attention to educator well-being and community voice. Students leave the course with a research-informed, ethically grounded partnership design and a sharpened capacity to lead across difference.
A323Y/A324Y is a 2-credit yearlong course that provides HGSE students who have been accepted into the Data Wise Coach Certification (DWCC) program with the structure and support needed to complete the requirements of the program by May 2027. These requirements include: (1) Building Data Wise coach competencies by engaging in coursework and practice coaching, (2) Documenting your learning and (3) Sharing your learning in a live virtual portfolio review to which the whole coach network is invited.
This yearlong seminar is designed to provide students in the Partnership in Education Research (PIER) Fellowship program an opportunity to learn how to work with school agencies to produce research that both meets high scholarly standards and informs education decision-making. Following public seminars, speakers will be invited to provide a “director’s cut” narrative of how their research projects evolved, as well as the challenges they faced and resolved along the way. On weeks without a public seminar, the course will also cover specific practical skills and knowledge needed to conduct educational research, including topics such as understanding how school agencies are organized, communicating bad news, working with an institutional review board, protecting student confidentiality, data cleaning, communicating findings to nontechnical audiences, career planning, identifying funding opportunities and grant management.
This course explores teaching as a relational, ethical, and fraught practice. We will examine the tensions that shape educational life: authority and freedom, care and control, embodiment and intellect, affect and reason, preparation and presence, transformation and stability, constraint and possibility. Drawing from philosophy, anthropology, educational theory, critical pedagogy, and teacher education, we will study what it means to teach and to be a teacher. This course will be a reflective space for exploring different visions of teaching, sharpening our understandings of pedagogy, and dwelling with the unresolved questions at the heart of education.
The overall goals of this course are to:1) Provide an overview of learning differences with a focus on dyslexia, dyscalculia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, developmental language disorder, and autism spectrum disorder2) Provide a brief overview of educational policies and documentation relevant to these learners3) Provide an overview of the different stakeholders (professional, informal, community support) that are involved in a response to learning differences or interact with children who have learning differences. 4) Be able to identify the unique interaction dynamics, knowledge base, and support systems in professional, informal and community settings. 5) Be able to identify challenges and barriers for the care of children with learning differences in educational and community settings 6) Encourage students to redesign the current educational landscape and develop strategies for system-level translation and coordination between stakeholders7) Be able to identify missing or suboptimal supports, challenges and barriers that hinder children with learning differences to reach their full potential in educational, informal and community settings. 8) Encourage students to redesign the current community support/service implementation landscape for children with learning disabilities/differences and develop innovative strategies for community supports, service implementation, and communication strategies among stakeholders. After this course, learner will...● Have a moderate level of knowledge about learning differences, including dyslexia, dyscalculia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and autism spectrum disorder● Have an overview about educational policies and documentation relevant to these learners● Have more than a moderate level of knowledge about who delivers professional and community care for students with learning disabilities ● Have more than a moderate level of knowledge about the challenges that children with learning disabilities and their families face and the system-level supports that are currently in place. ● Have a thorough understanding of the current barriers and challenges and missing/suboptimal support system for the integrated care for children with learning disabilities within educational and community settings. ● Be able to identify the unique interaction dynamics, knowledge base, and support systems in professional, informal and community settings. ● Be able to identify missing or suboptimal supports, challenges and barriers that hinder children with learning differences to reach their full potential in educational, informal and community settings. ● Be able to critically evaluate the current systems that interact with, support, and deliver care for, children with learning disabilities ● Be able to outline of a variety of innovative approaches and communication strategies for the care team for children with learning disabilities that provides system-level translation and coordination ● Be able to outline the current community support/service implementation landscape for children with learning disabilities/differences ● Start redesigning the current community support/service implementation landscape for children with learning differences and develop innovative strategies for community supports, service implementation, and communication strategies among stakeholders.● Have general knowledge about care for 'the whole child" as compared to a more "siloed" approach
This course is taught in conjunction with the students’ practicum placement in a school or therapeutic setting and leads to licensure in School Counseling or School Adjustment counseling in the state of MA. To meet state requirements, both Adjustment and School Counseling students will complete a minimum of 600 hours of student contact, training and supervision at their respective sites by the end of the academic year. Students’ hours will include all activities that pertain to their site work such as note taking, direct service supports, and supervision
To achieve this goal, this course adopts a cross-cultural approach that contrasts and connects Western and East Asian perspectives on understanding the mind. Specifically, the course draws lessons from psychology research - which provides scientific theories and evidence regarding psychological phenomena and mechanisms - and Zen philosophy - which provides holistic and experiential insights into the nature of the mind and emphasizes self-reflection and self-realization.
Developing a framework for: - defining equity personally and from various perspectives across different contexts and impact ecosystems; - appreciating the diversity of research methods and types of evidence to consider when designing educational interventions that disrupt inequities; - articulating the ecosystem which an educational intervention must penetrate, influence, and leverage in order to promote impact; - identifying useful mechanisms to generate and collect evidence of relevant change; - evaluating the potential of educational innovations to address inequities effectively; - weighing different strategies for scaling impact; - considering tradeoffs for sustaining impact over time. Developing skills in: - evaluating research; - synthesizing information from multiple sources; - public speaking; - moderating a panel discussion; - eliciting and responding to different perspectives and points of view; - stating theories of action and supporting evidence; - listening carefully and asking relevant, probing questions; - evaluating the potential for an educational innovation to sustain its desired impact at scale.
By learning about and engaging with sociological theories and frameworks, students will understand how inequity issues in colleges are interconnected to other social policies and cultural conditions in our society. In addition to research studies, students will also read current news and opinion articles, and examine current issues using a sociological lens. Students will be asked to critically examine universities’ dominant practices, including established initiatives and programs, and develop new approaches that challenge the status quo. In this course, students will expand their views of higher education institutions as a context beyond educational institutions and analyze them as social organizations that both influence and are influenced by social conditions. Finally, while examining factors creating inequality, students will also learn about critical frameworks and tools to think in new ways of addressing inequities as agents of change in higher education.
The Asian American population in the United States is projected to reach 46 million by 2060, yet traditional discourse on race often limits educators’ understanding of key factors affecting students of Asian descent. This module examines salient issues in Asian America-from racial stereotypes and ethnic identity to student mental health and education policies and practices. It promotes critical analysis of the historical, sociopolitical, and familial contexts shaping Asian American experiences and highlights their stories of racial discrimination, activism, and resilience. The module is designed to deepen educators’ understanding of contemporary Asian American issues and to support critical reflection on their own awareness and practice.
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* The purpose of this course is to consider the ways in which culture shapes parenting and child development. The vast majority of research on child development comes from Western societies, yet by examining children and families in diverse cultures we can gain a greater understanding of (1) the sources and extent of variation in parenting beliefs and practices; and (2) the consequences of cultural differences in child rearing on children's development.
This course focuses on the epistemological, methodological, and pedagogical uses of critical race theory (CRT) in the examination and deconstruction of race-based educational disparities and inequalities in K-12 and postsecondary education. The overarching goals of the course will be to examine the utility of CRT as a theoretical framework in (1) interrogating the factors that cause racial educational disparities; (2) exploring why inequalities exist and persist; and (3) determining sustainable remedies to these disparities and inequalities. The course will begin by looking at CRT's roots in critical legal studies. The course will then explore CRT's more recent applications in the realm of education, which has its roots in examining the experiences of African Americans and others society deems as Black. In doing so, students will confront the intra- and interpersonal challenges and strengths of multiple socially constructed race groups by examining the branches of CRT that focus on people of color, including Latinos, Asians, and Indigenous peoples, and the use of CRT to examine Whiteness. Students will also investigate how CRT can be applied to other global racial dynamics and emerging technologies, such as AI. And ultimately the class will help students examine the racialized experiences of students and educators in traditional and non-traditional K-12 and higher education spaces. The course culminates with students being able to investigate the particular areas/fields/topics that they would like to explore through a CRT lens. The course instructors also work closely with students to co-construct learning communities that interrogate what we learn, how we learn, and why.
This course explores critical issues in the field of international postsecondary education coalescing around a few essential questions every country around the globe must answer in their own ways: Who should attend? How can quality be ensured? How can postsecondary education be financed? What role does equity play? Responses to each of these questions are predicated upon how a country defines and understands the purposes of postsecondary education. Students will also become familiar with some of the most influential organizations that help inform and shape international postsecondary education.
In an era marked by complexity, polarization, and burnout, this course offers a rigorous and deeply reflective learning experience designed to cultivate a warm-hearted, wise presence-one capable of meeting today's challenges with courage, clarity, and compassion. Through a wide-ranging set of readings, presentations, student-led discussions, guest speakers, and experiential practices, we develop lifelong tools for emotional regulation, conscious communication, and skillful action. We work intentionally with unhelpful habits, cultivating the capacity to intentionally and purposefully respond-not react-in the face of stress, conflict, and uncertainty. Assignments guide you in crafting real-life experiments to improve and repair personal and professional relationships, explore the impacts of systemic power dynamics, and practice taking mindful action aligned with your values and priorities. Grounded in adult developmental theory, Buddhist psychology, and the cognitive and affective sciences, we explore mindfulness, meditation, and embodiment exercises; practice deep listening and skillful communicating; engage in trust building activities; and co-create a brave and supportive learning community in which we can build our inner strengths, take meaningful risks, and grow into the leaders, educators, and transformational change agents we aspire to be.
This course is ideal for graduate students who are currently, or aspire to be, arts and culture leaders. This includes arts administrators, managers, entrepreneurs, artists, educators, school leaders, higher education faculty and staff, and beyond. Although this course is designed for students in the Arts in Learning cohort at HGSE, it is open to students across concentrations and schools. Although the course is arts-based and centers the arts and culture sector, the core frameworks used are transdisciplinary and justice-forward.
*Lottery-based Enrollment* Engaging in conversations about racism, past and present, is essential to building bridges and promoting democratic values. Many educators wish to teach about racism but may hesitate to explore controversial topics with students, especially younger learners. In this course, participants develop the knowledge and skills to teach the histories and realities of racism in the United States. We consider the developmental needs of students in grades K-12, including racial-ethnic and civic identity development. Topics include enslavement, genocide, and xenophobia, as well as examples of resistance to systemic racism. We explore sources by people of color who have been excluded from dominant narratives and consider how to cultivate agency and engagement when teaching difficult histories and current events.
Offered online only for residential HGSE students . What is mass incarceration and how does it relate to education? How do we conceptualize prison abolition? How can education as the practice of freedom (hooks, 1994) be realized inside policed classrooms? What is the purpose/power of formal education? Given that human connection is generally contraband in jails and prisons, and education is about connection, what is our praxis? These are some of the questions we will grapple with in our course together. Our work will engage a range of disciplines including ethics, transformative pedagogy, neuroscience, and public policy. Our classes will often be held in virtual conversation with students and leaders who are currently and formerly incarcerated to listen and learn with people who are deeply familiar with cradle-to-cell trauma, systems of racialized punishment, and the possibility of the classroom as a kind of sacred/healing space. We will dive deeply into pedagogy and students will have the opportunity to develop a meaningful multidisciplinary practicum project.
This course is an action-oriented introduction to theory and practice toward socially just education that enables all young people to thrive in settings of uncertainty. As a learning community, we will: (1) Investigate the theoretical foundations of education in uncertainty; (2) Analyze experiences of teachers and students in diverse settings of uncertainty including conflict, migration, and inequality; and (3) Learn how to use these theories and experiences toward policies, curricula, pedagogies, and relationships that allow young people to learn, to belong, and create their futures.
Educators are typically equipped with technology, media, and materials that are "one size fits all" and that have been designed primarily for a narrow and illusive group of "regular" students. This course will explore an alternative approach--universal design for learning (UDL)--that creates curricula and learning environments that are designed to meet the needs of a much wider range of student abilities and disabilities. The UDL framework takes advantage of advances in two fields: (1) the cognitive neuroscience of learning and individual differences and (2) the universal design of educational technologies and multimedia. This course will explore recent advances in both of these fields through readings, media, design workshops, and practical applications of UDL. We take a collaborative approach and work in teams to examine and design learning environments, curriculum, and technology.
Critical participatory action research (CPAR) is a form of critical, collective inquiry that provides youth and adults with opportunities to identify concerns that impact their lives, to gather and analyze data about these issues, and to take collective action to create more just communities. Described by Michele Fine & Maria Torre (2019) as, “research rooted in politics, power, participation, and a deep appreciation of knowledge, created in conditions of oppression and mobilized for social action,” CPAR projects are rooted in the teachings of popular education, democratic participation, and critical/feminist theories. Coming together around a common concern, CPAR researchers strive to name and explore the different ways in which positionality, context, and power impact their findings. There is a growing body of evidence that schools, community-based organizations, educators, and adolescents themselves are nurtured by benefit from this form of inquiry.
Why do people migrate? The world is witnessing an era of unprecedented human mobility, with the number of migrants worldwide reaching over 300 million people in 2025. Half of all im/migrants are women, 36 million of them are children and almost 40% of global migration occurs between countries in the global South. This course examines migration and education in global urban contexts. Drawing on the anthropology and sociology of immigration, the course reviews major theories of immigrant inclusionn and exclusion processes, examines case studies of im/migrants, refugees, and displaced persons and their adaptation processes in countries in the North and the South, and considers educational practices and policies that develop to address migration in diverse contexts. The course asks: (i) how cultural, social, political, and economic factors influence im/migrant incorporation; (ii) how immigrant families navigate newfound educational systems; and (iii) how educators can facilitate im/migrant students’ opportunities for learning through changes in policies, pedagogies, and curricula. In this course, students will consider the relationship between migration and development as they learn about the global phenomenon of migration and education. Students will read, watch, and hear from scholars and that have done research with migrant populations, but also hear from practitioners (teachers, educators, principals, and international organizations) about the challenges of implementing and executing policies in schools around the world. We will examine together how draconian, sweeping, exclusionary immigration policies affect children and families in schools around the world.
Community members and stakeholders, or those who are directly involved in delivering or receiving a program’s services, are often left out of the program evaluation process. This course explores how involving participants in program evaluation can create a learning community focused on evaluation and improvement. We will learn about common approaches to formative evaluation that require high levels of stakeholder participation. This is an introductory course into the practice of evaluation, with an emphasis on formative, collaborative, and developmental approaches. It is meant for students who will be working or leading in settings where they must collect and use information to build organizational capacity and affect change. Students will acquire essential program evaluation skills, such as understanding and diagramming logic models, communicating with key stakeholders, and generating relevant evaluation questions. Students will practice these skills in an authentic setting by working closely with a real organization and practitioners to document their program theories and proposed evaluation goals. At the end of this module, students will produce a complete program evaluation proposal for their partner organization. Students will also discuss and reflect upon how groups or organizations build capacity to engage participants in their own evaluation and improvement planning.
This course is an experiential. project -oriented, and product-focused learning experience. (NOTE; The term "product" in this context is meant to be generic- encompassing a range of possibilities e.g.: ed-tech tools, web apps/platforms, teacher resources, curricula/courses, workshops, media, games, services, programs, and physical educational objects.) Students will be introduced to and practice a streamlined approach to organizing a successful Pilot Program for new education products in formal/informal learning environments that draws from recent research, business strategy, proven processes, and best practices utilized successfully in multiple industries worldwide that can be tailored to promote education innovation. We will also consider social, cultural, economic, and technological trends and disruptions (e.g. AI) that could impact pilot success. Each step of the approach, students will be encouraged to consider multiple perspectives as they define priorities, make choices, and refine plans. Through experimentation and reflection, students will gain new insights about the capabilities, affordances, and issues associated with utilizing AI productivity and generative tools. By the end of six weeks, each student (working individually or as a team) will have a personalized Pilot Playbook ready to implement as well as a deeper understanding of potential pilot strategies, risks, challenges, and opportunities.
This course offers tested theories and frameworks grounded in real-world case studies to help you understand the current landscape and take an active role in reshaping education. Whether you are a (future) founder, a learning designer, a policymaker, an administrator, a teacher, an investor, or someone who simply wants to make a meaningful impact in education, this course will equip you to analyze different organizations/companies/systems and push for change at various levels of impact-from the system to the classroom. The theories we study will also explain why some innovations succeed while others fail.
This course provides a general introduction to and overview of the financial management practices and problems of nonprofit organizations. Specific topics will include financial accounting, budgeting/resource allocation, cost containment and retrenchment, and strategy development/strategic planning. Course activities will include lectures, discussions, case analyses, exercises, and outside readings. Grades will be based on written case analyses, class participation, and a final examination.
This course is about the challenges of managing human resources, with a focus on teachers and the education sector. The course is motivated by practical questions: whom to hire, fire, or promote, when to provide on-the-job training, how to evaluate job performance, whether to tie pay to performance, how to design jobs, how to structure retirement benefits, and others. We will examine these questions using tools from economics, especially labor and personnel economics. Underlying these questions are several essential economic concepts that this course will introduce: opportunity costs, asymmetric information, decisions under uncertainty, investments in human capital, principal-agent problem, and incentives, among others. To illustrate these questions and concepts we will use examples drawn from recent empirical research on teachers. As those examples will demonstrate, the topics of this course are directly relevant to several current education policy debates that we will discuss in class: for example, tenure rules, accountability and evaluation, pay for performance or credentials.
This course is for those “middle leaders,” particularly those early-career professionals and emerging leaders who may not manage a budget or lead a large team, but who want to move ideas into action and create impact in their organizations and communities. Whether you hope to work in a non-profit, community-based organization, social enterprise, ed-tech startup, school district, charter school network, or public agency, you will build practical tools to lead from where you are.
This course examines the challenges that contemporary Native American tribes and nations face as they endeavor to rebuild their communities, strengthen their cultures, and support their citizens. The range of issues that Native leaders and policymakers confront is wide and encompasses political sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, cultural promotion, land and water rights, religious freedom, health and social welfare, and education. Because the challenges are broad and comprehensive, the course emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of current Native nation building. Research finds that effective nation building must be compatible with individual societies' cultures. Yet, American Indian tribes are culturally heterogeneous. Hence, there is not "one size" that fits all. Case studies and simulations derived from field research and experience are utilized to engage students in the multidimensional settings that confront Native societies. Scholars and leaders from the Harvard University Native America Program provide selected presentations. The class features frequent presentations from prominent Indigenous leaders, who provide their perspectives on the choices and constrains they confront in their nation building efforts. Non-HKS graduate students from all schools and departments in the university are welcome by cross-registration. Grades will be based on quizzes, policy briefs and a final project.
This community based research course focuses on some of the major issues Native American Indian tribes and nations face in the 21st century. It provides in-depth, hands-on exposure to native development issues, including: sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, leadership, health and social welfare, tribal finances, land and water rights, culture and language, religious freedom, and education. In particular, the course emphasizes problem definition, client relationships, and designing and completing a research project for a tribe, tribal department, or other entities active in Indigenous affairs. The course is devoted primarily to preparation and presentation of a comprehensive research paper based on work with a tribal community. In addition to hearing presentations on topics related to Native issues (from a range of guest speakers), students will make presentations on their work in progress and ultimate findings. Please send a few sentences describing your interest in the class as your "petition" to join.
This course offers students a unique field experience opportunity to deepen their understanding of family and community engagement as a crucial element of whole-school educational reform. Building on the foundational knowledge from A122A, students will partner with practitioner groups such as local schools, districts, or nonprofit organizations on a family engagement-focused project. This two-way learning experience is designed both to advance ongoing family engagement initiatives within these partner organizations and to offer students hands-on practice in applying current family engagement theories, frameworks, and examples of promising practice.
Rates of violence, suicide, and mental health issues in schools are at an all-time high. Though most schools are equipped with school counselors, social workers, and psychologists, it is often the teacher who becomes the first responder and the first to notice when students display mental health vulnerabilities. This course will provide educators a general understanding of the following: 1. prevalent mental health issues seen in students, including symptoms and warning signs; 2. contextual, societal, and familial factors that render students vulnerable; 3. ways to promote the mental health of students in the classroom; and 4. protocols of accessing mental health support from service providers within and outside of schools.
In this seminar, students will define and redefine adulthood based in multiple contexts, considering catalysts and impediments on the pathway to adulthood. Using a historical lens, we will examine and understand the contexts that elicit longer and shorter pathways to adulthood, including the role of the economic context, educational and occupational opportunities, gender, and the need to co-construct adulthood with others. Whereas societal factors are often considered contextual, this seminar focuses on societies as active agents in shaping adolescents’ beliefs about adulthood and struggling with and sometimes against adolescents as they navigate their place as adults. This seminar takes a global lens and focuses on the ways in which the transition to adulthood is a dynamic and co-constructed concept and will aid students in developing an integrative understanding on societal needs and pressures and young adults’ tools in navigating the path to adulthood.
Adolescence marks change on multiple levels (e.g., biologically, cognitively, and socially) and in multiple contexts (e.g., family, school, community, and peers). In fact, it marks the largest growth period in human development outside of infancy. Driven by enhanced thinking and reasoning capabilities, adolescents struggle with balancing their desires for autonomy and independence with their desires for guidance and connection. These dynamics result in renegotiating family and social relationships and engagement in school, impact the effectiveness of educational practices, and enhance adolescents' ability to think and plan for their future. This course is designed to provide a practical understanding of the developmental issues, assets, and trajectories of adolescent thinking and reasoning. Based in classic and current theory and research and using real problems of practice, students will learn, integrate, and apply knowledge of biological and cognitive development and of identity processes. This course will prepare educational practitioners to integrate developmental approaches to their pedagogy and provide a foundation for those interested in applied research on adolescence.
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This course is about the challenges of managing human resources, with a focus on teachers and the education sector. The course is motivated by practical questions: whom to hire, fire, or promote, when to provide on-the-job training, how to evaluate job performance, whether to tie pay to performance, how to design jobs, how to structure retirement benefits, and others. We will examine these questions using tools from economics, especially labor and personnel economics. Underlying these questions are several essential economic concepts that this course will introduce: opportunity costs, asymmetric information, decisions under uncertainty, investments in human capital, principal-agent problem, and incentives, among others. To illustrate these questions and concepts we will use examples drawn from recent empirical research on teachers. As those examples will demonstrate, the topics of this course are directly relevant to several current education policy debates that we will discuss in class: for example, tenure rules, accountability and evaluation, pay for performance or credentials.
The Doctoral Colloquium brings together faculty and doctoral students in a community of learning to foster disciplinary and interdisciplinary dialogue and discussion. These meetings include presentations by Harvard faculty, faculty and researchers from outside Harvard, and Harvard doctoral students. The colloquium addresses salient topics and includes presentations of work-in-progress and completed work on topics of mutual and interdisciplinary interests.
The Doctoral Colloquium brings together faculty and doctoral students in a community of learning to foster disciplinary and interdisciplinary dialogue and discussion. These meetings include presentations by Harvard faculty, faculty and researchers from outside Harvard, and Harvard doctoral students. The colloquium addresses salient topics and includes presentations of work-in-progress and completed work on topics of mutual and interdisciplinary interests.
This seminar is for doctoral students who (aspire to) study teachers and teaching in their own research. The primary goal of the course is to develop skills and knowledge relevant to producing research. The course has several overlapping themes: (1) Understanding relevant history and institutions, e.g., past efforts to improve teaching, current policy debates, labor markets and employment relationships, etc. (2) Contrasting different theoretical perspectives used to motivate and organize research. (3) Application of research methods, e.g., measuring teacher contributions to student outcomes, (quasi)-experimental tests of changes to teachers or teaching practices, etc. Readings and class discussion will include both seminal papers and recently-published or working papers. Grading is credit/no credit. The final paper will be a research proposal on a topic related to teachers or teaching
This introductory course supports doctoral students in gaining familiarity and experience with the foundational theories and methods characteristic of qualitative research. Students explore the basic mechanics of qualitative research, as well as ways in which forms of qualitative research are fundamentally grounded in theories of knowledge, theories of the social world, and traditions of practice. Emphasis is placed on the conceptual and empirical decisions underlying various iterative and interacting facets of qualitative inquiry such as: articulating a researchable problem, the development of research questions, collecting data, creating data analytic techniques, analyzing data, considering threats to validity, and communicating findings in professional genres of scholarship. Throughout the course, we will pay attention to the ongoing ethical decisions and relationships that qualitative researchers engage as they conceptualize, design, and conduct research.
Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on class in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
In this course, we will ask: how can educational programs simultaneously advance the aims of community and individual development? The course takes the perspective that, in order to advance insights in response to this question, we must also develop our own capacity to advance social actions in collaboration with communities. The goal of the course is, therefore, to initiate a process in which the participant can imagine “walking a path of development” with a community. By the end of the course, the participant will, it is the hope, see themselves at the beginning of such a path, walking it together with the community they associate with. They will also gain insight into how the path can be extended by iteratively and cumulatively developing educational content, content that empowers people who live in the places they inhabit to advance place-based development through a cyclical process of action and reflection.
This is an optimistic course about a pessimistic state of affairs. There is no denying it - something feels fundamentally broken about our world. Across education, work, politics, technology, health, and community life, many of the systems that organize human society feel increasingly strained: inequality is widening, racism is persisting, institutions are losing trust, consumer capitalism rewards extraction over care, bureaucratic systems center the measurable over the meaningful, and technology, performativity, and polarization are reshaping public and private life. At a fundamental level, we seem to have lost track of what we value and what it means to be human together.
A323Y/A324Y is a 2-credit yearlong course that provides HGSE students who have been accepted into the Data Wise Coach Certification (DWCC) program with the structure and support needed to complete the requirements of the program by May 2027. These requirements include: (1) Building Data Wise coach competencies by engaging in coursework and practice coaching, (2) Documenting your learning and (3) Sharing your learning in a live virtual portfolio review to which the whole coach network is invited.
Through case studies, lectures, simulations, discussions with leading national practitioners, and exposure to collective impact efforts across urban, suburban, and rural contexts, students will examine equity-centered strategies to mitigate the effects of intergenerational poverty. Additionally, students will analyze policy and advocacy strategies needed to address structural inequities and align sustainable resources through public-private partnerships. By the end of the course, students will gain a deeper understanding of cutting-edge models and approaches that leverage the power of cross-sector collaboration to create pathways to social and economic mobility for millions of young people and families in the U.S.
As a part of our course, students will have access to the EdRedesign Lab’s vast network of partner communities (100+ in urban, suburban, and rural contexts across the US), senior fellows, staff and affiliates, Cradle-to-Career Partnership Leader Fellows, and national partners to bring real-world insights and inspiration to the classroom and unpack the dilemmas and opportunities that place-based practitioners are grappling with on the ground. Students will hear directly from some of the leading voices in the nation working within our field and their professional pathways into cradle-to-career work (including HGSE/Harvard graduates that have pursued careers in our sector). They will also learn about opportunities for additional co-curricular, mentoring, and career exploration programming that they can pursue through EdRedesign’s growing student engagement portfolio that includes term-time and summer employment opportunities, research assistantships, and postgraduate opportunities with national, regional, and local partners.
How might we better enable teens and young adults to cultivate both deep, meaningful romantic relationships and friendships? Students can draw on developmental psychology, moral philosophy, education research, and the arts and humanities to examine what it takes to love wisely and well, the key capacities at the heart of close relationships, including empathy, self-awareness and generosity, and how these capacities can be developed in schools and other settings. Class time will primarily consist of brief student presentations and discussion. Students will be asked, either individually or in groups, to assess an existing program or strategy that seeks to cultivate close relational capacities in young people or to develop their own strategy. Alternatively, students can share a brief reading, video, podcast or film clip that sheds light on a key aspect of close relationships. Students will leave with both a deepened understanding of the relational capacities that underpin a good life and concrete, practical strategies for cultivating them in young people.
How do we raise children to become good people and lead good lives? This module explores these questions. We’ll focus on two main pillars of a good life-morality and romantic love-and on the capacities children need to develop to be moral and to engage in gratifying, ethical romantic and sexual relationships. How do we develop in children and teens the capacities, for example, to be caring, justice-minded and courageous? How do we cultivate in them moral purposes, i.e. goals that benefit others and their communities? How do we develop in them the capacity to love in ways that nurture and expand both those they love and themselves? How do we guide them in developing caring, ethical and gratifying sexual relationships? We will analyze how school and home environments, as well as major societal trends, are shaping the development of these capacities, and explore concrete school and home-based strategies for cultivating these capacities in children. We’ll also explore the challenges and opportunities in cultivating these capacities in children in these anxious, uncertain times. The module seeks to deepen students’ understanding of morality and love and to provide ideas and tools for developing these capacities in children and young people.
In the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program's Field Experience course, Teacher Candidates are provided with a rich, immersive experience in a school environment. This course requires a commitment of between 400-600 hours in a practicum school. The Field Experience course is designed to foster meaningful learning opportunities, with a focus on leading a classroom and understanding the dynamics of a school environment. It aims to create intentional, bidirectional connections between the field experience and TTL coursework, enabling Teacher Candidates to build their teaching knowledge and skills, reflect on their practice, and prepare to lead impactful anti-oppressive learning environments that are culturally and linguistically supportive for all students. Grounded in the TTL Indicators for Effective Teaching, the Field Experience Objectives include:
In the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program's Field Experience course, Teacher Candidates are provided with a rich, immersive experience in a school environment. This course requires a commitment of between 400-600 hours in a practicum school. The Field Experience course is designed to foster meaningful learning opportunities, with a focus on leading a classroom and understanding the dynamics of a school environment. It aims to create intentional, bidirectional connections between the field experience and TTL coursework, enabling Teacher Candidates to build their teaching knowledge and skills, reflect on their practice, and prepare to lead impactful anti-oppressive learning environments that are culturally and linguistically supportive for all students. Grounded in the TTL Indicators for Effective Teaching, the Field Experience Objectives include:
Research Innovations and Pressing Issues in Language and Literacy serves as the core convening for the Literacy and Languages concentration, scheduled during the Wednesday Concentration Time block. Students will engage with researchers, practitioners, and authors who will share their ongoing work in literacy and language, nationally and internationally, with opportunities to interact with faculty and peers from other concentrations. These sessions will include being in conversation with many forms of literacy, such as representational art, historical sites, and graphics. Students must attend all of the core convening sessions to receive credit.
In the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program's Field Experience course, Teacher Candidates are provided with a rich, immersive experience in a school environment. This course requires a commitment of between 150-600 hours in a practicum school. The Field Experience course is designed to foster meaningful learning opportunities, with a focus on leading a classroom and understanding the dynamics of a school environment. It aims to create intentional, bidirectional connections between the field experience and TTL coursework, enabling Teacher Candidates to build their teaching knowledge and skills, reflect on their practice, and prepare to lead impactful anti-oppressive learning environments that are culturally and linguistically supportive for all students. Grounded in the TTL Indicators for Effective Teaching, the Field Experience Objectives include:
In the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program's Field Experience course, Teacher Candidates are provided with a rich, immersive experience in a school environment. This course requires a commitment of between 150-600 hours in a practicum school. The Field Experience course is designed to foster meaningful learning opportunities, with a focus on leading a classroom and understanding the dynamics of a school environment. It aims to create intentional, bidirectional connections between the field experience and TTL coursework, enabling Teacher Candidates to build their teaching knowledge and skills, reflect on their practice, and prepare to lead impactful anti-oppressive learning environments that are culturally and linguistically supportive for all students. Grounded in the TTL Indicators for Effective Teaching, the Field Experience Objectives include:
In the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program's Field Experience course, Teacher Candidates are provided with a rich, immersive experience in a school environment. This course requires a commitment of between 400-600 hours in a practicum school. The Field Experience course is designed to foster meaningful learning opportunities, with a focus on leading a classroom and understanding the dynamics of a school environment. It aims to create intentional, bidirectional connections between the field experience and TTL coursework, enabling Teacher Candidates to build their teaching knowledge and skills, reflect on their practice, and prepare to lead impactful anti-oppressive learning environments that are culturally and linguistically supportive for all students. Grounded in the TTL Indicators for Effective Teaching, the Field Experience Objectives include:
In the Teaching and Teacher Leadership (TTL) program's Field Experience course, Teacher Candidates are provided with a rich, immersive experience in a school environment. This course requires a commitment of between 400-600 hours in a practicum school. The Field Experience course is designed to foster meaningful learning opportunities, with a focus on leading a classroom and understanding the dynamics of a school environment. It aims to create intentional, bidirectional connections between the field experience and TTL coursework, enabling Teacher Candidates to build their teaching knowledge and skills, reflect on their practice, and prepare to lead impactful anti-oppressive learning environments that are culturally and linguistically supportive for all students. Grounded in the TTL Indicators for Effective Teaching, the Field Experience Objectives include:
This module provides participants with an overview of literacy coaching across grade levels (K-12) and school contexts. Research, theory, and practice addressed in the module will focus on the intersection of the following fields: transformational change, culturally sustaining pedagogy, adult development, professional learning, and school improvement. In a workshop format, participants will address the module's overarching questions: What does literacy coaching look like across grade levels, coaching models, and school contexts? Which coaching practices do teachers, coaches, and researchers find effective? How does coaching facilitate school improvement efforts? The module's weekly activities and final assignment have been specifically designed to allow those interested in literacy education, professional learning, and school improvement to pursue their academic interests as related to current literacy coaching research and practice. This module is appropriate for master's and doctoral students wanting to learn more about the theory and practices enacted in coaching models to strengthen teachers' literacy instruction (K-12).
Every day conflict destroys families, organizations, and nations. Yet, some amount of disagreement is an inevitable part of our social lives and is required for both wise personal decision-making and even the functioning of democracy. In this course, we will work to understand the psychology of interpersonal disagreement, how it turns into conflict, and what to do about it. Based on academic insights from the social sciences as well as the guidance of expert practitioners, this course will offer students both a better understanding of the science of disagreement and conflict, as well as practical tools for managing such situations. At the conclusion of the course, students will have learned frameworks and concepts for thinking and communicating about conflict and have advanced their skills around disagreeing constructively both in their personal and professional relationships.
The world is on fire. War, faltering growth, huge investments in artificial intelligence, increasing political polarization, accelerating inequality and a global move towards populist authoritarianism are undermining economies and political systems across the planet. Meanwhile ecosystems are collapsing and global temperatures continue to increase, driving floods, droughts and fires, and threatening to make a significant fraction of the earth’s surface uninhabitable.
Courses in this MPP core sequence examine how social categories, group-based cleavages, and inequalities shape contemporary leadership and policy challenges. The modules equip students with core knowledge, analytic approaches, and professional skills to understand and navigate how institutions and policies interact with dynamic, contested, and conflictual group-based identities and hierarchies. Through a diverse set of complementary module-length courses addressing race, ethnicity, gender, indigeneity, caste, class, and more, this sequence grounds questions and debates about identity, intergroup conflict, unequal treatment, and shifting social and political boundaries in rigorous empirical and historical perspective. This course is a four-credit sequence in which you'll take two half-semester modules selected out of seven options (note: some modules are offered twice). See full list of options here .
Courses in this MPP core sequence examine how social categories, group-based cleavages, and inequalities shape contemporary leadership and policy challenges. The modules equip students with core knowledge, analytic approaches, and professional skills to understand and navigate how institutions and policies interact with dynamic, contested, and conflictual group-based identities and hierarchies. Through a diverse set of complementary module-length courses addressing race, ethnicity, gender, indigeneity, caste, class, and more, this sequence grounds questions and debates about identity, intergroup conflict, unequal treatment, and shifting social and political boundaries in rigorous empirical and historical perspective. This course is a four-credit sequence in which you'll take two half-semester modules selected out of seven options (note: some modules are offered twice). See full list of options here .
This class is a working boot camp for anyone who wants to run, advise, or simply understand campaigns in low- and middle-income countries. This course pulls back the curtain on what it takes to contest-and understand-elections in low- and middle-income democracies. Blending political-economy theory with practitioner stories, we analyze how candidates are recruited, campaigns are financed and managed, voters are persuaded (or pressured), and how social media, clientelism, and global disinformation shape results.
This is an experiential learning course for MPP1 students interested in working on policy issues at the state and local level. The goals of the course are for students to learn from practical experience and prepare for their second-year Policy Analysis Exercise. Each student will be matched on the basis of their policy interests with a partner state agency, town government, or non-profit organization in Massachusetts to address an issue designated by the partner agency.
This is a required module for MPP1 students who placed out of API-101 because of their prior training in economics. The course advances students’ ability to use their microeconomic skills to analyze, develop, and critique public policies in professional settings. It covers major public sector activities including raising revenue, alleviating poverty, providing social insurance, assessing the benefits and costs of regulations, procuring goods and services, promoting innovation, and making decisions about immigration and trade.
If you want to shape how societies educate the next generation, this course offers a path. You will step into the policymaker’s role, tackling real education problems in diverse global contexts including developed (e.g., U.S.) and developing countries through an immersive, problem ‑ based learning model. By combining rigorous analysis, comparative insights, and collaborative design work, you will learn to craft evidence ‑ driven reforms that respond to political realities, stakeholder interests, and resource constraints. The course equips you with the mindset and tools needed to influence policy-and to lead change in the places that need it most.
The goal of this course is to help you think more analytically, which I hope will lead you to better understand the world around you, make smarter personal and professional decisions, achieve better outcomes, and ultimately lead a more fulfilling life. A central premise of the course is that the world is full of uncertainty, and that using systematic approaches, frameworks and tools to deal with this uncertainty can be immensely helpful for individuals, teams, and organizations. The course will use a variety of approaches including interactive teaching, blended learning, case studies, simulations, learning journals, and a forecasting tournament. You will constantly be asked to apply what you learn in the course to personal, professional and policy situations.
Generative AI can now perform many tasks at a level approaching that of expert humans, including policy research, empirical analysis, and software development. “The Science and Implications of Generative AI” is an interdisciplinary course designed to equip you with a solid understanding of how generative AI works, how to use it, and the larger opportunities and challenges it poses for society. This course blends technical learning with hands-on experiences, encouraging you to explore the inner workings of modern AI tools while engaging in practical applications of these systems. Through case studies, simulations, and project-based assignments, you will learn to assess the advantages and risks of deploying generative AI. The curriculum underscores the significance of informed policymaking in this rapidly evolving field, seeking to ensure that HKS graduates can harness AI technology responsibly for the benefit of society.
Courses in this MPP core sequence examine how social categories, group-based cleavages, and inequalities shape contemporary leadership and policy challenges. The modules equip students with core knowledge, analytic approaches, and professional skills to understand and navigate how institutions and policies interact with dynamic, contested, and conflictual group-based identities and hierarchies. Through a diverse set of complementary module-length courses addressing race, ethnicity, gender, indigeneity, caste, class, and more, this sequence grounds questions and debates about identity, intergroup conflict, unequal treatment, and shifting social and political boundaries in rigorous empirical and historical perspective. This course is a four-credit sequence in which you'll take two half-semester modules selected out of seven options (note: some modules are offered twice). See full list of options here .
This course examines how American governments structure and manage their workforces. We will study the emergence of the modern civil service, its constitutional constraints, and its effects on performance and accountability. Specific focus areas will include the relationship between political appointees and career officials; systems for hiring, promotion, and dismissal; salaries, performance pay, and pensions; and the role of public sector unions.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) might be the most consequential technology humanity has ever created. Algorithms already decide who gets bail, credit, job interviews, or visas. Platforms exercise authority over democratic life at a scale no government has achieved. And looming in the background are questions - about general AI, about the moral status of artificial minds, about the survival of democratic self-governance - that no existing political or legal tradition was designed to address. The usual tools of policy-analysis look at change at the margins - but the magnitude and pace of change in AI is so large that these tools are insufficient to guide us through this change. This course develops the philosophical and political theory tools needed to analyze these problems and to translate that analysis into policy. It opens by asking what is at stake and which entities have moral status in an AI-transformed world - questions that precede and shape all ethical analysis. It then examines three major ethical frameworks (utilitarian longtermism, virtue ethics, Kantian deontology) before arguing that all three are insufficient for governance and that political theory is required to do the work ethics alone cannot. The remainder of the course applies this integrated framework to concrete challenges of the digital age, ranging from short-time governance challenges to long-term challenges that might arise if an intelligence explosion of sorts actually materializes. The field moves fast. Readings combine enduring philosophical foundations with recent empirical and policy-relevant material. Course materials will be updated as significant developments occur during the semester.
This module, required for students in their fourth year of study toward joint degrees from Harvard Law School and the Harvard Kennedy School, focuses on applying the skills, styles and methods taught at the two Schools and in the third year required joint degree seminar, "Public Problems." Students will prepare and present a major piece of written work (the required Integrated Written Project) analyzing and proposing solutions to a substantial public problem faced by a society or an institution. The goal is for joint degree students to apply in their papers the multidisciplinary techniques, methods and approaches they have studied over the previous three years, including those common in law, political science, economics, management, history, policy analysis, and ethical/moral reasoning. The class sessions will be spread out so that students can work on their outlines and drafts between sessions. Each student will present to the class several times in order to develop and revise their drafts with the benefit of peer and instructor feedback. Evaluation is based on the final paper and on class participation. Attendance is mandatory in all sessions.
This seminar is designed to support MPP-2 students writing their Policy Analysis Exercise in the areas of democracy, politics, and institutions. The course is structured to support students as they identify the topic on which they will focus, clarify the problem they will be addressing, develop a strategy to gather information to address the problem, analyze their findings, develop recommendations, and produce the final product. Over the fall we will focus the class sessions on gaining an understanding of what a PAE is, clarifying the problem each student will address, and identifying and developing the research methods needed to study the problem. In the second semester we will focus on producing your final PAE: writing useful first drafts and refining them, effectively using graphics, and persuasively presenting your analysis and recommendations both orally and in writing. Students work individually or in small groups on a project that they select. Open only to MPP2 students.
This seminar is designed to support MPP-2 students writing their Policy Analysis Exercise in the areas of international and global affairs. The course is structured to support students as they identify the topic on which they will focus, clarify the problem they will be addressing, develop a strategy to gather information to address the problem, analyze their findings, develop recommendations, and produce the final product. Over the fall we will focus the class sessions on gaining an understanding of what a PAE is, clarifying the problem each student will address, and identifying and developing the research methods needed to study the problem. In the second semester we will focus on producing your final PAE: writing useful first drafts and refining them, effectively using graphics, and persuasively presenting your analysis and recommendations both orally and in writing. Students work individually or in small groups on a project that they select. Open only to MPP2 students.
This course is designed to equip students with the mindset and toolkit to anticipate, assess, and respond to existing and emerging threats to homeland and global security. Such developments have the potential to cause massive disruptions to populations and societies, including severe human harm, substantial economic damage, governmental instability, and violent conflict. Given the current pace of change, the course will highlight how advances in science and technology shape both the ability and the responsibility to predict, evaluate, and respond to new threats. Students will consider how to develop policy approaches to governing emerging technologies given the paradox that the very innovation that drives revolutionary discoveries may also create new risks-and the same tools that make those threats so dangerous may be essential to countering them.
Throughout the course, students return to a central question: where is industrial advantage actually created? Is it found in national planning, provincial competition, the capabilities of firms, or the structure of global production networks? By comparing these perspectives against evidence from industries including solar, batteries, electric vehicles, semiconductors, and the electric power system, students will develop a deeper understanding of China’s political economy and the strategic choices facing governments and firms operating within it. Selective comparisons with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia sharpen what is distinctive about the Chinese case.
The core learning objective is to develop Python programming skills by effectively prompting AI coding assistants and agents to generate extract, transform, and load (ETL) code for an automated streaming pipeline that transfers data from source to visualization with minimal manual maintenance. Students will create projects powered by technical infrastructures such as Model Context Protocol (MCP) for acquiring, organizing, and visualizing dynamic dashboards, maps, websites, and chat-based exploratory data analysis (EDA) applications. Although no previous knowledge of programming or AI is required, students should have taken either DPI-851M Introduction to Data and Information Visualization or DPI-853M Data Visualization: Storytelling Strategies or accumulated substantial data skills in their past academic or professional experiences.
Policy analysis is problem solving. It involves making systematic comparisons across a set of alternatives to address a particular policy or planning problem, usually in the face of time and resource constraints. Typically, policy analysis is done to provide advice to a client, organization, or another decision-maker in the face of a public problem or crisis. It involves rapid response, quickly orienting yourself to new and changing topics that often are complex and controversial. How to develop doable solutions that target the core problem at hand? How to weigh the many competing trade-offs among diverse stakeholders? How to balance innovation with pragmatism? In this class we will develop strategies to address these, and other, challenges.
Nearly every aspect of human life is being transformed by rapid developments in science and technology - particularly artificial intelligence. This course is the foundational course of the technology policy concentration, intended to provide frameworks for designing solutions to the public dilemmas posed by chance science and technology. How should societies cope with, and shape, the course of scientific and technological change, seizing opportunities for benefits while mitigating risks? What tools are available for governments, markets, and other societal institutions to manage these changes? How should such decisions be made, and by whom? The course uses selected case studies related to artificial intelligence, biotech, space, and nuclear technologies to illustrate approaches to addressing such challenges.
Latin America is the most violent region of the world and one of the most unequal. But it has also been home to countless policy innovations, from participatory budgeting to conditional cash transfers. This course will examine some of the profound political and social challenges facing the region alongside the novel policy responses leaders have enacted in an effort to resolve those problems. How have countries sought to address pressing challenges such as ending a decades-long armed conflict, ameliorating entrenched poverty and inequality, eradicating enduring racial and ethnic exclusion, reducing rampant crime and violence, and remedying democratic distrust and political polarization? Have the policy and institutional responses enacted by leaders - such as Colombia’s novel transitional justice processes, Mexico’s and Brazil’s massive conditional cash transfer programs, Brazil’s affirmative action polices and participatory budgeting institutions, and El Salvador’s mass incarceration strategy - been effective in addressing these problems and improving conditions for ordinary citizens? The answers to these questions are far from straightforward, and they continue to be the subject of ongoing political debates and societal contestation. In this course our objective will be to take a step back from highly fraught and contentious debates in order to examine policy problems from multiple angles. We will work together to (1) situate contemporary policy challenges within a broader historical and structural context in order to understand present-day tensions and contradictions; (2) apply a comparative lens to some of the key challenges posed by problems such as inequality, violence, and polarization by examining commonalities across different national contexts; (3) draw on empirical evidence and social science research to understand and evaluate the effectiveness and consequences of contested policy responses.
The goal of this course is to prepare students to analyze public policy issues using statistics. Topics included fall in the areas of probability theory, statistical inference, causal inference, and machine learning. While many students taking this course will have already taken courses in statistics and econometrics, this course will probably place a much stronger emphasis than typical courses on conceptually understanding the statistical methods. Since the course is targeted to first-year students in the MPA/ID program, we will not shy away from using the mathematical tools needed to develop the conceptual understanding. But the emphasis of the course will be on the conceptual understanding and application of the tools rather than on the math or the mechanics behind the tools.
This course develops abilities in using analytic frameworks in the formulation and assessment of public policy. It considers a variety of analytic techniques, particularly those directed toward uncertainty and interactive decision problems. Its emphasis is on the application of techniques to policy analysis, not on formal derivations. Students are encouraged to work with others on the challenging problem sets. The course employs mini-case studies, methodological readings, the computer, the Internet, and a final exam. Students are pushed to be creative in confronting policy issues.
The purpose of the course is to facilitate the development of students' dissertation research ideas and to build community among Harvard Kennedy School doctoral students and faculty. Invited speakers from the Harvard Kennedy School faculty will engage students in conversations about the stages of research development (e.g., generating ideas, choosing research methods, building a research agenda). Students will generate research proposals and present them at a day-long retreat at the end of the semester.
Countries around the world have faced a series of macroeconomic disruptions in the 21st century. The global financial crisis, the pandemic-induced recession, and the subsequent surge in inflation have challenged policymakers in different ways. More recently, heightened geopolitical tensions have introduced new risks to economic stability, while high government debt and the potential for disruptive new technologies add further uncertainty. In this course, we will learn the key tools that macroeconomists use to understand these developments, explore the circumstances and institutions that shaped each episode, and consider what policies can mitigate the harm from economic disruptions. We will then turn to longer-run challenges. We will examine what drives differences in living standards across countries and consider what policymakers can do to promote broad-based sustainable economic growth and strengthen economic resilience.
Students will use AI coding agents to work through complete analytical pipelines, from data acquisition and cleaning through modeling, robustness checks, and communication of findings to policymakers. The course emphasizes four cross-cutting skills: structuring effective agentic workflows, managing cognitive debt, verification-first analysis, and reproducibility and documentation. The course will also introduce the use of AI as a research methodology, such as the use of large language models to classify text at scale, though this will not be the primary focus. This is an applied, project-based course; students will complete a capstone analysis using real policy data.
API-114 and API-115 comprise a two-course sequence for first-year doctoral students seeking training in econometric methods at a level that prepares them to conduct professional empirical research. API-115 (spring) begins by reviewing the foundations of causal inference, covering potential outcomes, the selection problem, and randomized evaluations. The course will then cover instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, bunching estimators, and difference-in-differences and synthetic control methods. The course will emphasize a mixture of theory and application, with problem sets focused on the replication or extension of recent papers utilizing these methods.
Spring Exercise is a two-week long simulation offering students an intense challenge of intellectual integration and practical application spanning the disciplines represented in the MPP core. The exercise gives students practice at applying core tools and concepts in a setting and at a pace approximating professional reality. It thus serves as a capstone to the first-year core and a bridge to the second-year Policy Analysis Exercise and subsequent professional work.
This is the second semester of a rigorous two-semester sequence in advanced microeconomic analysis for MPA/ID students. Topics covered include game theory, economics of information, incentives, and contracts. Theory is illustrated by relevant applications to international development and other areas.
Undergraduates with the appropriate background are welcome, subject to the instructor's approval. Prerequisites: API-111, Econ. 2010a, or HBS 4010; multivariate calculus; and one course in probability theory. API-112 and API-110 cannot both be taken for credit. Students may receive credit for API-112 and API-102 or API-303 only if API-102 or API-303 is taken first. Also offered by the Economics Department as Ec 2020b and by the Business School as 4011.
This course is the second in the two-course sequence on macroeconomic policy in the MPA/ID program. Topics covered in the first half of the course include international financial integration, exchange rate models, speculative attacks, the carry trade, portfolio choice, currency risk, default risk, Debt Sustainability Analysis, and crises in Emerging Markets. The second half of the course uses tools of dynamic optimization. Topics covered include, among others, the Solow and Ramsey models of long-term growth, endogenous growth theory, Over-Lapping Generations models, Real Business Cycles, search theory, New Keynesian models, and Dynamic Stochastic General Equilibrium models.
Provides an analytical survey, from the perspective of economics, of global climate change and public policies to address it, including international, regional, national, and sub-national policies. The political economy and politics of alternative policies are also covered. Methodological topics that are broadly relevant for other resource and environmental issues are featured.
This module will introduce and critically analyze efforts to direct private sector financial investments to public purpose. These efforts-falling under the headings of impact, responsible, mission, social, and sustainable investing-looks for ways to maximize the social utility of private investment. We will examine the: 1) types of investors engaged in these efforts (e.g. individuals, pension funds, endowments, foundations); 2) social goals they hope to achieve through their investments; 3) investment strategies and vehicles through which they hope to achieve these goals; 4) intersections of impact investing and public policy; 5) ways that stakeholders assess the impact of these investments. The class will balance U.S. domestic and global examples of investment, policymaking, and advocacy.
This is a required seminar for degree candidates in the first year of the MPP-MBA and MPA/ID-MBA joint programs. It focuses on business firms and other organizations navigating opportunity and challenge-in contexts where the public interest (and often government policy) looms especially large, alongside the pursuit of profit and investor return. The course will be taught primarily via the case method, though several sessions will opt for non-case readings to delve more deeply into substantive content areas. A few of the sessions will be devoted to complementing students’ field activities, or to exploring topics that the students propose and agree upon. While most of the cases will feature private sector firms (from a variety of industries), others will spotlight nonprofits or governments drawing heavily on business tools and practices. Case themes will include vision, values, governance, leadership, management, strategy, organization, risk management, and performance metrics/success criteria.
We will use modified, real-time case studies to understand multiple sides of policy questions in order to work towards solutions. We emphasize the importance of encouraging, and students offering, differing perspectives. Although the discussions inevitably touch on economics, business strategy and the law, we are not teaching any of those disciplines on a standalone basis. Rather we are teaching policy makers how to make use of those, and other, disciplines in their own decision-making. Thus, we will consider past events that may provide guidance in analyzing current and future trends, including how, as a matter of antitrust/competition policy, sectoral regulation, and industrial policy, governments have confronted such challenges in the past and what lessons that history offers for our future.
This seminar is designed to support MPP-2 students writing their Policy Analysis Exercise in the areas at the intersection of business and government. The course is structured to support students as they identify the topic on which they will focus, clarify the problem they will be addressing, develop a strategy to gather information to address the problem, analyze their findings, develop policy options, and produce the final product - including policy recommendations. Over the fall we will focus the class sessions on gaining an understanding of what a PAE is, clarifying the problem each student will address, and identifying and developing the research methods needed to study the problem. In the second semester we will focus on producing your final PAE: writing useful first drafts and refining them, effectively using graphics, and persuasively presenting your analysis and recommendations both orally in presentations to your classmates and in writing. Students work individually or in small groups on a project that they select. Open only to MPP2 students.
The course then considers the World Trade Organization (WTO). It explores negotiation mechanisms and principles, the rules relating to market access, services, agriculture, trade-related intellectual property (TRIPs), fair trade, safeguards and the system for dispute settlement and retaliation.
The world is profoundly interconnected through trade, technology, capital markets, and migration. For decades, the international economic and geopolitical order favoured and supported policies to advance economic integration. Today, that order is under significant strain. In this course we will draw upon history, economic theory, and evidence to shed light on the choices and trade-offs faced by governments, international institutions, businesses, and citizens as they face the international economy. We will explore why globalization is currently in turmoil and the range of reforms under discussion to make it work better. We will trace the history of globalization starting from ancient times to contextualize contemporary issues. Topics will include: (i) the fragmentation of international trade, now marked by tariffs, a trade war between the U.S. and China, and trade frictions between the U.S. and its allies; (ii) erosion of international norms such as multilateralism and territorial integrity; (iii) rising domestic polarization over immigration and inequality; (iv) challenges to the U.S. dollar as the world’s safe-haven currency; and (v) increasingly bleak prospects for collective climate and public health action. Our goal is to expose students to diverse and competing perspectives so they can develop their own informed views on globalization.
This course examines important current issues in the regulation of the U.S. capital markets and the financial systemSpecific topics will likely include: mechanisms for controlling risk in financial institutions, particularly capital and liquidity requirements; the unique problem of systemic risk; environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues; dealing with illiquid and insolvent institutions, including resolution authority; optimal regulatory structure and use of cost-benefit analysis; market microstructure for securities trading; the rise and regulation of private markets, regulation of derivatives trading; ; the Shadow Banking System; Federal Reserve measures during the COVID-19 and 2023 banking crises; and recent trends in FinTech and digital currencies. Classes will be primarily based on lectures and interactive discussion and will also include regular guest speakers. Required written work will be a final take-home examination, with a week between distribution and due date.
The global food system must feed a growing population with richer diets while operating within environmental and social limits. This course introduces that challenge and the policies that shape it. We start with the historical context - Malthus, the Green Revolution, and the drivers of agricultural productivity - then examine how climate change, trade, and geopolitical shocks affect food supplies, and how agriculture itself contributes to greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and pressure on fisheries and land. We study domestic food and nutrition policy (food assistance, labeling, the Farm Bill) alongside labor, food safety, and market concentration. The course emphasizes evidence-driven analysis of food and socio-economic data and the real tradeoffs policymakers face among productivity, sustainability, equity, and resilience.
This course deals with the macroeconomics of open economies. The emphasis will be on models appropriate to major countries. Topics covered include: the foreign exchange market, devaluation, and import and export elasticities; the simultaneous determination of the trade balance, national income, the balance of payments, money flows, and interest rates; capital flows in integrated financial markets; monetary and fiscal policy in open economies; international macroeconomic interdependence and policy coordination; supply relationships, inflation, and nominal anchors for monetary policy; the determination of exchange rates in international money markets; and international portfolio diversification.
This survey course is designed to help students think analytically about the ways in which government and business interact with one another in a mixed economy. It examines: (1) how business and government are organized and how they seek to influence one another; (2) how government policies affect the competitive positions of individual firms and industries and how firms and industries compete to influence such policies; (3) the ways in which government policies affect economic growth and the ways in which governments seek to achieve a variety of noneconomic objectives; and (4) how to define national economic interest in an increasingly integrated global economy. Although the focus is on U.S. business-government relationships, comparisons are made to ways in which government and business interact in other nations.
This course develops policies to address four critical challenges: creating good jobs, accelerating the green transition, reducing global poverty, and promoting economic growth. The premise is that these challenges are all rooted in a common imperative: promoting structural transformation towards new forms of economic activity (that are more productive, greener, and create pathways for broad prosperity). Traditionally, governments have employed a mix of industrial, innovation, and place-based policies to foster structural change. We will consider lessons of economic history and comparative evidence (from the experiences of advanced and developing economies) on the use of such policies. We will examine how the effectiveness of such policies can be enhanced and the range of goals they can achieve broadened. Using a variety of cases from around the world, we will discuss the theory and design of new approaches that update traditional industrial policy instruments, focusing in particular on iterative, collaborative, experimentalist modes of governance.
This course will examine international arrangements for the regulation of finance. Arrangements covered include the International Monetary Fund, the Financial Stability Board, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision, the International Organization of Securities Commissions, the European Union, and the General Agreement on Trade in Services within the World Trade Organization. Specific substantive topics will be chosen to illustrate their activities. We will consider the substantial differences among these arrangements in institutional and governance structures, legal status, and relationship to domestic regulation. A recurring theme will be the tensions between the presumptive shared interests of governments in predictable rules or financial stability, on the one hand, versus divergent national commercial interests or regulatory preferences, on the other.
This course analyzes the development and modern practice of presidential leadership in the United States by: (1) examining the evolution of the modern presidency, the process of presidential selection, and the structure of the presidency as an institution; (2) considering the ways in which presidents make decisions and seek to shape foreign, economic, and domestic policy; and (3) exploring the relationship of the presidency with other major government institutions, organized interest groups, the press, and the public. Its primary concern is with the political resources and constraints influencing the president's ability to provide leadership in the U.S. political system.
DPI-202 examines moral leadership in the context of professional public service. It focuses on cultivating proficiency in a range of skills that together help to ground moral action. These skills include: 1) accurately perceiving the moral dimensions of situations that arise in public service, 2) adequately weighing moral tradeoffs that have to be made as part of strategic action, and 3) effectively putting into reflective equilibrium, the verdicts of the heart and those of the head. Additionally, DPI-202 promotes 4) the capacity to entertain different moral perspectives, that is, the ability to temporarily live in another person’s moral universe and see the world through their eyes. The ability to do this well is an essential component to successfully practicing the skills needed for virtuous action. The class will be largely case-based, but also introduce moral and political theory and material from adjacent fields as needed to work through the cases. We will also prominently integrate quite a number of movies, both for the sake of making the cases come alive and to conceptualize how media representation of human experience can influence how people think about challenges.
How does social and political change happen? When, why, and how do people, and whole nations, come together to influence large-scale policies and collective action on issues like the environment, equality, criminal justice, and much more? Why do revolutions occur? This course attempts to answer these questions by exploring a diversity of efforts to achieve societal change across various historical and contemporary contexts. In an effort to draw general lessons for those interested in making change, we will assess a range of political and legal approaches; examine mass movements and the roles played by individuals, organizations, and governments; and evaluate the conditions under which such efforts succeed or fail. Using research from psychology, political science, and economics, and drawing on a variety of case studies, the course will explore several core arguments about how change occurs:
Despite the adoption of electoral democracy across all regions of the world, charges of corruption seem to be arising everywhere. But is corruption really on the rise? Which countries are the most corrupt? Do highly corrupt countries share any common characteristics that we can identify and perhaps mitigate? Corruption clearly has social costs ranging from diversion of funds for public programs to undermining of public trust in government. Yet, few recent attempts to fight corruption have succeeded. Challenges of bad governance, high levels of corruption and low levels of accountability persist. Moreover, it remains an open question whether all countries - particularly those with large informal economies - would be better off if all corruption were somehow eradicated.
Part I in this course opens by discussing the concept, classification, and measurement of democratic and authoritarian regimes, and reviews evidence of contemporary trends. Part II debates multiple explanations for these developments. This includes accounts focusing upon (i) the rise of specific strongman leaders and elite enablers; (ii) constitutional failures to check executive aggrandizement, (iii) the growing popularity of authoritarian-populist parties and the spread of misinformation; (iv) structural drivers of authoritarianism in mass society including economic inequality, growing ethnic and racial diversity, and cultural shifts in social values; and (v) international rivalries pitting Western alliances against the authoritarian states. Part III considers the practical policy options flowing from each alternative theory.
Why do some states have stable and responsive governments, while others lack the capacity to tackle urgent social problems and deliver effective public services? Why are some younger democracies resilient to contemporary challenges --while others regress? How do states differ in their constitutional arrangements, electoral systems, or civic participation - and why does this matter? This course provides the analytical knowledge and practical skills to understand comparative politics and policy worldwide. It addresses a range of foundational topics: (i) Concepts, theories, evidence, and methods in comparative politics; (ii) Classifying varieties of democratic and autocratic regimes, and processes of regime transition, consolidation and backsliding; (iii) Institutional designs, including electoral systems, party systems, types of executives, and federalism; (iv) Channels of mass mobilization including through voting, protest activism, civil society organizations, media, civil disobedience, terrorism, and revolutionary upheavals; and (v) The performance of governance and public policies. The course covers these issues by utilizing the methods and techniques of comparative politics. You will learn about polities worldwide - as well as thereby enriching and deepening your understanding of your own nation. The orientation is problem and reform focused. Evaluation involves group exercises and individual papers. An understanding of comparative politics is invaluable for a wide range of potential careers, whether working for international agencies, multilateral organizations, non-profit NGOs, international corporations, national governments, or NGOs. Pedagogy includes a ‘flipped classroom’ format where you are asked to view the weekly lecture video before the class. The weekly in-person class meeting will discuss these materials. Small work groups will meet weekly outside of class to consider topics further. Some statistical skills are an advantage but not essential.
This intensive module provides a thorough grounding in the techniques of journalistic feature writing: researching, reporting, interviewing, writing - and revising. We investigate where good feature ideas come from; we explore how to conceptualize, organize, and structure those ideas through journalistic narrative; and we experiment in a collaborative workshop environment with several journalistic forms - the profile, the reported essay, the “issue” story, the “trend” piece. Students will gain proficiency in the techniques of journalistic feature writing, skills that are relevant to other forms of nonfiction storytelling, too, including academic and policy writing.
Lobbying is often called the 4th branch of government since this multi-billion dollar industry significantly impacts policymaking. This intensive course provides the opportunity to understand the fundamentals of lobbying while learning firsthand about the lobbying efforts of energy and environmental advocacy groups representing a variety of perspectives. Mornings (9:00-12:00) will be devoted to discussing lobbying basics-history and current size/scale/scope, value proposition, strategies and toolkit, regulations, players, scandals, etc. Lunchtime guest speakers will share perspectives on lobbying from the frontline. The afternoons (1:00-6:00) will be spent learning about the advocacy efforts of local energy and environment NGOs and simulating lobbying meetings on their behalf. There is also individual and group work in the evening. The lobbying sessions will be conducted with former state legislators to add realism to the experience. As part of that process the students will (1) determine who to target and the message to deliver; (2) hold the session; and (3) provide follow-up materials. The simulations will be video taped and debriefed with the legislator and the class. At the end of the course the students will have a working knowledge of lobbying practices from the perspective of the "lobbyer" and "lobbyee" as well as gained experience in developing a lobbying deliverable.
Courses in this MPP core sequence examine how social categories, group-based cleavages, and inequalities shape contemporary leadership and policy challenges. The modules equip students with core knowledge, analytic approaches, and professional skills to understand and navigate how institutions and policies interact with dynamic, contested, and conflictual group-based identities and hierarchies. Through a diverse set of complementary module-length courses addressing race, ethnicity, gender, indigeneity, caste, class, and more, this sequence grounds questions and debates about identity, intergroup conflict, unequal treatment, and shifting social and political boundaries in rigorous empirical and historical perspective. This course is a four-credit sequence in which you'll take two half-semester modules selected out of seven options (note: some modules are offered twice). See full list of options here .
Courses in this MPP core sequence examine how social categories, group-based cleavages, and inequalities shape contemporary leadership and policy challenges. The modules equip students with core knowledge, analytic approaches, and professional skills to understand and navigate how institutions and policies interact with dynamic, contested, and conflictual group-based identities and hierarchies. Through a diverse set of complementary module-length courses addressing race, ethnicity, gender, indigeneity, caste, class, and more, this sequence grounds questions and debates about identity, intergroup conflict, unequal treatment, and shifting social and political boundaries in rigorous empirical and historical perspective. This course is a four-credit sequence in which you'll take two half-semester modules selected out of seven options (note: some modules are offered twice). See full list of options here .
This course examines politics and policy in South Asia, a region encompassing a quarter of the world's population and countries as diverse as India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, and Bhutan. South Asia simultaneously confronts vast and varied problems and huge opportunities. We will examine a number of pressing topics including democracy and political development; the management of ethnic diversity and conflict; jobless economic growth and industrial policy; the political economy of gender inequality; climate change and pollution; foreign policy; nuclear weapons; and the role of great powers. Drawing on cutting-edge research and classic scholarship, the course will emphasize the development of analytical frameworks to critically assess the complex issues and opportunities facing most of the countries in South Asia. There are no prerequisites and prior knowledge of the region is not assumed, but an enthusiasm to learn swiftly is essential. Students will complete a small-group research project on a live policy issue, ideally one that contributes to knowledge and is ultimately publishable in an academic or general interest venue. Students from any School are welcome to enroll for credit. HKS students will get priority and auditors are not permitted.
Historic wrongs often live on in the present. Survivors and their advocates frequently turn to current administrations, seeking recognition and reparations for wrongdoings that governments in the past were involved in. But remedies rarely come easily. For example, because people remember the past differently; because they question their responsibility for remedying past wrongs; or because public officials are reluctant to accept responsibility on behalf of the state because of legal, financial, political, and other concerns.
This course examines how organizations, political leaders, campaigns, and companies communicate during moments of crisis, when decisions are made under pressure and scrutiny is intense. In today’s fast-moving media environment - driven by real-time news cycles and social media amplification - small issues can quickly escalate into significant reputational threats that shape public perception, regulatory outcomes, and policy debates.
This module will look at three of the most important and current questions in the on-going energy transition. 1. What are the policies shaping China's energy transition and will they be sufficient to meet China's on-going energy and environmental goals ?; 2. Will India be able to make a meaningful transition away from its dependence on coal? and 3. What are the challenges to developing an electricity grid that manages the transition to hyperscale discrete loads (data centers), renewable energy, and an electric transportation system? The module will be a combination of lectures and student projects.
Case studies from conflict affected settings, mixed migration routes, refugee hosting communities, and climate and disaster related displacement connect legal and policy frameworks to operational decisions. Course materials include legal texts, policy documents, humanitarian assessments, field research, and insights from practitioners and affected communities. Students consider how data and evidence inform protection decisions, resource allocation, and policy implementation, while remaining attentive to their limitations and potential risks. Students will also examine the relations between displaced populations and host communities, including access to services and resources, social cohesion, trust, participation, and local governance during prolonged crises.
From the rise of China and resurgence of Russia, to the ongoing war in Ukraine, and North Korea and Iran’s advancing nuclear weapons programs, challenges in the Middle East, Central Asia, East Africa, and emergence of cyber conflict, this course examines the central challenges to American national security. Through a series of cases, students address these issues as if they were professionals at the National Security Council working for the President or an assistant to the Secretary of State or Defense. In response to specific assignments, students write Strategic Options Memos that require analyzing the challenge, assessing the current strategy, and identifying alternative strategies for protecting and advancing national interests.
This seminar introduces students to the major contributions of the field of science and technology studies (STS) to the analysis of politics and policymaking in democratic societies. The objective is to expand students' understanding of the ways in which science and technology participate in the creation of social and political order. The seminar is devoted to reading and analyzing works by scholars in STS and related fields who have addressed such topics as the relationship between scientific and political authority, science's relations with the state, science and democracy, scientific and technical controversies, and citizenship in technological societies.
How is expertise produced, disseminated, controlled and challenged? How do experts combine knowledge, common-sense, analytics, argument, lifestyle, character? How does expertise write itself into power--or submission? Through what moves does expertise become rulership? What is the work of disciplinary formations and the professions in reproducing practices of knowledge-making and professional judgment? How ought one to go about mapping the political implications of expertise, and how interpret the stakes in choosing an expert vernacular? We will read and discuss literature from social theory, from law, and from science and technology studies which bears on these questions, alongside case studies of "expertise" in action in a variety of professional, scientific, and lay settings. Cross registration by students from other University departments strongly encouraged. Requirements: students will be expected to prepare and participate in weekly discussions and write a final essay.
What are the factors that hold Asia together, or run the risk of pulling it apart? This course examines contemporary Asia, one of the most politically and economically dynamic regions of the world, exploring how far it can be seen as one region and how complex the forces within it are. The course examines how economic, trade and commercial networks in Asia such as RCEP, CPTPP and IPEF show new patterns of economic interaction and creation of norms on trade and technology. It examines the very different political systems and ideas that shape the region, from established democracies to personality-cult driven authoritarian politics, and how regional organizations such as ASEAN navigate these differences. We will also explore how wider cross-national forces have shaped norms across the region: Northeast Asia has significantly older demographics than Southeast Asia, policies on climate change vary across the region, and trends relating to ethnicity and gender have also shaped new and transformative political movements, some creating new civil society dynamics across borders. Although largely peaceful in recent years on a regional scale, there are numerous civil wars still active and unresolved, as well as significant refugee and population movement across borders. We also look at potential flashpoints, such as the India-China border and the Korean peninsula. The course will also draw on a wider historical perspective to illustrate how ideas of “Asia” have changed over time, and why that matters for interpreting the region. The legacy of World War II still plays a significant part in the international dynamics of Northeast Asia, shaping the difficult relationship between Japan, China and South Korea. The legacy of the period of revolutionary communism shapes societies across the region, including North Korea and Vietnam. In South Asia, the legacy of a turbulent partition has led to continuing tensions. The historical aspect provides vital context to explain the motivations and dynamics of the present day. Overall, the course seeks to illustrate the most important factors that shape one of the world’s most dynamic regions.
This course is an in-depth examination of the realist perspective on international politics and foreign policy. The central objective is to provide students with a clearer understanding of this important approach to politics and to show why “thinking like a realist” will improve their understanding of important features of international politics and lead to better foreign policy results. To do this, the class examines the intellectual origins and evolution of realist thought over the past 2000+ years, the main innovations in realist theory since 1945, and its implications for global affairs today. We will also consider some important critiques of realism, so that its limitations are fully understood as well. There are no formal lectures in this seminar; each session consists of intensive in-class discussion, guided by the instructor .
We begin with an overview of the world’s energy needs in light of the clean energy transition, diagnosing where money must be spent, what infrastructure is required, and how much it is likely to cost. Case studies will explore barriers to investment from the perspective of developers, governments, companies, financial firms, and multilateral development banks. The focus will then shift to how policies - such as carbon pricing, subsidy design, energy market reform, or development bank financing - affect financial viability and unlock private capital.
This seminar course uses the war in Ukraine as a lens to explore geopolitics, international law, and development challenges . Through an in-depth examination of the war and the range of responses to it, students will study the causes and consequences of contemporary conflict, the strengths and weaknesses of international institutions, and the challenges in securing enforcement of international law. While centered on Ukraine, the course uses the conflict as a means of examining how international institutions, states, and non-state actors respond to crises worldwide, illuminating broader questions of global governance, international development, and accountability. The course explores, for example, the UN system's and various countries’ responses to Russia’s invasion; Ukraine’s refugee flows and their impact on other countries’ political dynamics; and on-the-ground innovations in Ukraine’s technology, energy, and agriculture sectors. Students will develop skills in international legal analysis and policy memo writing through drafting response papers that sharpen their ability to assess policy and legal dilemmas and communicate practical solutions succinctly. By analyzing the challenges faced by Ukrainian and global actors, students will gain critical insight into the structures and tools shaping peace, justice, and stability in the modern international system.
This course examines the process and substance of U.S. national security decision-making in the contemporary era. Students will analyze the inner workings of the National Security Council and interagency process, exploring how departments and agencies compete and collaborate to shape policy. Through case studies in crisis response, strategic planning, relationship management with allies and competitors, and the nexus of domestic/economic statecraft and national security, the course illuminates the who and how of decision making in US national security.
In this perilous moment in human history, the world desperately needs leaders with the courage, drive and hardball political skills to fight climate change and help restore the natural world. Environmental leaders must also recognize how marginalized communities suffer disproportionately from pollution and climate change. Leadership is difficult in any enterprise, but it is especially difficult for environmental leaders who face opponents with vastly more power and money. In this course, students will learn three core skills to build power and advance environmental goals:
Climate change is transforming the Arctic region. The region is warming at least twice as fast as the global average, and as the ice retreats on the top of our planet, it is unleashing challenges with local, regional, and global implications across multiple policy domains, including environment, economic development, security, culture, and human rights. Impacts are disproportionately affecting indigenous communities that have lived in the Arctic for thousands of years. Through the lens of the rapidly changing Arctic region, this module will give students an overarching understanding of these local and global challenges, as well as tools and experience in developing their own policy and social innovations to address complex issues in a sustainable way. It will also provide students with skills to communicate new policy ideas effectively to a global audience. A part of the learning experience takes place in collaboration with students from the Arctic and with experts in the field acting as mentors. The course includes an Arctic Innovation Lab where students pitch their ideas to leaders in the field. Selected students will have the opportunity to publish their work in collaboration with a leading Arctic news outlet.
Strategic autonomy has become a key reference in debates about the EU’s external action, far beyond the defense domain. This course proposes to situate this concept within broader discussions about EU grand strategy, including tensions between visions of a more geopolitical EU and approaches advocating a broader “planetary grand strategy.” It presents the origins of the term in the national political discourse of major member states, as well as its rapid ascent to prominence in the EU context. Students are invited to debate the meaning and significance of strategic autonomy for the EU’s role in the world. They are confronted with the various interpretations that co-exist inside the EU, but also among third countries such as the United States. Whereas its performance has often given rise to critique and the diagnosis of a “capability-expectations gap”, there is an incessant demand for further EU actorness and action both from internal stakeholders that see the EU as a “force for the good”, and from external partners that expect the EU to show leadership in areas ranging from military procurement to trade and digital politics. Finally, the course assesses the feasibility of EU strategic autonomy in light of EU’s enduring challenges, including populism and nationalism, population ageing, migration, and financial constraints which cripple several of its most influential members.
The purpose of the Frontline Negotiation Lab is to build the capacity of graduate students to navigate complex political crises in uncertain times, to develop a strategic vision on how to respond to humanitarian, social and climate emergencies, and to plan a negotiation process in adversarial conditions. Through an experiential learning approach, the course will present a systematic methodology to engage in complex negotiations in a proactive and practical manner. It will offer a set of tools and methods to plan complex negotiation as well as facilitate learning through student’s engagement with seasoned practitioners working in these environments.
This course is a wide-ranging introduction to the core principles of international and global affairs. Introductory sessions will cover a variety of concepts and theories of international relations and global governance and the challenges of policy analysis in these domains. Subsequent weeks will apply these ideas to diverse set of policy problems reflecting the current agendas of professionals working in international and global affairs. The course also emphasizes skill development, through an array of written and oral exercises and team activities.
A year-long research methods seminar in Science and Technology Studies that trains doctoral students (and postdocs) in identifying, analyzing, and writing about significant issues at the intersection of science, technology, and public policy. Students are expected to deepen their knowledge of major STS analytic frameworks, present their own research, read and critique other students' writings, and prepare occasional short analytic pieces for online publication.
The Geopolitics of Energy examines the intersection between international security, politics, and energy. The course begins with the recognition that energy has long been a major determinant of power in the international system and that every shift in global energy patterns has brought with it changes in international politics. IGA-412 explores how countries shape their grand strategies to meet their energy needs, as well as how such actions have implications for other countries and global politics. It looks at pressing contemporary issues related to peak oil, political reform and energy, pipeline politics, and the aggressive pursuit of oil and gas worldwide. The course also looks at new technologies and innovations - such as those making the extraction of shale gas economical or the growth of solar power - and how they are changing patterns of trades and could shape new alliances. Finally, IGA-412 considers the consequences of a successful shift away from petroleum based economies to anticipate how a new energy order will alter global politics in fundamental ways.
This course examines the policy and geopolitical dimensions of emerging biotechnology. Students will develop a foundational understanding of key biotechnology platforms and concepts from the perspective of future policymakers, strategists, and public leaders, who will need to grapple with the balance between promoting innovation, managing risks, and shaping the rules that govern biotechnology’s development. We will explore how governments promote life sciences innovation through research funding, regulation, commercialization, and industrial policy; assess opportunities and risks, particularly in national security, including those resulting from the convergence of biotechnology with AI and engineering; examine the unfolding strategic competition in biotech between the U.S. and China, as well as the national strategies of other countries including Japan, Israel, India, the UK, and France; and consider governance and policy challenges surrounding issues like gene editing, biological AI models that can design novel viruses, and human enhancement. In addition to developing technical literacy, students will explore analytical frameworks for evaluating tradeoffs among innovation, security, competitiveness, and international cooperation in one of the most dynamic areas of technological change
What are human rights and where do they come from? How have human rights become a global issue and are they improving or worsening over time? What explains human rights abuses and how can they be prevented? What roles do states, international organizations, NGOs, and civil society play in promoting and enforcing human rights norms? And how do human rights intersect with the defining policy issues of our time? This course focuses on human rights from a global perspective. Over the course of the semester, students will understand the foundations and contemporary challenges of the international human rights regime. The first part of the course integrates theoretical perspectives with empirical research to examine core concepts and definitions of human rights, international treaties, challenges of measuring abuses, and the institutions and actors involved in promoting and protecting rights. The second part of the course explores human rights at the intersection of major global policy challenges. We will examine how human rights shape, and are shaped by, issues such as climate change, conflict and security, artificial intelligence, and business. The course will feature guest speakers working in the field of human rights, documentaries, and case studies. By the end of the course, students will be able to evaluate the opportunities and constraints of human rights as a tool for global and domestic change.
This course has two objectives: first, to systematically explore the nature of change in the development process, and of the associated role of policy and institutional design; and second, to illustrate the use of the range of concepts and techniques learned in other MPA/ID core courses in the diagnosis of development change. This will include the normative analysis of change (applying various concepts of well-being, efficiency, social justice and poverty), the application of economic concepts (to the interpretation of household and firm behavior, strategic interactions and economy-wide patterns), and the role of political, governmental and social behavior in shaping the possibilities for, drivers of and resistance to change. This will be undertaken through a mixture of discussion of overall patterns backed by a strong focus on case studies in particular country settings. Examples of topics are education, health, economic growth, the management of financial crises, pension reform, managing common property resources, international migration, community development, the design of decentralization and corporate structure. The core teaching will be complemented by a visiting speaker series, from the worlds of ideas and practice, to both expose students to a variety of perspectives and actual experience; this will be drawn both from faculty and outside the school.
This course has two objectives: first, to systematically explore the nature of change in the development process, and of the associated role of policy and institutional design; and second, to illustrate the use of the range of concepts and techniques learned in other MPA/ID core courses in the diagnosis of development change. This will include the normative analysis of change (applying various concepts of well-being, efficiency, social justice and poverty), the application of economic concepts (to the interpretation of household and firm behavior, strategic interactions and economy-wide patterns), and the role of political, governmental and social behavior in shaping the possibilities for, drivers of and resistance to change. This will be undertaken through a mixture of discussion of overall patterns backed by a strong focus on case studies in particular country settings. Examples of topics are education, health, economic growth, the management of financial crises, pension reform, managing common property resources, international migration, community development, the design of decentralization and corporate structure. The core teaching will be complemented by a visiting speaker series, from the worlds of ideas and practice, to both expose students to a variety of perspectives and actual experience; this will be drawn both from faculty and outside the school.
This course explores the causes and consequences of three salient and interrelated characteristics of developing countries, namely poverty, volatility, and inequality, and it links them to current themes in development policy. The course will characterize the relationships between these three problems and a varied class of proximate and deeper determinants of economic development, including national saving, human capital accumulation, international trade, technology diffusion, demography, geography, economic complexity, and macroeconomic, structural, contractual, and political institutions. The emphasis throughout will be on informing the discussion on development policy. Prerequisites: There are no formal prerequisites but familiarity with economics and elementary statistics is strongly recommended. Students lacking this background may find the material challenging. This course meets the requirement for an introductory course to the PED area of concentration.
This seminar is designed to support MPP-2 students writing their Policy Analysis Exercise in the areas of international development, political economy, and economic development. The course is structured to support students as they identify the topic on which they will focus, clarify the problem they will be addressing, develop a strategy to gather information to address the problem, analyze their findings, develop recommendations, and produce the final product. Over the fall we will focus the class sessions on gaining an understanding of what a PAE is, clarifying the problem each student will address, and identifying and developing the research methods needed to study the problem. In the second semester we will focus on producing your final PAE: writing useful first drafts and refining them, effectively using graphics, and persuasively presenting your analysis and recommendations both orally and in writing. Students work individually or in small groups on a project that they select. Open only to MPP2 students.
This capstone course explores a wide array of theoretical and analytical tools to help policy makers diagnose, prioritize and address development challenges at a national or sub-national level. This course is divided into four stages. The first stage explores reasons for differences in productivity across countries. We introduce a particular theory about technology, economic complexity, and its diffusion. The second stage evaluates structural factors that influence growth; including labor market structure, human capital, public goods, access to finance and trade. Students learn how to test for binding constraints using the growth diagnostic framework on a real case through the course. The third stage discusses how growth diagnostics and complexity relate to issues such as inequality, institutions, identity, remoteness, and climate change. Subnational diagnostics and city-level dynamics are introduced. The fourth stage integrates macroeconomics into the puzzle. Finally, we evaluate syndromes that may explain sets of constraints faced by countries, and how to address them through policy interventions. Political economy and institutional design considerations are explored.
DEV-101 is a semester-long course that evaluates theories of economic development and scrutinizes empirical evidence to understand key features of the economic development processes across countries. The course will utilize analytical frameworks, grounded in economic theory, to examine the determinants of factor accumulation by individuals, firms and societies, and productivity and efficiency of resource allocation across activities and time. Drawing on empirical evidence and country illustrations, we will evaluate the relevance of these frameworks for diagnosing root causes of economic development and to develop an understanding of how the judicious use of theory and empirics can provide guidance for economic policy reforms. The course is organized along the following broad sections: (i) a methodological overview, with an emphasis on analytical frameworks for understanding economic growth, factor accumulation and institutional outcomes; (ii) an historical overview of comparative economic development, with focus on the Industrial Revolution, the Great Divergence, and colonialism; (iii) an analysis of individual decision-making in relevant domains, including the economics of the family, the determinants and returns to investment in human capital (health and education), and financial capital (credit markets, savings behavior), and constraints to factor accumulation; (iv) determinants of productivity, with emphasis on resource misallocation within and across households/firms, poverty traps, learning and coordination and their impacts on productivity; (v) principles of economic reform and introduction to policy design; and (vi) the role of political factors and social norms in development.
The goal of this semester-long course is to understand the economic development trajectory of African countries by examining their challenges and opportunities. The course aims to disentangle the factors driving - or impeding - structural transformation, and to assess what, if anything, is distinctive about the African experience. Drawing on successive waves of development economics and a broad base of empirical evidence, it evaluates the major narratives that have shaped interpretations of the continent's development.
This course explores efforts to manage, finance, and regulate the transportation, water, sanitation, and energy infrastructure systems in developing countries. Issues to be discussed include public-private partnerships (PPPs), the fundamentals of project finance, contract and discretionary regulation, corruption, stakeholder involvement, and managing the political and strategic context in which infrastructure decisions are made. The course will rely on case material taken from infrastructure projects in developing countries, including Brazil, Mexico, Thailand, Laos, Argentina, Chile, Lesotho, Uganda, Madagascar, and India, as well as some developed countries, including the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Examines policy options, with their strategic trade-offs and operational implications, for the design and implementation of public finance in both high-income countries and developing/transitional economies. Covers the role and size of the public sector, including the rationale for public sector interventions such as market failure and distributional concerns; public resource mobilization via direct and indirect taxation, including the economics of taxation, taxation of income, wealth, and consumption, environmental taxation, tax incentives, tax compliance and enforcement, tax amnesties, and tax reform, as well as user charges; public expenditure policy, including assessment of government social protection programs and public sector efficiency and effectiveness; and fiscal decentralization and intergovernmental fiscal relations. Also examines balanced budgets, deficit financing, debt management, fiscal consolidation, and fiscal sustainability in the context of economic crises and the debate over fiscal stimulus vs. fiscal austerity policies. Emphasizes utilization of theoretical and applied techniques in a comparative context for evaluation of the impact of alternative resource mobilization and expenditure policies on economic growth and stability, allocative efficiency, and social equity. Heavy use of case studies.
This community based research course focuses on some of the major issues Native American Indian tribes and nations face in the 21st century. It provides in-depth, hands-on exposure to native development issues, including: sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, leadership, health and social welfare, tribal finances, land and water rights, culture and language, religious freedom, and education. In particular, the course emphasizes problem definition, client relationships, and designing and completing a research project for a tribe, tribal department, or those active in Indian Country. The course is devoted primarily to preparation and presentation of a comprehensive research paper based on work with a tribal community. In addition to faculty/guest presentations, students will make presentations on their work in progress and ultimate findings.
In a world in which most organizations, communities, and societies face enormous adaptive pressures, the practice of leadership is critical - the practice of mobilizing systems of people to thrive in changing and challenging times. In this course, we apply theory to practice, clarifying the relationship among key concepts - leadership, management, authority, power, influence, followership, citizenship - to provide a practical and coherent theoretical framework. We develop both diagnostic tools for analyzing the complexity of change in social systems, and strategies of action. These action strategies include: using authority and power wisely, mobilizing responsibility across boundaries, managing economies of attention, generating innovation, building trust, orchestrating multi-party conflict, regulating disequilibrium, refashioning narratives to both build and depart from history, and building a culture of adaptability for the long-term. In addition, we begin to explore the challenge of managing personally the inevitable stresses and dangers of leadership.
In a world in which most organizations, communities, and societies face enormous adaptive pressures, the practice of leadership is critical - the practice of mobilizing systems of people to thrive in changing and challenging times. In this course, we apply theory to practice, clarifying the relationship among key concepts - leadership, management, authority, power, influence, followership, citizenship - to provide a practical and coherent theoretical framework. We develop both diagnostic tools for analyzing the complexity of change in social systems, and strategies of action. These action strategies include: using authority and power wisely, mobilizing responsibility across boundaries, managing economies of attention, generating innovation, building trust, orchestrating multi-party conflict, regulating disequilibrium, refashioning narratives to both build and depart from history, and building a culture of adaptability for the long-term. In addition, we begin to explore the challenge of managing personally the inevitable stresses and dangers of leadership.
This course is for those considering running for public office. We will examine the promise and potential of principled, effective leadership in public office against the complicated realities of campaigning today. This course will prompt students to examine their personal motivation for seeking office, how that can ground both their campaign decisions and official actions, and the challenges and opportunities of sustaining (or changing) that original motivation through a campaign and term of service. Guests from practice - current or former candidates, office holders, operatives and consultants, members of the media, activists, pundits, pollsters or others with relevant experience or insight - will supplement case studies and mock activities in class.
Designed for individuals at any stage of their career, this course is meant to debunk the fallacies that we have about power and to explore the fundamentals of power in interpersonal relationships, in organizations, and in society. In doing so, it will lift the veil on power, revealing to you what it really is, and how it works, ultimately unleashing your potential to build and use power to effect change at home, at work, and in society. It is meant for those who want to make things happen, despite the obstacles that might stand in your way. This course is also intended to prepare you to use power responsibly, resist its corruptive perils, and exercise it to make the world a better place. As such, it will equip you to leverage power and influence not for personal gain, but to challenge the status quo in order to address some of the most pressing social and environmental problems of our time, from fighting racism to reducing economic inequalities, saving the planet, and protecting democracy.
This intensive skill-building workshop on multiparty negotiation and conflict resolution (NCR) aims to help participants manage complex multi-stakeholder negotiations; mediate public disputes; design consensus-building procedures; examine cross-cultural differences and ethical dilemmas; and sustain cooperative relationships. The emphasis is on the NCR challenges faced by managers in the public and nonprofit sectors. Small groups will do intensive exercises, and participants will be provided with guided, repeated practice and feedback.
Drawing on research from psychological science, behavioral economics, neuroscience, and ethics, this course provides a scientific foundation for improving decisions by revealing how people perceive risk, interpret information, and make choices. By integrating theory with practice, students learn to anticipate behavioral responses and design policies and communications that achieve their intended effects. A central component of the course is the analysis and redesign of real-world choice architectures to improve clarity, accessibility, and decision quality while preserving individual agency.
A crisis has often been defined as an event that has three distinct features: it threatens a high priority value of the organization; it presents a restricted amount of time in which a response can be made; and it is unexpected or unanticipated by the impacted organization. The attributes of successful crisis management are changing. Historically, a crisis is, by definition, an unusual event. Though unusual in the sense they challenge leadership and management skills, can they actually be considered random or rare anymore? While the nature of the risk can take many forms - a natural disaster, an act of terrorism, a public health incident, violent insurrection, or in cyberspace - this class will focus on the connective tissue that links different crises and what we can learn from their commonalities, rather than viewing each as distinct and unique. By taking an "all or any" hazards approach to learning about crisis management, we will examine how leaders and institutions respond to these unfolding crises and how that sets the stage for how, ultimately, the public, clients, customers, the international community and the media respond. To understand crisis response takes more than skills in communication or incident command; it takes an understanding of the complex political, regulatory, and legal regime that govern the incident and the skills to manage these different and sometimes conflicting concerns. The law, politics, and policy - as much as management - all empower and hinder our capability to respond.
Financial Analysis of Public and Nonprofit Organizations (MLD-401M) is an introductory course intended for a general audience of students with no background in accounting or financial analysis. By the end of the course, students should be able to: 1) Understand commonly-used accounting and financial analysis terminology, concepts, tools and processes; 2) Evaluate financial statements in order to ask probing questions, identify risks and/or opportunities, and think critically about financial performance; 3) Recommend and justify courses of action based on analyses of accounting and other financial data; and 4) Successfully move on to higher-level MLD courses. The course will be taught using a combination of lectures, case studies, problem sets and exams. Specific topics covered will include an overview of the financial reporting landscape and governance; accounting principles and concepts; a detailed review of the major financial statements; and the analysis of major financial topics such as organizational liquidity, solvency, operations, funding, and benchmarking. Students will be exposed to the unique features of public and nonprofit accounting, but many of the topics covered are applicable to all types of organizations.
This course covers topics at the intersection of the economics of climate change, global development, and international trade. We start with an overview of the empirical methods and models economists use to quantify the unequal costs of global warming throughout the world. Given the concentration of vulnerability in low-income regions, we next introduce concepts from the macroeconomics of development in order to examine the ways in which warming presents a particular challenge for economic growth and global poverty alleviation. In the latter portion of the course, we introduce topics from the theory of international trade and tools from spatial economics that will allow us to explore evidence on the ways in which global market integration can affect both adaptation to the effects of warming and efforts to reduce global emissions.
The module will focus on what can we learn from the experience of scaling up in different institutional settings. Scaling up is key to improve development effectiveness all over the world yet it is difficult to achieve. This is an important issue for Governments, the private sector, NGOs and the Donor Community. And each of these organizations has different ways to go about it. We will start by presenting an analytic framework for understanding scaling up and the reasons why this is important. Throughout the 12 classes we will discuss specific cases of scaling up by the private sector, the government, international agencies, social entrepreneurs and grassroots organizations. We will place especial emphasis on how learning and adaptation can be incorporated into a scaling process, as a key element of both design and engagement with system change. We will then draw the lessons from these examples, including cross cutting issues they have in common and what they mean for service delivery and development effectiveness. This will include when and how to use different tools, including, systems mapping and diagnosis, use of design thinking, development of theories of change, business plan development and the range of tools involved in an adaptive evaluation. Students will be asked to choose a scaling up challenge and work on it throughout the course, applying the lessons from the different cases which are presented, culminating in a specific, structured proposal.
This course examines how economic theory and rigorous evidence can be harnessed to design development policies that respond to market and political failures in developing economies. The course builds on the analytical framework and evidence base provided in DEV-101 (which is a prerequisite). Topics covered include: Policy Design, Education, Health, Finance, Governance and Political Economy. Prerequisite: DEV-101.
This course examines the challenges that contemporary Native American tribes and nations face as they endeavor to rebuild their communities, strengthen their cultures, and support their citizens. The range of issues that Native leaders and policymakers confront is wide and encompasses political sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, cultural promotion, land and water rights, religious freedom, health and social welfare, and education. Because the challenges are broad and comprehensive, the course emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of current Native nation building. Research finds that effective nation building must be compatible with individual societies' cultures. Yet, American Indian tribes are culturally heterogeneous. Hence, there is not "one size" that fits all. Case studies and simulations derived from field research and experience are utilized to engage students in the multidimensional settings that confront Native societies. Scholars and leaders from the Harvard University Native America Program provide selected presentations. The class features frequent presentations from prominent Indigenous leaders, who provide their perspectives on the choices and constrains they confront in their nation building efforts. Non-HKS graduate students from all schools and departments in the university are welcome by cross-registration. Grades will be based on quizzes, policy briefs and a final project.
We will begin with an overview of some stylized facts about firms and markets in developing countries. With that as a background, we set up basic models used in industrial organization and organizational economics, particularly focusing on analyzing the incentives and institutional structures faced by firms operating in these environments and the interlinked relationship between government policies and firm growth in the process of economic development. Our discussions will be guided by economics research and analysis from the past couple of decades, drawing insights from industrial organization, organizational economics, and international trade.
With a combination of lectures, workshops and live case studies, students will be asked to develop landscape analyses detailing the ecosystem that surrounds many societal problems, as well as developing an understanding of the importance of operating plans and scale models that meet the challenge of the problems they are trying to address. The course is hyper focused on the mastery of five critical skills necessary to lead and execute the mission of sustainable social enterprises: 1) deeply understanding the nature of the problem being addressed and the ecosystem surrounding it; 2) creating the right type of organization that can address these challenges including organizational design, talent development, board engagement, and relevant strategic public/private partnerships; 3) understanding the existing infrastructure and distribution channels that surround the problem and your proposed solution; 4)identifying relevant sources of funding for the solution; and 5) and how to use data to measure and evaluate impact in order to be able to iterate in real time and achieve long term sustainability and drive momentum to scale. A critical component of the course will be a set of closely related curricular live cases featuring leaders in the sector who can provide real time context and relevancy and speak firsthand to the challenges they faced as they mastered each of these five critical skills.
MLD-412 is a challenging, advanced experiential-learning lab that will enable students to work on financial and operational challenges in state and local governments. The coursework will focus on specific problems in local government, which may relate to infrastructure, financing, budgeting, and operations. The client partners are mayors and elected officials, and students will report to them directly. The course is affiliated with the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston, the Taubman Center for State and Local Government and the Harvard-Bloomberg Cities Initiative. Client partners will be finalized during fall 2026, but will likely include cities and towns in the Greater Boston area and in the Northeast region. Course work includes training in advanced relevant analytical skills, such as financial spreadsheet modelling and GIS mapping. Extensive field work is required, including multiple visits to client sites. Students who complete the course may be eligible for paid summer follow-on work in the field, or conducting research on the relevant datasets for publications.
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the law and practice of government budgeting in the United States. Students will be introduced to the basic structure of the federal budget process, including the President's Budget and Congressional budget procedures. We will explore the roles of all three branches of federal government in setting budget policy in the United States, covering government shut-downs, debt ceiling crises, continuing resolutions, and ongoing debates over budget reforms and fiscal challenges. Based on student interest, we may also take up entitlement reform, defense spending, budgeting for infrastructure as well as topics related to state budgeting practices and federal-state relations in budget policy.
The course is organized around two intensive weekends. The first weekend focuses on bilateral crisis negotiation, including engagement with difficult counterparts, managing relationships under pressure, navigating misinformation and disinformation, and negotiating effectively as a team. The second weekend focuses on complex multilateral negotiation, where students learn to navigate multiple stakeholders, competing interests, shifting circumstances, and the challenges of reaching across the divide to build alliances and coalitions.
This course is for those interested in leading or advising organizations with a primary social and/or environmental impact goal. We will study approaches and frameworks that leaders use to address several core challenges: What does it take to identify and align external stakeholders and supporters around an intended impact? How can leaders anticipate and manage the challenges of commercial, philanthropic, and public funding models? Can impact really be measured, and if so, how? What internal levers can be used to improve efficiency and effectiveness? How can individual organization make real progress on a complex, wicked problem requiring multilateral action?
This module seeks to equip public leaders to structure and manage relationships with private actors so as to maximize the odds of producing public value. It progresses from simpler to more sophisticated models of public-private interaction-from classic procurement to privatization (in the service delegation sense of that term) to public-private partnerships. All sessions will feature case discussions (roughly half US-based and half not), generally supplemented by selected texts from economics, organizational theory, and other pertinent disciplines. Both enthusiasts and skeptics of private involvement in public missions are welcome; the instructor has long been a bit of both.
This is an introductory module designed for students who have little or no background in budgeting and financial management. You will learn to understand the basic language of budgeting and become familiar with the different types of budgets and budget skills used in public, nonprofit, and for-profit organizations. The course will teach specific government budgeting tools using a combination of lectures, case method, in-class exercises, simulations, clinics and on-line tutorials. Topics covered include budget formulation, budget analysis, budget execution, operating and capital budgets, variance analysis, cost accounting, capital budgeting, revenue forecasting, performance and participatory budgeting, and the balanced scorecard. We do not teach financial accounting (which is taught in MLD-401m). Professor Bilmes will draw on her experience with budgeting in the public and private sector, including estimating the costs of war, the value of natural capital and budgeting for the Sustainable Development Goals to demonstrate how these techniques can be used in public policy. Most of the material covered is based on organizations such as local and national governments, hospitals, museums, small businesses and other institutions that are transferable to international settings. The module is prerequisite for the Advanced Applied Field Lab (MLD-412/ MLD-412m).
In a world in which most organizations, communities, and societies face enormous adaptive pressures, the practice of leadership is critical - the practice of mobilizing systems of people to thrive in changing and challenging times. In this course, we apply theory to practice, clarifying the relationship among key concepts - leadership, management, authority, power, influence, followership, citizenship - to provide a practical and coherent theoretical framework. We develop both diagnostic tools for analyzing the complexity of change in social systems, and strategies of action. These action strategies include: using authority and power wisely, mobilizing responsibility across boundaries, managing economies of attention, generating innovation, building trust, orchestrating multi-party conflict, regulating disequilibrium, refashioning narratives to both build and depart from history, and building a culture of adaptability for the long-term. In addition, we begin to explore the challenge of managing personally the inevitable stresses and dangers of leadership.
Required of second-year doctoral students in Social Policy Ph.D. programs and of doctoral fellows of the Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social Policy. Permission of instructor required for other doctoral or non-doctoral students. Also offered by the Government Department as Gov 2340a.
What does it mean for an urban redevelopment project to be transformational? Only a select group of projects earn this distinction, those that achieve lasting change through inclusive community engagement, sustainable design, innovative policy and financing, and a thoughtful balance between the historical and the new. These projects demonstrate how the built environment can serve as a catalyst for equity, resilience, and long-term transformation. ReBuild offers a unique, case-based approach to learning from 4-6 real-world examples of transformational urban redevelopment across American and international cities. Through interactive analysis and discussion, students will unpack the complex interplay of public policy, design, financing, and community priorities that shape these projects. The case studies include large-scale public and private investments that aim to significantly revitalize their built and natural environments, incorporating infrastructure upgrades, adaptive reuse, new construction, and public space creation. Each case provides students the opportunity to simulate real-world roles, evaluate competing priorities, and propose solutions grounded in practice and theory. Students will: Gain insights into the social, economic, and environmental forces at play in transformational redevelopment efforts. Build practical skills in urban analysis, stakeholder engagement, decision-making under complexity, and integrated design thinking. Strengthen their ability to generate context-specific insights that inform more equitable and effective planning and development strategies. Case studies are the core of this course’s pedagogy. Each case presents a richly detailed, real-world scenario with complex problems, stakeholder tensions, and multiple decision points. Students will explore these cases through: Collaborative discussion and facilitated debate. Problem-solving workshops simulating real-world planning and design challenges. Role-playing and scenario analysis to understand competing perspectives. This active learning model moves beyond passive lecture-based instruction. It immerses students in the decision-making process, helping them develop critical thinking, persuasive communication, and the confidence to shape real urban futures. By the end of the course, students will not only understand how transformative redevelopment happens-they will be prepared to lead it.
Participants discuss recent research in the economics of social policy and present their own work in progress to get feedback from faculty and peer students. Enrollment is open to doctoral students who have completed first-year PhD microeconomics and econometrics courses.
The second half of the course, taught by Professor Veuger, will highlight recent empirical research on business taxation, the regulatory state, political economy, and multilevel government. In this part of course we will also see how the theoretical and empirical approaches covered in the course can be and have been used to inform and assess the economic policy response to the COVID-19 crisis, in particular in the United States and Europe.
Topics include affordable housing finance and production, equitable transit-oriented development, displacement and gentrification, neighborhood revitalization, climate resilience, and tools such as tax credits, public land use, and community development finance. The course critically assesses contemporary initiatives like Opportunity Zones and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, focusing on whether they address or perpetuate systemic exclusion.
This course provides students with working knowledge of important land use and related environmental laws as well as the institutions that create, implement, and review them. The course also considers what distinguishes law from other fields, as well as the roles that planners, designers, policymakers, real estate professionals, and the public play in land use and environmental law. Through class discussions, the course engages with primary sources, such as zoning ordinances and judicial opinions, as well as secondary material, and requires no legal background. The course involves an exercise in proposing reforms to a component of a local land use law and a final exam.
To understand today’s urgent social, environmental, and development issues, Making the American City: Form and Society explores the history of American urban growth, planning, and design. By examining specific plans and places, it traces the growth and elaboration of major North American cities from the early European settlement to the present, with an emphasis on the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
This course offers tested theories and frameworks grounded in real-world case studies to help you understand the current landscape and take an active role in reshaping education. Whether you are a (future) founder, a learning designer, a policymaker, an administrator, a teacher, an investor, or someone who simply wants to make a meaningful impact in education, this course will equip you to analyze different organizations/companies/systems and push for change at various levels of impact-from the system to the classroom. The theories we study will also explain why some innovations succeed while others fail.
This course offers an exploration of contemporary education policy issues at the federal, state, and local levels. Students will learn about and analyze the historical development of major education policy topics, current debates, and potential policy advances. They will be exposed to and make use of methods for influencing the direction of future policy. Topics covered include: civil rights, school finance, teacher quality, selective college admissions, student financial aid, and college quality.
This course will survey the history and evolution of state and local economic development policies in U.S. urban and rural communities; provide an understanding of the institutions, politics, and players involved; and discuss analytical frameworks for assessing which policy tools are effective and under what conditions. We will explore what to do with regions in distress by comparing and evaluating place-based policies, analyze the role and impact of economic and policy innovation in economic development, and consider why economic development policy often fails to deliver broad-based gains to local residents. Most course material relates to local economic development in the United States, although the course will occasionally bring in examples of and research on place-based policies in other countries. The format is two weekly class meetings, one a lecture informed by cases and readings and the other a guest lecture by a leading economic development thinker or practitioner, drawn from across the United States. The course will elicit substantial student interaction and provide coaching and mentoring opportunities for students considering a career in state and local economic development.
Even in rich countries, many people are poor, and their chances of moving from poverty to affluence are constrained. What policies and structures shape people's opportunities to climb up socioeconomic ladders---and their chances of facing ladders with large amounts of inequality? How can these policies and structures be changed? In this course, we will consider how social and economic inequalities develop, how they persist across generations, and how people make socioeconomic progress over the course of their lives. This course provides a strong foundation in the area of Social and Urban Policy (SUP). We will cover a wide range of topics, surveying many issues you will encounter in social policy. For each topic that we cover, we will consider both how past policy choices contributed to present inequalities and how new policy solutions can enhance social and economic opportunity. We will consider the U.S. in cross-national context and we will learn lessons from around the world and from history. Class sessions will revolve around active learning, lecture, and discussions in small and large groups.
Around the world, increasing longevity and declining fertility are making populations much older than they used to be, and fertility is now below the long-term replacement rate in most countries, so populations will decline-an unprecedented development in modern times. This demographic revolution will have significant effects on economic growth, government budgets, healthcare costs, retirement planning, workforce and investment needs, wages and interest rates, geopolitics, and other aspects of our economies and societies. The course explores these changes and the practical ways in which public policy can respond, including potential approaches for raising labor force participation at different life stages, altering government spending and taxes, accommodating different housing and care needs, increasing fertility, extending healthy lifespans, deploying new technologies, and adjusting immigration rules. Through active student participation, we explore the diversity of demographic changes and policy responses taking place across the globe.
Despite unprecedented technology and wealth, poverty is a persistent reality in the U.S. and other high-income nations. Social safety net programs are the main way governments help alleviate poverty and buffer economic hardship. The safety net - which includes income support, health care, Social Security, disability, and housing assistance - comprises a large share of government budgets and features prominently in policy debates. Making it work well is a key priority. But because of its complexity, the social safety net is often poorly understood.
This course examines public policies for urban and regional economic development. Cities are the growth engines of modern economies. They attract workers seeking jobs, firms pursuing access to markets, consumers wanting an abundant variety of goods and services, and individuals and families desiring access to public services, attractive places to live, and a sense of community. Urban density confers economic benefits by allowing cities to supply public services more efficiently, making workers more productive on the job, and providing individuals with opportunities for novel pursuits. Yet, urban residents must contend with traffic congestion, expensive housing, pollution, crime, unequal access to opportunity, and disease exposure. Alongside larger cities, smaller towns and rural communities play vital economic roles, often by leveraging their natural resources. Competition among regions for capital, labor, and public resources creates a hierarchy of places in which there tend to be a few large cities, many small cities, and inequality within and between places. Technological change, global competition, climate shocks, and government policy continually perturb economic geographies, moving regions up and down the ladder of prosperity. By the end of the course, students will understand the economic forces that drive urban and regional growth, induce industries to concentrate geographically, and determine why some communities flourish and others do not. They will also understand the economics of policies on affordable housing, public infrastructure, urban sprawl, traffic congestion, productivity growth, regional economic distress, and climate change. The course involves traditional lectures, in-class case studies, and policy debates. About 60% of course material relates to the US and about 40% is international. The course uses insights and data from the Reimagining the Economy Project and the Economy in Place data viz platform.
What does it take to achieve policy change in public education? In this module, we will study how and why education policy shifts (or doesn't) by looking at examples at the federal and state levels. We will explore and test a classic political science framework (John Kingdon's) for how policy agendas are set. Each week, we will focus on a specific policy change effort ranging from recent classic examples (Race to the Top under Obama/Duncan) to currently unfolding policy issues such as “free college” and whatever is emerging from this year’s elections. We will look at how individuals and institutions work to drive change and analyze their effectiveness. We will consider how to update Kingdon for today’s world with explicit deep dives on how social media changes policy agenda setting and how the recent surge in demands for action against structural racism change the landscape. Finally we will look at what might come next on the education policy agenda. We will draw on the instructor's own experience in seeking policy change and hear from weekly guests who are current leading advocates, participants, and critics to study the process and practice of policy change in American education.
This course prepares students to become critical consumers and producers of data visualizations. Promoting evidence-based policy requires technical expertise, ethical awareness, and an ability to create authentic, relatable stories. Through hands-on exercises, focused on real world public policy challenges, students will learn to source, clean, and analyze data as input to design compelling infographics, websites, and short videos. . We will craft narratives that humanize the subjects depicted in visualizations, evoking empathy and compassion in the audience. By the end of the course, students will be equipped to use data visualizations and generative AI tools for clear, persuasive, and ethical data storytelling.
The course focuses on instances where the standard models of perfectly competitive markets do not accurately describe a real-world event, occurrence or behavior. The course is intended to highlight areas and topics where the basic models of supply and demand do not function because some of the underlying assumptions do not hold: Perfect Information, Identical Goods or Services, No Market Power, Ease of Entry into Markets, Infinite Buyers and Sellers. The course will work through markets and situations where these some of these assumptions do not hold and we will investigate what occurs in those situations. In analyzing these cases, we will begin to understand how economic and public policy analysis tools can be used to understand where and when programs or policies do not achieve their intended outcomes.
This is the first semester of a rigorous two-semester sequence in advanced microeconomic analysis for MPA/ID students. Topics covered include consumer theory, producer theory, risk and behavior under uncertainty, partial equilibrium, and externalities. Theory is illustrated by relevant applications to international development and other areas. Prerequisites: Multivariate calculus and constrained optimization; intermediate microeconomics.
This course is an introduction to operations management which entails creating public value by efficiently delivering quality services. The course provides students with the tools to identify opportunities for improvement, diagnose problems and barriers, and design efficient and effective solutions. The course uses the case method of instruction, drawing examples primarily from the public and nonprofit sectors with some private sector cases. The course roadmap is: creating value, delivering quality services, delivering efficient services, managing performance, utilizing technology, and addressing unique challenges. Throughout the course, tools will be introduced including process mapping and reengineering, capacity and root-cause analysis, and total quality management. The course capstone is a client project in which student teams help local agencies solve actual operational problems. The course is oriented toward the general manager or those interested in an introduction to the field. A Friday recitation provides additional practice with the tools that are taught.
Preventing nuclear war is one of the truly existential challenges facing the human species -- but the danger is rising, as tensions among nuclear powers increase, nuclear agreements are challenged, and new technologies and arms competitions create new uncertainties. From Iran to North Korea, from U.S.-Russian and U.S.-Chinese nuclear competition to Syria's deadly chemical assaults, decisions about nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons can make the difference between war or peace and between safety or grave danger for people around the world. This course will give students an understanding of these weapons and the global efforts to prevent their use and control their spread. The course covers policy tools from treaties and diplomacy to sanctions and war. This year, particular attention will be paid to emerging great-power competition and its implications for deterrence and arms control. Students will learn to use an integrated, risk-informed approach to assessing policy options when difficult choices need to be made in the face of large uncertainties. This will help prepare students for careers dealing with choices about these deadly weapons.
Identifies political and economic influences on education policy, expenditure levels, and governance. Examines classic and recent studies of selected school policies (class size, charters, vouchers, accountability, school organization, etc.), giving particular attention to research design and methodological issues as well as to theories and interpretations of institutions and processes.
Explores and assesses the ways in which the Constitution, changing court interpretations, public opinion, interest groups, and political parties interact in dynamic ways to shape American politics. Considers the ways in which federalism and the separation of powers produce a distinctive political system.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
In 1989, the New York Police Department arrested five Black and Latine teenagers for the brutal sexual assault of a White female jogger in Central Park. Known as the “Central Park Five,” the young men were vilified by politicians and the press, convicted by a jury, and sentenced to between five and fifteen years in detention. By 2002, after serving a collective two decades behind bars, the men were exonerated. In 2014, they settled legal claims against New York City and State for over $40 million. And in 2023, one of the now “Exonerated Five,” Yusef Salaam, was elected to the New York City Council.
This course will introduce students to the role that written, oral, and multi-media communications play in the development of American law and policy, with a focus on social issues and movements. Using as case studies advocacy for racial equity, criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, gun rights, environmental protection, reproductive justice, and economic opportunity, we will explore how change agents on multiple sides have used strategic framing and messaging, communications campaigns, and art and culture to influence - and in some instances transform - relevant law and policy. We will also examine the ethical rules and legal parameters that regulate attorneys' communications regarding pending litigation and broader legal advocacy.
In this seminar we will examine the ways in which the rhetorical and communications principles of framing and narrative inform U.S. Supreme Court jurisprudence and advocacy. Analyzing opinions, briefs, and oral arguments, as well as legal and social science scholarship, we will consider how different approaches to legal storytelling can lead to differing judicial outcomes. And we will discuss the implications of our findings for the development and integrity of the law.
This course will provide a comprehensive study of the law that governs enforceable promises. It begins with a study of the sources of contract law and the concept of 'mutual assent' as a basis for contractual obligations. Topics include consideration and other contract formalities, contract interpretation, parole evidence rule, implied terms, justifications for non-performance and remedies.
This course considers the role criminal law and legal actors have played in constructing the modern American penal system. We begin by exploring common rationales offered to justify the state’s power to punish, the premises required to render such rationales legitimate, and arguments that this power is not legitimate in the United States today. We then explore core doctrinal principles of the criminal law through the lens of three sets of crimes relating to interpersonal violence, sexual domination, and economic activity. In each domain, we will study the interaction between legal frameworks and the societal values they serve to reinforce. Next, we will examine the expansionary pressures on the criminal law that arise when society turns to law enforcement actors not simply to react to harmful social behavior, but to prevent it from happening. Connecting those expansionary pressures to law enforcement discretion, we close the course by considering how law might constrain such discretion, what happens when it fails to do so, and how law and legal actors might respond to the resulting status quo-a penal system defined by massive levels of incarceration unparalleled in human history.
This is a course that covers the (non-bankruptcy) law of financial distress. Historically, companies that fell into financial distress filed for bankruptcy, making bankruptcy law the central body of law regulating distressed firms and the legal maneuvers they can make to try to resolve their distress. That is increasingly not the case: today, the most sophisticated companies often seek to restructure their debt outside of bankruptcy. In this class, we will cover the bodies of law that regulate the behavior of troubled companies beyond bankruptcy law. Topics will include, among others, fiduciary duty law and other corporate law remedies, distressed debt exchanges and the trust indenture act, fraudulent transfer law, state foreclosure law and assignments for the benefit of creditors, debt contracts, corporate finance and lender liability law. We will devote special attention to the cutting edge transactions at the forefront of corporate restructuring practice, which are usually referred to as "liability management exercises."
This is a small, low-key research workshop held in the Economics Department over the lunch hour (lunch provided). The workshop is co-taught by Professors Kathryn E. Spier and Oliver Hart, recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. Attendees include graduate students, faculty, visiting scholars, and others from the Harvard community. The workshop features presentations of work in progress by economics PhD students and junior scholars from across Harvard, spanning a range of topics and economic methodologies. Presentations are generally not too technical, but discussions are research-oriented and intended for students with an interest in economic research. The workshop is particularly well suited for students interested in law and economics, empirical legal studies, and interdisciplinary legal scholarship.
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The seminar is given jointly with the FAS Economics Department, and should be taken only by students with substantial prior interest in and exposure to economic analysis. (If you have questions about this, please contact Professor Kaplow.) Students may satisfy the course requirement either by submitting, before sessions, short written comments on the paper to be presented or by writing a seminar paper on an approved topic.
Lawyers in almost every area of practice (litigation, corporate, government, public interest) deal routinely with problems that are usefully illuminated by basic business and economic concepts. This course is designed to teach the most important analytical methods to law students, in a manner that will be fully accessible to those with no prior quantitative training or background in the subjects covered. Using text, classroom activities, and written exercises, we will explore how these tools may be used to analyze concrete problems that arise in a wide range of legal practice settings. The course will consist of seven units:
Knowledge institutions include a free press, colleges and universities, libraries, NGOs that collect and disseminate objective data, and government offices that collect and disseminate objective data. What are common characteristics (if any) of knowledge institutions? How do their roles differ? Are their roles in representative democracies different from their roles in other systems of governance? How should, how does the U.S. protect knowledge institutions? How do other constitutional democracies protect knowledge institutions? U.S. constitutionalists have long been familiar with the centrality of rights of freedom of speech, association and of the free press, to the well-functioning of its representative democracy. But knowledge institutions include public as well as private entities, government offices like the Census Bureau, the EPA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, statistical offices in various departments, the CDC. We might also consider whether courts should be considered knowledge institutions, to the extent that they provide determinations of facts in legal disputes based on a set of disciplinary procedures. What about legislative bodies to the extent that they engage in formalized findings of facts? Social media and other communications technologies? This reading group provides an opportunity to theorize connections among different knowledge institutions that cut across existing legal categories and explore how constitutional democracies, including the United States, could better protect the epistemic roles of knowledge institutions.
This course provides an introduction to the U.S. Constitution - the government structures it establishes and contemplates, and the rights and liberties it recognizes and protects. Structural topics include the original design of the federal government and the role of slavery in that design; judicial review; federalism and the Supremacy Clause; and separation of powers. The Civil War Amendments (Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen) will be considered. The Fourteenth Amendment's provisions for equal protection and due process of law provide the basis for many individual rights, including those relating to racial equality, gender equality, family life, and aspects of personal autonomy, that will be studied. Other topics may be considered as well.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course teaches skills and strategies for practicing environmental law as a supplement to enrollment in the Emmett Environmental Law & Policy Clinic. The class examines and works through legal mechanisms for identifying and addressing environmental liabilities in transactions, e.g., the sale of real estate or corporate shares. Students will practice skills such as: parsing and applying statutes and regulations; drafting contract language; interpreting and evaluating environmental assessment reports; issue spotting; and advising clients. These skills are relevant to a wide array of legal work-not just transactional matters. Some learning of environmental laws will be necessary, but mastering black letter law is not the focus of the course. The course is practical, hands-on and participatory. Students will develop and apply skills through class discussions, in-class and written exercises.
The Classroom Component: Classroom exercises and discussions will focus on drafting best practices. Classroom discussions will also explore the need for new environmental legislation and the relationship between delegation, legislation, and regulation. State and federal legislators have different constraints and opportunities, and the course will explore when and how detailed statutory and regulatory text are deployed. In the federal sphere, particular attention will be paid to the changing administrative law landscape and what this means for legislative and regulatory drafting. Time will also be spent on ethical considerations and the political realities that influence outcomes.
This course explores law's role in global affairs. We will examine the history of ideas, legal doctrines, institutional and administrative structures intended to organize and legalize international political and economic life. The readings will provide a common background for exploring and comparing efforts both to remake the world and re-imagine law. As we analyze our inheritance from that tradition, we will assess recent efforts to rethink law's role in light of twenty first century political, economic and cultural challenges.
How do ideas about law and science shape the contours of the contemporary world? Knowledge underwrites legal authority - but how exactly? How do ideas about what is natural, right or ordained become powerful, hegemonic? Both law and science rely on experts to define the basic coordinates by which we locate ourselves and recognize each other, as members of collectives, actors in institutions, and selves possessing subjectivity. But how does each conceive the other's role, and affirm or resist it? In this course, we will read and discuss literature from social theory, law, and science and technology studies that bears on these questions, alongside case studies that illuminate expertise in action in a variety of professional, scientific, and legal settings.
This two credit course will consider left liberal and more radical intellectual traditions for thinking about political economy and what law has to do with it. Along the way, we will contrast alternative ideas about how the great disparities in wealth, status and authority arise, are reproduced and might be reduced. Is law primarily a reformer’s tool - or something more fundamental to the reproduction of hierarchies? What would it mean to rethink or remake the foundations for political and economic life, either nationally or globally?
Students will prepare briefs, make oral arguments before a federal judge, take and defend depositions, develop and deliver opening and closing statements, and present and cross-examine witnesses. The course will follow a patent-focused hypothetical case through early stage litigation, a claim construction hearing, depositions, motions in limine, and trial. The first two thirds of the course will cover the pretrial phase, and the last third will be trial preparation, culminating in a student-litigated simulated patent jury trial. (Please note: portions of the jury trial may take place outside of the scheduled class block, but student schedules will be accommodated.)
This reading group will explore the trend toward codifying the law of trusts, focusing primarily on the process and substance of the key uniform acts and related writings. We plan to invite leading participants from the drafting of those acts to join us for at least some of the sessions.
This course is an introductory study of federal income taxation covering inclusion and exclusion of items in computing gross income; deductions from gross income; accounting and timing considerations; capital gains and losses; and the treatment of the family and gifts. Consideration will be given to the interaction of the legislative, executive, and judicial roles in the making, administering, and interpreting of the tax law; to the goals of the tax law and possibilities for future development of it; to the strategic behavior of taxpayers in response to the tax law; and to the impact of the tax law on private property transfers and other transactions. A principal goal of this course is also to teach students to analyze and apply a complex federal statute.
This is a survey course on Natural Resources Law with an emphasis on federal public land management. Topics covered include the History of Federal Public land acquisition, disposal and conservation, Rangelands, Forest Lands, National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge Lands, Minerals, Forests, and Energy Resources. Special attention will be paid to issues of Natural Resource Management on American Indian Lands and water law. The course also addresses state responsibilities for natural resources management (focusing on the public trust doctrine).
Many of these questions are both highly abstract and deeply personal. While they are the subject of intense and heartfelt commitment on both sides, this seminar is offered in the belief that they are also a proper subject for intellectual inquiry. Within each unit, the assigned readings are roughly balanced as to viewpoint: they take deeply conflicting positions, and each student will certainly disagree with some of them. Students are expected to participate fully in the discussions and to complete occasional short writing assignments in response to the readings.
This is an introductory course to public international law. The first part of the course examines the nature, sources, and methods of international law, the relationship between international law and domestic U.S. law, the determination of international responsibility and the resolution of international disputes, and the bases of national jurisdiction over international conduct. In the second part of the course we will study select substantive areas of international law, including the use of force and the laws of war, human rights, international criminal law, and international trade law. Where relevant, the course will follow current events.
This seminar will explore the role of the United States Supreme Court in the shaping of the nation’s environmental, energy, and natural resources laws, with special emphasis on both advocacy before the Court and the Court’s internal decision making processes. The seminar is designed to introduce students both to the full scope and meaning of environmental law, the related challenges of environmental lawmaking (and advocacy) and to the workings of the Supreme Court and advocacy before the Court. The seminar will meet twice a week for the first four weeks, not meet during the following six weeks, and then meet twice a week for the final two weeks of the semester. During the six weeks without class, students will work on their seminar papers and there will be regular office hours to discuss research and drafting progress.
This is a four-week advanced elective in addiction psychiatry at McLean Hospital campus in Belmont, MA. Students will be integrated within an interdisciplinary care team serving patients admitted to a 21-bed withdrawal management inpatient unit for adults with co-occurring substance use disorders and mental health conditions; during this time students also rotate with the hospital addiction consultation service assisting care teams on other inpatient units. These patient care experiences provide a rich learning environment to learn the fundamental structure of substance use disorder care delivery. Students also can follow patients who step down to the acute residential treatment programs on campus (Naukeag, LEADER) to experience a more longitudinal perspective of early recovery. There is no overnight call or weekend requirements during the rotation. Students receive clinical supervision from faculty leadership and are provided with ample opportunities to receive formative feedback on observed patient care interactions. Students will attend family support groups and are encouraged to attend peer support (e.g., AA, SMART Recovery) and program group therapies. In addition, students will receive training in motivational interviewing skills. During the month the student will work with the course director to complete a scholarly project relevant to addiction psychiatry and to the student's career development goals.
This is an advanced pediatric clerkship designed for students who have completed their Core Clerkship in Pediatrics and who desire a more intensive experience with increased responsibility in the management of pediatric patients. The student will function as a subintern and admit and manage patients as a part of an inpatient team under the supervision of senior residents and/or attending physicians. At night, the student will share responsibility with the team for providing coverage for all of the patients. The student will attend daily teaching conferences and radiology rounds with their team. The goal of this clerkship is to provide an opportunity to strengthen skills in the evaluation and management of pediatric patients.
Integrated Human Pathophysiology 3 (IHP3) focuses on key concepts in normal physiology and pathophysiology of the kidney, endocrine and reproductive endocrine systems. IHP3 explores disorders that are common to patients and that provide sufficient foundation so that when students encounter other disorders, they have the foundation needed to understand these problems. The common theme is homeostasis and how derangements in one system can affect other systems. To support a pedagogical approach that emphasizes inductive reasoning, analytical thinking, and problem-solving, the course content emphasizes a series of questions, the answers to which require students to have not only factual knowledge but deeper understanding that enables them to apply the information in a range of clinical contexts. Most of the learning is done in sections of 42 students using case-based collaborative learning. In addition, patients will join the students to share their clinical experiences. Content is integrated across organ systems and with consideration of content from earlier course work to emphasize a holistic approach to health and disease. In addition, content that explores health equity, anatomy, climate change, microbiology, pharmacology and pathology is integrated. Core faculty members from each domain work with students in a longitudinal learning experience that continues for the ten weeks of the course. Course Manager: Rob McCabe
This advanced course will teach students how to work with patients who have psychiatric symptoms in medical settings. Through exposure to a wide range of neuropsychiatric presentations in medical and surgical patients, students will learn how to perform a psychiatric interview, to develop a rapid differential diagnosis,and to create a treatment plan relevant to the medically ill patients. The rotation will guide students in the use of multiple treatment modalities (including brief psychotherapies, pharmacotherapy, electroconvulsive therapy, and behavioral techniques). Students will learn about the impact of illness, of hospitalization, and of medical treatment on the function of patients and will help students to appreciate the role of psychiatric factors in the presentation and course of medical illness. The rotation will provide daily bedside teaching and didactics.
Students will learn how radiology is practiced in an academically oriented busy community hospital, Mount Auburn in Cambridge. The day starts at 7:30 a.m. with 'positives conference'. Current interesting cases are presented in this 30 minute interactive conference attended by students, residents and faculty. This is followed by a 1 hour didactic session led by expert faculty. Students will then participate in a daily resident led educational curriculum dedicated to providing them with a strong foundation in medical imaging. Students will spend the rest of the day integrated into the clinical experience as an active member of our team and will work along side radiology residents and staff where they gain experience in a modality based environment caring for a high volume of patients with a broad spectrum of disease. The rotation schedule can be tailored to the student's interests and can include experience in vascular and interventional radiology, CT, MRI, nuclear medicine, fluoroscopy, women's imaging, ultrasound, and emergency radiology. In addition, students will attend various multidisciplinary conferences with the residents. Students are expected to present a radiology topic of their choice to the department at the end of the month.
The Developmental Medicine Center provides evaluation and follow-up for children with developmental and behavioral concerns. It serves as both a fellow and residency training program and serves a wide variety of patient needs. This course will enable students to become familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of various developmental and behavioral disorders in children. They will learn about normal and abnormal development. They will be exposed to various clinical services that evaluate learning and behavioral issues in children, and will become familiar with diagnosis and treatment of specific disorders such as autism, ADHD, and learning disabilities, and become more familiar with general behavioral principals and specific developmental and behavioral issues including feeding, sleep and toileting. They will learn about developmental screening tools and their importance in the primary care setting. They will be introduced to specific developmental assessment techniques and to the relevant literature and research in the area child development. Students will participate in specialty clinics (i.e. ADHD, toilet school), multidisciplinary clinics (along with team conferences), general Developmental and Behavioral follow-up clinics as well as attend didactic sessions. Level of student involvement is dependent on the motivation of the student. There is no call requirement.
This course is aimed at introducing students to Neuropathology and precision medicine approaches in a hospital setting. The emphasis will be to learn conventional (histopathology) and emerging (molecular diagnostics, spatial biology, digital pathology, multiplex imaging, computational/AI/ML) diagnostic approaches in neuropathology. Students will be involved in integrating histopathological and molecular data with clinical and neuroradiological data to arrive at an integrated diagnosis for patients. They will be involved in intraoperative diagnosis procedures, surgical pathology signout, molecular and cytogenetics and autopsy signout. They will learn about neurodegenerative diseases, brain tumors, and will participate in integrative conferences, diagnostic boards and tumor boards with other disciplines. They will learn to recognize the biology and signs of a wide spectrum of diseases of the brain, spinal cord and other nervous system tissues. The student will be expected to participate in all of the activities of the Divisions of Neuropathology at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Boston Children's Hospital.
The Advanced Clinical Elective in Neurology offers the opportunity to further develop clinical skills and diagnostic reasoning at a sub-intern level. Students will primarily join residents and faculty on the inpatient and consult services at BIDMC, although opportunities may also be available in the emergency department, intensive care unit, and subspecialty clinics based on students' interest, experience, and learning objectives. Students will also join residents for didactic sessions, morning report, and weekly conferences in vascular neurology and neurophysiology, and have the option of joining clerkship students for dedicated teaching or simulation sessions.
MD Students may request up to four months of optional SIM500 credit for full-time or part-time work on their approved scholarly project. The OSE faculty director must approve this credit application. HMS students should visit the internal HMS site for more information . Harvard Key is required to access.
Students may add themselves to the waiting list for this course during add/drop periods but not during lottery periods. Please contact Dr. Samuel Kohrman, skohrman@mgh.harvard.edu, for approval to enroll. In the setting of MGH's locked 24-bed general hospital psychiatric unit, students care for patients, age 18 to geriatric, with acute psychiatric presentations often in the context of previous mental illness or comorbid medical illness. The student joins an attending-resident team, rounds each morning, and participates in the evaluation of new patients and closely follows team patients. Patients have a range of diagnoses seen in the general hospital: major depressive disorder, first-episode psychoses, complex medical and psychiatric-illness interactions, treatment-resistant psychiatric illness. With supervision from attending and resident, they help to manage the diagnostic evaluation and formulation of treatment plans that include somatic treatments and psychotherapies. They participate with residents and other medical students in conferences and lectures.
This elective provides inpatient and outpatient experiences in caring for children with developmental disabilities and special health care needs. The student will participate in interdisciplinary developmental assessment teams within the Developmental Medicine Center over two weeks for children with a variety of developmental disorders, including developmental delays, intellectual disabilites, autism, cerebral palsy, myelodysplasia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disorders, and other conditions. There is opportunity to learn the basics of interdisciplinary developmental assessment, with progressively increasing opportunity to participate as a team member. The other two weeks students will participate as a member of the inpatient teams on both the Neurology and Complex Care Service (CCS). Both services care for children with a variety of developmental, neurologic, and genetic disorders as well as complex medical problems. The student will function as part of the team in each department which includes attending physicians, fellows, and residents. Some of the teams also have psychologists, educators, social workers, nursing, physical and occupational therapists, and other disciplines. The student is expected to attend didactic sessions and conferences that are provided on a regular basis during the inpatient and outpatient experiences. Readings will be recommended and resources will be provided.
Texts include fiction, essays, and poetry. The course director provides necessary philosophic and literary context in videos, required readings, or short comments at the opening of each session. Class time is devoted primarily to discussion. Writing for the course explores the confluence of personal experience with moral thinking in biomedical ethics. Students are required to write four reading journal entries, 350-750 words each. Students are also required to write a minimum of one entry and one response on the class discussion board each week. Total writing time each week is expected to be approximately two hours. All writing assignments are due by Monday, 9 am (Boston time).
Second, students are introduced to various moral considerations involving sports and mental health. This includes elite athletes deciding to prioritize their mental health over public pressure to win or compete, recent public health studies on sports gambling, and how the use of native mascots in team sports impacts the mental health of indigenous communities. A substantive part of the course focuses on the prevalence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) in American football. Throughout this discussion, students are invited to consider why the ethics of fandom deserves serious bioethical inquiry, especially in light of the role fans play in encouraging, celebrating, and taking pleasure in violent sports.
This course will cover selected topics related to bioethics and infectious disease. Drawing upon historical and contemporary examples of disease outbreaks in the US and abroad, we will consider how concepts like beneficence, human dignity, utility, individual liberty, solidarity, and equality inform decision-making with respect to individual wellbeing and population health. We will pay particular attention to the unique feature of contagion and examine how it generates complex and distinct challenges for bioethics. We will also consider the challenges of responding to potential or actual infectious disease outbreaks amid circumstances of fear, urgency, and uncertainty.
With approval and oversight of the Master of Bioethics Program Director, students will be matched with a member of the Center for Bioethics Faculty to complete a course of study developed to meet the needs and interests of the student that is in line with the learning objectives of the Master of Bioethics Degree Program and that cannot otherwise be met within the existing course offerings of the Master of Bioethics Degree. The course of study will require regular meetings with an assigned faculty member to discuss assigned readings and topics as well as a writing component.
Grounded in intersectionality as an analytic of power and structures of domination - not merely identity - the course traces the emergence of intersectional resistance movements and collective struggles for health justice. Students will examine engagements between bioethics and critical race theory, feminism, Marxism, disability justice, religion, migrant justice, and queer and trans liberation, with particular attention to Indigenous perspectives in Africa and the Americas. Through close reading of scholarship, legal and policy documents, first-person narratives, and case studies - supplemented by films and other media - students will critically assess both the promises and tensions of intersectional approaches in contemporary bioethics. The seminar format emphasizes short lectures, collaborative discussion, and structured group work to foster rigorous, collegial dialogue about difficult and controversial issues, and to equip students to envision more just and inclusive bioethical practices.
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This course supports learners in preparing their thesis while building key skills for academic and research success. In this course students will focus on foundational skills including preparing for thesis committee meetings and reports, developing an Individual Development Plan, and building strategies for giving and receiving feedback. The course also provides instruction on advanced communication and writing skills, including analytic strategies for qualitative and quantitative data, presenting data effectively, and writing for both academic and public audiences. The course assignments provide students with an opportunity to present their thesis work to their peers and receive constructive feedback about their thesis projects and presentation skills.
To achieve effective bench-to-bedside translation of research findings, it is essential to understand the fundamentals of the basic science that leads to discoveries and how they may be applied to enhance clinical care. This course will comprise of interactive didactic sessions including lectures and case-based learning to provide an introduction to model systems used commonly in the conduct of translational research with emphasis on the benefits and limitations of different systems. Introductory sessions focus on the development of well-designed research questions, experimental design and the selection of analytical methods appropriate for the questions posed. The course will provide illustrative examples of bench-to-bedside research as well as practical information on models and techniques.
All students are required to complete a thesis at the end of the mentored research experience. The research is conducted at an HMS-affiliated hospital, where the student's HMS faculty mentor maintains principal responsibility for the conduct of all aspects of the research. With rare exception, all mentors are at the Assistant Professor or higher rank. Prospective mentors are reviewed and approved by the program to ensure an appropriate research and training environment. Based on the individual student's needs and objectives, and with the approval of the MMSCI Program, his/her research may be conducted in collaboration with faculty from other entities within or outside Harvard University; however, the HMS faculty mentor remains fully responsible for oversight of the student's research project.
The ability to clearly articulate scientific ideas and communicate data is a core skill for any researcher. This is the first of a two-part course that is delivered longitudinally each year. Part 1 (year one) focuses on dissemination of scientific results, while Part II (in year two) focuses on grant preparation.
This course extends the topics introduced in Design and Analytics I and II and continues to integrate epidemiology and biostatistics with the goal of helping learners to design, conduct, and interpret clinical research studies. All methods are taught in conjunction with practical lessons using Stata. This course will cover several major areas relevant for clinical investigation, focusing on evidence synthesis using systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Topics to be covered include developing targeted searches for relevant studies, assessing quality and bias, statistical methods for combining data from multiple studies, assessing heterogeneity, publication bias, and interpetability of results.
Special Topics in Drug Development and Evaluation introduces students to key concepts relevant to development of novel therapeutic agents. Across two parts this course will cover topics ranging from target discovery and early stage development to first-in-human studies and milestones on the road to commercialization. This material will provide insights on the phases of drug development and is complementary to course materials in both the translational investigation track and the clinical trials pathway of the clinical investigation track.
This course will examine the regulatory and ethical oversight of the history and evolution of ethical research codes and regulations. The role and responsibility of principal investigators will be discussed. The course will include the history of research ethics and touch upon the ethics of animal research, which often is the precursor to trials in human beings. Information about how to prepare research protocol applications and informed consent documents for clinical research will be provided. The course will also review some current and common challenges in the ethical conduct of research including, consideration of diversity and equity and inclusion, recruitment practices, vulnerable populations and topics such as AI and machine learning, genomics, and use of social media in research. The importance of considering the perspectives of subjects and patients in clinical research will also be explored. The course will include didactic and group work that will emphasize critical thinking and practical application of ethical considerations while developing and implementing patient-oriented research.
This course focuses on how to conduct clinical trials effectively. The course content includes lectures on study design and implementation, including different designs, endpoints, study protocol, study population, recruitment, baseline assessment, randomization, stratification, and blinding. Other key issues that are covered include data analysis and sample size and power, treatment regimens and follow-up procedures, and monitoring and interim analysis plans. Lastly, other areas covered include data management and ethical issues, including protection of human subjects.
Specifically, the Part I course focuses on developing skills in formulating a research question, organizing and analyzing data, data visualization, and preparing and presenting data. Topics covered include presentation skills, developing a research talk, preparing a clinical and a translational research manuscript, and understanding the journal editorial process. In a longitudinal exercise in communicating science, students are given a teaching dataset (the SEEK India study) and work in teams to develop a research question, perform the analysis and present their study in both poster and oral presentation forms, with extensive faculty feedback.
This course extends the topics introduced in Design and Analytics I and continues to integrate epidemiology and biostatistics with the goal of conducting well-designed, rigorous clinical research. All methods are taught along with Stata software to implement them. This course will cover several major areas relevant for clinical investigation: 1) Modeling approaches, including multivariable regression 2) Evidence synthesis using systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which lays the groundwork for identifying clinically significant research questions.
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The goals of this course are to build upon concepts introduced in Part I and focus on application of methods to study large datasets, and applying these skills to specific human diseases. The course features in-depth discussion of the translation of genetic/genomic information into novel diagnostics and therapies, including DNA based, RNA based, and protein based analyses. The instruction will employ real-world examples of the development of therapeutics using precision medicine approaches. These cases will illustrate specific teaching points relevant to the application of big data and genomic investigation to precision medicine.
Students will complete an experiential capstone experience as a required component of their degree. This project will demonstrate the progressive achievement of key competencies necessary for a master's student success. Students will be asked to apply the tools, strategies, and methods from their didactic courses to develop a solution to an evidence-based problem seen in healthcare delivery.
The systematic review and meta-analysis course will be an advanced research methodology course designed to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to conduct comprehensive and rigorous syntheses of existing research literature. This course delves into the principles and techniques of systematically gathering, critically appraising, and synthesizing primary research studies, with a particular focus on quantitative approaches like meta-analysis. Students will learn to formulate clear research questions, search for relevant studies across various databases, and assess the quality and bias of included studies using established tools and guidelines. The course also covers statistical methods for combining data from multiple studies, exploring heterogeneity, and drawing meaningful conclusions. Additionally, ethical considerations, publication bias, and the interpretation of results will be discussed. By the end of the course students will be well-prepared to contribute to evidence-based decision-making in their respective fields and to conduct rigorous systematic reviews and meta-analyses of their own.
The curriculum also delves into the nuanced regulatory environments, primarily of the United States but also other parts of the world, empowering participants to navigate complex approval pathways with confidence. Beyond regulatory considerations, the program covers critical aspects of commercialization, including patent protections, pricing strategies, market access, and lifecycle management; equipping students with the skills to develop a medicine that will optimize its market potential and sustain its value. Throughout the course, learners will develop the analytical mindset and practical expertise needed to successfully plan and execute the development of innovative treatments that address unmet medical needs and ultimately improve patient outcomes.
This course covers the programming, data analysis, and statistics skills required for advanced graduate-level courses in biomedical informatics. During the first half of the course, students develop coding skills to reproducibly analyze complex biomedical data. Topics include visualization, clustering, dimensionality reduction, and high-performance computing. During the second half of the course, students develop their statistical toolkit for robust hypothesis testing. Topics include hypothesis testing, parametric and non-parametric tests, simulations and resampling, regression models, classifiers, and statistical significance.
This course will introduce students with an interest in biomedical informatics to a wide variety of biomedical data from the macro (e.g. population health) to the micro level (e.g. an individual's DNA). Students will learn about both clinical and translational data used in current biomedical research by exploring the ways these data are generated, stored, managed, and protected. In-depth understanding of the intricacies of biomedical data will prepare students to carry out better analyses in the future, whether this is building biomedical AI models, advancing understanding of the human genome, or improving patients’ health.
Data visualization is an essential component of the analysis toolkit in any data-driven research endeavor. As the primary interface through which analysts are consuming data, data visualization can facilitate new discoveries but also mislead, bias, and slow down progress if done poorly. This visualization course will focus on the role of data visualization in biomedical data analysis applications and also cover the principles of perception and cognition relevant for data visualization. It will also introduce the data visualization design process, and visualization tools and techniques used in biomedical informatics. Major topics include interaction techniques and implementations, high-dimensional data, networks, genomes, time and event sequences, and common generic visualization systems. Students are expected to complete class readings, a final project, and make a final presentation.
Students enrolled in the second year of the MMSc in Biomedical Informatics program register for this course to receive credit for their first semester of full-time research. Students will spend approx. 30 hours/week working on biomedical informatics research projects under the mentorship of Harvard Medical School faculty members. During the thesis process, students must attend monthly meetings with their cohort and meet all deliverable deadlines stated in the MMSc-BMI Thesis Handbook.
This course prepares graduate students to perform high-quality biomedical informatics research. The course starts with an overview of foundational ethics principles for biomedical research and examines their practical applications in the field of biomedical informatics. The course also addresses other key considerations for research, such as equity and emerging technologies. Throughout the course, students will use ethics analysis skills to analyze real-world research case studies at Harvard and beyond. They will also learn to communicate about research through written work and a presentation.
Building upon clinical operations leaders' experience and knowledge in healthcare financial management, this course will teach students how to assess and synthesize key metrics to develop a holistic view of an organization's financial position. Students will learn how to use that information to establish appropriate financial performance targets and apply strategies that healthcare systems have utilized to maintain and improve operating expense management and efficiency initiatives such as population health management, active asset management and process improvement via automation. Students will gain a deeper understanding of how patient care revenue is generated and what the payment sources are. Students will learn how to apply principles of healthcare business planning and will explore approaches to generate clinical program growth by enhancing case mix and developing service lines.
The aim of this course is to break down key components of clinical healthcare operations management and quality across inpatient, ambulatory and procedural areas. The course will prepare students for real world management scenarios related to patient care, quality control, and people management and general operations. Students will learn about different aspects of managing healthcare organizations including patient care, revenue, and service. The course will illuminate the importance of patient access and timeliness of care, and will cover modern strategies for capacity and throughput strategies to optimize patient care delivery. Students will learn about the significance of the EMR in today's healthcare delivery system and will obtain real world strategies for tracking performance including understanding operational metrics and productivity. The course will also cover the basics on healthcare disaster planning and crisis management. A core component of the program will be a deep dive into performance improvement, operations redesign and change management using case studies and working in teams.
Innovative solutions in health care are being introduced at an accelerating pace, including new pharmaceutical therapeutic modalities, digital health solutions and care delivery/financing models. This course will systematically explore the ways that health care innovations have multiple potential audiences or stakeholders across the health care ecosystem such as patients, providers, health systems or payers. Each of these stakeholders has their own concept of that innovation's value. Program sessions will discuss the potential impact of emerging technologies (such as precision medicine, digital solutions or AI) in the context of these sometimes competing stakeholder perspectives, enabling students to more clearly identify business opportunities and challenges, and shape a strategy to achieve broad, sustainable adoption of innovations.
This short course is designed to give students an overview of some of the key skillsets that will support their experience as graduate students. We will review how we learn as adults and why having a growth mindset is essential in graduate school and professional life. Students will analyze and discuss key challenges related to professionalism (communication, respect, biases, academic honesty, etc.). Furthermore, we will focus on building and strengthening essential teamwork skills like perspective taking, contribution to group dynamics, and best practices when working in groups.
The seminar series will include three distinct interactive formats: 1) lectures; 2) journal clubs; and 3) peer capstone feedback sessions. The lecture series will include approximately 12 lectures by healthcare leaders across multiple disciplines. Industry executives from related fields will also be invited to share their perspectives. These lectures will include background on their career path, key leadership qualities, teambuilding, communication, and other skillsets, and will explore their personal and organizational strategies for work-life balance, resiliency, and burnout.
The capstone experience is a required component of the Master's program. The experience will be an intensive hands-on experience at one of the Harvard affiliated hospitals and is targeted to allow students to apply the tools, strategies, and methods from their didactic courses to develop a solution to an evidence-based operational problem seen in healthcare delivery. Students will be paired with a mentor from within a healthcare organization to oversee their work. At the beginning of the capstone (ie: over the fall term), the mentor and student will identify a topic and specific problem to address or investigate. Ideally this will be an issue that is germane to both the student and mentor's work and organization. They will perform evidence-based research into the issue, the impact on care, and best practices, if they exist. They will then analyze and describe the current system of care surrounding the problem within the mentor's organization, and design an intervention. They will construct an implementation plan along with measures, and a method for assessing and displaying outcomes. Finally, they will share early findings from implementation. Examples could include the understanding and updating of budgetary or business planning processes, the creation of system solutions to solve workflow, implementing innovation or new service, performance improvement, supply chain management, human resources management, or clinical research integration.
Healthcare organizations are large and complex systems, involving both internal and external collaborative networks. This course will provide students with an understanding of the specific leadership topics most relevant to executives in hospitals and health systems. Students will learn about topics focusing on both internal and external stakeholders, and will gain the fundamentals that they will build upon in the second semester class on Executive Leadership Skillsets. Course components will include live (virtual) sessions, interactive modules, and online discussion forums.
This course will provide the basics of healthcare finances including accounting, business planning, revenue cycle management, and budgeting. The course will provide clinical operations leaders with a broad overview of healthcare reimbursement, policy, and delivery in the US and abroad. Students will learn about strategies that healthcare systems have taken to increase value and improve revenue, while reducing costs, including population health management trends and the use of integrated health systems. The course will provide the student with insights on how to develop and manage healthcare operations, capital, and research budgets, as well as departmental budgets. Students will gain understanding of reimbursement and payer mix, and will learn strategies for managing costs and optimizing revenue. Students will learn basic principles of healthcare business planning and will explore approaches for program growth through enhancing case mix or developing service lines. The course will illustrate how health reform and regulatory changes can impact healthcare finances. Additionally, the course will prepare students for how to exercise leadership during budget processes or business planning, and how to track and monitor financial performance.
A core skillset for clinical operations leaders is understanding and using data to make decisions. This course will provide exposure to the use of quantitative data for analysis, program development, quality monitoring and improvement, and real-world decision-making related to the patient experience and provider performance. The course will also provide the clinical operations leader with valuable insights on clinical research and grants management. Specifically, students will learn how to interpret clinical research data to help guide business planning and program development decision-making. We will explore how grants and clinical research are utilized to enhance clinical programming and the patient experience. The course will provide an overview of grants and research management, as successful integration of clinical and observational research can be extremely impactful.
This interdisciplinary course will frame global health's collection of problems and actions with a particular biosocial perspective. The course first develops a toolkit of analytical approaches and then uses them to examine historical and contemporary global health initiatives with careful attention to a critical sociology of knowledge. The course draws on experiences working in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Americas, as well as an interdisciplinary body of literature, to investigate what the field of global health may include, how global health problems are defined and constructed, and how global health interventions play out in expected and unexpected ways.
This course introduces students to the foundational principles and practices of research development in global health, with a critical emphasis on ethical standards, methodological diversity, and the social contexts of inquiry. Students will explore research design through both quantitative and qualitative lenses - drawing from foundational works by Hubert and Ann Blalock, as well as interpretive, feminist, and decolonial scholars such as Clifford Geertz, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Paul Farmer, and Patricia Hill Collins. The course emphasizes developing research questions, understanding ground realities of fieldwork, navigating ethical complexities, and preparing for thesis research. Students will work toward finalizing their thesis topics and developing research proposals for IRB submission in the spring semester.
This course integrates formal presentations, readings, and practical learning experiences to provide students with an understanding of and basic competencies in qualitative methods for global health research. Students will attend weekly class sessions, complete required readings, and participate actively in discussions, class exercises, and/or supervised field experiences. These activities will recapitulate the research trajectory to provide students with necessary skills for carrying out or contributing to a qualitative research project. Examples of specific course topics include: (a) formulating a research question; (b) study design; (c) qualitative research interviewing; (d) research ethics; (e) data preparation and management; (f) analysis of qualitative data; and (g) writing up research results. Students will complete and present a final project. Research in low-income international settings will be emphasized.
This course is intended as an introduction to ethnographic methods, for use in global health research. The course will provide guided experiences in ethnographic observation,participant observation, and writing of field notes, in anthropological interviewing, development of interview guides, the design of studies in global health research that include an ethnographic component, and analysis of ethnographic data and ethnographic writing. Special attention is given to interviewing as a tool of ethnographic research and theories of subjectivity that underlie our understandings of interviewing. The course will provide practical experiences in carrying out interviews, with class supervision and group reflection on interviewing experiences, along with readings aimed at providing students understanding of how data and theory are combined in ethnographic writing. But attention is also focused on ethnographic observation and the juxtaposition of interview and observational data. Students will be required to review ethnographic writing relevant to the topic and setting of their research. Because medical anthropology has been such a central component for many of the faculty in the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, the course will provide an introduction to the meaning of ethnography and ethnographic research as used in diverse subfields of global health research. In particular, since global health research is conducted in settings in which local culture, forms of inequality, health care institutions, and ways of interpreting and experiencing illness are of critical importance to the development of health services, the course will focus on the use of ethnography to address these basic dimensions of local settings in which research is being conducted.
All MD/MMSc-GH students must complete a thesis project through GH 910 Thesis Research. After completing GH 910, they complete two additional courses to account for thesis analysis. This is the first of those two courses. In this course, students will analyze data in consultation with their thesis mentor, thesis committee members, and advisors.
All MD/MMSc-GH students must complete a thesis project through GH 910 Thesis Research. After completing GH 910, they complete two additional courses to account for thesis analysis. This is the second of those two courses. In this course students will complete a write-up of the thesis in consultation with their thesis mentor, thesis committee members, and advisors. Students will prepare a publishable article based on the thesis results.
This seminar course introduces the use of implementation science to improve health care delivery to underserved populations in low and middle-income countries as well as in the United States. Class time is split between didactic lectures, discussion of published case studies, and application of concepts via work in small groups. Students complete and present a final group assignment. This assignment requires them to develop a proposal for a research project that employs the concepts explored in the field of “implementation science”.
The course will cover introductory level epidemiology and related biostatistical principles and methods, with a specific focus on problems related to global health. Instruction will also be offered in the use of Stata, a statistical software package, for calculating descriptive statistics, generating epidemiologic measures of association, and analyzing data for monitoring and evaluation of global health programs. A key difference in this course compared with other introductory level courses in epidemiology and biostatistics is that it offers examples from global health to illustrate epidemiologic methods and statistical approaches.
HMS GH 912 Thesis Research is the course students complete as they conduct on-site thesis research in collaboration with their primary mentor and thesis committee. Students must submit a monthly progress report on their thesis project to the program coordinator as well as other deliverables related to the thesis during this course.
The Thesis Analysis Seminar provides guidance on topics critical to student thesis analysis and write-up. Topics include: reminders of analysis strategies for qualitative and quantitative data; presenting research results for qualitative and quantitative data; writing an academic paper; writing an op-ed (opinion) piece for the popular press; tips for writing and reminders about grammar. Weekly writing advising allows students to get continuous feedback on their writing. Qualitative advising and advising in STATA for statistics is also available to students to supplement the academic advising and thesis advising from the program director and other faculty.
Full-time students in their first semester are to enroll into the first component of the Longitudinal Seminar Series. This course is designed to support mentored QI work more centrally and allow for peer mentorship and individualized coaching. Working in small groups, students will meet periodically throughout the semester to develop their capstone projects with peer feedback. Specific frames for developing and documenting capstone work will be designed to support this course with specific milestones. The fall seminar will focus on reviewing the framework for project work. Students will be expected to define the problem within the organization using QI tools such as mapping, fishbone diagrams, and key driver diagrams, as well as input from local stakeholders. Interventions will be proposed by end along with a projected implementation plan. Students will be asked to reflect on the process of moving from problem to design.
Informatics for the Quality and Safety Leader provides MHQS students with a broad introduction to the ecosystem of data related to health care. It is designed to help students succeed at the intersection between information systems, clinical work, and quality and safety. Starting with a historical perspective of the evolution of informatics as a field, the course will explore critical elements of EHR design including core functions and infrastructure. In addition to the palette of tools available to support quality and safety, students will be introduced to the role of governance and effect of regulation on strategic choices. Finally, students will learn key aspects of data acquisition and how to best request data for quality and safety work.
The Healthcare Finance and Value course is designed to expose you to financial management concepts and uses. The sessions are devoted to the development of a basic knowledge of cost accounting, differential analysis, and alternative choice decision making. The course places particular emphasis on the practical application of the concepts covered in health care settings.
The capstone experience is a required component of the Master's program. The experience allows students to apply the tools, strategies, and methods from their didactic courses to develop a solution to an evidence-based problem seen in healthcare delivery. This problem could be driven by a need in Quality, Safety, Informatics, or Risk. Students will be paired with a mentor from within a healthcare organization to oversee the work. Successful completion of the capstone will be based on assessment of a written proposal.
This course provides a detailed overview of clinical informatics for professionals who will work at the interface of clinical care and the healthcare system. Students will be introduced to the basics of data infrastructure and operational systems, and will learn how information is stored, accessed, and integrated across hospitals, physician offices, and other healthcare settings. The evolution of the electronic health record and its use to promote patient care that is safe, efficient, effective, timely, patient-centered and equitable will be discussed. Students will also study implementation failures and unintended consequences on systems. Students will learn the mechanics of data requests to support quality improvement and redesign.
This course aims to provide students with the foundational knowledge and skills to conduct qualitative research projects within medical education. The course structure is designed to emphasize practice and skills development, taking students through the process of executing qualitative research projects from generation of relevant research questions, key methods and issues in design, to data analysis, write-up and publication considerations. Emphasis will be placed throughout on ensuring methodological rigor and ethical practice. Students will become familiar with a range of qualitative research approaches and focus in depth on the most common approaches within medical education. Later classes will also address qualitative research within mixed methods design and writing up qualitative research for publication. The course will include interactive lectures, lab and group practice sessions, as well as a cumulative individual project.
This course provides an introduction and overview to quantitative reasoning, implementation, and interpretation of commonly used descriptive and inferential statistics in medical education. Course materials are designed to promote hands-on experience in conducting quantitative data analysis using statistical software (Excel and Stata) and interpreting findings. Course structure includes interactive lecture and discussion with learners; implementation of specific quantitative methodologies using statistical software; and interpretation and scholarly writing of findings.
Understanding the principles of quantitative research is essential to interpret and develop medical education research studies. Increasing emphasis on evidence-based decisions in medical education, grounded in rigorous, high-quality research confirm the importance of understanding quantitative research design, methodology, and results. The results of medical education research studies can provide valuable insights into best practices for educators; however, the accuracy and reliability of results from medical education research studies can be profoundly influenced by study design and methods. When medical education research studies lack scientific rigor or suffer from methodologic errors, the utility of studies' results is impacted. In this context, the Quantitative Research in Medical Education course will review how to critically appraise and initiate or collaborate in rigorous quantitative medical education research.
Students will engage in closely mentored medical education research with their mentor(s), leading to a written thesis that should be a manuscript that is amenable to peer review and publication in the medical literature. Students are expected to: develop a hypothesis and a study design, collect & analyze data, and write and defend a thesis. Additionally, students will present the thesis to their thesis committee/the public in the spring of their second year.
We also live in unruly bodies and contend with unruly appetites. We are as weak and fallible in our bodies as we are strong. In many ways our bodies are completely unknowable, but oh, how we try to master our unruly bodies nonetheless. To write about our unruly bodies is to write about bodies in a world that is always trying to control, discipline, and sometimes punish bodies, particularly women's bodies. And so, in this prose writing workshop, we will think through how to write about the bodies we live in the bodies we love and hate, the bodies we had and the bodies we covet. We will think through what it means to write the body into a culture where bodies are often sites of contention. We will also explore writing about the body and disability, the body and violence, and the body at the intersections of identity we inhabit.
People don't just happen. In this workshop-based class, students will explore the capacity of memoir and cultural criticism to illuminate their understanding of memory, connection, and self-making. This course is as invested in the craft of writing as it is in interrogating how storytelling functions within systems of power. Students will be asked to consider what the work is doing to us, and what we are using our own work to do to others. In particular, this course will investigate the role social determinants of health play in self-making. Classes will alternate between workshop discussions, in-class writing exercises, and close readings of nonfiction by Lucille Clifton, Eula Biss, Carmen Maria Machado, Toni Morrison, Vivian Gornick, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Kiese Laymon, among others.
Stories are a fundamental unit of cultural communication. Our shared cultural mythology is how we disseminate communal values. This course is about harnessing that power as a way to inform, interrogate, and impact. In this workshop style class, students will survey modalities of dramatic writing (theatre, film and TV) as well as embodiment techniques (playback theatre, theatre of the oppressed, improvisation, etc.) in order to apply them within a healthcare context. Classes will alternate between focusing on the craft of writing one day and embodiment explorations the next. This is a practical course, and though underpinned by theory, students will produce a work of dramatic writing, and, taking into account their abilities, engage in physical theatre exercises.
What can play offer to the pursuit of health and well-being beyond quantification of eating habits and wellness apps playing sea breeze sounds? This course offers a hands-on exploration of the role of playful experiences to this subject through analysis and design. Students are familiarized with the theoretical and methodological foundations of interaction design and design exploration, as well as practical approaches to working with physical and digital design materials. Each student chooses a topic that they explore through iterative prototyping. As the ideas solidify into artifacts, we engage in critique, refinement and knowledge dissemination through play. The course is taught as a studio class with on-demand lectures and instruction, collaborative exercises, discussion seminars, and peer critiques of individual projects. There is a strong emphasis on co-learning between students as health subject matter experts and the instructor as game design expert and the facilitator of knowledge and artifact co-creation.
The American healthcare system is complex and replete with human-centered design opportunities. For patients and caregivers, there is a steep learning curve to understanding how the system works, accessing information about services, making decisions about treatment and interventions, and advocating for needs. In this course students will engage in a highly experiential curriculum, applying design thinking methods and tools to improve healthcare navigation for patient populations with more limited healthcare access.
The bedrock of this course is the notion of storytelling as care: a constant, whether in times of crisis (in both its modern and ancient definitions) or healing. Students will be steeped in the foundations of storytelling craft and narrative theory, building and refining their skills before applying them to a variety of storytelling modalities: journalism, creative nonfiction, memoir, graphic novels, film, podcasts, art installations, and performance. Students will be asked to be both rigorous and exploratory, collaborating with each other in small, workshopped projects. They will understand how a story can be told in different formats, the aesthetics and ethics of care in storytelling, and how to craft a narrative as an intervention, particularly during crises. There will be readings, film screenings, podcast listening sessions, and immersion in different forms, as well as generously structured time to build practical skills.
This course is a practicum in writing publishable op-eds on health, science, and injustice. Week by week we dissect how writers use investigations and essays to break through public and institutional indifference - on Medicaid privatization, racist terror, psychiatric abuse, homelessness, and the failures of child welfare. Students will reverse-engineer these pieces to understand not just what was said, but how. Then, through an iterative process of pitch-writing, peer critique, and rewriting, each student will develop a portfolio-ready op-ed on a topic of their choosing. They will also work with a small group on developing a group op-ed in parallel. Students will leave with a revised op-ed and a polished pitch suitable for submission.
This course is our MMSc programmatic class to track the completed required credits for the thesis project under the supervision of the Harvard University faculty member. Students will choose their thesis advisor and establish a project in the fall semester of Year 1. They are expected to spend 16-20 months conducting a laboratory-based thesis project. Students will conduct mini-rotations consisting of meeting with up to 3 PIs, talking with lab members, and attending 1-2 lab meetings. Students will receive 14 credits for this course. Each semester a specific set of scaffolded requirements must be completed, and pre-determined thesis project/lab-research milestones have to be met, resulting in a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade. This course is the third of four thesis courses that capture the progress made in the Thesis lab and research experiments.
This course is designed to provide life science Master's students with professional development to support their success in team-based research settings, such as biotech and pharmaceutical industries. Through interactive sessions, practical exercises, and guest speakers from industry and academia, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of various skills crucial for thriving in a competitive work environment. The course will focus on professional skills and EQ, working in an interdisciplinary team, principles of management (both for projects and people), negotiation and conflict resolution, and networking and job search. The course will leverage training sessions and opportunities already in place and administered through the Office of Graduate Education at Harvard Medical School. This course will be offered in the second year of training to help students with taking the next career step post-graduation.
Students will be required to attend the BCMP Seminar series and participate in a Journal Club to discuss research papers relevant to the course of study. Both seminars and the journal club content will be chosen to showcase the development of new assays and characterization of the pharmacology and mechanism of molecules intended for therapeutic use. Students will learn how to evaluate the work of others, provide feedback, and improve their overall appreciation of the field. The weekly series will run for the entire training program.
The overarching objective of this course is an introduction to the essential topics in biochemistry and cell biology relevant to assay design, drug discovery and therapeutic sciences. This foundational course combines lectures and lab-based training to provide students with fundamental knowledge emphasizing their application in assay development. Through hands-on laboratory sessions, participants will learn to translate theoretical concepts into practical skills, gaining experience in assay design, data analysis, and experimental planning. Additionally, students will receive comprehensive training in record-keeping and documentation of research using electronic laboratory notebooks. The curriculum comprehensively addresses key areas of contemporary drug discovery, including assay technologies, enzyme kinetics, biochemical principles, and receptor and ion channel pharmacology. This allows students to develop both biochemical and cell-based assays, allowing them to design rigorous experiments and interpret complex data effectively. By closely aligning practical training with core scientific concepts, this course prepares students thoroughly for advanced study and experimental work in their thesis laboratories.
This course provides foundational training in experimental design and data literacy tailored specifically for biomedical research. Students will systematically design experiments and learn methods to collect, organize, and analyze biomedical data. Emphasis is placed on practical, hands-on experience using statistical and data-management software tools. Through interactive lectures, discussion forums, group activities, and case studies, students will explore real-world scenarios and actively identify potential pitfalls, biases, and limitations inherent in biomedical research. By the end of the course, students will possess the critical thinking skills needed to design robust experiments, confidently select appropriate statistical methods, and accurately analyze and interpret experimental results. They will also recognize and mitigate common pitfalls, biases, and limitations, preparing them for effective biomedical research.
This course will track the completed required credits for the thesis project under the supervision of Harvard University faculty member. Students will choose their thesis advisor and establish a project in the fall semester of Year 1. They are expected to spend 16-20 months conducting a laboratory-based thesis project. Students will conduct mini rotations consisting of meeting with up to three PIs, talking with lab members and attending 1-2 lab meetings. Students will register for a pre-determined set number of credits ranging from 2-14 research credits/semester, until the completion of the thesis. Each semester a specific set of scaffolded requirements must be completed, and pre-determined thesis project/lab-research milestones have to be met, resulting in a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade.
Essentials of the Profession brings together the social and population science relevant to the practice of medicine and dentistry. It covers and integrates key concepts and methods of clinical epidemiology, population health, health care policy, social medicine, and medical ethics and professionalism. The course is taught in the January block of Year 1.
Anatomy I prepares students to recognize, organize, and apply anatomical knowledge to support clinical reasoning, diagnostic selection and interpretation, and patient care assessment. Content is integrated across organ systems and builds on material from earlier coursework to promote a longitudinal and comprehensive understanding of health and disease. The course also contributes to preparation for the USMLE Step 1 examination.
Professional Development Weeks (PDWs) are required week-long intersessions that occur at two spaced intervals during the Pathways preclerkship phase. PDWs begin in the first month of the Pathways MD curriculum and are designed to encompass professional development in a broad sense: from self-reflection and self-assessment, to feedback, advising and planning, to consolidation and assessment of learning and for learning. Students participate in a Standardized Patient Encounter/OSCE, as well as workshops and large group sessions. By bringing together material from preceding courses and relating basic and social science to clinical skills, the goals of the PDWs are to consolidate and apply knowledge and skills, afford time and space to reflect, and provide opportunities to explore personal and professional interests. Course Administrator: Meg Lacey
The goal of the Foundations course is to provide students with a framework for understanding biomedical science that they can apply in subsequent preclerkship courses and throughout their medical and dental training. The course is comprised of nine disciplines, organized into three broad themes: Molecular, Cellular and Genetic Basis of Medicine (cell biology & biochemistry, genetics, pharmacology); Structure and Function of the Human Body (anatomy, histology, developmental biology); and Mechanisms of Defense and Disease (pathology, immunology, microbiology). The content is selected to emphasize the key principles of each field. Most topics are taught in an integrated fashion to help students identify conceptual links between fields. For example, cell signaling is taught in the context of how signaling pathways are perturbed by mutation or disease and how drugs are used to intervene in signaling pathways. To complement discipline-oriented teaching, Foundations introduces several disease-specific themes that are used to teach content in a longitudinal and integrated fashion, including cancer and cardiovascular disease.
Transition to the PCE represents the move from the classroom to the workplace-based, interprofessional learning environment. The course consolidates material learned during Year 1 and builds on this foundation to develop knowledge, skills and behaviors necessary for success in the clerkships, including critical thinking, teamwork, medical knowledge, and clinical skills. Using a series of cases, students are introduced to the clerkships through application of curricular themes including anatomy, pharmacology, and pathology. Societal themes are explored in depth, building on year 1 in areas such as structural racism in medicine, health equities and disparities, women’s health, gender and sexual minority health, elder care, and interprofessional education. Simulation sessions provide opportunities for students to strengthen knowledge and skills, and to lay the groundwork for their PCE learning experiences. Course Manager: Tim Gailius.
The Essentials of the Profession course introduced students in Year I to core principles of clinical epidemiology, health policy, medical ethics and professionalism, population health, and social medicine. That course taught students how to think critically about medical knowledge and how to understand the social and political contexts of health and health care in the United States. Essentials II: Advanced Social and Population Sciences for Medicine builds on this foundation and includes a novel collaboration with Harvard Business School to discuss Healthcare Delivery and Leadership. The course is structured to integrate across disciplines; incorporate PCE and post-PCE clinical experiences; and evaluate and design solutions. Course objectives include the following: Interpret and critique data from various sources to explore and improve population health problems and employ clinical epidemiology concepts to critically appraise population health research studies; Identify the complex interplay of social and structural forces that affect health and health care to improve clinical care and advance health equity; Assess the health policy context in which our health care system operates and how it informs and impacts clinical practice, while discovering opportunities for innovation and reform; Discuss and appraise the ethical principles that underlie clinical care, research, and professionalism, and apply these principles to ethical issues in practice. Understand, apply and critique the key tenets of value-based health care and their application to health care organization, delivery and assessment. Teaching occurs in large and small groups. Course Manager: Tim Gailius.
Integrated Human Pathophysiology I focuses on key concepts that underlie the normal physiology and the pathophysiology of common gastrointestinal and hematologic disorders. The course addresses illustrative principles that form the basis for the understanding of related conditions that are less prevalent. The central theme is homeostasis and how derangements in one system can affect other systems, including digestion and organs of the digestive system, and the role of the components of blood. To support a pedagogical approach that emphasizes inductive reasoning, analytical thinking, and problem-solving, the course content emphasizes a series of case-based questions, the answers to which require students to have both factual knowledge as well as a deeper understanding that enables them to apply the information in a range of clinical contexts. Most of the teaching is done in sections of 40-45 students using a flipped classroom and team-based learning approach. In addition, small group work, independent of faculty, occurs daily to consolidate learning from assignments and to facilitate peer instruction. Content is integrated across organ systems to emphasize a holistic approach to health and disease. Two core faculty members work with students in a longitudinal learning experience that continues for the entire course.
Integrated Human Pathophysiology II focuses on key concepts that underlie normal physiology and the pathophysiology of common respiratory and cardiovascular disorders. The course addresses illustrative principles that form the basis for the understanding of related conditions that are less prevalent. The central theme is the support of aerobic metabolism via gas exchange, oxygen delivery and utilization in health and disease. To support a pedagogical approach that emphasizes inductive reasoning, analytical thinking, and problem-solving, the course content emphasizes a series of case-based questions, the answers to which require students to have both factual knowledge as well as a deeper understanding that enables them to apply the information in a range of clinical contexts. Most of the teaching is done in sections of 42 students using a flipped classroom and team-based learning approach (Case-based collaborative learning) which includes small group work, independent of faculty. Content is integrated across organ systems to emphasize a holistic approach to health and disease. Two core faculty members work with students in a longitudinal learning experience that continues for the entire seven weeks of the course.
This first course in Medical and Dental School is required for all entering medical and dental students. Introduction to the Profession covers several of the central themes in the medical profession. Through this course, the entering class develops a shared foundational understanding of these themes and how they apply to the practice of medicine. The course touches on some of the intellectual, moral and ethical expectations placed upon students as they transition to the role of physician-in-training. There is an emphasis on collaboration and discourse as the entering class begins to form a community. The course meets for most of each day and involves both large and small group experiences.
Professional Development Weeks (PDWs) are required week-long intersessions that occur at two spaced intervals during the Pathways preclerkship phase. PDWs begin in the first month of the Pathways MD curriculum and are designed to encompass professional development in a broad sense: from self-reflection and self-assessment, to feedback, advising and planning, to consolidation and assessment of learning and for learning. Students participate in a Standardized Patient Encounter/OSCE, as well as workshops and large group sessions. By bringing together material from preceding courses and relating basic and social science to clinical skills, the goals of the PDWs are to consolidate and apply knowledge and skills, afford time and space to reflect, and provide opportunities to explore personal and professional interests.
This course focuses on commonly encountered and/or highly instructive diseases of the skin, joints, muscles and blood vessels, systemic diseases that involve these tissues, and on the mechanisms and manifestations of autoimmune and allergic diseases. The integrating theme of IDD is immune/inflammatory mechanisms of disease, with a focus on dysregulated or inappropriately targeted immune responses that give rise to autoimmune and allergic diseases. Causes and manifestations of acquired immunodeficiency (both iatrogenic and infectious) are also covered. Other clinically important aspects of Dermatology and Rheumatology that do not readily associate with the immune/inflammatory theme, such as skin cancer, and osteoarthritis are included.
This course provides an introduction to the clinical features, scientific understanding, and most effective treatments of the major mental health disorders that characterize medical practice. Psychiatric Disorders such as Mood Disorders, Schizophrenia, Anxiety Disorders, Trauma and Personality Disorders will be discussed in depth in both lecture formats and in small group discussions. Biweekly centralized sessions will feature didactic presentations and live or videotaped patient interviews. These sessions will alternate with smaller group sessions at clinical sites of the Departments of Psychiatry. At site visits, students will learn to assess patients with a range of psychiatric disorders. Patient write-ups will be reviewed. Material from the centralized sessions and from assigned readings from textbooks and original articles will be discussed. On-line self assessment questions will be posted throughout the course as study aids.
This course is intended for HST Year III and IV students and consists of research approved for academic credit by the Course Director. Hours are arranged with the research supervisor. May be repeated for credit. (Years I and II take HT199.0). Please contact Jessica Orthman, Jessica_Orthman@hms.harvard.edu, for approval.
Intensive preparation for clinical clerkships that introduces the basic skills involved in examination of the patient in addition to history taking and the patient interview. Provides exposure to clinical problems in medicine, surgery, and pediatrics. Students report their findings through history taking and oral presentations. Restricted to MD program students.
This 4-week course will provide an in-depth analysis of recent advances in our understanding of human disease, as afforded by contemporary biomedical research in the basic and social sciences. Topics covered may include: developmental genetics and congenital birth defects, autoimmunity, complex human disease, genomics and bioinformatics, neurological disease, signal transduction, genomic technology, model organisms, cancer genetics, mechanisms of bacterial pathogenesis, history of science, medical anthropology, economics, or health policy. The course format will consist of online lectures devoted to some of the aforementioned topics and faculty-led student group presentations and discussions of assigned scientific literature. Moreover, students will gain exposure to a variety of career paths from invited physician-scientists. Students will also participate in a largely virtual pre-arranged research rotation or paper reading course (as determined by their PhD research interests) outside of the classroom for the duration of this course. The course is required for all incoming MD-PhD students.
Lectures, detailed laboratory dissections, and prosections provide a thorough exploration of the gross structure and function of the human body. Fundamental principles of bioengineering are employed to promote analytical approaches to understanding the body's design. The embryology of major organ systems is presented, together with certain references to phylogenetic development, as a basis for comprehending anatomical complexity. Correlation clinics stress both normal and abnormal functions of the body; guest lecturers focus on current problems in organ system research.
Covers cells and tissues of the immune system, lymphocyte development, the structure and function of antigen receptors, the cell biology of antigen processing and presentation including molecular structure and assembly of MHC molecules, the biology of cytokines, leukocyte-endothelial interactions, and the pathogenesis of immunologically mediated diseases. Consists of lectures and tutorials in which clinical cases will be discussed with faculty tutors.
Students will study physiology and pathophysiology of the human endocrine system. The format of the course will include both didactic lectures on the various glandular systems and live presentation of clinical cases with relevant laboratory information. The cases serve to illustrate the pathophysiology and treatment of endocrine disease.
This course introduces medical students to fundamental concepts at the core of artificial intelligence (AI), as applied to health care problems. The goal is to provide health care practitioners with skills that will help them: 1) recognize what clinical problems AI, and machine learning (ML) in particular, can solve; 2) critically evaluate the growing literature that applies ML in a clinical context; and 3) appreciate the limitations of AI/ML when used to inform clinical decision making. Specific topics include: deep learning for clinical risk stratification, explaining complex machine learning models, bias and fairness in clinical machine learning, large language models, and Generative Pretrained Transformers (GPT models). Both the opportunities and challenges associated with the application of these methods are reviewed in detail. No background in AI or Machine Learning is required.
Reviews fundamental principles and techniques underlying modern biomedical imaging, as well as their application in modern medicine. Particular emphasis on magnetic resonance; also covers ultrasound, computed tomography, positron emission tomography and optical techniques. Didactic lectures accompanied by problem sets and experiments with portable magnetic resonance systems and ultrasound systems. Focuses on the quantitative aspects of biomedical imaging and requires a knowledge of differential equations, and intermediate-level physics. Only HST students may register under HST.164. Restricted to HST students.
Innovations in surgery extend far beyond novel procedures and instruments. As knowledge advances, surgeons continuously redefine diagnostic frameworks, develop minimally invasive approaches, and in some cases reduce or eliminate the need for surgery altogether. From endovascular and fetal surgery to gender-affirming care and transplantation, evolving decisions about when, why, and how to operate have transformed every surgical field. The AISC on Anatomical Foundations of Surgical Practice centers on the “how” of surgery-how procedures are performed and how anatomical knowledge guides technique-while this course focuses on the “why”: why and when we operate, why we create and adopt innovations, and how we evaluate new approaches to ensure safety, equity, and efficacy. With each innovation come new ethical, financial, and scientific considerations, requiring rigorous and thoughtful methodologies to ensure safety, equity, and efficacy.
This course will prepare students for research and the translation of research to clinical practice that appropriately considers the role of sex and gender diversity in each element of health and disease. Students will learn why sex- and gender-informed medicine is important, the research methodologies involved, and clinical practice considerations that span the patient’s risk, presentation, response to therapy, and interactions with the healthcare system. Incorporating sex and gender diversity into research can present both challenges and opportunities at each step of the process. Students will build skills to critically analyze primary medical literature and learn innovative, inclusive research methodologies. Considering sex differences, as well as the diversity of sexual orientation, gender identity, sex development, and the role of minority stress, will be underlying themes through the course, and research methods that account for this continuum and related social determinants of health will be highlighted. Local and national experts will present the most recent sex- and gender-informed advances in basic science, clinical care, population health, health systems research, and health policy. Opportunities will be provided to spend time with experienced clinicians and mentors who successfully practice sex- and gender-informed medicine, as well as opportunities to design research or prepare publications relevant to this field. Lastly, students will be encouraged to reflect on how sex and gender have influenced their own experiences and professional development.
Summary: This course examines genetic principles and experimental approaches to address fundamental questions about human variation, health, and disease. Students have clinical opportunities to see how genetic information is used in a wide variety of clinical settings (see clinical experiences). Lab experiences are geared to informing students how massively parallel sequencing and DNA arrays are used in the clinic to diagnose rare disorders, to determine carrier status for recessive conditions, or to estimate disease risk for common conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer disease. These clinical and lab experiences are complemented with seminars on state-of-the-art topics including human genetic databases, forensic genetics, polygenic risk scores, cancer genetics, gene therapy, gene editing, and clinical trials. At the conclusion of this AISC, students will understand how genetic technologies and data are being used to prevent, diagnose, manage, and treat disease, and how genetic principles are applied when counseling patients. There are three types of classroom-based sessions. First, a faculty led state of the art lecture. Second, student led discussions of important published papers that have been chosen to help students learn how to critically analyze the scientific literature and share newly acquired knowledge with others. Third, student led discussions of clinical cases for which genetic technologies and the data they produce play important roles in informing and improving patient care.
The basic science of immunology has resulted in an impressive array of new therapies over the past decade that have dramatically changed clinical outcomes in a wide range of diseases. Using four fundamental concepts as a framework (B cell development and antibody function, antigen processing and presentation, activation and regulation of adaptive immunity, and cell-cell communication), this course will examine the immunologic foundations underpinning the rapid expansion of immune-modulating therapeutics in clinical use. We will illustrate these concepts using specific diseases, including primary immunodeficiency, allergy, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and cancer, as well as through integrated immunology-focused clinical experiences across a range of specialties. Clinical experiences and classroom discussions will enable students to identify and explore questions that could lead to broadening of the repertoire of immune therapies in the future.
Summary: The human nervous system is one of the great frontiers of modern biology. Current advances in neuroscience have transformed neurology from primarily a diagnostic specialty to one rich with therapeutic options. Through classroom didactic sessions we will visit basic neuroscience concepts - including cell and molecular biology of neurons, cellular neurophysiology, function of neural circuits, and neural degeneration and repair - and explore how these concepts inform our understanding and treatment of human disease. Classroom sessions will serve to either introduce foundational concepts in neuroscience or to highlight specific areas where cutting edge research is actively reshaping our understanding of health and disease and leading to new treatments. Clinical experiences will include neurology, as well as radiology, psychiatry, and neurosurgery. At the conclusion of the course, students will have deepened their understanding of basic neurobiology and, we hope, be inspired to contribute to scientific understanding or translate discoveries into novel therapies.
Innovations in biomedical engineering are having a significant impact on healthcare. Advances in genomics technologies are transforming diagnostics/therapeutics, including personalized medicine. Prosthetic technologies are giving patients who have lost a limb the opportunity to lead near-normal lives. Robots, swallowed or injected, are changing surgery and diagnostics. Nanomaterials are being used as therapeutics and for new imaging modalities. The course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the entire process from academic discovery to commercial and patient impact with a focus on medical devices and biomedical engineering. Students will interact with faculty who have successfully translated their work to the private sector and will spend time in labs at the Wyss Institute where novel technologies are currently being developed. Students will also meet with investors, visit startup companies to see how technologies are scaled and manufactured, and meet with business development and marketing groups. Student teams will then be tasked with going into the clinic and developing a novel clinical use for a specific technology.
Anatomy-Informed Medical InterventionSafe and effective surgical care depends on deeply integrated anatomical knowledge combined with technical proficiency. While the Surgical Innovations AISC focuses on the “why” of surgery-why and when we operate, why we choose innovations, and how we rigorously evaluate new approaches to ensure safety, equity, and efficacy-Anatomical Foundations of Surgical Practice centers on the “how”. This course explores how to execute operations safely and effectively, how anatomical knowledge guides procedural decision-making, and what data support different technical approaches and variations.
A revolution in the scientific understanding of the cellular and molecular basis of cancer is transforming the science and art of clinical cancer care. The course will emphasize how the basic science of cancer biology underpins issues such as cancer prevention, screening, diagnosis and choice of therapy. Students will review and deepen their understanding of basic principles in cell biology, immunology, genetics, and pharmacology in the context of cancer biology. Participation in multidisciplinary oncology clinics will serve as a stimulus to identify unanswered questions that students will investigate during the course.
Summary: Regenerative biomedicine aims to repair tissues and organs to restore normal function and is likely to become an increasingly important component of clinical medicine in the coming years. Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation is already in wide clinical use, while other regenerative therapies have entered the clinic more recently or are in clinical trials. The course will explore the role of stem and progenitor cells in tissue homeostasis, how defects in this process can lead to illness, and the role of stem cell therapy in the treatment of disease. The course will challenge students to think critically in the area of stem cell therapy, gene therapy and regenerative biology as it applies to clinical applications in stem cell transplantation, wound repair, and aging among others. Varied clinical experiences ranging from transplant medicine to cardiology to psychiatry will facilitate integration of basic science concepts and stimulate formulation of questions at the scientific frontier which will be explored during the course. Students will also interact with those moving basic science to medicines considering issues in clinical testing and commercialization. Students will learn to critique literature and discuss fundamental principles in regenerative biomedicine in CBCL sessions. Prior to each classroom meeting, students will watch short videos and/or read primary literature in preparation for each topic. In addition, students will have a chance to explore the forefront of regenerative medicine with leading scientists and physicians via seminars and discussions. During the course, students will have a chance to develop and present their own ideas in a field they are interested in, with particular focus on how to communicate complex scientific ideas to listeners without much knowledge of science or medicine. Patient discussions will represent conditions in which regenerative medicine currently (or in the immediate future) plays a role in treatments.
Computational approaches to analyzing large data sets and applying the resulting insights to clinical decision-making are central to the present and future of biomedicine. Through this course, students will acquire the computational framework and toolkit necessary to address this growing analytic challenge. Students will explore this computational framework through selected examples of clinical decision-making and epidemiologic studies informed by electronic healthcare data. Students will also experience the application of these approaches to address a multitude of current research questions through mentored experiences on medical innovation projects. Focused on the application of AI in medicine, students will become familiar with different types and flavors of AI / LLMs, build effective prompts for LLMs used for research or analysis, and access and apply AI models that could be translated to real clinical scenarios. Format of classroom-based sessions: Classroom sessions are generally divided into two parts. The first part will include student presentations of journal articles, with an accompanying discussion led by the course directors. The second part of class will be devoted to completing in-class assignments, where students will apply and develop their R programming skills to the computational problems discussed in class, with individual guidance from data science mentors. Four sessions will be led by guest lecturers. Anticipated schedule: All AISCs are full-time courses. Students are expected to devote at least 50 hours per week to scheduled sessions and preparatory work. This course will consist of three half-days per week in classroom sessions, an additional two 2-hour sessions per week to complete homework assignments using R programming skills (these sessions are run by a dedicated team of data science mentors, and are meant to support students as they work through the material at their own pace), and two half-days per week for medical innovation projects lead by data science mentors experts on the field. Effective learning in this course will require that students have prior basic knowledge of the R programming language. Students missing this background should take the short & effective online course https://www.edx.org/course/data-science-r-basics before the course starts. This would also be reinforced with 4 introductory R sessions during the first two weeks of the course.
The majority of important risk factors for many acute and chronic diseases suffered by people across the globe are related to diet, lifestyle and metabolic factors. A lifestyle with healthy nutrition and physical activity could prevent up to 80% of non-communicable diseases, and dietary patterns are the etiology for numerous acute illnesses in women, children and other susceptible populations. Recent advances in knowledge and technology are transforming the way that we integrate lifestyle into clinical practice. The course will cover a broad range of topics including: how nutrition and lifestyle choices influence health and diseases throughout the lifecourse; nutrition, physical activity, and behavior change as integral part of management of many medical conditions; novel technologies to measure lifestyle behaviors; and behavioral approaches for clinical integration and for personal health. Students will have the opportunity to participate in a wide variety of specialty clinical programs, including weight management, diabetes care, hyperlipidemia, parenteral nutrition, neonatal intensive care units, celiac disease, and others. Class sessions will include students’ clinically inspired questions, case-based collaborative learning, journal clubs, and experiential learning. Students will have the opportunity to gain experience in reviewing critically the current literature, summarizing their review findings, and presenting in front of their peers. This AISC combines the expertise of multiple faculty members across HMS-affiliated institutions to offer students the opportunity to expand their knowledge and skills to integrate nutrition, physical activity, and other lifestyle behaviors in their future career.
This course will expose students to the breadth of possibility of scientific work in this field - all within the context of real world gaps and finding solutions for the future. One particular focus will be understanding how tools and data can be leveraged to identify and understand system risks for healthcare disparities. Format of classroom-based sessions: Classroom sessions will use a variety of approaches, including case-based collaborative learning, interactive workshops to teach improvement tools and methodology, interactive research sessions, and invited speakers who are experts in their fields. Examples of both successful and unsuccessful approaches will be shared. Students will be assigned to small groups to analyze specific problems and generate possible research designs to evaluate solutions. Students will be expected to complete preparatory reading, with presentations and projects over the four weeks. The final project will include a group research proposal and presentation to study evidence based interventions to a healthcare disparity within an organization. Format of clinical/field experiences: Clinic/field sessions will vary including direct observation of work in clinical settings and meetings with stakeholders in operations and QI and Safety (hospital administrators, local HMS-affiliated nonprofits dedicated to improved quality and safety, frontline clinicians, etc.). The objective is for students to design rigorous research questions affecting both the front line and the organizational level.
While students will have the opportunity to participate in hands on learning, the goal of this clerkship is to also provide a more in depth exposure to the diverse field of anesthesiology and further develop their critical thinking and decision making skills. Rather than focus on technical skills, we strive to help students understand important clinical concepts applicable no matter what specialty they choose. Real time applied physiology and pharmacology will be emphasized. As the month progresses and in accordance with level of enthusiasm and ability, students can expect to be given increased responsibility in caring for patients. If students are interested in exploring anesthesiology as a career, we will provide them with mentorship and career exploration opportunities. We look forward to having you join us!
The student will participate as an acting intern on the night team of the Obstetrical Service. They will admit patients on Labor and Delivery, assess labor, assess maternal and fetal status, perform pelvic examinations, perform initial screening ultrasound examinations, fully participate and perform deliveries of uncomplicated patients under supervision, and participate in all rounds and conferences of the service. Selected interesting high risk patients may be followed as well. The sub-intern will also participate actively in any surgical procedures on his/her patients. Sub-interns will care for patients from all admitting physicians (faculty group, resident clinic, Harvard Vanguard, and private practice). The sub-intern will be on night shift Monday - Thursday. The student will also have the opportunity to complete a quality improvement or medical education project during the course and will have Friday - Sunday to work on it. The sub-intern will report directly to the chief resident on Labor and Delivery and ultimately to the attending physician for each patient treated. Students may attend MFM or ultrasound ambulatory sessions by arrangement. The student will have the opportunity to present their project at Perinatal conference, morning report, or other venue if desired.
The student will serve as a sub-intern in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at BIDMC, functioning as an integral part of the intensive care team with direct responsibility for patient care. The student will be involved in the primary evaluation and management of patients, and will be under the direct supervision of the medical resident, the critical care fellow, and the attending physician (one of the full-time staff physicians of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Division). The student, as the primary physician, will admit up to one patient every other day, and will be expected to be on long call in the unit until 8pm two nights per week. The student will be responsible for the initial work-up and the management of the patient, including performing bedside procedure, and will manage the patient for the duration of the patient's ICU care. All patients will also be evaluated by the medical resident, and will be presented by the student to the attending physician. The student will participate in daily work rounds and attending rounds in the intensive care unit.
The student will learn to care for children with a wide variety of illnesses and injuries and will gain an appreciation of aspects of pediatric practice unique to the emergency setting including triage, tailored assessments, and caring for high acuity. Students, under the direct supervision of pediatric emergency medicine attendings, will assume primary responsibility for emergency department patients with medical, surgical, and trauma related conditions. The student will be responsible for the initial assessment, generating differential diagnoses, and proposing and executing treatment and follow-up plans. The student may have opportunities to perform supervised procedures including incision and drainage, lumbar puncture, procedural sedation, splinting, and suturing. Students will attend weekly didactic and simulation sessions given by the Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital.
During the rotation, the student will gain an understanding of the pathophysiology and management of patients with a variety of critical illnesses including respiratory failure, hypotension, sepsis, gastrointestinal bleeding, and renal failure. As an integral member of the team, the student will also interact with varied consultative services and participate in regular family meetings. The student will gain exposure to a variety of procedures performed in the intensive care unit including placement of central venous access, arterial access, thoracentesis, paracentesis and bronchoscopy. Activities will also include participation in daily morning didactic teaching session as well as regularly scheduled MICU conferences (Ethics Rounds, Journal Club, Morbidity and Mortality Conference and a shared MICU/SICU conference). In addition to the regular MICU didactic conferences, the BWH Respiratory Therapy Department offers a brief "hands-on" session regarding mechanical ventilators that has been an excellent introduction to this important topic. During the last week of the rotation, the student will be expected to lead a teaching session on a critical care topic of their choice.
The student will function as an integral member of the ICU team in a busy 20-bed mixed medical, surgical, and cardiac ICU where at least half the patients are on the medical service. The student's primary role will be caring for medical ICU patients under the supervision of the medical resident and the Pulmonary and Critical Care attending. There is also opportunity to participate in the care of critically ill patients on the surgical and cardiothoracic surgical services. The unique setting of Mount Auburn Hospital allows for the diagnosis and management of common and uncommon life-threatening illness presenting from the community. Management of respiratory failure, sepsis, shock, cardiac injury and stroke will be emphasized. A detailed schedule will be provided prior to the course outset. The student will have two long call days per week, during which they will admit one patient with an intern/resident team and then transfer care to an incoming overnight team in the evening. The student will have two days off per week. In addition to participating in patient care, the student will attend a regular ICU didactic lecture series and medical grand rounds.
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This course is primarily a clinical experience, focused on providing the student with a fund of knowledge in the diagnosis, natural history, and management of gynecologic tumors. The multidisciplinary approach to cancer management will be emphasized. Students will also see patients with attendings during outpatient sessions. Each student will be assigned several patients to follow in the hospital. The student will perform the preoperative evaluation, attend surgery, and follow the patient postoperatively. Management will be discussed with the faculty at daily beside teaching rounds. The students will present their patients at a weekly multidisciplinary gynecologic tumor conference and be expected to provide a discussion of management options. During the four weeks, the student will be expected to prepare a literature review relevant to a case on the service. The topic will be selected together with the course director and will emphasize the multimodality approach to cancer management. The student will prepare a oral report of his/her literature review.
The student will function as a sub intern on the maternal-fetal medicine service at MGH as part of a four-person team which includes the maternal fetal medicine (MFM) specialist (attending), the MFM fellow, the OB/GYN resident, and the sub intern. The activities will include: (1) Participating in daily sign out rounds of laboring and complicated postpartum patients, (2) Rounding daily on the antepartum service, (3) Labor and delivery night call 1x per week to allow participation in deliveries, (4) Scrubbing on select MFM surgical cases, (5) Spending 4 outpatient sessions doing MFM consultation with MFM attendings and seeing patients in the MFM practice, (6) Spending 2-3 outpatient sessions doing genetics, obstetric ultrasound, and general obstetrics, and (7) Preparing a case-based teaching presentation. The student will also attend all weekly MFM conferences including:Ob/Gyn resident didactics, Ob/Gyn Grand Rounds, MFM Fellow didactics, Genetics conference, and Perinatal Case Conference.
This is a one-month-long course offered to fourth-year medical students who have completed the core clerkship in psychiatry. Under close supervision, students in this elective course will participate as integral members of the working clinical team in the Division of Medical Psychiatry in evaluation and treatment of patients with psychiatric, substance abuse, and behavioral problems on the wards of a general hospital. The team includes attending staff members, psychosomatic medicine fellows, and a chief resident and third-year psychiatric residents from the BWH/HMS Psychiatry Residency Training Program.
The broad range of common disorders (and the uncommon as well) represent rich opportunities for the trainee. Also vital is preparation of the subinterns for their future role as housestaff with course attention to the basic elements of teaching and the conduct of effective ward rounds. Students are integrated into the ward team and manage patients from admission to discharge under the direct supervision of the team resident. Bedside teaching also offers direct observation of student interviewing and examination skills. In addition to participating in the full range of conferences designed for the house staff, students will meet with faculty for seminar-based discussion of specific subintern curricular topics, as well as bedside rounds devoted to the interview, physical examination, review of primary data and problem formulation. Feedback will be provided to the students on a regular basis with a fixed mid-month review of performance. Evaluations will be based on input from housestaff and faculty. Students will meet individually with the course directors at the end of the rotation to review performance, achievements, and goals for the future.
Intermediate Medical French is designed for students with some working knowledge of conversational French. The Fall course will have a particular focus on the basics of taking a medical history with patients. With weekly sessions led by HMS teaching faculty, we hope to provide a solid base for our students to learn enough medical French terminology to communicate effectively with patients in a variety of medical settings. Requirements for this course include: at least one year of college French or two years of high school French; ability to maintain a basic conversation in French with minimal difficulty or hesitation; ability to discuss personal information, comfort with grammar fundamentals and basic reading and writing skills in French. Course Features: 1) interactive didactic sessions, with a focus on conversational skills, 2) vocabulary lists and quizzes, 3) opportunities to shadow French-speaking physicians
This course teaches the Biodesign process, a proven methodology for innovating in healthcare that is rooted in needs finding and concept creation. The framework of biodesign focuses on human centered design and teaches students to identify and validate a need, generate solutions and screen for the most feasible solution to a problem. This is an interactive 10 week project based class taught by industry experts from the field of healthcare, entrepreneurship and venture capital. Key concepts are taught through a combination of lectures, guest speakers, and break out sessions with mentors. Students will choose a project from a list of needs that are sourced by the course co-directors. Needs will span the areas of health IT, medical devices, medtech and care delivery. Teams will be formed based on student's background and interest. During the 10 week course, students are required to spend time outside of class working on their team based project. There will be key deliverables throughout the course that culminate to a final presentation in front of a panel of expert judges. A final paper will also be required.
Introduction to the academic disciplines of business management with illustration from examples in various medical care settings. Topics include: economics of health care; evolving role of physicians and other medical professionals; ethics of business decisions in a clinical context; underlying concepts in financial, marketing, and operations management in health institutions; and the management of risk in health-related enterprises. Presenters will be carefully selected multidisciplinary faculty from the Harvard and MIT communities as well as relevant guest faculty. Guest faculty will include managers with experience in health services, pharmaceuticals, and medical product related organizations. Student group projects will address current issues influenced by the rapidly changing healthcare management environment. This course is for first year HMS and HSDM students, especially those planning to apply for or are considering the MBA joint degree. Up to 6 HMS Graduate Education students are allowed.
Stories are the heart of medicine. In this course we will read, hear, watch, and write stories that can help us make sense of the experiences we confront as healers: pain, loss, fear, alienation, compassion, wonder, and transformation. Through selected short stories, poems, podcasts, essays, and other narratives, as well as through our own writing, we will reflect on the power of narrative to enlarge our empathy and sense of identity, foster connection and communication, and fortify our competence as guardians of our patients’ and each other’s stories. Authors will include short works by “classic” authors such as Kafka, Wharton, and Tolstoy as well as contemporary voices such as Roxane Gay, Ken Liu, and Nancy Mairs.
The course is intended to provide a foundation for understanding mental health across the life course from a population and health equity perspective. The course curriculum is informed by the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health (2018) which proposed a reframing of mental health as a development priority. The Commission proposed three guiding principles of reframing: conceptualizing mental health as a dimension and not solely as the presence or absence of a diagnosed mental disorder; understanding the origins of an individual’s mental health through a convergence of genetic, biological, early life and social and environmental factors; and adopting a rights-based perspective to responding to mental health needs in the population. This course is one of the required courses for the interdisciplinary concentration in Population Mental Health for MPH candidates at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
The modern hospital is an extraordinarily complex environment comprising numerous interacting systems designed to facilitate safe, effective, and efficient medical care. While almost all physicians will spend part of their careers practicing within the hospital, few have more than a rudimentary understanding of the physical systems and infrastructure that support their work. Often, it is only when these systems malfunction or fail that we fully realize the extent of our dependence on our medical infrastructure. This course is designed to introduce future physicians to the principles of how the hospitals actually work. This understanding of how our work environment functions is of potential value to any student who anticipates spending significant time practicing in the hospital environment, from rounding on the wards to serving in senior leadership as a department chair or physician executive. Taught by the individuals and teams who actually operate and manage hospital systems, this course will be structured around unique on-site field trips to look "under the hood" at various systems at a major Harvard-affiliated teaching hospital, combined with didactic teaching to understand what students see during these visits. Each session will focus on a different element or system within the hospital environment, from infrastructure and environmental systems (mechanical, electrical, plumbing, wastewater) to operational support systems such as food service, supply management, and pharmacy services, to unique care environments such as operating rooms and emergency departments. Students completing this course will be able to function in the hospital with a unique understanding of how the physical and operations systems surrounding them work, develop valuable understanding of how to communicate and collaborate with the myriad professionals who keep hospital systems running, and how these systems and people enable modern medical care.
This course will facilitate students' critical thinking about psychotherapy and how to understand the latest research in psychotherapy outcomes and empirical evidence. This will include an overview of the impact the Evidence-Based Medicine movement has had in psychotherapy and how this relates to traditional psychotherapies like psychoanalysis. The course will balance clinically grounded consideration of research evidence with critical thinking about how psychotherapy research is conducted and how practicing in an evidence-based manner in psychotherapy extends beyond familiarity with research. This course will be beneficial for those interested in psychiatry or behavioral health regardless of whether it will be a primary practice area. This course will consist of 6 sessions, each 1.5 hours long. Learning activities will include lecture, guided activities, and discussion of assigned readings.
The class will be taught twice a week (1.5 hours per each class session), for four weeks, in February and/or September, and will include both lectures and practical assignments. The students are required to attend the lectures, participate in lecture discussions, and work on weekly homework assignments. The work outside the class is expected to take around 3 hours/week, but this may vary depending on the individual student background/skillset. Guest/faculty speakers (including faculty and data scientists) may be invited.
This is a four-week elective experience aimed at introducing students to the field of Clinical Informatics. Clinical Informatics is the application of information technology to healthcare delivery, encompassing computerized order entry, clinical decision support, electronic clinical documentation, workflow improvement, big data, population health, and other technologies. Students will learn the core content of clinical informatics from our expert faculty first-hand through one-on-one experiences with various members of our faculty, focused on areas of interest. Students will also explore the unique challenge of technology implementation in the pediatric healthcare setting and explore the historical and political influences which helped establish the current state of Informatics in our health system. Learning experiences will involve direct faculty mentorship, independent reading assignments, formal lecture-based learning, and presentations to Informatics Fellows and Faculty.
Students will submit short reflections on a shared CANVAS-embedded blog following each class session and respond to/comment on at least one classmate’s reflections. Students will also complete a final project on a topic of their choice in an emerging area of disability health, law, ethics, research, policy, medical education, or community engagement. This project will involve a site visit and scholarship in a form appropriate to the topic (e.g. policy brief, manuscript, slidedeck). The course will provide a list of potential mentors for students to choose from or students can work with a different mentor of their choice, with course approval.
Human activity is changing the atmosphere and altering terrestrial and marine ecosystems on a global scale. Evidence is mounting that these changes may already be having serious effects on human health, and there is growing concern that in coming decades the effects could be catastrophic. This course was developed because the practice of public health in this century will require an understanding of the relationship between human health and the global environment. It will provide an overview of climate change and related processes, key examples of global environmental change, their potential consequences for human health, and explore solutions to these problems and the challenges inherent in realizing those solutions. The course will be open to all students at Harvard University, but enrollment is limited, and preference will be given to students from Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, and to undergraduate Environmental Science Public Policy majors.
In this seminar we explore justice and beneficence near and far. We engage in moral reasoning to learn what obligations we bear, in the throes of anthropogenic climate change, to benefit and to prevent harm to peoples and generations distant from us in space and time. Moral intuitions differ on recognition of distant persons as objects of moral concern. The urgency posed by occurrent climate change motivates work to construct a compelling understanding of what we collectively ought and virtuously would do. Candidate obligations are commonly expressed in terms of acts and forbearances to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to global warming. After surveying foundational topics debated by philosophers and economists-whether and at what rate future harms and benefits should be discounted, Parfit’s nonidentity problem, and carbon pricing-pragmatic reasoning will occupy center stage, as in quantifying how much mitigation may reasonably be expected from actions of individuals vis-a-vis actions of governments, and in anticipating the effects of alternative schemes for distributing the burdens of mitigation. Readings of recent works in moral philosophy and economics will draw students into grounding insightful positions on cogent arguments. The exploration will close with a question whose mere pertinence will cause alarm. What duty obtains to avoid hastening the extinction of homo sapiens?
This course provides students with a framework for understanding the spiritual dimension of issues they will confront in the practice of medicine. These include patients' struggles with questions of faith, spiritual approaches to problems such as life threatening illness or addiction, and the personal commitments that underline professionalism. Faculty will offer a model approaching these issues, lead discussion using clinical examples, and facilitate opportunities for extra- classroom experiences, such as working with a hospital chaplain or with spiritual or faith-based programs of healing. Invited presentations from chaplains, clergy and physicians will explore the implications for medicine of various religious and secular traditions, and issues surrounding the role of the clinician in responding to spiritual needs. They will also serve as resources for presentations by students to the class.
Please note: Self-service add/drop is not available for this course. Please contact registrar@hms.harvard.edu for add/drop requests. Independent Study in an International Setting is supervised by the HMS Societies and the HMS Scholars in Medicine Office. It is designed to meet the needs of students who wish to expand their clinical and/or research learning in an international setting. The Course Director and Advisory Deans of each Society work with each student to adequately prepare them before, during and after the overseas experience. In order to request credit, both the Society Advisory Dean and the Course Director must approve the request for the independent study. In order to receive credit, the Course Director must approve the documentation submitted by the student upon completion of the experience. The final documentation must include the following: a written report that follows the template provided by the Scholars in Medicine Office; a log of hours spent in the experience (i.e. complete page 2 of the SOC900 form) signed by the on-site supervisor/mentor; and an evaluation from that same on-site supervisor/mentor. These will serve as the basis for the student�s evaluation and receipt of credit.
Please note: Self-service add/drop is not available for this course. Please contact registrar@hms.harvard.edu for add/drop requests. This is a Society-based independent study that allows HMS students to arrange an educational experience between themselves and the preceptor. The independent study needs to be relevant to medical education and the Associate Master of each society must approve the course. The course is to be used for experiences not covered by courses that already exist in the HMS Course Catalog. Application forms for Independent Study are available in the HMS Registrar's Office.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Intermediate Medical Spanish is designed for students with some working knowledge of conversational Spanish. Students can take one semester or both semesters of this course. The Fall course (LN705A) will have a particular focus on the basics of taking a medical history with patients. The Spring course (LN705B) will build on the medical history and introduce a range of medical specialty assessments (such as pediatrics, mental health, oral health, nutrition). With weekly sessions led by HMS teaching faculty, we hope to provide a solid base for our students to learn enough medical Spanish terminology to communicate effectively with patients in a variety of medical settings. Requirements for this course include: at least one year of college Spanish or two years of high school Spanish; ability to maintain a basic conversation in Spanish with minimal difficulty or hesitation; ability to discuss personal information, comfort with grammar fundamentals and basic reading and writing skills in Spanish. Course Features: 1) interactive didactic sessions, with a focus on conversational skills, 2) vocabulary lists and quizzes, 3) opportunities to shadow Spanish-speaking physicians and interpreters at Harvard-affiliated sites, 4) OSCE with mock patients at the end of the course for students to practice what they learned during the course.
There is a clear and pressing need for clinicians trained in the prevention and management of diseases found in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). "Clinical Topics in Global Health" introduces students to the evidence-based knowledge and skills they will need to be effective clinicians in resource-limited settings. Ten evening sessions, led by Harvard faculty who practice clinically in LMICs, will orient students to the most important global health problems, explore each of these conditions with particular focus on clinical practice, and provide practical guidance for students interested in pursuing further training or careers in global health. Topics covered will include the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in LMICs, including malnutrition, malaria, diarrheal illness, perinatal disease, tropical diseases, HIV/AIDS, TB, and chronic non-communicable diseases. The elective will explore key concepts relevant to the delivery of clinical services in resource-limited settings. The elective will also include discussion of clinical issues particularly relevant to populations affected by humanitarian crisis, including refugees, internally displaced persons, and orphans. Teaching methods will be tailored to each clinical topic and will include lectures, practical skills sessions, case discussions, and ongoing reinforcement of core material. Selected guest speakers will address current innovations in global health practice.
The Advanced Medical Spanish course is designed for medical students with advanced Spanish fluency who are interested in acquiring proficiency in medical Spanish. The goal is to equip the students with the medical vocabulary and conversational skills necessary to communicate with a Spanish-speaking patient, conduct a medical interview in Spanish and learn how to effectively work with a medical interpreter. Students can take one semester or both semesters of this course. The Fall course (LN707A) will have a particular focus on taking a medical history. The Spring course (LN707B) will build on the medical history foundation and introduce a range of medical specialty assessments (such as pediatrics, mental health, oral health, nutrition). This course requires active participation in coursework, simulation sessions, opportunities to shadow Spanish-speaking faculty as well as clinical experiences at the Harvard-affiliated hospitals and community health centers. Pertinent socio-cultural issues will be included in the simulation sessions and discussed in the didactic sessions. This course will be conducted exclusively in Spanish. Course Features: 1. Interactive didactic sessions, with a focus on conversational skills 2. Vocabulary lists and quizzes 3. Opportunities to shadow Spanish-speaking physicians and interpreters at various Harvard-affiliated sites 4. End of course OSCE as an opportunity to practice what students learned during the course.
traumatized and burned patients. The students form an integral part of the ICU team. The student is expected to learn the basic physiologic, metabolic and immunologic abnormalities which occur in critical illness, the basic approaches to diagnosis and management of surgical critical care patients. This subinternship provides an excellent opportunity for students to enhance their knowledge of postoperative management of complex patients following trauma or postoperative physiological derangements such as respiratory failure, sepsis, renal failure, or cardiac failure/dysfunction.
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The OP502M.8 Advanced Research-based Ophthalmology Elective introduces students to a clinical or scientific project in the field of Ophthalmology. A course compendium, which collates projects offered by faculty members may be obtained from the course administrator in advanced. Students are expected to review this compendium, speak to a few faculty members whose projects are interesting, and select one preceptor with whom the student will develop a research question. A paragraph describing the project must be submitted to the course director and course administrator at least 6 weeks in advance of the elective. The course director will review the proposal to ensure that it is doable during the rotation and will reflect positively on the student's subsequent residency application. Once approved, the course director will contact the Registrar to approve enrollment. The clerkship is meant to be scholarly experience with at least 80% of time spent on the research performed. Up to 20% of direct patient care may be arranged with the preceptor to supplement the research experience, but these clinical activities MUST NOT overlap with other rotating students. Moreover, this clerkship should be performed after completing a clinical ophthalmology elective such as OP501M.8 or OP503M.7 (or a visiting student's home clinical elective) to give students clinical context to the scholarly activity.
This elective focuses on the multidisciplinary approach to the evaluation and treatment of patients with gastrointestinal malignancies. With a focus on disease sites, medical students will work with surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, and radiation oncologists as part of clinical multidisciplinary team. Students will attend and participate in multidisciplinary clinics where all providers are present including rectal cancer clinic, pancreatic cancer clinic, and hepatobiliary cancer clinic. Furthermore, students will interact with other members of the team including radiologists, pathologists, gastroenterologists, geneticists, nutritionists, and residents/fellows in their respective disciplines. Students will gain an understanding of the intricacies involved in multidisciplinary management of complex GI cancer patients, and how each team member contributes. Students will attain working knowledge of the synergistic and/or complementary effects of chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery. They will appreciate novel treatment modalities including laparoscopic and/or robotic surgeries, transplant surgery, complex pancreatic surgery with vascular reconstruction, targeted therapy and/or immunotherapy, and advanced radiation treatment modalities. The curriculum includes longitudinal exposures to patients with various malignancies; intra-operative exposure to open and minimally invasive surgery, correlating radiology and pathology findings, and understanding multidisciplinary team decision making. Involvement in ongoing clinical and laboratory research projects is encouraged but no required. No night or weekend responsibilities.
The course is designed to provide students with a background in the care of women who are at risk for or who have been diagnosed with gynecologic malignancy. It will focus on all aspects of the continuum of cancer care: from prevention, early detection, diagnosis, and management of gynecologic cancer and precancerous conditions. Students will be a part of a team of residents, fellows, and a physician assistant, participating in daily rounds and learning hands-on skills in the operating room. Weekly clinics will be devoted to learning the workup and management of suspected gynecologic malignancy, as well as the early detection of neoplasia of the lower genital tract. Students will have the opportunity to learn from teaching conferences such as weekly Gynecologic Oncology Tumor Board. They will have an opportunity to actively participate in surgical, radiotherapeutic and chemotherapeutic management of patients.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The immune system is the frontier at which molecular biology, cell biology, and genetics intersect with the pathogenesis of disease. There is no area of modern biology that is as intimately linked to disease as Immunology. This field has given us the first rational therapies in medicine, actual cures for many cancers, and new innovative therapies harnessing immunology are being created at breakneck speed! In this course we will be examining the underlying scientific bases of how the immune system works and its contributions to disease pathogenesis, protection, treatment and prevention. We will discuss the biology of the host response to infections, autoimmunity, allergic disorders, primary immunodeficiency syndromes, transplantation, and cancer.
Students will be assigned to Cambridge Health Alliance affiliated community family medicine practices. All of the teaching practices will provide full spectrum outpatient family medicine patient care, including patients of all ages and all genders, with the exception that all practices may not provide prenatal care. Students will care for patients presenting for routine health maintenance (adults and children), hospital follow up, chronic disease management (diabetes, thyroid disorders, chronic pain, COPD, depression as a few examples), women's reproductive health, urgent visits for undifferentiated concerns and procedural visits (IUD placement, colposcopy, skin biopsy, cryotherapy and more)
This externship provides the opportunity for the students to enhance their clinical skills and judgement outside of the dental school environment. In their assignments at the dental clinic of selected Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Community Health Centers students learn how dental health care is integrated with total health care delivery. Students have the opportunity to work with a great degree of independence and to improve their diagnostic skills, patient management and communication skills, and decision-making abilities. In addition, this externship enables student to increase their speed, proficiency and self-confidence in general dental practice.
This externship provides the opportunity for the students to enhance their clinical skills and judgement outside of the dental school environment. In their assignments at the dental clinic of selected Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Community Health Centers students learn how dental health care is integrated with total health care delivery. Students have the opportunity to work with a great degree of independence and to improve their diagnostic skills, patient management and communication skills, and decision-making abilities. In addition, this externship enables student to increase their speed, proficiency and self-confidence in general dental practice.
This externship provides the opportunity for the students to enhance their clinical skills and judgement outside of the dental school environment. In their assignments at the dental clinic of selected Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Community Health Centers students learn how dental health care is integrated with total health care delivery. Students have the opportunity to work with a great degree of independence and to improve their diagnostic skills, patient management and communication skills, and decision-making abilities. In addition, this externship enables student to increase their speed, proficiency and self-confidence in general dental practice.
This externship provides the opportunity for the students to enhance their clinical skills and judgement outside of the dental school environment. In their assignments at the dental clinic of selected Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Community Health Centers students learn how dental health care is integrated with total health care delivery. Students have the opportunity to work with a great degree of independence and to improve their diagnostic skills, patient management and communication skills, and decision-making abilities. In addition, this externship enables student to increase their speed, proficiency and self-confidence in general dental practice.
This externship provides the opportunity for the students to enhance their clinical skills and judgement outside of the dental school environment. In their assignments at the dental clinic of selected Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Community Health Centers students learn how dental health care is integrated with total health care delivery. Students have the opportunity to work with a great degree of independence and to improve their diagnostic skills, patient management and communication skills, and decision-making abilities. In addition, this externship enables student to increase their speed, proficiency and self-confidence in general dental practice.
This externship provides the opportunity for the students to enhance their clinical skills and judgement outside of the dental school environment. In their assignments at the dental clinic of selected Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Community Health Centers students learn how dental health care is integrated with total health care delivery. Students have the opportunity to work with a great degree of independence and to improve their diagnostic skills, patient management and communication skills, and decision-making abilities. In addition, this externship enables student to increase their speed, proficiency and self-confidence in general dental practice.
This externship provides the opportunity for the students to enhance their clinical skills and judgement outside of the dental school environment. In their assignments at the dental clinic of selected Veterans Administration Medical Centers and Community Health Centers students learn how dental health care is integrated with total health care delivery. Students have the opportunity to work with a great degree of independence and to improve their diagnostic skills, patient management and communication skills, and decision-making abilities. In addition, this externship enables student to increase their speed, proficiency and self-confidence in general dental practice.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will provide an overview of topics covered in both the Principles of Oral Health (POH) and Scholarship in Oral Health (SOH) courses in order to prepare Advanced Standing students to join the DMD curriculum. The focus will be three-fold. (1) Students will be introduced to dental anatomy as well as all of the basic dental sciences, clinical sciences, and evidence-based dentistry. (2) Students will also be introduced to key research topics including search tools and basic research methods, as well as clinical study design, survey design, and manuscript and grant proposal writing. (3) In addition, students will participate in clinical observation rotations through the dental disciplines at HSDM, providing them with the basics of the teaching practice clinic layout, the clinical staff and faculty, the clinic policies and procedures, and the dental disciplines taught at HSDM.
This course is designed to provide students a foundation to comprehend the oro-facial complex as a unique system and its intricate interrelationship with the entire human body. The fundamental principles of basic science disciplines, including head and neck anatomy, oral histology, craniofacial development and genetics, oral physiology, oral microbiology and immunology, oral radiology, and oral and maxillofacial pathology will be integrated and delivered by modules.
In this course, students enhance their skills in acquiring a complete patient history and learn to perform an accurate oral examination and dental evaluation. Building on their knowledge of preclinical dental science and pathophysiology, students acquire a sound knowledge of principles of dental and oral diagnosis and disease prevention. Students are introduced to the techniques and protocol used for documentation of patient care, including impressions, study models, radiographs, charting, intraoral photography and record keeping. Students are oriented to their treatment team and become familiarized with clinical protocol, infection control procedures, patient records, and information systems management. The role of health-related behaviors as risk factors for dental and oral disease is examined and students learn oral hygiene and disease prevention strategies. In addition, consideration is given to medical conditions that may complicate the delivery of dental care, as well as dental and medical management of patients with these conditions. In the dental laboratory, students learn the structure of teeth and their parts as necessary for planning restorations. In addition, considerable attention is given to anatomical, physiological and biomechanical relationships of the masticatory system, and the restoration of the occlusal relationship to proper function. An understanding of the instrumentation and techniques required to reproduce these relationships during restoration of the dentition is achieved. Students learn how to assemble casts on the articulator to perform occlusal diagnosis and treatment. Motor skills derived from technical training are applied by students to more complicated procedures, such as carving wax patterns to using additive and subtractive drop-wax techniques. In addition, students are required to wax-up occlusal morphology to specific determinants of occlusion.
This course focuses on being responsive to student's interests to create meaningful learning experiences. Students will have an opportunity to develop insight into their interests through observation and active participation using flexible and adaptable methods to promote self-directed and inquiry-based learning. Additionally, each session is influenced by values held by the program, hospital, school, and community in a collaborative learning environment.
The purpose of this course is to provide the student with the didactic knowledge to formulate a comprehensive diagnosis, sequencing, and treatment plan for the restorative needs of the patient. During the pre-clinical skill development section of the course, students will develop the necessary skills required for clinical practice. Students will learn to diagnose, design and implement a treatment plan based on their didactic knowledge and skills development. This will enable them to perform routinely provided restorative procedures that are rendered in the course of comprehensive dental care during their third year.
This course is designed to teach students the skills they need to provide basic preventive, restorative, and orthodontic care for children and adolescents. This includes exposure to ideas and training in the areas of growth and development, behavioral management, pulp therapy, restorative procedures, and management of traumatized teeth. Students learn classification of malocclusion, dentofacial growth and cephalometrics, as well as biomechanical principles of tooth movement and correction of maligned teeth. Management of the developing occlusion and decision-making are emphasized through history, examination, analysis of clinical records, diagnosis, and treatment planning. In addition, students construct active appliances and perform orthodontic treatment. Finally, students gain experience in the management and care of medically, emotionally, and/or physically disabled children. Students learn the fundamental differences between restoration of primary and secondary teeth with emphasis on tooth preparation and fabrication of the stainless steel crown. In the dental laboratory, students construct appliances for space maintenance and minor orthodontic tooth movement. The typodont course is utilized to demonstrate the effects of orthodontic forces on tooth movement and to enable students to acquire skills in banding and bracketing the dentition of orthodontic treatment.
The goal of this third-year course is to enable the students to understand the basic principles of oral diagnosis and treatment planning and their clinical application in order to correctly diagnose and formulate treatment plans. The Student Teaching Practice remains committed to its current comprehensive care model. Students are encouraged to perform quality patient care and to learn the importance of patient management in the field of Oral Diagnosis and Treatment Planning. The students should be able to recognize the necessities of interdisciplinary consultation and direct the patients for proper and prompt referral to appropriate specialists.
The goal of the course is for students to understand the basic principles of Endodontics and their clinical application to be able to diagnose and treat pulpal and peri-radicular diseases on a biological basis. The students must be able to recognize the necessities of consultation with other disciplines and referral to endodontic specialists.
The goal of the course is to enable the students to understand the basic principles of clinical periodontology and their clinical application in order to correctly diagnose and treat periodontal disease correctly. The Student Teaching Practice remains committed to its current comprehensive care model. Students are encouraged to perform quality patient care and to learn the importance of patient management in the field of periodontology. The students should be able to recognize the necessities of interdisciplinary consultation and direct the patients for proper/prompt referral to periodontal specialists.
The goal of the Core Clinical Operative Dentistry course is to attain a level of operative competency that allows the student to successfully diagnose and treat patients with restorative needs. The student must be able to provide restorations that are correct in anatomical form, comfortable and functionally effective, and which satisfy the esthetic requirements of the patient.
The intent of the Core Clinical Oral Radiology course is to integrate all oral radiology didactic material taught during the third year into clinical practice. This is performed through oral radiology rotations and a summative examination. Students are expected to complete four oral radiology rotations.
The goal of the course is to enable the students to gain and exhibit competency in clinical prosthodontics. As part of the student practice’s comprehensive care model, students are encouraged to treatment plan, prepare, fabricate, and deliver a variety of fixed and removable prostheses to patients. Students are also instructed and evaluated in the areas of patient communication, laboratory communication, and collaboration with other providers and treatment team members. Through a comprehensive set of formative and summative assessments, students are given the opportunity to exhibit competency in clinical prosthodontics.
Clinical exposure to pediatric patients starts in the third at HSDM. Patient care will occur in the Student Teaching Practice, which follows a comprehensive care model. In addition, students may have the opportunity to treat patients while on rotation at Boston Children’s Hospital. These encounters are designed so the general dentist may be able to care for children of all ages. Students will have the opportunity to manage the following: recognition and diagnosis of intra- and extra-oral pathology such as hard and soft tissue abnormalities, malocclusion and related dentofacial problems, applied growth and development, diagnostic methods, diagnosis and treatment planning, caries prevention, interceptive orthodontic therapy, simple restorative treatment, psychology of the child and adolescent, dental trauma, identification of child abuse and neglect, management of special health care needs, perinatal oral health, and oral health care for the adolescent patient. A part of this clinical training is an understanding of when referral to a pediatric, or other specialist, is indicated. The expectation will be for students to demonstrate competency in managing the child and adolescent patient.
The intent of the Core Clinical Orthodontics course is to integrate all orthodontic didactic material taught during the second and third years into clinical practice. This is performed through orthodontic consultations on students' diverse patient pool. This is also achieved through orthodontic rotations. Students are expected to complete one formative and one summative orthodontic consultation. Students are expected to complete one orthodontic rotation.
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This bi-monthly grand rounds is a key clinical educational effort of the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. This forum is presented by the HSDM Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology Advanced Graduate Education students under the supervision of the division’s faculty members. Two clinical cases are presented each session from the Oral Medicine teaching clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital that demonstrate interesting, challenging, unique, and/or clinically important/relevant conditions. An in-depth discussion of the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management, as well as a succinct discussion of the condition and pertinent literature are provided for each case. The entire HSDM community is invited to attend this rich educational forum.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This bi-monthly grand rounds is a key clinical educational effort of the Division of Oral Medicine and Dentistry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. This forum is presented by the HSDM Oral Medicine and Oral Pathology Advanced Graduate Education students under the supervision of the division’s faculty members. Two clinical cases are presented each session from the Oral Medicine teaching clinic at Brigham and Women’s Hospital that demonstrate interesting, challenging, unique, and/or clinically important/relevant conditions. An in-depth discussion of the clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management, as well as a succinct discussion of the condition and pertinent literature are provided for each case. The entire HSDM community is invited to attend this rich educational forum.
This biweekly surgical oral pathology conference is designed to train oral medicine residents in the diagnosis of characteristic and common oral pathologic conditions. Participants will be assigned key readings and provided in advance with limited clinical histories and microscopic slides and will prepare written descriptions and differential diagnoses in advance to discuss at each session, at which residents will offer their interpretations and receive feedback from one another and from the instructor. In addition, three review sessions of basic histology and histopathology are given to the junior residents. The objective of this course is to train students to become competent in the microscopic diagnosis of characteristic and common oral pathologic conditions that they will be expected to encounter routinely in clinical practice. A practical examination will be administered annually in which residents will be expected to demonstrate diagnostic competence and progression.
This biweekly surgical oral pathology conference is designed to train oral medicine residents in the diagnosis of characteristic and common oral pathologic conditions. Participants will be assigned key readings and provided in advance with limited clinical histories and microscopic slides and will prepare written descriptions and differential diagnoses in advance to discuss at each session, at which residents will offer their interpretations and receive feedback from one another and from the instructor. In addition, three review sessions of basic histology and histopathology are given to the junior residents. The objective of this course is to train students to become competent in the microscopic diagnosis of characteristic and common oral pathologic conditions that they will be expected to encounter routinely in clinical practice. A practical examination will be administered annually in which residents will be expected to demonstrate diagnostic competence and progression.
This biweekly surgical oral pathology conference is designed to train oral medicine residents in the diagnosis of characteristic and common oral pathologic conditions. Participants will be assigned key readings and provided in advance with limited clinical histories and microscopic slides and will prepare written descriptions and differential diagnoses in advance to discuss at each session, at which residents will offer their interpretations and receive feedback from one another and from the instructor. In addition, three review sessions of basic histology and histopathology are given to the junior residents. The objective of this course is to train students to become competent in the microscopic diagnosis of characteristic and common oral pathologic conditions that they will be expected to encounter routinely in clinical practice. A practical examination will be administered annually in which residents will be expected to demonstrate diagnostic competence and progression.
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Each Orthodontics student presents at least once a month a formal presentation of a case. First year students present pre-treatment cases, while second and third year students present either a progress or completed case. The presentation follows a slide display format whereby the presenter provides full analysis of all necessary diagnostic records. These records include: extra and intra-oral patient slides, models, radiographs, cephalometirc and postero-anterior analyses as well as MESH analysis (this includes progress and/or final records analyses depending on whether the case is an initial case, in active treatment or a finished case). The presenter then leads the seminar by asking the other students to give problem lists, objectives and treatment plans.
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The journal Club is to educate students to critically evaluate the current progress of sciences and orthodontics. Students are required to moderate, present, and participate in the discussion of orthodontic and non-orthodontic papers. In order to enhance the science literacy, presenters will follow the problem-oriented format with critical thinking in analyzing the significance of research, methodology, result interpretation, and discussion. The moderators are required to organize and monitor the progress of presentation and discussion. The audiences are required to participate in the group discussion.
This course will focus on the comprehensive and practical understanding of the overall diagnosis, etiology and clinical needs of the periodontal patient as well as the multidisciplinary approach, so a comprehensive treatment planning can be tailored for a specific patient based on scientific evidence. Students will select, prepare and make a presentation of a "treatment in progress" case. This case will be discussed on an open forum were all students are required to participate. A member of the faculty will serve as a moderator, will provide guidance, answer questions and stimulate discussion among the students. Students are required to review the current literature every week to support their rationale for treatment.
The goal of this course is to provide formal instruction in the biomedical and clinical sciences related to the field of Periodontology to enable students to understand and perform diagnostic and therapeutic skills required to practice clinical periodontics. Utilizing traditional course presentations, seminars, and laboratory exercises, the course will provide students didactic instruction to enhance and complement the patient care provided in the clinic.
This course will focus on the comprehensive and practical understanding of the overall diagnosis, etiology and clinical needs of the periodontal patient as well as the muldisciplinary approach, so a comprehensive treatment planning can be tailored for a specific patient based on scientific evidence. Students will select, prepare and make a presentation of a "complete and finalized treated" case. This case will be discussed on an open forum were all students are required to participate. A member of the faculty will serve as a moderator, will provide guidance, answer questions and stimulate discussion among the students. Students are required to review the current literature every week to support their rationale for treatment.
The goal of this course is to provide formal instruction in the biomedical and clinical sciences related to the field of Periodontology to enable students to understand and perform diagnostic and therapeutic skills required to practice clinical periodontics. Utilizing traditional course presentations, seminars, and laboratory exercises, the course will provide students didactic instruction to enhance and complement the patient care provided in the clinic.
This course will review the cumulative periodontal literature with a focus on classic literature. Students will work together in a seminar format utilizing original articles as well as review materials to present a different periodontal topic each week. Formerly titled "Periodontal Literature Review II."
This course is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the prosthodontic disciplines and the management of the complex prosthodontic patients. Students are required to present the treatment planning and progress (TPP) reports of their clinical cases. Students are also assigned selected topics and present to the class. The topics are related to their clinical cases including fixed prosthodontics, occlusion, esthetics, implant dentistry, removable prosthodontics, dental materials and current literature.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the prosthodontic disciplines and the management of the complex prosthodontic patients. Students are required to present the treatment planning and progress (TPP) reports of their clinical cases. Students are also assigned selected topics and present to the class. The topics are related to their clinical cases including fixed prosthodontics, occlusion, esthetics, implant dentistry, removable prosthodontics, dental materials and current literature.
The "classic" literature of this course is organized in a manner to complement the rapid clinical and academic growth of first and second year advanced graduate education Endodontics students. Students will analyze, review and critique original literature. The content of each article is discussed as to relative merit of information, historical perspective, research design, and statistical analysis.
These seminars involve first, second and third year advanced graduate education Endodontics students. Each student is responsible for abstracting and reporting current articles from assigned journals. Critical analysis and evaluation of relative merit of information is stressed.
These seminars involve first, second and third year advanced graduate education Endodontics students. Students present their clinical cases, either in progress or completed, for review and evaluation. Cases are pre-selected by the faculty or students. Case review follows the format of the American Board of Endodontics. Peer participation is actively solicited and encouraged as the treatment plan and management problems are considered. Students are required to support their decisions with their knowledge of the science and literature of Endodontics.
These seminars involve first, second and third year advanced graduate education Endodontics students. Each student is responsible for abstracting and reporting current articles from assigned journals. Critical analysis and evaluation of relative merit of information is stressed.
Participants are required to select and to read scientific articles on a specific topic assigned for each weekly class. In the class, they engage in a critical thinking discussion by using the acquired information and by making a clinical translation of such information. The role of the instructors is to guide the discussion and to provide new evidence clinical examples and monitor the learning objectives are being met. The instructors may also give a small presentation to illustrate a particular topic or question that may arise during the class.
Participants are required to select and to read scientific articles on a specific topic assigned for each weekly class. At the class, they engage in a critical think discussion by using the acquired information and by making a clinical translation of such information. The role of the instructors are to guide the discussion and to provide new evidence, clinical examples and monitor the learning objectives are being met. The instructors may also give a small presentation to illustrate a particular topic or question may rise during the class.
This comprehensive course focuses on all aspects of dental materials related to prosthodontics. Each student is required to prepare a PowerPoint presentation and lecture on a selected topic as an integral component of the course. Topics include: basic materials science, gypsum products, impression materials, metals, metals/alloys, dental porcelain; acrylic resins, restorative resin, amalgam, cements, gingival retraction materials, hemostatics materials, dental waxes, materials concepts and techniques. Offered in alternating years to first and second year students.
Each term, the class selects a new set of professional journal articles on bioengineering topics of current research interest. Some papers are chosen because of particular content, others are selected because they illustrate important points of methodology. Each week, one student leads the discussion, evaluating the strengths, weaknesses, and importance of each paper. Subject may be repeated for credit a maximum of four terms. Letter grade given in the last term applies to all accumulated units of 16.459.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Applied introduction to comics and sequential art production. Builds skills in how to develop storylines; develop and draw characters, panels, and backgrounds; prepare for print production; and comprehend the basics of sequential language, composition, and layout. Students engage with crucial personal and political issues at stake across a range of comics genres: superhero, biographical, and countercultural. Addresses not just how we create comics, but why we create comics. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Applied introduction to comics and sequential art production. Builds skills in how to develop storylines; develop and draw characters, panels, and backgrounds; prepare for print production; and comprehend the basics of sequential language, composition, and layout. Students engage with crucial personal and political issues at stake across a range of comics genres: superhero, biographical, and countercultural. Addresses not just how we create comics, but why we create comics. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Companion to the Fitness and Meditation class offered through MIT's Wellness program. Introduces students to the basic ideas of Buddhism, the history of Buddhism's transmission through East Asia, and core aspects of the philosophy of Humanistic Buddhism, including the role of meditation and mindfulness in Buddhist practice. Meets with the MIT Wellness Fitness and Meditation class; students must enroll in both to receive credit. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first-year students.
Introduces the elements of a sound designer's work, such as music and sound effects which inform and make stage action plausible, to sound system design and placement and the use of microphones. Discusses how effective sound design enhances live performance by clarifying storytelling, heightening emotional experience, and making words and music legible to an audience. Provides students with the tools to continue practicing and appreciating the art regardless of their professional ambitions. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Explores the relationship between children and the culture they inhabit in a particular time and place. Invites students to analyze in detail the image of childhood that emerges from many different media, including novels, children's literature, drama, film, television, dance, and popular song. Encourages students to take an interdisciplinary "childhood studies" approach to youth culture that incorporates insights from literary and media studies, women's and gender studies, and the history and philosophy of childhood.
Presentations of recent work in music research from both academic and commercial spheres. Students prepare to engage with guest speakers by reading and demonstrating understanding of the sphere of work, attend presentations, and reflect on the work. Enrollment limited with priority to graduate students in music technology. May be repeated for credit with permission of the instructor.
Development of a major independent project in music technology and computation. Includes group discussions, presentations of work-in-progress, and readings related to planning, contextualizing, and effective communication. Occasional guest speakers from industry, academia, or artistic practice present their work and lead discussions. Covers development processes like ideation, prototyping, scheduling, deliverables, and evaluation.
Laboratory and data analysis techniques and their application to problems in the environmental life sciences. Design and execution of experiments testing the interactive effects of environmental variables on the growth, physiology, metabolism, and reproduction of plants and microbes. Emphasis on applications in agriculture, vegetation-mediated latent heat flux, and biotechnology. Satisfies 6 units of Institute Laboratory credit.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Invites students to analyze cultural artifacts that represent girlhood from various eras and genres, including novels, children's literature, poetry, film, television, and popular music. Conceives girlhood in a broadly inclusive way, putting a range of materials - e.g., cultural artifacts that center Black, Jewish, Asian, and queer girls - in conversation with one another, by artists like Toni Morrison, Judy Blume, Andrea Wang, and Chappell Roan. Helps students build their oral presentation skills. Includes field trips to local museums or cultural events.
Invites students to analyze cultural artifacts that represent girlhood from various eras and genres, including novels, children's literature, poetry, film, television, and popular music. Conceives girlhood in a broadly inclusive way, putting a range of materials - e.g., cultural artifacts that center Black, Jewish, Asian, and queer girls - in conversation with one another, by artists like Toni Morrison, Judy Blume, Andrea Wang, and Chappell Roan. Helps students build their oral presentation skills. Includes field trips to local museums or cultural events.
Practices the use of modern numerical analysis tools (e.g., COMSOL) for biological and other systems with multi-physics behavior. Covers modeling diffusion, reaction, convection, and other transport mechanisms. Analysis of microfluidic devices provided as examples. Discusses practical issues and challenges in numerical modeling. Includes weekly modeling homework and major modeling projects. No prior knowledge of modeling software is required. Lectures are viewed outside of class; in-class time is dedicated to problem-solving and discussion. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Presents the fundamentals of computing and computer programming (procedural and object-oriented programming) in an engineering context. Introduces logical operations, floating-point arithmetic, data structures, induction, iteration, and recursion. Computational methods for interpolation, regression, root finding, sorting, searching, and the solution of linear systems of equations and ordinary differential equations. Control of sensors and visualization of scientific data. Draws examples from engineering and scientific applications. Students use the Python programming environment to complete weekly assignments.
Provides an introduction to global climate change processes, drivers, and impacts. Offers exposure to exciting MIT research on climate change. Students explore why and how the world should solve this global problem and how they can contribute to the solutions. Students produce a mini-project on the topic. Subject can count toward the 6-unit discovery-focused credit limit for first year students.
Introduces probability with an emphasis on probabilistic systems analysis. Readings about conceptual and mathematical background are given in advanced of each class. Classes revise background and are centered on developing problem-solving skills. The course is exam-based and focused on the analysis of probabilistic outcomes, estimating what can happen under uncertain environments. Topics include random events and their probability, combinatorial analysis, conditional analysis, random vectors, functions of random vectors, propagation of uncertainty, and prediction analysis.
Introduces causal inference with an emphasis on probabilistic systems analysis. Readings about conceptual and mathematical background are given in advanced of each class. Focused on understanding theory based on real-world applications. The subject is project-based and focused on cause-effect relationships, understanding why probabilistic outcomes happen. Topics include correlation analysis, Reichenbach's principle, Simpson's paradox, structural causal models and graphs, interventions, do-calculus, average causal effects, dealing with missing information, mediation, and hypothesis testing. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Students engage with faculty around a topic of mutual interest, building on the knowledge/skills gained throughout their program. Synthesizes prior coursework and experiences through a semester-long design project and related assignments. Students form teams and work on projects advised by faculty representatives from each core in the 1-ENG curriculum. Teams demonstrate creativity in applying theories and methodologies while considering their project's technical, environmental and social feasibility. Includes lectures on a variety of related engineering concepts, as well as scholarship and engineering practice and ethics. Provides instruction and practice in oral and written communication.
Fundamentals of ecology, considering Earth as an integrated dynamic living system. Coevolution of the biosphere and geosphere, biogeochemical cycles, metabolic diversity, primary productivity, competition and the niche, trophic dynamics and food webs, population growth and limiting factors. Population modeling, global carbon cycle, climate change, geoengineering, theories of resource competition and mutualism, allometric scaling, ecological genomics, niche theory, human population growth. Applied ecology.
Covers topics in the characterization and nature of soils as multi-phase materials; the principle of effective stress; hydraulic conductivity and groundwater seepage; shear strength and stability analyses; stress-deformation properties, consolidation theory and calculation of settlements for clays and sands. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Familiarizes students with structural systems, loads, and basis for structural design, including analysis of determinate and indeterminate structures (trusses, beams, frames, cables, and arches). Covers mechanical properties of construction materials, including concrete, steel, and composites. Studies concrete and steel structures through application of principles of structural mechanics. Evaluates behavior and design of reinforced concrete structural elements using limit strength design and serviceability principles. Introduces plastic analysis and design, and load factor design of structural steel members and connections. Team project emphasizes material covered through behavior and problem-based learning.
Considers the multiple trade-offs at various abstraction levels and scales when designing complex, multi-component systems. Covers topics from foundational principles to advanced applications, emphasizing the role of compositional thinking in engineering. Introduces category theory as a mathematical framework for abstraction and composition, enabling a unified and modular approach to modeling, analyzing, and designing interconnected systems. Showcases successful applications in areas such as dynamical systems and automated system design optimization, with a focus on autonomous robotics and mobility. Offers students the opportunity to work on their own application through a dedicated project in the second half of the term. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Introduction to statics and the principles of mechanics to describe the behavior of structures. Topics include free body diagrams, static equilibrium, force analysis of slender members, concept of stress and strain, linear elasticity, principal stresses and strains, Mohr’s circle, and failure modes. Application to engineering structures such as bars, beams, frames, and trusses.
Delves into the sustainability and advanced engineering of cementitious materials, emphasizing their environmental impact, cutting-edge innovations, and performance in the built environment. Covers a broad spectrum of topics, including: ancient and modern cementitious materials, materials selection and optimization, advanced materials characterization, durability and deterioration mechanisms, carbon footprint reduction, and comprehensive life cycle assessment. Students apply rigorous design thinking, collaborate on lab experiences, and conduct research-oriented projects through a concrete mix competition. Prepares students to solve real-world challenges in cement and concrete science, equipping them to meet the demands of sustainable engineering. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Introduction to the dynamics and vibrations of lumped-parameter models of mechanical systems. Kinematics. Force-momentum formulation for systems of particles and rigid bodies in planar motion. Work-energy concepts. Virtual displacements and virtual work. Lagrange's equations for systems of particles and rigid bodies in planar motion. Linearization of equations of motion. Linear stability analysis of mechanical systems. Free and forced vibration of linear multi-degree of freedom models of mechanical systems; matrix eigenvalue problems.
Examines response of structures to dynamic excitation: free vibration, harmonic loads, pulses and earthquakes. Covers systems of single- and multiple-degree-of-freedom, up to the continuum limit, by exact and approximate methods. Includes applications to buildings, ships, aircraft and offshore structures. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Introduction to statistical multivariate analysis methods and their applications to analyze data and mathematical models. Topics include sampling, experimental design, regression analysis, specification testing, dimension reduction, categorical data analysis, classification and clustering.
Explores how to be an ethical engineer. Students examine engineering case studies alongside key readings by foundational ethical thinkers from Aristotle to Martin Luther King, Jr., and investigate which ethical approaches are best and how to apply them. Topics include justice, rights, cost-benefit analysis, safety, bias, genetic engineering, climate change, and the promise and peril of AI. Discussion-based, with the aim of introducing students to new ways of thinking. All sections cover the same core ethical frameworks, but some sections have a particular focus for case studies, such as bioengineering, or have an in-depth emphasis on particular thinkers. The subject is taught in separate sections. Students are eligible to take any section regardless of their registered subject number. For 20.005, students additionally undertake an ethical-technical analysis of a BE-related topic of their choosing.
Components of health care programs for mothers and children are discussed in the context of the epidemiology of important health problems, the historical and legislative background, and social policies. The course takes a life-course approach and health programs appropriate to prenatal, early and late childhood, adolescence, and youth are presented in terms of the multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary action required to improve the health status of populations. The social, political, and environmental factors that shape current and future maternal and child health problems and policies are discussed. Topics include infant mortality and low birthweight, maternal and child mental health, maternal morbidity and mortality, services for children with special health care needs, and financing of health care for mothers and children.
This course will equip you with the skills to conduct and critically evaluate social and behavioral research in public health. It will cover topics relevant to social and behavioral dimensions of public health, such as ethics, measurement, study design, survey research methods, questionnaire development, sampling, and data collection. It emphasizes quantitative research and social science methods applied to public health research.
What students can expect from this course : This introductory course will provide an overview of key conceptual and practical issues in qualitative research, including a general familiarity with the design of qualitative studies and common methods. The course begins by examining the variety of potential uses of qualitative methods in public health research and diverse qualitative research approaches. The course then explores specific topics, including: developing research questions; ethics in qualitative research; community engagement; the role of theory; ensuring study rigor; selecting and implementing qualitative data collection methods (participant observation, different types of semi-structured interviews and focus groups); writing open-ended questions; sampling decisions; data management and analysis; publishing results; and considerations for choosing qualitative methods for mixed-methods studies. Students should come to class prepared to apply concepts from readings and lectures by participating in student- and instructor-led class discussions and small-group activities during every class period. In addition, students will demonstrate the application of concepts by completing written assignments that involve practicing qualitative methods.
Students will engage with faculty members at Harvard as well as key health policy leaders from both the public and private sectors from across the country to develop leadership skills essential for effective performance in public health practice and public policy. A central focus of the course will be strategies for career development in advancing health equity and improving health outcomes for historically marginalized and underserved populations. Speakers will include physicians, dentists, community organizers, historians, lawyers, executives, and other leaders working across the health policy landscape.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Important Information: In order to enroll in an Independent Study course you must submit a proposal form, which will be reviewed by the department and faculty member. To do this, please click on the ‘Submit Proposal’ button, complete the form, and submit. If your proposal is approved, the course will be added to your Crimson Cart and you will receive a notification email. You will need to go to your Crimson Cart and complete your enrollment into the class (enrollment in the course is not finalized until this step is taken).
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will provide students with a basic and thorough introductory understanding of the U.S. health system focusing on access, quality of care, and costs. Students will learn how the system and its most important sub-elements are structured, how care is organized, delivered, and financed, and how national health reforms influence the system’s future directions. Students will write five policy memos concerning immediate and real-world U.S. health policy issues.
This course examines the U.S. health care safety net. We will analyze several key components of the health care system related to the care for low-income populations: Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, community health centers, public hospitals, and state-based programs. We will also explore issues related to the health care of underserved and marginalized populations including Native Americans, immigrants, people experiencing homelessness, individuals with disabilities, and people experiencing incarceration. We will draw on a variety of materials and learning approaches, such as research articles, case studies, newspaper editorials, and a classroom policy debate. No previous coursework required, but class participation and discussion are essential.
Important Information: In order to enroll in an Independent Study course you must submit a proposal form, which will be reviewed by the department and faculty member. To do this, please click on the ‘Submit Proposal’ button, complete the form, and submit. If your proposal is approved, the course will be added to your Crimson Cart and you will receive a notification email. You will need to go to your Crimson Cart and complete your enrollment into the class (enrollment in the course is not finalized until this step is taken).
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
In today's dynamic and complex healthcare landscape, the ability to analyze, interpret, and leverage data for informed decision-making is crucial for achieving and sustaining high-quality patient care outcomes. The curriculum is tailored to equip physician executives and managers with the knowledge, skills, and strategic mindset to lead and oversee quality management, patient safety and improvement initiatives in health organizations. Using selected readings, case studies, lecture presentations, extensive classroom discussions, and homework assignments students will apply quality improvement tools with quantitative analysis to identify opportunities for improvement, prioritize areas of focus, measure the impact of changes, and support data-driven decision-making to applied projects. Students will be expected to apply the concepts they have learned to plan and execute a quality improvement project in their respective health organization for the “sister” course, HCM 758 Field Project in Quality Improvement. Upon completing this course, students will be empowered and well-equipped to lead transformative quality improvement initiatives, leveraging quantitative tools and data-driven strategies to enhance patient outcomes and operational efficiency to improve healthcare delivery within their organizations..
This course aims to help students gain a comprehensive understanding of the role of finance in healthcare organizations, building on students’ learning about financial and managerial accounting. Topics include financial management of working capital and investment decision-making, capital structure, and mergers and acquisitions of health care organizations. In essence, this is a finance class tailored to the needs and circumstances of healthcare organizations. Topics include the time value of money, the relationship between risk and return, the cost of equity and debt capital, mergers and acquisitions, and evaluation of investment projects. Materials will primarily involve cases about a range of health care organizations (hospitals, insurers/ managed care plans, neighborhood health centers, physician groups, home health agencies, etc.). Work by students will include short assignments, case preparation, and an in-depth group project about a particular financing transaction for a hospital system. Guests will join the class for discussion about the implementation of core concepts in their organizations. The class meets once per week for extensive sessions that include a blend of these teaching topics and methods.
This course will engage students in analysis of case studies that describe interventions to improve health care delivery in resource-poor settings. Class room discussion of these case studies will help illuminate principles and frameworks for the design of efficient and effective global health interventions. Through a focus on HIV, tuberculosis, and other conditions affecting populations living in poverty, these cases will allow students to carefully consider the question of how epidemiology, pathophysiology, culture, economics, and politics inform the design of interventions.
Introduces basic and intermediate biostatistical techniques with an emphasis on applications to clinical research. Topics for the first half of the course include probability and statistics, hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, non-parametrics, and power calculations. Topics for the second half of the course include regression, paired and matched analyses, analysis of variance and multiple comparisons procedures.
This course provides an introduction to the rationale, methods, and implications for conducting a systematic review of research findings. Students learn how to use a variety of formal and informal methods for conducting systematic reviews: searching research databases and using reference management software; approaches to identifying and evaluating information from randomized controlled trials and observational studies; statistical methods for meta-analysis and analyzing sources of heterogeneity; and approaches for assessing the strength of the evidence, and translating the results into policy and practice guidelines. Principles and methods for conducting systematic and quantitative reviews are illustrated through case studies of public health and medical issues, with emphasis on exploring sources of heterogeneity.
Large longitudinal healthcare databases have become important tools for studying the utilization patterns and clinical effectiveness of medical products and interventions in a wide variety of care settings and for evaluating the impact of clinical programs or policy changes. This course will prepare students to identify and use longitudinal databases in their own research. Strengths and limitations of large longitudinal healthcare databases that are commonly used for effectiveness research will be considered. Special attention will be devoted to nationally representative databases and local electronic medical record data sources that are readily available to new investigators.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Important Information: In order to enroll in an Independent Study course you must submit a proposal form, which will be reviewed by the department and faculty member. To do this, please click on the ‘Submit Proposal’ button, complete the form, and submit. If your proposal is approved, the course will be added to your Crimson Cart and you will receive a notification email. You will need to go to your Crimson Cart and complete your enrollment into the class (enrollment in the course is not finalized until this step is taken).
This course will introduce students to the conception and application of infectious disease modeling in epidemiology. We will cover the global burden of infectious diseases, the dynamics of infectious diseases with different transmission routes, simple modeling approaches to understand epidemic dynamics, and the ways in which models can be used to understand the mechanisms of transmission and the impacts of interventions. Case studies will be used to familiarize students with specific applications of the theoretical models discussed. Throughout, the emphasis will be on a practical understanding of how these methods can be used and on the rigorous evaluation of the modeling literature.
Marketing in the digital landscape calls for a variety of challenges as consumer digital adoption, technology, emerging competitors and data integration changes rapidly. This class prepares students to be effective marketing leaders in landscapes that require focused resource allocation that integrate digital and physical services, and equips them to make strategic decisions in preparing and approving customer centered initiatives. Students will gain a working knowledge of the marketing landscape based on quantifiable addressable market, differentiation, brand strength, customer centricity and targeted engagement through product, place / channel, pricing and promotion in competitive markets. Students will use cases and a team based project learn to critically assess marketing plans and evaluate a range of approaches and methods to measure value driven offerings. Plan on fast-paced case discussions and hands-on group project work.
Any student who does not meet the Wave 1 or Wave 2 criteria can add themselves to the waitlist (if enrollment requirements are met) at any time during the enrollment period. At the beginning of each priority wave, students on the waitlist who meet the Wave’s criteria will be automatically enrolled into any remaining seats in the course (pending no time conflicts)
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This interdisciplinary course will explore reproductive health and health care delivery, both in the US and globally, with a particular focus on how reproduction and related clinical care are shaped by and in turn shape social inequality along axes of race, gender, and social class. The course will intertwine three threads: 1) major conceptual and theoretical issues foundational to understanding the politics and epidemiology of reproduction; 2) contemporary and historical perspectives on specific reproductive phenomena and events (preventing pregnancy, terminating pregnancy, sustaining pregnancy, and giving birth); 3) public policy and its effects on reproductive health.
This course is the first part of introductory biostatistics and acquaints the student with the basic concepts and methods of biostatistics, their applications, and their interpretation. The material covered includes data presentation, numerical summary measures, rates and standardization, and life tables. Probability is introduced to quantify uncertainty, especially as it pertains to diagnostic and screening methods. Also covered are sampling distributions so that students may be introduced to confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. The computer is used throughout the course, and the student will gain familiarity with the software packages R and STATA.
This course will provide an introduction to the methods of biostatistics and epidemiology in the context of public health and clinical research. The focus will be on applications, providing students with the skills necessary to critically interpret issues related to study design and data analysis in the public health literature. The computer is used throughout the course. Lectures are complemented by seminars and weekly lab sessions. Topics include measures of frequency and association, study designs, bias, confounding, screening tests, probability distributions, estimation and statistical inference, sample size estimation, and regression methods.
This course will provide an introduction to the methods of biostatistics and epidemiology in the context of public health and clinical research. The focus will be on applications, providing students with the skills necessary to critically interpret issues related to study design and data analysis in the public health literature. The computer is used throughout the course. Lectures are complemented by seminars and weekly lab sessions. Topics include measures of frequency and association, study designs, bias, confounding, screening tests, probability distributions, estimation and statistical inference, sample size estimation, and regression methods.
This course will provide an introduction to the methods of biostatistics and epidemiology in the context of public health and clinical research. The focus will be on applications, providing students with the skills necessary to critically interpret issues related to study design and data analysis in the public health literature. The computer is used throughout the course. Lectures are complemented by seminars and weekly lab sessions. Topics include measures of frequency and association, study designs, bias, confounding, screening tests, probability distributions, estimation and statistical inference, sample size estimation, and regression methods.
This course in quality improvement and quantitative tools is designed for the physician executive or manager whose responsibilities include either oversight or direct involvement in quality management and improvement in a health delivery or health financing organization. Using selected readings case studies, lecture presentations and extensive classroom discussions, students will learn both the conceptual and practical aspects of improving health care quality. Students master a variety of data techniques that can be used in QI interventions and process analysis. Projects are assigned which utilize these new skills.
This course will provide physician executives with pragmatic, applied, real-world insights into quality improvement (QI) in healthcare organizations, based on the application of proven strategic and tactical frameworks, methodologies and tools to their own quality-related field projects, performed during the 2nd academic year of the MHCM program. Throughout their efforts, from project conception, design and planning, to measurement, implementation, analysis and follow-up actions, the students are mentored and guided (individually and in small groups) by expert course faculty. The course follows and closely complements the HCM 711 (Quality Improvement and Quantitative Methods in Quality Management) summer/fall course, which provides the conceptual and methodological bases, analytic tools and practices for the field project. At the end of this course, students will be better prepared for and substantially proficient in their own roles in quality improvement and management, leading/supporting their organizations' efforts in those areas using sound, science-based and systematic, methodical and analytic approaches and processes.
The course surveys the social determinants of health: socioeconomic status, structural racism, income inequality, neighborhood contexts, psychosocial work environment, social networks and social capital. The sessions introduce theories linking each social determinant to population health outcomes, measurement issues, and threats to causal inference. Sessions include discussion of different methods used in social epidemiology to understand causal processes, including econometric methods, multi-level regression and the use of natural experiments.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The purpose of this course is to provide an introduction to public health and establish a solid foundation for your education, experience and engagement over the next year. In the summer portion of the course, you will be introduced to the principles and science of public health, the major causes of morbidity and mortality, the social determinants of health, and the ways society can respond from the health sector and from outside the health sector. You will become familiar with commonly used metrics and measures that make up the "language of public health" and be exposed to conceptual frameworks that will help you to “ask the right questions”. In the fall portion of the course, we will adopt a case-based approach to explore some of the most important interdisciplinary health problems facing populations - locally and globally. Adopting an ecologic perspective, we will pay particular attention to transnational risks and global governance - preparing you to engage academically and professionally with the most consequential challenges of our times - from pandemic risk to climate change.
As future leaders and change agents of public health, this is a sobering and pivotal moment. Around the world today, the health gaps between the best and worst off have widened, and in no case is this more obvious than the United States. Intense changes in demographics, from population growth to urbanization, along with unprecedented shifts in patterns of disease and escalating transnational risks, are coupled with game-changing advances in technology and innovation. Superimposed on this already complex context, we are witnessing a mosaic of overlapping public health crises-from the domestic epidemics of structural racism, opioid addiction, and gun violence, and structural racism, to the global pandemic of COVID-19 and climate change. You have chosen to begin your journey at what can only be described as a historical moment for our field-the challenges never more sobering, the stakes never more consequential, and the possibilities never greater.
As future leaders and change agents of public health, this is a sobering and pivotal moment. Around the world today, the health gaps between the best and worst off have widened, and in no case is this more obvious than the United States. Intense changes in demographics, from population growth to urbanization, along with unprecedented shifts in patterns of disease and escalating transnational risks, are coupled with game-changing advances in technology and innovation. Superimposed on this already complex context, we are witnessing a mosaic of overlapping public health crises-from the domestic epidemics of structural racism, opioid addiction, and gun violence, and structural racism, to the global pandemic of COVID-19 and climate change. You have chosen to begin your journey at what can only be described as a historical moment for our field-the challenges never more sobering, the stakes never more consequential, and the possibilities never greater.
This intensive course introduces concepts of financial accounting to the non-accountant user of financial information. Basic accounting transactions, statement preparation, concepts of accrual vs. cash accounting, and nonprofit healthcare accounting are presented in the first half of the course. The first half of the course should illustrate that recording accounting transactions can be an art as well as a science. The second half of the course focuses on financial statement analysis and assessing financial health. This course includes prework that should be completed before the start of the course.
This course covers research design, sample selection, questionnaire construction, interviewing techniques, and the reduction of data, and related facets of population survey investigations. Content focuses primarily on the application of survey methods to problems of health program planning and evaluation. Treatment of methodology is sufficiently broad to be suitable for students who are concerned with epidemiological, nutritional, or other types of survey research. This course requires a live, online session with a small group of fellow students and the teaching team during Week 1 or Week 2.
This course is intended as an introduction to global health research. Its particular focus will be on the science of change - how we can use science to support the creation and evaluation intervention and policies aimed at boosting population health. The course will consist of both a domain and methods theme. The domain theme will focus on major cases in global health research, covering both the micro level (interventions) and the macro level (policies). Case studies from both resource-poor and research-rich communities will illustrate interventions and policies to address major disease needs and major drivers of population health. The methods theme of the course will follow a methods framework designed for this course. It will feature key methods that are useful for (i) establishing the need for population health interventions; (ii) designing novel interventions; and (iii) evaluating intervention impact, performance, economic value, and equity. The methods training will focus on conceptual understanding, as well as potential applications, strengths and weakness of methods that are useful for creating and evaluating population health interventions. The course will thus focus both on understanding future developments in population health and the contributions that real-life intervention research can make to addressing major health needs in communities worldwide. It will provide students with a comprehensive conceptual and applied toolkit to envision and design studies to create and design a population health intervention.
This introductory course examines the social, political, and environmental determinants of health and health equity. It analyzes how history, institutional dynamics, and policy decisions contribute to existing health inequities across local, national, and global contexts. Through a series of lectures and case studies, students will explore how power, politics, and planetary health interactions shape health and disease. It provides an accessible overview intended for students across disciplines interested in the complex interactions between power, policy, environment, and public health.
We will begin with core concepts of risk and resilience, then examine the impacts of climate hazards on population health, health care demand, and service delivery. You will learn to critically evaluate and design interventions and policies, integrate resilience into planning and financing, and assess cost-effective strategies to maintain essential services during crises. Through lectures, guest speakers, and case studies, we will connect theory to practice and build the tools you need to contribute to stronger, climate-resilient health systems.
As you work your way through each section, you and your peers will explore the unique characteristics of a dynamic leader and identify and explore the skills necessary to lead effectively in times of rapid change. The course will explore the conditions that create a need for leadership and how to recognize a crisis or a complex situation. The course will draw upon a wide variety of case studies and examples, from addressing smaller-scale threats on an individual level to large-scale crises on an international scale. Together, we will help you identify your own strengths and opportunities for growth as a leader.
Public health and the healthcare industry are increasingly global in nature, and the pace of change is increasingly rapid. Healthcare leaders around the world are dealing with similar issues and can learn best practices from leaders in other countries. This course aims to equip you with various frameworks for leading change and dealing with organizational resistance, as well as providing you with an opportunity to examine your own approaches to change and conflict management.
This community based research course focuses on some of the major issues Native American Indian tribes and nations face in the 21st century. It provides in-depth, hands-on exposure to native development issues, including: sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, leadership, health and social welfare, tribal finances, land and water rights, culture and language, religious freedom, and education. In particular, the course emphasizes problem definition, client relationships, and designing and completing a research project for a tribe, tribal department, or those active in Indian Country. The course is devoted primarily to preparation and presentation of a comprehensive research paper based on work with a tribal community. In addition to faculty presentations on topics such as field research methods and problem definition, students will make presentations on their work in progress and ultimate findings.
This course is intended to provide students with an understanding of the major ethical issues confronting health care delivery and public health practice. This course will provide familiarity with some of the fundamental ethical theories that have shaped our thinking about key public health issues. We will engage in lively virtual discussions on challenging issues such as: mandatory vaccinations, paternalistic public health policies, rationing of health care resources, the use of quarantine, genetic screening, and access and “rights” to health care. Students will learn to analyze complex ethical problems, and to apply philosophical theories to produce well-reasoned policy recommendations.
Public Health Leadership: Personal Mastery is intended to provide students with opportunities to grow as leaders. The content of the course is informed by a deep understanding of reflective awareness practices as well as core leadership development theories from adult development, emergent strategy, authentic leadership, adaptive leadership, and teaming. Leadership development often requires the nimble ability to expand or shift one’s perceptions of oneself, others, and the world at large. In this course, you will develop an understanding of yourself as a leader; discern your values and purpose as you understand it today; reflect upon your strengths, preferences, growth edges, and limitations; practice skills of listening, dialogue, and connection that often support leaders in working with others; learn practical ways of becoming aware of, accepting, and changing old habits and patterns that do not serve you anymore or that do not serve you in every context; and learn the value of candid feedback and reflection processes.
The course surveys the social determinants of health: socioeconomic status, structural racism, income inequality, neighborhood contexts, psychosocial work environment, social networks and social capital. The sessions introduce theories linking each social determinant to population health outcomes, measurement issues, and threats to causal inference. Sessions include discussion of different methods used in social epidemiology to understand causal processes, including econometric methods, multi-level regression and the use of natural experiments.
The course surveys the social determinants of health: socioeconomic status, structural racism, income inequality, neighborhood contexts, psychosocial work environment, social networks and social capital. The sessions introduce theories linking each social determinant to population health outcomes, measurement issues, and threats to causal inference. Sessions include discussion of different methods used in social epidemiology to understand causal processes, including econometric methods, multi-level regression and the use of natural experiments.
The course surveys the social determinants of health: socioeconomic status, structural racism, income inequality, neighborhood contexts, psychosocial work environment, social networks and social capital. The sessions introduce theories linking each social determinant to population health outcomes, measurement issues, and threats to causal inference. Sessions include discussion of different methods used in social epidemiology to understand causal processes, including econometric methods, multi-level regression and the use of natural experiments.
This course takes an epidemiological and public health approach to child psychiatry and development with less emphasis clinical problems. Epidemiological research advances and challenges in key developmental disorders such as autism, aggression, ADHD and anxiety are discussed. Child psychiatry is unique in that social disadvantage, mother-child interaction, peer-relations, brain development and genetics all are important factors, psychometric challenges like assessment, multi-informant and reverse causality are discussed as are interventions and public health impact.
Communication with others, be they friends, family members, healthcare providers, or AI-powered chatbots, can exert a powerful impact on our health decision-making. The goal of this course is to illuminate the persuasive influence of interpersonal communication on health beliefs, behaviors, and healthcare outcomes, which can be leveraged for public health benefit or detriment by engendering health disparities. This course will provide a foundation of knowledge of the literature on interpersonal communication in healthcare, ranging from the most traditional and formal contexts (e.g., patient-provider communication) to more ubiquitous contexts, such as communicating with a chatbot, virtual assistant, or social robot, as well as applied contexts for understanding the principles of effective interpersonal communication that supports public health for all. This course is designed for a diverse audience, with direct application for any public health advocate, ranging from healthcare providers to public health administrators and leaders.
This course provides an overview of major social safety net policies in the United States and their impact on population health and health equity. We will explore the details and challenges of each program’s implementation and its impacts on population health. We will examine income support programs like the Earned Income Tax Credit, minimum wage, and unemployment insurance; nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; housing policies like vouchers; and other relevant programs with the potential to address the social determinants of health at the population level.
Health outcomes in the U.S. vary dramatically as a function of race and ethnicity. The purpose of this course is to address the possible pathways by which such disparities in health status arise at different stages in the life cycle. The course will highlight research that explores this issue from social, behavioral and psychological perspectives, as well as ideas about the meaning of race and ethnicity in American society. Students will be asked to develop their own research ideas that might help illuminate the nature of specific health disparities.
This course is designed as a broad introduction to adolescent health for future public health practitioners, including health care providers, mental health workers, educators, and others. Sessions cover major topics related to adolescent health, including youth homelessness, LGBTQ+ adolescents, media influences, mental health, nutrition, policy and advocacy, racism and health, school health, sexual health, substance use, and youth voices. In the course, adolescent development and health are understood by considering the multiple contexts within which an adolescent resides (e.g., family, school, community, society) and the different social positions an adolescent occupies (e.g., gender identity, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, immigrant status, ability status). The structure of the course combines lectures by guest speakers working in the field of adolescent health, and in-depth student-led discussions of assigned readings/media. The course focuses on adolescents in the United States, since adolescence is constructed differently across cultural contexts, with global implications explored as class experience and knowledge permit.
This introductory, discussion- and application-focused course will provide you with an overview of theories and methods to influence knowledge translation efforts in a range of practice, policy, and public health settings. Given that D&I science sits at the intersection between research and practice, the course addresses important topics in the areas of theory and methods in tandem with practical skills for conducting D&I research and practice-based projects. This balance is reflected in the course readings and lectures as well as the assignments. The course is intended for Masters- and Doctoral-level students. Topics addressed include the motivation for and terminology of D&I science; designs, methods, and measures; applications of D&I science in clinical, community/public health, and policy settings; partner engagement; and emerging issues.
The course focuses on issues confronting professionals who work with people with developmental disabilities, their families, and the system. Materials are organized with a developmental format in mind. Emphasis for first half of semester will be on understanding the professionals' role in diagnosing, evaluating, and assessing children who have developmental disabilities or who are at high risk of acquiring them. Specific discussions of families and services will highlight the second half of the semester. The course uses outside guest speakers who are experts and work in the field.
This 2.5 credit seminar course is designed to introduce the principles, processes and practices of CBPR. The course will trace the theoretical roots of participatory and action research traditions and provide students with foundational understanding of the guiding principles and strategies of CBPR, the ethical considerations involved in this approach, and practices that are integral for participating effectively in CBPR. The course focuses on taking a critical stance toward dominant narratives of knowledge production and explores asset-centered approaches and appreciation for multiple ways of knowing to inform the research process. Through discussion based learning, critical reflection and engagement with academic and community guest speakers, students will learn to critically incorporate participatory approaches and frameworks into their public health research and practice.
We begin by exploring the philosophical foundations and key characteristics of the qualitative research paradigm and the value of qualitative methodologies for health research. Throughout the course, we critically reflect on the implications of such foundational philosophical and theoretical positionings for the practice of qualitative research, i.e., for designing, conducting, and evaluating qualitative research projects. For example, recognizing that historical, social, and structural forces shape (all) research processes, we explore: epistemological assumptions concerning what (or whose) knowledge ‘counts’ as legitimate and how those assumptions shape methodological designs; debates about which criteria can or should be used to establish quality in qualitative research; ethical issues that extend beyond procedural compliance to include context-specific and relational dimensions of research design and fieldwork practices; and reflexive considerations of our public health researcher role(s) and relationships with stakeholders in diverse fields.
This course is intended to equip the student with an understanding of the foundational concepts that will help to organize thinking and learning throughout the DrPH Program. DRPH 201 is designed to explore the intersection between fundamentals of public health, the complex factors that redefine public health and its integration with other global policy factors, and how as leaders, theory and practice lead to integrated multi-sectoral approaches to addressing public health challenges.
The landscape of public health is deeply complex and rapidly changing. Public health leaders understand systemic problems, set new directions, lead change and learn quickly from mistakes. Public health leaders connect with and inspire others to join them in addressing the most intractable population health challenges. The transformational public health leader develops this capacity through an ongoing cycle of study, introspection and application.
The landscape of public health is deeply complex and rapidly changing. Public health leaders understand systemic problems, set new directions, lead change and learn quickly from mistakes. Public health leaders connect with and inspire others to join them in addressing the most intractable population health challenges. The transformational public health leader develops this capacity through an ongoing cycle of study, introspection and application.
Leadership in Public Health: Transforming Self & Systems II is an extension of the DrPH 240 course that forms the foundation of the DrPH's leadership development within the Enabling Change curriculum. The DrPH leadership development programming is rooted in understanding and applying leadership theory to practice. This course emphasizes learning through experiential exercises, reflective practices, and applied situational analysis. The landscape of public health is deeply complex and rapidly changing. Public health leaders understand systemic problems, set new directions, lead change, and learn quickly from mistakes. Public health leaders connect with and inspire others to join them in addressing the most intractable population health challenges. The transformational public health leader develops this capacity through an ongoing cycle of experience, study, introspection, and application. In the DrPH 240 course, students learn ways of expanding and altering their perception of themselves. In DrPH 242, students are asked to deepen their understanding of themselves within the systems they operate within and seek to change.
The Enabling Teams course is also designed to help students prepare for their winter field immersion experience. Students will be introduced to a range of frameworks, models, empirical research, simulations, and case-based discussions, which are focused on collaborative decision-making and the effective use of teams and "teaming" to solve key problems. To aid students who are concurrently planning for their January field immersion experience, which they will engage as small working groups, this course will include "lab" sessions that will enable students to practice applying critical skills related to course concepts and competencies.
This course enables DrPH students to engage with senior leaders who have led significant large-scale efforts. Each session will focus on a tripartite model of exploring a significant, complex problem (institutional transformation or achieving health equity), relevant management and performance tools (i.e. strategic planning and implementation, budget and regulatory processes, or engaging multi-stakeholder coalitions), and the leader’s reflections on operating wisely (and learning from mistakes) in the context of “wicked problems.” The course will also allow DrPH students to draw lessons from their own leadership engagements during the January Field Immersion. Finally, students will be introduced to a portfolio of approaches that take into account the intersection of policy and politics. For example, students will learn how to prepare for and engage in a simulated press conference and workshop personal branding and digital communications strategies.
This course in effective writing focuses on the strategies and techniques behind great persuasive writing in policy leadership. Every element of the writing process will be explored and addressed, with special attention paid to the key genres you will face as a writer in the public, discursive world of memos, editorials, and social media. Weekly writing assignments, along with focused exercises and peer review, will hone skills and provide ample opportunity for feedback.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
"Strategic Management in Global Settings" will provide an overview of some of the key concepts and tools in strategic management that students will be able to draw upon throughout their careers as public health leaders. Topics will include competitive analysis, formulation and implementation of strategy, and strategic measurement and management of organizational performance. This is a case-based course and student preparation and active participation is required. Cases will represent a diverse cross-section of health care organizations, and will include both US and global organizations. Cases will range from academic medical centers to government-owned hospitals, as well as ministries of health to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to private health care corporations.
The seminar will run in two phases: DRPH 290A in Fall 2 and DPH 290B in Spring. In Fall 2, students will commence preparations for their Doctoral Project. Students will begin to articulate their own project ideas, research potential host organizations, and engage with the DrPH alumni community. In Spring 1, students will focus on workshopping and finalizing their Doctoral Project plans. During Spring 2, students will continue to understand the essentials for writing their doctoral thesis. Students will also have the opportunity to provide peer feedback in preparation for writing their final project proposal and their Oral Qualifying Exam (OQE).
The seminar will run in two phases: DRPH 290A in Fall 2 and DPH 290B in Spring. In Fall 2, students will commence preparations for their Doctoral Project. Students will begin to articulate their own project ideas, research potential host organizations, and engage with the DrPH alumni community. In Spring 1, students will focus on workshopping and finalizing their Doctoral Project plans. During Spring 2, students will continue to understand the essentials for writing their doctoral thesis. Students will also have the opportunity to provide peer feedback in preparation for writing their final project proposal and their Oral Qualifying Exam (OQE).
An opportunity for independent study is offered for interested and qualified students or small groups of students. Arrangements must be made with individual faculty members and are limited by the amount of faculty time available. These programs are open to all students who wish to go beyond the content of regular courses.
This online module will provide a basic introduction to qualitative methods in public health research. It is intended for students with little or no prior knowledge of qualitative research methods, but who have an interest in using or conducting qualitative research to inform health policy and practice. The module will provide an overview of the qualitative research paradigm, including fundamental principles of the paradigm, potential uses of qualitative inquiry in addressing public health issues, the value, and utility of core data generation methods, and basic principles of qualitative data analysis.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
The effective practice of public health in the 21st century requires working with interdisciplinary teams, communicating effectively with diverse audiences, and successfully leading and managing others to achieve better health outcomes for all populations. This course is designed to provide MPH students with an understanding of, and appreciation for, the fundamentals of leadership, management, and governance; cultural competence; and communicating with different audiences. Through case study analysis, experiential exercises, simulations, lectures, practitioner panels, and application activities and assignments, students will explore the opportunities and challenges of being in leadership positions and will develop important skills in negotiation and mediation, budgeting and resource management, systems thinking, and selecting and developing a variety of audience-appropriate communication strategies.
Social, Behavioral, and Structural Determinants of Health aims to provide an introduction to the social determinants of health, examine how social determinants influence the health of individuals, communities, and populations, provide an overview of public health intervention and evaluation approaches, and introduce health advocacy. Faculty will offer foundational frameworks and theories, discuss relevant research, explore potential interventions to improve health status and health outcomes, and encourage participants to apply their learning to current US and international contexts and issues. In addition to weekly discussion boards and check-in quizzes to grapple with the weekly material, students will get to complete two written assignments centered around identifying and addressing a solution to a health disparity in their home community. After learning the basics of how to write a critical communication/advocacy format (i.e. an op-ed), students will author one as the final assignment for this course.
All students completing a Master of Public Health degree must complete an Applied Practice Experience (“Practicum”) and an Integrative Learning Experience (ILE). This required course is designed to meet both these degree requirements. In the course, students will identify and complete a practicum that will be of value to their professional development and career goals. Students will also share their practicum experience with their MPH colleagues via a “peer-to-peer” joint learning experience. A final required health management case study will require students to demonstrate the ability to integrate and synthesize selected program competencies. Class sessions will focus on developing tools and insights that will be useful in future professional practice in health management and public health.
All students completing a Master of Public Health degree in accredited schools of public health in the US must complete an Applied Practice Experience (“Practicum”). This required course is designed to provide some tools and insights that will be useful in future professional practice; assist MPH Generalist students in identifying and completing a practicum experience that will be of value to their professional development; share that experience with their MPH Generalist colleagues via a “peer-to-peer” joint learning experience.
All students completing a Master of Public Health degree must complete an Applied Practice Experience (“Practicum”) and an Integrative Learning Experience (ILE). This required course is designed to meet both these degree requirements. In the course, students will identify and complete a practicum that will be of value to their professional development and career goals. Students will also share their practicum experience with their MPH colleagues via a “peer-to-peer” joint learning experience. A final required health management case study will require students to demonstrate the ability to integrate and synthesize selected program competencies. Class sessions will focus on developing tools and insights that will be useful in future professional practice in health management and public health.
All students completing a Master of Public Health degree in accredited schools of public health in the US must complete an Applied Practice Experience (“Practicum”). This required course is designed to provide some tools and insights that will be useful in future professional practice; assist MPH Generalist students in identifying and completing a practicum experience that will be of value to their professional development; share that experience with their MPH Generalist colleagues via a “peer-to-peer” joint learning experience.
This course will empower you to do the same: You’ll learn the principles of strategic communications and how you can use them to inform, educate, influence, and move audiences. And you will build and begin to implement a public health communication strategy of your own: Over eight weeks, you will have an opportunity to develop a “message deck” to guide all communications on a specific programmatic or policy reform of your choice; a communications plan in support of this reform; an op-ed piece suitable for publication; and early skills related to story-telling and media relations.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Reviews methods for assessing the dietary intake of populations and individuals. Students gain experience in the actual collection, analysis and interpretation of dietary intake. The course also reviews several specific diet/disease relationships, integrating information from international studies, secular trends, clinical trials, analytical epidemiology, and animal experiments.
The goal of this course is to equip students with the knowledge and methodological skills necessary to critically evaluate and understand the determinants of health behaviors - particularly related to healthy eating and physical activity - and to rigorously study public health efforts to support behavior change. Oftentimes, public health policies and programs focused on changing health behaviors like eating, exercise, or substance use are designed based on pre-existing biases and assumptions about how and why such behaviors develop, rather than critically engaging with scientific evidence. Moreover, scientific evidence on feasible, real-world strategies for supporting behavior change is often limited. This course addresses these issues by building students’ skills in:
What are nutrients? How does the human body absorb and utilize nutrients? How is nutrition relevant to certain chronic diseases? What nutrients are linked to malnutrition in the U.S. and globally? This foundational nutrition science course answers these and other nutrition related questions. Topics covered in the course include digestion and absorption of nutrients, macronutrients (carbohydrates, protein, and fats), micronutrients (water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins, minerals), macronutrient metabolism, water and electrolytes, chronic disease and nutrition, lifecycle nutrition. This is a required course for the MPH 65 Nutrition students and recommended for nutrition doctoral students without prior courses in nutrition. The course is open to students from other departments and programs with an interest in nutrition.
This course will provide an overview of current topics in nutrition within the context of public health. We will explore concepts in dietary assessment and epidemiology, the role of nutrition on common physical and mental health conditions, global nutrition, public health and community nutrition, agriculture and food policy, nutrition communication, diet in special populations, and other topics. The course will consist of lectures and in-class discussion of case studies or articles guided by experts in the topics, with active contribution from students.
This course teaches the biochemistry and metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals in the context of human disease. Contemporary topics are emphasized. Particular emphasis is given to current knowledge of the mechanisms that may explain the role of diet in the causation and/or prevention of ischemic heart disease, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cancer.
The Human Nutrition Seminars are held every Monday and focus on methodologic and applied areas of Nutrition. They consist of presentations by faculty or invited speakers. This course is generally taken by first-year students. A very brief summary/reflection will be required after each session for those enrolled in this semester for credit.
The Human Nutrition Seminars are held every Monday and focus on methodologic and applied areas of Nutrition. They consist of presentations by faculty or invited speakers. This course is generally taken by first-year students. A very brief summary/reflection will be required after each session for those enrolled in this semester for credit.
Exercise is a potent non-pharmacologic lifestyle modality that positively alters chronic disease risk and management of chronic disease throughout the lifespan, and as such the phrase “Exercise as Medicine” is commonly used to underscore the importance of this modality in everyday life. Epidemiologic research supports the use of physical activity in support of exercise as medicine to address disease risk and management which has been further reinforced with efficacy data from clinical exercise trials. The breadth of this work lends to challenges in developing and implementing rigorously prescribed exercise across individuals and populations. This course will help students develop a framework for assessing and designing exercise strategies to reduce the burden of disease. Exercise approaches to disease prevention and management will focus on exercise prescription parameters, delivery settings, health outcomes, and health disparities. The lectures and readings will examine different issues around effectiveness, feasibility, and sustainability, including individual health status, barriers to exercise participation, and exercise treatment modalities. We will emphasize the timing of disease prevention and management in the context of the efficacy of exercise, at times coupled with dietary modifications, and identify knowledge gaps that warrant high risk, high reward, timely investigations culminating in a final project. Students will have homework assignments to collect and apply new knowledge within exercise medicine, which will be used to develop an exercise efficacy intervention targeting a biologic endpoint as a final project.
This course is a critical exploration of the issues related to food security and food programs. In particular, we will examine the array of negative health consequences associated with food insecurity over the life course, discuss potential mechanisms underlying these associations, and the influence of federal food programs to address food insecurity and health equity.
The grand challenges of today - climate change, hunger, malnutrition and poverty alleviation, among others - will require building scientific and leadership capacities of the next generation of practitioners to tackle the multi-sectoral nature of these problems. With only six years to go to the completion of the Sustainable Development Goals and Agenda 2030, it is imperative that a deliberate effort is made across Harvard University to support students in expediting progress on these societal objectives. To operationalize this vision, a new course on ‘Global Food Systems and Nutrition Policy: science and leadership’ is envisioned.
The goal of the course is to expose students to global nutrition programs and professionals in action, providing both a theoretical and practical foundation to effectively diagnose pressing global nutrition challenges, as well as compare and propose responsive global nutrition programs. Invited speakers will introduce current-day programmatic action that they have led, and when relevant, frame the complexities and challenges encountered using the frameworks presented in class. Students will have the unique opportunity to meaningfully engage with global nutrition experts and will be challenged to analyze evidence on current-day programs as they prepare a final advisory proposal of their own.
This course reviews unique characteristics of microbiome data produced by high-throughput sequence technologies. It provides an overview of classic and newly developed statistical methods for the analysis of microbiome data. This course may be of interest to students wishing to develop strong quantitative skills for comprehensive analysis of microbiome data from public health research.
Aim of the course: To provide knowledge and practical skills for designing and interpreting dietary intervention trials in the era of precision nutrition. The course introduces the principles of nutritional randomized controlled trials (RCTs), from study design to outcome selection and reporting. Using real-world clinical trials, students will explore how body composition, fat depots, hormones, glycemic control, brain health, gut microbiome, and metabolic variability influence individual responses to diet. Special emphasis is placed on nutrition omics, including metabolomics, proteomics, epigenetics, and microbiome profiling, as tools to assess dietary exposure, compliance, and biological response. Upon completion, students will be able to design and critically evaluate nutrition RCTs, integrate omics-based biomarkers, and understand how personalized dietary strategies can be developed beyond population-based guidelines.
You will learn the foundations of clinical nutrition science and healthy, sustainable diets through condensed, interactive online modules. We will build on this foundation with class dialog, which will emphasize practical strategies for leveraging the role of nutrition in patient care. Finally, as a capstone to your learning, you will prepare and present a plan for making two interventions: 1) a personal change in your own diet and; 2) a plan for making a nutrition-focused systems change in your own (or anticipated future) clinical/work environment.
This course will provide an introduction to the methods of biostatistics and epidemiology in the context of public health and clinical research. The focus will be on applications, providing students with the skills necessary to critically interpret issues related to study design and data analysis in the public health literature. The computer is used throughout the course. Didactic lectures will be posted on the course website along with self-assessment questions. There is one required in-person interactive class session and one in-person lab session each week. Topics include measures of frequency and association, study designs, bias, confounding, screening tests, probability distributions, estimation and statistical inference, sample size estimation, and regression methods.
This course will provide an introduction to the methods of biostatistics and epidemiology in the context of public health and clinical research. The focus will be on applications, providing students with the skills necessary to critically interpret issues related to study design and data analysis in the public health literature. The computer is used throughout the course. Didactic lectures will be posted on the course website along with self-assessment questions. There is one required in-person interactive class session and one in-person lab session each week. Topics include measures of frequency and association, study designs, bias, confounding, screening tests, probability distributions, estimation and statistical inference, sample size estimation, and regression methods.
Important Information: In order to enroll in an Independent Study course you must submit a proposal form, which will be reviewed by the department and faculty member. To do this, please click on the ‘Submit Proposal’ button, complete the form, and submit. If your proposal is approved, the course will be added to your Crimson Cart and you will receive a notification email. You will need to go to your Crimson Cart and complete your enrollment into the class (enrollment in the course is not finalized until this step is taken).
An opportunity for independent study is offered for interested and qualified students or small groups of students. Arrangements must be made with individual faculty members and are limited by the amount of faculty time available. These studies are open to all students who wish to go beyond the content of regular courses.
An opportunity for independent study is offered for interested and qualified students or small groups of students. Arrangements must be made with individual faculty members and are limited by the amount of faculty time available. These studies are open to all students who wish to go beyond the content of regular courses.
An opportunity for independent study is offered for interested and qualified students or small groups of students. Arrangements must be made with individual faculty members and are limited by the amount of faculty time available. These studies are open to all students who wish to go beyond the content of regular courses.
This course introduces fundamentals of mapping and spatial reasoning in public health research. Surveying its history, we will find that spatial thinking and maps have played a critical role both inside the academy, for communities organizing for environmental justice, and social movements that agitated for a healthier world. To develop the skills to make and reason about our own maps, we will introduce basic data structures and analytic tools needed to build, visualize, and analyze maps of a range of spatial variables, from exposures, intermediate processes, to health outcomes. The course will focus on quantitative analytical approaches using R.
As an introduction to the principles governing function in the human body, this course is designed to provide a framework in physiology for future public health researchers and professionals who have not taken college level physiology courses. Emphasis is placed on the concept of homeostasis and on integrative aspects of physiology. Examples of pathophysiology and environmental physiology will highlight these processes.
This course is designed to lay a foundation in environmental health, integrating key disciplines such as risk assessment, exposure assessment, epidemiology, toxicology, data analytics, physical science, and science policy. We aim to enhance students' critical thinking and quantitative abilities through interactive workshops, case studies, assignments, and insightful readings. The curriculum is structured around a thread of quantitative and qualitative reasoning, addressing seven crucial topics in environmental health: air pollution, water pollution, global warming, environmental justice, occupational health, radiation, and persistent pollutants.
This course will focus on the impacts of climate change, air pollution, and ecological degradation on global health equity. It will highlight the impacts of planetary distress on the global south and challenge students to grapple with principles of justice and equity. A diverse set of topics and their connection to health will be presented including structural racism and indigenous rights, land use and agricultural practices, water scarcity and forced migration. The course will be run as a weekly 2 hour seminar, with course directors and guest lecturers discussing these areas of investigation. The sessions will be a mix of didactic, case-based learning, discussion, and project-based learning. The course will not only describe the challenges of climate change's impact on global health equity, but present solution-oriented approaches and policies. In addition, students will gain skills around science communication on climate and health.
Any student who does not meet the Wave 1 or Wave 2 criteria can add themselves to the waitlist (if enrollment requirements are met) at any time during the enrollment period. At the beginning of each priority wave, students on the waitlist who meet the Wave’s criteria will be automatically enrolled into any remaining seats in the course (pending no time conflicts)
Any student who does not meet the Wave 1 or Wave 2 criteria can add themselves to the waitlist (if enrollment requirements are met) at any time during the enrollment period. At the beginning of each priority wave, students on the waitlist who meet the Wave’s criteria will be automatically enrolled into any remaining seats in the course (pending no time conflicts)
This is a clinical and preventive medicine course. The material is taught at a post-graduate level, and a medical or allied health background is required. The majority of students will be physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists and students in those fields. Persons without prior biomedical training may NOT take the class for an ordinal grade. Such students are welcome to audit the class. In certain exceptions, if discussed with the instructors, such students may be granted permission by the instructors to take the course on a pass/fail basis.
This course in occupational safety works towards the prevention of work-related injury and illnesses through proactive management and control of workplace hazards. The primary objectives of the course are to: (1) identify fundamental workplace hazards, (2) develop a basis of basic government and voluntary regulations, (3) understand issues pertaining to specific and different industries, and (4) understand various safety management programs.
This course will cover statistical methods for the assessment of complex environmental exposures, such as pollutants and chemical mixtures, within the exposome framework. We will describe the analytical challenges involved in the joint evaluation of multiple environmental factors and provide an overview to a variety of analytical tools. Topics will include: data reduction techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering; classical methods (multiple regression) and their limitations; variable selection techniques (Lasso, ridge regression, elastic net); statistical methods for environmental mixtures such as Bayesian Kernel Machine Regression (BKMR) and Weighted Quantile Sum (WQS) Regression; introduction to basic machine learning (ML) in environmental health; integrating environmental mixtures in health disparities research. The course will integrate lectures presenting the methods, case-studies from recently published papers, and hands-on data sessions. Lectures will present in a rigorous yet non-theoretical way the methods of interest, discussing when each method presented is appropriate for use and for which research question it can be applied.
The way we design and operate buildings plays a central role in our health, due to both the time we spend indoors and the climate-impact of the energy used to power our buildings. This course, cross-listed between Harvard Graduate School of Design and Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, seeks to leverage the science and approaches from each discipline to find building-related solutions to the public health challenges of our time. Students will explore building strategies that can improve indoor air quality, help prevent the spread of airborne infectious disease, reduce exposure to toxic materials, improve thermal resilience, and support overall well-being, while also examining the role buildings play in our energy system, the cascading health impacts of associated air pollution and climate change, and building design and technologies that can support climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and climate resilience. Through a mix of lectures, case studies, hands-on workshops, real-world building assessments, and a final project pairing students from each school, students will engage deeply in a solutions-focused course at the intersection of public health, environmental health, architecture, and design.
This seminar course is designed to teach an understanding of the basic principles of water pollution and water pollution issues on local, regional and global scales. The course will begin with a discussion of the basic chemical, physical and biological properties of water and water contaminants. Subsequent lectures will cover specific chemical and biological contaminants in ground, surface, and marine waters; sources, fate, transport, and transformation of contaminants; monitoring techniques, water source protection and resource management; water and wastewater treatment; transmission of waterborne disease; toxicological concerns of chemicals in water, including disinfection byproducts; and interactions with the air and land environments. Invited lecturers will cover issues such as harmful algal blooms, groundwater modeling, coastal zone management, and US regulatory approaches and policies for aquatic ecosystem protection. Course Activities: Class discussions, homework assignments, exams and final project.
This course will examine methodological issues associated with the design and execution of studies designed to measure environmental exposure to chemical and biological contaminants. The first half of the course will be lecture based, and will address topics such as: study design issues, implementation of quality control/ quality assurance programs, data analysis, protocols for sampling air, water, sediments, and soil for contaminants of concern, and analytical techniques used to measure chemical and biological constituents in the laboratory. During the second half of the semester, groups of students will design and execute their own field investigation using these techniques. The design and results of these projects are presented in class.
The course will be in collaboration with academic institutions of the region such as the University of Nicosia and University of Cyprus. Students will travel to Cyprus to participate in in-person workshops and field trips, present findings and engage in case-based discussions with local professionals and researchers from the Eastern Mediterranean region who are experts in wildfires, earthquakes, heat, and dust storms.
Human activity is changing the atmosphere and altering terrestrial and marine ecosystems on a global scale. Evidence is mounting that these changes may already be having serious effects on human health, and there is growing concern that in coming decades the effects could be catastrophic. This course was developed because the practice of public health in this century will require an understanding of the relationship between human health and the global environment. It will provide an overview of climate change and related processes, key examples of global environmental change, their potential consequences for human health, and explore solutions to these problems and the challenges inherent in realizing those solutions. The course will be open to all students at Harvard University, but enrollment is limited, and preference will be given to students from Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, the Kennedy School of Government, and to undergraduate Environmental Science Public Policy majors.
Science communication provides a way to transmit scientific ideas, methods, knowledge, and research to lay audiences in an understandable and useful way. In environmental health, ensuring that information is communicated effectively requires environmental health literacy on the part of the practitioner and in the communication of the scientific content. With this, environmental health literacy (EHL) is a critically important area of interest within the environmental health sciences. It generally refers to the ways in which people make sense of environmental contaminants and their potential impacts on health. This course will provide formal definition, as well as quantitative and qualitative measurement tools utilized in this emerging area of study that intersects environmental health with implementation, effectiveness, and dissemination science. Some of the key concepts that will be discussed in this course are risk communication, health literacy, and numeracy. Furthermore, students will learn the principles for how to communicate environmental health science in a way that is equitable, rigorous, and accessible for the public based on principles of EHL.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Students in the Master of Public Health program are required to develop and conduct a supervised project (practicum) addressing a clinical or public health question of interest. The practicum is arranged by the student on an individual basis with a host organization and may include any aspect of occupational and environmental health and safety. The expected time commitment is 120 hours. Students work with a host organization under the supervision of a preceptor (site supervisor) for their practicum and are expected to arrange the details of their practicum with the preceptor and obtain guidance and feedback throughout the project. Students submit a brief proposal (the Learning Agreement) which must be approved by the preceptor and the course instructor prior to starting their practicum work. The course culminates with an on-campus presentation of the results of the practicum in Spring 2. The course does not have formal meeting times, as students are expected to meet with the course instructor independently to develop the practicum project and then at the end of the course for the presentation.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course meets the NIH and NSF training requirement for all trainees, fellows, participants, and scholars receiving support through any NIH training, career development award, research education grant, or dissertation research grant. It describes basic ethical and regulatory requirements for conducting research. Topics include the following:
A foundational course in measure theoretic probability. Topics include measure theory, Lebesgue integration, product measure and Fubini's Theorem, Radon-Nikodym derivatives, conditional probability, conditional expectation, limit theorems on sequences of random variables, stochastic processes, and weak convergence.
Randomized experimentation is the standard for quantifying the causal effect of an intervention in the public health and biomedical sciences, yet randomization may be impossible, impractical, or unethical, leading to real-world scenarios in which causal inferences are based upon observational comparisons. This course reviews the foundations of causal inference in (bio)statistics, outlining causal-analytic methods that help to extract as much evidence as imperfect observational studies carry about causal effects commonly of interest in applied health science settings. This survey of statistical causal inference begins with foundational concepts: the potential outcomes framework and counterfactual random variables, graphical modeling frameworks, and common assumptions and strategies for the identification of the causal effects of static and dynamic interventions. Methodological extensions for studying the causal effects of time-varying, longitudinal interventions will be touched upon as well. Further topics to be addressed may include instrumental variables approaches, principal stratification, causal mediation analysis, treatment effect heterogeneity, the causal dose-response curve, and causal survival analysis. This course may also introduce elements of semi-parametric theory necessary for the development of asymptotically efficient estimators of causal effect estimands. Where possible, the role of modern regression (i.e., machine learning) techniques and tools for the practical estimation of causal effect estimands will be emphasized.
This course explores the challenges and rewards of managing and leading in complex health care systems, with a focus on enhancing the leadership, motivational, structural, cultural, political and organizational change skills and capabilities needed to be effective. Students will apply their new learning to case analyses and personal work situations, culminating in the development of a change initiative proposal for their home institutions.
Marketing in the digital landscape calls for a variety of challenges as consumer digital adoption, technology, emerging competitors and data integration changes rapidly. This class prepares students to be effective marketing leaders in landscapes that require focused resource allocation that integrate digital and physical services, and equips them to make strategic decisions in preparing and approving customer centered initiatives. Students will gain a working knowledge of the marketing landscape based on quantifiable addressable market, differentiation, brand strength, customer centricity and targeted engagement through product, place / channel, pricing and promotion in competitive markets. Students will use cases and a team based project learn to critically assess marketing plans and evaluate a range of approaches and methods to measure value driven offerings. Plan on fast-paced case discussions and hands-on group project work.
This course will expose clinical executives to the concepts and knowledge involved in making strategic use of information technology in health care organizations. Through case studies, guest lecturers, and curated articles, students will learn about the current state of health care information technology. The class will delve into data uses, generative artificial intelligence, machine learning, and neural networks. We will consider the implications and benefits of technology for systems, clinicians, and patients. The class will examine and debate how clinical leaders can make information technology work better for health care.
The Practicum provides students with a unique opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge and leadership skills gained throughout the MHCM program by developing, implementing, and evaluating a comprehensive, independent project of their own choosing during the academic year. Students' self-selected projects might entail transforming an existing situation within their existing organization, creating a clinical service or training program, or developing a business plan for a completely new, innovative initiative. Students will propose a project, develop a project plan, build the business case to win approval, and begin to implement and evaluate the idea.
The Practicum provides students with an opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge and leadership skills gained throughout the MHCM program by completing a comprehensive, independent project of their own choosing during the academic year. Students' self-selected projects might entail transforming an existing situation within their existing organizations or developing a business plan for a completely new, innovative initiative. Students will propose a project, develop a project plan, and build the business case to win approval and implement the idea.
The Practicum provides students with an opportunity to integrate and apply the knowledge and leadership skills gained throughout the MHCM program by completing a comprehensive, independent project of their own choosing during the academic year. Students' self-selected projects might entail transforming an existing situation within their existing organizations or developing a business plan for a completely new, innovative initiative. Students will propose a project, develop a project plan, and build the business case to win approval and implement the idea.
The aim of this course is to provide students with a foundation in the core concepts of the social and behavioral determinants of health. This course analyzes major social and structural factors that shape population health and health behavior, including socioeconomic status, race and racism, neighborhood environments, job stress, and social connections. Through a combination of online and in-class seminars, students will examine the potential role of community, organizational, environmental, and policy interventions to improve health. Building upon the empirical literature covered in the online content and selected readings, students will discuss and develop data-driven models for advancing population health management using case-based methodology.
The aim of this course is to provide students with a foundation in the core concepts of the social and behavioral determinants of health. This course analyzes major social variables that affect population patterns in health and health behavior, including socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, neighborhoods, work, and social relationships. Through a combination of online and in-class seminars, students will examine the potential role of various social, policy, and environmental interventions in improving health. Building upon the empirical and theoretical literature covered in the online content and selected readings, students will discuss models for advancing population health management using case-based methodology.
Health care executives are increasingly called upon to communicate with a wide range of internal and external groups. This course will focus on the competencies necessary to deliver presentations successfully in a variety of situations that involve subordinates, superiors, with the board, peers, and external constituencies like the media. Students will learn to analyze challenging communication situations, prepare for contingencies, think on their feet, answer difficult questions and develop poise and confidence under pressure.
Health care executives are increasingly called upon to communicate with a wide range of internal and external groups. This course will focus on the competencies necessary to deliver presentations successfully in a variety of situations that involve subordinates, superiors, with the board, peers, and external constituencies like the media. Students will learn to analyze challenging communication situations, prepare for contingencies, think on their feet, answer difficult questions and develop poise and confidence under pressure.
This intensive course introduces concepts of financial accounting to the non-accountant user of financial information. Basic accounting transactions, statement preparation and concepts of accrual versus cash accounting are presented in the first half of the course. The remainder of the course focuses on financial analysis of a variety of health care organizations.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Introduces elements of study design, data analysis and causal inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through homework and in-class exercises. May serve as an introduction to more advanced study or as a concluding course for those desiring a working knowledge of epidemiologic methods. EPI 202 extends the concepts of study design, data analysis, and inference introduced in the introductory epidemiology courses.
Introduces elements of study design, data analysis and causal inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through homework and in-class exercises. May serve as an introduction to more advanced study or as a concluding course for those desiring a working knowledge of epidemiologic methods. EPI 202 extends the concepts of study design, data analysis, and inference introduced in the introductory epidemiology courses.
Introduces elements of study design, data analysis and causal inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through homework and in-class exercises. May serve as an introduction to more advanced study or as a concluding course for those desiring a working knowledge of epidemiologic methods. EPI 202 extends the concepts of study design, data analysis, and inference introduced in the introductory epidemiology courses.
Introduces elements of study design, data analysis and causal inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through homework and in-class exercises. May serve as an introduction to more advanced study or as a concluding course for those desiring a working knowledge of epidemiologic methods. EPI 202 extends the concepts of study design, data analysis, and inference introduced in the introductory epidemiology courses.
Introduces elements of study design, data analysis and causal inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through homework and in-class exercises. May serve as an introduction to more advanced study or as a concluding course for those desiring a working knowledge of epidemiologic methods. EPI 202 extends the concepts of study design, data analysis, and inference introduced in the introductory epidemiology courses.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Introduces elements of study design, data analysis and causal inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through homework and in-class exercises. May serve as an introduction to more advanced study or as a concluding course for those desiring a working knowledge of epidemiologic methods. EPI 202 extends the concepts of study design, data analysis, and inference introduced in the introductory epidemiology courses.
Introduces elements of study design, data analysis and causal inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through homework and in-class exercises. May serve as an introduction to more advanced study or as a concluding course for those desiring a working knowledge of epidemiologic methods. EPI 202 extends the concepts of study design, data analysis, and inference introduced in the introductory epidemiology courses.
Introduces elements of study design, data analysis and causal inference in epidemiologic research. Principles and methods are illustrated with examples, and reviewed through homework and in-class exercises. May serve as an introduction to more advanced study or as a concluding course for those desiring a working knowledge of epidemiologic methods. EPI 202 extends the concepts of study design, data analysis, and inference introduced in the introductory epidemiology courses.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
squares projection as sample counterpart. Splines. Omitted variable bias and panel data. Bayesian inference for parameters defined by moment conditions. Finite sample frequentist inference for the normal linear model. Statistical decision theory and dominating least squares with many predictor variables; applications to estimating fixed effects (teacher effects, place effects) using panel data. Asymptotic inference in the generalized method of moments framework. Likelihood inference using information measures to define best approximations within parametric models. Instrumental variable models and the role of random assignment; applications include models of demand and supply and the evaluation of treatment effects.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
An introduction to contemporary topics in the field of industrial organization , which examines competition among firms and the structure and functioning of markets. Topics include the determinants of market structure and equilibrium; pricing and strategic competition; horizontal and vertical mergers and collusion (with applications to antitrust policy); auctions and market design; network effects and platform / multi-sided markets; and R&D and innovation. Real-world applications to a variety of industries, including manufacturing, retail, financial, health care, and technology.
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An introduction to applied work in industrial organization. Static analysis (theory and estimation) of demand systems and cost functions (adverse selection, moral hazard, productivity), and applications of game theoretic concepts of equilibrium. Topics include the determinants of market structure and product availability, merger analysis and antitrust, and contracting and bargaining in vertical markets.
The close look at, and adoption of, drawing as a functional tool. This typology of drawing is often found in scientific journals and extra-artistic contexts in the form of diagrams, symbols, maps, calendars, graphic models, architectural renderings and technical illustrations of many kinds. These drawings often imply or suggest a lack of poetic and artistic goals, inviting unambiguous readings of specific content. We will explore, manipulate, subvert, or find alternative uses for these often overlooked drawing conventions. A new drawing vocabulary will emerge from our research and practice.
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This course is designed for intermediate photography students to explore the art of photography and bookmaking. Students will learn the principles of book binding, design, and image sequencing, all aimed at developing their personal photographic projects. Beyond building technical skills, this course will foster a space for constructive critiques and lectures that encourage students to see photo books not just as collections of images, but as powerful tools for intellectual exploration and complex storytelling.
In this intermediate studio course, students will create a self-directed project that examines photography’s complex relationship with the everyday. Through discussions, readings, hands-on demonstrations, class critiques, and guest artist presentations, we will examine the urgent questions shaping contemporary photography while remaining attuned to the magic of image-making. This course aims not only to develop technical skills but also to foster a spirit of inquiry and reflection.
This production course is an advanced continuation of 150A. It is compulsory for students to have the first draft of their short screenplays on the first day of class. Content includes scene analysis and script revision, directing professional and non-professional actors, cinematography, blocking and mise-en-scène, sound design, editing and post-production. Students will be given assignments related to their written screenplays throughout the course, culminating in what will be their final project: the production of a narrative short film. Film professionals will occasionally be invited to conduct workshops or hold masterclasses with students.
All work in this course will be shot on 16mm film using Bolex cameras. Some projects will be silent and cut with splicers, others will add a soundtrack and will be edited using a computer. Through a series of non-fiction projects, students will explore the possibilities of the 16mm film image and the freedom of working with silence or in non-synchronous sound. Class time will include technical workshops, film screenings and discussions of student work.
Bringing their own passions and perspectives, students in this course will create films that inventively explore topics such as human rights, climate justice, public health, and racial and economic equity. We will work individually and in small groups on a series of exercises culminating in collaborative final projects. Through critique and screenings, we will scrutinize our role as makers responding to the entangled demands of aesthetics, ethical representation, and social impact.
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An introduction to “sensory ethnography,” a media practice that seeks to rejuvenate and innovate in visual anthropology, cinema, and art. Students will learn to record and edit video and audio to produce original media works about embodied experience, culture, ecology, political-economy, and history. This is a year-long course that supports students' independent projects through the summer and the following semester.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
An introduction to “sensory ethnography,” a media practice that seeks to rejuvenate and innovate in visual anthropology, cinema, and art. Students will learn to record and edit video and audio to produce original media works about embodied experience, culture, ecology, political-economy, and history. This is a year-long course that supports students' independent projects through the summer and the following semester.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course introduces a cataclysmic movement that brought the People’s Republic of China to the brink of anarchy: The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The first part looks at historical precursors, including rebellion in the imperial era, political movements in the Republican Era, Communist campaigns and purges, as well as the Great Leap Forward famine that cost tens of millions of lives. Paying equal attention to elite politics at Mao Zedong’s “court” and the lived experiences of ordinary citizens, the second part focuses on the evolution of the turmoil, once Mao had called for “bombarding the headquarters” of his own party state, discussing the “Gang of Four,” the “attempted coup” by Lin Biao, the Red Guards and the worker rebels in Shanghai, local power seizures and factional warfare, military crackdowns, and the return to order. The third part begins with the reception of the movement abroad, and focuses on its afterlives, including the quasi- pluralist lessons drawn in the immediate aftermath, the role of Cultural Revolution legacies in decisions such as the violent crackdown on the Tiananmen protesters in 1989, and memory politics under Xi Jinping. No language requirement.
This course is intended to develop a basic reading knowledge of Chaghatay, the classical antecedent of modern Uzbek and modern Uyghur, and the common literary language of all Central Asian Turks from the fourteenth to the early twentieth centuries. The course includes a survey of Chaghatay literature as well as a discussion of grammar, the writing system, and lexicographical resources; the class meetings will be devoted to both textbook-based instruction and (particularly in the second half of the semester) the reading of samples from Chaghatay texts drawn from printed sources and manuscript copies.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The course focuses on developing students’ ability to perform a variety of communicative tasks commonly encountered in academic and professional settings, such as explaining concepts, presenting ideas, analyzing issues, and offering evaluations. Through guided practice and exposure to authentic materials across disciplines (e.g., the humanities, technology, medicine, law, etc.), students will refine their control of advanced vocabulary, rhetorical strategies, and discourse structures. Particular attention will be given to audience awareness, register, and the ability to adapt language use to different communicative contexts. Students will also strengthen their ability to read both closely and efficiently, and to engage with culturally and intellectually meaningful topics beyond the textbook.
The course focuses on communicative tasks commonly encountered in academic and professional settings, such as analysis, interpretation, argumentation, and evaluation. Through guided practice and exposure to authentic materials across disciplines, students will refine their control of advanced vocabulary, rhetorical strategies, and discourse structures. Particular attention will be given to clarity, precision, audience awareness, register, and the ability to adapt language use to different communicative contexts, especially in formal and semi-formal communication and writing. Students will also strengthen their ability to read both closely and efficiently, and to engage with culturally and intellectually meaningful topics beyond the textbook.
W. E. B. Du Bois was among the most profound thinkers of his time, devoting a forensic and evolving attention to the issue of race over a varied career that extended from the turn of the century to his death on the eve of the March on Washington in 1963. Although he earned his PhD from Harvard in history, he is increasingly seen as one of the pioneering scholars in the then-nascent field of sociology. In this course, we will employ a structure of text and critique to evaluate the reach and utility of his ideas, on subjects ranging from the development of racial consciousness to nuclear disarmament to the international order and the role of Africa, Africans, and African Americans in it. This course will examine Du Bois’s original writings in the context of the debates they sparked and will revisit his interactions with key figures, both Black and white, of the twentieth century.
Physics 15a is an introduction to the topics of Newtonian mechanics and special relativity, but it is also an introduction to what it means to be a physicist-formulating theoretical models to describe the natural world and testing those models for consistency with data. Topics include: vectors; kinematics in three dimensions; Newton's laws; force, work, power; conservative forces, potential energy; momentum, collisions; rotational motion, angular momentum, torque; static equilibrium, simple harmonic motion, damped and driven oscillations; gravitation; fictitious forces; fluids; special relativity; experimental methods and tools including: basic programming, experimental design and data acquisition, model testing and error analysis; scientific communication.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Through a series of lectures, application exercises and laboratory experiments, we will explore how the human body develops on a molecular level from gene to cell to organ. Ever wonder how you can make heart cells beat in a dish? Why can axolotls regenerate their limbs but humans cannot? How do neurites grow? Can we grow a brain in a cell culture dish? Come join us to discover the answers to these questions and more.
Every cell is a part of a larger “community”, working together to enable tissue function. This course will explore the principles of building complex tissues from cells. How do cells know what tissues to make and when to make them? How do cells communicate with one another? What diseases can arise when these principles go awry? How can we build tissues in the lab? In addition to lectures, students will engage deeply in primary literature.
Frontiers in Experimental and Imaging is an interdisciplinary, laboratory-based course which seeks to explore the organization of cells and tissues using microscopy. Through a series of lectures, laboratory experiments, and student-designed research projects, students will learn experimental design, cutting edge methods (such as expansion microscopy), and data analysis. With microscopes in hand, we will venture from the fertilization of the zygote, to complex architecture of the brain, and to reversing the subcellular defects of aging. Join us for discovery and experimentation.
Stem cells are the basis for tissue maintenance and repair, thus, are essential elements of normal organ and tissue physiology. Stem cells are also targets for disease processes and through transplantation are important therapeutic agents. This course will allow advanced undergraduates to explore how stem cells and tissue regeneration impact human disease pathogenesis and how stem cells might be exploited to advance new therapies for disease.
Information about the biology of stem cells and their uses in understanding and treating diseases -- particularly those that cannot be studied adequately in non-human model systems -- has increased enormously in the last decade. In this seminar/lecture course, students will learn about transplanting functional human cells (such as pancreatic beta cells or dopaminergic neurons) derived from pluripotent cells to treat disease. They will also discover how to use these cells to model diseases, such as neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, with the goal of identifying more effective, possibly patient-specific, therapeutics. Students will hear about treatments, including small molecules (conventional medicines), whose therapeutic actions can be attributed to the regulation of tissue-specific stem cells that reside in key adult tissues including the bone marrow and brain, but, interestingly, not including the heart or pancreas. Finally, they will be exposed to relatively new work that demonstrates the possibility of creating new cells from old by using genetic methods to swap cell identities. A typical type of question that we will debate is: When should Parkinson’s disease patients be treated with a drug to slow the death of neurons, with transplanted neurons made from pluripotent cells or with a viral vector that produces new neurons from existing glial cells in the brain?
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Cell and gene therapies are among the newest breakthroughs in health care that can address difficult-to-treat diseases with no other treatment options. This course covers the history, development, and implementation of cell and gene therapies. Class time will consist of guest lectures from Harvard faculty or industry experts, in addition to discussion on primary/secondary research articles, case studies, and/or popular press articles. Students will participate in a capstone group project that proposes a novel cell or gene therapy, based on an unmet clinical need with a clear gene/cell target. Evaluation for the capstone project will be based on oral presentations of the project and an individual written assignment.
This course offers an overview of fundamental questions in political theory, with a focus on the meaning of individual liberty and its tension with the duties we owe to each other. It is organized around two thematic areas: first, the historical development of key political concepts (such as the ideas of justice, freedom, and authority) as they emerge in the work of thinkers like Plato, Hobbes, Locke, Rawls, and others; second, normative debates about how these ideas continue to inform our understanding of individual rights and collective obligations.
This course introduces students to multi-method research design and the basic principles and tools of qualitative research in the social sciences. Topics examined include the logic of causal inference, measurement and conceptualization, choosing cases, natural experiments, the potential uses of mixed methods, and research ethics. Research techniques covered are process tracing, archival research, interviews, and ethnography. Students will also have the opportunity to workshop their early-stage research. The application of multi-methods research designs is emphasized throughout the course
This class explores the use of strategic models in the field of political science. Students learn basic game theoretic tools, from individual choice through normal form games and beyond. The class explores applications of these models in contemporary political science research on topics ranging from international cooperation to interest group lobbying.
Surveys are used by a variety of community and government organizations to gather information and answer policy questions. This practicum will provide students with the opportunity to develop their knowledge of survey research by designing and conducting an original survey for an actual client based in the community. Students will learn how to listen to, understand, and evaluate organizational needs and goals, how to translate those goals into an effective survey research design, how to develop, design, and pilot a survey to provide actionable data to improve social processes or answer useful questions .
What is conservatism? Is it merely a temperament or sensibility? Or is it a coherent approach to political theory and practice? Should conservatives defend free markets? Must they reject the discourse of natural rights? Can a liberal be conservative? Can a socialist? This course will explore such questions and others like them through a close reading of conservative writers and their critics. We will begin with the rise of conservatism as a political force in the wake of the French Revolution and follow its fortunes across the next two centuries, in works of political theory as well as literature. Authors will include Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ford Madox Ford, Friedrich Hayek, Michael Oakshott, Robert Nozick, and Tom Stoppard. We will be interested throughout in asking what, if anything, is conservative about the Conservative Movement in contemporary American politics.
This course examines how theories of justice and freedom shape societies' diagnoses of social and economic problems and generate institutional and policy choices under real-world constraints. Beginning with questions about values, paradigms, and explanation, the course moves through competing diagnoses of contemporary political, economic, and social crisis-including the dominant Rawlsian framework that has guided much U.S. and global policy-making-and develops a working hypothesis for their source and remedy. That hypothesis focuses on democratic power-sharing and institutional capacity, offering an alternative theory of justice that places greater emphasis on democracy and inclusive empowerment. Students engage classical and contemporary political thinkers, analyze policy failures and alternatives across concrete domains such as housing, jobs and the economy, education, and climate, and ultimately confront the challenge of making and justifying consequential decisions. The course highlights the tight connection between underlying philosophical and ethical frameworks and policy-making methodologies, emphasizing judgment, responsibility, and policy choice under conditions of disagreement, scarcity, and power-asking not only what justice requires in theory, but what democratic actors owe one another when decisions impose real costs. This course is capped at 60, and petitions are approved on a first come, first served basis. In addition, one Mindich Engaged Scholarship section is offered as part of this course. Students can apply for that section during the first week of the semester.
This course focuses on foundational texts of modern political philosophy ranging from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century (e.g., Machiavelli, Hobbes, Rousseau, Kant, Nietzsche) We will see thinkers define and celebrate modern politics and culture; and we will see thinkers turn against modern politics and culture. We will learn that some thinkers promoted power as the foundation of politics, while others promoted reason as its foundation. In examining the interplay between power and reason, we will examine a number of themes that include: power, violence, evil, reason, freedom, equality, justice, law, sovereignty, authority, legitimacy, history, nihilism, religion. We will be raising such questions as: What makes political society modern? What kind of human subject does modern politics require? What are the preconditions of politics? Does it require justice? Reason? Freedom? Property? Power? Violence? What is a state, and what can justify it? What is, can be, and should be the relationship between politics and religion? Politics and property? Politics and history?
This course explores the ethical challenges posed by technological advancements in healthcare, medicine, and biotechnology, emphasizing their influence on both individual and societal decision-making. The class is structured into four parts. In the first part, we introduce key ethical theories and principles, then examine how they apply to dilemmas in biotechnology and healthcare. The second and third sections provide an in-depth analysis of case studies, where students investigate real-world ethical quandaries faced by major biomedical companies and research institutions. These case studies highlight the effects of emerging technologies and medical innovations on public health, individual rights, and social justice. In the final part of the course, students collaborate to develop ethical frameworks designed to guide decision-making in real-world biotech and healthcare policy scenarios.
In the recent historical period, progressives have sought to humanize the established order rather than to reimagine and remake it. Here the main focus is on institutional or structural change in the market system and in democratic politics. Among the themes to be discussed are the nature and future of the knowledge economy, the status of free labor vis-à-vis capital, the relation of finance to production, the making of a high-energy democracy that no longer needs crisis to make change possible, and the education required by such economic and political alternatives. A central theme throughout is the content and implications of the idea of freedom.
The Jews existed as a stateless people for nearly two thousand years. Yet, throughout this period, they continued to make rich contributions to the theory and practice of politics. This course will examine the history of Jewish political thought, beginning with the Hebrew Bible itself and concluding with the birth of Zionism. Special attention will be paid to the influence of Jewish political writing in Christian Europe and in the early American republic.
Protest is an important force for change throughout the world. Protest movements can pressure political leaders to reform policy, bring previously hidden or marginalized issues into the spotlight, and occasionally develop into the kinds of people-power movements that upend regimes. This class grapples with two related questions. First, what does it mean for a protest to succeed or fail? Second, why do some protests achieve success and others do not? The class takes a broadly comparative approach, exploring these questions with reference to protest movements from different time periods in both democratic and authoritarian regimes.
This course is an introduction to the politics and political economy of development in modern Sub-Saharan Africa. Topics include the legacies of colonial rule, state formation, state failure and conflict, democratization and democratic erosion, corruption and political accountability, and the role of foreign aid. Readings draw from comparative politics, political economy, history, geography, and development economics. The course puts an emphasis on research design and evaluating causal claims.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The field of modern European history has changed significantly over the course of the last few decades. Calls to "provincialize" Europe have been met with new approaches to Europe that include, and often center, non-European experiences and the role non-Europeans played in the making of modern Europe. This conference course explores the directions modern European history took after the global, imperial, and environmental "turns" and asks questions about where the field will go next.
Explores controversies about the use of markets and market reasoning in areas such as organ sales, procreation, environmental regulation, immigration policy, military service, voting, health care, education, and criminal justice. The seminar will examine arguments for and against cost-benefit analysis, the monetary valuation of life and the risk of death, and the use of economic reasoning in public policy and law.
Explores controversies about the use of markets and market reasoning in areas such as organ sales, procreation, environmental regulation, immigration policy, military service, voting, health care, education, criminal justice, and prediction markets. The seminar will examine arguments for and against cost-benefit analysis, the monetary valuation of life and the risk of death, and the use of economic reasoning in public policy and law.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Growing economic inequality is said to be one of the defining challenges of our time. In this class, we will consider some of the main problems thought to be raised by inequality through the lens of several systematic ways of thinking about social justice. Topics to be addressed include inequality of income and wealth, inequality of opportunity, gender and racial inequality, unemployment and poverty, unauthorized migration, authority in the workplace, incarceration and policing, threats to democratic institutions, and the fairness of elections. Special attention will be paid to Rawls’s liberal theory of justice and its critics.
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The main objective of this workshop is to help Doctoral students at Romance Languages and Literatures develop their prospectus. The prospectus is a requisite that is meant to be submitted by the Summer of the students 3rd Year, six months after completion of the general examination. The prospectus consists of a preliminary description of the proposed dissertation project, thus the course is designed for students who are past their examinations. As described in the Graduate handbook, the prospectus should delineate what topic and area the dissertation will explore; discuss why this topic and area merit such exploration; and include a provisional chapter outline. The outline, which can be in narrative form, should be as precise as possible, even if it is likely to be modified in the course of writing the dissertation. Throughout the semester, we will deconstruct the process in smaller pieces, to make the task of writing the prospectus less daunting and to make sure that students include everything needed for a successful presentation of their project to their respective committees. By the end of the semester, they should all have a finalized version of their prospectus.
The photographic installations of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the debates sparked by the farcical intervention in images of national heroes like Emiliano Zapata, or even the hyper-aestheticization of narco culture on social media, in films, and series, all serve as evidence that the politics of a region cannot be understood without its art, literature, and culture. In the recent history of Latin America, there are multiple instances where aesthetics and politics have intertwined in order to create and find new meanings for the issues plaguing the region. If a citizen participates in both the action of being governed and the action of governing, there is no doubt that aesthetics, understood as the formal exploration of the distribution of the sensible, as Rancière would say, is a productive space for analysis to understand Latin American intellectual and political traditions.
“What is love (baby don’t hurt me)?” pop culture keeps asking; in Latin America, one answer has long come in the form of tears, melodrama, and serialized romance. In the 1960s, the romance‑comic series Lágrimas, risas y amor promised its readers an education in how to suffer, laugh, and love. This course takes that archive of “tears, laughter, and love” as a point of departure to explore how Latin American popular culture has taught its publics to feel from the nineteenth century to the present. Primary materials will include sentimental poetry (Amado Nervo’s love poems), canonical and middlebrow fiction ( María , Las batallas en el desierto , El beso de la mujer araña , En breve cárcel, Cuentos para leer sin rímel ), women’s magazines from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries ( La Mujer , Claudia , Para ti ), and a range of audiovisual melodramas such as Enamorada , El crimen del Padre Amaro , El secreto de sus ojos , Una mujer fantástica , and telenovelas like Pasión de gavilanes , Rubí , and La reina del flow.
Our brains make us what we are. How did they get that way? How are they different from other animals’, and how are they similar? This course will explore the structure and function of the modern human brain and examine the selective pressures that have impacted the evolution of human neuroanatomy and cognition. Frequent comparisons will be made with other primate and non-primate species in order to situate an understanding of Homo sapiens within the context of the broader animal kingdom. Additionally, the course will delve into the types of methodological approaches used to study these topics and consider the frontiers of new knowledge in this area. The course will integrate research and theory from biological anthropology, archaeology, psychology, ethology, and neuroscience. Topics covered include the evolution of large brains in humans and other species; the emergence of specializations for communication, tool use, and culture; social cognition and theory of mind; individual variation and experience-dependent plasticity in the brain; and domestication and self-domestication.
Our brains make us what we are. How did they get that way? How are they different from other animals’, and how are they similar? This course will explore the structure and function of the modern human brain and examine the selective pressures that have impacted the evolution of human neuroanatomy and cognition. Frequent comparisons will be made with other primate and non-primate species in order to situate an understanding of Homo sapiens within the context of the broader animal kingdom. Additionally, the course will delve into the types of methodological approaches used to study these topics and consider the frontiers of new knowledge in this area. The course will integrate research and theory from biological anthropology, archaeology, psychology, ethology, and neuroscience. Topics covered include the evolution of large brains in humans and other species; the emergence of specializations for communication, tool use, and culture; social cognition and theory of mind; individual variation and experience-dependent plasticity in the brain; and domestication and self-domestication.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Hamlet comes with a lot of baggage. First performed in 1601, the subject of infinite interpretation and adaptation, it sits squarely at the center of Anglophone culture, considered the greatest English play by the English language's greatest playwright. But underneath all that baggage there's a script, a script that assumes certain things about human nature, power, grief, and the public.
Hamlet comes with a lot of baggage. First performed in 1601, the subject of infinite interpretation and adaptation, it sits squarely at the center of Anglophone culture, considered the greatest English play by the English language's greatest playwright. But underneath all that baggage there's a script, a script that assumes certain things about human nature, power, grief, and the public.
This course explores the history of France in a global context, from tumultuous era of the Revolution to the beginning of the 21st century. Topics include the French and Haitian Revolutions; formal and “street” politics; imperial expansion and its consequences; the devastating impact of the First and Second World Wars and the politics of resistance, collaboration, and memory; decolonization; the May 1968 movement; immigration and identity politics since the 1970s.
Limited to juniors and seniors. Students wishing to enroll must petition the DUS for approval, stating the proposed project, and must have the consent of the proposed instructor. Ordinarily, students are required to have taken some course work as background for their project.
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This course will explore the manuscript illumination of medieval Armenia, considering not only the illustrated cycles of biblical works but also royal portraiture, magical texts, and a courtly tale. Our discussions will seek to situate Armenia’s manuscript art within a complex frame of cultural interaction that included Byzantium, the Islamic World, East Asia, and Western Europe. We will also explore the relation between text and image, the role of images in contemporary Armenian society, problems of style and artistic personality. In addition, we will become familiar with codicology (the physical character of the book) in both readings and assignments. The class will include firsthand work on Armenian manuscripts in the collections of Harvard University.
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The elements of life-carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur-can be used to trace ecological processes across the biosphere through their stable isotope ratios. This small, seminar-style course introduces students to stable isotope methods and applications in ecology, with emphasis on water, plants, animals, and forensic case studies. Class meetings will combine short lectures, hands-on labs, and project-based work. The course culminates in a group project in which students formulate a research question, design an experiment, conduct field and laboratory work, and present their results. Open to juniors, seniors, and graduate students with instructor permission.
The elements of life-carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, and sulfur-can be used to trace ecological processes across the biosphere through their stable isotope ratios. This small, seminar-style course introduces students to stable isotope methods and applications in ecology, with emphasis on water, plants, animals, and forensic case studies. Class meetings will combine short lectures, hands-on labs, and project-based work. The course culminates in a group project in which students formulate a research question, design an experiment, conduct field and laboratory work, and present their results. Open to juniors, seniors, and graduate students with instructor permission.
This semester, the seminar will explore theories and practices of feminism in Japan and beyond. Specifically, we will examine various forms of radical feminist thoughts and practices, including the women's liberation movement, or 'ribu,' which emerged in Japan in the early 1970s. We will investigate the concept of "radicality" in feminism, articulated against the grain of liberal discourses on women's rights and equality. The course will cover a range of topics, including radical feminism and the New Left, precursors to ribu, feminism's relationship with consumer society, the politics surrounding feminist manifestos, feminism and the politics of pleasure, and the organizational politics of feminism. Please note that advanced Japanese reading ability is required for this course.
This methods seminar begins from a provocation: the most analytically decisive operations in media often occur in details that seem too minor to matter-subtitle lag, aspect ratios, interface behaviors, gestures held too long. Students learn to build portable concepts from such details through a structured protocol: identify what "misfits" its apparent context, interpret what that misfit does, form a concept, and test it collaboratively on maximally different objects. The method treats detail as where bodies, technologies, and infrastructures converge, offering a way to work across persistent impasses in media studies-infrastructure versus text, platform analysis versus close reading, area studies expertise versus media theory. Readings engage a range of media studies scholarship and philosophical texts, but the emphasis is practical and metacognitive: making analytical practice explicit and portable. Students work on media objects central to their own research; generative failures are valued as much as successes. Open to graduate students across programs. Enrollment capped at 12; brief application required. Intensive collaborative work is required
In this course, we will explore the ways in which texts portray constantly shifting borders, identities in flux, and people on the move: migrants, refugees, and travelers who navigate both physical and imagined spaces. We will grapple with questions of belonging in the context of contemporary German culture and examine how mobility fosters cultural exchange in a globalized world. We will also examine historical developments and relevant cultural theories, and engage in close reading and critical analysis of selected literary works by and about migrants, refugees, and travelers. This is an advanced conversation and grammar course that serves as a bridge between 20b and 100-level courses in German.
This course is designed to further students' spoken and written German at the advanced level. Students will analyze and practice the stylistic and rhetorical features of various written and spoken genres. By focusing on aspects of contemporary society in the German-speaking countries, students will broaden and refine their vocabulary and idiom, become sensitized to different registers, as well as hone points of grammar.
This seminar investigates literary strategies for depicting and animating things in premodern China. We will trace the development of the principal genres for talking about objects, from yongwu poetry and riddle tales, to inscriptions, colophons, and manuals of taste. How, we will ask, have authors probed and reimagined human attachments to things. How have practices of collecting and connoisseurship transformed Chinese literary culture? How have objects been used to think about what it means to be human in the Chinese literary tradition. Our discussions will engage recent scholarship on materiality from the fields of literary theory and the history of material culture. The course will include viewing sessions in the Harvard Art Museums and Harvard-Yenching Library.
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Tutorial instruction for course credit (in addition to ordinary tutorial instruction) is open only to candidates for honors writing a thesis in their senior year whose applications for such instruction have been approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year to receive credit.
This course will study selected epigrams by Martial, whose life spanned the reigns of at least ten emperors from Claudius to Trajan. Special attention will be paid to the origin and definition of "epigram"; the epigrammatic tradition inherited from Hellenistic Greece; metre and diction; literary patronage in Imperial Rome; authorial persona; epigram as social critique; the concept of "publication" in antiquity; the structure and arrangement of a book-length collection of epigrams; the chronology of Martial’s fifteen surviving collections; the concept of "wit"; the reception of Martial's legacy from antiquity to the present. Some of Martial's attitudes seem offensive today; without condoning them, we will examine the social context that accommodated their expression. Martial is the most famous of all composers of epigram. He makes us ponder whether any two societies, generations, or individuals necessarily find the same things funny.
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Tutorial instruction for course credit (in addition to ordinary tutorial instruction) is open only to candidates for honors writing a thesis in their senior year whose applications for such instruction have been approved by the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Part two of a two part series.
Course on drawing, focused on European landscape drawing, its discourse, practices, and techniques. Considering drawing as a mode of registering and constructing the world. Linked to “On Location: Drawing the Outdoors” exhibition curated by Joachim Homann at HAM in the fall. Students will be directly engaged in the exhibition, designing presentations, walks-through, etc
The course explores cultural and artistic engagement with the trope of the “other” in 18 th- and 19 th -century France, Britain, and elsewhere. Paintings, prints, travel and costume books, architecture, and design will be discussed in broader social and cultural contexts. While considering different interpretive paradigms, we’ll focus on the most recent approaches that depart from fixed binary oppositions and monolithic treatment of the “Orient” versus the “Occident.” Emphasis will be placed on the distinction between the 18 th- and the 19 th -century modes of engagement with foreignness and cultural difference. Among the issues discussed are: the relation between art and colonialism, the politics and poetic of representation, curiosity, mediation, translation, cross-cultural practices, fashion, identity, sexuality, scale, visual geography, and space (including that of World Fairs).
A workshop for advanced students pursuing self-directed projects in film, video, performance, sound, or other time-based media. Students are expected to produce one substantial project which can take the form of a single-channel film or video, moving image installation, live event, or other time-based work. One-on-one meetings with the instructor, midterm in-progress and final group critiques, and a small production budget support the development of student work. Screenings, visits by guest artists, workshops, and field trips will also be organized in relation to student interests and contemporary issues in the field.
An introduction to drawing, sculpture, performance, and film through time-based materials and practices. Students will develop their own relationship to the creative process through the transformation of humble materials (cardboard, charcoal, found objects), inspiration from a diverse range of artists, and critical reflection guided both by the instructors and the students themselves.
The first term of the AFVS 99: Senior Thesis/Project should always be AFVS 99A. If you are beginning your thesis or project off-cycle, meaning, in the spring term, enroll in AFVS 99A. A thesis in AFVS is optional for concentrators, but required for Joint Concentrators. Students must be enrolled in AFVS 99 to do a thesis. Students should arrange regular tutorial meetings with their project adviser. Senior theses and projects are led by individual faculty members; however the Director of Undergraduate Studies approves AFVS 99 in each student's Crimson Cart.
This course examines a diverse range of creative and critical discourses on migration, diaspora, and trauma: African; East, South, and Southeast Asian (Chinese, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese); as well as Latin American and Caribbean. We focus on connections among diasporas, displacement, migration, and trauma, and on the relationships of these phenomena and constructions and understandings of artistic and cultural identities, ethnicity/race, gender/sexuality, inequality, disease/mental illness/mental health/disability, religion, postcolonialism, transculturation (including translation), multilingualism, globalization and global history, world literature, global literatures, and related fields.
A re-examination of “Lyric” as occasion as well as genre. Central questions to be explored will include: how do the “lyrics” of composed song come alive in performance? For example, how do the two librettists of Puccini’s opera La Bohème contribute to the making of a masterpiece in song? Shared readings include The Lyric Theory Reader: A Critical Anthology , edited by Virginia Jackson and Yopie Prins. Students are free to select as their focus of research any particular “lyric” traditions, composed in whatever language. No previous knowledge of literary theory is presumed.
Music 91 Supervised Reading and Research is an opportunity for advanced students to pursue an area of musical interest in great depth. Open to Music concentrators only, students are required to submit a detailed proposal to the DUS describing their anticipated project in detail, including an estimated timeline for benchmarks and pathway to completion. Music 91 may be taken for concentration credit as an elective with the approval of the DUS. Independent Study will be approved by the DUS based on appropriateness of the proposed work, faculty availability, and with the understanding that all work must be fully self-directed by the student. Students may not take Music 91 more than once.
In this seminar we’ll read a range of classic LGBT life stories (memoirs, journals, diaries, essays, and autobiographies), beginning in the 1800s and ending in the present. We will study them as products of their specific historical moment, paying close attention to changing ideas about race, class, gender, and sexuality. Questions: How do people narrate the story of their identity? What aspects of their life histories do they highlight; what do they censor? How does the “coming out story,” generally understood to be characterized by truth-telling and revelation, borrow from the conventions of fiction?
This workshop for junior concentrators in Art, Film, & Visual Studies continues development of approaches and questions central to research and practice from the Sophomore Tutorial. For concentrators in the film/video or studio art curricular areas , Junior Tutorial is optional ( offered in the spring term only) and offers exposure to visiting artists and filmmakers as well as a space to cultivate and workshop approaches to a senior thesis. For AFVS undergraduate concentrators in the film and visual studies curricular area, Junior Tutorial is required and will cover writing skills essential to bringing a written senior thesis to fruition.
A tutorial course on the foundations and subjects of Art, Film and Visual Studies, encompassing Film, Video and Animation; Studio Art and Photography; Film Studies; Environmental Studies; Design; and Curatorial Studies, including the work of both the Harvard Film Archive and the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. Supported by readings, screenings, collaborative workshops, field trips, and project-based assignments, the tutorial is taught by a rotation of the regular and visiting faculty. In this year’s course, students will focus on developing both the ethics and aesthetics of their practice, individually and collectively considering the problems and opportunities of presenting work and research publicly in an ever-changing cultural climate.
This seminar examines the role of international organizations as a tool to manage global problems. We will review international relations theories that account for why states establish institutions and assess the effectiveness of specific organizations to improve policy outcomes as well as explore their legitimacy within society. In light of the backlash against these institutions that can be seen in the Brexit vote and U.S. rejection of new international trade agreements, what is their role going forward? The scope of organizations that we examine will range across issue areas in security, economic, and human affairs. We will consider how selection effects and indirect influence present challenges to research on the effectiveness of international organizations. Through analysis of a variety of sources, including negotiation archives and quantitative measures of policy outcomes, students will be encouraged to probe the conditions under which international organizations promote cooperation.
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This practical colloquium addresses major issues of research and teaching competence. Designed to introduce G-1 students to the Ph.D. requirements, to methodological issues and examples of ongoing scholarship in NELC, it further offers opportunity for reflection on the art of teaching (leading discussion sections, designing syllabi, giving lectures, etc.). Questions covered will include: How to choose coursework? How to prepare for qualifying and general exams? What are the challenges of language training? How does one prepare and write a prospectus? How to use the library resources most efficiently? What type of investment does recourse to digital and quantitative methodology require? How best to prepare for professional life after the Ph.D., both inside and outside of academia? In addition, NELC faculty will informally present their respective fields (main issues and methods), in broad strokes through their current research, and advanced Ph.D. students will present their prospectus for discussion and feedback before submitting it to the faculty.
An introduction to Middle Eastern Studies focusing on the modern period (19th and 20th centuries). Lectures will be broadly sequenced according to historical chronology but will be thematically organized. They will provide some historical context for each topic examined, as well as present specific examples through primary sources, visual sources, and numerical data when relevant. This course is designed to give students an overall good grasp of the history of the modern Middle East and of some of the major themes in modern Middle Eastern Studies. Students will critically engage with some of the most important topics that resonate in that area of the world. We will cover topics such as reformism, economic development, colonialism and nationalism, authoritarianism and democratization, sectarianism, culture, gender, literature and the arts, as well as the role of religion in politics. Most of these topics, in one way or another, will speak to the construction of nation-states in the Middle East and to the challenges they have been confronting. This is not a survey course. In particular, it will not be exhaustive in its coverage of the region in space or time, and in its coverage of topics. Students in search of a specific topic, country, or period are strongly encouraged to take a look at the syllabus prior to enrolling to make sure their specific interests will be covered. Assigned readings will consist of primary and secondary sources. Students will be exposed to first-hand accounts by protagonists in the history of the Middle East (primary sources) as well as to the diversity of approaches that the scholarly literature (secondary sources) has taken across disciplines, e.g. anthropological studies, quantitative analysis, philology and textual studies. The larger aim of the course is to develop students’ critical thinking in dealing with the history, cultures, politics, and political economies of the contemporary Middle East.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
An introduction to Middle Eastern Studies focusing on the modern period (19th and 20th centuries). Lectures will be broadly sequenced according to historical chronology but will be thematically organized. They will provide some historical context for each topic examined, as well as present specific examples through primary sources, visual sources, and numerical data when relevant. This course is designed to give students an overall good grasp of the history of the modern Middle East and of some of the major themes in modern Middle Eastern Studies. Students will critically engage with some of the most important topics that resonate in that area of the world. We will cover topics such as reformism, economic development, colonialism and nationalism, authoritarianism and democratization, sectarianism, culture, gender, literature and the arts, as well as the role of religion in politics. Most of these topics, in one way or another, will speak to the construction of nation-states in the Middle East and to the challenges they have been confronting. This is not a survey course. In particular, it will not be exhaustive in its coverage of the region in space or time, and in its coverage of topics. Students in search of a specific topic, country, or period are strongly encouraged to take a look at the syllabus prior to enrolling to make sure their specific interests will be covered. Assigned readings will consist of primary and secondary sources. Students will be exposed to first-hand accounts by protagonists in the history of the Middle East (primary sources) as well as to the diversity of approaches that the scholarly literature (secondary sources) has taken across disciplines, e.g. anthropological studies, quantitative analysis, philology and textual studies. The larger aim of the course is to develop students’ critical thinking in dealing with the history, cultures, politics, and political economies of the contemporary Middle East.
How do Middle Eastern films shape how we see the Middle East? In this First-Year Seminar, you will engage with films from the Middle East that tell intimate and personal stories in specific social and political situations. You will watch movies from the region, most of them produced in the last quarter century, and following a geographical arc from North Africa to the Eastern part of the Middle East. You will also read a short text to help you contextualize each movie, including the circumstances of the directors and actors (such as state support or censorship), and will consider these movies as a lens into Middle Eastern self-representations.
Democracy, inequality, and nationalism in America. The white working class and American politics. Class and race. Identities and interests. Conditions for socially inclusive economic growth and for the deepening and dissemination of the knowledge economy. Alternative directions of institutional change, viewed in light of American history. Democratizing the market and deepening democracy. Self-reliance and solidarity. We explore and discuss the past, present, and especially the future of the American experiment among ourselves and with invited guests: thinkers, politicians, social activists, and entrepreneurs.
This course is a critical examination of the speeches and rhetoric of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, who are among the greatest orators and nonfiction writers in English. We explore Douglass’s and Lincoln’s rhetorical practices, especially in relation to their politics and self-making. Along the way, we analyze the influences (the Bible, the literary canon at the time, journalism, regional writings) that contributed to their oratory. And we explore the contexts of their great speeches and their legacies.
This course has two aims: to work toward a reinterpretation of the American experience and to explore a direction for the reshaping of the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the United States. In the first part of the course, we seek to identify the salvageable residue in the idea of American exceptionalism, the thesis that the United States is radically different from every other society. We ask what is really special about the United States and what it has in common with other major countries in the period of its independent life. In the second part of the course, we consider the limitations of change, as well as the opportunities for transformation, revealed by the crisis of the 1930s and by what has happened in the U.S. since then. In the third part of the course, we reconsider this past through the lens of the lives and ideas of a few American political, economic, and spiritual leaders. In the fourth part of the course, we discuss the future of the American project and the institutional innovations on which the deepening of American democracy depends.
The course starts by examining the nature of racial domination and contestation since the founding of the United States, before moving to contemporary political dynamics, drawing on research from across the social sciences. Emphases include the racial and ethnic features of elections and governance, identity and group solidarity, and socioeconomic structures and resources. The course focuses on the US but ranges beyond its boundaries.
The novel has been described as the quintessential literary form of modernity, but do we know what a novel actually is? And is it just a modern form? In this seminar we will look at a range of pathbreaking works that have bent the norms of prose fiction and have opened up new ways of understanding the world, from antiquity to the present. Readings will include selections from The Odyssey, The Tale of Genji, and Don Quixote , together with a range of modern novels, informed by several important statements on the novel, especially by the writers themselves.
An introduction to the discipline of comparative literature, looking at major issues in the history and current practice of the discipline as practiced in the USA, with special emphasis on seeing how comparatists enter into ongoing debates concerning theory and method. Several of our faculty will join us for the discussion of their work. Additional readings will include selections from Herder, de Staël, Adorno, Auerbach, de Man, Glissant, Said, Spivak, Apter, Venuti, and Heise.
This course is designed for students beginning graduate study in social and cultural anthropology and is required for all first-year Social Anthropology graduate students. It is intended to provide critical skills for reading in and contributing to social and cultural theory. It offers a selective overview of theoretical and empirical trends in the discipline of anthropology, focusing on theoretical genealogies within the discipline at large. The course asks what has counted for anthropologists as legitimate research questions, forms of research, categories and paradigms for analyzing data, and approaches to ethnographic writing. The hope is that students will begin to re-assemble elements of the discipline’s past and present in the form of a scholarly agenda for the discipline’s future. Ultimately, the course is designed to prepare students to understand the primary historical genealogies within anthropological theorizing and to begin to position themselves within those genealogies.
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This year a major concern will be the study and contrast of two such orientations to existence. One is the philosophical tradition focused on ideas of self-reliance, self-construction, and nonconformity (exemplified by Emerson and Nietzsche). The other is a way of thinking (notably represented by Confucius) that puts its hope in a dynamic of mutual responsibility, shaped by role and ritual and informed by imaginative empathy. Offered jointly with LAW 2392 and HDS 2313. (Sections meet separately.)
Technology shapes how power is exercised in society, and thereby also shapes how the present changes into the future. Technological innovation is all around us, and new possibilities in fields like artificial intelligence, genome-editing and geoengineering not only reallocate power, but might transform human life itself considerably, to the point of modifying the essence of what it is to be human. While ethical considerations enter prominently, the philosophy of technology is broader than its ethics. It aims to interpret and critically assess the role of technology for human life and guide us to a more thoughtful integration of technology in our individual lives and in public decision making. This course aims to teach you to do just that, starting with basic stances and key figures in the field and then progressing towards a number of challenges around specific types of technology as they arise for the 21st century. At times it is tech optimism that dominates these debates (sometimes even techno-boosterism that sees technology as key to heaven on earth), at other times it is more low-spirited attitudes from romantic uneasiness to doom-and-gloom Luddism and technology-bashing. A closer look at these attitudes - alongside reflection on how technology and power are intertwined -- will help generate a more skeptical attitude towards all of them and contribute to more level-headed debates, which is badly needed.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) might be the most consequential technology humanity has ever created. Algorithms already decide who gets bail, credit, job interviews, or visas. Platforms exercise authority over democratic life at a scale no government has achieved. And looming in the background are questions - about general AI, about the moral status of artificial minds, about the survival of democratic self-governance - that no existing political or legal tradition was designed to address. The usual tools of policy-analysis look at change at the margins - but the magnitude and pace of change in AI is so large that these tools are insufficient to guide us through this change. This course develops the philosophical and political theory tools needed to analyze these problems and to translate that analysis into policy. It opens by asking what is at stake and which entities have moral status in an AI-transformed world - questions that precede and shape all ethical analysis. It then examines three major ethical frameworks (utilitarian longtermism, virtue ethics, Kantian deontology) before arguing that all three are insufficient for governance and that political theory is required to do the work ethics alone cannot. The remainder of the course applies this integrated framework to concrete challenges of the digital age, ranging from short-time governance challenges to long-term challenges that might arise if an intelligence explosion of sorts actually materializes. The field moves fast. Readings combine enduring philosophical foundations with recent empirical and policy-relevant material. Course materials will be updated as significant developments occur during the semester.
DPI-202 examines moral leadership in the context of professional public service. It focuses on cultivating proficiency in a range of skills that together help to ground moral action. These skills include: 1) accurately perceiving the moral dimensions of situations that arise in public service, 2) adequately weighing moral tradeoffs that have to be made as part of strategic action, and 3) effectively putting into reflective equilibrium, the verdicts of the heart and those of the head. Additionally, DPI-202 promotes 4) the capacity to entertain different moral perspectives, that is, the ability to temporarily live in another person’s moral universe and see the world through their eyes. The ability to do this well is an essential component to successfully practicing the skills needed for virtuous action. The class will be largely case-based, but also introduce moral and political theory and material from adjacent fields as needed to work through the cases. We will also prominently integrate quite a number of movies, both for the sake of making the cases come alive and to conceptualize how media representation of human experience can influence how people think about challenges.
This module is the part of an exploration on driving change that students continue during spring semester. It is designed to prepare second-year Ed.L.D. students to think and act strategically in order to make educational change for the better, both within the contexts of third-year Ed.L.D. residencies and beyond. We will use a variety of texts and learning modalities to explore the challenge of putting in practice aspirational goals and applying theoretical frameworks in the ambiguous contexts of political, interest-driven, and often culturally-resisting organizations. We will highlight the complex factors and forces in driving and opposing change and not shy away from how “messy” these examples are, as there is much to learn from both challenges and successes. We will explore the very real challenges - operational, organizational, psychological, strategic, political, messaging, internal, external - that confront actors trying to make and deliver change in the educational space. We will also examine the Ed.L.D. capstone as a genre to support leadership practice and learning.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* What does it mean to "lead strategically," and how might you do that right now in your current role? How do you avoid typical pitfalls, like trying to do too many things or strategy living in the leader’s head rather than being shared and driven by a variety of stakeholders? How can you be proactive rather than reactive? How might you cultivate strategic mindsets and skills in all dimensions of your life? This module prepares you to be a more strategic leader by partnering to answer these and other questions leaders face when trying to accomplish great things in complex contexts. The module is designed for leaders in a variety of environments, including preK-12 schools/school systems and higher education. The module is hands-on and interactive, including self-assessment, peer interaction, and practice with tools you can use at the organizational level and in your own daily and regular work.
Since their origins, universities have been granted special privileges because they have been understood to contribute to the public good. Do these privileges incur corresponding obligations on higher education? Should they influence how higher educational institutions educate their students or create, share and preserve knowledge or conduct their internal affairs? While higher education is expected to serve society, universities espouse values, such as academic freedom, institutional autonomy, and neutrality, that some see as antithetical to social engagement. The image of the ivory tower, remote and removed from society, captures this vision of the university. As a result, there has been tension about how higher education can both serve society and remain true to these core values. Together we will explore how higher education's responsibility to public good has been debated and enacted in United States.
In its nearly 400 years of existence, Harvard has been transformed from a tiny educational institution in a colonial outpost to the world’s most famous and envied university, and now, finds itself at the center of the federal government’s effort to remake higher education. How did this transformation take place? This course will explore this change, focusing on three interrelated themes: its students and their experiences; its role in the preservation, dissemination, and production of knowledge; and its connections to the larger society. We will trace these themes through three phases of Harvard’s development, first as an institution of local significance (1630s-1850s), next as an institution of national significance (1860s-1940s), and finally as an institution of global significance (1950s to the present).
Few topics are as controversial and difficult to discuss as religion and politics. And yet, for many people, these concepts are central to how they understand themselves, their communities, and public life. As sociologists, we have tools to approach such charged topics respectfully and systematically through in-depth interviewing. This course introduces students to qualitative interviewing as a central methodology in sociology, with a substantive focus on religion and politics. Students will develop their own interview guides, conduct in-depth interviews with clergy in local faith communities, and collaboratively code and analyze their findings. We will also discuss topics such as building rapport, research ethics, and using qualitative data analysis software (i.e. NVivo). At the end of the course, students will use a shared dataset of coded interview responses to produce their own analyses to make original arguments about the intersections of faith and political life.
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The craft of teaching (discussion, lectures, tutorials, course descriptions, syllabi). This colloquium, designed for, and required of, third-year graduate students, also considers issues related to the field exam, prospectus, and other aspects of advanced graduate study in English.
This seminar will explore the American short story with a special focus on writers of the nineteenth century who were critical to establishing the short story as a genre. We will begin by examining the tales and stories of Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Edgar Allan Poe in relation to the rise of magazine publishing and Poe's theory of the short story. We will then compare the short story with serialized fiction; delve into regional fiction; and visit the Charlotte Perkins Gilman collection at Schlesinger Library. The last third of the class will shift to the twentieth century and consider more recent short stories in conversation with earlier works, including writings by Sherwood Anderson, James Baldwin, Octavia Butler, William Faulkner, Ken Liu, Flannery O'Connor, Leslie Marmon Silko, Helena María Viramontes, and Hisaye Yamamoto.
This second-year proseminar has a two-part focus: it introduces students to the craft of scholarly publishing by helping them revise a research paper for publication in a peer-reviewed journal by the end of the course. It thus gives students the tools to begin publishing early in their career. It also introduces students to the growing array of alternative careers in the humanities by exposing them to the work of scholars who are leaders in fields such as editing, curating, and digital humanities.
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In this seminar we will also read a number of published poems that will help us in our quest to write twelve poems. In each class we will read published poems in order to figure out-voice, line, image, music, idea, structure, discovery, invention, etc-what makes a good poem. In each class we will also read and talk about each other’s work. You need not have written a poem before taking this seminar. You need not be good at writing poems before taking this class.
This course will explore contemporary literature and cinema across Southeast Asia, focusing on regional developments after the Asian financial crisis of 1997 through the present. Themes discussed include literature’s relationship to economic turmoil and political change; questions of class and social mobility; anti-authoritarian writing and issues of censorship; literature, youth culture, and new media landscapes; and literary explorations of gender and sexuality. Readings will include a selection of critical essays to foreground these central themes of the course, along with poetry, short fiction, and films from: Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam. Readings will be taught in English translation and films will be screened with English subtitles.
Great art constantly morphs: novels become films, statues become poems, music becomes dance. This introduction class looks at how masterpieces from around the world transform as they move across languages, art forms, and renditions. In addition to written assignments, we do creative projects to explore each of those modal shifts. We also learn about the structure of a range of languages, and think about how those languages shape their literatures. This is a great class to take if you’re thinking about learning a new language in the future. It’s also a good entryway to other literature and language classes for first- and second-year students, as well as students concentrating in fields outside the humanities. This course also counts toward the Secondary Field in Translation Studies. Taught in English; no other languages required (just curiosity).
This course will introduce students to writing by major pioneers of twentieth century Arabic literature and to cultural histories of the Middle East through the reading of literary texts. Readings drawn from a diversity of national contexts will include historical novels, short stories, experimental prose narratives, and selections from among the most influential poets of the twentieth century. Against the backdrop of Ottoman and Western European imperial domination within West Asia and North Africa, students in this class will explore how the development of modern Arabic literature has been variously understood by writers and critics: as a response to classical literary influences, as a force for political change, as a form of decolonial engagement, and as a source of cultural and linguistic cohesion after the dissolution of the Ottoman empire in the early twentieth century. Although readings will be consulted and discussed in English translation, Arabic or bilingual versions will be made available to those interested, and an attention to the politics of language will be considered through secondary readings on the controversial difference between regional dialects and transregional standards of literary Arabic.
This course offers an introduction to contemporary Arabic literature focusing on developments after the seismic period of regional transition within North Africa and the Middle East known as the “Arab spring.” Course readings will include critical essays and literary texts that reflect the forms of cultural reckoning that anticipated and followed the popular uprisings of the period, drawing principally from literary figures across Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia. Themes explored through the course include questions of political change and anti-authoritarian writing; literary innovations across new media landscapes and censorship regimes; revisionist historical fiction in the wake of major political transitions; and intergenerational influences on rising authors. Texts will be taught in English translation and films screened with English subtitles.
The first Asia-Africa conference of newly independent states (held in Indonesia in 1955) was hailed by contemporary observers as an event as significant as the European renaissance in global importance. It inspired a sequence of political and cultural initiatives in pursuit of new forms of cultural exchange unmediated by former colonial centers. This course explores the historic tensions of this transition towards a post-colonial global order across two continents. The course raises the following questions: how did anti-colonial African and Asian authors and political figures consider the fields of culture and literature as an extension of their political engagements? How were literature and culture viewed as advancing forms of revolutionary change, or addressing entrenched social grievances? How did writers reconcile the ambiguities of national independence with the risks of neo-colonial or ethno-nationalist exploitations? The course will introduce you to a diversity of authors to explore these questions, engaging with counter-imperial and revolutionary writing from African and Caribbean contexts, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
Between 1923 and 1970, Jorge Luis Borges wrote some of the most original poems, short stories, essays and film scripts in Latin America and anywhere in the world, and he redefined the meaning and scope of literature. In this course, we will examine the signifying power of Borges’ short stories, essays and poems, and we will consider his work as a literary machine whose output radically transforms aesthetic formations and imaginaries beyond Argentina and Latin America. Rather than thinking about what his literature means, we will concentrate on what it produces as a fictional-poetic machine: cities and worlds, love and treason, popular and high culture, politics and death, institutions of knowledge and traditions, and new ways of reading and thinking about aesthetic and social relations (this year, the course will be taught in Spanish).
Cosmopolitanism has been a vital master concept for understanding modern and modernist processes of global circulation, disjunction, and transnational/translational formations and subjectivities. Today, the displacement of more than 122 million refugees, migrants, and forcibly displaced persons driven by environmental catastrophes, economic hardships, and small and large-scale perpetual wars in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and East Asia points to the radical dislocation of the symbolic structure we used to call “world. ” Is the concept of cosmopolitanism still useful for interrogating this generalized sense of global crisis? Can cosmopolitanism still be posited as a radical utopian horizon from which to oppose the militarization of the globe? What is the ethico-political potential today of "a cosmopolitanism without a world"? This seminar is not about the very real historical suffering and losses of those whose bodies are wounded by the political, economic, military, and environmental upheavals; rather, it is about the post-cosmopolitan traces of those experiences in art, literature, film, and theory, and about how we can determine what art and the critical humanities can and can no longer do about the contemporary experience of what we will call "the end of the world.
The seminar provides an opportunity to read through, absorb, and reflect upon Marcel Proust’s monumental novel, In Search of Lost Time ( À la recherche du temps perdu , 1913-1927), considered alongside key essays by French, German, and English literary critics and theorists. Major themes include but are not limited to: involuntary memory; topologies of time; love, sexuality, jealousy, and manipulation; aesthetics of music, literature, and the visual arts; nature and the mind; individuality and social hierarchies.
The seminar is built around a sequence of fundamental questions regarding the literary disciplines and media studies, their history and epistemology. Discussions are instigated by readings in philology, stylistics, the history of ideas, semiotics, structuralism, psychoanalysis, post-structuralism, film and media theory, genetic criticism, literary sociology, cultural studies, and digital humanities.
“The Spirit of the Laws,” published by Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu in 1748, was arguably the most influential juristic work for the founding generation, and has since retained a central place in American constitutionalism for its insights on the separation of powers, federalism, republicanism, and other topics. We will read selections from the work, look at its influence on the Federalist Papers, and read cases and secondary literature in and around the themes of the book.
Many of these questions are both highly abstract and deeply personal. While they are the subject of intense and heartfelt commitment on both sides, this course is offered in the belief that they are also a proper subject for intellectual inquiry. Within each unit, the assigned readings are roughly balanced as to viewpoint; they take deeply conflicting positions, and you will certainly disagree with some of them. Students will write occasional short papers in response to the readings, and each student is expected to participate fully in the discussions.
This reading group explores the impact of new and emerging digital technologies on the longstanding barriers that low-income individuals often face when interacting with the civil justice system, as well as the role that creative, zealous legal advocacy can play in surmounting these obstacles. From family relationships to housing security to consumer transactions, the civil justice system orders (or fails to order) our quotidian affairs. The disputes in family courts, housing courts, small claims courts, and other judicial settings that are high stakes for individuals but low dollar value for attorneys typically put pro se litigants on the front lines of the courtroom-if they even make it into court at all. Digital tech-especially generative AI-is sparking a new solution space for litigants, attorneys, and other stakeholders to resolve civil disputes; however, it is also creating new challenges in areas such as digital privacy. This reading group will unpack all dimensions of the impact of and potential for new digital technologies to change the contours of civil case-handling for low-income people, with an eye toward generating normative, values-based reflections on how to maximize the positive aspects of this change for individuals facing such disputes and other relevant stakeholders.
This course will provide an opportunity for students interested in access to civil justice and/or criminal justice administration at the trial court level to work on independent research projects in a collaborative, interactive setting. Students will select one or more topics of interest to explore during the semester; we will meet each week to discuss one another’s research, and to brainstorm new topics. In lieu of a long final paper or short weekly response papers, students will instead contribute three substantive posts to the Access to Justice Lab’s blog. Participants will also participate in online discussions and debates about other blog entries.
This course will explore the law governing federal administrative agencies, along with related matters of public policy and governing. Using the first-year “Legislation and Regulation” course as a foundation, this court will cover a variety of more advanced topics, including the structure and function of administrative agencies; the structure and function of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and its relationship to administrative agencies and the President; the relationships of agencies with Congress and the president; the role of cost-benefit analysis; and judicial review of agency action. Also covered will be the problems of capture, bias and prejudice and the role of the public in rule making. Finally, the class will address the law governing other forms of executive action as tools of administrative policymaking, such as issuance of Executive Orders, conditions on federal procurement, approval of information collections pursuant to the Paperwork Reduction Act, and the President’s use of the bully pulpit.
We will address the place of the administrative state in the constitutional order, the design and operation of its institutions, and its relationship to law and the rule of law. Readings will include classic and contemporary academic theory in law and adjacent disciplines, caselaw, and other materials.
This workshop, which is required for all 3L members of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, provides students with the opportunity to engage in further critical self-reflection on their clinical experience, focusing on their roles as advocates, mentors, and law office managers and incorporating readings on issues of poverty law and legal services delivery. The class will be graded credit/fail.
This course dives into the hardest questions in the field of constitutional law. Taught through close readings of cases in the areas of substantive due process, equal protection, federalism, and separation of powers, the course will engage the full range of contemporary approaches to the Constitution, such as: history, originalism, and living constitutionalism; critical readings of the Constitution through the lenses of race, class, gender, settler colonialism, and empire; conservative constitutional thought including Catholic constitutional theory and common good constitutionalism; political economy and the Constitution; constitutional pragmatism; and more. If you liked constitutional law and wanted to go deeper - much deeper - this is the class for you.
With the new focus on textualism among a supermajority on the U.S. Supreme Court and the legal/political upheaval of our times, statutory interpretation has come to occupy - alongside constitutional law - the locus of arguments about law. Specifically: the best or most defensible interpretive methods to make sense of law. Moreover, most modern law is contained in statutes and administrative regulations, which lawyers tend to confront alongside case law in almost every area of practice. Building on basic concepts of Legislation and Regulation, this course aims to further explore theories of the legislative process, judicial interpretation of statutes, and agency implementation of legislation. We will explore ongoing controversies about legislation, regulation, and interpretation, including deep debates about textualism, ordinary meaning, and purposive or dynamic interpretation; about the use of legislative history and the increasingly popular canons of construction; and about the constitutional foundations of statutory interpretation. Although there is no single subject matter focus of the course, a significant portion of the substantive areas of law we traverse will cover criminal law and anti-discrimination law.
Yet many report that negotiating over money is uncomfortable, and particularly when representing themselves. This course will build on the Negotiation Workshop, and delve into the research on self-agency, mental accounting, decision biases, fair pay, and our own narratives about money and identity, and will explore ways to strengthen our comfort and ability to advocate effectively for ourselves. Homework will include:
The purpose of this seminar is to encourage the development of new legal tools, both theory and doctrine, to solve unsolved sex/gender inequality problems, including intersectional ones, in U.S. law. Creative challenges will be presented in areas including comparable worth, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, transgender rights, sexual violation, abortion, child sexual abuse, prostitution, and pornography. Litigation, legislation, administrative, and policy approaches and strategies will be considered.
This course covers legal regulation of advertising in the United States, with some comparison to other countries. Private causes of action by consumers and competitors, state attorneys general, and the Federal Trade Commission all form part of the law of advertising. Topics will include falsity, substantiation, surveys, product placement, “green” marketing claims, disclosures and disclaimers, and First Amendment aspects of advertising regulation.
Through solving collaborative practice problems, students will examine how AI agents are taking on a growing share of legal research, analysis, and adjudication, and learn to deploy, coordinate, and supervise such systems competently and ethically. Each week students will create a working artifact with the assistance of an AI coding tool and critique it under legal doctrines such as professional responsibility, principal-agent law, privilege, and access to justice.
Readings will primarily consist of cases, reports, articles, and book excerpts from a variety of experts. The reading group will start with readings about major programs authorized by the Farm Bill, turning to programs that impact how farmers and ranchers are able to market and sell their products through marketing orders, and checkoff programs that fund marketing efforts like the “Got Milk?” campaign. Next, the group will look at several laws that regulate relationships between farmers and ranchers, and those they sell their products to, including wholesalers, grocery stores, and slaughterhouses. The group will then examine intellectual property laws as they apply to food and agriculture, examining who owns what, and who pays and benefits from research and development. Last, the group will examine agricultural cooperatives, their potential benefits and challenges, how they comport with antitrust law, and whether they can be used to counter increased agribusiness consolidation. Over the course of the semester, students will examine and discuss competing policy interests across these substantive areas of law, including whose interests are the laws designed to protect; market forces impacting enforcement of the law today; tensions between consumers, farmers and ranchers, retailers, and food manufacturers, as each party tries to protect their own interests; and reforms that may be necessary given the competing interests in society today.
In this Seminar, we will examine how AI and other disruptive technologies are transforming how lawyers create “value” in a world that is increasing volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA), and how these changes are likely to shape legal careers, the structure and functioning of legal organizations (e.g., law firms, in-house legal departments, government law offices, and public interest organizations, etc.), the professional status and independence of the legal profession, and the rule of law. We will begin by giving students a grounding in the history and current status of legal practice and institutions. We will then explore how AI and other technologies are already disrupting this traditional reality through presentations/discussions with lawyers and other professionals from a broad variety of settings who are working to embed AI into workflows and institutions. Finally, we will introduce students to various models of complex decision-making and give them opportunity to work with a broad variety of cutting-edge AI and agentic tools, including the Dragonfly analytic framework and agentic model that Professor Roberts has developed in the context of international relations and international economic law, which she and Professor Wilkins are using to develop a new research collaboration exploring why law, and therefore lawyers, are increasingly central to the most important problems facing private and public clients. Students will be guided through the four elements for successful AI adoption - differentiating between the “capabilities” of various AI models, understanding the critical importance of providing these models with enough, but not too much, “context” to operate effectively, developing the “skills” needed to interact with AI models and agents effectively, and learning how to add the essential “domain expertise” that only human judgment and experience can provide - that can turn these “tools into techniques,” and transform AI from a threat to an opportunity.
This course will focus on effective written advocacy at the federal district court level, including why writing for the district court is a distinct art form from other forms of writing, such as appellate briefs. Topics will include motions to dismiss, discovery briefs and letter briefs, summary judgment motions and related papers, and other types of pre-trial submissions. The class will be a blend of lecture and group discussion, and we will look at examples from public filings to analyze what is effective, what is not effective, and what can be affirmatively harmful. The course will include advice on the brief writing process, as well as practical guidelines for being an effective advocate in the district court. Instead of a final exam there will be a variety of writing and editing exercises over the course of the semester.
Citizenship in the United States has become contested, like many other things. This seminar will focus on the law and practice of American citizenship, including acquisition of citizenship by birth and naturalization, loss of citizenship, rights and responsibilities of citizens, multiple citizenship, and differentiated citizenship. Current and traditional controversies will be examined from the perspective of statutory and constitutional law, but also with insights from political theory, comparative law, and international law.
This course has two aims: to work toward a reinterpretation of the American experience and to explore a direction for the reshaping of the economic, political, and cultural institutions of the United States. In the first part of the course, we seek to identify the salvageable residue in the idea of American exceptionalism, the thesis that the United States is radically different from every other society. We ask what is really special about the United States and what it has in common with other major countries in the period of its independent life. In the second part of the course, we consider the limitations of change, as well as the opportunities for transformation, revealed by the crisis of the 1930s and by what has happened in the U.S. since then. In the third part of the course, we reconsider this past through the lens of the lives and ideas of a few American political, economic, and spiritual leaders. In the fourth part of the course, we discuss the future of the American project and the institutional innovations on which the deepening of American democracy depends.
This course covers the origins of colonization in the Americas and the fundamentals of modern federal Indian law in the United States. Beginning with its international law roots, we move to the relative bounds of federal, tribal and state jurisdiction over Indian reservations, tribal citizens and non-citizens. Hunting, fishing and gathering rights; Indian gaming; status of Native Hawaiians and settlement of Alaska Native land claims are also covered.
This reading group will address some pressing questions in the world of artificial intelligence and the law: Who is benefitting from the development and use of AI systems? Who is responsible when those systems cause injury or harm? And what happens if those are not the same party? In some cases, we will find answers in well-established legal doctrines - in others, we will have to write our own rules. Over six sessions, we will discuss the intellectual property implications of algorithms, models, and their outputs; liability for incorrect or unlawful advice given by generative AI; how to provide recourse for harms caused by autonomous vehicles; detecting and correcting for algorithmic discrimination; and more.
The seminar will examine the legal and constitutional history of late-colonial America and the early republic, an era that spans the middle of the eighteenth century to the first decades of the nineteenth. Reading for the seminar will include books, articles, amicus briefs, and some primary materials on topics such as the impact of law on the Revolution, the impact of the Revolution on law, crime and punishment, probing for original intent, the conservative and revolutionary roles of law in economy and society, and changing legal definitions of slavery, freedom, and dependence.
This course traces the evolution of American legal theory from the Revolution to the present. Topics covered will include: Federalist Legal Theory; Antebellum Legal Theory; Classical Legal Thought; Legal Realism; Process Theory; the Law & Society movement; Economic Analysis of Law; Liberal Theories of Justice; Republicanism; Critical Legal Studies; Feminist Legal Theory; Critical Race Theory; and the Law and Political Economy movement.
This seminar will consider the origins, meanings, and the legacies of the American Revolution. We will discuss how each of these topics have been handled in the historiography of the conflict over the years. We will consider the ways in which the Revolution shaped the legal, cultural, political, economic, and social life in what became the United States of America.
Lawyers in almost every area of practice (litigation, corporate, government, public interest) deal routinely with problems that are usefully illuminated by basic business and economic concepts. This course is designed to teach the most important analytical methods to law students, in a manner that will be fully accessible to those with no prior quantitative training or background in the subjects covered. Using text, classroom activities, and written exercises, we will explore how these tools may be used to analyze concrete problems that arise in a wide range of legal practice settings. The course will consist of seven units:
The course will also engage with fundamental questions about animals and the law, such as: Are some animals more deserving of protection than others, and if so, on what basis? What role does culture and belief play in animal law-why are dogs considered pets in the U.S. and food in some parts of the world, for example? Does the status of animals as property pose an insurmountable barrier to increasing protections for animals? What are the advantages and disadvantages of the concepts of “animal rights” and “animal welfare”?
The Animal Law & Policy Clinic works to advance the interests of animals through litigation, administrative rulemaking, policy initiatives, organizing, and other legal advocacy avenues. ALPC work includes drafting briefs for federal cases, preparing petitions for rulemaking and comments, client counseling, and interviewing scientists and other experts. Students will gain direct experience with a broad range of federal and state laws that protect and impact animals and develop critically important strategic thinking and analytical skills. Students have significant responsibility over their projects and will learn best practices of case management, including how to juggle multiple projects and how to work with co-counsel. The ALPC focuses on the following core areas: wildlife & biodiversity; animal welfare (companion and captive wild animals); and industrial animal agriculture.
The Animal Law & Policy Clinic Seminar supplements the Animal Law & Policy Clinic. This course examines the core federal statutes that students are likely to apply in the Clinic, including the Endangered Species Act and the Animal Welfare Act. Students will gain practical lawyering skills through class discussions and in-class activities, and build a foundation for an ethical, reflective legal practice. Foundational topics covered will include Article III standing, Administrative Procedure Act review, rulemaking petitions, and basic litigation, regulatory, legislative, and organizing strategies. The seminar will also introduce you to advocacy strategies under federal and state laws.
The intersection of antitrust and intellectual property underlies many key policy and doctrinal debates in contemporary competition law, including how best to spur innovation, how to reconcile antitrust enforcement with intellectual property assertions, and whether antitrust can - or should - correct perceived shortcomings of the intellectual property system. This antitrust seminar introduces students to the antitrust/intellectual property interface. Topics include the economics of innovation, the antitrust analysis of licensing practices, product design and tying, patent settlements, patent pools and standard setting, intellectual property acquisitions (including by “Big Tech” and “Big Pharma”), the application of antitrust to patent trolls, and the role of antitrust counterclaims in intellectual property litigation. By design, students will obtain significant exposure to many areas of U.S. antitrust law.
This course covers U.S. antitrust law, which is the law that regulates the process of business competition, and the economic analysis that is relevant to understanding modern antitrust adjudication. Topics include horizontal agreements in restraint of trade, monopolization, vertical exclusionary agreements, vertical distributional restraints, price discrimination, and mergers.
The instructor, Brian Wolfman, is a Professor from Practice and Director of the Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic at Georgetown Law. Before that, he was a co-director of Stanford Law School’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic. Before joining Stanford in 2014, for five years, Mr. Wolfman was co-Director of Georgetown Law’s Institute of Public Representation, where he directed a student-based clinic that handled a mix of individual civil-rights cases and public-interest “impact” litigation. He is the former Director of Public Citizen Litigation Group, a public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C., where he practiced for nearly 20 years. He began his career as a poverty lawyer in rural Arkansas. He has litigated dozens of cases in courts of appeals and in the Supreme Court. Feel free to direct questions about the class to Mr. Wolfman at bswolfman@yahoo.com.
Students are required to read/view background material before each class and to submit weekly reflection papers and a short, final paper summarizing the learnings from the course. Student grades will be based upon how well they demonstrate in their reflection papers and final paper their understanding of the application of adaptive leadership principles to drive change, and their ability to apply those principles within the structure of the class. Students will receive weekly feedback on their reflection papers and will have the opportunity to meet frequently with Teaching Fellows and Professor Westfahl.
This course is designed to show law students how they can take their legal skills and use them to their advantage in the VC investing world. The majority of the course will be focused on real scenarios where knowing the law/regulatory space well could have avoided a huge investment mistake or driven outsized returns, and each scenario will be accompanied by case studies and supplemental readings. Class participation and engagement will be critical during discussions so that each student can figure out their own approach to using their legal skills to their advantage in the VC space.
This course will explore strategic, practical, and policy issues that arise in art law litigation. Real-life cases the instructor has litigated will comprise the materials for discussions, exercises, and simulations in a wide range of areas including intellectual property, criminal law, torts, contracts, antitrust, constitutional law, and civil procedure. Substantive topics will include ownership, forgery, fraud, conspiracy, provenance, authentication, warranties, customs and practices, art market economics, First Amendment, tortious interference, auctions, copyright, and trademark. Case studies will focus on various parties in litigation including museums, galleries, art dealers, collectors, auction houses, artists, estates, and publishers.
Art of Social Change for Youth is an introductory course for students across Harvard schools who are interested in using law and policy as tools to advance justice for children and young people. The course begins from the premise that effective social change advocacy requires much more than mastery of legal doctrine. Lawyers and advocates seeking to transform youth-serving systems must understand the root causes of social problems, identify leverage points within complex institutions, envision and articulate compelling alternatives to the status quo, exercise strategic judgment about when and how to pursue legal reform, and approach advocacy with humility about their role and positionality within broader movements for change. Through an analytical framework known as Approaching System Change, developed by youth advocates over the past fifty years, students learn to think critically about the strategies, assumptions, and values that shape efforts to reform systems affecting young people.
Artificial intelligence is reshaping how information is created, distributed, and governed. Generative AI systems can produce text, imagery, and audio at unprecedented scale, creating new opportunities for expression while also enabling new forms of fraud, manipulation, and abuse. At the same time, AI has a growing role in recommendation systems and automated content moderation tools that shape what people see online.
This course will explore the history of Asian Americans under the law. We will first address historical issues such as immigration in the 1800s and the Chinese Exclusion Act, state sponsored discrimination such as the Chinese Laundry and Pigtail Ordinance cases, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. We will then turn to contemporary events including accusations of espionage, employment discrimination, affirmative action and the Asian hate crimes. We will also address issues that have contemporary resonance, such as birthright citizenship and alien land laws. We intend that students who join the class will explore and understand the history of Asian immigration to the United States, the critical legal events in Asian American history and the contemporary issues affecting Asian Americans.
This two credit course will cover the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, otherwise known as “ERISA”, largely in the context of those responsible for the funding and stewardship of the trillions of dollars underwriting our private retirement systems. Our goal will be to provide students with a working understanding of the history and policies driving the legislative and regulatory efforts, the range and types of benefit plans affected, and the issues and challenges facing employers, employees, and asset managers/fiduciaries. We will use an evolving “case study” advising our client asset manager in the context of sponsoring and administering its own plans, investing its client plan assets, and expanding its service offerings through an acquisition.
This basic bankruptcy course covers the major facets of bankruptcy and out-of-court corporate restructurings. Bankruptcy and restructuring law and practice influence business financing transactions. Much of the deal-making in a financing transaction is negotiated in anticipation of a possible reorganization in Chapter 11 or of a corporate restructuring in its shadow. I.e., corporate lawyers often negotiate loans for their business clients; regulators, creditors, and employees of shaky companies want to know what will happen if the company fails. For many lawyers, contact with bankruptcy law is anticipatory or in an out-of-court restructuring and not in front of the bankruptcy judge. When feasible, students will read not just bankruptcy court opinions and the Bankruptcy Code, but materials that financing lawyers use day-to-day: a loan agreement, a prospectus, and a complaint in a loan dispute. In addition, to restructuring basics, I expect that we will consider ongoing bankruptcy disputes involving mass torts, government action, and labor contracts. Students will ordinarily participate in a simulated Chapter 11 reorganization.
In this one-credit course, we will examine in depth the newest eve-of-bankruptcy transaction, the so-called Liability Management Exercise. We’ll study the major judicial decisions and analyses, study how contract is used to control (and can fail to control) these transactions, and the bankruptcy implications of the LME. I plan to invite lawyers who are engineering the transactions to several sessions.
This reading group will focus on the generative scholarly process that is at the center of the life of the law professor. Each week, a member of the faculty will present a working draft of her or his scholarship, and that piece will be discussed by the group. Discussions will focus in part on the genesis of the research project being presented, in order to demonstrate how articles develop from the first spark of an idea to final publication. Students will also explore substantive issues raised in the pieces, the better to become familiar with the latest work being done across a variety of subject areas. Students will also develop their own research and scholarly agendas as the semester progresses.
This seminar will explore a series of issues at the intersection of behavioral economics and public policy. Potential questions will involve climate change; energy efficiency; health care; and basic rights. There will be some discussion of paternalism and the implications of neuroscience as well.
Mainstream development economics holds that nations must steadily increase their GDP in order to secure human well-being within their borders, particularly in light of population growth. But many theorists, policy scientists, legal scholars, and activists insist that this assumption is flawed. For not only have scholars and activists long questioned the distributional equity of infinite GDP-growth, without more. But many now claim that the Earth itself will no longer sustain unbounded GDP-growth. For toxic wastes are mounting while frenzied extraction is eroding the land and polluting the seas. Mega-cities, devoid of adequate infrastructure, are expanding on every continent. Growth-propelled inequalities are spiraling. Good work is in short supply and low-paid workers are undermined by shortcuts in job safety and speed-up on the production line. In the face of these converging challenges, theorists and activists from many sectors are pushing back against the mantra of growth at all costs through an exciting multi-disciplinary literature. This work maps the “trap” of infinite growth detail. It also points toward legal and policy formations, from local to global, that look beyond.
The Bonobo Sisterhood reading group explores the power and potential of female alliances to disrupt patriarchal systems. Through a legal, political, social, cultural and economic lens, we ask what lessons the bonobos-our close primate relatives who share 98.7% of our DNA-offer humans for creating a society free of male sexual coercion. Reading material will be the book The Bonobo Sisterhood: Revolution through Female Alliances, (Rosenfeld 2022).
The academic year, 2023-2024, marks the 100th anniversary of the Harvard LL.M. program. In keeping with its long history of leadership in legal education, in 1923 Harvard Law School’s faculty voted to institute a one-year master’s degree in law, having established a one-year doctorate in law for prospective law teachers in 1910. In the fall of 1923, HLS enrolled its first full LL.M. class, comprised of four students, two from Canada and one each from the U.S. and the Philippines.
“I think in law school we focus a lot on the doctrine. I think a lot of our cold calls are going to be, ‘Tell me what the majority opinion says.’ And I think sometimes we breeze through or overlook the facts,” said Yee. “But as we discussed in this kind of seminar, I think it’s really important for lawyers to be masters of the facts, very grounded in the facts. And I think this was [also] a very helpful reminder that law, at the end of the day, it’s stories of people. It’s not just … bright-line rules, three-part tests. It’s people.”
“TransAfrica’s founding met the need for an organization for Blacks in the United States to work with the diaspora on the continuing fight for just policy and the end of oppression dating from the colonial era until today,” says historian Mary Frances Berry, Geraldine R. Segal Professor of American Social Thought Emerita at the University of Pennsylvania. “Because Randall Robinson had experience working on the Hill and as a social activist, he was eminently suited to work with organizers such as Professor Sylvia Hill, labor leader Bill Lucy and others as we mobilized people in the successful FSAM effort to end our government’s support for South African apartheid. There is so much more to be done in Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and throughout the diaspora. There are other laudable organizations, but we need another one in the TransAfrica model.”
It’s the kind of detailed work, noted Crespo, that highlights the myriad paths available to up-and-coming lawyers eager to help end mass incarceration. Many law students interested in addressing the nation’s prison problem “typically think of criminal law, criminal procedure and work directly related to the Eighth Amendment that limits the government’s ability to impose penalties on criminal defendants,” said Crespo, who also leads an intensive training program on community organizing and teaches a seminar on law and grassroots social movements in connection with the institute’s in-house clinic. But the opportunities to make change, he points out, are much more wide-ranging.
Bigović, a managing associate at a leading law firm in Sweden, first arrived at Harvard Law School in 2024, thrilled to begin her Master of Laws program. But just hours after she landed in Boston, Bigović was in a hospital bed, preparing for emergency surgery. Doctors had discovered a cyst on her brain - present since birth but undetected until then - and told her she needed immediate treatment to survive.
That forward-looking approach, one focused on how to improve health care, particularly for those with disabilities, has remained for a decade. At Harvard he has studied all parts of the system, from policy to primary care reimbursements and more. He took part in the law school’s health care clinics, worked at a local hospital, and collaborated on software to help people with disabilities navigate the health care space. Quick with a laugh and a smile, Hayashizaki said his positive outlook is a result of the many challenges he has faced. “I know how bad it can get. I recognize how lucky I am, because it’s like, I’m here, you know, at Harvard Law School. Who would have imagined?”
In Harvard Law’s clinics, Escalante has sought out further opportunities to learn about how to serve clients in the criminal legal system from various angles: During her 2L fall, Escalante worked with youth clients on their criminal cases in the Committee for Public Counsel Services’ Youth Advocacy Division, through a placement in the Child Advocacy Clinic . The subsequent winter and spring, she participated in an externship with the MacArthur Justice Center through the Criminal Justice Appellate Clinic , working on an appellate brief about the use of excessive force in a prison and qualified immunity. Finally, she joined the Criminal Justice Institute this year, representing indigent defendants, which has involved preparing for a full trial, representing clients at substantive hearings, arguing motions to dismiss, and counseling clients through myriad difficult situations. Through her clinical experiences, Escalante has moved deliberately across interconnected parts of the system - from juvenile proceedings to adult incarceration, from state parole boards to federal appellate courts - building a strategic understanding of how these agencies reinforce and compound one another. That vantage point, she says, is what she’ll carry into her career.
As an attorney, Sachs often represented people accused of violating South Africa’s apartheid laws ensuring racial separation. He was imprisoned and tortured as a political prisoner in the 1960s and lived in exile in England for several years before moving to Mozambique after that country won its independence from Portugal. In 1990, after opposition leader Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Sachs returned to South Africa to help draft the country’s constitution, which has since been a model around the world. He served on the Constitutional Court from 1994 to 2009.
The professional writing requirement is a piece of written work that would typically be created in the course of ordinary legal practice by an attorney. The requirement must be satisfied with written work(s) of at least 5 pages, created as part of a clinic or a course that satisfies the experiential learning requirement, upon approval from the supervising faculty member. Written work supervised by an HLS faculty member in other courses or contexts may satisfy the requirement upon approval by the faculty member and the Assistant Dean of Clinical and Experiential Education.
The Winter Trial Advocacy Workshop will take place from Monday, January 5 to Friday, January 22, 2027 . The course focuses on the task of the trial lawyer to create in the consciousness of the fact-finders the precise fact picture, which reflects the lawyer’s version of the case. The Workshop includes simulated exercises on all aspects of in-court trial practice including opening statements, development of witness testimony on direct and cross examination, use of illustrative aids and exhibits in evidence, impeachment, and summations. An important feature of the Workshop is the on-the-spot evaluation and critique by experienced trial lawyers and judges who teach as volunteers during the Workshop. Student performances are also video-recorded and individually critiqued. Each student will take part in one full simulated non-jury trial, which is systematically critiqued by trial advisors and judges.
Lawyers-like all other professionals-must negotiate. Litigators resolve far more disputes through negotiation than by trial. Business lawyers, whether they are putting together a start-up company, arranging for venture financing, or preparing an initial public offering, are called upon to negotiate on behalf of their clients. Public interest lawyers, in-house counsel, government attorneys, criminal lawyers, tort lawyers, and commercial litigators all share the need to be effective negotiators. And all professionals negotiate within their own organizations for salaries, workload and roles, with constituents they represent, clients they serve, or co-founders they collaborate with.
Cohen spoke at the annual welcome event sponsored by First Class , an organization created and run by Harvard Law students to serve as a community for first-generation college students and students from low-income backgrounds. In remarks laced with references and quotes from thinkers as wide-ranging as the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, country music star Dolly Parton, and the playwright George Bernard Shaw, Cohen drew from his life experiences to prepare students on how to navigate law school and several of the challenges that might confront them as first-generation law students.
The man had gone to the Capitol that day in 2021 at the urging of former President Donald Trump, he told Jenkins, but had stopped short of entering the building when someone reminded him he had “a kid at home.” The law school professor and his new fan chatted for about 20 minutes, then the man, who loved the idea of a comic book based on the uprising, bought a copy and left. (Jenkins remembered thinking at the time: “I hope he doesn’t read this thing before I get out of here.”) But soon he was back, and Jenkins prepared for what might come next.
One of my favorite spots in Harvard Square is the Brattle Theatre . A cultural institution with an old school movie house vibe, the Brattle features an eclectic mix of classic, foreign, and indie films. On a personal note, as I’ve had the great delight of seeing multiple films at the Brattle that have been directed by the more artistic members of my extended family, it holds a special place in my heart. A favorite spot outside the city is Rockport Harbor. If you’re looking to get up early to catch a gorgeous sunrise, it’s hard to beat Bearskin Neck. Grab some coffee and strudel from Helmut’s and settle in. If you have time on your hands, check out some of the local art galleries or do some hiking in Halibut Point State Park.
One of the places that is off the beaten track but well worth visiting, especially if you can get the lunar timing right, is the Harvard Observatory (part of the Harvard Center for Astrophysics). From the rooftop of this building, you can see the constellations as if they’re close enough to touch, catch the splendor of the full moon, and witness other secrets of the universe as they are gradually revealed through scientific discovery (and regular night-time events to observe and discuss them). Their mission, a “continued pursuit to reveal the unknown in our Universe,” helps keep things in perspective as we contemplate the moral universe and justice through law.
Enjoy the beautiful ocean views (and breeze) with a trip to South Boston’s Castle Island . First, walk or cycle the waterfront trail around the park, then explore Fort Independence, a site that has been occupied since at least 1634, though the existing structure dates to the mid-19th century. Once you’ve worked up a sweat, take a swim in the cool, clean waters of Pleasure Bay or at one of the numerous other beaches nearby. Feeling famished? Make a pit stop at Sullivan’s , a seaside institution on Castle Island, for a wax-wrapped pack of fish and chips and a raspberry lime rickey. Don’t forget the ice cream cone for dessert.
Rooms in the apartment-style locations will appear on your Harvard University student account on a monthly basis. The initial charge in July will include the prorated cost for August based on the housing term start date and the full amount for September. From October through April, the full monthly rate will be billed to your account on the 1st of each month. In May, you will be charged a prorated amount based on your housing term end date.
Since this post was originally published, we have cataloged and digitized a set of mugshots from the arrests at a meeting of known criminal figures at the Hotel Statler in Cleveland, Ohio, on December 5, 1928 . The copy prints of the mugshots were part of a report titled “Part I. The Prohibition Situation in Illinois with Special Reference to Chicago,” submitted July 19, 1930, by Guy L. Nichols, Treasury Department. The report was given to Roscoe Pound in connection with his membership on the United States Wickersham Commission. Explore the images by doing a keyword search for “Unione Siciliano Heads” in Harvard’s online image catalog, HOLLIS Images .
“I decided to attended HLS because of the amazing curricular and clinical opportunities to explore my interest in election law and voting rights advocacy. As a 2L, I have enjoyed spending two semesters in the Election Law Clinic at HLS. In this clinic, I get to work on a variety of litigation and policy work, and am truly trusted to take the lead on so many important projects. I have learned so much about litigation and what being a lawyer actually means through this clinic, while also being about to make a real difference for our clients.”
Duru: There are a few things I hope children and parents will take away from this book. Maybe the biggest is that the most important thing a parent can do for their child is be there for them. Certainty in the big moments, but also in the more mundane moments, the day-to-day moments. Just be there - be a constant presence your child can rely on. I truly believe this is a parent’s most important job. I also hope the book serves as a vehicle fathers can use to express their love to their children. I grew up being told I was loved, and as I have raised my children, I tell them I love them all the time, but it is not as easy for some fathers to be expressive in that way. I hope this book sends the message that it is healthy and feels really good to tell your children how much they mean to you and that you love them. And for fathers who struggle to speak in this way with their children, I hope that in reading the book to their children, they can begin to feel more comfortable in being expressively loving.
In the classroom, magister Charlie, sporting a well-loved cardigan worn through at the elbows and his signature sandalia cum tibialia (ahem, Birkenstocks with socks), lectured to a captivated audience. In perhaps the second week of the course, he shook us out of our note-taking slumber by breaking into the Germanic verse of the Anglo-Saxon chronicler, recording the fateful events of the year 937 CE: “ Her Æþelstan cyning, eorla dryhten, beorna beahgifa, ond his broþor eac, Eadmund aeþeling, ealdorlangne tir geslogon æt sæcce sweorda ecgum ymbe Brunanburh. ” Law students and undergrads alike sat silently, mouths agape and pens hovering above notebook page, wondering what to make and what notes to take of this mysterious utterance. Charlie laughed, “This is English, people!” He then proceeded to deconstruct the passage word by word. I still have my handwritten notes. “ Her ” was just our word “here,” and “ cyning ” simply “king,” thus, “Here King Æthelstan … ” By the time he reached the final phrases, we could all recognize the “sword’s edge” of “ sweorda ecgum. ” It was English, and one sensed the collapsing of time and space between the early-10th-century chronicler and our late-20th-century classroom.
At February’s Rappaport Forum, legal scholars Jonathan H. Adler (on screen), William & Mary Law School, and Kate Shaw (left), University of Pennsylvania, debated whether the increased use of the so-called “shadow docket” is a response to rising presidential power or a threat to the rule of law. The talk, moderated by HLS Professor Richard Re (right), covered the docket’s evolution and how it might continue to shape the law and litigation.
This reading group will consider statutory interpretation in light of the proper roles of the three branches in American constitutional democracy. The group will cast particular focus on questions about the proper role of the federal judiciary in interpreting and applying statutes. Should the federal courts strive to decode the most accurate reading of statutory texts, acting as Congress’s faithful agents in the work they do? Or should federal courts, as principals of a co-equal branch, take responsibility for making statutory programs work sensibly and effectively, acting as Congress’s partners in the enterprise of governance? How, if at all, do our answers change when Congress has given federal agencies primary responsibility for carrying out the programmatic aims of federal statutes? Finally, what metric does one use answer the foregoing question? Do our answers come from the text and structure of the U.S. Constitution, from the accretion of constitutional practice, from a political theory of how best to make a constitutional democracy serve the broad goals of public welfare, or from some other source? This Reading Group will rely on a mix of cases and scholarly articles to explore those issues.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
The Classroom Component: Classroom exercises and discussions will focus on drafting best practices. Classroom discussions will also explore the need for new environmental legislation and the relationship between delegation, legislation, and regulation. State and federal legislators have different constraints and opportunities, and the course will explore when and how detailed statutory and regulatory text are deployed. In the federal sphere, particular attention will be paid to the changing administrative law landscape and what this means for legislative and regulatory drafting. Time will also be spent on ethical considerations and the political realities that influence outcomes.
At a moment when the possibility of a nationwide progressive agenda feels distant, suddenly everyone is thinking about cities. The election of Zohran Mamdani, in particular, has generated renewed attention to and excitement about city government. This course explores the potential and limits of municipal socialism as a strategy for democratizing economic life and improving the lives of everyday people. Students will gain a better understanding of the legal, fiscal, and institutional tools available to municipalities, the political coalitions required to deploy them, as well as the structural constraints and political opposition that stand in their way.
Spanish for Lawyers offers students the opportunity to learn Spanish language skills in a public interest legal context, emphasizing language most commonly used in civil and criminal legal services practice. The class will strengthen existing Spanish speaking and comprehension abilities and teach Spanish legal vocabulary to students involved in public interest legal practice. The class will introduce students to general legal Spanish vocabulary (e.g. immigration, human rights, legal aid, etc.). Students will work to develop stronger attorney-client relations by improving communication with Spanish-speaking clients. The course is open to 2Ls, 3Ls, and LLMs.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
To its defenders, liberalism establishes the only workable way to govern a diverse society: pluralism and tolerance in the private sphere, political equality and the rule of law in the public sphere, and the free market as the primary mediator of material needs and wants. But, critics contend, liberalism too often fails to defend its premises, and it lacks an internal theory of its limits. Indeed, many of the most pressing debates in modern America seem to turn precisely on those questions that liberalism treats as pre-political: When is difference so offensive as to be intolerable, and when is it constitutive of a protected identity? Who determines the preconditions for equal participation in a polity, and who can overrule them? Which deprivations are too unjust to accept, and which are simply just deserts? In this reading group, we will try to better understand these questions by looking to classic and contemporary Supreme Court opinions that grapple with them, as well as secondary sources that contextualize and deepen the debates. Participants will be expected to complete all the assigned readings, submit a very short question before each session, and actively participate in group discussion. With luck, we’ll find much to disagree about and much to learn together.
This course will examine Congress’s role in U.S. national security law, exploring both the reasons for Congress’s comparative weakness vis-à-vis the Executive and powers that Congress can assert to check the Executive. Among other topics, the seminar will examine historical sources on congressional power; congressional architecture and mechanics; war powers; emergency powers; Congress’s oversight authorities; the role of the courts in restricting and enabling congressional checks on executive power; and proposals for reform.
This workshop is devoted to reading and discussing new scholarly work on law and political economy. Outside speakers and members of the Harvard faculty will present forthcoming papers or recent work, both theoretical and programmatic, on the role of law in structuring social relations, power, and justice in market society.
Administrative law in the United States is often viewed as a category quite distinct from constitutional law. Yet public administration is, for some, at the core of constitutionalism, in so far as it governs the relationships between citizens and government across a wide range of areas. The constitutional role of executive departments and administrative agencies has become increasingly contentious, as discussed, for example, in Stephen Skowronek et al, Phantoms of a Beleaguered Republic (2021). This course will explore the relationships between constitutionalism and public administration, between constitutional law and administrative law, in the United States and in other constitutional democracies. Specific topics are likely to include the constitutional role and degree of independence of the civil service and of “Fourth Branch” institutions designed to protect integrity and competence; the “deep state” as concept and critique; constitutional variations between and among parliamentary and presidential systems that affect the execution of laws; the constitutional roles of legislatures, both in enacting laws delegating regulatory powers and after enacting laws in supervising their administration; the role of courts in reviewing challenges to executive/administrative actions or omissions; the role of chief executives, heads of department or ministers in issuing regulations and administering the law; and constitutions as facilitating or obstructing effective and rights-respecting administration of public law.
This course surveys the legal rules governing corporations with an emphasis on the protection of shareholders in large public corporations against management and controlling shareholders. Topics include asset partitioning, governance (shareholder voting, fiduciary duties, derivative suits, executive compensation), M&A, securities trading, corporate finance, protections of creditors and other constituencies, and choice of law. One quarter of the course will be based on problems drawn from transactional settings. The course emphasizes financial and strategic considerations throughout.
This course’s immodest ambition is to equip you with powerful analytical tools to understand your clients, the law, and the world. “Corporate” describes most of the applications in the course, but the concepts are much more general. They include (1) replicating cash flows and the law of one price-an overarching theme-; (2) diversification and market efficiency; (3) capital structure; (4) options and auctions. The course is loosely divided into four modules covering these respective concepts.
How do ideas about law and science shape the contours of the contemporary world? Knowledge underwrites legal authority - but how exactly? How do ideas about what is natural, right or ordained become powerful, hegemonic? Both law and science rely on experts to define the basic coordinates by which we locate ourselves and recognize each other, as members of collectives, actors in institutions, and selves possessing subjectivity. But how does each conceive the other’s role, and affirm or resist it? In this course, we will read and discuss literature from social theory, law, and science and technology studies that bears on these questions, alongside case studies that illuminate expertise in action in a variety of professional, scientific, and legal settings.
This reading group is designed to provide students with practical knowledge of how artificial intelligence is currently transforming and will continue to shape the practice of law. The primary focus will be on demystifying AI tools and equipping students with the skills to leverage these technologies effectively in their future legal careers. Through hands-on exercises and real-world examples, students will gain exposure to cutting-edge AI applications and develop a foundational understanding of their capabilities and limitations within the legal context. Active participation and engagement will be crucial, fostering a dynamic learning environment where students can explore and discuss the practical implications of AI in various legal domains.
The class will explore these issues from the perspective of practicing national security lawyers in both the government and the private sector. We will focus on the operational context in which these challenges arise and the legal and policy issues at stake. We will use real world national security controversies to explore underlying questions of executive authority and separation of powers, transformational technologies, and the role of the national security lawyer.
This course will examine the indispensable role of the Rule of Law in free societies. We will first explore the the nature of free societies as described by classical-liberal theory, notably in the writings of Friedrich Hayek. We will also contrast free societies with collectivist ones, which rule by commands. We will then identify the essential elements of the Rule of Law as understood by classical-liberal theory. To that end, we will examine the development of the Rule of Law in 17th century England, the extent to which our Constitution embodies the classical-liberal understanding of the Rule of Law, and the tension between the Rule of Law and the modern administrative state.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
This seminar will explore themes related to law and justice in Shakespeare’s plays. Some of the themes we may discuss include the tensions between justice and mercy, processes for assessing evidence (and their flaws), and constitutional questions regarding the foundations of legitimate sovereign authority. We will also consider more broadly the relationship between law, literature, and drama, and the how engagement with themes of law and justice in fiction may inform how we approach the real world of legal practice. The plays we will cover include The Merchant of Venice, Measure for Measure, Richard II, Henry VI Part 2, Henry V, Romeo and Juliet, Othello , and Much Ado About Nothing . No prior experience or expertise is required.
During the last 70 years, the Inter-American System for the protection of human rights (IASHR) is the venue for some of the most significant developments in international law. Placed at the heart of the oldest international organization in existence (the Organization of American States, successor to the Pan-American Union), this complex system of treaties, political and technical institutions and non-governmental relations has reacted to the human rights challenges resulting from colonialism, slavery and racism, political strife and abuse, armed conflict and structural discrimination and inequality. To face these and other challenges the IASHR is a forum in which standards of State responsibility to prevent, create accountability and provide reparation are discussed and identified through cases, research and political dialogue; and the outcomes of all these processes can be systematized under thematic categories to serve as inspiration for policy and programmatic action.
This seminar provides an opportunity for students to understand and meet the expectations placed on in-house counsel in a world where compliance and risk are ever more complex, and technological advancements have altered the way we do business and practice law. Through scenario-driven assignments, case studies, discussions, and guest speakers, students will gain a realistic appreciation for the roles and responsibilities of in-house counsel, the ethical challenges of representing an enterprise as a client, and will develop the skills critical to navigating the challenges of the modern in-house counsel and the evolving legal marketplace no matter what capacity they will serve in it.
This course will draw on case studies to examine international labor migration flows, governance issues under national and international legal regimes, and innovative approaches to defending migrant worker rights in sending and receiving countries. We will explore the interplay between the modern human rights and labor movements, analyze the advocacy strategies adopted to address workers’ rights violations, and evaluate the tradeoffs and tensions inherent in the different approaches.
This reading group will explore present-day legal cases challenging racial discrimination against U.S. Latinos and the success (or lack of success) of that litigation. We will discuss theories and strategies available to challenge discrimination as well as the continued utility of the established framework of civil rights statutes and precedent. Readings will include a range of texts (judicial opinions, scholarly writing, and popular commentary) to explore these topics.
This course is about the diverse body of law that the 575 American Indian tribal governments within the United States make to govern their citizens, their territories, and-to a limited extent-non-Indians. We will explore the many questions contemporary tribal governments navigate as they engage in everything from rewriting their constitutions to delivering utilities. The course begins with a foundations unit focused on forms of tribal law, tribal government structure, and tribal courts. The remainder of the course is a survey of tribal law topics selected by the students, ranging from governance (elections, tribal membership, fundamental rights), to conflicts between individuals (contracts, property, domestic relations, torts), to regulation of a tribal community’s economy (taxes, gaming) and environment. Students will conduct research projects on the chosen topics and provide presentations in the class session on that topic.
This course deals with characteristic arrangements under American law for the creation and transfer of rights to control and exploit property. The relationships of these arrangements to efficient resource use, the pattern of wealth distribution, and other social concerns will be explored as they are reflected in both judicial decision-making and legislative reform. Subject to variations of emphasis among professors, topics will cover aspects of commercial land transfers such as sale contracts, mortgages, leases, conveyances, recording, and other methods of title assurance; and means of limiting private land-use in the public interest such as zoning, health and safety regulations, protection of minority or economically disadvantaged groups, eminent domain, and taxes. The historical categories and assumptions of American real property law will be considered with a view to examining their relevance to modern social and economic conditions.
This Reading Group will consider the public policy and legal issues raised by the role of private equity and other alternative assets in the American economy. Is private equity a positive force in capitalism that builds stronger companies and delivers compelling returns and diversification to its institutional and retail investors? Or is private equity the problem child of capitalism that fails to deliver on its promise of either being a good steward of companies or providing enhanced risk-adjusted returns. Is the private equity model one that requires proscriptive legislation or are the adverse implications from private equity distorted? From the perspective of the investors in private equity and other alternative assets, should the SEC, Treasury and/or other governmental bodies regulate these asset classes more aggressively to protect certain investors, reduce systemic risk or otherwise promote competition and efficiency? Is private equity an appropriate asset class for the retail market? Is private debt? Similarly, is the branching out of private equity and private debt into the insurance sector a welcome initiative to enhance returns for the benefit of annuity holders or an inordinate risk to policy holders? Are private equity and other alternative assets an appropriate asset class for 401(k) plans? Is the current tax treatment of carried interest justified or inappropriate? This Reading Group will rely on a mix of legislation, regulatory initiatives, scholarly articles and advocacy positions.
This Reading Group will focus on the question of and solutions for Tibet. It will look at the historical status of Tibet and the current situation of the Tibetan people. The class will examine the guarantees and practices of national minority rights under the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China in light of international human rights standards. Do China’s guarantees respecting national minority rights meet international standards regarding the right to self-determination or the protection of minorities. Might reference to the rights of indigenous people be helpful? The approach of the seminar will be to interrogate the best ways to address these issues and find solutions. We will look at the evolution and major changes in the stand of the Dalai Lama from seeking independence, to what he has described as a zone of peace for Tibet, and finally to “genuine autonomy for Tibetan people” within the framework of the Constitution of the PRC. His efforts have included nine rounds of dialogue between envoys of the Dalai Lama and the PRC government. We will also explore comparative issues of Hong Kong and Xinjiang to understand PRC approaches toward regional autonomy . The Reading Group will also explore the unique approach of the Dalai Lama in developing a democratic polity in exile, as well as complex religious issues relating to reincarnation and religious freedom. Finally, we will examine the US Tibetan Policy and Support Act of 2020 to understand the role of the US government in respect of political, diplomatic and legal obligations relating to Tibet and its people.
The course develops this perspective through a focused study of foreign investment review, centering on practice before the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). Students study the statutory and regulatory framework under the Defense Production Act and its implementing regulations, including core jurisdictional concepts, the scope of presidential authority, and the limited role of judicial review.
This series of lectures and discussions introduces foreign-educated LL.M. students to the foundations of the U.S. legal system and the fundamentals of legal research, writing, and analysis. Exploring how U.S. lawyers analyze and frame legal positions, course topics will include: a comparative look at the American common law system and foreign civil law systems, the hierarchy of legal authorities, how to read a common law case, analogizing and distinguishing cases, avoiding plagiarism in American legal writing, and an introduction to the basics of American legal philosophy. It will meet during LL.M. Orientation in late August. Additionally, the course presupposes completion all the “0L” materials that will be made available online by the first week of August.
This course teaches foreign-educated LL.M. students how U.S. lawyers conduct legal research, analyze and frame legal positions, and present their work in writing. It builds on the lectures and work completed in the LRWA I series that occurs during August orientation. During the fall semester, students deepen their research, writing, and analytical skills by engaging in independent legal research, preparing drafts of legal memoranda, and revising their written work in response to instructor feedback.
Unlike large corporations in most of the world, the control of the modal large U.S. corporation famously rests in the hands of its managers and board of directors rather than in those of a controlling shareholder or a shareholder or a control group. Recent developments, however, seem to suggest that concentrated ownership-or at least concentrated voting rights anchored by significant equity share ownership-have made a comeback in American companies. Some commentators see a resurgence of equity-based control in the shift from retail share ownership to institutional ownership and others note the rise in of private equity. But from the perspective of corporate law, the most salient immediate consequences follow from the rise of large founder-controlled firms in the tech sector. In this seminar, we explore challenges faced by Delaware corporate law in responding to the demands of the new controllers. This requires a close reading of the Delaware caselaw and statutory amendments as well as the literature on interstate competition to attract corporations. Later seminar readings will include commentary on the rise of institutional ownership in the U.S. and the role of controlling shareholders in several foreign jurisdictions.
This course teaches foreign-educated LL.M. students how U.S. lawyers conduct legal research, analyze and frame legal positions, and present their work in writing. It builds on the lectures and work completed in the LRWA I series that occurs during August orientation. During the fall semester, students deepen their research, writing, and analytical skills by engaging in independent legal research, preparing drafts of legal memoranda, and revising their written work in response to instructor feedback.
This course teaches foreign-educated LL.M. students how U.S. lawyers conduct legal research, analyze and frame legal positions, and present their work in writing. It builds on the lectures and work completed in the LRWA I series that occurs during August orientation. During the fall semester, students deepen their research, writing, and analytical skills by engaging in independent legal research, preparing drafts of legal memoranda, and revising their written work in response to instructor feedback.
This seminar explores legal entities-principally, but not exclusively, the corporation-from a variety of perspectives. The only distinctive feature of legal entities, of course, is that they are not “natural” persons. Nevertheless, the law attributes to them many of the legal rights and responsibilities that it ascribes to natural persons. The questions are why and to what effect? Our readings fall into one of three categories: the theory of the firm literature in micro-economics, the evolution of “real entity” theory from its 19th century origins forward, and the role of entity concepts in contemporary American law-ranging from 1st Amendment rights to the current discussion of shareholder primacy, stakeholder theory, and corporate purpose. In addition, the readings touch on entity issues in academic literature adjacent to law, including sociology, business administration, and moral philosophy.
Lawyers try to persuade others all the time-judges and juries, regulators, opposing negotiators, policymakers, or community members. In this course, we will explore some selected topics in the art, logic, and ethics of persuasion by focusing on one of the most important practitioners and scholars of persuasion of all times: Marcus Tullius Cicero. We will closely read and discuss some of Cicero’s forensic and political speeches as well as excerpts from his rhetorical treatises. Active and robust participation in class discussion is an essential requirement.
This course will examine how online speech is governed around the world, with a focus on platform design and content moderation systems, legal and regulatory approaches, and judicial interpretations of platform rights and responsibilities. We will look at how governance approaches address abuses and risks including hate speech, suicide and self-injury, child exploitation, and misinformation, among others. Students will examine how legal obligations are implemented in practice, how institutional and political constraints shape regulatory outcomes, and how AI is changing the risk landscape and responses to those risks. The course will also address high-stakes contexts, including elections, public health crises, and armed conflicts.
This course provides a comprehensive overview of the law surrounding LGBTQ+ rights, with particular focus on constitutional law, statutory protection, and litigation strategy. Students will analyze landmark decisions and emerging legal challenges across multiple doctrinal areas, including substantive due process, equal protection, free speech, religious liberty, and federalism. The course traces the evolution of LGBTQ+ rights jurisprudence from Bowers v. Hardwick to contemporary cases, with an emphasis on doctrinal development and the legal framework that shapes current advocacy and potential policy responses. Students will engage with foundational cases including Romer v. Evans, Lawrence v. Texas, Obergefell v. Hodges, Bostock v. Clayton County, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Org., among others.
We’ll plan to tackle formalism and pragmatism, of course, but we intend to go both deeper and broader. Among other topics, we’ll explore old-school legal realism, probe the question whether textualism and originalism are in fact one and the same thing or just close cousins, and dive into the subtle-but-important distinctions between clinical, dictionary-driven ordinary “meaning” and organic, on-the-ground ordinary “understanding.” We’ll likely explore the pros and cons of using both corpus linguistics and AI-based LLMs to unearth real-world understanding. (Bonus: We hope and expect that Justice Breyer - whose book, and our review of it, got this whole thing started - will make a guest appearance!) Students will write a short “thought piece” (by which we do not mean a research paper), due by the end of the spring semester (not the end of the week-long class period). Students are encouraged - but not required - to consider turning their thought pieces into more substantial written works for publication.
The classes will be spread across the entire semester. This reading group will meet on the following dates: TBD. A key part of this reading group will be students sharing with each other their perspective on those issues about which they are most passionate. Throughout the semester, students will be encouraged to suggest readings and discussion topics to Professor Tierney (jtierney@law.harvard.edu).
In this course we will discuss issues involved in litigating challenges to government policies, partly using case examples from the instructor’s time in the San Francisco City Attorney’s Office and on the bench in the Northern District of California. Focus will be on concepts and litigation strategy rather than doctrine. Topics will include injunctive relief (including universal relief in the wake of Trump v CASA); the interaction between litigation and the legislative/rulemaking process; who can (and who should) sue on public policy questions; how to navigate the fuzzy dividing line between lawyer and policymaker when giving legal advice to elected officials; and the overall role of the courts in addressing public policy challenges.
This is a two-credit jointly taught seminar. The seminar will use a series of case studies and theoretical readings to examine how to analyze, advise and strategize the resolution of a series of difficult real world public problems at the intersection of law and policy from the vantage point of government decision makers at the city, state and federal levels, as well as from the vantage point of nongovernmental organizations and advocacy groups. A final paper analyzing an issue through the lenses of the class is required.
The course is hands-on and applied in nature and taking it will count toward the J.D. Experiential Learning requirement. Students will be taught how to program in R, which is a statistical/empirical software package, and subsequently use it to analyze data in home exercises and a final project. The course is designed to provide students with the ability to subsequently carry out an empirical analysis in their practice or research.
Empirical tools have been increasingly used in litigation, regulation, and policymaking in the fields of corporate law, corporate governance, securities regulation, and financial regulation. This course will aim to expose students to, and enable them to engage with, empirical work in these fields. To this end, sessions of this course will feature professors from law schools and business schools who will present and discuss their empirical research studies with the students.
This course provides a deep exploration of the law, practice, and policy of money laundering and asset forfeiture. Students will examine the constitutional foundations, statutory frameworks, and procedural mechanics while critically evaluating the controversies these areas provoke. The course emphasizes real-world case studies from cartel money laundering through global banks to Russian oligarch yacht seizures and cultural property restitution and incorporates perspectives from government, compliance, civil liberties, and investigative journalism. Students will engage in writing and arguing motions based on simulated facts.
This course will examine the relationship between law and colonialism in Latin America, Africa, and Asia during both the early modern and the modern period. By reading some of the seminal works that have been published on the issue we will seek to understand how law both facilitated and limited colonialism and how colonialism, in turn, had modified the legal systems that had existed previously. Attention will also be given to law as a political, religious, social, and economic agent and to the legal arena as a sphere for conflict resolution, negotiation, and identity formation.
This reading group will explore situations and applications that challenge core principles in negotiation, mediation, and dispute systems design work. When placed in certain contexts, bedrock ideals in many interest-based models of dispute resolution - impartiality, joint contribution, validity of multiple perspectives - may begin to seem less benign. What is the responsibility (if any) of the conflict management “neutral” to have and apply a particular view of justice and morality? How can practitioners account for and address power imbalances between parties without re-entrenching them? How do we grapple with principles that, when applied in certain ways, or by certain actors, could lead to results that are deeply discomfiting at a moral or ethical level? And how do different approaches to managing conflict help - or hinder - a search for “truth”?
This seminar will explore some of the workings of the United States Supreme Court, with reference to some of the larger constitutional questions, such as free speech, racial discrimination, privacy, affirmative action, administrative power, and abortion. There will be some attention to issues of regulation, with reference to behavioral economics, insofar as those issues relate to administrative law.
“[I]n this world, with great power there must also come-great responsibility.” Kimble v. Marvel Ent., LLC, 576 U.S. 446, 465 (quoting S. Lee and S. Ditko, Amazing Fantasy No. 15: “Spider-Man,” p. 13 (1962)). In all of these contexts, government lawyers navigate professional codes of conduct, regulations, and ethical considerations while representing the interests of the citizenry, institutions of government, and their leadership. Through case studies, simulations, and conversations with former and present government lawyers, students will examine the decision-making processes of government lawyers across diverse practice settings, jurisdictions, and substantive areas of law. We will study the foundations of professional responsibility, conflicts of interests and confidentiality, reconciling zealous advocacy with the duty to uphold the public interest, addressing misconduct within agencies, privacy and FOIA, governmental privileges, and the role of government lawyers in maintaining the rule of law and protecting democratic values.
How does social and political change happen? When, why, and how do people, and whole nations, come together to influence large-scale policies and collective action on issues like the environment, equality, criminal justice, and much more? Why do revolutions occur? This course attempts to answer these questions by exploring a diversity of efforts to achieve societal change across various historical and contemporary contexts. In an effort to draw general lessons for those interested in making change, we will assess a range of political and legal approaches; examine mass movements and the roles played by individuals, organizations, and governments; and evaluate the conditions under which such efforts succeed or fail. Using research from psychology, political science, and economics, and drawing on a variety of case studies, the course will explore several core arguments about how change occurs:
This seminar examines cutting edge and even controversial linkages between law and neuroscience. We seek to highlight neuroscientific basis for behavior patterns with legal implication including how neuroscience intersects with criminal law, its normative assumptions and criminal punishment, evidentiary rules, memory bias and enhancement, lie and deception detection, adolescent brains and juvenile law. We will look critically at efforts to use neuroimaging in court in connection with in the prediction of criminality and predispositions towards mental illness and addiction, as well as efforts to identify neurobiological influences on the brain. Is there such a thing as a criminally violent brain? Does it make sense to speak of the neurobiology of violence or the psychopathology of crime, and how are (or should) such concepts translated into criminal law. The seminar will necessarily lead us to consider the relationship between law and science, more generally, and neuroscience in particular. Speakers will provide insights into their work and research.
This course will examine the various mechanisms deployed to check executive authority. These include the Supreme Court’s constitutional definition of the separation of powers; the use of independent and special counsels to investigate and prosecute crime; the force of internal checks within the executive branch from career and politically appointed lawyers; congressional checks through inquiries and impeachments; and the influence of the press, federalism, and judicial review. The class will seek to provide a holistic understanding of the web of constraints on presidential power. We will do this through class discussion of the readings and through hypotheticals and role-play exercises in which students will take on advocacy roles in simulations of proceedings that apply accountability norms.
This course will first put 20th century sentencing law in sociological and historical context. It will examine the history, philosophy, and administration of the criminal sentencing process, the causes of growth in the US penal population, the historical roots of that grown from the mid 20th century to the present, and the impact of those policies on communities of color and the crime rate. We will then examine more closely the legal framework that enabled those policies, including the war on drugs, emphasis on retribution over rehabilitation, the changes in sentencing law and the structure of sentencing decisionmaking. Particular attention will be devoted to substantive sentencing standards (the insights of neuroscience, evidence based lessons from diversion programs) in addition to the procedures governing those decisions. The course will explore different kinds of sentencing regimes-state guideline systems, international models on which sentencing standards have evolved from common law decision making or judge-imposed guidelines (Australia, Israel, England), in addition to the federal sentencing guidelines. We will consider the interplay between principles of proportionality, severity, and parsimony on sentencing law.
This course is an introductory study of federal income taxation covering inclusion and exclusion of items in computing gross income; deductions from gross income; accounting and timing considerations; capital gains and losses; and the treatment of the family and gifts. Consideration will be given to the interaction of the legislative, executive, and judicial roles in the making, administering, and interpreting of the tax law; to the goals of the tax law and possibilities for future development of it; to the strategic behavior of taxpayers in response to the tax law; and to the impact of the tax law on private property transfers and other transactions. A principal goal of this course is also to teach students to analyze and apply a complex federal statute.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Economic and social rights occupy a contentious space in contemporary studies of human rights and comparative constitutional law. Such rights - which are mobilized politically and legally to claim an adequate standard of living, health care, education, housing, decent work, food, water, sanitation, and a clean and healthy environment - are often contradictory or ambiguous. This reading group explores their contemporary appeal. Readings are primarily legal, and draw on comparative sources, as well as interdisciplinary work. The group begins with philosophical evaluations of the importance of the equality of human “capabilities,” as against classically liberal rights, and communitarian, welfarist, and ecological objections. The readings then progress to the institutional puzzles that reflect and extend these debates, with empirical examples as to how such rights, including so-called positive rights, are accommodated and enforced, including under new models of adjudication, distinctive remedies, so-called “fourth branches” of government, democratic spaces of distributive contestation, changed assumptions of political economy, innovations from city-level to extraterritorial state responsibility, and transformative versus preservative approaches to constitutional democracy.
The first two sessions introduce the pressures of the startup environment and the importance of positioning the legal function as a strategic business partner. Subsequent sessions focus on the people, processes, and legal frameworks a startup GC must establish to support commercial growth. Additional classes address the protection of intellectual property, governance of AI systems, and navigation of evolving regulatory landscapes. Later sessions examine the GC’s role as the company scales, including advising on employment matters, managing equity compensation, and leading M&A activity. The course concludes with a discussion of fit for the startup GC role and how to develop a personal brand as a startup legal leader.
But building new transmission can upset the industry’s balance of power. The power sector is dominated by utilities, state-backed companies that have monopolies over power delivery. New market entrants may undercut utility-owned power plants and diminish utility control over our energy system. Utilities have an outsized role in determining how the transmission network expands.
The main course material is divided into four parts. The first part presents the basic frameworks for the analysis of strategy. The topics include economic and game theoretic approaches to strategy, competitive advantage and industry analysis. The second part is concerned with organizational and contractual responses to agency problems. Topics include pay-for-performance, corporate control, and the design of partnerships and other business associations. The third part takes a broader view of business associations, considering the horizontal and vertical scope of the firm and the advantages of hybrid organizational forms such as franchising and joint ventures. The fourth part covers special topics in competitive strategy, including product differentiation, tacit collusion, facilitating practices, network externalities, market foreclosure, and innovation.
This 3-unit spring course is designed to help students develop business valuation and related business analysis skills. The following topics will be covered: how a firm’s business strategy and its operating and financial characteristics affect its valuation; review of basic corporate financial reports and disclosures that serve as inputs to valuation analysis; use of financial ratios in valuation to measure financial risks and returns; analysis of financial disclosures to identify valuation red flags such as quality of earnings; valuation of taxes, intangibles, and financial investments; forecasting financial statements and cash flows for valuation; and integrating the above tools and techniques to determine the valuation of a firm’s equity. Students will learn common valuation methods such as discounted cash flow analysis and supplement them with other methods used in practice, including earnings-based valuation, the use of valuation multiples, and comparable transactions analysis. Examples involving valuation disputes and controversies in practice will be used to illustrate implementation issues in valuation and how they are resolved by courts and transaction advisors.
The Capital Punishment Clinic offers opportunities for students to represent clients with capital sentences through placements at capital punishment organizations, law firms, and governmental agencies throughout the country. Clinical work is full-time and on-site during the winter term, and continues on a part-time and remote basis in the spring term. This clinic is graded Credit/Fail. During spring term, students are required to attend mandatory 6 meetings with Prof. Steiker. Meetings held before spring break will be held during lunch hour, with Prof. Steiker, on zoom, with students together in a room, with lunch provided. After spring break, Prof. Steiker will meet in-person, with students, during these required lunch meetings.
Negotiation is an important skill that all attorneys will practice during the course of their legal careers. Many law students, however, are apprehensive about negotiating and lack confidence in their negotiation skills. In this course, students will learn fundamental negotiation principles, strategies and techniques to help them develop their negotiation skills and build confidence in their negotiation abilities. Through a series of simulated business transactions informed by real world corporate experiences, students will have the opportunity to practice their negotiation skills and develop their own personal negotiation style. Students will engage in:
This course considers the legal, political, and social implications of the practice of capital punishment in America, with an emphasis on contemporary legal issues. The course will frame contemporary questions by considering some historical perspectives on the use of the death penalty in America and by delving into the moral philosophical debate about the justice of capital punishment as a state practice. It will explore in detail the intricate constitutional doctrines developed by the Supreme Court in the five decades since the Court “constitutionalized” capital punishment in the early 1970’s. Doctrinal topics to be covered include the role of aggravating and mitigating factors in guiding the sentencer’s decision to impose life or death; challenges to the arbitrary and racially discriminatory application of the death penalty; the ineligibility of juveniles and persons with intellectual disability for capital punishment, limits on the exclusion and inclusion of jurors in capital trials; allocation of authority between judges and juries in capital sentencing; and the scope of federal habeas review of death sentences, among other topics.
This reading group will explore the world of high-net-worth matrimonial litigation beyond the headlines into the law, pleadings, and practice. The course will begin with an overview of the field and delve into a selection of challenges faced by practitioners through review of specific cases. These will cover foundational issues in all domestic relations practice while highlighting the impact of fame and wealth on litigation, negotiation and outcomes. Students will gain new, broadly applicable perspectives on the practice of family law, issues ?in high-net-worth litigation, and insight into the world of celebrity divorces.
No issue is more important to either legal or social theory. Law has been defined as the institutional form of the life of a people: its subject matter are the institutions and practices of society, viewed in relation to the interests and ideals that are supposed to justify them and to give them meaning. This subject matter is also the concern of politics, which upholds or transforms social assumptions and arrangements.
The Child Advocacy Clinic is an externship clinic where students conduct fieldwork under the supervision of a practicing attorney at an external legal setting that is focused on one or more aspects of youth advocacy. Students take a companion seminar and bring into the classroom their experiences and learning from the field. The course is designed to educate students about a variety of substantive areas impacting the lives of children-such as child welfare, education, and juvenile justice-and the different systems that are meant to serve them. In addition, the course exposes students to a range of system change strategies to encourage critical thinking about the pros and cons of different approaches. The Clinic is relevant not only for students with a particular interest in children’s issues, but also for those more generally interested in system change.
In the Xi era, China has started to cast aside the long-standing maxim of “keeping a low profile and biding one’s time” in international affairs. What does China’s rise portend for the international legal order? In what ways is China seeking to reshape global norms versus uphold a status quo order exhibiting increasing fragility? This seminar examines this question for various domains of international law, including climate change, economics, sovereignty, human rights, and development. It will consider the ways in which history, geostrategic competition, domestic politics, and economic interests impact these questions.
This is a course about the processes that courts follow in deciding disputes in noncriminal cases. It deals with the way in which conflicts are framed for courts, the stages through which litigation pass, the division of power among the various decision-makers in the legal system and between the state and federal courts, the territorial limitations on the exercise of judicial power, the principles that define the consequences of a decision once a court has finished with a case, and the special opportunities and problems of litigation involving multiple disputants. Throughout the course, considerable attention will be devoted to the goals, values, costs, and tensions underlying our adversarial system of adjudication.
This course provides an introduction to civil procedure. It will examine the law governing civil litigation (mainly in federal court), including (among other things) the circumstances in which courts will exercise jurisdiction, the rules determining what parties and claims are properly included within a case, and the procedures governing fact-finding and judicial decision-making. It will also consider underlying policy and theoretical questions that run through this area of law, such as what kinds of disputes we want courts to resolve, what kinds of procedures will best promote accurate adjudication, and what norms of fairness should matter in the context of civil litigation.
The course in Civil Procedure is a survey course on the processes for addressing and resolving civil disputes. Part of the course will focus in-depth on the details of the process of litigation: pleading, discovery, motions to dismiss, summary judgment, and appeals. The other part of the course will focus more on issues of jurisdiction-questions of judicial power to resolve a dispute between two (or more) parties, the allocation of such power among various courts, and the effect that these allocations of authority have on the outcome of litigation.We will address the areas of subject matter jurisdiction, personal jurisdiction, joinder, and res judicata.
In developing rules for the enforcement of constitutional and statutory civil rights through civil actions, the Supreme Court has attempted to balance the need to enforce the Constitution and civil rights laws with countervailing interests such as state sovereignty, separation of powers, and the goal of protecting officers from being deterred from the performance of their duties. With that balancing act as backdrop, this course will trace the evolution of the legal tools available to civil rights plaintiffs and the legal obstacles they must overcome to obtain relief, including immunities, justiciability, and limitations on the enforceability of statutory rights. We will analyze the applicable legal principles both in terms of their theoretical and policy underpinnings and their practical effects, in order to provide students considering careers involving civil rights litigation with a solid foundation in civil rights enforcement doctrines and to consider broadly how procedural rules can dictate substantive outcomes and how gaps develop between rights and remedies.
This course will focus on current topics in federal class action litigation through an experiential lens. In addition to readings and classroom discussion, over the course of the semester each student will be asked to draft two class certification briefs (one on the plaintiff side, one on the defense side) and a judicial opinion, and to make an oral argument for or against class certification, all based on a hypothetical case. This course will cover class actions through the various stages of litigation, from initiation and initial motion practice (federal jurisdiction, selecting plaintiffs, standing, “class standing”, mootness, etc.), to class certification standards, procedures and opt outs, to class settlements, objectors and fee awards, class action tolling, and management of repetitive class actions.
After examining the legal underpinnings that connect climate change and human rights, we will delve into a range of past, present, and emerging strategies that have been used to tackle climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and climate justice. We will consider, for example, innovative litigation efforts and cases of first impression aiming to extend human rights jurisprudence to both government and corporate actors in the climate space. The seminar will examine how practitioners have wrestled with and attempted to develop novel legal theories related to climate defenders, the rights of nature, future generations, standing, intersectionality, causation, jurisdiction, and allocation of responsibility. Beyond the litigation context, the seminar will also utilize design-thinking approaches to experiment with possible legal and policy frameworks for emerging problems such as the increasing frequency of deadly heatwaves and the corresponding need to recognize the human right to cooling. The seminar will also evaluate community-centric approaches to climate change and human rights, and efforts to elevate community power and incorporate community perspectives into current litigation efforts and legal frameworks.
Our focus will include the role of international lawyers in multilateral negotiations conducted under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the move by small island states to seek advisory opinions on climate change from the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, the turn to human rights litigation as a means of demanding greater climate action from states and the fossil fuel industry, the use of trade and investment agreements as a basis both for promoting and resisting state regulatory responses to climate change, expanding the role of the UN Security Council to address climate-related risks to international peace and security, and the proposed international crime of ecocide. We will explore how the relative strengths of states, corporations, investors, and civil society organizations in different international fora have influenced the direction of new treaties, litigation strategies, security agendas, and multilateral projects.
This reading group will explore the trend toward codifying the law of trusts, focusing primarily on the process and substance of the key uniform acts and related writings. We plan to invite leading participants from the drafting of those acts to join us for at least some of the sessions.
A recent wave of conservative populism has brought a sharp backlash against sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) not just in the United States but around the globe. Drawing on examples from multiple regions, as well as in supra-national human rights forums, this seminar will critically explore strategies used to assert legal claims relating to gender-affirming care; involuntary sterilization; abortion; maternal health care; obstetric violence; and assisted reproductive technologies. Tremendous progress has been made in struggles for reproductive justice around the world, and achievements in advancing normative standards in comparative and international law provide insights for advocacy in the United States. At the same time, we will consider how conservative backlash and evolving political economies challenge the advances that have been made in SRHR.
The course will cover a series of topics arising in the comparative study of constitutional systems. Concentrating on constitutional structure and law in the United States and in such other countries as Australia, Canada, Colombia, France, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Kenya, Sri Lanka, South Africa, and United Kingdom, it will examine selected problems of both constitutional design and constitutional adjudication. We will, for example, take up the varying foundations and structures of judicial review of the constitutionality of laws (e.g., how are courts that engage in constitutional review structured, how are their judges appointed, what is the source of their authority to engage in constitutional review), in light of recent controversies (including those involving the environment). We will also likely consider various constitutional approaches to addressing emergencies and emergency powers; we may consider constitutional law regulating the availability of abortion in selected jurisdictions (including the United States, Germany, Canada, Colombia, and Ireland). The course will consider the meanings of terms like “constitution” and “constitutionalism,” “liberal” and “authoritarian,” as well as the purposes and nature of legal comparison. Other likely topics include (1) relationships between “popular” branches of government and courts, including under constitutions that permit legislative ‘override’ of constitutional limits, (2) constitutional transitions, including from democratic constitutionalism to more abusive or authoritarian forms of constitutionalism, (3) different forms of constitutional federalism, (4) approaches to protecting minority groups (for example, federalism, affirmative action for racial/ethnic/linguistic minorities, or group-based rights), (5) gender equality; (6) freedom of religion, (7) freedom of speech and the role of “knowledge” institutions (e.g. free press, universities, civic NGOs), and (8) positive social welfare rights.
The business corporation is a central institution in the modern capitalist economy. There are, however, considerable differences in the ways corporations are owned, controlled, and governed around the world. This course compares the corporate laws and governance arrangements of key jurisdictions. We will explore the root causes of the observed divergences in corporate governance, as well as their implications for the economy and society. The themes covered include the distribution of power among shareholders, boards of directors, and management; the protection afforded to minority shareholders, employees, and external constituencies; the complementarities between corporate governance systems and the prevailing economic and social structure; the distinctive features of state-owned enterprises; the influence of globalization, nationalism, and geopolitics on corporate governance practices; and the sustainability and climate risk agendas. The course will enable students to engage critically with key debates in contemporary corporate governance and provide relevant background for those interested in cross-border legal work.
This course will introduce students to the role that written, oral, and multi-media communications play in the development of American law and policy, with a focus on social issues and movements. Using as case studies advocacy for racial equity, criminal justice reform, immigrant rights, gun rights, environmental protection, reproductive justice, and economic opportunity, we will explore how change agents on multiple sides have used strategic framing and messaging, communications campaigns, and art and culture to influence - and in some instances transform - relevant law and policy. We will also examine the ethical rules and legal parameters that regulate attorneys’ communications regarding pending litigation and broader legal advocacy.
This course uses the example of China as a springboard for asking fundamental questions about the nature of law, and the ways in which it may (or may not) differ in different societies. Historically, China is said to have developed one of the world’s great civilizations while according law a far less prominent role than in virtually any other. This course will test that assertion by commencing with an examination of classic Chinese thinking about the role of law in a well-ordered society and a consideration of the nature of legal institutions, formal and informal, in pre-20th century China-all in a richly comparative setting. It will then examine the history of Sino-Western interaction through law, intriguing and important both in itself and for the broader inquiry into which it opens concerning the transmission of ideas of law cross culturally.
The group begins with selected work in legal theory and sociology to consider the essential elements of law and the difficulties of formulating a conception sufficiently general to permit cross-cultural comparison, but not so general as to lose analytical purchase. We will then turn to questions of method and purpose in legal history and comparative inquiry: how legal historians identify and interpret “law” in contexts where institutions, categories, and sources differ from those presupposed by modern state-centered legal systems; what comparative analysis can and cannot explain; and how translation, power, and perspective shape historical accounts.
This course will study legal doctrines, litigation strategies (viewed from both plaintiff and defendant perspectives) and current “best practices” relating to complex litigation. Topics will include forum selection strategies (state versus federal court); removal from and remand to state court (including substantive bases and procedural rules); transfer, coordination and consolidation of federal actions; multi-district litigation, including choice of law in transferred cases; management of parallel federal/state proceedings and protection of MDL proceedings (including the All Writs Act and the Anti-Injunction Act); and practical issues relating to managing both MDL and multi-case litigation, such as coordination orders, counsel structure, and bellwether trials.
A study of the special problems that arise when a case is connected with more than one state or nation. Topics include choice of law, personal jurisdiction, judgment recognition, and relevant constitutional doctrines.
This course provides an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Topics include judicial review, federalism, separation of powers, and equal protection and due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Extensive coverage is devoted to individual rights under the Fourteenth Amendment.
This course provides an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Topics include judicial review, federalism, separation of powers, and equal protection and due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
This course is a study of constitutional design, law, and politics from a comparative perspective. It has two distinctive features: first, the course goes beyond a focus on courts and legal norms. While constitutional courts will feature, they will do so as one of many constitutional actors that comprise a constitutional system. Our focus will be on the study of non-judicial constitutional actors (such as legislatures, executives, bureaucracies, political parties, the opposition, monarchies, nominal presidencies, regulators, the military, and guarantor institutions such as electoral commissions, ombudsoffices, human rights and equality commissions, and anti-corruption bodies). Second, the course will seek to understand these non-judicial actors by adopting a comparative constitutional perspective. We will draw our examples not only from constitutionally influential jurisdictions (such as United States, United Kingdom, South Africa and Germany), but also from jurisdictions outside the ‘canon’ of comparative constitutional law, such as China, Iran, Australia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Hong Kong, Afghanistan, and Malaysia. This diverse jurisdictional lens should help us critique the dominant court-focused approach in Euro-American constitutional studies, and explore other possibilities of constitutional design.
This course provides an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Topics include judicial review, federalism, separation of powers, and equal protection and due process of law under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
This course provides an introduction to constitutional law. Major topics include judicial review, federalism, the separation of powers, and individual rights.
This course provides an introduction to the U.S. Constitution - the government structures it establishes and contemplates, and the rights and liberties it recognizes and protects. Structural topics include the original design of the federal government and the role of slavery in that design; judicial review; federalism and the Supremacy Clause; and separation of powers. The Civil War Amendments (Thirteen, Fourteen and Fifteen) will be considered. The Fourteenth Amendment’s provisions for equal protection and due process of law provide the basis for many individual rights, including those relating to racial equality, gender equality, family life, and aspects of personal autonomy, that will be studied. Other topics may be considered as well.
This course provides an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Topics include judicial review, federalism, separation of powers, equal protection, and due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. Class participation is required. Laptops and electronic devices, including e-readers and tablets, are not allowed in class.
This course is one of the two basic courses in the field: it focuses on the First Amendment and deals with the Freedom of Speech, the Free Exercise of Religion, and the Establishment Clause. The course will be taught largely through lectures, with some discussion and time for Q&A exchanges in each class. Students should be aware before enrolling in the course that the use of laptops, iPhones, Blackberries, and other similar devices will not be permitted during class.
Why is it important for alumni to stay involved? “Networking is definitely important - developing relationships, and really connecting with other alumni. There’s no better platform of networking and professional enrichment, of a high caliber, than you find through Harvard Law School,” Salvo proclaims. But there is also friendship. “When I was president of the HLSA, I would often say, ‘We don’t raise funds; we raise friends.’ I really believe in that. I can tell you that my best friends are from Harvard Law School.” 23 years later, he observes, almost half of his LL.M. class of 2000 belongs to an active WhatsApp chat group. And as attached as he is to his classmates, Salvo agrees that there is a real benefit to engaging with alumni from other classes, even different generations, pointing out that one of his best friends is a member of the class of 1969. “The doors that you open really bring you into a phenomenal new world, where age and nationality don’t matter. There’s a special side to us - a very, very strong pride in being part of HLS and an incredibly thoughtful community who have the benefit of a profound education which has fundamentally shaped our lives.”
Though he was flourishing at WCL, Deyaa’s mentor encouraged him not to forget his dream to pursue doctoral studies. Recognizing that the schools where he wanted to study admitted S.J.D. candidates almost entirely from their own LL.M. programs, Deyaa applied and was admitted to a handful of LL.M. programs, including Harvard’s. Hoping to study with Professor Gabriella Blum LL.M. ’01, S.J.D. ’03, Deyaa enrolled at HLS in the fall of 2021. His gamble paid off. Not only did Professor Blum serve as his LL.M. paper supervisor, she also later agreed to supervise his S.J.D. project, and Deyaa was admitted to the S.J.D. program in June of 2022. This fall, he has commenced the doctoral studies he first contemplated roughly 15 years ago, on a topic stemming from his experience with the Free Syrian Lawyers Association: determining when and under what circumstances a non-state actor’s exercise of government functions (e.g., issuing marriage licenses, proof of identification, or property deeds) in situations of an incumbent government’s failure such as armed conflicts or other emergencies should be recognized as a matter of law. He hopes that the project will demilitarize the lives of civilians during armed conflicts by introducing a legal framework to support their daily transactions and give them the legal protection and sense of stability that he himself has been pursuing for years.
To open their next office - in Nicaragua - John and Juan Carlos met with Thelma Carrión LL.M. ’02 while she was still a student at Harvard. She joined the firm shortly after graduation. “I think it’s fantastic how Harvard brings everyone together,” she observes, crediting her success as a young female lawyer in Nicaragua to the skills and confidence she acquired at HLS. After a few years at the firm, Thelma moved to Luxembourg to practice M&A, private equity, and corporate law while still managing the Nicaragua office. The managing partner of the Luxembourg firm, Alex Schmitt LL.M. ‘81, was also a Harvard alum. “While I was in Luxembourg, I was very active with HLSA Europe,” Thelma recalls. “The network is amazing; you get to meet people from all over the world, and exchange ideas.” Ultimately, Thelma and her family decided to return to Nicaragua. At Aguilar Castillo Love, she has been able to draw on the experience she gained in Luxembourg, but also broaden her practice to encompass areas ranging from labor law to intellectual property. “My work here involves many different areas of law, which I absolutely love. Our office has grown, and now we are a team of nine,” she remarks. “I have had a great 22 years at the firm, which have allowed me to develop both professionally and personally.”
In 2019, Greece’s newly elected Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis AB ’90 MBA ’95, appointed Niki to serve as Minister of Education and Religious Affairs. In this role, she undertook a large number of reforms, starting with extending mandatory preschool to the age of four, creating a new curriculum for all children aged four to fifteen focusing on soft skills such as critical thinking and empathy, and introducing English as a mandatory foreign language course as of the age of four. The Ministry also upgraded and extended a system of “experimental schools,” entered through a lottery system, where new educational tools and curricular innovations, like teaching robotics to 4-year-olds, could be tested across a diverse range of students and a system of “model schools” for students of an extremely high academic standard, entered through a very challenging exam process. During her tenure, the Ministry established tougher academic standards for entry into universities and a program to encourage academic exchanges and other partnerships, such as dual and double degrees between Greek universities and leading U.S. universities. There was also a renewed focus on vocational training. “Greece has a number of professions that are in tremendous need in society today and that are very well-paid - such as programmers and renewable energy technicians - yet we don’t have enough people in them.”
The mission of CJI is to educate Harvard Law students in becoming effective, ethical, and zealous criminal defense lawyer-advocates as they represent indigent individuals involved in the Massachusetts court system. This yearly recognition awarded by CJI pays tribute to the late Kristin P. Muniz, whose untimely passing in 2020 was deeply saddening for her colleagues and her numerous former students. For a decade, Muniz passionately served as a criminal defense lawyer, cherished instructor, and trial team coach at CJI. The award honors graduating students who, like Muniz, have shown outstanding commitment to client-centered representation in criminal courts. It recognizes those who have focused their efforts on racial justice and equality, respect for human dignity, fairness, and compassion.
“This award reaffirms a core value of mine,” McJunkins reflected. “Growing up, I experienced firsthand how youth-facing systems can fail the children they’re meant to serve - spending over two years navigating a foster care process that was anything but smooth, and then sitting in classrooms where teachers and counselors looked past me and told me, in so many ways, that I wasn’t the right fit for advanced coursework. I often wondered whether those experiences had any place in legal practice. Law school is doctrinal by design, and it can quietly signal that what you lived before you arrived doesn’t belong in the room. But I brought my story into every space I occupied anyway, and receiving this award tells me that it isn’t just welcomed, it’s needed.”
Through a placement in the Child Advocacy Clinic, Streicher spent the fall of her second year working at Health Law Advocates’ Mental Health Advocacy Program for Kids, where she advocated on behalf of children facing suspension or expulsion from school. With her characteristic patience, tenacity, and emotional intelligence, Streicher served as a support for families navigating complex educational systems as they tried to protect their students’ rights. Peers who worked alongside Streicher in the clinic describe her commitment to her young clients as immediate and unqualified. Despite the many other demands on her time, she approached each family’s situation with the attentiveness and urgency of a seasoned advocate, working hard to make sure that each client’s full story and needs were clearly heard and understood.
His year as president has also put a new emphasis on “holistic training,” collaborating with other clinics from throughout the law school. These have included immigration training and collaborations with the LGBTQ Clinic , and the Housing Law Clinic at the Legal Services Center. He also credits his work with the Crimmigration Clinic , the Criminal Justice Institute , and the Housing Clinic for “helping me find my own voice in advocacy, and learning a lot of the hard legal skills.”
Along with frequently leading tours and managing his other activities, he has served as academic chair for LAMBDA, the LGBTQ+ law students’ association, and as a member of the First Class group of first-generation students. “There were also some organizations that were a surprise to me, like being part of the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review . I wasn’t expecting to be part of a journal, but I made some really good friends through that.”
Guzman joined the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau (HLAB) during his second year of law school, making a two-year commitment to the student-run civil legal aid organization dedicated to providing free representation to low-income and marginalized communities in the Boston area. At the bureau, Guzman served as intake director, setting policy and procedure in that area and facilitating intake decisions with potential clients. As a member of the organization’s housing practice, he represented clients facing evictions and housing subsidy terminations. Deeply dedicated to delivering the highest quality legal services, Guzman particularly shone in interactions with immigrant clients, using his fluency in Spanish to forge connections and bring comfort to his clients.
After leaving Georgetown University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in foreign service, international politics, and Latin American studies, Lobo Koerich first took a job as a program officer with the American Bar Association’s Rule of Law Initiative. In that role, he supported international development work, such as empowering working women in Mexico and countering the financing of terrorism in South America.
After graduation, Healy will work in direct client services as recipient of a prestigious Equal Justice Works fellowship. He will spend two years working for Legal Aid of North Carolina in Morganton, where he volunteered during spring break last year assisting people who had been upended by Hurricane Helene and its aftermath. In addition to representing survivors of domestic violence, people facing eviction or debt collection issues, and other civil legal aid matters, he will help the organization expand its offerings through technology, including artificial intelligence.
“First and foremost, I wanted to plug in where it would be the most helpful,” she said. At Harvard Law, she has focused on food law, including authoring a memo for the Food Law and Policy Clinic on the legal frameworks governing aquaculture. In Indonesia, she studied the government’s efforts to support so-called blue foods, which come from the marine environment. She also researched the nickel mining industry. Nickel is an essential component in the batteries that power electric vehicles and store solar energy, but its extraction and refinement has led in Indonesia to deforestation and water contamination, among other harms, according to a United Nations report last year.
What’s lost? Well, I think regulators now know much less about what’s going on in corporate lending, because regulated banks are doing so much less of it. I don’t think we have firm numbers, but that’s everyone’s sense. For some of the larger firms that used to finance their activity in the syndicated loan market, their debt doesn’t trade anymore, and because their debt doesn’t trade, they aren’t providing disclosures of their activities to groups of lenders. The world is more impoverished in terms of information than it used to be. This is why the title of the article is “The Credit Markets Go Dark.” Just 20 years ago, even a firm that was owned by private equity often had publicly traded bond debt, and they reported information about themselves to at least some people. Right now, private credit firms keep information in-house. It’s a different information environment for regulators and for investors.
Tushnet, the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Law Emeritus, spoke at an April 8 talk on a book published in his honor last year, “Redefining Comparative Constitutional Law: Essays for Mark Tushnet.” He was joined on the panel by the book’s editors, Vicki C. Jackson , the Laurence H. Tribe Professor of Constitutional Law, and Visiting Professor Madhav Khosla , the Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Professor of Indian Constitutional Law at Columbia Law School. The three scholars, along with Rosalind Dixon L.L.M. ’04 S.J.D. ’08, are also coauthors of “Comparative Constitutional Law,” the leading casebook in the field.
An example cited by Wu was the 1947 General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, which reduced trade barriers between a diverse array of signatory countries. Initially, at the 1944 Bretton Woods conference, Wu pointed out that the Soviet Union participated actively, as did Yugoslavia. But the final 1947 agreement did not include countries then in the Soviet bloc and provided flexible arrangements for countries to change their commitments to one another when political conditions later shifted in any signatory. This type of flexible, values-aligned internationalism, Wu argued, laid the groundwork for post-war economic recovery and further security cooperation.
Likewise, large-scale social and political movements, including revolutions, hinge on intangible factors that an algorithm won’t spot. “You don’t know what’s really in people’s heads. If we’re going to get some big movement in favor of Donald Trump or Barack Obama, that might be - and it is in both cases - a big surprise to people on the ground. … The extent to which people were enthusiastic about Obama and what he brought was not generally knowable because it was inside peoples’ heads. The same is emphatically true for President Trump.”
“When you study law, you have to deal with difficult topics … it is easy to lose sight of the good in law - its potential to help us achieve the things we hope to achieve. Laws that protect core human rights, laws that support technological and business innovation, laws that promote accountable government - these are all part of our traditions, too,” he said. “Be alive to the bad in law, of course, but don’t dismiss its potential.”
Watson is particularly grateful for assistance from Harvard Law’s Office of Public Interest Advising throughout the complicated application process, which includes seeking a position with a public interest organization and working jointly with that sponsor to apply for fellowship funding. The office, which helps both students and alumni secure opportunities to work in the public interest, also connects students to other sources of financial support, such as Harvard’s own Public Service Venture Fund .
Each year, graduating J.D. and LL.M. students invite faculty to deliver one final lecture to the graduating class as part of the Last Lecture Series - a tradition in which Harvard Law faculty offer parting words of encouragement and advice to graduating students. This year, students selected Professors Kristen Eichensehr, Benjamin Sachs, and Robert Sitkoff to send them off with final words of wisdom as they prepare for their post-Harvard Law lives and careers.
When asked about the story he is most proud of, Torre cited a recent episode where he interviewed a death row inmate named Charles Don Flores. Flores was accused of acting as an accessory to a murder during a robbery and was convicted of murder 26 years ago under the law of parties, a Texas statute that allows accessories to be held responsible for felonies later committed by others. According to Torre, the prosecution presented evidence at Flores’ trial that police obtained through the controversial practice of forensic hypnosis.
“We’ve lost this notion of a civic virtue, doing something because it’s good for the public, as opposed to it is good for me,” Sullivan said. “Civic virtue is an old idea and a simple notion, that we as citizens have to subordinate, sometimes, our individual interests in favor of the public good. The founding generation, with all their warts, understood or almost assumed that to be the case - that virtuous people would elect virtuous leaders, and those leaders would do virtuous things.”
Similarly, Sachs advised the students to stay connected, to work together to make change, adding that while not everyone will always agree with one another, “We share enough that HLS can be a meaningful community for the rest of our lives. This includes our core commitment to the rule of law as the basis for democratic government, and it includes our commitment to the promise, though far from actualized, of equal justice.”
People are rightfully concerned about what happens in public law - how and when governments exercise power. But lawyers working in private law areas - such as property, contracts, torts, corporations, and family law - also play a critical role in securing rights and the integrity of our legal system, according to Robert H. Sitkoff , the Austin Wakeman Scott Professor of Law and John L. Gray Professor of Law at Harvard Law School.
Saperstein advised students in the audience not to expect “a linear path” in their first post-grad years because such paths seldom exist. “I know that’s weird, because the process you’ve taken your whole lives was pretty linear: Keep going to school, keep getting good grades, keep getting better things offered to you. Then all of a sudden, it becomes nonlinear and there are no more grades. People are going to start giving you feedback, and it will be the first time you’ve ever gotten negative feedback. Somebody’s going to tell you you’re not perfect. That’s the best possible thing someone can do for you.”
During this year’s Celebration of Black Alumni, four distinguished Harvard Law affiliates - Sherrilyn Ifill, Kenneth I. Chenault ’76, Kenneth C. Frazier ’78 and Adebayo O. Ogunlesi ’79 - were honored with the Harvard Law School Celebration Award: (Photo left) Sherrilyn Ifill, the Vernon Jordan Distinguished Professor of Civil Rights and founder of the 14th Amendment Center for Law & Democracy at Howard University School of Law; (Photo right) Harvard Law Professor David Wilkins ’80, Kenneth I. Chenault ’76, chairman and managing director of General Catalyst, a fellow of Harvard Corporation, and the former chairman and CEO of American Express; Kenneth C. Frazier ’78, retired chairman and CEO, Merck & Co., chairman, health assurance initiatives of General Catalyst and a fellow of Harvard Corporation; and Adebayo O. Ogunlesi ’79, chairman and CEO Global Infrastructure Partners, BlackRock. [pictured with Dale LeFebvre ’98, executive chairman and founder, 3.5.7.11]
Susannah Barton Tobin, Ezra Ripley Thayer Senior Lecturer on Law: The summer happily brings the chance to make a dent in my tall TBR [to be read] pile. I’m eager to read Joshua Kendall’s “ Trudeau and Doonesbury: The Cartoonist Who Turned the News Into Art ,” a biography of the famously private G.B. Trudeau, the first comic strip artist to win a Pulitzer (and, if there’s any justice, someday the first to win a Nobel Prize). Anne Lamott has a new book on writing with Neal Allen, “ Good Writing .” If it’s even half as good as her “ Bird by Bird ,” my favorite book on writing, it will be a classic. And as Christopher Nolan’s take on “The Odyssey” sails into theaters, I’m returning to Emily Wilson’s outstanding translation of Homer’s epic poem. Critics of her translation as overly feminist might forget Samuel Butler’s provocative “ The Authoress of The Odyssey ,” arguing (based on textual analysis of the strong female characters) that the poem might have been written by a woman. “ Shakespeare: An Ungentle Life ,” by Wilson’s mother, the late scholar Katherine Duncan-Jones, is also on my reread list. Moving from the past to our challenging present and future, I would be remiss not to mention the new paperback edition (fully updated and expanded) of “ Lawless ,” by former Climenko fellow and current University of Michigan Law professor Leah Litman, and Senator Raphael Warnock’s “ The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America .” Finally, I hope to extend the summer into September to include Sherry Turkle’s “ Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines .”
Of his time in Iraq, French said he had been an early supporter of the war and felt compelled to enlist. He joined the U.S. Army Reserve at 36 and was a military lawyer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps. He was stationed in the Diyala Province in 2007 during “the surge,” the increase in U.S. military forces intended to help stabilize the nation. At the time there was a sense that “the media had failed in the choice to go into Iraq,” said Sorkin, who wondered if French’s experience on the ground informed how he “felt about the role of lawyers, about the role of journalists, about all the decision makers and influencers.”
Clinical instructors and assistant directors of the family practice Jacob Chin and Elizabeth Tuttle Newman ’16 describe the collaboration as an exercise in “movement lawyering” - using legal expertise to support grassroots organizing rather than leading it. “We really believe movement and community lawyering must be led by impacted experts and people with lived experience,” Chin said. “Co-creating movement spaces with impacted parents takes a lot of intentionality and mutual trust. We fostered a relationship with Tatiana and impacted parents for years before building out our clinical partnership.”
“I’ve just really appreciated understanding the depths to what I feel is a deeper truth, which is that evidence, like any legal principle, is very malleable with social constructs and values, and seeing that across history, and seeing how we have a lot of expectations that our beliefs about evidence are modern and clean and are only going to get better with AI,” said Faulkner. “But if the history we are reading or being exposed to in this class is any evidence for the future, that’s not the case, and it’ll be a very messy transition.”
Heen concluded by referencing the life of Thaddeus R. Beal, the professor for whom her title is named, and her mentor, HLS Professor Roger Fisher. Both came out of experiences in war looking for better ways for humans to resolve conflicts. Following a sobering experience serving as a weatherman in World War II, Fisher was an early founder of negotiation programming at Harvard - his way of recognizing the need to develop alternative, nonviolent ways to solve problems.
The chief justice seems to be aware of that issue, but it also seems as though he didn’t really want to confront it head on. He includes a rather cryptic footnote saying that the Court is upholding the constitutionality of the Fed’s current structure “with its existing enforcement authorities.” That suggests the governors cannot be removed because a president disagrees with their regulatory policies. But he doesn’t explain why, precisely, Fed governors may be able to have for-cause protection in their regulatory capacities when it appears from Slaughter that the members of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, who also regulate banks, no longer do. I think he’s trying to avoid an awkward situation here - what I’ve referred to as the difficulty of trying to split the Fed in two. But he’s trying to do so in a brief footnote that doesn’t provide a very good basis for evaluating how strong the protection may prove to be.
Before serving as ambassador, Lew headed the Treasury Department and was a White House chief of staff under President Barack Obama ’91. Previously, among other positions, he was deputy secretary of state for management and resources and director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Bill Clinton. In the private sector, he has been managing director and chief operating officer at Citigroup.
We begin the course by looking at the basic regulation of food, focusing on the history and current issues in rules regarding food safety. We then analyze federal agricultural policy and farm subsidies, and the environmental, health, and safety implications of our agricultural system. The course will cover issues in food labeling, including nutrition facts, health claims, and GMO labeling. Students will also examine the role the government plays in determining what foods are consumed, through its Dietary Guidelines, food assistance programs, and other attempts to increase healthy food access or consumption. Finally, we will evaluate a range of existing and potential policy interventions at the federal, state, and local levels.
Required Class Component: Students in the spring clinic must enroll in either Food Law and Policy (2 spring classroom credits) or Policy Advocacy Workshop (2 spring classroom credits), or must have taken one of those courses in a prior semester. Students who enroll in the spring clinic will be enrolled in one of the required courses by the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs. Students are guaranteed a seat in one of these two required courses, but are not guaranteed their first choice. Students enrolled in either course under a clinical seat will lose their seat if they choose to drop the clinic.
This seminar will examine contemporary issues in Islamic law, with a focus on issues highly salient in our world today, including climate change and its many impacts, protection of the environment, animal welfare and rights, food security and sovereignty, access to water, alternative energy sources, and others. Advocates, policy makers, and governments worldwide (and not only in countries with significant Muslim populations) are drawing on Islamic law in pursuit of solutions to these existential problems. Case studies will be drawn from countries including Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, the U.S., and others.
Haaland emphasized that lawyers - including Harvard Law alumni Natalie Landreth ’01 and Laura Bloomer ’19, and Robert Anderson, who served as the Oneida Indian Nation Visiting Professor of Law for more than a decade - were behind many of her department’s wins. “Each of you has more power than you realize,” she said. “I know for a fact you’re all powerful, because Harvard Law graduates and former faculty have helped lead our momentous efforts at the department since day one.”
This is a survey course on Natural Resources Law with an emphasis on federal public land management. Topics covered include the History of Federal Public land acquisition, disposal and conservation, Rangelands, Forest Lands, National Park Service and National Wildlife Refuge Lands, Minerals, Forests, and Energy Resources. Special attention will be paid to issues of Natural Resource Management on American Indian Lands and water law. The course also addresses state responsibilities for natural resources management (focusing on the public trust doctrine).
The State Attorney General Clinic during the winter term offers students an opportunity to work in state attorney general offices around the country. Clinic work is full-time over winter term and care will be taken to place students in both states and divisions that meet their professional goals, although particular placements are not guaranteed. Winter term placements are generally involved in various divisions of State AG offices: criminal appeals, criminal trials and appeals, environment, human trafficking, labor law, civil defense, opinions, constitutional defense and consumer protection. Students are placed in offices across the country for a three week period. Some financial support is available to assist with transportation and lodging.
This course will begin with a first module that will cover the evolution of amateurism concepts in the NCAA. It will then continue with an overview of the sports marketing industry and then proceed to discuss some of the more important legal doctrines relating to that industry, involving intellectual property law, labor law and contract law. In that context, the course will explore the skills necessary to conduct a series of “hypothetical” sports-related contract negotiations. The students will then participate in group-based contract-drafting exercises with an emphasis on client representation. Contracts to be drafted include a “product endorsement agreement,” and a “name, image and likeness” lithograph poster agreement. Simulated depositions and “oral arguments” will also be conducted. Next, in the context of a mock litigation, students will assume a “contract breach” of the agreements they have drafted. In turn, they will draft document requests, deposition questions and legal briefs in support of the contractual positions taken during the contract drafting exercises.
Sports Law clinical placements are in a variety of settings, including legal departments of major leagues or sports franchises or talent agencies, and with law firms and lawyers doing sports law in representing individual players, teams, or leagues. Students’ clinical work in the field can may include contract and transactional work, arbitration, litigation, research, and writing.
This course will provide students the opportunity to negotiate and draft agreements that a lawyer advising a sports team would encounter. Students in the course will learn about the various components of complex deal documents and have the opportunity to then draft these documents, as well as explore and experiment with negotiating strategies.
States play a leading role in forging our nation’s energy policy. U.S. State regulatory authority over the energy industry is pervasive, from resource extraction to end-use consumption. This course offers an overview of core U.S. state functions, the legal questions they present, and the current policy debates and legal battles over the future of our energy sector. Topics will include: regulating electric utilities, siting infrastructure, developing renewable energy, producing oil and gas, powering transportation, and legislating/regulating within constitutional constraints.
For more information about this clinic, please visit the Clinic Website, Clinic Q&A and OCP Blog Highlights. In addition, as this clinic is part of the Legal Services Center (LSC), you are encouraged to visit LSC’s Clinical Student FAQs page. LSC runs a shuttle from campus and provides a travel subsidy to students (more information on the FAQ page .)
This workshop is the required classroom component that complements the work of combating abuses of consumers by the financial services industry and fighting back against the negative consequences that can result from those abuses. Specifically, our clinical work focuses on consumer debt collection, consumer scams, car financing, utility and credit card debt, bankruptcy, and mortgage servicing.
This is a course that covers the (non-bankruptcy) law of financial distress. Historically, companies that fell into financial distress filed for bankruptcy, making bankruptcy law the central body of law regulating distressed firms and the legal maneuvers they can make to try to resolve their distress. That is increasingly not the case: today, the most sophisticated companies often seek to restructure their debt outside of bankruptcy. In this class, we will cover the bodies of law that regulate the behavior of troubled companies beyond bankruptcy law. Topics will include, among others, fiduciary duty law and other corporate law remedies, distressed debt exchanges and the trust indenture act, fraudulent transfer law, state foreclosure law and assignments for the benefit of creditors, debt contracts, corporate finance and lender liability law. We will devote special attention to the cutting edge transactions at the forefront of corporate restructuring practice, which are usually referred to as “liability management exercises.”
Since 1978, U.S. Chapter 11 has served as the world’s dominant corporate restructuring system - not only for American corporations but also for large companies in Europe, Asia, and Latin America that have filed for bankruptcy in the United States despite having little or no connection to the country. However, in the twenty-first century, the United States faces genuine competition for the first time. England’s Part 26A restructuring plan, introduced in 2020, has emerged as a credible global rival to Chapter 11, and the European Union, Singapore, the Netherlands, and other jurisdictions have enacted new insolvency laws with important advantages over the American system - including lower costs, faster proceedings, and, in some cases, the ability to accomplish transactions that U.S. law would not permit. As a result, even publicly traded American companies have begun restructuring abroad. Much of this is driven by U.S. law firms, which increasingly dominate corporate bankruptcy practice throughout the world and are learning to use the insolvency systems of other countries to achieve results for their clients that Chapter 11 cannot deliver - including, at times, circumventing recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
At the conclusion of the faculty panel, the library panel opened with remarks from Amanda Watson, assistant dean for library and information resources, who introduced Petrina Jackson, the Lia Gelin Poorvu Executive Director of the Schlesinger Library at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute; Sarah Martin, associate university archivist for community engagement at the Harvard University Archives ; and Ed Moloy, curator of modern manuscripts at the law school library. Panelists described ongoing archival projects underway at their institutions, the challenges they have encountered, and the value of preserving and providing open access to collections.
Finally, the Harvard Law School course on Copyright will be paralleled by - and at times will overlap with - a networked course known as CopyrightX. A detailed description of CopyrightX is available at https://ipxcourses.org/course-overview/. In brief, approximately 500 students from approximately 70 countries will be watching the same recorded lectures that you watch and will be reading a subset of the materials that you read. Those students will be organized into “sections,” each led by a Harvard Teaching Fellow. In addition, roughly 600 students will participate in affiliated courses in other universities, law firms, and nonprofit organizations, most of them in other countries. You will have an opportunity (not an obligation) to interact with these other groups of students in two contexts: they will join the class via an interactive webcast on the Wednesdays when guest speakers visit Harvard; and you can participate along with them in an online discussion forum.
The Cyberlaw Clinic, based at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society, engages Harvard Law School students in a wide range of real-world client counseling, licensing and transactional, litigation, advocacy, and policy projects and cases, covering a broad spectrum of issues relating to technology and the Internet. The Clinic’s work includes offering legal guidance in areas of law that include Communications Infrastructure; Consumer Protection, Privacy, & Compliance; General Internet Business Law; Government Innovation; Intellectual Property; Litigation and Amicus Advocacy; Online Safety, Digital Civil Liberties, & User Rights; Speech, Media Law, & First Amendment; and Technology & Access to Justice. Clinic clients include entrepreneurs; mission-oriented non-profits and other startups; public media companies; government institutions; and advocacy organizations working on issues relating to privacy, IP, online speech, civil liberties, and human rights. Students in the Clinic have the opportunity to develop substantive legal knowledge and hone their practice skills by managing projects, engaging directly with clients, and receiving feedback and mentorship from instructors who are experienced practitioners in the field. Detailed information about all aspects of the Clinic’s practice, including descriptions of representative clients and projects and copies of Clinic filings and publications, is available at the Clinic’s website, http://clinic.cyber.harvard.edu .
This course is required for all students enrolled in the Cyberlaw Clinic. The course incorporates instruction about substantive legal issues at the heart of the Clinic’s practice, case studies and exercises designed to enhance students’ practice skills, and consideration of questions of ethics and professional responsibility that arise in the Clinic’s practice. Through regular case rounds presentations and discussions, students have the opportunity to share information with and solicit feedback from Clinic colleagues about their work.
The course will consist of interactive workshops featuring case studies on fashion law. Students will put themselves in the shoes of a lawyer advising a range of stakeholders in the fashion industry. They will tackle real legal challenges and scenarios faced by in-house and outside fashion counsel on a daily basis, from the office and atelier to the runway, with a particular focus on legal analysis and problem solving. Topics will range from intellectual property (including the protection of fashion designs, focusing on the differences between protection in the US and EU), commercial law (including commercial arrangements to license the IP of a brand to third parties for the manufacture and sale of products which traditionally are not produced in-house by a brand, e.g. fragrance, beauty, sportswear), the laws relevant to fashion shows/presentations (covering matters as broad as design rights, fashion photographers and labor law), supply chains, human rights, animal rights, (with a focus on sustainability in fashion), the digital world (covering AI, NFTs and the metaverse) and social media.
This seminar examines the role of mass media depictions and imagery in shaping perceptions within our increasingly fast-paced and turbulent modern era. It situates this loaded imaging process within an appropriate social and historical context while considering how the quest to maintain a normalized national identity competes with law and evolving notions of culture, race, and gender. Such imaging-commonly a dual process involving contestation between a group’s projected image, and one being projected upon them-will be discussed through law, literature, journalism, and visual media. It further considers such relevant and compelling issues as immigration, citizenship, diversity, propaganda, and the ultimate role of journalism/news media.
This course will provide a comprehensive study of the law that governs enforceable promises. It begins with a study of the sources of contract law and the concept of ‘mutual assent’ as a basis for contractual obligations. Topics include consideration and other contract formalities, contract interpretation, parole evidence rule, implied terms, justifications for non-performance and remedies.
This course provides an overview of the law of contracts. Core topics include consideration and other bases for enforcing promises, defenses to enforcement, interpretation, conditions, breach, and remedies. The course also introduces relevant developments in the law of restitution, and situates American doctrine within a broader international and comparative frame.
Contract law is the study of the idea of self-imposed, legally enforceable obligations. How are they created? How are they avoided? The idea is foundational, if not to life, then certainly to the law.
Contract law is the study of legally enforceable promises, normally exchanged as part of a bargain. Contracts are the main means by which transactions are made and legal obligations are voluntarily incurred. Among the topics that may be covered are: when a contractual promise exists and which are too indefinite; whether consideration should be required and what that means; whether there was offer and acceptance forming a contract; whether and when contracts should be voided because of duress, nondisclosure, a failure to read, unconscionability, or immorality; how to interpret contracts; implied and explicit contractual conditions; the material breach and perfect tender rules; whether performance is excused by mistake of fact, impossibility, impracticability, or frustration of contractual purpose; what remedies to reward and how to measure them; and whether and when damages should be limited because of failure to mitigate, unforeseeability, or use of penalty clauses.
This reading group will examine cutting-edge issues in trust law and policy from both academic and practical perspectives. Possible topics, depending on what is salient in Spring 2027, include: the political economy of trust law reform, trust decanting, jurisdictional competition, trust litigation in leading trust states, trusts in divorce, and statutory business trusts. We also hope to invite leading figures from trust practice to join us for at least some of the sessions.
This class is aimed at providing students with a comprehensive understanding of international arbitration law, both from a theoretical perspective and how legal theory translates into the practice of the field. It will proceed on the basis of a back and forth between the legal theory of international arbitration and all questions that arise in the lifetime of an arbitration proceeding, including (i) the constitution, operation, and powers of international arbitral tribunals, (ii) the applicable rules of law, (iii) the arbitral procedure, and (iv) the review of arbitral awards by national courts. The class will also examine the interplay between the different legal orders that come into play in international arbitration, namely international arbitration as a system and State legal orders.
During this two-week intensive course, we will spend the first session studying the basic doctrine leading up to and through Dobbs and set a baseline foundation of reproductive justice principles. We will then cover the development of law since Dobbs on issues like total abortion bans, conscience exemptions, shield laws, gender affirming care, and the intersection of criminal law and reproductive rights. Rather than focus primarily on “black letter” law, we will delve into the practical and strategic decisions faced by attorneys seeking to limit Dobbs ’ consequences and, conversely, those seeking to defend and expand Dobbs ’ reach. Students will read caselaw, briefs and other court pleadings, legal journal articles, research papers and studies, and administrative law documents such as proposed rules and public comments.
This course will explore where investment treaty arbitration stands today, after about three decades of growth. In particular: How has the arbitral case law tackled the most complex questions of international law? To what extent has the interplay between investment arbitration and international law nourished each of these fields of law? Why have there been calls for reform and for the termination of investment protection treaties? These questions, and many others, will be addressed through a deep immersion into the investment arbitration process, as well as through an examination of the concepts of jurisdiction and admissibility (notion of investment; nationality of investors, both physical and juridical persons; temporal application of treaties; abuse of process; etc.); the interaction between contractual and treaty breaches; treaty interpretation; and strategic options in investor-State arbitration.
The first three sessions (September 9, September 16, and September 23) will be led by the instructors. The subsequent three sessions will feature outside speakers with considerable expertise in the subject. In particular, the fourth session (currently planned for September 30) is expected to feature Professor Zohar Gosehn of Columbia Law School who has written extensively on the subject. The fifth session (currently planned for October 14) will feature two prominent practitioners, Joel Friedlander (Friedlander & Gorris) who has a plaintiff bar perspective and Theodore Mirvis (Wachtel Lipton) who has a defense bar perspective, for a discussion of how Delaware law and practice of controlling shareholder litigation can be expected to evolve post-SB21. The six session (currently planned for November 4) will provide a global perspective on the subject, and will feature Professors Dan Puchniak of Singapore Management University and Mariana Pargendler of Harvard Law School who will discuss the regulation of controlling shareholders in East Asia, South America and around the world.
This is an advanced constitutional law course for students who have already taken the introductory Constitutional Law course. This course will provide an opportunity for in-depth discussion of competing theories of constitutional interpretation, the role of the Supreme Court in our political system, and analysis of the judicial process. Each week, these themes will be examined through the lens of a current “hot topic” in constitutional law - for example, the limits of executive power, religious liberty, emergency powers, free speech, voting rights, campaign finance, immigration, same-sex marriage, and other topics.
Students will learn the ins-and-outs of litigating appeals in the field criminal justice, including general appellate strategy and skills, and emerging issues in the criminal justice system. Under the supervision of the director of MJC’s D.C. Office, students will have the opportunity to make a substantial contribution to the office’s ongoing appellate cases, including performing research and draft legal analysis for briefs that will be filed in federal court. Depending on the particular matters students work on, this may also include participation in client interaction and strategic decision-making, analysis of factual records, and participation in moot oral arguments (depending upon the stage of their assigned appeals). Students continue the clinic remotely in the spring semester, allowing more substantial involvement in their assigned appeals and increased exposure to appellate litigation.
Students can expect to represent clients on criminal and juvenile delinquency cases in the local courts. In the course of representing clients, students may be required to visit correctional institutions, which necessitate a background check. They may also represent minors in school disciplinary hearings or adult clients in appellate or other post-conviction legal proceedings. Students will be responsible for providing complete legal representation to their clients throughout the term and are expected to work a minimum of twenty hours per week at the Criminal Justice Institute under the supervision of a clinical instructor. Students will receive one-to-one supervision, individual critique of their courtroom work, and participate in regular group sessions with their supervisor. Classroom reading and discussion will draw upon and complement the students’ experiences as defense counsel.
Students can expect to represent clients on criminal and juvenile delinquency cases in the local courts. In the course of representing clients, students may be required to visit correctional institutions, which necessitate a background check. They may also represent minors in school disciplinary hearings or adult clients in appellate or other post-conviction legal proceedings. Students will be responsible for providing complete legal representation to their clients throughout the term and are expected to work a minimum of twenty hours per week at the Criminal Justice Institute under the supervision of a clinical instructor. Students will receive one-to-one supervision, individual critique of their courtroom work, and participate in regular group sessions with their supervisor. Classroom reading and discussion will draw upon and complement the students’ experiences as defense counsel.
Students will learn the ins-and-outs of litigating appeals in the field criminal justice, including general appellate strategy and skills, and emerging issues in the criminal justice system. Under the supervision of the director of MJC’s D.C. Office, students will have the opportunity to make a substantial contribution to the office’s ongoing appellate cases, including performing research and draft legal analysis for briefs that will be filed in federal court. Depending on the particular matters students work on, this may also include participation in client interaction and strategic decision-making, analysis of factual records, and participation in moot oral arguments (depending upon the stage of their assigned appeals). Students continue the clinic remotely in the spring semester, allowing more substantial involvement in their assigned appeals and increased exposure to appellate litigation.
This course encompasses many aspects of disability rights, laws, and policies, with particular emphasis on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which regulates employment, state and local governments, transportation, and public accommodations. This year marks the ADA’s 37th anniversary. Readings, lectures, and other disability studies materials provide context for the covered legal issues. All materials are posted to the Canvas course website, including a copy of the ADA (as amended), which you can also find here: : https://archive.ada.gov/pubs/adastatute08.pdf
Persons with intellectual disabilities the world over have faced innumerable obstacles to full and effective participation in all aspects of life. While advocates with intellectual disabilities and their allies have made remarkable strides in overcoming many of these obstacles, considerable barriers remain. Specifically, persons with intellectual disabilities’ decision-making capacity is frequently called into question by laws, policies, and programs that may predicate rights restrictions on perceived capacity limitations. Grounding ourselves in international human rights legal protections, this reading group will explore the ways in which laws, policies, and programs both succeed and fail to accommodate persons with intellectual disabilities across a variety of contexts and the role that capacity plays in delimiting the scope of evolving human and civil rights protections. This group will explore sources of international law, starting with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, as well as selected court cases, to frame discussions about the proper role of capacity in delimiting the rights and responsibilities of persons with intellectual disabilities. These sources will be supplemented with opportunities to dialogue directly with advocates with lived experiences to understand their perspectives on the attitudinal, informational, and institutional barriers they routinely face when accessing their rights.
In this course, we will examine the ways in which various types of diversity - such as class, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, and political diversity - impact the way we negotiate and resolve conflict. Although the main focus of the class will be on readings and discussion, we will also use experiential exercises, including role plays, to enhance our personal understanding of how diversity affects our experience of conflict and our ability to manage difficult conversations involving identity and deeply held views.
The Education Law Clinic: Individual Representation engages students in individual client representation in special education as well as systemic change advocacy to advance the school success of children who have endured highly adverse childhood experiences. Students use the legal tools contained in the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and related laws (including the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1972, federal Medicaid laws, and federal and state statutes regarding confidentiality, among others) to advocate for individual remedies that will enable their client’s children to succeed in school. Students will utilize research from psychology, neurobiology, and education about the effects of trauma on learning to inform their representation. Depending on the posture of the cases in the clinic, students will represent clients either at the first administrative hearing level - the IEP team meeting - or at the administrative appeal level - the Bureau of Special Education Appeals. Past students have made enormous differences in the lives of children by obtaining an appropriate education, and in many cases reversing school exclusions, for individual children at school. Though the major focus of students’ clinic work will be direct client representation, students will also engage in systemic advocacy that furthers the Clinic’s broader mission. In recent semesters, this has included conducting legal trainings for expert evaluators and community-based mental health providers so they can assist their families to navigate the special education system at school and assert their legal rights. The Education Law Clinic is part of the Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative (TLPI), the mission of which is to ensure that all children, including those traumatized by exposure to violence and other adverse childhood experiences, succeed in school. The clinic’s direct legal representation of individual families is a key strategy in TLPI’s ongoing multi-strategic advocacy campaign to create safe and supportive school environments where all students can learn and thrive.
Students in this clinic will engage in preparing the groundwork for possible state constitutional litigation designed to fully define and enforce the right to a meaningful public education. More specifically, we aim to pursue a vision for the constitutional right to an education that clearly outlines the educational outcomes and resource inputs necessary to provide all students with the skills and capacities they need to participate meaningfully in democratic society and in the world of work. In collaboration with the Center for Educational Equity at Columbia University, the Clinic has outlined a national action plan for pursuing such advocacy across the country and has begun deep work in one particular state where we hope to establish the efficacy of our model. In this particular state, clinic students will work closely with our partner organization - a youth voice non-profit founded by secondary school students - to carry out a public engagement campaign designed to elicit factual evidence about the state of public education in local communities, build relationships with key individuals and organizations, increase public awareness, and identify potential plaintiffs. This campaign will include a series of regional public forums across the state throughout the winter and spring that clinic students will help to plan and implement. Students will analyze and synthesize transcripts from these forums and prepare memos that detail key findings. Students will also identify particular forum attendees for follow-up in-depth interviews and will conduct interviews in collaboration with secondary school student partners. All of this factfinding will result in a “state of our schools” report to be authored and released by our partner organization. The findings in the report will also potentially serve as key allegations in a state court complaint, which we may begin drafting before the conclusion of the semester. In addition to the work outlined above in our first state, students may also engage in research and stakeholder outreach to develop potential advocacy activities in other states identified as viable jurisdictions for implementation of our advocacy model. Students in this clinic will also be required to register for a companion seminar that will focus on the historical, jurisprudential, and doctrinal underpinnings of our legal theory.
The Education Law Clinic is part of the Youth Advocacy & Policy Lab (Y-Lab). Y-Lab’s mission is to advocate for the creation of youth-serving systems that are trauma-sensitive, healing-centered, and antiracist and that center the voices of young people in decisions that impact them. Students in this clinic will participate in Y-Lab’s Students Speak initiative, which is working to foster a movement for youth voice and power in educational decision making in Massachusetts. Clinic students will support the work of the Students Speak Youth Leadership Team (YLT)-a group of 14 secondary school students from across Massachusetts-to engage their peers in a youth action cycle designed to collectively identify legal remedies that could promote greater youth participation in school-based decision making-and then to advocate together to achieve these remedies. Each clinic student will personally mentor 1-2 youth leaders, coaching them in the development of their leadership and advocacy skills. Together clinic students and youth leaders will co-facilitate focus groups and discussions with broader groups of young people in communities across the state. As young people identify issues of concern in their schools, clinic students will support the YLT to identify common themes and potential solutions. Clinic students will use their burgeoning legal and analytical skills to help the youth translate their desired solutions into feasible legal remedies and then assess and implement various advocacy strategies, which could include legislative advocacy, administrative advocacy, media and communications, and even possibly litigation. At all points, clinic students will be learning how to strike a careful balance in their lawyering between providing necessary scaffolding for their clients to make informed decisions and ensuring that young people authentically lead the direction of the work.
In this course we will explore concepts of inequality from a range of disciplinary perspectives. We will also consider meanings and effects of pernicious inequalities in several sociolegal contexts such as geography, race, and poverty/work/labor. Finally we will examine methodologies for “mapping” ways that various legal dynamics drive the genesis, elaboration, reinforcement and maintenance of hierarchies of privilege and disadvantage across individuals, groups, localities, regions and nations and more. As we identify key legal drivers in the production of specific adverse inequalities, we will also explore ways that changes in legal ordering might shift bargaining power, redistribute resources or otherwise ameliorate their negative effects. Students will work in clusters to research a domain of inequality and develop a legal inequality map of its drivers in order to analyze and engage with it.
The Child Advocacy Clinic is an externship clinic where students are placed for fieldwork in a legal setting in the child advocacy arena. The course is the companion seminar. The Clinic and accompanying seminar are designed to educate students about a variety of substantive areas impacting the lives of children, and the different systems that are meant to serve them. In addition, the course exposes students to a range of system change strategies to encourage critical thinking about the pros and cons of different approaches. The Clinic is relevant not only for students with a particular interest in children’s issues, but also for those more generally interested in system change.
Students in the Democracy and the Rule of Law Clinic will work with Protect Democracy to safeguard the key features of a democratic society through a variety of tools that advance the organization’s mission, including: impact litigation; policy advocacy to members of Congress, and other local, state, and federal officials; strategic partnerships with other groups and individuals who align with the organization’s mission; communications through media outlets, reports, social media posts, and the organization’s website; and Freedom of Information Act requests. The Clinic will focus on issues such as protecting free and fair elections, ensuring the impartial application of the rule of law, safeguarding healthy civic institutions that allow for public participation in political debate, prohibiting official corruption, and challenging government if it targets marginalized communities.
This seminar will explore innovations in democratic practice in America, informed by the many innovations happening across the world. We will spend significant time exploring the history of conventions in America, the development of elections across our history, the challenges with elections, especially in the current moment, and citizen assemblies as complements or substitutes for elections as ways to populate representative and administrative entities, or as constraints on the work of representative democracies.
This course examines the law, both constitutional and statutory, that governs the American electoral system. Topics covered include the right to vote, reapportionment and redistricting, minority representation, the regulation of political parties, and campaign finance. The course draws heavily from both legal and political science scholarship. It addresses constitutional provisions including the First, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, as well as key statutes such as the Voting Rights Act, the Federal Election Campaign Act, and the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act. Students will develop an understanding of not only election law doctrine, but also the theoretical and functional underpinnings of the American electoral system.
The Election Law Clinic offers Harvard Law students the opportunity to do hands-on litigation and advocacy work across a range of election law areas, including current active redistricting and vote suppression cases. Clinic offerings will include federal and state litigation projects, as well as some advocacy opportunities. Under the supervision of Clinic Director Ruth Greenwood, Litigation Director Theresa Lee, and Clinical Instructor Daniel Hessel, clinic students will work on every aspect of litigation, including pre-filing investigations, meeting and retaining clients, engaging in lay and expert discovery, briefing and arguing dispositive motions, pre-trial preparations and trial practice, as well as the appellate process. Election law cases rely heavily on political scientists as experts, so students will have broad exposure to emerging theories and methods in political science and how to communicate them to a legal audience. Students will also engage in one-off amicus brief work for cases of national importance. Professor Nicholas Stephanopoulos will provide strategic guidance and supervision for briefing, expert discovery, and appellate work.
In this 4-credit course, we will examine the laws that govern and structure the employment relationship in nonunion workplaces. As such, the course will provide students an understanding of the law of work for the vast majority of U.S. firms. We will discuss the doctrine of employment at will, along with exceptions to that rule. We will cover the basic principles of employment discrimination law; the constitutional rights (including the free speech rights) of public employees; mandatory arbitration of workplace disputes and employment rights; post-employment issues including covenants not to compete; workplace safety and health; and the laws governing wages and hours.
The Employment Law Clinic focuses on rights in the workplace, with a particular emphasis on state and federal laws that prohibit discrimination, harassment, and retaliation based on race, sex, disability, and other protected characteristics. Work may also address issues such as unemployment benefits, wage and hour claims, severance negotiations, union issues, workplace safety, and more. Students in this clinic will have placements at externships, such as with non-profit/advocacy groups (such as Lawyers for Civil Rights; Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders; Justice at Work; or Greater Boston Legal Services) or with government agencies (such as the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination; the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office; the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission; or the U.S. Department of Labor).
This course will develop lawyering skills in the context of employment law. After a brief overview of relevant doctrine and procedure, the course will address - through readings, lectures, and exercises - skills related to legal writing, oral advocacy, discovery, depositions, negotiations, counseling, and ethics. The course will follow the progress of a typical civil rights lawsuit involving a terminated employee. For example, one class session will require students to engage in a mock deposition of an opposing witness in a hypothetical sex discrimination case, and the next class will require students to engage in a negotiation in the same case.
This course is about the fascinating law, policies, social conventions, and ideas that regulate family and intimate relationships. It examines marriage and its alternatives, parenthood, divorce, child custody, property division, alimony, and child support. Substantial time is devoted to constitutional doctrines of equal protection and due process.
The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is a student-run civil legal aid organization committed to providing free representation to low-income and marginalized communities in the Greater Boston area. Students and staff aim to provide these services in a way that responds to the systemic racial, social, and economic inequalities that are the causes and consequences of poverty. To that end, the Bureau trains its student attorneys to advocate vigorously for their clients, create enduring community partnerships, and become socially conscious leaders. The Bureau currently has three primary practice areas, all led by student-members with guidance and support from experienced clinical instructors: housing (including eviction defense and movement lawyering in support of tenant power); family (including divorce, child custody, paternity, visitation, support, and orders of special findings in family court); and wage-and-hour (including nonpayment of wages and overtime, denial of earned sick time, and retaliation for assertion of workplace rights). Because the Bureau is student-run, students take the lead on cases and in setting organizational policy and exploring potential new areas or modes of practice. Enrollment is by application during the spring of the student’s 1L year; participants commit to at least 20 hours per week of clinic work for the following two academic years.
This course will examine how lawyers can use different strategies to effect social change, with a special emphasis on advancing the right to be free from workplace discrimination based on protected characteristics such as race and sex. After surveying the relevant law and reviewing empirical information about the nature of civil rights violations, we will evaluate possible strategies for social change, including government action, individual and class action litigation, self regulation, alternative dispute resolution, organizing, and social entrepreneuring. All students will have a clinical placement through the Employment Law Clinic. All clinical placements will include exposure to some aspect of employment rights and will play an important role in bringing diverse perspectives to the workshop. The workshop will require completion of an individual or group project. Projects may include some combination of empirical research, legal analysis, program evaluation, or other approaches to examining and improving the effectiveness of existing workplace protections.
This course will discuss a wide range of topics in corporate and capital markets policy and practice. The aim will be to expose students to (1) key issues that have been examined in the literature, (2) current “hot” topics, and (3) the tools and modes of argument used in such analyses and discussions. Examples of issues that might be discussed are corporate elections, the allocation of power between shareholders and boards, director independence, hedge fund activism, institutional investor stewardship, short-termism, Delaware shareholder litigation, securities regulation, and private equity.
Career Focus: This course is restricted to JD/LLM and MBA students and is geared towards preparing those students to face complex deals. In the spring, there are often guest practitioners that join the course, and they come from both legal and business backgrounds to offer their expertise. The class will be comprised of approximately an equal number of students from HBS and HLS. For HLS students, the basic course in Corporations, Corporations taken concurrently, or permission of the instructor is a prerequisite. A familiarity with basic business concepts will be assumed throughout the course. For HBS students, in addition to the first-year curriculum, a basic Negotiations course is recommended though not required.
According to one of the framers, the “soul of the Constitution” was the clause allocating authority over money. Over the following centuries, money has remained at the center of debates over governance, including federalism and national power, American approaches to economic development and social welfare, the scope of judicial review, economically structured race discrimination, the ascendance of banks, and access to credit. This 4-credit course picks up an essential line of constitutional debate and determination in order to understand the shape of American capitalism. Topics include sovereign debt, the contracts clause, the banked architecture of money, Reconstruction finance and the failure of agrarian populism, the Gold Clause cases, the authority of the Federal Reserve, financialization and inequality.
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the law and practice of federal budgeting in the United States. We will begin with the basic structure of the federal budget process, including the President’s budget and Congressional budget procedures. We will explore the roles of all three branches of federal government in setting budget policy in the United States, covering government shut-downs, debt ceiling crises, impoundment disputes, and ongoing debates over budget reforms and fiscal challenges. We will also examine current debates over deficits and public debt levels. Based on student interest, we may also take up entitlement reform, defense spending, budgeting for infrastructure as well as topics related to state budgeting practices and federal-state relations in budget policy.
Over 50 trillion dollars are invested in US funds, including both registered funds (e.g., mutual funds) and private funds (e.g., private equity, venture capital and hedge funds). As a result, nearly every major law firm has a significant funds practice (fund formation and offering, fund regulation and/or fund-related government enforcement defense and litigation), and fund managers have large in-house legal groups. In this class, through discussions of key legal concepts and activities replicating the actual tasks that you will be asked to perform as a law firm associate or in-house counsel, we will cover the areas of law needed for you to hit the ground running on day one. Topics include the different types of funds (both registered and private); how funds are organized, offered and operated; how funds and their managers are regulated (including under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Securities Act of 1933); and how the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) oversees funds and their managers. In the final class, students will roleplay an interview of a fund manager during an SEC exam (assisting the manager in preparing for and responding to SEC questions and/or taking the role of an SEC examiner leading the interview).
Yousafzai delivered her remarks after a screening of “ Bread and Roses ,” a documentary she produced with actor Jennifer Lawrence about the lives of three Afghan women. The event, sponsored by the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, also featured Gaisu Yari, a policy manager at The Malala Fund, with moderator Guhan Subramanian J.D./M.B.A ’98 , chair of the Program on Negotiation.
Note: There is also a two-credit version of this course. The three-credit version of the course will include all of the classes and materials in the two-credit version. In addition, the students who elect to take the three-credit version will review, in detail, the transcript of an actual trial of a drug product liability case. They will then each prepare a 4-5 page (with Powerpoints) section of competing statements they will present, in teams, to a jury composed of Cambridge residents (not members of the HLS community). The jurors, in turn, will provide their reactions, much as the jury research most sophisticated practitioners conduct prior to major product liability actions. The three-credit version will include additional class time to work as a team on the presentation. The presentation to the jurors will be a final (3 hour) class.
Efforts to assert reproductive control over Black women and the destruction of families are rooted in the horrors of slavery, said Roberts. It was essential “that enslavers controlled or attempted to control, through law, the reproductive labor of enslaved women.” Slavery also enabled slave holders to break up families by “sell[ing] at will the children of the enslaved … They could give away children or a mother or a father. On the auction block, family members could be sold off separately. They could sell a child to meet a debt or to punish the parents. So these two entwined aspects of reproductive violence were essential to the institution of slavery.”
Koh suggested that an agreement modeled after the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Treaty might be possible and that any such treaty would require a “last clear chance” principle stating that the person with final approval of any action could be held accountable for the results. Koh noted that dozens of states have signed on to the Political Declaration on Responsible Military Use of Artificial Intelligence and Autonomy issued by President Joe Biden’s administration in 2024. The document aimed “to build international consensus around responsible behavior and guide states’ development, deployment, and use of military AI.”
This seminar will examine the law governing the increasingly diverse activities of corporations in armed conflict and the avenues for their accountability. The seminar will begin with charting the evolution of the legal status of multinational corporations in international law and their relationship with states. The seminar will then be structured around three types of corporations and their involvement in war: private military companies (PMCs) participating in armed conflict; corporations trading arms; corporations operating in or profiting from a situation of belligerent occupation or unlawful annexation. Issues covered will include: the law governing the conduct of PMCs and avenues for their accountability; arms trade law and direct or accessorial liability for arms traders; the war crime of pillage, including through the exploitation of natural resources in (prolonged) occupation; accountability mechanisms, including international criminal law, human rights law, and soft law mechanisms such as the UN Guidelines for Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Reference will be made to contemporary cases, including in the context of the conflicts in Ukraine, Yemen, Western Sahara and Palestine.
Díaz spoke at the John T. Dunlop Memorial Forum Lecture, presented on Feb. 4 by the Center for Labor and a Just Economy and its Harvard Trade Union Program . She was introduced by the center’s executive director, Harvard Law School Professor of Practice Sharon Block ; Harvard Kennedy School Visiting Professor David Weil ; and Isabelle Ferreras , a professor at the University of Louvain in Belgium, a 2005 alumnus of the trade union program, and a senior research associate at CLJE.
In the Crimmigration Clinic students work on cutting-edge issues regarding the intersection of criminal law and immigration law. The content of the clinical projects will depend on the legal landscape at the time of clinical enrollment. In the past, students have worked on cases at multiple levels including administrative and federal courts including appellate courts and district courts on behalf of clients concerning criminal bars to immigration relief, detention, and the crime-based grounds of removal. Clinical students will also work with criminal defense attorneys to provide advice about the immigration consequences of criminal charges.
The intersection of criminal law and immigration law is a growing field of law that is at the forefront of today’s immigration debate. As immigration laws have become more “criminalized” and criminal laws have become more “immigrationized” it is increasingly important to understand the intersection of criminal law and immigration law. The goal of this course is to give students the skills to recognize and examine immigration consequences of criminal convictions and to understand how those laws have developed in light of historical trends. The class will focus on review and interpretation of federal statutes and caselaw.
Explores controversies about the use of markets and market reasoning in areas such as organ sales, procreation, environmental regulation, immigration policy, military service, voting, health care, education, criminal justice, and prediction markets. The seminar will examine arguments for and against cost-benefit analysis, the monetary valuation of life and the risk of death, and the use of economic reasoning in public policy and law.
For thirty years, the Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinic (HIRC), in partnership with Greater Boston Legal Services (GBLS), has focused on representation of individuals applying for humanitarian protection and defending them against deportation. HIRC is also involved in district court and appellate litigation, as well as policy advocacy at the local, national, and international levels. HIRC students engage in cross-clinical projects with the Crimmigration Clinic, including representing immigrants seeking release from detention through habeas petitions in district court and bond hearings in immigration court; advocacy to address detention conditions, such as solitary confinement, barriers to attorney and language access, among others; drafting briefs involving issues at the intersection of crimmigration and humanitarian protections; seeking financial compensation for individuals harmed in detention, etc.
This seminar addresses U.S. immigration and asylum law, as well as advocacy skills relevant to students’ work at the clinic. The skills component of the seminar addresses such areas as effective client interviewing, affidavit writing, trial preparation, policy advocacy, district court and appellate litigation, and amicus briefs. In order to cultivate best practices in student advocacy, this seminar draws heavily for instructional examples on students’ clinical experiences. It also allows students to connect their understanding of immigration and refugee law and lawyering skills to actual casework through consideration of specific issues of doctrine and policy implicated by students’ cases. Students will also have an opportunity to reflect critically on their experiences, models of advocacy, and social justice.
The class will analyze the strategic, practical and policy issues involved with copyright and trademark litigation from the beginning of a case where emergency injunctive relief might be sought, to its potential end at the U.S. Supreme Court. Substantive areas of copyright and trademark law will include copyrightability, authorship, substantial similarity, fair use, nominative fair use, the likelihood of confusion, use of consumer surveys, dilution, the role of the First Amendment, the theory behind injunctive relief, the nature of irreparable injury, and trademarks as a form of property right. The course will discuss how to persuasively present evidence and try a case. The course will also address the special nature of Supreme Court litigation and techniques for an effective oral argument. Each student will participate in one very brief oral argument during the semester. Real-life cases the instructor has litigated will be used to illustrate points.
Natapoff says she created the new Rule of Law 101 series with a wide audience in mind, one that includes educators, students, journalists, and advocates. In offering the series free of charge, she hopes to “expand the public conversation about rule of law, how it works, when it doesn’t work so well, and to share the intellectual tools that we have in the legal academy with more people, so they can engage and participate in that conversation themselves.”
Ekins also took issue with another key tenet of textualism - that the “plain and ordinary meaning” of a statute is its legal meaning. Language is more than the semantic content of a sentence, Ekins argued. “The question that the judge should ask is not what did the words mean, but what have the words been used to convey.”
Mellouli v. Lynch , the first of the three cases she highlighted, was an “ordinary meat and potato statutory case, and it concerns whether a conviction under a Kansas drug law made an alien removable from the United States,” she said. The petitioner, Tunisian native Moones Mellouli, was convicted of a misdemeanor in state court of possession of drug paraphernalia - namely, a sock with four unidentified pills in it. The question before the Court was whether the Kansas conviction triggered deportation under federal immigration laws, which, she explained, “make removable an alien who has been ‘convicted of a violation of … any law or regulation of a state, the United States, or a foreign country relating to a controlled substance as defined under the federal drug laws.’” Kovner was particularly familiar with the case, having argued it on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice.
President Barack Obama ’91, tried to forge accords with trading partners, but ultimately couldn’t convince these countries to move enough on progressive priorities such as labor and the environment, or to close loopholes available to nations outside of these agreements. President Trump imposed tariffs during his first term - but in a more limited way than what is happening today, Wu said. And while President Joe Biden kept some of those tariffs, Wu continued, he also reengaged with allies, particularly on technology and export controls.
This reading group will examine questions of gender justice and the law in the Middle East and North Africa. We will discuss the evolution and development of law and legal frameworks across the region and their interaction with gender and social norms, taking into account the region’s diversity of sociopolitical contexts and historical experiences. Using a case study approach, we will also explore historical and present trends and responses to questions of gender inequality, including feminist movements, grassroots mobilization, strategic litigation, and advocacy through arts and media. The readings will center the voices and scholarship of Middle Eastern legal academics, feminist scholars, and activists.
Through clinical projects and classroom seminars, students learn and practice a variety of skills deployed by strategic and creative human rights advocates. Students work in small teams under the close supervision of expert clinicians, who provide guidance, mentorship, and continual feedback. Students are involved in all aspects of their projects-conceptualizing goals and formulating strategies, researching and drafting reports and legal briefs, interviewing witnesses and stakeholders, and presenting findings before courts and international bodies. Students deploy multiple strategies and innovative techniques to promote and protect human rights, and will also critically reflect on their work and the human rights movement more broadly.
Addressing his lasting legacy, Minow first turned back the clock, describing the Harvard Law School’s campus in 2000, when Stuntz arrived, as “a very secular place,” where people with religious views “didn’t bring them to anything public.” Stuntz, who was a proud Christian, made an immediate impact. “It was very clear from the minute he walked on the campus that he meant something to a whole group of students who didn’t have anyone to talk to,” said Minow. To have “somebody who everybody admired, somebody who brought people together, that was extraordinary,” she added. “I think that this is a place now where more people feel they can be their full selves.”
Ardern was prime minister from 2017 to 2023. She said there are generally two kinds of crises in the world: those you can predict and those you can’t. In New Zealand, she said, predictable crises are wildfires, earthquakes, and volcanoes. “Those are the kinds of crises the people of New Zealand expect us to be prepared for and have a plan for,” she said, adding jokingly, “I assure you, New Zealand is a safe place.”
Wilkins: Outside of Big Law, the impact of technology is likely to be complex. On the one hand, small and medium-sized law firms are already increasingly turning to technology to “leverage up” the capacity of their lawyers to be more productive in ways that make them more competitive. On the other we are already seeing a number of tech startups offering DIY services directly to consumers in areas such as wills, real estate, and even fighting parking tickets that have traditionally been handled by these kinds of firms. As technology improves both the ease of use and accuracy of AI tools, the number of such startups is likely to grow significantly in the coming year. And while rules against unauthorized practice and outside investment still remain a challenge for these companies, the willingness of states like Arizona and New Mexico to license experimental models in their regulatory “sandboxes” will continue to put pressure on other states and the American Bar Association to loosen these restrictions.
Students spend the entire winter and spring terms (except for spring break) in Washington, D.C. working as legal interns in a federal government office or not-for-profit policymaking organization while taking an evening seminar course (twice a week during the spring term) on policy and government lawyering. Students are required to work at least 32 hours a week in the spring term, although most work full-time, and at least 40 hours a week in the winter term. Clinical work exposes students to the distinct forms of lawyering practiced by attorneys in diverse policy positions in the federal government and advocacy organizations. Government placements are principally in offices where lawyers conduct research and provide legal advice and assistance on policy, legislative or regulatory matters, rather than investigating and litigating cases. Placements in past years have included the House and Senate Judiciary Committees, the Departments of Justice and State, the White House Counsel’s Office, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Federal Communications Commission. Placements are coordinated by the clinic director, Jonathan Wroblewski, in consultation with students. Students admitted to the clinic will meet individually with the clinic director to discuss their areas of interest and placement possibilities. Every effort will be made so that students can find placements to meet their interest. During the clinic, the director will be available to meet one-on-one with students to discuss their ongoing work experience and progress.
Students attend the evening seminar course twice a week during the spring term. Readings and classroom discussions will be supplemented by guest speaker events and visits to government offices on several occasions throughout the semester. Case studies will supplement the core readings. The course will focus on the role of the government and NGO policy lawyer in policymaking and the many forces that influence the work of policymaking generally, and the lawyer’s part in that process specifically. The course will examine the skills required of attorneys in policymaking, the unique ethical, legal, and moral issues they face, and the impact of politics and ideology on their work. The course will look at the discourse in policymaking in Washington, why it has changed over time, and the implications of the state of discourse for the lawyer involved in policymaking, legal advice, and advocacy. Finally, the course will explore the process of policymaking, the use of data and research in policymaking, and the role of the bureaucracy. The course will include student discussions of their experiences in their clinical placements. Guest speakers, including government lawyers, issue advocates, and think tank scholars, will visit the class periodically throughout the semester. Students will be expected to research the background of the guests and participate in class interviews to explore their work. The course may also include visits to government offices to examine, for example, how data used in the policymaking process is actually collected and synthesized. A course paper relating to the student’s work or to classroom subjects will be required in lieu of an examination.
We rely on judgments about evidence throughout our personal and professional lives. These judgments include the evidence supplied by our senses (such as, seeing that the sky is cloudy as evidence of actual or likely rain) as well as the evidence supplied by our reasoning faculties (such as, advice from experts as evidence regarding risks we face and steps we can take to prevent harms to ourselves and others). Lawyers and judges also constantly make judgments about evidence when they assess the applicability of legal rules to the facts of cases, which of course involves determining what exactly those facts are. American legal systems have developed Evidence law, a distinct set of rules, policies, and procedures that guide legal factfinders (lawyers, judges, and juries) in their judgments about what factual claims are taken to be sufficiently proven for the purposes of civil and criminal litigation - for depriving civil or criminal litigants of property, liberty, or life. In this course we study the rules, policies, and institutions of Evidence law, with a cohering focus on the argument practices of trial and appellate lawyers and judges under that law. We will be attentive to the illuminating and clarifying connections among legal arguments under rules of Evidence and the many other ways in which we make arguments that rely on evidence outside of the legal setting.
Jurisprudence is the silent and controlling partner in every judge’s and every lawyer’s reasoning about law. A judge, a lawyer, a citizen, a law student cannot answer any legal question without a sufficiently clear sense of what law is- as distinct, say, from religion, or hard science or social science- and what it is that constitutes legal reasoning and argument (as opposed to, say, reasoning in empirical science or theology or mathematics or logic). What sources may a judge consult to resolve a legal dispute, and on what sources should a lawyer rely in making an argument on behalf of a client? Only such commonplace sources as case precedents, statutes, constitutional provisions, administrative regulations, executive orders? May she also consult the bible, or works by moral, political, and legal philosophers? Why or why not?
“Hard Cases make Bad Law”; behind this adage (which we will explore) are often competing yet compelling norms and doctrines. When should individual liberty include authority for parents over their minor children’s education and health care and when should children’s own rights and interests- or priorities or the state- prevail? Should freedom of the press govern or instead rights of criminal defendants when setting boundaries of trial coverage and jury selection? When should state sovereignty trump federal power and vice versa? When should past expectations trump current understandings of needs or justice? Paradigmatic situations present “hard cases” include: 1) where conflicting laws or norms govern the same situation; 2) where governing laws do not point to a clear resolution, and instead leave discretion to the judge; 3) where governing law points to a clear resolution that the decision-maker(s) (judge, juries, public) finds objectionable. What justifies the resolutions and how do the results affect the legitimacy of the process? “Hard cases” may be exemplars of matters requiring human judgment rather than Artificial Intelligence tools; if so, why? We will examine how particularly hard cases have been resolved, examine alternative resolutions in light of underlying norms and doctrines, and whether alternative frameworks could yield better law as well as desirable results.
This reading group will explore the intersection of international law, the conduct of war, and cinema. Through the lens of film, students will examine the legal frameworks governing armed conflict, the ethical dilemmas faced in war, and the depiction of international law in popular culture. We will analyze cinematic portrayals of key issues in the legal regulation of war, including: targeting (and the use of new technologies); detention and prisoners of war; child soldiers; belligerent occupation; individual responsibility for war crimes. The films selected will offer both a historical and contemporary perspective.
This workshop will examine new ideas at the intersection of law and philosophy. The workshop will meet weekly and will focus on discussion of pre-circulated working papers presented by their authors. Open to HLS students as well as graduate students in philosophy, political theory, or related fields.
For an hour and a half, Smith discussed his professional life and his values during a lunchtime conversation organized by Harvard’s Center on the Legal Profession . He was interviewed by Whiting, a former assistant special counsel at the Justice Department who once headed investigations at the Kosovo Specialist Prosecutor’s Office in The Hague. Whiting and Smith have worked together on multiple occasions, including at the Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office, the International Criminal Court, and the Justice Department.
This course will examine the law and policies that govern data practices, the use of or access to personal information, artificial intelligence, and sensitive information technologies. General topics will cover the philosophy, public policy and regulation of privacy, data protection, international data transfers, AI, behavioral and location tracking, profiling, microtargeting, algorithmic accountability, automated decision-making, and online disinformation. Discussion will focus on the tensions, tradeoffs, and cost-benefit impacts of regulating digital technology (“TechReg”). The class will examine TechReg conflicts that implicate free speech, economic innovation, national security, law enforcement, civil and human rights, politics, and business interests. Comparisons among US, UK, and EU approaches will be addressed. Students will be expected to participate extensively in class, and to follow significant current developments in the field. Occasional guest speakers may be invited.
This course examines the law governing the conduct of U.S. foreign relations. The Constitution sets out the basic framework for foreign relations law, but it leaves much unsaid and at least as much subject to interbranch contests for power. Topics will include: the allocation of authorities between the executive, legislature, and judiciary; the political question doctrine, presumption against extraterritoriality, and other doctrines that judges use in foreign relations-related cases; the role of states and federalism in foreign relations; the scope of the treaty power and U.S. practices for making and terminating international agreements; and the frameworks governing emergency powers and the use of force.
This offering will explore the role of the state and sovereignty in contemporary multilateral affairs, with a focus on struggles concerning the purported breakdown of the “rules-based international order,” efforts to challenge the dominant approach to the doctrine of sources, and resistance against foreign interference. We will read primary and secondary sources, think critically about legal and political claims, and explore potential futures for what a “pro-Global South approach” to international law and institutions of global governance might look like.
This course explores the international law of the sea, the body of public international law that governs the rights and duties of states in their use of the oceans and seas. This course presents the institutional structure, doctrines, and norms that govern activities in the oceans, seas, coastal areas, and ports, including: contending rights and jurisdiction; maritime zones; marine living resources, marine mammals and fisheries; offshore energy and deep seabed mining; submarine communications cables; international trade, shipping and navigation; maritime law enforcement and human rights; marine environmental protection, marine scientific research and marine technology; naval operations and conflict at sea; marine biodiversity, climate change and sustainable development; maritime boundary delimitation; and international arbitration, litigation, and dispute resolution. Along the way, we encounter foundational concepts of international law, such as state sovereignty, treaty law and customary international law. The law of the sea is a prominent feature of international politics, evident in disputes ranging from the South China Sea to the Arctic Ocean and the Black Sea.
The law of war is one of the oldest branches of international law, but whether its centuries-old norms align with modern conflicts remains a contested area of legal practice and interpretation. This course will explore the primary fields of international law concerning recourse to force and situations of armed conflict. We will examine foundational doctrines and concepts and then explore some of the foremost contemporary challenges. We will consider, for example, direct participation of civilians in hostilities; the geographic, temporal, material, and personal scope of armed conflict; the interplay between international human rights law, international criminal law, and IHL; and the relationship between the legal framework governing terrorism and IHL. We will investigate such questions as: how does international law regulate the means and methods of warfare, protection of civilians, and humanitarian access in situations of armed conflict? How does international law classify and regulate different categories of armed conflict, and how does it distinguish armed conflicts from other situations of organized armed violence? How does the law seek to balance principles of military necessity and humanity? And how does the law address emergent technologies?
This seminar will address various aspects of the law governing national security as well as leadership and decision-making in the national security law context. Topics will include constitutional issues regarding national security, electronic surveillance conducted pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), investigative tools authorized under the USA PATRIOT Act, and related topics. National security law is often inaccessible, and can be particularly hard to follow when divorced from the context of historical tradition, governmental structures, and the operational reality in which it functions. The course will aim to present national security law in context, exposing students as much as possible to the real-world effects of applicable legal standards and rules.
In this course we will examine the law and policy of government surveillance. We will focus on U.S. government signals collection for national security, intelligence gathering, espionage, criminal law enforcement and public safety purposes, and will address transnational implications. Technologies and practices we will cover include wiretapping, stored data collection and mining, location tracking, encryption and developing eavesdropping techniques. We will explore how government surveillance is permitted, prohibited or controlled by the U.S. Constitution, including the Fourth Amendment, and laws such as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the USA Freedom Act, the Patriot Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the CLOUD Act, and CALEA. We will also look at the role of executive orders and laws outside the United States. No technical expertise is required.
This 2-credit seminar is the required classroom component for students doing work through the Dispute Systems Design Clinic. Students will read and discuss works related to the various models for conducting conflict assessments, designing dispute systems, and working as an effective dispute system designer. In addition, readings and discussions will focus on the practical and ethical quandaries and special challenges faced by professionals in conflict resolution, mediation, and dispute systems design. Some sessions will require students to present problems related to the clinical work in which they are currently engaged to the members of the class for discussion and brainstorming.
Through a combination of lectures and in-class simulations, this course will (i) provide an overview of the foundational aspects that arise in the life cycle of an international arbitration; (ii) offer training in advocacy principles and techniques; and (iii) provide significant advocacy experience for students through in-class simulations. Course lectures and simulations will extend to both international commercial arbitration and investment arbitration.
But Brady was optimistic that property and land use law could - and should - address the problems they caused. Urban designers could do away with old rules that don’t make sense for today’s needs - such as parking minimums for new buildings that make construction more onerous or expensive. Improving processes, such as those used by homeowners’ associations or public hearings about land use matters, would allow more voices to contribute to planning decisions and “offer greater potential for the generation of social capital,” she said.
The prior Restatements’ lack of cohesion applied to its authors as well. Previously, the ALI recruited an assortment of professors to draft volumes without significant cooperation between the authors or a commitment to a single overarching approach. The result was a fragmented set of summaries that failed to advance a unified vision of property law, ultimately dooming the Restatement of Property to much-reduced relevance. Unlike the Restatements of Torts and Contracts, which have been frequently relied upon by judges and lawyers, the work on property largely fell by the wayside, attracting only a fraction of the attention that its sister publications have received. In 2014, internal data at the ALI, which generates revenue based on the frequency with which its treatises are downloaded on Westlaw, showed that the Restatement of Property produced only a quarter of the royalties earned by the Restatement of Contracts, and only 15% of the royalties from the Restatement of Torts.
Such questions about the influence of legal rules on outcomes--and about the social desirability of the outcomes--have been investigated by legal scholars and economists in a systematic manner since the 1970s. Their approach is widely considered to be intellectually important and to be of significant value in practice.
The Harvard Legal Aid Bureau is a student-run civil legal aid organization committed to providing free representation to low-income and marginalized communities in the Greater Boston area. Students and staff aim to provide these services in a way that responds to the systemic racial, social, and economic inequalities that are the causes and consequences of poverty. To that end, the Bureau trains its student attorneys to advocate vigorously for their clients, create enduring community partnerships, and become socially conscious leaders. The Bureau represents clients in three primary practice areas, all led by student-members with guidance and support from experienced clinical instructors: housing (including eviction defense and movement lawyering to expand tenant power); family (including divorce and custody, guardianship, family defense, and orders of special findings in family court); and wage-and-hour (including nonpayment of wages and overtime, denial of earned sick time, and retaliation for assertion of workplace rights). Because the Bureau is student-run, students take the lead on cases and in setting organizational policy and exploring potential new areas or modes of practice. Enrollment is by application during the spring of the student’s 1L year; participants commit to at least 20 hours per week of clinic work for the following two academic years.
As part of a broad coalition of legal services providers and community organizers, the Housing Clinic represents low-income tenants who are facing eviction and at risk of homelessness. Students defend evictions and prosecute affirmative cases to improve housing conditions. Students engage actively in client interviewing and counseling, fact investigation, pre-trial discovery (including the taking and defending of depositions), negotiation, and motion practice, as well as trying cases in court. Students also have the opportunity to engage in community lawyering and mobilization efforts with long term community partners and to work on legislative and other law reform initiatives. Students participate in a Attorney for the Day Program and offer “game day” advice to unrepresented litigants in Housing Court on the day of the litigants hearing or trial. The Housing Clinic staffs the Attorney for the Day table at Housing Court on Thursday mornings (from 9:00 to 12:00). Students find the experience of assisting unrepresented tenants rewarding and try to arrange their schedules to allow for clinic work on Thursday mornings.
This course will provide an introduction to U.S. housing law and policy with a focus on low- and moderate-income tenants and homeowners. We will examine the state of public housing and federal housing subsidies; code enforcement; foreclosures and neighborhood stabilization; gentrification and displacement; affordable housing development; fair housing, including the racist roots of many U.S. housing policies and problems; and evictions and access to justice. The class will draw on students’ personal and professional experiences as well as the perspectives of a variety of housing professionals - from developers to tenant organizers to judges and government officials - who will appear as guest speakers. Through this course, students will develop the background necessary to understand and evaluate the various strategies that housing advocates and activists are using - or might use - to promote housing justice in the United States.
Nonprofit organizations include large health care, educational, religious, arts, political entities, and philanthropies, as well as small community services and advocacy efforts. Their vitality supports not only the people they directly serve but also the civil society that incubates new ideas, builds social capital, strengthens democracy, and pushes for social change. Distinctive laws and traditions in the United States contribute to the dramatic growth of the nonprofit sector in size and influence. We will examine that history amid mounting political controversies over whether the benefits provided by nonprofit organizations justify their special statutory, regulatory, and tax treatment and over the scope of government influence on the conduct of these private entities. With attention to historical and legal contexts for these debates, the seminar will address: what justifies the rules governing nonprofit organizations? When should they be governed like private entities, when like public entities, and when like something different altogether? When and why are and when should they exempted from taxation? To whom are they accountable? What cultural and legal changes should be promoted to address risks of self-dealing by nonprofit boards and staff and shifting public confidence in the sector. Our focus on domestic nonprofits will include comparison with laws and practices of international nongovernment organizations.
This course is a study of the federal income tax treatment of partners and partnerships, as well as limited liability companies and their members. Topics include: choice of entity and federal tax classification; partnership formation and acquisition of partnership interests for property or services; partnership capital accounting and taxation for normal operations; transactions between partners and partnership; distribution of cash and partnership assets to partners; sales of partnership interests; and death or retirement of a partner. In addition, attention is given to comparisons with the tax treatment of C and S corporations.
This course develops tools for understanding and evaluating the effect tax laws have on strategic planning in both business and personal contexts. The perspective taken is generally that of financial economics, with cash flows resulting from transactions being viewed as items which are subject to valuation using asset pricing techniques. This approach allows for a precise understanding of where the value in a transaction comes from and how careful tax planning can help maximize this value. Consideration is also given to policy responses to strategic planning.
This course will cover the basic federal income tax concepts, policy and law relating to taxation of foreign persons with U.S. activities and U.S. persons with foreign activities. The course will discuss long-standing aspects of federal income tax law, as well as rules enacted in 2017 central to that year’s federal income tax reform and amendments enacted in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025. We will discuss Moore v. United States , the Supreme Court case involving an element of the 2017 tax reform. In our global economy, federal income tax law relating to cross-border activity affects many business and investment decisions. The course would be of interest to future tax lawyers and transactional lawyers as well as those interested in statutory interpretation.
Much of the clinic practice centers on using administrative processes at the IRS to resolve taxpayer issues. Students represent cases in a variety of administrative postures, such as audit reconsiderations and innocent spouse cases to relieve a client of liability and collections matters to protect low income clients from wage garnishment or asset seizure. Students thus gain significant experience in dealing with an executive agency. No matter which segment of the administrative agency we encounter, the Clinic provides a voice for the client in a process that can otherwise prove baffling. All students in this clinic gain significant direct client experience. Each student usually starts with 4-5 clients representing a variety the Clinic cases. The student has primary responsibility for the case and works directly with the client. The supervisors in the Clinic assist and guide the students as they work with their clients.
Through the Tax Litigation Clinical Seminar, students learn the substantive law, procedural context, advocacy skills, and ethical rules necessary for the effective representation of low-income taxpayers before the IRS and in federal court. The seminar will cover an array of topics, including tax practice and procedure at the agency level and in federal court, administrative law, client interviewing, fact investigation, offers in compromise, negotiation, refund litigation, audit reconsideration, innocent spouse defenses, Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), and evidentiary hearings. The seminar will also consider, through the lens of students’ clinical experiences, systemic questions about tax policy, anti-poverty policy, and access to justice for low-income taxpayers. Because the Clinic teaches lawyering skills applicable across numerous practice areas, students are encouraged to enroll whether or not they have an existing interest in tax practice or simply seek an immersive litigation experience through which they can learn valuable skills and provide pro bono representation to those in need.
This is a survey course in environmental law. The course will proceed in three parts. The first part will focus on the emergence and history of environmental law and what makes environmental law difficult. The second part of the course will survey key statutes including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act and Hazardous Waste Statutes. The final part will focus on how courts respond to environmental law especially the Supreme Court and appellate courts. The course is designed for any student interested in the practice of environmental law but is deliberately not limited to those students. The course more broadly teaches the skills necessary to master any complex area of regulation.
We will begin the semester with an intensive introduction intended to level-set students on the technical dimensions of AI. The course will further engage with some of the most advanced models and tools - many of which have become part of the public imagination - to examine what gives some current AI builders and leaders pause and why others believe AI will accelerate humanity’s progress. Students will then be challenged to think through interventions, whether in private or public policy, standards-setting, institution-building, or engineering, that might accord with their sense of the development of AI in the public interest.
This course will examine basic and sophisticated estate planning techniques. It will take a practical perspective, studying how the estate planner navigates the federal transfer tax and property law rules with sensitivity to a client’s personal circumstances and concerns in order to achieve the client’s objectives.
Students select within which of the Clinic’s three projects they would like to work: (1) the Veterans Justice Project, where students represent veterans and survivors in administrative appeals and litigation to challenge wrongful denials of veterans benefits, to petition for military discharge upgrades, and to pursue systemic reforms in the health and benefit systems that serve vulnerable veterans; (2) the Estate Planning Project, where students represent veterans and their families in estate and financial planning matters such as wills, powers of attorney, trusts, advanced health directives, and VA fiduciary cases; or (3) the Safety Net Project, where students represent clients in administrative and court appeals to challenge wrongful denials of Social Security disability benefits and other safety-net programs, and in criminal record sealing and expungement processes. Students are also welcome to work across two different projects if that is of interest, in which case the workload in each project will be adjusted accordingly. Clinic instructors will reach out to registered students well before the start of the semester to inquire about their project preference(s) and answer any questions students may have about the work of individual projects.
The Clinic focuses on serving individuals who are marginalized and underrepresented, including individuals with mental health conditions, Military Sexual Trauma survivors, LGBTQ+ veterans, veterans of color, individuals who are living in shelters or otherwise unhoused, and formerly incarcerated individuals. Overall, the Clinic seeks to enhance each clients’ independence, control over decision making, and ability to live with dignity. The Clinic is part of the WilmerHale Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School (LSC), a community legal aid office in Jamaica Plain. LSC’s diverse clinics provide clinical instruction to second- and third-year law students and serve as a laboratory for the innovative delivery of legal services. For more information on LSC, this Clinic, our docket, and student learning opportunities, please visit our website and LSC’s Clinical Student FAQs page.
A student wishing to include courses listed by the foreign school in disciplines or departments other than law-which would be considered cross-registration credits-must receive express permission from the Study Abroad Committee prior to enrolling in these courses. Foreign language courses taken abroad will count for cross-registration credits only if they either 1) are in a language widely used in the country where the semester abroad occurs, and are not substantially similar to a course the student has already taken, or 2) if not in a language widely used in the country where the semester abroad occurs, have a clear and direct relationship to the student’s academic program. Upon approval, these credits will count towards the maximum allowable for cross-registration in accordance with HLS’ academic policies.
Over the years, dozens of faculty, librarians, and students have participated. The event was originally conceived of by Jonathan Zittrain ’95, vice dean of Library and Information Resources and George Bemis Professor of International Law, who saw it as a way to create new student-faculty interactions on scholarly topics and to reinforce the library’s position as the home of scholarship on campus.
Intended for law students with little or no background in mathematics and statistics, Fundamentals of Statistical Analysis will provide basic tools needed for designing, conducting and critically assessing empirical legal research. Topics include research design, introduction to probability, descriptive statistics, hypothesis testing, statistical inference, univariate and bivariate analysis using one and two-sample t-tests, z-tests, Chi2 and ANOVA. We will learn and practice the math behind the models, to understand how distributions, differences, choice and size of samples impact our results mathematically as well as theoretically. The course is hands-on and applied in nature, it provides students an opportunity to become proficient in the use of the Stata statistical software. Applying mathematical concepts on real data enables students to acquire analytic skills in a realistic research context, which helps understanding not only how data are analyzed, but also why they are analyzed. At the end of the semester, students will produce either a 10-12 page empirical paper or an empirical research paper of appropriate length to satisfy the analytical paper requirement (which may be shorter than 20-25 pages).
This course offers an in-depth examination of the phenomenon of gender-motivated violence. Following a consideration of the prevalence and variation of types of sexual violence and coercion around the world, we consider questions such as: How, if at all, is violence against women different from other types of violence? How effective have legal strategies to address violence against women been, and what shifts in thinking about gender-motivated violence would be necessary finally to eradicate it? How has the #MeToo movement reshaped the possibility of legal reform? How does the toleration of sexual violence shape people’s expectations and sense of entitlements? What are the implications of gender-based violence for the constitutional guarantee of equal protection of the laws? Does equal protection itself have a gendered meaning and reality?
Modern human rights litigation in U.S. courts started in the late 1970s with the resurrection of the Alien Tort Statute (ATS). For many, the ATS has defined U.S.-based human rights litigation for the past forty years, but the litigation landscape has changed significantly during over time. While this seminar will take a close look at the past several decades, this will only be the starting point. The seminar will focus the majority of its time on current approaches to human rights litigation, including innovative test cases and a number of statutes that receive far less attention than the ATS has, including the Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) and the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA). In addition, we will look at strategic litigation focused on climate justice and corporate accountability and efforts to develop and incubate new legal theories and cases in these practice areas.
Analytical Paper Optional: All enrolled students have the option of completing a research paper of at least 20-25 pages, with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students. Students who choose to satisfy the analytical paper requirement through this course may not also count the course toward their experiential learning requirement.
For the clinical component, students undertake clinical fieldwork study of judicial performance through clerkship-like clinical placements federal judges and magistrate judges in the U.S. District Court and judges of the Superior Court, Boston Municipal Court, and District Court of the Departments of the Massachusetts Trial Court. Students are expected to be available to do research and writing projects for their assigned judge, and are expected to observe and assist their judge for at least 2 clinical credits, or eight hours per week. Students must have at least one full day available for their judicial placement. Students may earn up to five credits for additional fieldwork hours with their judge.
This seminar examines and questions the status of the American democracy in the context of its unique history and contemporary challenges, focusing on its survival in a nation increasingly fractured by division and polarization. In doing so, this seminar explores provocative themes and questions of citizenship, law, self-governance, accountability, and inclusion in American democracy while grappling with issues of class, race, and gender. It moves beyond limited representations of democratization as the quest for universal suffrage and fair elections to a more fluid, real-time construct of competing interests, negotiated outcomes, stressed and malleable institutions, tumultuous changes, and their legal implications. It further clarifies the democratic process as one subject to ongoing interpretation, challenge, and renewal.
This seminar examines the intersections of politics, law, race and social change within a historical trajectory of the evolving conceptions and representations of American identity. It analyzes such notions over time and their associated legal and political manifestations while accounting for the events and ideologies driving this transformation. Accordingly, such relevant factors as the formation of normative American identity, the contest and negotiation for power and representation, the impact of social movements, the equitable application of criminal justice, changing demographics, and relevant economic and political turmoil will be discussed through literature, journalism, and visual media.
This seminar is designed for students who are genuinely interested in what has happened to them at law school and who would like to examine carefully the nature of their legal education. It is also a practical introduction to the many different careers available in legal education. We will commence with the English and Continental origins of legal scholarship and teaching, examine the development of formal legal education in America from the founding of the Litchfield and Harvard Law Schools to the rise of Legal Realism, and conclude with the pressing controversies facing Americas law schools today. Among the topics covered will be the relationship between formal legal education and the practicing bar, the changing composition of the faculty and the student body, the early pedagogical controversies, the different methods and ends of modern legal instruction, and the role played by law schools in fundamental disputes about jurisprudence, political ideology, economics, and social reform.
This seminar examines the changing nature of the legal profession. We do so through direct engagement with cutting-edge, empirical research-presented by leading academics and practitioners-on issues critical to the legal profession. The seminar is structured around three themes-careers and diversity (e.g., the career paths of HLS graduates; the role of student debt), how globalization is reshaping the market for legal services around the world (e.g., global pro bono; the rise of “international” JD students), and innovation and the role of technology (e.g., litigation finance; online courts). Students can view previous weekly topics and guests on the HLS Syllabus archive page . Structured akin to a reading group, each session features an original piece of research presented by the author and a robust class discussion. The authors come from a broad range of disciplines (e.g., law, sociology, political science) and have diverse methodological commitments (e.g., surveys, experiments, interviews). The seminar has a particular focus on assessing the strengths and weaknesses of empirical research, but it is not important for students to have any particular background in empirical methodology. Rather, the goal is to help students become better consumers of the kind of explicit and implicit factual claims that are often made about lawyers and their careers. 1Ls, 2Ls, 3Ls, and LLMs are all welcome.
The seminar will focus on the exciting developments, as well as challenges, created by Saudi Arabia’s and the UAE’s ambitious efforts to modernize their societies and economies. It will cover (a) social, political, and economic changes in Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the last two decades, including the Abraham Accords; (b) the legal landscape in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, including the creation of “off-shore” legal regimes in both countries (e.g., the UAE’s DIFC); and (c) investing and deal-making in the two countries. The course is designed for law students seeking to learn more about the region. Guest speakers will include academics, lawyers, investors, and government officials.
The relation between sex equality under law and sex and gender inequality in society is interrogated in theory and practice in the context of relevant social science, history, and international and comparative law. Mainstream equality doctrine is probed on its own terms and through an alternative. Cases largely on U.S. law focusing on concrete issues-including work, family, rape, sexual harassment, lesbian and gay rights, abortion, prostitution, pornography-structure the inquiry. Race, economic class, and transgender issues are mainstreamed. The purpose of the course is to understand, criticize, and expand the law toward sex and gender equality, including between women and men, as well as to expand the equality paradigm.
What is race? What is law? What does law have to do with race and other categories of identity formation, and racial inequality? This seminar will address these topics from the perspective of jurisprudence and legal theory. We will examine the role law plays in creating racial categories, in maintaining and eliminating racial hierarchy, and in policing the borders between race and other classifications such as gender, sexuality and ethnicity. The civil rights movement taught mainstream Americans that law could be a tool to remedy past sins and to make the promise of equality real for all citizens. In recent years, however, this conception of law and its role in the world has been criticized from many quarters, and many of those doubts have coalesced into a field now known as Critical Race Theory. Even the concept of race itself, which had once seemed so stable, has been critiqued as masking more complex stories of intersecting identities. Some scholars have turned to storytelling techniques to more fully grasp the reality of race and other once-stable categories, and their intersection with law. Others have asked these kinds of questions in calling for new approaches to topics such as civil rights law, the study of capitalism and economic inequality, and criminal justice. Course readings will mainly consist of legal scholarship that explores or critiques these developments.
The role of state attorneys general has dramatically expanded as these elected officials and their staff have become increasingly important actors in American jurisprudence . They continue to make their mark in consumer protection, antitrust, civil rights, education, immigration, labor law, political corruption and environmental protection even as they tender daily legal advice that impacts the workings of state government. Working alone or in combination with or opposed to the federal government, their colleagues in other states or with businesses, unions and interest groups, the attorneys general are now major players in American jurisprudence.
The course analyzes schools’ obligation to prevent, respond to, and resolve cases of sexual misconduct. We consider questions including: how do we create cultures of sexual respect on campus? What role can schools play to address most effectively the persistent problem of underreporting? How should schools design their resolution systems to provide justice and fair process for all parties? These questions will be considered against the backdrop of a changing regulatory scheme that can complicate questions of compliance.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
I also want to encourage you to think about how change happens. I imagine that most of you came to law school to learn how to solve problems that are harming people you care about. I imagine most of your classes have offered you the same general theory for how to solve those problems: litigation. Litigation is an extremely important theory of change. But it isn’t the only one: far more problems have been solved through legislating, mobilizing, negotiating, organizing, voting, and other methods of disrupting existing institutions and relationships. The one substantive requirement of this writing group is that you may not write about changes in legal doctrine; you must write about (literally) any other kind of change. In the past few years, students have written about:
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
A clinical practice component is required of all students. Students must have at least two full days in their schedule free from 8am to 5pm for the clinical component. Clinical placements are with the Middlesex, Norfolk, Suffolk, or Essex County District Attorney’s Office. Under the supervision of assistant district attorneys, students work a minimum of twenty hours per week to represent the Commonwealth in prosecuting District Court criminal cases. While student experiences vary, students are likely to handle arraignments, bail hearings, pretrial conferences, motion hearings, pleas and trials. Some students may handle a jury trial. Clinical placements will begin immediately after the completion of the fall Trial Advocacy Workshop. Readings will consist primarily of multilithed materials. Students are required to keep a journal relating to their fieldwork experiences and to prepare several short practical skills exercises.
This seminar will focus on the myriad of legal and related policy questions that are central to the U.S.-P.R.C. relationship. Earlier iterations of this class have addressed issues regarding trade, human rights, technology transfer, Taiwan, corporate governance, AI, climate change, corruption, foreign direct and portfolio investment, disability, the law of the sea, competing visions of law and development (as played out in Africa), and the role of lawyers. We anticipate covering many of these topics in the fall.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
The Emmett Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Harvard Law School offers students the opportunity to practice environmental law through work on a variety of litigation, administrative, legislative, and policy projects. The Clinic works with scientists, medical professionals, nonprofit and public interest organizations, and government clients on environmental and energy issues at the federal, state, and local level. The work includes writing briefs and comment letters, drafting climate change mitigation and adaptation regulations and policies for municipalities, preparing guidance documents and manuals for non-lawyers, drafting model legislation, and preparing policy papers. The Clinic develops novel strategies to address thorny environmental problems; investigates new cases; works with scientific, economic, and policy experts to help them present their views about the impacts of legal reforms; advises citizen scientists; and convenes meetings of policy-makers and regulators.
The seminar will explore different kinds of facts, including historic facts, scientific facts, legislative facts, constitutional facts, mixed questions of fact and law; and reasonable inferences. We will ask who should resolve factual disputes: judges or juries? How are different burdens of proof and presumptions used as aids to resolve fact disputes? How should we evaluate video evidence? How are different appellate standards applied? How do courts evaluate fact-finding by administrative agencies? How are facts presented in amicus briefs? How do institutional concerns determine who the fact finders are?
Under close supervision of a clinical instructor, students manage all aspects of their assigned cases including counseling clients, conducting factual investigation and legal research, developing case strategies, conducting and analyzing discovery, and drafting pleadings. Oral advocacy opportunities include conducting administrative hearings (direct and cross-examinations), appearances in Family and District Courts for motion hearings, restraining orders, pre-trial conferences, and/or status conferences. Students negotiate directly with opposing attorneys, pro se opponents, and in dispute resolution sessions. In the few cases scheduled for full trial, students may conduct depositions, develop witness and exhibit lists, trial strategies and trial notebook, prepare and conduct witness examinations, make opening statements and closing arguments, and/or draft post-trial briefs and memoranda.
Important: All students must be U.S. citizens and complete a lengthy security clearance process by the Department of Justice, which involves numerous forms and fingerprinting. This process takes between 8-10 weeks for final clearance, which is then valid for only six months. This clearance process is not just a formality, and in some instances clearance has been delayed or denied. This process is coordinated between the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs and the Human Resources department of the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Required Co-Requisite: Dispute Systems Design Clinical Seminar (2 spring classroom credits). This clinic and course are bundled; your enrollment in the clinic will automatically enroll you in this required course.
The Clinic will be directed by David Zimmer, a Partner in the Supreme Court and Appellate practice at Goodwin Procter, who clerked at both the U.S. Supreme Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and who has significant experience practicing before all levels of the federal courts. Mr. Zimmer will also teach the Federal Courts Clinical Seminar, in which students in the clinic will have the opportunity to discuss and analyze their experiences to gain greater insight into the broader work of the federal judiciary.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Students enrolled in this writing group are invited to apply for a unique winter term civil rights history tour and writing project organized for New England area law students by judges from the Massachusetts and Rhode Island U.S. District Courts. The two writing credits for the writing group registration must be in the winter term. The tour application is due October 1. See this announcement for more information.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
Analytical Paper Required: Per the specification of the writing group, all enrolled students complete a research paper of one credit (at least 20-25 pages) or two credits (50 or more pages), with faculty and peer review of a substantially complete draft. This paper can be used to satisfy the analytical paper requirement for J.D. students.
In one of her first assignments, she worked with a Swedish trade association on its proposal to the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council for a new digital trade policy that would clarify regulations and help to lower barriers for tech companies seeking to do business in the EU. She researched existing regulations on technology and digital trade in both jurisdictions and options for change, then provided feedback to the association, suggesting language that might make some of its ideas more acceptable to U.S. negotiators, and drafted additional provisions that would align with its members’ preferences and with EU and U.S. interests. “I enjoyed the intellectual exercise of serving as a negotiator, trying to design policy suggestions that would be amenable to businesses and attractive to the governments implementing them,” she observes.
Janna Adelstein ’24 traveled to the United Kingdom to conduct research on how equality law doctrines affect transgender people - and more specifically, whether there is any basis for the claim, advanced by trans-exclusionary ideologists, that the recognition of gender-based rights for trans people takes rights away from non-trans women and prevents them from gaining greater equality. One argument for this claim holds that giving rights to trans people extinguishes the formal or legal categories of “men” and “women” and in so doing, takes away the agency that women have in distinguishing themselves from men and the hard-won rights that feminists have fought for. An opposing argument holds that trans women identify as women and including them in that category expands the number of allies that women have in their fight for equality.
Cole worked with Ruggero Cozzi, a lawyer and elected member of the convention, and his staff. Her role was to conduct research to support their work on provisions relating to the judiciary and the criminal justice system. One of the memos she drafted focused on military justice - should Chile continue to have a separate court martial system, as is the case in the UK, Germany, the U.S. and many other countries? Cole examined the history and structure of the American system as a comparative example and cited other countries, such as India, that have mentioned court martial systems in their constitutions. “Given the misuse of this system during the Pinochet era to absolve soldiers of crimes against Chilean citizens and dissidents, some convention members have agitated for its dissolution. But, by and large, the theoretical arguments for a separate military justice system are quite persuasive, and it was engrossing to study and catalog them in my report,” she observes. Another project focused on constitutional courts - distinct tribunals, in place in many European and Latin American countries, including Chile, where questions of constitutional law are adjudicated. Cole examined the advantages and disadvantages of this system and considered the features of major court systems in countries with no separate constitutional review.
Unfortunately, due to the large volume of both preplanned work and new requests, not every project can be accommodated. In the event that the Comm Office is unable to take on your project, below you will find links to tools that will enable users of all backgrounds and abilities to create professional, branded, design collateral.
The lesson, said Bowie, “is that my mom, my grandparents, and people like Derrick Bell do not have this unusual or unique sense of courage that only comes once in a blue moon.” Rather, he continued, “They had relationships. They had close relationships with family, with their loved ones, and with students, because they knew what it felt like to be isolated, standing alone on principle. And they knew that their courage to do that came from other people’s courage to stand with them.”
For me, Commencement Day. It’s lining up 850 graduates for the procession to go over to Sever Gate, which is where you go to enter Tercentenary Theatre. It’s an electric atmosphere, indescribable, really. You get there super early only to stand in Sever Quad for almost two hours. And then everyone processes quickly into the Yard and the excitement builds - the music and the loud chatter amongst graduates and their guests is competing with each other-combined with such a beautiful setting, and all of the pomp and circumstance - it’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen. There are upwards of 32,000 people there [from all Harvard schools] - and looking at this space on a regular day, it is hard to imagine that many people could fit there.
In his Commencement address, Dean Manning praised the graduating students for stepping up to help others during a challenging time. “In the great tradition of Harvard lawyers,” he said, “you worked to achieve something larger than yourselves, to dedicate your time and skills and gifts and heart to making the world better.” He also encouraged departing graduates “to keep faith, even - or perhaps especially - when times are hard and uncertain, as they are today.”
At HLS, he was president of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau and completed more than 3,200 hours of pro bono work, the most in his class. He thought he had done everything possible to prepare to be a community lawyer, which culminated in the postgraduate fellowship with the Legal Assistance Foundation. He was working for the Lawndale Christian Community Church in Chicago and created 10 community-based legal clinics. But toward the end of his fellowship, as he was trying to extend funding, he was unprepared when his contact at the church introduced him to a community member who Ho was told would be taking over the legal clinic project. Ho’s contact told him the community appreciated his work, but that what they needed was a program focused on youth involvement with the criminal justice system, which Ho couldn’t provide because of the Legal Assistance Foundation’s funding restrictions. And they wanted one of their own to help create it. Although Ho did his best to be gracious and helpful to his replacement, he felt hurt and even angry that no one had given him any warning. But looking back, he sees the situation very differently. “
David B. Wilkins: The next year is going to be significant for the legal profession when it comes to these issues. We’re traveling more, but remote work is here to stay. As a result, most legal organizations have adopted some form of hybrid work - although often grudgingly! But we are still just at the beginning of understanding how to make these policies work effectively. In particular, we are being forced to evaluate in a strategic way what works best face-to-face and what actually can be done as well or even better online. During 2023, we will continue to see a lot of trial and error and experimentation. It will be an opportunity for new ideas and innovation to come to the fore while we also try to understand what are the most important things that we want to preserve about the way things were done before the pandemic. And we will have to navigate all of this at the same time that younger generations - digital natives who are even more focused on finding meaning and purpose in their personal and professional lives - slowly but surely replace baby boomers and GenXers as the dominant force within the profession.
An audience from Harvard Law School and across the university gathered to hear “Reflections on Interpretation and Serving in the Judiciary” from Justice Stephen G. Breyer ’64 , who retired this year after 28 years on the U.S. Supreme Court, and returned to HLS as Byrne Professor of Administrative Law and Process, and Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, who has been serving on the Supreme Court of Pakistan since 2018. The Sept. 19 event was moderated by Harvard Law Professor Intisar Rabb , director of the Program in Islamic Law at Harvard Law School . In their discussion, which ranged from the judicial process to responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and the devastating floods in Pakistan, the justices found common ground - and even a few opportunities for dissent.
Looking back to the early 1990s through today, the evolution of Chinese legal scholarship and publishing has been remarkable. What began as a field dominated by basic textbooks and general legal education materials has grown into a sophisticated and diverse academic ecosystem, engaging with major issues in technology, health, data, finance, and governance. For students and professors interested in Chinese law, this is an especially opportune moment to dive in. The combination of richer subject matter, more varied methodologies, and increasingly accessible sources-enhanced by the growing capabilities of translation technologies-makes it possible to study Chinese law in greater depth and breadth than ever before.
The Harvard Law School Library’s Historical & Special Collections has the papers of Judge Hand . One of our most heavily used collections contains a trove of information about law, lawyers, and life in its hundreds of boxes encompassing some 120 feet of material. You might expect to encounter correspondence from famous lawyers, judges, and politicians; legal opinions; and records of Judge Hand’s professional and social activities: it’s all there. But tucked away in Box 57 are three folders of correspondence between him and the staff of Alfred Webb Miles & Co. Ltd. , custom tailors doing business at 12 Brook Street near Savile Row and Hanover Square in the heart of London.
Amanda Watson : The Institutional Data Initiative, or “IDI,” is a collaboration that began here in the Library Innovation Lab within the Harvard Law School Library. Its general goal is to build community between the people, like librarians, working to preserve knowledge and the technologists deploying that knowledge in new, innovative ways through technology like AI. IDI works with libraries to publish their collections as data as a way of catalyzing this bridge-building. I have only been at Harvard for a year, and my appointment essentially coincided with the start of IDI; that is, it was already in the works and quickly became one of my top priorities. Early on, I had amazing conversations with JZ [Jonathan Zittrain, Director of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society] and Greg [Leppert, Executive Director of IDI, and Chief Technologist of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society] about AI’s role in librarianship and information. Personally, from the time I began contributing to IDI, my work has focused on coalition building and community development. Meeting with individuals from other knowledge institutions to compare notes and share our strategies has been extremely valuable, and will help ensure this initiative continues to succeed.
Amanda Watson: This work began in the 1980s as part of an effort to make our rich resources available to those beyond Harvard’s gates. Such an important part of the work that we do here is connecting people from around the world to our incredible collections. We have a fantastic medieval manuscripts, but we also have so much more, everything from the Charles Ogletree papers , a contemporary archive we’re digitizing now, to thousands of documents connected to the post-World War II International Military Tribunals, which includes the Nuremberg trials and the Japanese war crimes tribunals we are about to start working on. All of these projects take what we do further, beyond just serving our faculty and students, connecting a global audience to our rich collections. It’s a priority for us to be able to open our collections up and invite the world in.
The Caselaw Access Project (CAP) was the result of five years of work by the Harvard Library Innovation Lab at Harvard Law School. Between 2013-18, the HLS Library digitized more than 40 million pages of data covering 6.5 million individual cases; the most comprehensive database of American law available anywhere outside the Library of Congress. But unlike the latter it gives nationwide researchers free, immediate access to judicial decisions from each of the 50 states, dating back to their founding. Tweaks are still being made to CAP, notably a new Historical Trends app that can trace the number of a times a word was used in legal cases over the years, with a timeline pointing to the relevant cases.
Description: In today’s global landscape, designers need to clearly communicate what sets them and their work apart. Clients, employers and industry leaders expect design professionals to be mission-driven and guided by core values. This intensive workshop helps students from all design disciplines develop a personal and professional brand through strategy and storytelling. Participants will define their mission, craft a positioning statement, articulate core beliefs, and create a compelling narrative. Through lectures, guided exercises, and collaborative sessions, students will build a cohesive brand platform and action plan. By the end of the course, participants will have a refined statement of purpose, clear positioning, and defined goals to support their careers or practices. *Co-sponsored by the Student Alumni Exchange Committee- a cross collaboration between the GSD Alumni Council, GSD students, GSD Development and Alumni Relations, and GSD Career Services. Enrollment Link.
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When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings for some types of cookies. Blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.
Globally, metropolitan areas have prospered economically while rural areas have been left behind. The course focuses on sustainability opportunities and enterprises in these rural landscapes. Emphasis is on the benefits of regenerative farming and small-scale organic farm enterprises, typically with diverse production systems, common historically and now resurgent in the farm to table and local food movements as alternatives to industrial agriculture. The course focuses on comparisons between New England and Tuscany; in both of these regions, ecological and economic sustainability challenges in the rural landscape include producing food and forest products for niche markets, managing watersheds, conserving biodiversity and other environmental services, such as carbon sequestration, and diversifying income streams with ecotourism. Optimizing this mix of functions while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions and other forms of pollution addresses sustainability goals. Online required class sessions discuss readings on models and analysis of sustainable food production systems, including organic, permaculture, and forest farming systems. Assignments and readings develop skills in spreadsheet modeling of production integrated with financial analysis of small-scale enterprises. The centerpiece of the course is an intensive and mandatory week long learning experience, May 4-May 11, in residence at Spannocchia, a historical Tuscan farming estate near Sienna. Field exercises and discussions at Spannocchia are augmented with an all-day field trip to a nearby biodynamic winery and onward for the afternoon to the hill town of San Gimignano, and then a half-day trip to Tenuta San Carlo in southwestern Tuscany, a very different agro-ecosystem. Students should not have other work or study commitments during this period. The course involves some hiking and fieldwork on several days over uneven ground; because these are critical course activities, students must be physically able to participate. Students are housed at Spannocchia in either the Fattoria or Villa rooms in the main building; rooms are typically shared doubles, spacious and historical. Meals feature organic products from the estate. View the Spannocchia website for photos and descriptions of accommodations, programs, and the estate property. Students with documented disabilities should contact the Accessibility Services Office no later than two weeks before the course begins. In addition to completing all required assignments for the course, students must attend the entire week at Spannocchia to pass the course (you cannot arrive late or leave early). If you neglect to register with Spannocchia, pay their separate deposit, or miss their deadlines, you may not be able to register, complete, or pass the course. Harvard Extension School (HES) spring term registration, drop, and withdrawal deadlines apply to ENVR E-143. See the calendar. If students drop the course, HES will refund tuition payment according to standard refund policy. HES is not responsible for payments made to Spannocchia, travel, or other expenses that students may incur. In addition to the course tuition, students are responsible for: Approximately $1,000-$1,300 USD paid to Spannocchia by January 10. This includes room and board for May 4-May 11 (seven nights) and educational fees. Course members rendezvous in Siena on Sunday, May 4, and then share taxis to Spannocchia after a group lunch. Note that up to 45 days before the program start date (May 4) at Spannocchia, a student withdrawing from the course will have their prepaid Spannocchia fee reimbursed less a $250 deposit and credit card processing fees. However, cancellations within 45 days of the start date are not refundable. US health insurance that provides coverage outside the United States. Transportation to and from Spannocchia (via Siena). Shared per capita cost of bus/van rental and driver for the field trip, and shared taxi or van to and from Siena or Florence to Spannocchia. (Students also have some miscellaneous individual costs: for example, a $7 hotel tax, meals in Siena and San Gimignano, and a wine tasting fee if students participate). The cost of passports and visas (if the latter is needed). Costs of any required COVID-19 vaccinations, boosters, and tests, both in home country and Italy, depending on regulations at the time.
The course covers core applied topics related to the design of public policies. It is the second course offered in the Public Economics sequence, following Econ 2450A (although taking Econ 2450A is not required in advance of this class). The first half of the semester (taught by Raj Chetty) will cover partial equilibrium empirical methods to measure tax incidence and efficiency, behavioral welfare analysis, corporate taxation, and economic mobility. The second half of the semester (taught by Rebecca Diamond) will focus on urban economics and local public economics, including spatial equilibrium, public goods/non-market amenities, and housing, place-based, and
For undergraduates: completion of Science of Living Systems 20 or Psychology 1 or the equivalent of introductory psychology (e.g. Psych AP=5 or IB =7 or Psyc S-1) and at least one foundational course from PSY 11, PSY 14, PSY 15, PSY 16, PSY 18, or Science of Living Systems 15 before enrolling in this course
The Saṃdhinirmocanasūtra deals arguably in part with a theory about the history of Buddhist thought. Written by the Korean monk Wŏnch’ŭk, this monumental work was translated into Tibetan in the ninth century and is occasionally cited in the later Tibetan literature. In this course, we will read several excerpts from it using the Chinese text and the Tibetan translation.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This PSY 1950 follow-up course continues with exposure to state-of-the-art Bayesian and Frequen- tist statistical modeling techniques. We begin by showing how the models we learned in Psy 1950 can be used for prediction. The next two units address power analysis (including simulations for mixed-effects setups), followed by two units on handling missing values. Subsequently, we introduce model comparison, including segmented and polynomial regression, and move on to a modern framework for modeling the effects of predictors in a truly nonlinear fashion:
Introduction to the formative ideas and socio-intellectual contexts of 19th and early 20th century sociological theory. Course will explore social thought from the perspective provided by the problem of social order - and the roles different thinkers attributed to such factors as solidarity, power, and meaning as solutions to this problem. Consideration of the continuing significance of these ideas for contemporary social thought.
This is a laboratory methods course that provides students with hands-on experience in a cognitive development lab. The aim of the course is for students to engage in all aspects of the scientific process - from experimental design to data collection and interpretation - by working in a lab, and by participating in weekly meetings where key questions and findings in the field are discussed.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This seminar is designed primarily for doctoral students in years 2-4 who are working on designing and executing independent research in the field of human development (HDLT). This seminar will have a dual focus; (1) to support each student’s academic development through research study conceptualization, proposal writing, literature review development, and scholarly issues related to career advancement (e.g., grant writing, curriculum vitae building); and (2) to disseminate and discuss seminal research in human development related to the themes of interest evident based on the students registered for the course (e.g., language development, executive function, reading comprehension, adult development, identity, motivation, etc.) to both broaden and deepen students’ knowledge base, but also to support a peer review process for the course. With this course, students will deepen their knowledge of the research and proposal writing process, clarify their thinking about their own topic by working to convey to others its importance and related evidence and issues, and to learn from the work of peers. Students will actively engage in class discussions, work in small groups, and provide feedback on classmates’ work. As a final product for this course, students will develop a research proposal, literature review, or write-up of an empirical study. This course, in combination with H875Y, is a yearlong class (4 credits total) that meets in person on 6 or 7 Friday mornings per semester (every other Friday, 9-11am).
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will provide an opportunity for students interested in access to civil justice and/or criminal justice administration at the trial court level to work on independent research projects in a collaborative, interactive setting. Students will select one or more topics of interest to explore during the semester; we will meet each week to discuss one another’s research, and to brainstorm new topics. In lieu of a long final paper or short weekly response papers, students will instead contribute three substantive posts to the Access to Justice Lab’s blog. Participants will also participate in online discussions and debates about other blog entries.
After examining the legal underpinnings that connect climate change and human rights, we will delve into a range of past, present, and emerging strategies that have been used to tackle climate mitigation, climate adaptation, and climate justice. We will consider, for example, innovative litigation efforts and cases of first impression aiming to extend human rights jurisprudence to both government and corporate actors in the climate space. The seminar will examine how practitioners have wrestled with and attempted to develop novel legal theories related to climate defenders, the rights of nature, future generations, standing, intersectionality, causation, jurisdiction, and allocation of responsibility. Beyond the litigation context, the seminar will also utilize design-thinking approaches to experiment with possible legal and policy frameworks for emerging problems such as the increasing frequency of deadly heatwaves and the corresponding need to recognize the human right to cooling. The seminar will also evaluate community-centric approaches to climate change and human rights, and efforts to elevate community power and incorporate community perspectives into current litigation efforts and legal frameworks.
The relation between sex equality under law and sex and gender inequality in society is interrogated in theory and practice in the context of relevant social science, history, and international and comparative law. Mainstream equality doctrine is probed on its own terms and through an alternative. Cases largely on U.S. law focusing on concrete issues--including work, family, rape, sexual harassment, lesbian and gay rights, abortion, prostitution, pornography--structure the inquiry. Race, economic class, and transgender issues are mainstreamed. The purpose of the course is to understand, criticize, and expand the law toward sex and gender equality, including between women and men, as well as to expand the equality paradigm.
The intersection of criminal law and immigration law is a growing field of law that is at the forefront of today's immigration debate. As immigration laws have become more "criminalized" and criminal laws have become more "immigrationized" it is increasingly important to understand the intersection of criminal law and immigration law. The goal of this course is to give students the skills to recognize and examine immigration consequences of criminal convictions and to understand how those laws have developed in light of historical trends. The class will focus on review and interpretation of federal statutes and caselaw.
This seminar examines the role of mass media depictions and imagery in shaping perceptions within our increasingly fast-paced and turbulent modern era. It situates this loaded imaging process within an appropriate social and historical context while considering how the quest to maintain a normalized national identity competes with law and evolving notions of culture, race, and gender. Such imaging-commonly a dual process involving contestation between a group’s projected image, and one being projected upon them-will be discussed through law, literature, journalism, and visual media. It further considers such relevant and compelling issues as immigration, citizenship, diversity, propaganda, and the ultimate role of journalism/news media.
In the Crimmigration Clinic students work on cutting-edge issues regarding the intersection of criminal law and immigration law. The content of the clinical projects will depend on the legal landscape at the time of clinical enrollment. In the past, students have worked on cases at multiple levels including administrative and federal courts including appellate courts and district courts on behalf of clients concerning criminal bars to immigration relief, detention, and the crime-based grounds of removal. Clinical students will also work with criminal defense attorneys to provide advice about the immigration consequences of criminal charges.
A clinical clerkship which offers an opportunity to see and participate in the diagnosis and management of a wide range of surgical disorders of infants and children (abdominal, thoracic, genital, transplant, trauma, endocrine). Sub-interns will participate within a large care delivery team, including junior students, residents, fellows, nurse practitioners and faculty. The students' activities include patient evaluation, assisting in the operating room, and participating in teaching conferences and rounds. An extensive number of conferences are held per week including grand rounds, morbidity and mortality, vascular anomalies, fetal surgery, oncology, clinical teaching rounds and several didactic lectures. Students will be exposed to and may participate in multidisciplinary patient care programs of the Department of Surgery include: trauma, surgical critical care including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, vascular malformations, solid organ transplantation, fetal surgery and minimally invasive surgery.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) physicians provide care for people with a range of conditions associated with disability. This four-week introductory clerkship provides exposure to the breadth of PM&R, highlighting PM&R's patient-centered approach, focus on optimizing function and quality of life, and interprofessional collaborative practice. Students may work with patients with spinal cord injury/disease, brain injury, stroke, amputation, burns, musculoskeletal conditions, sports-related injuries, concussion, and/or other conditions that impact short or long-term function. Students will gain exposure to aspects of rehabilitation care including medical evaluation and management, physical, occupational, speech, and recreational therapies, evaluation/fitting for adaptive equipment, and transitions across settings of rehabilitation care. Students participate in interactive didactics provided by residents and attendings throughout the clerkship. Students learn rehabilitation-focused history-taking, neuromusculoskeletal physical examination skills, condition-specific management, diagnosis and management of secondary complications of immobility, and provision of high quality care for patients with disabilities and their families. Students are expected to attend all resident and medical student didactic sessions and assigned clinical experiences. Students are also expected to be respectful of all patients and staff and to be committed to learning about disability and its implications. There is one required 10-minute oral case-based presentation and one required reflection on interprofessional rehabilitation care.
The course will consist of daily clinical experiences in the outpatient cognitive neurology unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The student will work with residents, fellows, and faculty from both neurology and psychiatry, as well as other multidisciplinary team members including social work, nursing, neuropsychology, and community resource specialists in different subspecialty clinics, including that focused on conditions related to executive function, memory/dementia, traumatic brain injury, mood disorders, psychosis, and neurodevelopmental conditions. The student will play an active role in interview, exam, diagnosis, and treatment of patients who present to the clinic. There is no call involved. Students are welcome to attend Wednesday afternoon grand rounds offered by the department of cognitive neurology and weekly supervision/teaching sessions with the course director. Students will receive 1 day a week of scholarly time to participate in a scholarly project, including but not limited to, performing a mini-literature review or scholarly presentation on an area of their interest. For students who are interested, clinical/shadowing experiences pertaining to transcranial magnetic stimulation can be arranged.
The goal of this independent study is for DPH residents to conduct a public health project incorporating the competencies of the American Board of Dental Public Health in preparation for the certifying exam of the ABDPH. The student will work with their faculty advisor and DPH Program Director to conduct a public health project and produce a full written report in accordance with requirements for the ABDPH certifying exam.
The goal of this independent study is for DPH residents to conduct a public health project incorporating the competencies of the American Board of Dental Public Health in preparation for the certifying exam of the ABDPH. The student will work with their faculty advisor and DPH Program Director to conduct a public health project and produce a full written report in accordance with requirements for the ABDPH certifying exam.
The goal of this course is to guide M.M.Sc., D.M.Sc. and Ph.D. students through an introduction to research from a broad scientific perspective. Each of the course sessions will be taught by faculty members based on a chapter in "Research Methodology in Medicine and Biological Sciences" which will be distributed to each student. Grades for this course will be Pass/Fail and will be based on class attendance and participation. Attendance will be taken. Evaluation will be based upon attendance and participation.
The fourth-year clinical activity is driven by an emphasis on treatment planning and the delivery of comprehensive care. The Teaching Practice remains committed to its current comprehensive care model. Students are encouraged to perform quality patient care and to learn the importance of patient management. Students are encouraged to perform quality patient care and to learn the importance of patient management. The goal of this fourth-year rotation is to enable the students to understand the importance of comprehensive care and continuity of care philosophy while completing dental treatment for their assigned patients, as well as providing emergency and recall treatment.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The purpose of Summer Field Immersion is for students to concentrate on developing new competencies and advancing existing skills while addressing a public health issue or challenge that is of personal interest. This full time, 8-10 week experience between May-August is arranged between the student and their host organization. It can be in the form of a fellowship, internship or consultancy.
Students will learn the fundamental skills of improvement through a mix of presentation, application, and group work. The class will provide a historical overview of different quality methods and then center on the Model for Improvement as the approach for in-depth exploration. In addition to gaining the fundamental skills necessary to participate in quality improvement initiatives, students will earn the components necessary to lead quality improvement. Furthermore, by taking a deep dive into reliability science, students will gain the ability to formulate and create changes that can have a lasting impact in health care, and to build the infrastructure in an organization necessary to accommodate those changes.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
Students will learn how to analyze current health policy issues through the application of basic economic principles. No previous economics training is required. The course will begin with an introduction to health economics. The concepts we will be learning are widely generalizable to both industrialized and developing country contexts and students are encouraged to learn from and teach each other about the different health systems of which participants have experience. Among the topics we will discuss are health insurance coverage, physician payment incentives, consumer decision making, and competition.
Survey and primary literature review of selected major topic areas in molecular and cellular neurobiology. Covers nervous system development, axonal pathfinding, synapse formation and function, synaptic plasticity, ion channels and receptors, cellular neurophysiology, glial cells, sensory transduction, and relevant examples in human disease. Includes lectures and weekly paper write-ups, together with student presentations and discussion of primary literature. A final two-page research write-up is also due at the end of the term.
Covers foundations and recent advances in statistical machine learning theory, with the dual goals of providing students with the theoretical knowledge to use machine learning and preparing more advanced students to contribute to progress in the field. The content is roughly divided into three parts. The first part is about classical regularization, margin, stochastic gradient methods, overparametrization, implicit regularization, and stability. The second part is about deep networks: approximation and optimization theory plus roots of generalization. The third part is about the connections between learning theory and the brain. Occasional talks by leading researchers on advanced research topics. Emphasis on current research topics.
Introduction to computational theories of human cognition. Focus on principles of inductive learning and inference, and the representation of knowledge. Computational frameworks covered include Bayesian and hierarchical Bayesian models; probabilistic graphical models; nonparametric statistical models and the Bayesian Occam's razor; sampling algorithms for approximate learning and inference; and probabilistic models defined over structured representations such as first-order logic, grammars, or relational schemas. Applications to understanding core aspects of cognition, such as concept learning and categorization, causal reasoning, theory formation, language acquisition, and social inference. Graduate students complete a final project.
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First-year General Military Course. Includes a study of Air Force customs and courtesies, drill and ceremonies, and military commands. Also includes studying the environment of an Air Force officer and learning about areas of opportunity available to commissioned officers, as well as interviews, guidance, and information to increase the understanding, motivation, and performance of other cadets.
Focuses on laying the foundation for teams and leadership. Topics center on skills that allow cadets to improve their leadership on a personal level and within a team. Prepares cadets for their field training experience where they have the opportunity to put the concepts covered in to practice. Aims to instill a leadership mindset and motivate sophomore students to transition from AFROTC cadet to AFROTC officer candidate.
Designed for college seniors, providing them the foundation to understand their role as military officers in American society. Includes an overview of the complex social and political issues facing the military profession and requires a measure of sophistication commensurate with the senior college level.
Explores the question of the good life in the major literary and philosophic thinkers of ancient Greece. Considers topics such as justice, moral virtue, friendship, love, and the life of the mind both for an individual and as part of society. Students debate the classical Greek answers to these questions and consider ways in which these answers apply to our present lives. Includes selected works by authors such as Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, and Epicurus.
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Introduction to finance from the perspective of business people and finance professionals. Designed to build effective decision-making skills based on sound financial knowledge, focusing on areas such as day-to-day operational issues and management, launching a startup, or negotiating option bonuses. Provides a firm grounding in the modern financial analysis underlying any decision, through three core themes: determining the value of a project, deciding how to finance a project, and managing its risk. Students also hone their ability to negotiate skillfully and speak intelligently about finance. Meets with 15.417 when offered concurrently. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version; consult syllabus or instructor for specific details.
Introduction to finance from the perspective of business people and finance professionals. Designed to build effective decision-making skills based on sound financial knowledge, focusing on areas such as day-to-day operational issues and management, launching a startup, or negotiating option bonuses. Provides a firm grounding in the modern financial analysis underlying any decision, through three core themes: determining the value of a project, deciding how to finance a project, and managing its risk. Students also hone their ability to negotiate skillfully and speak intelligently about finance. Meets with 15.417 when offered concurrently. Expectations and evaluation criteria differ for students taking graduate version; consult syllabus or instructor for specific details.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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Provides an overview of macroeconomic issues including the determination of national income, economic growth, unemployment, inflation, interest rates, and exchange rates. Introduces basic macroeconomic models and illustrates key principles through applications to the experience of the US and other economies. Explores a range of current policy debates, such as the economic effects of monetary and fiscal policy, the causes of and policy responses to financial crises, the burden of the national debt, and the government policies that affect long-term growth in living standards. Lectures are recorded and available for students with scheduling conflicts.
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Heart diseases have killed occasional humans since ancient times, but only in the past century have heart diseases become epidemic throughout the world. In fact, the first description of a heart attack in a human was not until 1912. In the current century, heart diseases will be the leading global cause of death, and the majority of those heart disease deaths will actually occur in the developing world. The epidemic of heart disease has been driven by many social, economic and technological events. Some of these events have been dramatically detrimental to human health, such as the accidental invention of the American cigarette by a slave in North Carolina in the 19th Century-an invention that is projected to kill one billion people between 2000 and 2100. Other events, such as advances in public health and safety, have been beneficial by extending lifespan and preventing early death, but they have also allowed age-related heart diseases to explode. Technological advances have improved our economic productivity but also led to changes in our lifestyles that promote heart diseases. In this course, we will consider the complex relationship of health and society by examining the epidemic in common heart diseases. We will explore how major lifestyle factors such as tobacco, alcohol, exercise and diet affect health, and we will also consider how economics and politics powerfully influence health. We will also discuss the role of government and our obligations to each other, and to future generations.
From birth, we embark on a lifelong journey of learning that shapes nearly everything we know and do, and ultimately who we become. Yet, we often fail to examine the implicit assumptions and approaches underlying our learning. In addition, we often overlook the importance of unlearning - the process of letting go of inaccurate information, misguided beliefs, harmful biases, limiting mindsets, and unproductive habits to make room for new learning. Unlearning has always been essential for replacing outdated and simplistic ideas with updated and sophisticated ones. Today, it has become even more critical due to contemporary challenges such as societal polarization and media echo chambers, the impact of generative AI and other technologies on traditional practices, the necessity for challenging the status quo to envision a more just society, and the urgent need for dialogue, understanding, and empathy in an increasingly tribalistic world.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A comparative examination of the paradoxical ritual of sacrifice in a range of religious traditions where it is featured, rejected, or sublimated. We will consider types of sacrifice, blood and bloodless offerings, and recurrent religious concepts: e.g., cosmogony, consecration, thanksgiving, communion, reciprocity, substitution, efficacy, violence, transgression, expiation, catharsis, human and divine hierarchy, gendered and racialized dimensions, and sacerdotal authority. We will also consider leading theories of sacrifice. Students will be encouraged to develop their own research and understanding. In the second semester, we will study the history of sacrifice in the Ancient Near East and ancient Mediterranean (Greece, Rome, Carthage, Egypt, and Israel), and in the Abrahamic religious traditions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam).
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Korean 140a is designed to enhance students beyond the high-intermediate level in reading, speaking, and writing skills in order to begin understanding socio-cultural and historical issues of contemporary Korea. Hence, the aim of the course includes (i) comprehending authentic materials from contemporary Korean mass media, (ii) following essential points of oral and written discourses that are linguistically complex, (iii) discussing concrete topics relating to major issues of contemporary Korean society and culture through supporting opinions, refutations, hypotheses, and detailed explanations of ideas, and (iv) writing about a variety of topics of Korean culture and society in detail with significant accuracy in grammar and structure. Furthermore, further development of knowledge in Chinese characters, idioms, proverbs, maxims, will be covered in this course.
An intermediate classical Tibetan reading course focusing on the development of translation skills through attention to grammatical and philological analysis. This course will also provide training in the research skills required to work with the Buddhist canonical texts of the Bka’ ‘gyur and Bstan ‘gyur. Readings will be selected from a variety of Tibetan literary genres, including Buddhist philosophy and path literature, as well as historical and biographical narrative texts.
Selected readings and discussion in Japanese primarily on contemporary topics in economics, sociology, political science, psychology, and cultural studies, with occasional readings from literature. Readings are supplemented by selections from audiovisual media on current social issues.
This course continues Persian AA (Elementary Persian I) and is designed to further develop students' elementary-level Persian language proficiency and improve their listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. We will communicate primarily by speaking, listening, reading, and writing in both written and spoken Persian. We will use modern Persian poetry and pop music songs to enhance our comprehension.
This seminar offers a critical survey of American film noir, the cycle of dark, fatalistic crime films that flourished in Hollywood during the period between 1940 and 1960 and remains deeply influential today. Focusing on the close study of key films, the seminar will explore the dominant iconography, tropes and patterns within them in the specific socio-cultural contexts of post-war America and deeper changes at work within the Hollywood studio system and American popular culture.
In this intermediate video production course, students will work with narrative, conceptual, aesthetic forms, and filmmaking processes derived from science fiction to produce hybrid nonfiction short films. The class will explore the generative possibilities of the real in the production of fiction works, as well as fictional and genre strategies for working in nonfiction filmmaking. We will work hybridly between fiction and nonfiction, exploring the possibilities that scriptwriting for nonfiction, creating sets and objects, and working with non-professional actors, open to our work as filmmakers. The temporal, spatial, and narrative possibilities offered by the genre of science fiction will be mobilized to explore hybrid forms of filmmaking. Assignments will encompass video and sound recording and editing, cinematography and montage, and each student will produce a final film during the semester. Class time will include technical workshops, film screenings, discussions of student work, as well as occasional visiting filmmakers.
Direct continuation of Welsh 128, developing and deepening students' knowledge of, and skill in, the modern spoken and written language. By the end of the semester students will be able to converse, read and write in a number of registers of idiomatic Welsh (academic, literary, informal). Various media, featuring dialogue, music and film, augment the advanced grammatical survey. Central cultural and historical issues are discussed.
A practicum course in the craft of teaching. Topics include designing syllabi and assessments, responding to student writing, and guiding classroom discussion. Strategies will be applicable to courses working entirely in English as well as to those in the languages.
The course offers an introduction to the history and broader cultural contexts of Modern Greek literature from the 19th century to the present. Students will be exposed to a broad cross-section of literature from movements including Romanticism, symbolism, surrealism, modernism, and postmodernism composed by Modern Greece’s leading poets and prose writers. All literary works are read in Greek.
This course is to examine history of premodern Korea through select Korea's contemporary feature films. Films and dramas with historical themes and personages have been very popular in Korea. We will examine the content of the films, and investigate how ``true'' or ``false'' they represent Korea's past, how they imagine and invent Korea's past, in what ways films are useful in better understanding Korean history, people's lives and practices.
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Korean Bxa is an accelerated course designed for those who have received significant exposure to Korean language and culture and thus have some listening and speaking skills, but haven’t had sufficient opportunity to develop their knowledge of basic reading, writing, and grammar. This course will cover important grammatical structures covered Elementary Korean (Ba and Bb) for the purpose of providing tools to build upon the existing level of each student’s Korean language ability.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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In such critical conditions, “protest” is an instrument of collective dissent enacted by the “people” (variously defined) to restore their rights and freedoms. The movement-politics initiated by minority groups around the world against systematic disadvantage and discrimination have been pushed to protest when other channels of democratic dialogue have failed. Just as peace “at all costs” often leads to the death of democracy, protest “at all costs” might vitiate the political “goods” and virtues that it seeks to establish. How do we walk the political tightrope between “peace and protest”? How do we establish moral frameworks of negotiation rather than negation?
The Supervising Reading and Research tutorial is a type of student-driven independent study offering individual instruction in subjects of special interest that cannot be studied in regular courses. English 91r is supervised by a member of the English Department faculty. It is a graded course and may not be taken more than twice, and only once for concentration credit. Students must submit a proposal and get approval from the faculty member with whom they wish to work. Proposed syllabi and faculty approval must be submitted and verified by the English Department Undergraduate Office by the Course Registration Deadline.
This course will examine contemporary writings by Native American and Indigenous authors across the genres of sci fi, horror, and fantasy, with the aim of thinking about Native American and Indigenous futures (and futurisms) more broadly, and also in ways that may exceed genre altogether. In other words, our investigation will be organized according to conventional sci fi genres of slipstream, alien contact, and apocalypse, but also to non-genre expressions of Indigenous futurity. By juxtaposing literary works from authors writing both within the boundaries of the United States and beyond, we will be able to make connections between them that highlight both their common sovereignty struggles and shared utopian visions, but also keeps in view the many meaningful differences in how Native American and Indigenous aesthetic productions perform the work of future-making.
PORTUG 30 engages students in the exploration of Brazil’s five geographic regions, while examining the role of Brazilian folklore and traditions in contemporary society. Students learn about cultural elements (as folk tales, celebrations, practices, and beliefs) peculiar to each region and analyze how these traditions are connected to the Brazilian history and natural environment. Readings and discussions with guest speakers help students to connect these traditions to current events, as environmental challenges, indigenous and African-Brazilian communities struggles, among others. Through the interpretation and analysis of authentic texts (YouTube videos, documentaries, newspaper articles, and literature), students continue to build vocabulary and review and refine various grammatical structures. Students also build on oral, written, and intercultural competences through communicative activities and interactive discussions with Portuguese-speaking guests.
This lecture course will provide a survey of some of the major issues in the history of post-imperial China (1912- ). Beginning with the decline of the Qing and the dramatic collapse of China’s imperial system in 1911, the course shall examine how China has sought to redefine itself anew over the past one-hundred years. The revolutionary years of 1911, 1949, and 1978 will serve as our three fulcra, as we investigate how China has tussled with a variety of ‘isms’ (such as republicanism, militarism, nationalism, socialism, and state capitalism) in its pursuit of an appropriate system of governance and social organization. In so doing, we shall also explore the social, economic, cultural, and scientific changes wrought by these varied attempts at state-building.
Surveys the complex, mutually constitutive, and often thorny relationship - characterized by suspicion and antagonism, but also by fascination and desire - between the United States and the diverse republics south of the Rio Grande. Examines public policy, US expansionism and empire, popular culture and consumption, competing economic development models, migration, tourism, the Cold War, sovereignty, dissent, and contrasting visions of democratic citizenship.
This course builds on students' knowledge of Spanish to explore the relationship between their languaging practices and their Latinx identities. Understanding languages as a way of knowing and meaning making, we use a variety of texts, genres, music, videos, films and visual arts to engage in discussions about family heritage, migration, and Latinx cultural and linguistic traditions and innovations. Students will strengthen their oral and written abilities, expand their interpersonal, interpretive and performative resources for languaging in informal and academic contexts.
This course will trace the development of the American legal and political system from 1776 to 1865. We will discuss the formation of state constitutions and the Federal Constitution, slavery and law, the development of American private law, the "Revolution of 1800" and the "Age of Jefferson", the mechanisms of westward expansion, the "Age of Jackson", and the coming of the Civil War.
This course will explore ancient Greek ideologies of gender difference and sexuality. Topics will include the mythical "origins" of gender, legal definitions of marriage and adultery, the performance of gender in drama, medical models of sex and childbirth, and representations of same-sex desire across art, poetry, and philosophy. With the help of some important modern theoretical models, we will examine how sexual practices and male and female identities were imagined, formed, reinforced, institutionalized, and resisted during the archaic and classical periods (roughly 800-300 BCE).
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This course will explore different ways in which postwar German writers and film makers reckoned with the disastrous legacy of the Third Reich. We will probe a variety of perspectives employed to deal with a shame-ridden past as well as the numerous difficulties encountered in confronting the experiences of National Socialism, Hitler, and the Holocaust. Our discussions will consider seminal examples from a half-century's profusion of retrospective readings, works that renegotiate national identity and, in some cases, endeavor to "reinvent" Germany. The course will include representative films as well as texts by Karl Jaspers, Hannah Arendt, Alexander and Margarethe Mitscherlich, T. W. Adorno, Alexander Kluge, and W. G Sebald.
The seminar provides an opportunity to read through, absorb, and reflect upon Marcel Proust’s monumental novel, In Search of Lost Time ( À la recherche du temps perdu , 1913-1927), considered alongside key essays by French, German, and English literary critics and theorists. Major themes include but are not limited to: involuntary memory; topologies of time; love, sexuality, jealousy, and manipulation; aesthetics of music, literature, and the visual arts; nature and the mind; individuality and social hierarchies.
Queer histories are all around us, but rarely do they announce themselves as such. This research seminar offers training in archival methods with a focus on historical subjects who deviate from dominant historical narratives. In centering “queer” archival traces, we will read along the grain with dissident voices representing minoritized gender and sexual subjectivities, while also cultivating a practice of reading against the grain as a way of attending to the exclusionary operations of representational practices. This course will be taught in and draw on the Schlesinger Library’s extraordinary collections, and much of our class time will be spent exploring materials that can only be accessed on site. This course requires no prior knowledge or experience, and assignments will culminate in an essay based on original archival research.
Harvard Square has a rich history; under its earlier name of Newtowne (founded in 1630), it was once the site of the Massachusetts capital. Much has changed. This class looks back on the many changes Harvard Square has undergone, recent challenges it has faced, and asks class members to think forward about how it might be re-envisioned. This class will combine work in local archives on issues related to history and policy, meetings on local Cambridge political issues, and an array of local design and drawing assignments. Learn how Harvard fits in; Be part of the change.
This seminar explores the history of painting during Japan’s Edo period (1615-1868). This semester’s iteration of the course focuses on the life and work of Maruyama Okyo (1733-1795), the Edo period’s most popular painter. Each week, through close examinations of Okyo’s paintings, students will become familiarized to the techniques, formats, materials, pictorial styles, and subject matter of Japanese painting. Working outward from these case studies, students will also explore larger cultural themes concerning the city of Kyoto, Japanese aesthetics and symbolism, print culture, the status of the artist, patronage, antiquarianism, and interregionalism. Special emphasis will be placed on how one understands the concept of “naturalism” in Japanese art, especially given that there was no word for “Nature” in premodern Japan. Several group excursions to Harvard Art Museums will be organized throughout the semester.
This graduate seminar examines the remarkable array of objects preserved in the eighth-century Shōsō-in Imperial Treasury in Nara, Japan. Each session will be centered around in-depth analysis of case studies drawn from different categories of objects (painting, calligraphy, textiles, lacquerware, ceramics, glass, and metalwork among others) created in different cultural regions along the Silk Road, spanning Persia and Japan, from the sixth through eighth century. The goal will be to work outwards from specific objects to larger themes including the interregional transmission of artistic techniques and cultural knowledge along the Silk Road; transposition of modalities of making from one material or process into another; and the role of treasuries in the construction of kingship. Only open to graduate students with a working knowledge of Japanese or Chinese.
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In the fall term, HAA 99 includes several group tutorial meetings with the senior honors adviser, where assignments are aimed at facilitating the writing of a senior honors thesis; spring term consists of independent writing, under the direction of the individual thesis adviser. Part one of a two part series.
The practice of architecture fundamentally asks us to continuously engage with, and re-conceptualize, the world for which we are designing. As such, architecture as a discipline is not only about designing buildings, but also about challenging us to imagine new ways of seeing the world. This studio takes on the challenge through a series of design exercises focused on understanding, engaging with, and reimaging the urban condition. Throughout the course, we will approach architectural design as both a method of producing urban environments, and also as an avenue through which to understand our cities. We will be directly confronting the social, political, and environmental contexts that are necessarily implicated in any design process. In this course, we begin analyzing and mapping the urban realm through a non-human lens; understanding how and where design can positively impact existing systems, processes and outcomes of the city; and end with designing an intervention for a local physical site on campus that registers and influence those conditions through the details of its design.
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Through in-class lectures, case studies, and hands-on workshops, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of both contemporary theory and practical applications surrounding lifecycle material design. They will actively research topics such as systems ecology, extractive geographies, life cycle material modeling, circular design, pervasive connectivity, biomaterials, adaptive reuse, indigenous and traditional craftsmanship, healthy materials, social equity, and other pertinent subjects. Additionally, students will acquire advanced proficiency in utilizing software tools and innovate new fabrication processes to address material flows around and through buildings effectively.
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As part of your application, you must provide a brief statement on why you are interested in each seminar. You will be notified of lottery results for both fall and spring seminars at 5 pm on August 11. If you are unsuccessful in the lottery, you may still join any seminar with open seats. A list of open seminars and instructions on next steps will be available on the First-Year Seminar Program website August 11 at 12 Noon.
The Harvard Jazz Orchestra was created in 1971 by Director of Bands Tom Everett when he first arrived at the University. Passionate that exposure to this unique American art form be part of students’ education, he created a rag-tag jazz band of primarily Harvard [marching] Band recruits. Since its inception, the Harvard Jazz Orchestra has served as the vehicle for students across disciplines to study and learn the jazz canon. Over the years, the Jazz Orchestra has focused on the literature of Duke Ellington and complete retrospective concerts of the music of Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Gerry Mulligan, Lee Konitz, Benny Carter, Buck Clayton, Clark Terry, J. J. Johnson, and Julius Hemphill. Other literature has ranged from the classic arrangements of Count Basie and Fletcher Henderson to the modern jazz of Gil Evans and Charles Mingus, the contemporary ensemble improvisations of Barry Guy and Lester Bowie, and the jazz-rock of Michael Gibbs, Russ Gershon Harvard ’81, Rufus Reid, George Cables and Cassandra Wilson. In 2015, Yosvany Terry was appointed Director of Jazz Bands. Under his direction, the Harvard Jazz Orchestra continues this tradition of focusing on a program of study that provides students with a grounding in a wide range of iconic and new literature. The curriculum builds throughout the year.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Independent research under the supervision of a faculty member. These courses may involve hands-on work with special collections, as well as laboratory and/or experimental work with the department's relevant facillities, including the Meaning & Modality Lab and the Phonetics Lab, as appropriate.
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This course begins the second year of Turkish which includes thorough review of the fundamentals of grammar and building a wider vocabulary. It emphasizes reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. Course introduces literary and cultural texts, and includes audio-visual material from the contemporary media.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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This course constitutes the third year of the Modern Hebrew language sequence. The course emphasizes the development of advanced proficiency in all skills. Readings include texts of linguistic and cultural complexity that cover contemporary Israeli literature and culture.
The course is aimed at students who have successfully completed eight semesters of Arabic. Textual analyses, conversations, presentations and written assignments of various lengths will prepare students to discuss, orally and in writing various aspects of Arab culture and society on a stylistically sophisticated level. Texts vary according to interests of students.
A comparative study of the Babylonian and ^'^'Jerusalem'' Talmuds. Emphasis on comparing their relationship to antecedent sources, their use of midrash, and their rhetorical patterns. Also studied is the historical destiny of these two works in the medieval and modern periods.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Early (Pre-Qin era) China was a hotbed of philosophical activity: scholars developed careful and fascinating ethical views in the context of serious philosophical debates between major schools of thought. This course focuses on some of these ethical debates between Confucian, Mohist, Daoist, and Legalist philosophers in early China. We’ll read both classical texts such as the Analects of Confucius, Mengzi, Xunzi, Mozi, and Zhuangzi and important contemporary scholarship on these texts. Several moral questions will be of particular importance: What is the relationship between etiquette and morality? What are the most important virtues to acquire? Should we think of morality and moral development as something natural or artificial? Are we justified in caring more about some people (our closest friends and family) than others? We will have a special focus on three important interpretive themes for the course: (1) How can understanding the particular contours of the debates each scholar is engaged in help us understand their overall views? (2) How does each philosopher’s view of human psychology and epistemology constrain, guide, and support their moral theorizing? (3) How can an understanding of early Chinese ethical thought, theory, and debate help enrich contemporary discussions in ethics and moral philosophy? No previous experience or coursework in Chinese philosophy is required for this course.
Philosophy is taking an exciting social turn. This course will take you on a tour through the vast and quickly expanding field that is social ontology-from social entities, such as clubs, teams, families, and businesses, to social identities such as particular races, genders, and disabilities, and finally to social phenomena as varied as art, food, and money. We will examine the reality and nature of these elements of the social world in the context of foundational metaphysical questions such as identity, composition, and persistence, while considering the significance of different answers to these questions for related ethical and political issues such as agency, responsibility, and justice.
What’s the point of literature? What do novels, poems, and plays add to our lives? In this course, we will survey defenses of literature offered by philosophers, novelists, poets, and playwrights. The course will draw on perspectives from the ancient world, early modern period, romanticism, aestheticism, modernism, and existentialism. We will read philosophical texts and literature side by side.
This is a graduate seminar that critically examines recent work in the subfield that is sometimes called “(Critical) Philosophy of Race.” We will look at debates over the concept and metaphysics of race. We will think through what racism is and what makes it wrongful. We will consider some proposals for how, from the standpoint of justice, we should respond to problems of race and racism. We will also give some attention to the concepts "white supremacy" and "racial capitalism."
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course surveys the American pragmatic tradition, attending in particular to views of religion. The first part takes up the classical pragmatic period, reading Emerson, then Peirce, James, Dewey, Jane Addams and Alain Locke. Topics include belief, experience, truth, pluralism, ethics, society, and the nature and role of religion. The latter half considers late 20th century neo-pragmatism, reading Rorty, Putnam, West, Chopp and Glaude. Prior work in theology or philosophy is recommended. Jointly offered in the Harvard Divinity School as HDS 2671.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The course introduces students to theories and methods in the academic study of religion, including significant themes and arguments that have defined the field over time. Students will examine some key works that helped to shape the discipline as it emerged in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and also consider recent work drawing on various disciplines that scholars have used in the study of religion, including philosophy, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and history. The course will take up questions such as these: What does it mean to call something “religious”? Is the category of “religion” a universal feature in human life, or more historically specific? What is at stake in defining this category in one way or another? How do claims about religion relate to claims about politics, economics, culture, and society? The course will also enable students to evaluate the choices that scholars make about what to privilege in their investigations. The course emphasizes critical reading and thinking skills, as well as thoughtful participation in discussion and the refinement of students’ academic writing.
This beginning level Italian course, for undergraduate and graduate students, will prepare you to read, understand, and translate academic and literary Italian texts for research. Materials will be selected in accordance with the needs and interests of enrolled students. You will develop individualized reading/research goals in your academic field of interest, such as translating a 16th-century Italian treatise on architecture or reading a novel in Italian by Elena Ferrante. Group discussion sessions will facilitate discussion of targeted reading strategies and individualized meetings will be regularly scheduled to respond to your personal translation needs.
An advanced language course for Spanish heritage learners that aims to strengthen students’ Spanish oral and written capabilities through civic engagement with Latinx communities; and to further develop students’ critical language and social awareness around important issues for Latinos in our globalized era: U.S-Latin American relations, migration, bilingualism and education, ethnic studies and social justice and health disparities. Students explore these topics through various genres (newspapers and academic articles, debates, literary essays, short novels, poetry, visual art, film and music) and through three hours a week of community service.
Whether one is performing in a play, pitching an idea, presenting research, or leading a group, the ability to use one's voice effectively is vital to the success of the performance. A resonant and varied voice enriches communication in any medium. Using several major techniques of voice training from the field of acting, students will learn the possibilities, nuances, and power of the human voice. We will explore how different modes of breathing and resonance impact effective communication. We will also explore voice and identity through discussion of regionalisms, gender and voice, and code shifting. Preference is given to Theater, Dance, and Media concentrators, but students with no previous voice or theater experience are welcome in this class.
Today, Boston and Cambridge are pulsing with dance: from drag shows at Jacques Cabaret to ballets at Citizens Opera House to salsa, samba, West African, and Bollywood classes at the Dance Complex. This course offers an introduction to researching and analyzing the wide range of dance styles that animate Greater Boston’s cultural life, as well as their histories and influence. How might we tell the story of dance in Boston and Cambridge? How has dance operated as art and entertainment, a medium of self-expression, and a vehicle for social activism, education, community-building, and cultural preservation? Which organizations have supported and funded dance, and to what end? And how can we document the experiences of Boston-area performers, choreographers, and teachers for future posterity?
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Since the turn of the 20 th century, as the United States became a major economic and military power, Americans have tried to mold and manage international order. In this course, we will explore and assess these efforts through the rise of US overseas expansion, two world wars, the Cold War, and into the 21 st century.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Ec10a is the first half of an integrated sequence that continues with the study of macroeconomics in Ec10b. Students may elect to take only the microeconomics course and receive four credits. This sequence is designed with two types of students in mind. For students who will never take another economics course, Ec10a and Ec10b provide a self-contained training to prepare them to understand and engage with economic issues. For students who end up concentrating in economics, Ec10a and Ec10b provide a wide-ranging introduction to the field and are required courses. The Department of Economics strongly encourages students considering concentrating in economics to take these courses during their first year at the College. Ec10a and Ec10b are not duplicative of AP Economics courses but aim to provide a broader perspective and a deeper engagement with public policy and current developments in the field of economics (e.g., behavioral economics). Either Ec10a or Ec10b fulfills the Social Sciences divisional distribution requirement. It is not necessary for students to take both halves of Ec10 to fulfill this divisional requirement.
Students wishing to enroll must petition the Director of Undergraduate Studies for approval, stating the proposed project, and must have the permission of the proposed instructor. Ordinarily, students are required to have taken some coursework as background for their project.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A study of the lingua franca of East Africa at the elementary level. Contact hours supplemented by language lab sessions. Emphasis on written expression, reading comprehension, and oral fluency. Students are strongly encouraged to take both parts of the course within the same academic year. The curriculum builds throughout the year.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A study of a language spoken by the Meru people of Kenya at the elementary level. Contact hours supplemented by language lab sessions. Emphasis on written expression, reading comprehension, and oral fluency. Students are strongly encouraged to take both parts of the course within the same academic year. The curriculum builds throughout the year.
This course studies African histories of politics, culture, economics, colonialism, decolonization, and more through the histories of sports. Sports and games of various kinds have played a key role in African societies for many centuries, and this course will begin with those earlier histories before looking at the role of Africa and Africans in modern sports history, a period that began in the late 19th century around the development of the Olympic games and professional leagues globally. European empires in Africa sought to impose their ideas of "civilization" and "modernity" on Africans through organized athletics, and yet Africans themselves - both during and after the period of European rule - used athletics for their own purposes. Notable athletes played a key role in both combating and supporting colonialism, and in establishing national identities following independence. In recent decades, Africans have starred globally at the Olympic Games, the World Cup, and many other global athletic competitions. And increasingly, individuals from more recent African diasporas have starred for countries around the globe, raising important questions about belonging, diaspora, and nationalism. This course will provide an introduction to these questions and more, through understanding the social, political, cultural, and economic history of sports in Africa.
This course will focus on archaeological thinking, the cognitive skeleton of the discipline of archaeology, the principles and the logic that are the foundation of all archaeological conclusions and research. Central to this is an understanding of research design, archaeological theory and interpretation, culture and material culture; as well as an understanding of how to examine and construct an archaeological argument.
This course is a critical reading advanced graduate seminar focusing on how defining the boundaries between life and death became a matter of profound political, cultural, and scientific debate. Guided by the concepts of bio- and necropolitics, we will explore the shifting relations between body and person, human and time, and technology and biology while attending to the changing political, biomedical and religious contexts. The course includes readings from a number of anthropological subfields, including medical anthropology, anthropology of science and technology, religion, politics, and the Anthropocene. We will discuss the range of issues, from the classic studies of mortuary rituals to political lives of dead bodies to technoscientific reconfigurations of the human and of life itself, as well as emerging themes, such as multispecies ethnography, resurrection biology or species revivalism, and the ways digital media can extend one’s personhood following death.
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The course will focus on policy options in health care. We will read papers on the impacts of moral hazard and adverse selection in health care markets and how they interact with various policies (co-pays, co-insurance, capitation vs fee for service payments, …). We will consider the impact of horizontal mergers both among health care providers and among insurance companies, as well as vertical mergers between providers and insurers. We will also look at pharmaceutical research and development and the distribution of costs and benefits from that. Students will lead the discussion on the various readings. techniques will be taught during the course). This is a Junior Tutorial.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This class identifies similarities and differences among authoritarian regimes. The first half identifies the tools authoritarian leaders use to stay in power, and the second half examines the biggest threats to the stability of authoritarian regimes. Students have the opportunity to explore one authoritarian regime in greater detail as part of a semester long research project.
This course is limited to Social Studies concentrators. This course must be taken for a Letter Grade and cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Please sign up for the Thursday 12:45-2:45 section time. If you have a scheduling conflict, you may sign up for the TBD section time in order to register; however, we cannot guarantee an alternate section time.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
To prepare students to write senior theses within American politics, comparative politics, or international relations, this course introduces the principles of empirical research in political science. Students will learn how to frame a project, review literature, articulate theories, test arguments, and collect evidence. Engaging both quantitative and qualitative research traditions, the course covers topics including the logic of causal inference, measurement and conceptualization, and case selection. It also introduces analytic techniques in qualitative methods such as archival research, interviewing, and process tracing. Assignments in the course build towards a final prospectus for an empirical research project.
This course is an introduction to the analysis of the causes and character of international conflict and cooperation. The course covers core theoretical models for why and how countries bargain, fight, and cooperate. The first half of the course focuses on conflict and international security. The second half focuses on international political economy and international organizations.
This course is a survey of the social and cultural history of China from the Song to the mid-Qing (roughly from 1000 to 1800). The main topics discussed include urbanization and commerce; gender; family and kinship; education and the examination system, and religion and ritual. The main goal of the course will be to explore the relationship between social and cultural changes and political and intellectual developments.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
In this research seminar students will have the opportunity to explore new works in modern (twentieth century) Chinese history and develop and present their own research, culminating in a 25-35 page research paper. During the first half of the semester, each week is organized around a broad thematic area (social, cultural, economic, environmental, gender, science and technology, etc.). We will read a recent monograph and an article or two that speak to that theme. During the second half of the semester stduents will transition into working on their research papers, workshoping drafts and giving each other feedback.
This class examines how scientists tried to capture (and define) the self through new methodologies and technologies. How did large research enterprises comprising “big social science” emerge in the 20th century at the meeting place between anthropology, psychology, psychoanalysis, and other human and life sciences? We begin by looking broadly at the history of the self, and ask how to define “technologies of the self.” The course then explores 20th and 21st century attempts to represent the self in graphs, quizzes, ethnographic interviews, psychograms, fMRIs, fieldwork, renderings of psychedelic experiences, and large datasets of dreams. How can “inner life experience” be scientifically and exactly known?
G-1, G-2, and G-3 History of Science doctoral students who do not yet have an approved prospectus and have been hired by a Harvard faculty member to do research should enroll in this course. Students should enroll in 4 units of this course for every 5 - 7 hours of faculty research work done per week.
This seminar is aimed at exploring the changing structure, aims, and impact of the university, from its medieval origins through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, into our contested present and possible futures. Each week we will explore a different facet of the university in its many forms, from the British, French and Italian monastic and seminary universities founded in the 11th through the 13th centuries (including Oxbridge, Bologna, Paris) through colonial new world institutions, inter alia Harvard, Columbia, Princeton, Yale. Most of the course will address developments of the 19th century through to the present: starting with the explosive growth of the research & teaching university created between Germany and the United States in the later 19th century-and the myriad ways it is has been transformed by wars (Civil, hot, cold), alongside debates over who can attend, meritocracy, commerce, politics, and the expanding world of AI with its impact on teaching and research. The course, in short, is an exploration of institutional epistemology: the re-definitions of what counts and what is valued as knowledge. Where will the university head-where should it head-over the 21st century? This is a research seminar, open to graduate students and undergraduates, by permission of the instructor, limited to 25 students.
The Contemporary Studies of Race & Ethnicity (CSRE) workshop's purpose is to provide a forum to disseminate knowledge and facilitate dialogue among graduate students, faculty, and visiting scholars working on or interested in research about contemporary studies related to race & ethnicity. Though the Sociology department hosts the workshop, we seek to bring scholars together across disciplines to explore topics such as ethno-racial hierarchies, racial attitudes, and intergroup relations, as well as the role of race in institutions, politics, and everyday life. The workshop will foster both a learning and collaborative space in which participants can circulate and garner feedback on works in progress, including dissertation chapters, proposals, journal article submissions, conference papers, and practice job talks.
Psychology 2580r is a hands-on course in which students participate in all aspects of the research process, from the design and execution of empirical research studies to the analysis of data. Each student works closely with a graduate student or post-doctoral mentor who supervises the student's daily activities. Students are admitted to PSY 2580r only by permission.
Examines selected issues and phenomena in contemporary psychological research. Special attention to examining topics from a variety of perspectives, to reading primary sources in the field, and to developing thinking, writing, research, and discussion skills. This tutorial, or Psych 975, is required of concentrators upon entering the concentration, normally in the sophomore year. Letter graded.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
In this lab course, students will participate in research on how culture and technology shape the mind and vice versa. Students will learn about methods such as experiments, cross-cultural surveys, natural language processing, archival data analysis, and computer simulations of human behavior. They will work alongside a graduate student or post-doctoral fellow to apply these methods to test original research questions. Weekly lab meetings will engage students in thinking about the lifecycle of a scientific idea, from ideation to study design, to conference presentation and publication.
Film and television shows often capture the cutting edge of science, and they sometimes even anticipate future scientific advances. We'll use examples from film and television as an introduction to several hot topics in the field of neuroscience, such as Mind Control, Mind Reading, Smart Pills, and Brain Machine Interfaces, which are all getting closer to reality. Will neuroscientists ever be able to control a person's thoughts, or to know what a person is thinking? Can taking a pill really awaken untapped brain power? Will you ever be able to drive a car without touching a steering wheel? In this course, we will cover the state of the art and the future of these exciting areas of neuroscience (and entertainment). Because these are not textbook topics, this is an advanced course that will focus on reading and discussing the primary literature.
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Year-long lab course exploring how cognition, affect, neural responses, and behavior change when social relations shift from "me and you" to "us and them." Students will participate in experiment development and data collection employing methods ranging from standard laboratory experiments, implicit and explicit self-reports, and behavioral measures, to fMRI and psychophysiology. Students will also read and discuss papers on intergroup relations in our weekly meetings.
This lab course provides instruction and experience in conducting research on reinforcement learning and decision making, using a combination of computational, behavioral and neural techniques. Students will learn how to fit models of reinforcement learning and decision making to behavioral data, collect and analyze functional MRI data, and develop algorithms for artificial intelligence. Undergraduates are required to write a research report at the end of the semester on the studies conducted in the lab.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course examines the distinctive critical theory created by members of the Institute for Social Research-better known as the Frankfurt School-from its origins in the interwar era to the present day. Over these decades, critical theory has used tools from philosophy, psychology, and sociology to grasp the pathologies of the present and to chart a path towards emancipation in the future. We will reconstruct the Frankfurt School’s evolving theory through its connections to the most important themes of twentieth-century thought: capitalism, authoritarianism, individuality, bureaucracy, and alienation. Our goal is not only to gain a deep understanding of critical theory but also to assess its continued relevance to modern social and political thought. This is a junior tutorial.
This seminar provides doctoral students in the Department of Sociology an opportunity to workshop drafts of their qualifying paper (QP). Submission of a satisfactory QP is required in order to progress to the dissertation project. The department expects the QP to be an original piece of research that is of publishable quality. Participants will receive different types of feedback on their projects throughout the semester: first, from the entire class when introducing the project; second, from the instructor in one on one meetings; and third, from two dedicated peer-reviewers who will comment on a full draft of the QP.
This course is intended to enhance the teaching skills of graduate students in the Sociology Department. Through a combination of classroom discussions and teaching simulations, the seminar challenges students to discover and hone their teaching styles, to develop a personal philosophy about teaching and learning, to develop self‐confidence leading and facilitating small and large group discussions, to learn about the teaching resources that are available to them throughout the university, to experiment with designing engaging courses of study, and to discover that teaching can be a rewarding and stimulating element of an academic career.
The Workshop in History, Culture, and Society is a forum for the exploration of new developments in historical social science, especially in the fields of Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. The workshop's primary methodological goal is to initiate a discussion of what constitutes acceptable historical evidence in each of the social sciences. Its main substantive goal is to understand how the past influences the present.
The graduate workshop on Climate Sociology offers a venue for discussing new research that takes a sociological perspective toward climate change. Such perspectives include Environmental Sociology as well as areas of the field that have tended to develop independently of the problems of climate change, such as Social Organization, Social Stratification, Culture, Gender, Immigration, Political Sociology, and Race and Ethnicity. We encourage such disciplinary breadth of engagement in the problems of climate change because of the urgency of the climate crisis, and because we believe all sociologists can contribute to human knowledge about the causes and effects of climate change. For instance, although the topic of energy transition has been dominated by the physical sciences and economics, sociological insight into the forms of organizational ownership and control, the relationship between the rules of the game and the distribution of winners and losers, and the social meanings that attach to physical structures like oil wells and wind turbines all lead to more effective action on climate change. We welcome qualitative, quantitative, mixed-method, and applied research.
We will study beyond the Standard Model theories with an eye both to phenomenological consequences and to connections to high energy theory. We will study supersymmetry as well as extra-dimensional theories. If time permits we will also study light axion-like particles and ways of detecting them.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A rigorous treatment of basic analysis. Topics include: convergence, continuity, differentiation, the Riemann integral, uniform convergence, the Stone-Weierstrass theorem, Fourier series, differentiation in several variables. Additional topics, including the classical results of vector calculus in two and three dimensions, as time allows.
The first time you enroll in any introductory math course (Math Ma through Math 22a), you are required to take a Math Verification Exam. Your results may determine which introductory course(s) you are eligible to take. For more information please go to this website: https://canvas.harvard.edu/courses/168499. Mathematics 1b, or an equivalent background, is essential preparation for Math 21a. Skipping Math 1b can be detrimental to your academic progress. If your concentration requires Math 21a or Math 21b, you may in fact need the skills, concepts, and ways of reasoning developed in Math 1b. Check with a concentration advisor before skipping Math 1b, as doing so is generally not advisable.
Any student who does not meet the Wave 1 or Wave 2 criteria can add themselves to the waitlist (if enrollment requirements are met) at any time during the enrollment period. At the beginning of each priority wave, students on the waitlist who meet the Wave’s criteria will be automatically enrolled into any remaining seats in the course (pending no time conflicts)
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course introduces fundamental concepts in chemistry and biology. Topics in chemistry include stoichiometry, acids and bases, aqueous solutions, gases, thermochemistry, electrons in atoms, and chemical bonding. The course also examines biological molecules, the transfer of information from DNA to RNA to protein, and cell structure and signaling.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Chemistry 20/30 is an integrated two-semester sequence that prepares students to study chemistry and other physical sciences, whereas the Chemistry 17/27 sequence focuses on application of organic chemistry concepts to the life sciences. Either sequence satisfies the organic chemistry requirement for medical school and the chemistry concentration. The content of Chemistry 17 is accelerated and overlaps with topics from both Chemistry 20 and 30. Students may not count both Chemistry 17 and 20 toward the degree. However, Chemistry 27 and Chemistry 20/30 cover different material, so students may choose to take Chemistry 27 after completing the 20/30 sequence.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The ocean is central to how our planet will respond to rising carbon dioxide levels, and understanding its chemistry unlocks a deeper look into that response. This course is an introduction to that conversation, drawing from real-world examples (marine CO2 uptake, coastal eutrophication, marine deoxygenation, the effects of mining, carbon capture strategies, warming of the arctic, Planetary climates, etc). The class will include lectures, asynchronous video content, student-led modules, and group work / discussions. Along the way, the class will also cover basic chemical principles (thermodynamics, solubility, saturation, redox, etc.) and the cycling of key (bio)geochemical elements in and around the ocean.
Human evolutionary biology seeks to understand why humans are the way we are and how we came to be. In this course, we will discuss adaptations and the process of adaptation using examples from various subfields of human evolutionary biology, including anatomy, physiology, ecology, genetics/genomics, life history, social organization, cognition, and culture. This course is intended to provide an intermediate-level survey of our field, ensure your familiarity with key concepts, and help prepare you to teach as a graduate student in HEB.
Microorganisms residing in the human gastrointestinal tract are as numerous as our own cells and together encode at least 150 times as many unique genes. In this research seminar, we explore gut microbial contributions to human physiology in states of health and disease. We consider how the human gut is colonized, the factors shaping the structure and function of the gut microbiome, and the pivotal roles of the gut microbiome in digestion, energy regulation, immunity, development, drug metabolism, and behavior. We evaluate fast-growing evidence for the gut microbial modulation of metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders, and discuss prospective microbiome-targeted approaches for the prevention and treatment of human disease. The weekly three-hour lab will introduce students to experimental, bench and computational techniques used to investigate the gut microbiome, enabling students to collaborate on a novel research project that dovetails with topics discussed in seminar.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Commutative Algebra lies at the foundations of Number Theory and Algebraic Geometry. It plays an important role in Algebraic Topology, Geometry and other fields. We will cover the main topics of Commutative Algebra and give a taste of its applications. Starting from generalities on rings, modules and ideals, localization and primary decomposition in Noetherian rings and modules, we then move to integral extensions, going-up and going-down, Noether normalization and Hilbert’s Nullstellensatz, dimension theory. The final part of the class will cover graded rings, Hilbert polynomials and homological methods (if time permits, including regular local rings).
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This course will survey various aspects of Lagrangian Floer theory, starting with its introduction to address classical conjectures in symplectic geometry, and the rich algebraic structures captured by the Fukaya category. These will also be discussed through the lens of homological mirror symmetry. Further topics include family Floer cohomology and local-to-global principles for Fukaya categories.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The essential function of a neuron is to processe complex signals derived from the external world. In doing so, neurons employ diverse mechanisms that respond to chemical and electrical signals with incredible sensitivity and plasticity. In this course, we will study these electrical, molecular, and cellular processes using biophysical and biological approaches. Specifically, we will explore topics on excitable membranes, neurotransmission, ion channels, dendritic integration, intracellular signaling, and synaptic plasticity in the context of real cells and brain circuits.
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An introduction to the ways in which the brain controls mental activities. The course covers the cells and signals that process and transmit information, and the ways in which neurons form circuits that change with experience. Topics include the neurobiology of perception, learning, memory, emotion, and neurologic disorders. This year we are combining interactive, didactic lecture videos with live Tuesdays and Thursdays featuring guest lectures, hands-on demonstrations, and review sessions in addition to small discussion sections.
This course will explore the major advances in deep learning, with a special emphasis on their applications to molecular biology and genomics. Starting from single neurons (perceptrons), we will progress to more complex architectures such as convolutional and recurrent neural networks, transformers, and generative neural networks. The course will cover both the general principles of these methods as well as specific applications in genomics. This is a computationally rigorous course for students interested in computational biology.
This course presents the fundamental concepts that underlie modern light microscopy in a rigorous but non-mathematical way for biological applications. The students will learn about the four major frameworks for light (ray optics, wave optics, electromagnetism, and quantum optics). The ways lenses work, the theory of resolution, and the optical design of the compound microscope will be described. The course will also describe the photo-physical principles that underlie fluorescence and genetically encoded fluorescent proteins, and light detector and imaging strategies. Scanning (confocal and 2P), light sheet and super-resolution microcopies will also be described. We will end with a tour of the Harvard Center of Biological Imaging.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
A laboratory course that immerses students in a dynamic project-based research environment. Participate in experimental projects directly linked with ongoing faculty research. Students select a project from the following research tracks: neurobiology, microbial sciences, cell biology, and synthetic biology. New projects, including some in other research fields, are offered every term. In a highly collaborative atmosphere, students form a fully-functional and diverse research group based on the sharing of ideas and progress reports between projects. The spring microbiology project is part of the "genomes to Biomes" series.
PyMOL is one of the most popular software programs to display and explore high-resolution structures of macromolecules. It is readily used to create publication-quality figures, and movies and animations of structural information. In this course, you will learn the basics of PyMOL and be able to display, explore and present three-dimensional structures of macromolecules. With this basic training, you will be able to generate high-quality images and simple movies, and have the resources to learn more on your own to generate more complex displays.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The brain has evolved a unique but very effective system to protect itself from invaders. In this course, we will explore the specific defenses that the nervous system uses to protect itself. We will also examine how some pathogens evade or breach those defenses and the impact of those invasions. Finally, we will explore how scientists have been able to translate their understanding of these pathogenic mechanisms into technologies for research and therapeutic applications.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Identifying and obtaining external funding can be a critical skill in academic research settings. This writing intensive, workshop-based course prepares graduate students to develop competitive fellowship and other research funding applications, with an emphasis on the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Proposal (GRFP) and the National Institutes of Health F31, as well as related early-career awards from other federal and non-federal sources. Over the course of the semester, students will learn to identify funding opportunities and will develop a full fellowship proposal, including research statements, broader impacts, personal statements, and training and career development components.
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We will explore the fundamentals of marine biology, and in doing so, learn about the complex lifestyles of organisms whose home spans three quarters of our planet. We will take a process-driven approach, focusing first on the fundamentals: the interrelated processes of marine physiology, ecology, and evolution. What biological processes help organisms succeed in the marine environment? How do species traits vary throughout the different environments in the world’s oceans? How do gradual and rapid changes in the ocean environment alter the “rules of life” for marine species? As we build our understanding of these fundamentals throughout the course, we will use them as lenses to view, disentangle, and understand larger patterns in the oceans. In particular, we will focus on the diversity and distributions of biological functions, patterns of biodiversity, and the growing threats to marine life. Learning will be assessed via a first-third exam, a short paper, and a final presentation and paper. Ultimately, you will come away with a new understanding of the unique challenges and incredible opportunities that arise from life in saltwater.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course bridges foundational physics study with the world of current research, preparing you for work in a research group or for life after graduation. Through student-led tutorials, faculty research seminars, guided paper discussions, and one-on-one mentoring, you will build the research skills that will serve you throughout your career: reading and analyzing scientific literature, presenting complex ideas clearly, asking incisive questions, integrating AI responsibly into your work, and engaging in professional scientific dialogue. Along the way, you will explore paths into research, build a professional portfolio, and prepare for next steps-whether summer research, graduate school, or a career in physics-related fields.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Hands-on, experienced-based course for graduate students on teaching and communicating physics, conducted through practice, observation, feedback, and discussion. Departmental rules for teaching fellows, section and laboratory teaching, office hours, assignments, grading, and difficult classroom situations.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Recent advances in digital technology and artificial intelligence (AI) have fueled a revolution that is transforming science and society. Massive data have been rapidly generated in many disciplines, such as genomics, health, physical and social sciences. Scalable statistical machine learning (ML) and AI methods play a pivotal role in analyzing these data to ensure that scientific discoveries are reliable and trustworthy. This course focuses on cutting-edge statistical ML and AI methods. Discussions will be led by faculty members from the Departments of Statistics and Biostatistics, with active participation from students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty. Students and postdoctoral fellows will collaborate with faculty on presentations that explore theoretical, methodological, and computational and application aspects of these areas. The course will emphasize active discussions. Topics will include current research activities, challenges, and open problems. Example areas include ML methods, such as manifold learning, deep learning, representation learning, transfer learning, distributed and federated learning, contrastive learning, as well as generative AI methods such as large language models (LLMs), transformers, and diffusion models, and synthetic data. The integration of statistical and AI methods will also be highlighted. Applications of these methods across diverse scientific domains will be discussed.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The MS/MBA Capstone is an intensive project-based experience that requires teams of students to apply and integrate the skills they have learned across the program curriculum. Specifically, teams will be expected to design, build (and hopefully, launch) a new technology-based product/service venture, and thereby to demonstrate mastery with respect to three fundamental areas of knowledge: Design Knowledge: The use of human-centered (and other) design methods to understand users, identify solutions to their needs, and gather feedback on solutions via rapid, iterative prototyping. Technical Knowledge: The use of rigorous system engineering methods to plan, design, develop, build, and test a complex technology-based product/service, integrating knowledge across diverse engineering disciplines. And Business Knowledge: The use of lean experimentation methods to develop and test a set of hypotheses that capture how the new product/service will create value, including business model design, customer value proposition, go to market (GTM) strategy, operating model and profit formula.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
As part of your application, you must provide a brief statement on why you are interested in each seminar. You will be notified of lottery results for both fall and spring seminars at 5 pm on August 11. If you are unsuccessful in the lottery, you may still join any seminar with open seats. A list of open seminars and instructions on next steps will be available on the First-Year Seminar Program website August 11 at 12 Noon.
This seminar is an exercise in seeing what is actually there in a series of great works of art, in moving beyond too much mystification yet staying this side of too much sophistication, an exercise in evaluating composition and representation as they present themselves to the viewer directly and without context. We will spend most of our time looking and talking about what we think we see, what we actually see, and how it informs interpretation, but we will also read short texts where professionally encumbered lookers (i.e., experts) say what we should see, so that we can compare the two and explore the degree to which literal looking aids or is aided by contextually informed looking. Works by Raphael, Caravaggio, Bernini, Velazquez, Turner, Renoir, Sargent, Klimt, Kandinsky, Warhol, Richter.
John Lennon of Beatles’ fame asks us to imagine a world with no religion in the lyrics of his widely acclaimed song written in 1971. He also asks us to imagine a world without nationalism and inequality. He admits he’s a dreamer, but what if we delve deeper into his dream? Is he correct to identify religion, nationalism, and inequality as the main sources of the world’s ills over the past century and are these components of human civilization made even worse when they intersect with one another in dangerous ways?
Thinking like a humanist enables us to reframe fundamental concerns, ferret out assumptions, clarify priorities, entertain nuance, and imagine better ways of living. The fields of science, statistics, and engineering are extraordinarily powerful, but they cannot answer the question of how we should use the power they generate. Issues of morality, meaning, intrinsic value, and ultimate aim require us to step back from the analysis and manipulation of nature and make room for poetic revelation and philosophical inquiry. Based on all we know, how shall we live?
We will therefore be engaged in a continuous dialogue: we study the biological material itself to begin to understand its underlying principles, adapt these concepts to design a bio-inspired architecture, and then apply insights from the designed system to guide further investigation of the biological system. The goal is to use biological principles as guidance in developing new, bio-inspired materials and devices, with broad implications in fields ranging from architecture to energy efficiency to medicine.
Families invest in their children, people invest in themselves, and individuals migrate to more productive places. But a large part of human capital investment also arises because governments provide resources to educate the young, create a healthful environment, reduce disease, and enable the free flow of labor. Investment also arises because of institutions. Consider how different human capital would be with slavery, indentured servitude, and contract labor. What is the efficient level of public versus private human capital investment, and what are the most effective institutions for this investment? Many of these questions will be addressed with data from the U.S., which led the world in education and became the richest nation (per capita) in the twentieth century, but experienced rising economic inequality during the last half of that century.
From there, we will investigate how this problem intersects with modern astrophysics and cosmology, opening the possibility that understanding consciousness may reshape how we think about the universe as a whole, including our place in it. Along the way, we will examine the philosophical foundations of science, the limits of objective measurement, and the tension between models of reality and lived experience. By the end of the seminar, you will not only understand the current landscape of ideas, but also develop your own exploratory tool set for one of the deepest mysteries in science.
In 1930, amidst deep economic pessimism in the early years of the Great Depression, John Maynard Keynes wrote his famous essay: "Economic Possibilities for our Grandchildren." His essay got some things right and others badly wrong, but its core message was an optimistic story about the promise of technological progress. Even though the economy is much better now than it was in 1930, you can hear the echoes of Keynes’ essay in current fears about the rapid progress of AI. Is this time different? Are all our jobs going to disappear? Is society about to break?
How can art be cosmic, and how to turn the cosmos into art? Long before the modern space age, human beings were launching themselves into the stars through art. The seminar explores how human creative expression has historically integrated with the vast, transcendental, and often invisible forces of the universe. You will traverse the boundary between the material and the spiritual, exploring how art serves as a vessel for navigating the cosmos, and how the universe acts as an endless source of artistic and philosophical inspiration.
An introduction to the science of global warming/climate change meant to assist students in understanding issues that appear in the news and public debates. The course is meant for STEM students with basic math preparation, not assuming prior science courses. Topics include the greenhouse effect and consequences of the rise of greenhouse gases, including sea level rise, ocean acidification, heat waves, droughts, glacier melting, forest fires, expected changes to hurricanes, and more. An ability to critically evaluate observations, predictions, and risks will be developed throughout. The scientific basis for each subject will be covered, and students will be guided in a hands-on, in-class quantitative analysis of climate observations, models, and feedbacks using provided Python Jupyter notebooks.
In this project-based graduate course, students will build a machine-learning emulator of El Niño events by training on climate model simulations and gain experience lecturing about machine learning. The introductory lectures will introduce basic ENSO dynamics and some machine learning ideas, including supervised learning, neural networks, backpropagation, overfitting, validation, etc. Each student team will then attempt a different approach to building the emulator and will provide a few lectures to the class on its approach. These approaches will include convolutional encoder-decoder networks (U-Net), transformers, Fourier neural operators, and graph neural networks, all introduced as both deterministic and stochastic/generative emulation methods. Students are encouraged to also apply the emulation methods to their own research as an optional class assignment.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
ANTHRO 98a is a research design course: geared towards guiding and developing an anthropological research project that you are curious and passionate about. We will read, discuss and consider case studies that reflect lived experiences from diverse communities and contexts across a variety of topics and frameworks within the discipline. As we walk through on-the-ground and recorded examples of ethnographic/ archaeological research, we will explore and compare different approaches in identifying research problems, conducting research, and writing anthropologically. We will also read latest works produced by departmental faculty, including your Tutor's, to get a sense of the range of topics, questions, and new methods that are possible in anthropological research. This course also offers you a space to then apply what you have learned through designing your projects and sharing your research goals, experiences, and components of your emerging work with peers for feedback. Through structured assignments, seminar workshops, discussions with invited faculty and regular individual meetings with instructors, you will produce an original essay based on your research over the course of the semester. In short, this course will arm you with the critical tools to start thinking about your own independent research project. Please note that the research project you start to brainstorm in this course does not have to be your Senior Thesis project. In other words, your chosen research topic for this semester is only for the purposes of this course, and you are not confined to this research topic beyond this semester, although you can certainly continue to pursue this same research topic. As part of this course, you will be asked to reach out to at least one departmental faculty member to discuss the direction and feasibility of your research ideas. ***Please note that this course has a weekly 2 hr course meeting that is complemented with 1.5 hour section meetings with your Tutor.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The physics of crystalline solids and their electric, magnetic, optical, and thermal properties. Designed as a first course in solid-state physics. Topics include: crystal binding, crystal structure, and crystal lattice vibrations (phonons); the free-electron model followed by electrons in crystalline lattices and electronic band structures; the band picture of solids (metals, semiconductors, and insulators); semiconductor devices and applications (pn junctions, transistors, and quantum wells); electron dynamics and transport in crystals; collective excitations of electrons (plasmons); optical and magnetic properties of solids; thermal properties; and superconductivity.
This course provides an introduction to quantum materials and devices, including low-dimensional materials, single and double quantum dots, Josephson junctions, and graphene. Their behavior is explained using quantum and semiclassical transport, the Coulomb blockade, and superconductivity. Quantum devices offer new approaches for electronics and photonics.
The course covers the interaction of quantized atoms with classical and quantized electromagnetic fields, introducing basic concepts such as coherent Rabi transitions versus rate-equation dynamics, stimulated and spontaneous transitions, and energy and phase relaxations. These topics will be studied using standard quantum-dynamics tools, together with methods such as Bloch, Feynman-Bloch, and Jaynes-Cummings formalisms. These concepts and methods will then be used to study a range of applications of atom-field interactions, including nuclear magnetic resonance, molecular-beam and paramagnetic masers, passive and active atomic clocks, dynamic nuclear polarization, pulse-sequence techniques for coherent manipulation of quantum states, laser oscillators, cavity quantum electrodynamics, and circuits for quantum information processing.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course introduces electrochemical systems through the lens of thermodynamics, kinetics, and transport. We begin by asking what fundamental role an electron plays in a chemical reaction, then we move to methods to treat electrons through traditional chemical kinetic theories, and last, we discuss entire systems and how mass transport affects chemistry. Throughout the course, we will focus on examples from industry, and we will finish by combining all the above into a discussion on electrochemical interfaces in some practical systems.
This course provides a practical introduction to single-molecule biophysics, a vibrant field that over the past several decades has transformed how we probe biological and soft-matter systems at the most fundamental level. We will build up the foundations of imaging science-including geometric and Fourier optics, light propagation and diffraction, resolution and transfer functions, noise and detectors, and the physics of fluorescence-before examining state-of-the-art single-molecule methods such as single-molecule FRET, single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM), STED, MINFLUX, optical tweezers, and single-particle cryo-EM and tomography. Emphasis will be placed on how these technological advances have enabled key scientific insights in biology and soft-matter science, and on when and how single-molecule approaches can be effectively applied. Because final projects are based on topics chosen by the students, participants can chart an individualized path most beneficial to their own research, and are encouraged to explore cutting-edge directions such as the use of artificial intelligence, quantum single-molecule sensing, and other novel or cross-disciplinary approaches for advancing mechanistic understanding of biological and soft-matter systems.
The course introduces various aspects of quantum science, including quantum computing, quantum simulation, quantum communication and quantum metrology. It will particularly focus on the presentation of different experimental platforms currently used in the field and include superconducting qubits, trapped ions, neutral atoms, defects in solids, photons, among others. The course will cover an introduction of the general goals and essential prerequisites for these platforms; it will elucidate their operational principles and highlight some of their most significant and recent achievements, as well as the main challenges in their development.
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This course focuses on the modern applications of Statistical Mechanics. We will learn the basics of information theory, coding and compression. We will next learn about Bayesian Inference, priors and maximizing entropy, which will naturally lead us to regularization and compressed sensing. We will then cover learning: support vector machines, vc dimension, supervised, reinforcement and unsupervised learning. These topics, which build on each other, will be taught using examples in the primary literature with an emphasis on applying the framework we develop. Applications will be taught through problems in genomics, neuroscience, geophysics, and engineering.
Lectures and laboratory instruction on electron microscopy, with a focus on transmission electron microscopy (TEM), aberration-correction microscopy and microanalysis. Lab classes include; SEM imaging, TEM imaging, diffraction, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, electron energy-loss spectroscopy, high resolution atomic imaging, and Cs-corrected STEM. Towards the end of the class, students perform an independent research study using electron microscopy on an area of their interest which can include hard materials, polymers, and biological samples.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course explores how and why “gig work” - featuring flexible, short-term agreements and few of the benefits or protections associated with formal employment - has become so pervasive, with harmful consequences for workers and societies alike. We will examine how unions and federal labor law sought to redress precarity in the early twentieth century; the emergence of early gig-like arrangements like direct selling, multi-level marketing, and franchising; the role of digital technologies in both expanding access to gig work and surveilling gig workers; the possible effects of the AI boom on the gig economy; and labor organizing by gig workers today.
How are science, medicine and technology related to the society, politics, and culture? How have the ways we go about understanding our natural and social worlds changed over time? What is the responsibility of science to the people? How have states and businesses supported scientific research, and why? What has been the relationship of science to medicine and technology in history? We will ask these questions and more by studying crucial moments in the development of science from the pre-modern world to the present day. Topics will include medieval Arabic medicine, Galileo, evolution, eugenics, race science, the atomic bomb, and genomics.
In this course, we will arm you with ways of understanding technology that will help you become a better user, and a more responsible maker, of technical things in our thoroughly technological world. We will do this by immersing you in an arresting survey of the social life of technology across the globe, with special attention to moments--like the one in which we are currently living--of technological revolutions. History is not just about the past: it is a way of understanding how we have come to inherit the present world that we have, and how to ethically navigate that world.
This course presents a history of nature and science through the setting of the museum and allied institutions. Through visits to collections and museums on campus, we will interrogate how displaying nature is an act of interpretation and how those interpretations reflect contemporary social, political, cultural, and scientific norms. The course will be based around case studies of museums, zoos, botanic gardens, parks, visual art, and visual materials in books. Taught by the co-directors of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, the class will also make visits to the Harvard Art Museums, the Natural History Museum, several additional natural history research collections, the Ernst Mayr Library, Houghton Library, and the Harvard Arboretum. The final project is an online, curated exhibit and accompanying paper.
This course examines the phenomenon of brainwashing as a modern set of techniques that can apparently force a subject radically to alter their beliefs against their will. The Cold War roots of 'brainwashing' - both the myth and the reality -- lie in the politics of twentieth-century anti-Communism and the deeper fear that people's most strongly held thoughts, ideas, and ideological commitments could be vulnerable to powerful infiltration. I argue this fear is justified - that brainwashing is real. In order to understand the dynamics of this process we will examine case studies beginning with the Korean War P.O.W.s, the American interdisciplinary science of "coercive persuasion" that arose in response, and successive waves of technological, political, and sociocultural developments. We will also look at “hyper-persuasion”: how persuasive techniques operate via social media and AI among larger groups, crowds, organizations, and mass societies.
Since the arrival of Africans from Africa to America, their health and health care has been a critical issue for the nation. From the era of slavery to the present, African Americans have been disproportionately burdened by disease and ill health. Health disparities are the "inequalities that occur in the provision of healthcare and access to healthcare across different racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups." This course examines this issue over the long time frame from the 17th century to the present. Currently, compared to the white population, African Americans are at an overall greater risk for many serious and life threatening diseases. This course will examine how these disparities emerged over time. It will explore the strategies and practices that African Americans and other ethnic groups employed to improve their health care. It will also examine the ways that cities, states and the federal government supported or ignored the health of African Americans and other marginalized communities. We will give special attention to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on these communities.
This course examines the connected histories of psychedelic research and the modern understanding of trauma. To put it simply, psychedelic substrates such as LSD-25, psilocybin, and others have been used both to traumatize subjects (for military purposes, especially during the Cold War) and to treat trauma in veterans and other sufferers. Currently the United States is on the cusp of mainstreaming the use of psychedelics and related substances such as MDMA for the treatment of trauma, and this course will provide us with tools to think through the ethical, scientific, philosophical, and spiritual dimensions of this unique historical moment.
An exploration of the complex relationship between doctors and scientists who study and treat different kinds of “broken brains,” the patients they study and treat, and larger public conversations about being human in today’s neurological society. Topics include iconic cases of brain damage that catalyze new scientific understandings (like the case of H.M.), the study of brain damage in war, the emergence of writings (including memoirs and novels) that attempt to describe "what it is like" to suffer from disorders like autism and Alzheimer’s, and controversies over recent efforts to see psychiatric disorders like depression as simple products of a chemically “broken brain.”
In 1990, in a paper cited more than 3,000 times, Nobel Prize-winning microbiologist Francis Crick and neurobiologist Christof Koch declared "the time is now ripe for an attack on the neural basis of consciousness." Thirty years later, though, we have largely lost the bullish certainties of the 1990s. People still speak of "consciousness studies," but it is unclear who polices the borders of that field. Instead, we see increasing interest in phenomena that even a decade ago would have been beyond the pale, from psychedelics to near-death experiences, to deathbed visioning, to lucid dreaming. The spaces in which consciousness research happens has also expanded: no longer just the neuroscience lab, but the hospice, the meditation retreat, the ICU, the operating theater, the wildlife preserve, and AI research labs. This course is an invitation to travel to these spaces and others, to try to understand what is happening in each of them, how they relate to one another, and what it would mean, really, for science to understand consciousness.
This course examines the role that science and technology-as understood by both governments and individual citizens-played in the formation of modern Latin American countries. While focusing on the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first century, the course will also lay the groundwork to understanding different knowledge systems and what happened to these with the arrival of Europeans to the Americas. Examples will span, for example, the measurement of indigenous women’s pelvises as evidence of a supposed inferior Indigenous race, to recent use of drones by cartels, to hydro technologies in climate-changed regions, to agrotechnology to end global hunger.
How is democracy evolving, or continuing to function, in an age of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? This course explores how cutting-edge and mundane technologies have changed the basic building blocks of collective governance, from voting systems and public service delivery to networked activism and digital communities. We’ll dive into the opportunities and risks of emerging tools and ask if technology has remade core concepts like freedom, fairness, and citizenship. Intended for students interested in the intersection of history, technology, and public policy, with special attention paid to debates in the United States over the past fifty years including over privacy, innovation, encryption, online sexuality, and the algorithmic harms.
Can we govern scientific and technological innovations or do they govern us? This seminar explores the ways science and technology have inspired, limited, and enhanced political action. Beginning with the surge of federal funding for U.S. science and engineering during World War II, continuing through the developmentalist promises of post-war science, and into the current regulatory (and deregulatory) fights over AI, this class looks to the moral and political role of science and technology policy. It will pay special attention to the role of institutions, political culture, and ideology. Students will grapple with high-stakes normative questions through concrete cases.
Psychology 1 is not just an introduction to the field of psychology but an owner's manual for the human mind - and an opportunity to explore some of the most fascinating issues in intellectual life. After laying a foundation in concepts about the brain, evolution, information, nature and nurture, and scientific approaches to psychology, the course covers specific topics including perception, cognition, attention, learning, memory, emotion, decision making, consciousness, development, language, personality, individual differences, psychopathology, social cognition, cooperation and conflict, and love and sex.
How does being a woman affect our behavior, our evaluations of ourselves, and our interactions with others? This course examines psychological science on women and girls in western industrialized societies, addressing such topics as gender stereotypes, girlhood, women and work, relationships, pregnancy and motherhood, mental health, violence against women, and women in later adulthood. We will consider these topics through an understanding of gender as a social construction, being mindful of the intersections of gender, sexuality, class, and race. Although focused on women’s lives and experiences, this course is highly relevant to people of all genders.
Music is an important ally when we feel like celebrating and when we are feeling down. It can distract us, make us forget or remember things more easily. Why do songs like “The Scientist” give us a sad vibe while songs like “I Got a Feeling” set the stage for a fun night ahead? Is music training like CrossFit for the brain? How can music engagement (i.e., passive listening or active making of music) support well-being? In this course, we will explore how music modulates our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors through the lens of psychological science. We will look at how the brain experiences music and the impact of music and musical training on brain plasticity throughout different stages of development. Finally, using empirical research and case studies, we will discuss how music is applied to daily life and how it has benefited premature babies, individuals with mental disorders (such as depression), as well as conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.
Do opposites really attract? How does misinformation spread? Do repeated concussions cause early cognitive decline? What did Freud get right? We will investigate these questions and more in this course, which will delve into the science and pseudoscience of psychology from clinical psychology, behavioral science, and neuroscience perspectives. Be prepared to become skilled investigators and critical thinkers as we uncover psychological truths and myths.
What is the connection between physical and mental health? How does this relationship affect our potential for disease development and overall wellness? How does it affect our ability to learn, work, exercise, socialize, and experience personal growth? Drawing on research from historical, philosophical, psychological, and medical perspectives, this course explores the intricate relationship between the mind and body by investigating how psychological well-being and physical health impact one another. Students will engage in discussions on lifestyle and personality factors, stress management, mindfulness, chronic pain, somatic disorders, biofeedback, health disparities, and the influence of emotions on overall health. As we explore these concepts, be prepared to gain an enhanced understanding and appreciation of the mind-body network as well as practical tools to enhance your well-being and resilience in the face of life's challenges. This course is designed for students interested in psychology, health science, disease prevention and management, and holistic wellness.
Communication is essential to our everyday lives, yet we often don’t consider the complexity involved in understanding and being understood by others. In this course we will explore how language allows us to exchange ideas and the dynamics of human conversation. Topics covered in the course will include the psychology of verbal and non-verbal communication, how children learn to be conversational partners, leadership and influence, and research on communication disorders.
Across our years of schooling we experience different teaching styles, develop preferences for classroom activities and exam formats, and try out various studying strategies. But what has psychological science shown to be most effective in the classroom? In this course we will survey research from educational and cognitive psychology to discuss effective strategies for both teaching and learning. Topics will include age-appropriate teaching strategies, innovations such as flipped classrooms, and implications for educational policy issues, including socio-economic education gaps, remote learning, and standardized testing.
Humans are technological animals. Our species has invented agriculture, the compass, digital computers, large language models, and the selfie stick. This course traces the evolution and impact of these technological inventions, from the earliest wooden bows to the latest large language models. Half of the lectures will treat technology as the effect. We will explore how the human mind made our species into such prolific inventors, and how society amplified our inventive capacities. The other half will treat technology as the cause. We will explore how inventions ranging from food storage to feed-ranking algorithms changed how people think and interact. Grounded in social and cultural psychology, with insights from anthropology, sociology, and computer science, the course follows a key theme: technologies can evolve like living species, and in turn, they shape the evolution of human cognition and culture. By the end of the course, you will understand how language, learning, and institutions paved the way for a world of search engines and air travel-and how that world, in turn, reinvented us.
What can we learn about another person by observing their nonverbal behavior? Are “vibes” real? Does the body offer insights into who someone is, what they want, or how they really feel? In this seminar, we will learn about nonverbal behavior as it is studied in psychological science, considering when, why, and how psychologists measure the moving body in their efforts to understand the mind. We will explore how nonverbal behavior contributes to psychological research on topics that range from inferring what babies understand about the world to how much someone aligns with their conversation partner to the judgements we make about others in an instant. Throughout the semester we will grapple with the fact that our nonverbal behavior is generally produced and interpreted automatically yet may influence others more than our intentional behaviors, including our words.
An introduction to how psychoactive drugs affect mood, sensation, consciousness, and other psychological and behavioral functions in both healthy people as well as individuals suffering from drug abuse or psychiatric disorders. Introduces concepts in the neuropharmacology and pharmacokinetics of drugs and blends psychology, neuroscience and pharmacology together to understand how drugs work and are used to treat disease states. The course covers the mechanism of action and treatment options of many CNS drugs including those used to treat depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis, ADHD, autistic spectrum disorder, anxiety as well as drugs of abuse such as alcohol, nicotine/tobacco, cannabis, opiates, inhalants, amphetamine/cocaine, hallucinogens, and steroids. Special topics on vaping, drug interactions, sleep disorders, over the counter drugs, and selecting generic medications are covered. During the last two lectures students will participate in debates on controversial topics such as novel treatments for psychiatric disorders, ethical use of placebos, diagnosing ADHD, cannabis legalization, and needle exchange programs.
Can mint gum help you ace an exam? Is it better to pull an all-nighter to study or go to sleep? Could creating a daily drawing journal improve your memory for special moments? The ability to remember, and consequences of forgetting, deeply impact how we experience and interact with the world around us. In this course, we will draw from literature in educational psychology, applied cognitive psychology, and neuroscience to examine how to optimize the encoding, storage, and retrieval of memory. Throughout the semester, there will be a focus on investigating specific empirically-backed strategies to boost memory, and you will have the opportunity to apply these strategies to your own life and reflect on their effectiveness.
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Life is full of decisions, but not all decisions are made equal. Choices can be big and consequential (should I focus on my success, family, or passion), or small and everyday (going out, or staying in). This course will introduce you to the cognitive science of judging and choosing. You will learn about 1) Rational planning, the kind a perfect intelligence might carry out 2) Common simplifications and shortcuts that non-perfect humans use, and how these may actually be appealing approximations for any decision-making system 3) Regret over choices taken and not taken 4) Making decisions with others 5) Transformative decisions, the ones that change who you are as a person. As we cover these topics, we will consider how to apply the insights from the psychology of decision making to your own ordinary and extraordinary choices.
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The Psychology Department requires completion of Science of Living Systems 20 or Psychology 1 or the equivalent of introductory psychology (e.g. Psych AP=5 or IB =7 or Psyc S-1) and one of PSY 18 or PSY 1861 before enrolling in this course; or permission of instructor.
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Not open to auditors; cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. Please contact the department to learn more. First Meeting times will be posted on the Department of South Asian Studies' website in shortly before the term begins: sas.fas.harvard.edu
Zur mkhar ba was not only a famous traditional Tibetan physician, but he was also a poetician, a grammarian, and writer of epistles. In this course, we will examine his writings in various genres of Tibetan literature and examine a corpus of his letters that shed light on his social history. This is a reading course.
Beginning Indonesian is designed to equip students who have little or no previous knowledge of Indonesian with a basic foundation in the language. The course emphasizes communicative skills and encourages students to use Indonesian as much as possible when communicating in class. The course will emphasize speaking and listening, as well as simple writing and reading skills. Basic grammar and structure will be taught and presented in real life. Various aspects of Indonesian culture are integrated into the language instruction.
Beginning Indonesian is designed to equip students who have little or no previous knowledge of Indonesian with a basic foundation in the language. The course emphasizes communicative skills and encourages students to use Indonesian as much as possible when communicating in class. The course will emphasize speaking and listening, as well as simple writing and reading skills. Basic grammar and structure will be taught and presented in real life. Various aspects of Indonesian culture are integrated into the language instruction.
Intermediate Indonesian class develops conversational and presentational skills on familiar topics with some unexpected complications using a communicative approach to language learning based on student-centered activities. This level prepares students to use the language in organized ways and cope with various authentic texts. Advanced grammar and structure are taught and presented in real life contexts. As an important component of language learning, Various aspects of Indonesian culture are integrated into language instruction.
In Advanced Indonesian course, students will work to develop communication skills (interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational) on topics relating to community, public and personal interest. This course aims to prepare students to cope with unexpected complications as they deal with authentic texts and various communicative tasks, including describing or narrating complex situations and events. Students will also gain insights on Indonesian culture in the process of language learning. You will study both academic and non-academic texts, will engage in formal and informal discussion and writing, give presentations about Indonesian culture and society, and interview native speakers.
Advanced Indonesian develops conversational and presentational skills on familiar and unfamiliar, concrete and some abstract, academic, social and professional topics. This level prepares students to use the language in organized ways and to navigate a wide range of authentic texts. Advanced grammar and structure are taught in real life contexts. Various aspects of Indonesian culture are integrated into the language instruction.
This course is designed to equip learners of the basic skills in listening, reading, writing and speaking in Filipino, the national language of the Philippines. Along with vocabulary and basic grammar to facilitate language learning, this beginner’s course will also include introduction to some concepts relevant to Philippine culture adding context to the linguistic inputs in the discussion. Utilizing a combination of communicative, functional-situational, and task-based instruction, this course will capacitate learners to express themselves in the target language and understand basic texts in familiar settings of family, school, and community. It will also help them participate in conversations relevant to daily lives or simple transactions.
previous Filipino language courses or through exposure and experience as in the case of heritage learners, this course equips students in addressing daily needs with the use of the target language through a mix of communicative, content-based, task-based, and other relevant approaches. It also capacitates the students in participating in social transactions and in a variety of communicative situations ensuring that the language skills learned will be used for practical purposes. If an interested student has not yet taken a year of introductory Filipino class, a placement test administered by the instructor is needed before enrolling to ensure that the student meets the qualifications for the intermediate class.
previous Filipino language courses or through exposure and experience as in the case of heritage learners, this course equips students in addressing daily needs with the use of the target language through a mix of communicative, content-based, task-based, and other relevant approaches. It also capacitates the students in participating in social transactions and in a variety of communicative situations ensuring that the language skills learned will be used for practical purposes. If an interested student has not yet taken a year of introductory Filipino class, a placement test administered by the instructor is needed before enrolling to ensure that the student meets the qualifications for the intermediate class.
understand longer texts in the target language, this course will also help students to sustain conversations in Filipino and demonstrate ability to write reports and reviews on topics in various formats. They will be guided in making formal and informal presentations using appropriate language that is considered culturally acceptable in the target culture. At the end of the course, the students are expected to be able to not only perform communicative tasks with fluency but also to express opinions on a variety of social issues relevant to Philippine context and the global Filipino perspective. If a student has not yet taken Filipino language classes in the previous semesters but is exposed and has knowledge of the language as in the case of heritage learners, a placement test administered by the instructor is needed before enrolling to ensure that the student meets the qualifications for the advanced class.
An Introduction to the modern standard form of the most widely spoken language in South Asia, Hindi-Urdu. Students are introduced to both writing systems: the Devanagari script of Hindi and the Nastaliq script of Urdu. The basic grammatical structures are presented and reinforced, and students are also exposed to the cultural and historical context in which Hindi-Urdu has existed over several centuries. The course also draws from the modern medium of film, in particular recent Bollywood songs, to reinforce structures and vocabulary. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit.
Continuation of Hindi-Urdu 101. Emphasis on written expression and texts in both Perso-Arabic and Devanagari script systems. Students are introduced to Hindi-Urdu fables, short stories, and various other genres of literature, including poetry. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit.
Continuation of Hindi-Urdu 101. Emphasis on written expression and texts in both Perso-Arabic and Devanagari script systems. Students are introduced to Hindi-Urdu fables, short stories, and various other genres of literature, including poetry. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit.
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This is an upper-level critical paper reading and discussion course in the areas of experimental and computational functional genomics. Topics include genome sequencing, sequence analysis, transcriptomics, epigenomics, gene regulation, proteomics, chemical genomics, metabolomics, phenomics, and genetic variation analysis. Journal articles will comprise both classic, landmark papers in genomics and also more recent papers. Topics will be covered through paper presentations and in-class discussions. Students will be responsible for ‘chalk talk’ style presentations of assigned articles and leading class discussions of those articles, as well as active participation in discussion of all assigned papers. There will be written and oral presentations of final student proposals at the end of the term.
This course focuses on quantitative aspects of genetics and genomics, including computational and statistical methods of genomic analysis. We will introduce basic concepts and discuss recent progress in population and evolutionary genetics and cover principles of statistical genetics of Mendelian and complex traits. We will then introduce current genomic technologies and key algorithms in computational biology and bioinformatics. We will discuss applications of these algorithms to genome annotation and analysis of epigenomics, cancer genomics and metagenomics data. Proficiency in programming and basic knowledge of genetics and statistics will be assumed.
This course is an introduction into the sociological study of Social Inequality. Students will learn about sociological theories and read empirical research describing how social inequality is produced and reproduced in various institutions (e.g. the family, neighborhood and labor market) and through different mechanisms (e.g. socialization, segregation, discrimination). We will explore what it would take to address these different sources of social inequality in America, and learn from comparisons with other countries and historical moments.
Male/Female, Man/Woman, Masculine/Feminine, Straight/Gay. Where do these consequential categories come from? How do they generate inequalities? Why are they so easily reproduced? And what, if anything, should we do about it? Combining real-world applications with academic analyses, this course encourages you to think about how sexuality and gender have shaped the social world, as well as our own place within it.
Why do people invest so much time, money, effort, and emotion into sports? How can sports both reproduce social beliefs and inequalities and, at the same time, transform them? This course examines sport as a social institution with the power to move economies, impact politics, shape group identity, socialize children, and open a space for discovery and self-expression. We will discuss topics like gender, race, nationalism, and disability in sports, as well as play, performance, aesthetics, embodiment, and cultural globalization.
This course examines the origins, evolution, implementation, backlash, and transformation of the children’s rights movement. We will discuss rights violations like child labor or child marriage, as well as positive rights, like the right to education and free expression. Students will learn about the complex social, political, economic, and cultural structures underpinning the fight for children’s rights, as well as the ways children’s rights have transformed these structures around the world. And we will consider how young people themselves take ownership of their rights. Looking at the cases of Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, and the children who defend child labor, we will discuss the opportunities and challenges of child and youth participation.
This course provides an introduction to the comparative study of “race and ethnicity” around the world. We focus here not on particular “ethnic” or “racial” groups, but rather, on particular cases which illustrate how “race” is used as a way in which to divide, sort, and rank human beings (i.e. a principle of social vision and division). In particular, we compare and contrast how different societies have constructed ethnoracial boundaries by focusing on several key forms of ethnoracial domination: categorization, discrimination, segregation, ghettoization, and exclusionary violence. Readings include sociological, historical, and anthropological studies of ethnoracial dynamics primarily in the U.S. and Brazil, but also South Africa, Asia, Western Europe, and Latin America.
This course introduces students to quantitative data analysis in the social sciences. It covers the basics of research design and the use of empirical evidence. Students will learn about descriptive and inferential statistics, including regression analysis. The course aims to equip students with the skills needed to analyze data and effectively communicate their findings in research reports.
What does it mean to be a child? What is it like to be a child? Drawing on the tools of sociology, we will see how children’s lives and life chances are shaped by their social position, their social contexts, and the broad social structures in their society. Additionally, we will examine how the very notions of “childhood” and “adolescence” are socially constructed, varying across history and cultures rather than stemming from biology alone. We will consider why contemporary constructions of children are so contradictory-sometimes framing them as victims needing protection, and sometimes as deviants needing correction-and what these views say about broader societal anxieties. Next, we will examine several key influences on children’s socialization, highlighting how class, gender and race shape children’s experiences. Throughout, we will consider how children actively shape their own social worlds, and how their existence shapes society itself. We will close by examining several social issues related to children.
Nearly one in three residents of the United States lives close to the poverty line, and a growing number of people live in deep poverty, subsisting on less than $2 per day. This course examines the social world of poverty in the US today. It pays particular attention to the lived experiences of low-income people. It also examines the parallel sets of institutions low-income people must navigate-institutions that often perpetuate poverty, like low-wage jobs, systems of policing and surveillance, substandard schools and colleges, exploitative housing, and predatory financial services. The course places a heavy emphasis on firsthand experience and learning. We will have guest lectures from people whose work or life experiences relate to the course subject matter. Students will also complete several fieldwork assignments, doing things like observing eviction court, applying for food stamps, or interviewing someone making ends meet at a low-wage job.
The primary goal of this course is to offer intense, foundational exposure to psychological statistics, focusing heavily on applications and computation using the R environment for statistical computing. The methodological core of the first part of the course is the linear model which includes methods such as regression, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and others. The second part of the course focuses on extensions in terms of linear mixed-effects models (aka multilevel models) and generalized linear mixed-effects models for modeling longitudinal and hierarchical data structures. Students will be exposed to the Frequentist as well as the Bayesian inferential framework.
This is a full-on applied machine learning (ML) course designed for graduate students in psychology and related fields. The first half of this course focuses on supervised learning methods for prediction/classification. We elaborate on the basic principles of predictive modeling such as sample splits, cross-validation, and model evaluation (confusion matrix), as well as more advanced ideas like modeling imbalanced data and model-agnostic methods for interpreting black box models such as feature importance, accumulated local effects, SHAP values, etc. In terms of particular ML algorithms that will be covered before midterm, we start with basic logistic regression including penalization, followed by classification trees with important extensions such as (extreme gradient) boosting, bagging, and random forests, as well as support vector machines, basic neural networks, and ensemble learners. After midterm the first part is all about natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning. We start with basic text mining techniques such as sentiment analysis, topic models, and word embeddings. Then we cover more advanced transformer architectures like BERT for text-based modeling. The final block consists of two units on causal ML where we combine ML techniques with domain expertise for causal reasoning. We will use Python throughout this class.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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Despite recent advances in computer science and machine learning, human infants remain the most prodigious learners on the planet. This seminar considers the origins and nature of human cognitive development in four broad domains: knowledge of objects and their physical relationships, knowledge of people and social relationships, knowledge of geometry and the larger spatial layout, and knowledge of numbers and mathematics. We will discuss how these foundational cognitive building blocks support humans’ ability to explain, understand, and generalize, skills that are critical for successfully navigating our surroundings. Understanding these core psychological competencies has become essential to progress in many areas of society, including efforts to improve education, to create digital “cognitive assistants” who help us navigate, plan, and remember things, and to develop human-like artificial intelligence. Building on findings from basic research, we will consider how each of these efforts can be advanced.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The course focuses on the following areas of virology: (i) RNA and DNA virus replication mechanisms, (ii) innate responses to viral infection (iii) adaptive immune responses to viral infection, (iv) viral latency and reactivation, (v) inhibition of viral infection. The course will comprise lectures as well as reviewing literature that describes fundamental breakthroughs relevant to these areas. Within those areas, the class will read and discuss papers dealing with virus structure, replication, pathogenesis, evolution, emerging viruses, chronic infection, innate and adaptive immunity, anti-viral drugs/vaccines. Special emphasis will be placed on preparing students to critically evaluate the literature, formulate hypotheses and design experiments.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Discretionary approvals all entail formal physical and virtual outreach: to advocacy groups, community interests, elected officials, neighbors, the media, and the public at large. Managing this requires a strategic engagement framework that can bolster allies, mediate energized project opponents, and convey the larger message of why a project enhances community character and delivers public benefit. Moreover, community buy-in often solidifies project parameters to secure potential public and philanthropic capital funding, which may determine whether a project moves forward.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Principles of parallel (orthographic), central (perspectival), and other less common forms of projective transformation explain many processes of formal production-vision, subjective experience, drawing, modeling, and building. Beginning with 2D drawing exercises and transitioning to 3D modeling, we will interrogate the effects of the digital interface and mechanics of modeling software on contemporary discourse. As students explore the power and limitations of the flat drawing plane, they will also develop literacy in primitive and complex surface geometries-their combinatory aggregation, subdivision, and discretization-as they relate back to the most reductive of architectural forms-the planar surface. Ultimately, these techniques will be placed into a productive dialogue with architectural and programmatic imperatives. The design tools of the digital and post-digital age have allowed designers to invent and produce form with increasing facility, eliminating the need to understand the consequential and demanding relationships between geometry and architecture. The course will involve close formal reading of buildings as a way to introduce students to the practice of reading, drawing, and writing architecture.
This course provides a forum for critical discussion of contemporary design practices that is exploratory and speculative in nature. The course emphasizes collaborative thinking and debate and prepares students to develop research interests and to formulate positions in architecture.
Finally, this course dedicates a significant amount of time to the design of structural systems , addressing both gravity as well as lateral loading scenarios. The design of structural systems is not treated as a purely quantitative exercise but as a design activity that synthesizes architectural design and structural principles. Design exercises and case study analysis serve to expose the relationship between structural systems and architectural form and space. Students will learn to identify typical design strategies for structural system strategies and understand their spatial and formal ramifications. They will learn to select and apply appropriate methods of analysis when conducting structural analysis studies in order to make informed decisions throughout the architectural design process.
The sustainable renewal of the legacy of 20th century Modernism and its contemporary progeny presents many challenges to conservation and adaptive reuse that continue to be debated across our industry. The concept of renewal through “modernization” is increasingly employed by commercial, institutional and government building owners fueling an exponential increase in the volume of rehabilitation activity. Organizations such as the Getty Conservation Institute, ICOMOS, Docomomo and APT have undertaken broader inquiries into addressing the questions that impact the fundamental philosophy of how to work with this large and diverse legacy. This in turn has produced new Heritage Guidelines that are meant to update and complement the existing established international charters to guide appropriate treatment for modern properties.
This community based research course focuses on some of the major issues Native American Indian tribes and nations face in the 21st century. It provides in-depth, hands-on exposure to native development issues, including: sovereignty, economic development, constitutional reform, leadership, health and social welfare, tribal finances, land and water rights, culture and language, religious freedom, and education. In particular, the course emphasizes problem definition, client relationships, and designing and completing a research project for a tribe, tribal department, or those active in Indian Country. The course is devoted primarily to preparation and presentation of a comprehensive research paper based on work with a tribal community. In addition to faculty presentations on topics such as field research methods and problem definition, students will make presentations on their work in progress/near-ultimate findings.
The art museum has emerged as one of the most significant and prolific typologies of the last century. Its edifice is at once a vessel for our cultural memories and a platform for espousing values, ideas, and knowledge essential to navigating our collective futures. The museum building tethers the objects it houses to the public it hosts. The three - building, object, and public - are constantly in dynamic alignments and tension with one another.
The seminar will begin by treating the supermarket itself as a site. Students will document and interrogate its dimensions, circulation, obstructions, materiality, lighting, acoustics, display systems, and other environmental conditions, considering how these elements shape perception and behavior. From this architectural foundation, students will operate as brand strategists, examining how products occupy, respond to, and compete within that space. Rather than inventing new products, students will innovate upon existing brands. Outdated supermarket products will be reconsidered from the top down, including brand identity, consumer target, logo, packaging, materiality, form, and spatial experience. Students will study their product’s shelf competitors and learn to communicate their observations through visual and spatial arguments rather than those that are explicitly verbal.
The main course objectives are to introduce students to the exciting and powerful world of electrical engineering and to explain how gadgets that we use every day actually work. After taking ES 50, you will be able to leverage the power of electricity to build systems that sense, control and program the physical world around you. Examples include intelligent and autonomous systems (robots), audio amplifiers (e.g. guitar amp), interactive art installations, light-shows, mind-controlled machines, and so on.
This pro-seminar is a core requirement for successful completion of the Doctor of Design program. Primarily, it will focus on thematic areas that range across various topics and the methods and skills that might be involved in each area. Generally, these will include: historical thinking, critical thinking, thinking about technologies, analysis of social settings, theorizing landscapes, and theorizing aspects of urban form, as well as analyzing its environmental performance. Each seminar will be of two or more hours in duration and comprised of presentation by an invited faculty member on a theme of their research and scholarly interest, followed by discussion among the class.
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Cross-Registrant Auditors: This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will be accepting ALI Fellow auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course will be accepting auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Through the careful reading of and exploratory writing about selected works of contemporary poetry, together with some key pieces of criticism and philosophy, the seminar will explore different modalities of difficulty. The hypothesis driving the course is that in difficult times, reading difficult writing can be a vital, intellectually and affectively powerful task. Readings will likely include work by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge, Myung Mi Kim, Susan Howe, Dan Beachy-Quick, Harryette Mullen, Elizabeth Robinson, Lisa Robertson, TC Tolbert, and Cameron Awkward-Rich. We will work together as a seminar and in smaller groups. Enrollment limited to 20 students. I will ask for a statement of interest at the beginning of the fall term. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 2993.
“Poetry is the new space of possibility and everyone knows it,” writes Eileen Myles, thereby defining poetry as possibility rather than anything whose boundaries can be prescribed. As Myles explains, “a lot of things that people like are beginning to need to happen in the same pieces of writing and those things may be gossip, theory, sexual description, or simply an implication that it’s there or just happened (art).” We will explore this principled disobedience - an aesthetic, philosophical, and perhaps also a theological act - through the reading of important pieces by contemporary artists, among them Eileen Myles, Susan Howe, Alice Notley, Claudia Rankine, Maggie Nelson, Dana Ward, Rob Halpern, and Bhanu Kapil.
Through the careful reading of and exploratory writing about selected works of contemporary poetry, together with some key pieces of criticism and philosophy, the seminar will explore different modalities of difficulty. The hypothesis driving the course is that in difficult times, reading difficult writing can be a vital and affectively powerful task. Readings will likely include work by Susan Howe, Nathanial Mackay, Rae Armantrout, Dan Beachy-Quick, Myung Mi Kim, Claudia Rankine, Dawn Lundy Martin, Harryette Mullen, Elizabeth Robinson, Lisa Robertson, TC Tolbert, and Cameron Awkward-Rich.
The second question addresses the plausibility of an Islamic state as a Democracy. The original “state” in Madina was a city-state formed by consensus from the community and enshrined in a constitutional document, one of the first in history. The features of this original paradigmatic (some would say oxymoronic) “Islamic state” were incredibly democratic and provide the foundational principles for Islamic governance, some of which have been viewed as problematic to implement as a modern state. Major themes of discussion for this portion of the course include questions surrounding the separation of church and state in Islam; the defining of governance in Islam and its relation to political Islam; the role of public freedoms in relation to individual liberties, and whether secularism or Democracy constitutes a more accurate form of Islamic governance for Muslim states today?
The rise of nationalism in the nineteenth century raised a variety of issues relating to the role of religion in that European project. This course will focus on the challenges, obstacles, and role religion played in the national project Our case study will be Jewish nationalism also called Zionism. We will explore religious Zionism and religious anti-Zionism as competing philosophical movements within Jewish modernity. The focus will be less on historical events, though they are important, and more on the philosophical and theological foundations of a variety of Jewish reactions to nationalism. We will read across the plethora of Jewish voices who weighed in on the monumental Jewish project in modernity.
This course will look at a series of issues that were formative for the Jewish integration and participation in modernity/postmodernity. Special attention will be given to social, political, artistic, and intellectual trends from the Enlightenment to the present. These issues will include rationalism, romanticism, nationalism/Zionism, democracy, gender, war/violence, ritual/law/reform, ecumenism, antisemitism, and environmentalism. We will read from a wide variety of Jewish philosophers, rabbis, political leaders, artists, theologians, and ritualists investigating the context of their work, its engagement with the world and issues of the day and vision for the future of Judaism that emerged from their works.
This course will examine the phenomenon known as Kabbalah, or Jewish mysticism, beginning with the Spanish Expulsion (1492) and extending to the present. Its focus will be on major movements of kabbalistic activity from Lurianic Kabbalah, Sabbateanism, Renaissance Kabbalah, Lithuanian Kabbalah, Hasidism, Neo-Hasidism, and Kabbalah in the New Age. The focus will be on changing and developing kabbalistic systems, questions of messianism and redemption, history, heresy, and the impact of modernity and postmodernity on kabbalistic praxis. Larger questions on mystical religion, law, secularism, and the differences between normative religion and spirituality will also be discussed.
A thorough review and continuation of literary (classic and modern) Arabic grammar with emphasis on reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. Course materials draw from both classical and modern Arabic literature and culture. Required textbook: Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-Arabiyya , Part II with DVDs, 3rd edition.
This course serves as an introduction to the Persian language and Persianate culture for students with no prior knowledge of Persian. We will learn to communicate primarily by speaking, listening, reading, and writing in both spoken and written Persian. We will learn the Persian alphabet while building conversational skills in elementary Persian. We will develop a strong foundation in Persian grammar as well as proficiency in Persianate culture. Persian will be the primary language of the class with limited use of English.
This course includes thorough review of the fundamentals of grammar and building a wider vocabulary. It emphasizes reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. Course introduces literary and cultural texts, and includes audio-visual material from the contemporary media.
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Introduction to Yiddish language, literature, and culture. In the course of the year, students will acquire a thorough grounding in Yiddish grammar and will develop strong foundational reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension skills. The course will introduce students to the 1000-year history of Yiddish culture in Eastern Europe, the United States, and around the world. Students will learn about the past and present of this culture through exposure to Yiddish literature, music, theater, film, radio, oral history, and the Yiddish internet-an introduction to the dynamic world of Yiddish culture and scholarship that exists today.
In this course, students will develop intermediate-level competence in spoken and written Persian language. Emphasis is on reading, speaking, and writing, as well as cultural and historical knowledge of the Persian-speaking world. We will work with modern Persianate culture, such as poetry and pop music, as well as selections of classical Persian poetry and prose. Knowledge of the grammatical structures taught in the first two semesters is assumed; we will build on these and work toward proficiency in intermediate-level grammar and language functions. Persian will be the primary language of the class with very limited use of English. The prerequisite for this course is Persian AB (Elementary Persian II).
An introduction to Sorani Kurdish language and culture for students with no knowledge of the language. Learners develop novice-level skills in reading, writing, listening, speaking and culture and acquire proficiency in the products, practices and perspectives of Sorani Kurdish speakers.
A thorough review and continuation of literary (classic and modern) Arabic grammar with emphasis on reading, writing, speaking and listening comprehension. Course materials draw from both classical and modern Arabic literature and culture. Required textbook: Al-Kitaab fii Ta'allum al-Arabiyya , Part II with DVDs, 3rd edition.
How do people who do not participate in or identify with an organized religious tradition continue to lead meaningful, even spiritual, lives? This is the animating question of this course. To answer it, we explore three primary aspects of non-religious lives: beliefs, belonging, and behaviors. We draw on sociological studies, modern psychology, and constructive theological accounts to understand the growing American phenomena of religious un/disaffiliation, which may account for up to half of all Americans by 2070. This course provides an overview of those who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic, humanist, spiritual-but-not-religious (SBNR), or list their religion as "none." We include those who profess belief in a divine being, spirits, or the supernatural and engage in spiritual practices such as prayer and ritual, as well as those who do not, and explore phenomena such as remixing religion and consumer spirituality. Students also explore their own spiritual lives; religious/non-religious histories, identities, and commitments; their inherited wisdom traditions; where they derive a sense of purpose, meaning, and value; and how they engage (or not) in meaningful ritual and community.
A thorough and rigorous introduction to the Ugaritic language, with a focus on grammar and the reading of a variety of genres of Ugaritic literature (epistolary, ritual, legal, administrative, myth, epic, etc.). The course will also provide students with the opportunity to explore themes in the religion and society of Ugarit and to reflect on their importance for understanding the literature and religion of ancient Israel. Prerequisite: Knowledge of Classical Hebrew or another Semitic language, such as (especially) Akkadian or Arabic. This course is supervised by Dr. Rhyder but taught by instructional staff.
An introduction to the Old Northwest Semitic languages (especially Old Hebrew, Old Phoenician, Moabite, and Old Aramaic), with a focus on comparative linguistic reconstruction of their grammars and reading and analysis of the major texts attested in these languages. Attention will also be given to the scripts in which these languages were written and to the early history of the alphabetic writing traditions that originated in the Levant and subsequently developed and spread throughout the world.Prerequisite: a good knowledge of Classical/Biblical Hebrew (represented by at least two years of study, ideally); knowledge of another Semitic language is a plus but not required.
This course is a close and rapid reading of the books of Samuel and Kings. It is designed to help students increase their speed and fluency in reading biblical prose (plus some poetry). Special attention will be given to expanding Hebrew vocabulary, strengthening command of verbal and nominal morphology, and mastering key aspects of Hebrew syntax. Students will also learn how to navigate and interpret the Masora and critical apparatus in the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Along the way, students will develop familiarity with the contents and literary structure of these books. Depending on students’ interests, the course will also offer opportunities to a) deepen their knowledge of Hebrew historical linguistics; b) explore how the Book of Chronicles engages with the narratives of Samuel and Kings; c) interact with current scholarly discussions on Samuel-Kings.
This course offers a thorough and rigorous introduction to Classical Hebrew grammar. In this first semester, students will learn the Hebrew script and the basics of Hebrew morphology. This will allow students to begin reading and translating biblical prose in the second semester. By the end of the year, students who have taken both semesters will have covered all the basics of nominal and verbal morphology and will know the foundations of Classical Hebrew syntax. Daily preparation and active class participation mandatory.
The main goal of this course is to help you develop fluency and confidence in reading texts from the Hebrew Bible in their original language. To this end, we will focus on reading selected narrative passages from the Bible, paying attention primarily to vocabulary, morphology, and syntax. We will also systematically review the most common vocabulary found in the Hebrew Bible as well as various aspects of grammar covered in first-year Hebrew. In addition, some attention will be given to how Hebrew narrative functions as a literary genre.
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This course will consist of a close reading of the Book of Isaiah. The course is designed to help students increase their speed and fluency with Classical Hebrew poetry, in preparation for graduate level seminars. The primary focus will therefore be to establish a solid foundation of biblical Hebrew vocabulary, and to solidify students' grasp of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of biblical poetry. Depending on individual student interests, the course will also provide opportunities to explore the literary and theological dimensions of the Book of Isaiah, textual criticism, and historical linguistics.
Religion and Public Life Internship is designed to provide an integrative learning opportunity for students pursuing the Certificate in Religion and Public Life who are engaged in field learning at their internship site. The internship requires 280 hours of work on-site, in addition to written reflections and periodic check-ins with the RPLOffice. This course may only be taken by students who have completed HDS 3300 Religious Literacy and the Professions, and who have had their internship placement contract approved by Religion and Public Life. Consult course website for up-to-date information on requirements and dates. This course is required for all students pursuing the Certificate in Religion and Public Life.
Open, with instructor's permission, to doctoral students in other fields of religious studies or American studies. Course meets bi-weekly. Students must complete both terms of this course (parts A and B) within the same academic year in order to receive credit. Offered jointly with the Divinity School as 2390B.
The Religion and Public Life Capstone seminar is restricted to students pursuing a Certificate in Religion and Public Life and should be taken following successful completion of HDS 3300 and HDS 4000A/B. Each student is required to complete a final project related to their area of professional concentration and will work in close collaboration with other seminar participants, a final project advisor, and the lead instructor of the seminar. Final projects will vary depending on the area of concentration pursued but all must demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the relevance of the public understanding of religion in particular contexts. Options may include (but are not limited to) constructing a series of case studies focused on a particular profession or context; creating educational resources for a specific audience; writing a policy brief for a particular organization; producing a podcast, or creating other kinds of media. Prospective students are required to submit a final project proposal (that has been approved by their project advisor) to Religion and Public Life staff by midnight on the last day of reading period in the fall term. Religion and Public Life may request revisions and final project proposals (approved by their project advisors) should be submitted by midnight of the first day of spring classes. Project advisors will be partnered with each student through a collaboration among the student, the academic dean, and the office of alumni relations.
This required seminar is restricted to MRPL candidates and meets weekly for the full year for the equivalent of two full courses. In the fall (A), students will learn a critical theory approach to understanding religion in public life, explore a variety of case studies, and refine their MRPL final project proposals in a collaborative context. In the spring (B) students will focus on completing their final projects as the primary work of the seminar, sharing work in progress and receiving feedback from peers, the instructor, and relevant faculty members. Students must complete both terms (parts A and B) within the same academic year as a requirement for the MRPL degree. Both MRPL Seminar A and B may only be taken for a letter grade.
This course will provide a basic historical introduction to critical issues in the study of the New Testament. What are the contents of these texts that make up the second portion of the Christian Bible? In what ways do they reflect the major issues, concerns, and struggles that were taking place among the earliest Christ-followers? How did they get to be grouped together in a single book called the "New Testament"? In addition to these historical questions, we will also attend to the New Testament's ongoing role as Christian scripture to consider the following: what does it mean to study a religious text critically? How might the study of the New Testament's social and historical context relate to its ongoing role as sacred and/or authoritative in the Christian tradition? And what are some of the diverse ways that contemporary readers bridge the gap between the New Testament's ancient Greco-Roman context and their own interpretation and application? We will explore these questions through careful study of the New Testament texts themselves, while also attending to issues of historical context, methodology, and hermeneutics. No previous study in religion or ancient history is assumed, and there are no prerequisites for enrolling in the course. For a final assignment, students will have the option of choosing between a final exam and a research paper.
Analyzes major issues in American economic policy, including national savings, taxation, health care, Social Security, budget policy, monetary and fiscal policy, and exchange rate management. Current economic issues and policy options are discussed in detail and in the context of current academic thinking.
Climate finance, development finance, infrastructure finance, municipal finance, international finance, banking, housing finance, corporate finance, investments, and financial regulation are all applications of finance. This course provides the core concepts, techniques, and instruments needed to understand, use, and contribute to these areas. It emphasizes an intuitive yet logically rigorous understanding of financial markets and institutions, illustrated through examples and cases drawn from diverse settings. The topics covered in this course include the principle of arbitrage, the trade-off between risk and return, the pricing of stocks and bonds, the term structure of interest rates, market efficiency, derivative securities, risk management, and real options. Case discussions highlight applications such as green bonds, capital raising, pension funds, utility regulation, investment management, currency risk, weather insurance, privatization, bank deposit insurance, and securitization.
This course will demonstrate how one can use the power of the free market to address some of the most vexing social and economic problems of our time, with a particular emphasis on issues that plague minority communities and women. The course will give students an introduction to social finance and impact investing in a manner that does not require prior coursework in Economics. It is intended not only for those interested in finance or social justice, but also for students with a disruptor spirit. Students will study situations in which market-based approaches were used to solve problems in areas such as education, discrimination, economic mobility, crime, healthcare, food instability, and the future of work. In the context of these topics, the course will provide an introduction to basic principles in finance and for-profit enterprises, venture capital, and other alternative investment strategies. The course will include discussions with leading investors and entrepreneurs who are determined to have positive social impact and culminates in a team-based capstone project in which you build your own startup to take on an important social issue and demonstrate its commercial viability.
Intended as a continuation of API-209, Advanced Quantitative Methods I, this course focuses on developing the theoretical basis and practical application of the most common tools of empirical research. In particular, we will study how and when empirical research can make causal claims. Methods covered include randomized evaluations, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, and difference-in-differences. Foundations of analysis will be coupled with hands-on examples and assignments involving the analysis of data sets.
Africa is the world’s most youthful continent and by the end of this century its 54 countries will be home to one in three people on Earth. This course examines contemporary African policy trends - challenges and opportunities - through the prism of national, sub-regional and international politics. We first grapple with the African origins of the international system through slavery, colonialism, and the liberation struggles that inaugurated our current political era. We then shift toward contemporary patterns of conflict and change, interrogating democracy and development, conflict and peacebuilding. Finally, we spend significant time on African futures - including climate change, migration and Diaspora dynamics, South-South collaboration, China relations, social movements, and more - to understand how African leaders and policymakers are making an impact on the continent and beyond.
How has China’s rise changed the world of the twenty-first century? And what are the forces and factors that shape its global behaviour? This course takes a range of themes to interpret contemporary China’s actions in the world, and understand how China’s history can explain important aspects of contemporary policy and decision-making. The course takes key themes and examines them in both contemporary and historical context. Among the themes explored are: China’s role in international organizations including the United Nations, influence in shaping regional and global norms and patterns on trade and technology, military expansion, action on climate change, development of identity as a leader of the Global South, and promotion of new forms of ideology. The course will examine ways that China conforms and embraces some aspects of the current global order, and confronts or revises others, including its relationships with the US, the Global South, and areas of cross-border concern (such as climate change or technological norms). We will examine the changing nature of China’s global thinking in the twenty-first century, and provide comparisons and contrasts with a range of historical events that have shaped that thinking, such as the conflicts with European empires in the late 19th century, the development of new forms of reformist and revolutionary political thinking in the early 20th century including ideas on class, ethnicity and gender, China’s war against Japan in the 1930s and 1940, and the revolutionary turmoil of the era Mao Zedong in 1949-76. The course will illustrate how much, and in what ways, China’s growing prominence has changed the world, and show that analysing China’s history and thought is a key tool for interpreting its actions and intentions in the present day.
Public narrative is the leadership practice of translating values into action. To lead is to accept responsibility for enabling others to achieve shared purpose in the face of uncertainty. Because narrative engages the "head" and the "heart," it can both instruct and inspire, teaching us not only why we should act but also moving us to act. Storytelling is a discursive process with which individuals, communities, cultures, movements and nations can articulate values they share, construct shared identities rooted in those values, and enable mindful, agentic response to disruptive challenges to those values by accessing hope over fear; empathy over alienation; and self-worth over self-doubt. In short, we can use public narrative to assert the value of our own humanity, articulate the value of our shared humanity, and motivate action respectful of that humanity. We also give particular attention to enabling ourselves and others to deal with the challenges of loss, difference, domination and change.
To realize the promise of democracy we must learn to value ourselves and others as fully and equally human. But this belief is under serious assault today. Economic systems turn us into profit centers, political systems turn us into data points, communications systems turn us into users, even as relationships are replaced by transactions. One way we dehumanize others - individuals, communities and whole populations - is to label them as “less than” based on race, gender, class, education, nationality, etc. We can also turn ourselves into categories, labels, data points - objects of transaction, not relationships. And in universities and colleges, the humanities, including the arts, literature, philosophy, sacred scriptures, and poetry, are being marginalized with ever increasing speed.
Many on the front lines of social justice fundamentally confront three issues that represent intersectional challenges demanding interdisciplinary public policy responses. Accordingly, this course takes up three themes: reparations, voting rights and criminal/legal reform or transformation. These three social justice challenges are often cited as the crumbling pillars propping up white supremacy and so many intersecting inequities. For generations, these racial challenges have obscured what is possible. The projects of this social justice clinical represent the discrete public policy challenges identified by the multiple organizations and/or mayors on reparatory justice, voting rights, and criminal legal reform/transformation. These organizations and affected communities undertake this work in a moment of unprecedented activism and advocacy, for which many of our forebears yearned. This class is about rigorously exploring public policy and advocacy in service of justice through study and imagination.
Most policy changes-in education as in every other field-- do not work as intended. Human behavior is complex; it is just too hard to anticipate whether students, parents and teachers will react in the intended way. Thus, policymakers must recognize opportunities to learn: to identify comparison groups for their initiatives, to implement new programs in ways which lend themselves to evaluation and to be consumers of efficacy research done in other settings. In this class, we will discuss the key controversies in education policy over the last 30 years and the evidence which has been collected thus far on each of them. Along the way, we will discuss alternative evaluation designs-randomized trials, difference-in-differences, regression discontinuity and value-added (covariate adjustment)-and the conditions conducive to each. No single policy idea in vogue today could make a bigger difference two decades from now than creating the infrastructure for testing a series of evolving ideas. We will discuss how other fields-from retail sales to pharmaceuticals-have created systems to generate sustained improvement, and explore ways similar progress could be made in education and other fields of social policy.
Economics 2110 and 2115 comprise a two-course sequence for first-year graduate students seeking training in econometric methods at a level that prepares them to conduct professional empirical research. Economics 2115 (spring) covers topics (different methods) in current empirical research. Faculty members from across the university will teach modules each covering a different method of causal inference, including but not limited to instrumental variables, panel data methods, and regression discontinuity and kink designs. The course will emphasize a mixture of theory and application, with problem sets focused on the replication or extension of recent papers utilizing these methods.
This course will be accepting ALI Fellows as auditors. Please contact the faculty to request approval. Should you be admitted to this course as an auditor, please note that you will be charged a course fee. For more information on the complete audit request process, visit https://www.hbs.edu/mba/registrar/crossregistration/crossregistration-courseplanning under Auditors and Harvard Fellows .
How does social and political change happen? When, why, and how do people, and whole nations, come together to influence large-scale policies and collective action on issues like the environment, equality, criminal justice, and much more? Why do revolutions occur? This course attempts to answer these questions by exploring a diversity of efforts to achieve societal change across various historical and contemporary contexts. In an effort to draw general lessons for those interested in making change, we will assess a range of political and legal approaches; examine mass movements and the roles played by individuals, organizations, and governments; and evaluate the conditions under which such efforts succeed or fail. Using research from psychology, political science, and economics, and drawing on a variety of case studies, the course will explore several core arguments about how change occurs:
This seminar course uses the war in Ukraine as a lens to explore geopolitics, international law, and development challenges . Through an in-depth examination of the war and the range of responses to it, students will study the causes and consequences of contemporary conflict, the strengths and weaknesses of international institutions, and the challenges in securing enforcement of international law. While centered on Ukraine, the course uses the conflict as a means of examining how international institutions, states, and non-state actors respond to crises worldwide, illuminating broader questions of global governance, international development, and accountability. The course explores, for example, the UN system's and various countries’ responses to Russia’s invasion; Ukraine’s refugee flows and their impact on other countries’ political dynamics; and on-the-ground innovations in Ukraine’s technology, energy, and agriculture sectors. Students will develop skills in international legal analysis and policy memo writing through drafting response papers that sharpen their ability to assess policy and legal dilemmas and communicate practical solutions succinctly. By analyzing the challenges faced by Ukrainian and global actors, students will gain critical insight into the structures and tools shaping peace, justice, and stability in the modern international system.
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This course considers strategies that government leaders have used to turn around troubled agencies and improve government performance. Class sessions will be a mixture of lectures, case studies, student presentations, and conversations with guest experts. Topics will include setting strategic goals, data-driven performance improvement systems, procurement reform, and techniques for re-energizing and recruiting talent.
The HOW: The S-012 experience engages us in building a supportive course community where we all learn from one another. In place of more traditional pre-work such as reading chapters or articles, we will instead use videos (filmed by the instructor specifically for this course) and interactive opportunities for practice as preparation for each class meeting. This will allow us to use our time together to explore statistical topics in a deeply engaged and participatory format. Throughout the course, we will focus not only on the methods themselves but on why and how their use can represent a powerful tool for enacting change. We will emphasize the summarizing and presentation of statistical results for multiple audiences. Our focus will be on understanding how to use and interpret the statistical procedures commonly used in quantitative research, to become both critical consumers and ethical producers of quantitative work.
This course introduces modern data science and machine learning tools for answering research questions in education and other social and behavioral sciences. We will focus first on how to craft research questions, identify useful data, wrangle/clean messy data, conduct simple descriptive analyses, and visualize/present complex data in useful ways. Next we cover machine learning tools; in this unit, we build and evaluate predictive models. Topics include cross-validation, data leakage, and useful machine learning models (e.g. Lasso and random forests). The third unit considers pre-trained models (e.g. Large Language Models), how they work, and how we can use them to enable analyses of unstructured data (e.g. images and text). Finally we will cover inference, emphasizing bootstrap methods to express uncertainty in estimates produced by the tools used earlier in the course. We will write code in R, but we do not assume any prior experience with the language. Our study of R will include the use of AI to write code.
Often when quantitative evidence is being used to answer questions, scholars and decision-makers must either analyze empirical data themselves or evaluate the analyses of others. This course will cover the basic principles of quantitative data analysis and is roughly comparable in content to the full-year S-012/S-030 course sequence in applied regression and data analysis. Students will examine real data gathered to address questions in educational, psychological, and social research settings, becoming acquainted with basic descriptive statistics, tabular and graphical methods for displaying data, the notion of statistical inference, and analytic methods for exploring relationships with both categorical and continuous measures. These topics will provide students with a solid foundation for addressing research questions through statistical modeling using simple and multiple linear regression. There will be an emphasis on applying the statistical concepts learned in this course--in particular, how to: (1) select the appropriate statistical techniques; (2) properly execute those techniques; (3) examine the assumptions necessary for the techniques to work appropriately; (4) interpret analytic results; (5) summarize the findings effectively; and (6) produce publication-style visual displays of results. Because quantitative skills are best learned through practice, computer-based statistical analyses will be an integral part of the course. There will be several problem sets involving the core concepts covered in class as well as several take-home assignments and a final project involving data analysis and the interpretation and reporting of research results.
This course is designed for those who want to extend their data analytic skills beyond a basic knowledge of multiple regression analysis and practice communicating their findings clearly to audiences of researchers, practitioners, and policymakers. S-052 contributes directly to the diverse data analytic toolkit that the well-equipped empirical researcher must possess to perform sensible analyses of complex educational, psychological, and social data. The course begins by reviewing multivariate linear regression and continues with program evaluation, multilevel modeling, measurement, multivariate methods, and generalized linear models. Specific techniques covered include regression discontinuity, difference-in-differences, fixed and random effects modeling, reliability estimation, and principal components analysis. S-052 is an applied course. It offers conceptual explanations of statistical techniques and provides many opportunities to implement and interpret statistical analysis, including through statistical coding in either R or Stata.
What does the process of conducting qualitative research look like? How can qualitative research tools and approaches be incorporated into everyday practice? How does one craft research questions, collect and analyze data, and make appropriate claims about findings? This introductory module is designed for those who are interested in incorporating qualitative research techniques or dispositions into their work as practitioners, as well as for students considering future careers in research. It does not assume prior experience or familiarity with qualitative research methods. The module follows a workshop-style format and involves working in small groups.
The Faculty Leader and Teaching Fellows will provide guidance and support throughout the course. The course has been designed to ensure that the engagement will be a rewarding experience for the students (for learning) and the client. Groups of students (3-4 students per group) will frequently interact with the external client, producing a thorough assessment of the challenge and drafting a set of recommendations that is proposed to address the immediate and underlying causes of the identified challenge.
This course explores the definition, theory and practice of personalization in schooling and, more broadly, in child development. It examines personalization as a system design challenge, aiming to customize, increase and focus attention on student strengths and needs while building supportive relationships and engaging in strategies to meet needs and increase success. The course views personalization as a strategy to increase student success through customized attention, comprehensive plans, integrated supports, access to enriching opportunities and the development of individualized pathways to success. The course will provide an overview of the current practice and discourse on personalization. We examine research on personalization and human variation as the basis for the design premise and consider multiple models for addressing this variation, especially EdRedesign’s Success Planning strategy. We will explore the benefits and limitations of academically focused models relying on edtech and AI. We will look the challenges of deepening and broadening the practice of personalization. We focus on the systemic changes required to truly personalize education including governance, professional development, evaluation, and scaling: what it takes to move personalization from isolated pilots to durable, equitable practice at scale. Classes will include discussions of readings, structured writing, design studio work, case analyses, and guest speakers. Students will complete a final paper/proposal and deliver an oral presentation in the final class.
The focus of this seminar is applied econometric methods for answering causal questions. The course is organized around several common strategies in applied causal inference: experiments, difference-in-differences, event studies, regression discontinuity, instrumental variables, conditional independence arguments, etc. The primary goal of the course is to develop skills for producing academic papers with convincing causal claims. The convincingness of a causal claim depends on several inputs which will be themes of the course: statistical methods, social science theory, institutional details, logical reasoning, good writing, etc.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* This short course is designed as a structured conversation about professional ethics in practice. Rather than approaching ethics primarily through abstract theory, the discussion and analysis in this course will be based on case studies, including case studies based on the lived experience of students. The course is built on the premise that some of the most important challenges of professional life in education, public service, humanitarian work, philanthropy, and international development have important ethical dimensions. Making values-based decisions can feel particularly challenging as educational leaders try to balance their responsibilities to the many stakeholders they serve. This course will help leaders surface ethical challenges and outline a process and related tools for thinking through those challenges. The aim of the course is not to identify a single ‘correct’ answer to the dilemmas, but to help students develop better habits of professional judgment: clarifying the dilemma, identifying realistic options, recognizing stakeholders, incorporating the perspectives of others and probing the values behind competing views and pathways.
• gain an understanding of the dynamic relationship among evidence, theory, and innovation in the design and development of effective educational programs or services; • use a Challenge Map to clarify needs and obstacles related to a learning design challenge;• appropriately leverage Generative AI tools to accelerate the discovery and evaluation of relevant research to inform learning design;• communicate with experts in the field to support the interpretation and application of research;• map the members, values, and variables of an Impact Ecosystem;• interview members of an Impact Ecosystem to vet and clarify assumptions;• apply How might we... prompting for evidence-inspired ideation;• articulate an evidence-based theory of action and design principles to guide the development of scalable innovation; • define the constructs that underlie impact; • create evidence-generating tasks (micro minimal viable products) that cause and demonstrate construct change; • test and revise theories and micro-products; • acquire insights from the projects of classmates;• articulate evidence-based rationales for why an innovation should work, how stakeholders can observe it is working, and will know it did work;• become comfortable with the iterative nature of learning and creating through failure.
This course explores specific principles from cognitive and learning sciences with important implications for instructional and curriculum design. It considers how research findings on topics such as transfer, analogy, metacognition, conceptual change, explanation, mental models, novice-expert shifts, feedback, tutoring, causal reasoning, and the nature of beliefs about intelligence interact with instructional design choices. The course will consider the integration of Gen AI into instructional design. The course draws upon the rich research findings in cognitive and learning sciences, including cutting edge research and earlier, well-vetted research that is seminal to instructional design. Discourse ranges from learning theory to grounded examples from the classroom, educational technology, and other learning designs. Most examples focus on K-12, but the course principles are also relevant to instructional design for adults. There is a strong focus on application rather than dissecting debates in the research. The class format involves active processing of the research principles. It includes brief lectures, activities, simulations, and discussion. There are brief weekly readings and research summaries. Students develop and workshop an instructional design throughout the semester with guided support. They may work individually or with a partner and the focus of the project is based on interest.
This seminar is designed primarily for doctoral students in years 2-4 who are working on designing and executing independent research in the field of human development (HDLT). This seminar will have a dual focus; (1) to support each student’s academic development through research study conceptualization, proposal writing, literature review development, and scholarly issues related to career advancement (e.g., grant writing, curriculum vitae building); and (2) to disseminate and discuss seminal research in human development related to the themes of interest evident based on the students registered for the course (e.g., language development, executive function, reading comprehension, adult development, identity, motivation, etc.) to both broaden and deepen students’ knowledge base, but also to support a peer review process for the course. With this course, students will deepen their knowledge of the research and proposal writing process, clarify their thinking about their own topic by working to convey to others its importance and related evidence and issues, and to learn from the work of peers. Students will actively engage in class discussions, work in small groups, and provide feedback on classmates’ work. As a final product for this course, students will develop a research proposal, literature review, or write-up of an empirical study. This course, in combination with H876Y, is a yearlong class (4 credits total) that meets in person on 6 or 7 Friday mornings per semester (every other Friday 9-11am).
As a complement to Workplace Lab and its focus on sector change, students will work on root cause analysis, problem definitions, theories of action, small wins, building credibility, overcoming resistance, and achieving results that have impact. Students will focus on either the National Professional Standards for Educational Leaders or the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MA DESE) Professional Standards for Administrative Leadership
*Lottery-Based Enrollment* This project-based practicum provides students with the opportunity to participate in the instructional design and development of curricular assets for online learning experiences as part of HGSE's Teaching and Learning Lab (TLL). The TLL advances the teaching and impact mission of HGSE through the creation - in close partnership with faculty members and teaching teams - of innovative, research-based teaching assets and learning experiences. Examples of curricular assets developed by students in the TLL Practicum may include online modules, AI-powered tutor applications, multi-media teaching cases, and other resources for active learning. Most students will have the opportunity to participate as part of a creative and fast-paced design process to re-imagine the How People Learn course for non-degree program learners. Students will work in small groups in association with learning design and technology experts within the TLL as they develop a capstone project that demonstrates the application of learning design principles. The Practicum will include a mix of asynchronous learning experiences, whole-group live sessions focused on weekly readings, guest speakers, and project team meetings. Students will participate actively in group exploration, team-based design and development on a TLL project, and individual inquiry related to a specific area of interest. Each student will produce a culminating professionally relevant portfolio that highlights the application of research-based principles to the production of learning experiences and assets.
A153 unpacks these questions alongside scholars, cultural policy practitioners, and artists, through readings, robust dialogue, and engagement with culture-based interventions. To grapple with these questions, students will converse with experts with a vast array of experiences including federal officials who have overseen cultural policies at the national level; arts advocates and organizers; private philanthropic strategists; and others. Students will also have the opportunity to visit local organizations that exemplify the ways the arts can serve as a public and community resource.
[SMK.1] Uses evidence-based pedagogical practices that enable all students to develop and apply grade-level knowledge and skills in relevant, real-world contexts. [SMK.2] Supports students in making connections between the subject matter and real-world issues impacting their communities and the world. [SMK.3] Understands the importance of this difference in planning, differentiating, and delivering effective instruction, especially for English learners at varying levels of English language proficiency and literacy. [HES.3] Provides flexible and responsive supports, scaffolds, and tools to meet students' needs. [HES.6] Supports all students to develop self-awareness and skills for independent learning.
Though literacy instruction moves into the background after the early elementary years, in fact there is lots left to learn and to teach in the middle and high school years about reading, writing, literate forms of language use, and content-area specific literate genres. The unfinished task of literacy development is a challenge or teachers, school and district leaders, and policy makers who assume that literacy learning is no longer a concern. But many questions remain, e.g. How do literacy skills interact with content learning? What is the normal course of students' literacy development after Grade 4, and what constitutes a worrying trajectory? What do teachers, especially content area teachers in middle and secondary schools, need to know about literacy in order to support students adequately? What classroom resources--curriculum, interventions, technology--have been shown to support students' ongoing development of literacy skills after Grade 4? Are schools, including community and open-enrollment colleges, organized optimally to support student growth in literacy and in using literacy as a tool for learning? The course will address the research basis for decision making around adolescent literacy as well as the practices that have been shown to be successful.
What does it take to design and implement transformation strategies within a traditional PK-12 public school system? In this course, we will focus on how to enact meaningful, system-wide change with clear purpose and intentionality. We will explore the leadership actions necessary to drive innovation, foster change, and build capacity for school-centered transformation. The course is centered on school systems-not individual classroom instruction-yet is anchored in the vision of excellent teaching and learning for every student. Through a detailed analysis of school district efforts to revamp human capital systems, decision-making processes, stakeholder engagement, resource allocation, and cultural norms, we will leverage live cases to unpack how districts are reimagining education systems to create environments that support vibrant, high-quality instruction for all learners. In addition to understanding what must change at the system level, we will examine how leaders can strategically implement these changes over time, paying attention to personal identity, the stages of change, and the political landscape. This course moves beyond theory, offering lively, real-time conversations rooted in actual district practice and authentic challenges.
The first half of the course focuses on short design challenges, taking students through rapid cycles of concepting, prototyping, playtesting, and iteration. In the second half, students will collaborate on small group projects, going through an authentic design process to develop functioning digital prototypes. Weekly lab sessions will introduce basic coding concepts and support the use of tools such as vibe coding and other prototyping tools.
This is a survey course on quantitative methods for educational measurement. Students will learn and apply techniques essential for the design and analysis of modern educational and psychological assessments, including reliability, generalizability theory, validation, differential item functioning, item response theory, scaling, linking, standard setting, and adjustments for measurement error. Contexts of assessments include small-scale educational and psychological assessments for targeted research studies as well as large-scale district, state, national, and international assessments for formative, summative, and evaluative purposes. During the first half of the course, students will learn methods from readings and lectures and apply methods to complete data analytic assignments and oral exams. In the second half, methods training will continue, with greater emphasis on reading and critiquing recent research in educational measurement. For their final project, students will develop a research proposal that has promise for advancing the field.
Students in this course will learn about children’s development of oral language and of early literacy skills, and about parallels and differences in the two developmental trajectories. Students will be exposed to research on the major domains of development in oral language (pragmatics, phonology, vocabulary, grammar, and extended discourse), with attention to the following questions: Is skill in this domain prerequisite to the trouble-free acquisition of literacy? Does variation in this domain relate to variation in literacy skills? Is the variation related to social, cultural, or cognitive factors? What implications does the variation have for practices in early childhood settings, in initial literacy instruction, and in later supports to reading comprehension? Students will be expected to participate actively in class discussions and activities; including writing reactions to the readings, writing a short essay integrating material from readings and lectures, and engaging in a group project. Class format will be a combination of brief lectures, hands-on analysis of children's oral/written production or other activities, small- and large-group discussion, and student led presentations.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* Most research on child development comes from Western societies, yet findings are often generalized to be universal to all humans. By examining research from diverse cultures and communities we can gain a greater understanding of the extent of similarities and differences in child development across the world. More specifically, students in this course will examine: (1) how culture and communities/societies shape child development, (2) the implications of cultural similarities and differences in child development for learning and teaching, and (3) the importance of conducting work that recognizes and values the diversity and potential of every child.
In this course, we will explore the political and politicized lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex peoples living in the United States, focusing on the period from World War II to the present. Centering an intersectional framework and historical critique of “progress,” we will focus our attention on the interrelationship between protest (how LGBTQI+ people have come out and organized themselves), politics (how LGBTQI+ people have confronted and navigated the “culture wars”), and policy (how LGBTQI+ people have challenged and shaped laws and legislation) from the Homophile Generation (1940s and 1950s) to the Stonewall Generation (1960s and 1970s) to the AIDS Generation (1980s and 1990s) to the Marriage Generation (2000s and 2010s) and beyond. We will explore significant movement dynamics, examine a diverse range of change agents, and analyze specific legal and legislative inflection points. Ongoing and targeted discrimination against LGBTQI+ people is a pressing modern phenomenon, yet too often it is altogether ignored or treated as an afterthought in discussions and debates about human rights, social justice, law and public policy-despite the fact that such practices of prejudice and abuses of power continue to perpetuate stigma and perpetrate violence against queer people in myriad ways. The modern LGBTQI+ movement in the United States offers vital lessons about the long and contested struggle over representation and rights, assimilation and acceptance, and equality and liberation. We won't cover everything or figure it all out in one semester, but students who are interested in knowing this history and changing our world will be welcomed and valued in this course. Students should also know that “Queer Nation” will be closely connected to the ongoing research and programmatic offerings of the Carr-Ryan Center’s Global LGBTQI+ Human Rights Program at the Kennedy School.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* The rising generation of educators must learn how to communicate with courage and lead with integrity in an increasingly diverse, disrupted, and divided world. This course will help strengthen your capacity to do so--in whatever context or community you choose to work. Approximately one-third of our time together will be devoted to lessons and group discussions on various aspects of Professor McCarthy's B.R.A.V.E. communication and leadership framework. The other two-thirds will consist of smaller sections where you will deliver speeches and receive feedback from your peers and the teaching team. This course is designed for people who want to become better and braver communicators than they are right now. This course is limited to students in the online Master's in Education Leadership program at HGSE.
Historically, general education classrooms have been sites of exclusion for students identified with (dis)abilities (SIWDs) and based on the assumption of a unidirectional benefit from general education students to SIWDs. Studies have shown that general education students and SIWDs benefit socially and academically from inclusive environments. Uplifting the brilliance and contributions of SIWDs hinges on the daily pedagogical decisions we make as teachers to disrupt these assumptions. In this course, we will work to unearth the complexity involved in supporting SIWDs' social and learning needs and highlighting the strengths and knowledge they bring to our classrooms. We will explore the following themes: Developing Inclusive Educational Spaces; Exploring the Relationship Between Inclusive & Special Education Across Contexts; and Backwards Design and Universal Design for Learning. Developing Inclusive Educational Spaces: We will discuss how we, as practitioners, can disrupt the unspoken belief that SIWDs are the only students with “needs” in the classroom. And instead, normalize the co-creation of spaces where everyone’s strengths are acknowledged, and areas of need are met. Exploring the Relationship Between Inclusive & Special Education: We will explore the relationship between inclusive and special education, two separate areas of research with overlapping goals. We will also explore international approaches to inclusive and special education and discuss how they can inform our practice across contexts. Backwards Design and Universal Design for Learning: We will explore how to leverage backwards design and Universal Design for Learning in designing more inclusive educational spaces.
The rationale for offering this research practicum is to increase the breadth and depth of students’ understanding and knowledge of AI, youth, and learning. The seminar component emphasizes “thinking” through reading and discussing cutting-edge research, while the practicum component emphasizes “doing” through hands-on participation in active research projects. This course may be particularly relevant for students who are interested in pursuing research careers in either academia or industry.
Leading Change is a Foundations offering that is designed to help students learn how to lead change in organizations, teams, and systems so that they can effect positive change in the larger education sector. This foundational experience will provide learning experiences, concepts, and tools about dynamic change-leadership approaches. A distinctive element of this course is the focus on teaming. Change efforts are rarely done by individual leaders who come in as heroes to “save” a school, venture, or system. Rather, leaders must work collaboratively, often in or through teams, to effect change. Therefore, teams and collaborative work are central to this Foundations course. Leading Change seeks to help students understand how to drive change at multiple levels - the micro or individual level, the meso or team level, the macro or organization level, and the meta or system level. Students will engage in varied activities to consider change at each of these levels. To examine issues at the meta and macro levels, students will engage in two case discussions that examine organizational and system-level change. To focus on change at the meso level, students will work in teams in a simulated team-based exercise, gaining feedback on their performance both as individuals and in teams. To explore the micro level, students will engage in a self-reflection exercise to consider areas for personal growth and development as change agents. The course ends with an action planning session to help students prepare to apply their learning to future coursework and the next stage of their careers
Leading Change is a Foundations offering that is designed to help students learn how to lead change in organizations, teams, and systems so that they can effect positive change in the larger education sector. This foundational experience will provide learning experiences, concepts, and tools about dynamic change-leadership approaches. A distinctive element of this course is the focus on teaming. Change efforts are rarely done by individual leaders who come in as heroes to “save” a school, venture, or system. Rather, leaders must work collaboratively, often in or through teams, to effect change. Therefore, teams and collaborative work are central to this Foundations course. Leading Change seeks to help students understand how to drive change at multiple levels - the micro or individual level, the meso or team level, the macro or organization level, and the meta or system level. Students will engage in varied activities to consider change at each of these levels. To examine issues at the meta and macro levels, students will engage in two case discussions that examine organizational and system-level change. To focus on change at the meso level, students will work in teams in a simulated team-based exercise, gaining feedback on their performance both as individuals and in teams. To explore the micro level, students will engage in a self-reflection exercise to consider areas for personal growth and development as change agents. The course ends with an action planning session to help students prepare to apply their learning to future coursework and the next stage of their careers
What does the current landscape of arts education look like? How do you fit into this landscape, and what steps can you take to build your connections to the field? This course will prepare Arts and Learning Concentrators to navigate these central questions. Together, we will map the field of arts education, identify individual interests and pathways, and explore the ideas and conversations that shape the field. In doing so, students will think critically about the purposes of the arts in education, examine questions of teaching and learning, and engage in key debates surrounding inequality and opportunity. Over the course of six convenings, students will develop a personal plan for extending their professional learning and development, grounded in a deeper understanding of the contemporary arts education ecosystem.
In today's world, students need to be equipped with the skills that allow them to update their knowledge independently in order to continue to be efficient learners, workers, and critical members of rapidly changing societies. Supporting students to become skilled comprehenders of texts--whether oral, written, or digital texts-- constitutes a central instructional goal in the larger enterprise of preparing lifelong independent learners. Beyond word reading ability, socio-cognitive skills, language enculturation, motivation, and background knowledge influence readers' comprehension of text. During the course, the interplay of these skills and factors throughout development--from the early years to adolescence--will be examined, focusing specifically on the interaction between four key elements: the reader, the text, the activity, and the sociocultural context. This course is designed to help students (1) become familiar with the major issues and key research literature in the field of reading comprehension; (2) critique and integrate findings from that research literature; (3) conceptualize effective practices to support reading to learn at school; and (4) critique and design reading-to-learn educational and/or research initiatives.
*Only Offered for Online Ed.M. Students* *Lottery-Based Enrollment* Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context is a module in which students will engage in academically and personally rigorous inquiry about one of six dimensions of social identity. This module will focus specifically on language in context. Students in each Equity and Opportunity: Identity in Context module will: (1) engage deeply with key concepts in equity, opportunity, inclusion, oppression, privilege, and power within the context of education; (2) connect and build meaningful relationships with others while recognizing the multiple intersecting identities, perspectives and differences people hold; and (3) make progress in understanding and reflecting on their own experiences and actions across cultures and contexts. Students will delve into core theories, practices, and texts that apply to all social identities, while also probing identity-specific topics and challenges. Students can expect to interact with each other and the teaching team in individual, small group, and whole group settings. Pedagogies and assessments will reflect core principles in educating for equity and opportunity, including inclusive facilitated discussions, active listening and learning, journaling, and case study inquiry. Students are encouraged to prioritize topics that they have not spent much time studying formally or reflecting upon personally as a means to explore the foundational concepts of equity and opportunity through a relatively new frame. This course fulfills the Equity & Opportunity (E&O) Foundations for those students who have chosen E&O as one of their Foundations experiences in 2026-27. Not open to cross-registration. Course is graded as satisfactory or unsatisfactory only.
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For much of the 20th century John Rawls’ Theory of Justice has provided a normative framework for much policy-making in the U.S. and elsewhere. In this course, students explore an alternative theory of justice that places greater emphasis on democracy, and look at concrete examples of the application of this alternative policy-making framework to concrete domains like housing, good jobs and the economy, education, and climate. The course helps highlight the tight connection between underlying philosophical and ethical frameworks and policy-making methodologies, helps students understand reigning policy-making paradigms, and invites students to consider alternatives that more powerfully support democracy and inclusive empowerment.
This seminar will focus on the eighty-five Federalist Papers , the pseudonymous essays published by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in defense of the new U.S Constitution as part of the ratification battles. We will read the essays closely, seeking to understand the “science of democracy” as it existed in the 18th century and the design principles at the heart of hard choices made by the designers of the U.S. Constitution. This course is open to students in all schools and at all levels but capped at 25. Petitions will be approved on a first come, first served basis.
Designed to acquaint Ph.D. candidates in Government with central topics in Political Theory. Topics are organized under four main headings: Justice and Equality; Democracy, Representation and the State; Identity, Culture and Politics; and Approaches to the Study of Politics.
This seminar will focus on the eighty-five Federalist Papers, the pseudonymous essays published by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in defense of the new U.S Constitution as part of the ratification battles. We will read the essays closely, seeking to understand the “science of democracy” as it existed in the 18th century and the design principles at the heart of hard choices made by the designers of the U.S. Constitution. This course is open to students in all schools and at all levels but capped at 25. Petitions will be approved on a first come, first served basis.
This seminar will focus on the eighty-five Federalist Papers, the pseudonymous essays published by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison in defense of the new U.S Constitution as part of the ratification battles. We will read the essays closely, seeking to understand the “science of democracy” as it existed in the 18th century and the design principles at the heart of hard choices made by the designers of the U.S. Constitution.
In our Program Core Experience, we will examine the human development throughlines - consistent and shared themes - connecting across science and practice. Can we identify universal human needs and capacities while recognizing the diverse expressions of humanity? How do both the quantity and the quality of developmental experiences matter? Can simple solutions be helpful in addressing complex human development challenges? Are there useful ways to grow ideas in education besides replicating evidence-based programs? Do we develop interventions for communities, or with communities? Most importantly, as we pursue research and practice to advance equitable opportunities for human development and education, how might we transform the ways in which we understand ourselves, the communities we serve, and the possibilities for ideas and actions? Each of these throughlines will be developed with case illustrations to showcase how the science of human development in a particular domain (e.g., language development, motivation, identity, relationships) has shaped research and real world practice in both positive and sometimes counterproductive ways. More important than the specific cases, students are invited and encouraged to connect these throughlines with your own personal and professional experiences, insights from other courses, and the ways you envision applying them to your future work. Students will: a) learn how to be critical consumers and creators of the science of human development; b) review evidence from research and existing practice to understand what we know and what gaps remain in a chosen impact area; and c) integrate knowledge, experience, and need in a particular developmental context to develop a “theory of change” for research or practice.
This course prepares educators to create inclusive, inquiry-centered learning communities that make history meaningful and engaging for diverse learners. Students will develop pedagogical and curricular expertise across four core units: foundations in history teaching, unit planning and evaluation, teaching charged topics, and facilitating discussions. Throughout the course, students will analyze and apply varied teaching strategies, with particular attention to equity, critical inquiry, lesson design, and student support. Students will design lessons and units that reflect contemporary teaching practices, including the thoughtful integration of technology, and will learn to adapt instruction based on student strengths, experiences, and needs. This course bridges educational theory and practice, preparing graduates for careers as reflective, justice-oriented history and social studies educators.
How do we design learning experiences that are meaningful, engaging, and support learner agency? In T550, we explore this question through the lens of constructionism, a theory of learning that underscores the importance of personalizing, creating, sharing, and reflecting in learning experiences. The class is guided by the core tenets of constructionism, both in content and in process. You will be invited to personalize, create, share, and reflect throughout the semester, through weekly readings, reflective writing, small projects, and a term-long project. By participating in the T550 creative community, you will engage with the theory and practice of designing for learning by creating--for yourself and for others.
Often when quantitative evidence is being used to answer questions, scholars and decision-makers must either analyze empirical data themselves or evaluate the analyses of others. This course will cover the basic principles of quantitative data analysis and is roughly comparable in content to the full-year S-012/S-030 course sequence in applied regression and data analysis. Students will examine real data gathered to address questions in educational, psychological, and social research settings, becoming acquainted with basic descriptive statistics, tabular and graphical methods for displaying data, the notion of statistical inference, and analytic methods for exploring relationships with both categorical and continuous measures. These topics will provide students with a solid foundation for addressing research questions through statistical modeling using simple and multiple linear regression. There will be an emphasis on applying the statistical concepts learned in this course--in particular, how to: (1) select the appropriate statistical techniques; (2) properly execute those techniques; (3) examine the assumptions necessary for the techniques to work appropriately; (4) interpret analytic results; (5) summarize the findings effectively; and (6) produce publication-style visual displays of results. Because quantitative skills are best learned through practice, computer-based statistical analyses will be an integral part of the course. There will be several problem sets involving the core concepts covered in class as well as several take-home assignments and a final project involving data analysis and the interpretation and reporting of research results.
The dilemmas we face as education professionals seeking to advance equity and opportunity require us to make sense of, evaluate, and prioritize different kinds of evidence. This course equips students with the foundational skills and knowledge they’ll need to interpret the most common forms of evidence in education settings and apply them to their practice. We ground our exploration of these issues in a persistent, pervasive, and provocative challenge: improving achievement in foundational academic subjects for lower secondary students in São Paulo, Brazil. We will use evidence to frame the problem, evaluate the quality and relevance of the evidence about possible solutions, and consider what additional evidence we would need to strengthen our conclusions. The course uses an innovative team-based learning pedagogy, including “flipped” lectures, whole- class discussion, and small-group activities. By the end of the course, students will be able to weigh the unique affordances of different types of evidence in making decisions about complex educational dilemmas and will acquire a powerful set of tools for analyzing and applying evidence to improve education systems.
In this course, students will be paired with a real world client (e.g., a school, a district, an organization, etc.) with a real-world problem that quantitative data work can help illuminate. Over the course of the semester, students working in groups of three or four will consult with their partner to identify a broad goal, determine the scope of work, carry out the analysis, and deliver the expected product. Throughout the term, students will receive support and occasionally explicit instruction in data analysis from the teaching team. They will also present to the class on their ongoing work and give feedback on the work that other groups are doing. The class will meet twice a week, with one class meeting generally dedicated to full-group discussions and the other to small-group work and consultancy with the teaching team. At the end of the course, students will submit a completed analysis to their client and present their findings.
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Through case studies involving natural gas in Myanmar, gold mining in Papua New Guinea, and chocolate in West Africa, we will discuss both the harms communities experience and how communities can have a seat at the table to demand their rights and take on oppressive systems. We will also look at how North America is implicated in these cases and consider the power dynamics between communities, advocates, businesses, and states that span borders and different cultures. We will also look at ways that communities can build their own power through the solidarity economy and how advocates cannot only combat economic injustice but build their visions of economic justice for the future.
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Within these core focus areas, students can expect to build foundational lawyering skills as well as have the opportunity to intentionally practice creative lawyering and systems thinking as they help translate partners’ ideas for change into reality. Students in the Clinic can anticipate working in highly dynamic and collaborative teams, developing skills related to legal research and writing, investigations, case-building, strategic litigation, and idea entrepreneurship, among others. Additionally, students may have the opportunity to develop leadership skills, including by spearheading projects and their design over one or more semesters working with the Clinic. The Clinic also supports student entrepreneurs who want to develop their own ideas that relates to human rights.
The goal of the seminar is to break through the information overload and teach students in an interactive and welcoming environment the basic aspects of U.S. immigration policy. We will also discuss the role of lawyers in immigration spaces, and how to advocate for a system that best aligns with your own viewpoints on the subject. As background, we will explore the multitude of ways immigration policies have been shaped and reshaped over time by Congress, the President, and federal courts. We will also address major themes and controversies in immigration policy with a particular emphasis on the ways in which criminal law and immigration law have become so intertwined. We will also discuss cutting-edge issues in U.S. asylum law, border policies, and the expansion of immigration detention.
The course will leverage the experience and expertise of Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program (“HIRCP”) attorneys along with their community partners to explore the multitude of ways immigration policies can be challenged and reshaped. The course focuses on different types of advocacy, including direct representation, appellate litigation, strategic litigation in district court and administrative tribunals, policy-making at the state and local levels, and different approaches to influencing policy makers and the public.
Students will learn about the process of issue spotting policy opportunities, developing policy advocacy campaigns, drafting legislation and regulations, and using written and oral advocacy to push for policy change. Students will learn how to effectuate policy reforms that could have real world application by drafting written materials and presenting oral advocacy to demonstrate an implementation strategy for a range of policy reform ideas.
We begin the course by looking at the basic regulation of food, focusing on the history and current issues in rules regarding food safety. We then analyze federal agricultural policy and farm subsidies, and the environmental, health, and safety implications of our agricultural system. The course will cover issues in food labeling, including nutrition facts, health claims, and GMO labeling. Students will also examine the role the government plays in determining what foods are consumed, through its Dietary Guidelines, food assistance programs, and other attempts to increase healthy food access or consumption. Finally, we will evaluate a range of existing and potential policy interventions at the federal, state, and local levels.
The purpose of this seminar is to encourage the development of new legal tools, both theory and doctrine, to solve unsolved sex/gender inequality problems, including intersectional ones, in U.S. law. Creative challenges will be presented in areas including comparable worth, domestic violence, gay and lesbian rights, transgender rights, sexual violation, abortion, child sexual abuse, prostitution, and pornography. Litigation, legislation, administrative, and policy approaches and strategies will be considered.
This seminar examines the intersections of politics, law, race and social change within a historical trajectory of the evolving conceptions and representations of American identity. It analyzes such notions over time and their associated legal and political manifestations while accounting for the events and ideologies driving this transformation. Accordingly, such relevant factors as the formation of normative American identity, the contest and negotiation for power and representation, the impact of social movements, the equitable application of criminal justice, changing demographics, and relevant economic and political turmoil will be discussed through literature, journalism, and visual media.
This seminar examines and questions the status of the American democracy in the context of its unique history and contemporary challenges, focusing on its survival in a nation increasingly fractured by division and polarization. In doing so, this seminar explores provocative themes and questions of citizenship, law, self-governance, accountability, and inclusion in American democracy while grappling with issues of class, race, and gender. It moves beyond limited representations of democratization as the quest for universal suffrage and fair elections to a more fluid, real-time construct of competing interests, negotiated outcomes, stressed and malleable institutions, tumultuous changes, and their legal implications. It further clarifies the democratic process as one subject to ongoing interpretation, challenge, and renewal.
The Leukemia/Bone Marrow Transplant Elective at MGH will provide students the opportunity to see patients at the time of diagnosis of leukemia and other hematologic malignancies and during their course of treatment, and to follow patients who are undergoing bone marrow transplantation from admission through hospital discharge. Students will round with the attending MD on the two services and will have the opportunity to see patients in both the inpatient and outpatient settings. They will be able to observe the collection of stem cells for transplantation and how they are processed in the Cellular Therapeutics and Transplantation Laboratory. They will observe and potentially participate in bone marrow biopsies and bone marrow collections in the OR.
Didactics will include a reproductive-justice curriculum, as well as foundational learning modules on contraception and abortion care from the Ryan Family Planning Program. At the end of the rotation, the student will present a lecture on a Complex Family Planning topic of their choosing (selected with the assistance of the course director or key faculty) and complete a scholarly project. The scholarly project will be designed by the student in collaboration with the course director and key faculty, and may range from writing findings related to participating in research, advocacy, or development of patient-centered educational tools and materials.
Rural American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities face substantial health challenges. In South Dakota, Lakota tribes have built remarkable communities with growing, energetic efforts to renew traditional values in a modern context. Nevertheless, four such counties experience the lowest life expectancy at birth in the United States, with high mortality rates across major causes.
The course will familiarize students with healthcare and preventive measures specific to the women's health specialty - treating those who are female bodied and those who identify as women- and the care of women throughout their adult lives. Students will learn about how sex and gender inform medicine with primary care physicians, obstetricians/gynecologists, and specialists in an outpatient setting. They will have the opportunity to work with physicians focusing on women's health across these interdisciplinary fields. The course will include a focus on the role of social determinants of health, including violence and trauma. Students will be taught principles and techniques of trauma-informed care for all patients. Emphasis will be placed on critical analysis of medical literature and current practices for topics specific to women's health, and students will learn a sex- and gender-informed perspective on the presentation, treatment, and outcomes of disease in women. Primarily the clinic experiences will focus on cis women, with special attention to the diversity among patients who seek out women's health specialists. This course will utilize a flipped classroom model. Students will be provided a formal core curriculum in evidence-based women's health to read and/or view prior to each clinic session. They will be exposed to evidence-based medicine in practice through observing and participating in clinical encounters. Additionally, they will have dedicated time to discuss these curricular materials with their preceptors. Students will produce a capstone project on a topic of their choice and will present their work during the final week of the course; outstanding projects will have the opportunity to be incorporated into the course curriculum for future students. The primary site for this rotation is the Brigham and Women's Fish Center for Women's Health located at 850 Boylston Street, Suite 402 in Chestnut Hill. Parking is not available at the Fish Center, but is accessible via public transportation or the MGB shuttle.
The course also addresses psychiatric illnesses and symptoms domains, including mood, psychosis, anxiety and traumatic stress, substance use, and personality disorders. It underscores a patient-centric teaching approach that highlights individual illness experiences and the biological, psychological, and social factors contributing to dysfunction and disability. Psychiatric clinical skills teachings are also enriched with site visits. During these visits, students can practice psychiatric interviewing under the guidance of faculty at various HMS-affiliated clinical sites.
Clinical research is used to describe, predict, and make causal inferences. This course introduces the methods for the generation, analysis, and interpretation of data for clinical research. Major topics include the design of surveys, predictive models, randomized trials, clinical cohorts, and analyses of electronic health records. Students will learn to formulate well-defined research questions, to design data collection, to evaluate algorithms for clinical prediction, to design studies for causal inference, and to identify and prevent biases in clinical research. Familiarity with regression modeling and basic statistical theory is a pre-requisite.
During their rotation as subinterns on the MFM inpatient service, students actively admit and follow patients, participating in their procedures and deliveries. The students are expected to be the physicians for their panel of patients under the supervision of the MFM fellows, a third year obstetrics resident and the attending perinatologist. Formal structured teaching occurs during Wednesday didactic sessions, after morning rounds and during weekly perinatal conferences. Students are expected to take night call, but the schedule is flexible. Grading is based on evaluations from resident staff, fellows and divisional faculty.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
The Clinical Capstone in Hospital Medicine will serve as a culminating clinical experience for fourth year medical students. On this rotation, two fourth year medical students will be paired with one hospital medicine attending on the direct-care inpatient medical service on the East Campus at BIDMC. In this course, students will be expected to care for patients independently and build on skills developed during their sub-internship. Students will be responsible for all aspects of patient care including placing all orders, discussing with consultants, updating the multidisciplinary team and family on the plan of care and documenting in the medical record. Students will be expected to care for 4-6 patients with the supervision of the medicine attending. The daily schedule is a full hospitalist day shift and one weekend day per week. There is no overnight call on this rotation. Assessment is based on direct observation of student performance of entrusbable professional activities.
As practicing professionals, physicians continually face complex challenges in relating to the organizations in which they work. This class, designed for students in the HMS/HBS combined MD/MBA program and the Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program provides an overview of the structure and function of health care institutions and illustrates the role of these organizations in producing successful clinical outcomes. Class sessions, assigned readings, and written assignments offer a multidisciplinary perspective combining component academic disciplines of management and medicine.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Health literacy is a powerful tool for health equity. This course focuses primarily on information assessment and health literacy best practice; everyone in public health has a responsibility to ensure that information is accessible, understandable, and usable. You will learn best practices for assessing health (e.g., asthma) and health-related (e.g., housing) information (e.g., print, video, website). You will learn about information assessment tools and how to analyze texts and tasks. After completing the course, you will be able to identify and analyze factors that ease or inhibit reading, comprehension, and use of health and health-related information to accomplish specific tasks and make decisions. Course assignments, discussions, and hands-on sessions will prepare you to a) analyze the strengths and weaknesses of information currently in-use, b) offer recommendations for improvement, and c) contribute to practice implementation and new research. In a course-long assignment, you will use information from a community-based or national organization. A final paper will highlight the assessments you use, the findings, and your best practice recommendations for the organization. If of interest, the Professor will provide connections to an organization that will offer their materials for this work, and who would be sent the final paper in return. By the end of this course, you will be able to bring health literacy best practice for information assessment and improvement into any area of public health to advance health equity.
The goal of this Clerkship in Community Engagement is to for the student to be immersed in community-engaged care through experiential learning to help broaden the student'ss understanding of the social determinants of health from theory into practice. This is a 4-week elective with two parallel but coordinated community-engagement activities. 1) An experiential component involving 4 weeks, fulltime immersion in a community organization; 2) A mentored didactic component of 5-10 additional hours of reading, discussion and reflection, under the direction of a Faculty Mentor. Our overall pedagogical approach is to combine deliberate apprenticeship to a community-based organization with critical reflection guided by a faculty mentor. IMMERSION COMPONENT: Students will be assigned to one community-based organization of their choice (depending on availability): The Family Van in Boston or Southcentral Foundation in Alaska (only certain months). The student will be integrated into the work of the assigned organization. The immersion activities will generally include: direct interaction with patients; mentoring by the organization leadership; community outreach; and an introduction to the organization's monitoring evaluation and research efforts. (see site descriptions in Appendix) MENTORED ONLINE CURRICULUM COMPONENT: Students will be assigned a Faculty Mentor who will guide the student's review of the online curriculum. The online curriculum has 12 modules related to the principles and practice of community engagement. The modules include readings, videos and other didactic materials. The first week has required material assigned by the site, the second week has material assigned by the clerkship, thereafter the student picks material, approximately one reading a night, from one of the 12 online modules. The chosen readings should be incorporated into the weekly reflection essay and discussion with the Faculty Mentor. As appropriate, the Faculty Mentor will e-introduce the student to Expert Consultants for further discussion.
This advanced clerkship is structured to expose the clerk to a wide variety of experiences in child neurology, and can be tailored to meet interests or needs of individual clerks. Clerks will rotate for 1-2 weeks on the following: inpatient neurology service with step-up unit, hospital and emergency department consult service, critical care neurology consult service (covering 5 intensive care units in Longwood Medical Area), inpatient epilepsy service. Outpatient clinic sessions can be scheduled on one or more afternoons or as a full week. There are daily seminars/lectures/formal teaching rounds which the clerk is expected to attend; these include a core curriculum in child neurology, a multicultural ethics curriculum, a neurophysiology curriculum, and a neuropharmacology curriculum. Chief of service rounds, a more academic teaching conference, is held weekly, as are neuroradiology rounds, Longwood Neurology Grand Rounds, and senior resident rounds. Clerks meet weekly for a teaching and coaching session with the clerkship director. A case presentation or talk on a particular topic of interest is expected during the clerkship. The clerk is not required to take night call, but may elect to do so by arrangement with the senior resident to broaden their experience of the field.
The student will join the fellow-resident-attending team in caring for all consultations in difficult infectious disease problems at the CH, the student taking responsibility for his/her share of this busy service. The schedule includes daily rounds, conferences (some of them joint with the BIH, BWH and DFCI), reading in pediatric infectious disease problems, and one-on-one teaching sessions with the attending.
This Obstetric Anesthesiology course covers the theory and practice of pain relief during childbirth and the medical management of high risk obstetrical patients. Special attention will be focused on the interaction between obstetric anesthetic techniques and maternal/fetal physiology. The student will work closely with the obstetric anesthesia team (residents, fellow, and attendings) in the daily activities including providing analgesia for labor and anesthesia for cesarean delivery. Students will be expected to perform medical assessments, play an active role in the anesthetic care, and round on their patients the following day. In addition, the students will be assigned to follow particular high risk patients and will be expected to research and discuss the anesthetic implications of their diseases. Schedule is M-F 7am to 4:40pm. Students will attend all afternoon and morning lectures. At the conclusion of rotation, a paper and presentation on OB Anesthesia topic is required.
The course is an introduction to the field of global mental health. The curriculum is primarily informed by the Lancet Commission on Global Mental Health & Sustainable Development (2018) ( https://www.thelancet.com/commissions/global-mental-health ) which proposed a re-framing of mental health in three key ways: adopting a dimensional approach to mental health; recognizing the convergence of social and biological determinants in the emergence of mental health problems; and realizing a rights based approach to mental health. The curriculum also curates the key messages from the World Mental Health Report published by World Health Organization in 2022 ( https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240049338) and a Health Policy paper in the Lancet (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(23)00918-2/fulltext) . The course takes a life course approach and focuses on determinants and risk factors for mental health problems and the policy options to address mental health problems. Besides the two instructors, one of whom (VP) was the lead editor of the Commission, the course includes a selection of leading experts as guest instructors for specific sessions. This course is cross-listed at Harvard Medical School.
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People don't just happen. In this workshop-based class, students will explore the capacity of memoir and cultural criticism to illuminate their understanding of memory, connection, and self-making. This course is as invested in the craft of writing as it is in interrogating how storytelling functions within systems of power. Students will be asked to consider what the work is doing to us, and what we are using our own work to do to others. In particular, this course will investigate the role social determinants of health play in self-making. Classes will alternate between workshop discussions, in-class writing exercises, and close readings of nonfiction by Lucille Clifton, Eula Biss, Carmen Maria Machado, Toni Morrison, Vivian Gornick, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Kiese Laymon, among others.
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During the intensive Oral Surgery Externship, each student is fully integrated into the life of the department. The student attends 6:00 a.m. rounds, observes or assists in actual oral and maxillofacial surgery cases, interviews and treats patients in the Out-Patient Unit under staff supervision, and teams up with the resident on call for specific night and weekend assignments. The student also attends the Orthognathic Conference and Tumor clinic and has the opportunity to observe in the Chronic Facial Pain Clinic and Temporomandibular Joint Disorders Clinic on a weekly basis. There are opportunities to observe the use of general anesthetic agents as well as intravenous and inhalation sedation agents in different clinical settings.
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The Field Experience course provides second-year Dental Public Health residents with applied learning opportunities in real-world public health practice settings. Residents complete a structured field experience project at an approved site affiliated with the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. The experience emphasizes program management, community engagement, policy development, and evaluation of oral health programs.
This course provides Dental Public Health residents with a supervised clinical experience in a community-based oral health care setting serving underserved and vulnerable populations. The experience emphasizes the delivery, management, and evaluation of oral health services within safety-net healthcare systems. Residents gain exposure to interdisciplinary care, practice management, quality improvement, and population health approaches in clinical dentistry.
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Dental education is rapidly expanding with the frequent release of new publications and guidelines published by dental schools across the United States. As future leaders of dental education, it is important to know how to communicate effectively as a leader. We will focus on advanced public speaking techniques, effective communication, connecting with an audience and persuasion. Students will identify strengths and areas for improvement in their own communication style, while learning how to adapt their message for a variety of audiences. Throughout the semester lectures include a focus on presentation skills, language, narratives, vocal variation, techniques for persuasion and effective communication in the workplace.
This course explores emerging technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) and how they're transforming the way we approach dental education, patient care, administration, and research within academic settings. Students will look into how innovation and data-driven decisions are shaping the future of oral health fields through engaging lectures, discussions, and readings.
These seminars involve faculty and students from endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics and prosthodontics. Cases are selected by a senior graduate student and and presented by the student. For each case, there are several students from other disciplines serving as consultants. Open, animated discussion and commentary follow these presentations. In addition, third year AGE students in Endodontics, Orthodontics, Periodontics and Prosthodontics will present a single lecture on a topic concerning "mortality and morbidity".
These seminars involve faculty and students from endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics and prosthodontics. Cases are selected by a senior graduate student and and presented by the student. For each case, there are several students from other disciplines serving as consultants. Open, animated discussion and commentary follow these presentations. In addition, third year AGE students in Endodontics, Orthodontics, Periodontics and Prosthodontics will present a single lecture on a topic concerning "mortality and morbidity".
These seminars involve faculty and students from endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics and prosthodontics. Cases are selected by a senior graduate student and and presented by the student. For each case, there are several students from other disciplines serving as consultants. Open, animated discussion and commentary follow these presentations. In addition, third year AGE students in Endodontics, Orthodontics, Periodontics and Prosthodontics will present a single lecture on a topic concerning "mortality and morbidity".
The overall goal of the foundations for the advanced dental practitioner course is for dental residents to gain the basic fundamentals necessary for the future practice of dentistry including understanding ethics/professionalism, evidence-based dentistry, behavioral science, practice management including risk management and malpractice, and teaching methodology and to demonstrate their applicability to dental practice. The course will be structured to actively engage students using strategies that foster integrated approaches to learning. As such, the format will consist of lectures, self-directed learning and group-based assignments, problem solving, self-reflection exercises, and integrated case presentations. Multiple integrated self-assessments will be used throughout the course, including written self-assessment and reflection, and focus groups. Students will need to complete these assessments in a timely manner. Attendance will be taken.
This course will provide an introduction to the principles of biostatistics. This course is designed primarily for clinical researchers or clinicians with an interest in research. Topics to be covered include summarizing and displaying data, the normal distribution, Central Limit Theorem, probability, estimation and hypothesis testing. Students will also develop skills in data entry and the analysis and interpretation of data.
The objective of this course is to present fundamental information and concepts regarding the relationship between microbiology (bacteriology) and dental diseases. The relationship between basic and clinical research is explored to include significance in clinical dental practice - as it is and how it might develop. The first part of the course covers traditional and newly developed molecular microbiological methods. The taxonomy of oral species is presented including methods used to derive stable species classifications. Acquisition of the oral microbiota and inter-bacterial relationships as they relate to plaque biofilm ecology are described. The second part of the course covers microbiology of dental caries and periodontal infections including other oral infections of dental origin including peri-implant and endodontic microbiology. Therapy, virulence and anti-microbial strategies for therapy and prevention are presented, and an introduction to species virulence and pathogenicity.
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This course builds on the principles taught in the Oral System Sciences course (in particular, Oral Pathology and Oral Radiology disciplines) in the second-year curriculum. Students will spend time in an active oral medicine practice applying their didactic knowledge as part of a team to diagnose and manage patients with a variety of oral infections, immune-mediated diseases, neoplasms, reactive conditions, and iatrogenic disorders. Under the supervision of attending oral medicine specialists, they may have the opportunity to participate in various tests and procedures including clinical testing, microbial cultures, exfoliative cytology, and superficial soft tissue biopsies when clinically indicated. In addition, students will participate in surgical oral pathology slide conferences to correlate clinical and histopathologic findings in an effort to better understand the pathologic entities.
The patient-centered comprehensive care is driven by an emphasis on treatment planning and completion of comprehensive care. The Teaching Practice remains committed to its current comprehensive care model. Students are encouraged to perform quality patient care and to learn the importance of patient management. The goal of this fourth-year course is to enable the students to understand the comprehensive care philosophy while completing dental treatment for their assigned patients. Students are expected to complete the sequential treatment plans in their patient list. Case types will be determined by the complexity and duration of treatment required according to the Case Classification System.
The purpose of this course is to provide the concepts and skills needed to function as a culturally-competent dental provider in a comprehensive, patient-centered dental practice. The Practice of Dentistry I course includes orientation to HSDM clinical operations (including billing, staff, and insurance) and clinical protocols. Additionally, ethics, professional behavior, and cultural sensitivity will be explored through cases in treatment team meetings and lectures.
This leadership course will consist of interprofessional teams of fourth-year dental students as the leaders in oral health care delivery, working with medical and dental professionals to provide various forms of treatment to the patients of the dental clinic and serve as senior student mentors to the first-year students. Each fourth-year student is assigned to a first-year dental student during the integrated sessions in a new Leadership in Oral Health and Primary Care Program designed for the fourth year dental students. The supervising faculty for the clinic includes a subset of dental faculty for the fourth year students overseeing the treatment procedures as routinely performed in the teaching clinic. Another group of dental faculty and primary care physicians are available to monitor the learning process to meet the primary care competencies as part of the pre-doctoral dental curriculum.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course provides an introduction to U.S. health policy as practiced by state governments. With special expert guests and experiential exercises, we consider states' roles in: Medicaid, individual and employer commercial health insurance, public health including community and environmental health, cost control, health and human services integration, and more.
Covers basic statistical techniques that are important for analyzing data arising from epidemiology, environmental health and biomedical and other public health-related research. Major topics include descriptive statistics, elements of probability, introduction to estimation and hypothesis testing, nonparametric methods, techniques for categorical data, regression analysis, analysis of variance, and elements of study design. Applications are stressed. Designed for students desiring more emphasis on theoretical developments. Background in algebra and calculus strongly recommended.
Covers basic statistical techniques that are important for analyzing data arising from epidemiology, environmental health and biomedical and other public health-related research. Major topics include descriptive statistics, elements of probability, introduction to estimation and hypothesis testing, nonparametric methods, techniques for categorical data, regression analysis, analysis of variance, and elements of study design. Applications are stressed. Designed for students desiring more emphasis on theoretical developments. Background in algebra and calculus strongly recommended.
Covers basic statistical techniques that are important for analyzing data arising from epidemiology, environmental health and biomedical and other public health-related research. Major topics include descriptive statistics, elements of probability, introduction to estimation and hypothesis testing, nonparametric methods, techniques for categorical data, regression analysis, analysis of variance, and elements of study design. Applications are stressed. Designed for students desiring more emphasis on theoretical developments. Background in algebra and calculus strongly recommended.
Topics include model interpretation, model building, and model assessment for linear regression with continuous outcomes, logistic regression with binary outcomes, and proportional hazards regression with survival time outcomes. Specific topics include regression diagnostics, confounding and effect modification, goodness of fit, data transformations, splines and additive models, ordinal, multinomial, and conditional logistic regression, generalized linear models, overdispersion, Poisson regression for rate outcomes, hazard functions, and missing data. The course will provide students with the skills necessary to perform regression analyses and to critically interpret statistical issues related to regression applications in the public health literature.
Topics include model interpretation, model building, and model assessment for linear regression with continuous outcomes, logistic regression with binary outcomes, and proportional hazards regression with survival time outcomes. Specific topics include regression diagnostics, confounding and effect modification, goodness of fit, data transformations, splines and additive models, ordinal, multinomial, and conditional logistic regression, generalized linear models, overdispersion, Poisson regression for rate outcomes, hazard functions, and missing data. The course will provide students with the skills necessary to perform regression analyses and to critically interpret statistical issues related to regression applications in the public health literature.
This intensive course introduces concepts of financial accounting to the non-accountant user of financial information. Basic accounting transactions, statement preparation, and concepts of accrual versus cash accounting are presented in the first half of the course. The remainder of the course focuses on financial analysis of a variety of health care organizations.
The course is designed to introduce students to cost accounting and management control concepts and uses for health service organizations. The first part of the course develops a basic knowledge of cost accounting, including full and differential costing techniques. The remainder of the course focuses on management control structure and process, and addresses topics such as responsibility accounting, budgeting, reporting and variance analysis.
The course is designed to introduce students to cost accounting and management control concepts and uses for health service organizations. The first part of the course develops a basic knowledge of cost accounting, including full and differential costing techniques. The remainder of the course focuses on management control structure and process, and addresses topics such as responsibility accounting, budgeting, reporting and variance analysis.
Operations management is concerned with evaluating the performance of operating units, understanding why they perform as they do, designing new or improved operating procedures and systems for competitive advantage, making short-run and long-run decisions that affect operations, and managing the work force. To understand the role of operations in any organization, a manager must understand process analysis, capacity analysis, types of processes, productivity analysis, development and use of quality standards, and the role of operating strategy in corporate strategy. The course will also present the focused management approach which can help an organization achieve much more with existing resources. The course will demonstrate how operations management-in particular Lean and the Theory of Constraints (TOC)-can rapidly enhance value and performance in any health care organization. Utilizing a systems approach that will be relevant for health care managers and executives, it unpacks and demystifies concepts such as performance measures, operations, quality and value enhancement, all as they relate to eliminating waste and non-value-adding activities.
Important Information: In order to enroll in an Independent Study course you must submit a proposal form, which will be reviewed by the department and faculty member. To do this, please click on the ‘Submit Proposal’ button, complete the form, and submit. If your proposal is approved, the course will be added to your Crimson Cart and you will receive a notification email. You will need to go to your Crimson Cart and complete your enrollment into the class (enrollment in the course is not finalized until this step is taken).
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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This course focuses on the conceptual framework needed to plan for the long-term viability of health care organizations. Using selected readings and case studies of both health care and non-health care organizations, students will learn to appreciate the concepts of competitive strategy and competitive advantage primarily through practice in analysis. The objective is to provide students with the conceptual tools and the practical skills to enable them to formulate, execute, and evaluate organizational strategy.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
During the first year of the program, members of the MPH-EPI Practicum Committee assist students in selecting an appropriate practicum topic and identifying the Harvard faculty member who will be their mentor for the practicum. Students then submit a brief proposal (the draft Learning Agreement) which must be approved by the mentor and the MPH-EPI Practicum Committee. During the second year, students have regular online meetings with their mentor to obtain guidance and feedback on the project. They submit the final version of the Learning Agreement in the fall, and they submit progress reports during the fall and spring. The practicum culminates with a presentation of the results at the end of the spring semester, and there is a symposium in May, right before graduation.
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This course is designed to examine and develop strategies to improve health within and across populations. We will cover patterns of health determinants; population and primary health care management principles; decision science for public health nursing, policies, and interventions; and public health metrics and outcomes. The course will be delivered in nine three-hour sessions with pre- and post-course work expected.
In this course, students will gain additional necessary knowledge to plan, implement, and evaluate action- and learning-based regulatory and policy reform strategies and interventions. They will review global exemplars of approaches taken and implemented by diverse regulatory organizations and learn skills for developing models and making recommendations that will transform and strengthen their designated health systems and health profession regulatory models. Building on the applied project from HPM 564 and HPM 567, students will learn to prepare a policy brief and needed regulatory reform recommendations for their final applied project part 3. The course will be delivered in nine three-hour sessions with pre- and post-course work expected.
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This course is designed to provide students in public health and social science with an overview of the theory and research on the role of communication in health in the 21st century. The role of communication in public health will be examined both as a product of everyday interaction with communication platforms including mass and social media and messages, and its planned use to accomplish particular public health goals. Research examined here looks both at planned and unplanned effects of communication in a variety of health situations representing a range of public health topical concerns. The course also covers potential evidence-driven solutions to address public health problems.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
We begin by considering the question “why qualitative research?”, examining the value of qualitative methodologies for health research and critically reflecting on the philosophical foundations of qualitative approaches. Throughout the course, we explore the implications of such foundational assumptions for designing, conducting and evaluating qualitative research in ways that recognize how both health and research are enmeshed within broader social relations and structures. Course sessions also focus on developing practical skills for conducting qualitative research including: generating data through interviews, focus groups, and observations, and analyzing qualitative data. Students will have opportunities to design and plan qualitative studies, to conduct and evaluate interviews, to practice analyzing qualitative data, to debate ethical dilemmas, and to reflect on our positionalities and roles as public health researchers working in diverse contexts. As an introductory level course, it necessarily aims to cover a breadth of topics; it does not, therefore, provide in-depth or advanced coverage of any one aspect of qualitative data collection or analysis.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
Each seminar will typically comprise a combination of ‘works-in-progress’ discussions (where 1-2 students discuss their project with the group, and we collectively work to advance individual students’ project goals and identify generalizable insights for the group) and in-depth discussion and/or practice with a specific topic. These topics go beyond what is typically covered in introductory-level courses (e.g., analytic methods beyond thematic analysis, data generation beyond interviews and focus groups) and grapple with hot topics and areas of contention in contemporary qualitative research (e.g., use of AI in qualitative research, relational ethics in practice). We will interrogate philosophical foundations and critical approaches, ethical praxis in qualitative health research, and communicating, justifying and evaluating qualitative research. In-built flexibility enables student-led prioritization of which data generation methods, analysis approaches and hot topics we focus on to best support students’ interests/projects and to advance the knowledge and skills of the group.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
Widening inequality, enduring patterns of extraction, persistent power imbalances, and ongoing marginalization stand in stark opposition with the goals of global health and standard narratives of its triumphs. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought additional awareness to racial, economic, and other inequalities within and between societies, and also has raised questions about why so much unfairness endures. This course engages and interrogates colonialism and its sequelae as major causes of current problems, aiming to define and advance a decolonization agenda. It seeks to address central weaknesses in global health’s decolonization movement, particularly the limited engagement with historical scholarship and decolonization theory, which are necessary to understand the mechanisms of colonialism, and to contest its ongoing influence in global health. The course focuses mainly on the 19th and 20th centuries, placing particular emphasis on the role of public health and medicine in colonial and imperial contexts to analyze how these policy areas were shaped to serve metropolitan material and intellectual goals. Comparative case analyses will be used to illuminate the difference between decision making on health policies in colonial and metropolitan contexts, and to connect patterns of the past with intellectual and institutional features of global health. This graduate seminar course is open to masters and doctoral students.
These two credit bearing courses, are the primary vehicle for which DRPH students will earn credits for completing their Doctoral Projects. Students will be expected to register for 15 credits of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 during the summer and 20 credits during the Fall and Spring to maintain their full-time student status at the School. Students will be expected to register for a section of DRPH 350 OR DRPH 400 that corresponds to their resident status (resident versus non-resident) and their committee chair/advisor.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
For Course 7, 5-7, and 6-7 students participating in curriculum-related off-campus internship experiences in biology. Before enrolling, students must consult the Biology Education Office for details on procedures and restrictions, and have approval from their faculty advisor. Subject to department approval. Upon completion, the student must submit a write-up of the experience, approved by their faculty advisor.
Required for linguistics doctoral students to explore and gain professional perspective through industry and academic experiences. Professional perspective options include industry internships, academic internships, or training for academia. For an internship experience, an offer from a company or organization is required prior to enrollment. A written report is required upon completion of the experience. Proposals subject to departmental approval in consultation with advisor.
Three primary areas of focus are: creating new Virtual Reality experiences; mapping the state of emerging tools; and hosting guests - leaders in the VR/XR community, who serve as coaches for projects. Students have significant leeway to customize their own learning environment. As the field is rapidly evolving, each semester focuses on a new aspect of virtual worlds, based on the current state of innovations. Students work in teams of interdisciplinary peers from Berklee College of Music and Harvard University. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Three primary areas of focus are: creating new Virtual Reality experiences; mapping the state of emerging tools; and hosting guests - leaders in the VR/XR community, who serve as coaches for projects. Students have significant leeway to customize their own learning environment. As the field is rapidly evolving, each semester focuses on a new aspect of virtual worlds, based on the current state of innovations. Students work in teams of interdisciplinary peers from Berklee College of Music and Harvard University. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Three primary areas of focus are: creating new Virtual Reality experiences; mapping the state of emerging tools; and hosting guests - leaders in the VR/XR community, who serve as coaches for projects. Students have significant leeway to customize their own learning environment. As the field is rapidly evolving, each semester focuses on a new aspect of virtual worlds, based on the current state of innovations. Students work in teams of interdisciplinary peers from Berklee College of Music and Harvard University. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques in engineering design applications. Emphasizes state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to design new products or systems or solve complex engineering problems. Lectures cover the theoretical and practical aspects of machine learning and optimization methods. Challenge problems, research paper discussions, and interactive in-class activities are used to highlight the unique challenges of machine learning for design applications. A group term project on students' applications of interest. Basic programming and machine learning familiarity are recommended. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
Provides an introduction to the ancient art of Chinese calligraphy and its traditional uses. Studies the history of the Chinese writing system and develops skills through guided reading, classroom discussion, and systematic practice with brush and ink. Students work on a small calligraphy project based on their own interest. Taught in English; no prior knowledge of Chinese language required.
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Allows students to present their research and literature reviews to other students and staff. Topics include the use of automation and computational methods for understanding the biological, chemical, and physical properties of molecular structures, as well as the design of new functional molecules and the synthetic processes to produce them.
<p style="margin-left:.5in">Explores the contemporary computational understanding of imaging: encoding information about a physical object onto a form of radiation, transferring the radiation through an imaging system, converting it to a digital signal, and computationally decoding and presenting the information to the user. Introduces a unified formulation of computational imaging systems as a three-round "learning spiral": the first two rounds describe the physical and algorithmic parts in two exemplary imaging systems. The third round involves a class project on an imaging system chosen by students. Undergraduate and graduate versions share lectures but have different recitations. Involves optional "clinics" to even out background knowledge of linear algebra, optimization, and computational imaging-related programming best practices for students of diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Introductory course in linear algebra and optimization, assuming no prior exposure to linear algebra and starting from the basics, including vectors, matrices, eigenvalues, singular values, and least squares. Covers the basics in optimization including convex optimization, linear/quadratic programming, gradient descent, and regularization, building on insights from linear algebra. Explores a variety of applications in science and engineering, where the tools developed give powerful ways to understand complex systems and also extract structure from data.
Introduces the fundamental algorithmic approaches for creating robot systems that can autonomously manipulate physical objects in unstructured environments such as homes and restaurants. Topics include perception (including approaches based on deep learning and approaches based on 3D geometry), planning (robot kinematics and trajectory generation, collision-free motion planning, task-and-motion planning, and planning under uncertainty), as well as dynamics and control (both model-based and learning-based. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.
The Late Bronze Age in the Middle East (ca. 1600-1200 BCE) is often characterized as an International Age. The political landscape of the region, encompassing Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia, and parts of surrounding regions, was dominated by several powerful regional states-the so-called “club of great powers”-whose kings participated in a formalized system of diplomacy and exchange. Smaller states within these polities’ spheres of influence were politically subordinate to the great kings, owing them loyalty and tribute in exchange for protection while retaining local autonomy.
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This course offers an in-depth introduction to the texts of the Neo-Assyrian period (ca. 900-600 BCE), with a focus on the language, script, and historical significance of the available documentation. Students will become familiar with the major corpora of Neo-Assyrian sources, including royal inscriptions, administrative and legal documents, letters, scholarly and literary texts, and archival materials. Particular attention will be given to the Neo-Assyrian dialect of Akkadian, with systematic study of its grammar, syntax, and vocabulary. Through close reading of selected texts, students will develop skills in transliteration and translation, while also exploring how these texts illuminate broader historical, political, and cultural contexts. The course also includes an introduction to Neo-Assyrian cuneiform signs and paleography. By the end of the course, participants will be able to work independently with Neo-Assyrian textual sources and to use them critically for both grammatical analysis and historical inquiry.
An introduction to the Semitic language of Akkadian, primarily through the Old Babylonian dialect and cuneiform writing system as used during the time of Hammurabi (c. 1750 BCE). Students learn the fundamentals of grammar and the writing system, as well as the most common cuneiform signs in official and cursive script. Readings span a variety of genres, including private letters, judicial documents, literary and religious texts, divinatory compendia, legal code, and royal inscriptions. The course also briefly introduces students to examples of texts from other periods and dialects of the Akkadian language for cultural and comparative purposes. This course is supervised by Dr. Debourse but taught by instructional staff.
How do rituals work? What makes them succeed (or fail)? For whom do they work? Why do we perform them? Which experiences do rituals elicit? In this class, we will explore these questions, by looking at evidence from the ancient world in light of modern theories of ritual. The study of ritual draws from many disciplines, ranging from religion, philosophy, anthropology, and history to sociology, psychology, and biology. We will draw connections between all these disciplines and the ancient data, so as to come to a broader understanding of what ritual is and how it works.
How do rituals work? What makes them succeed (or fail)? For whom do they work? Why do we perform them? Which experiences do rituals elicit? In this class, we will explore these questions, by looking at evidence from the ancient world in light of modern theories of ritual. The study of ritual draws from many disciplines, ranging from religion, philosophy, anthropology, and history to sociology, psychology, and biology. We will draw connections between all these disciplines and the ancient data, so as to come to a broader understanding of what ritual is and how it works.
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This course offers an introduction to Classical Arabic for reading. Students will learn the Arabic script and the basics of classical Arabic morphology and syntax. This will allow students to begin reading and translating excerpts from classical and Quranic Arabic. Emphasis is on reading, basic grammar, and translation into English. Daily preparation and active class participation are required.
This lab course provides instruction and experience in conducting research on cognitive architecture and neural organization, via the methods of visual cognition and cognitive neuroscience. Special focus on issues of high-level visual representation and the corresponding structure in neural response profiles. Open to graduate and undergraduate students working in the instructor’s laboratory. Undergraduates are required to write a research report at the end of the semester on the studies conducted in the lab.
In parallel, each week we will all try out different generative AI tools for enhancing academic skills-from synthesizing written material and writing to coding-and share these in group discussions and presentations. By the end of the seminar, you’ll have a deeper understanding of how these AI systems are working, a suite of techniques and tools that you can use to enhance your own learning, and some broader ideas about how human learning might change in the era of large language models and generative AI.
This course consists of a series of workshops in which NELC doctoral students in their G3-year will develop a strong foundation of skills to prepare them for their first teaching at Harvard and to enhance the effectiveness of their teaching in the long term. Each session will inculcate best practices for major Teaching Fellow roles and introduce key topics in pedagogy, such as teaching languages (ancient and modern), communicating with students, and grading and providing feedback on student work. In addition, a few sessions throughout the semester will be devoted to workshopping the dissertation prospectuses of NELC PhD students prior to their presentations to the faculty; these sessions afford a chance to share feedback and to learn about the research of other NELC doctoral students.
Challenges in public health policy and clinical medicine are marked by complexity, uncertainty, competing priorities and resource constraints. This course is designed to introduce the student to the methods and applications of decision analysis and cost-effectiveness analysis in clinical and public health decision making. The objectives of the course are: (1) to provide a basic introduction to the methods and tools of decision science and to recognize when, how, and in what context they can provide value in clinical and public health decision making; (2) to equip students with the ability to structure and bound a decision problem logically (articulating the objective, perspective, and time horizon) and to identify key elements (alternatives, uncertainties, and outcomes) and influential factors (preferences, risk attitudes, values); (3) to provide students with basic skills in revising probabilities given new information, building and analyzing decision trees, and conducting a cost-effectiveness analysis; (4) to enable students to thoughtfully and critically evaluate published analyses conducted to evaluate or inform clinical strategies, health technologies, and public health policies in developed and developing countries.
Special study of selected topics in archaeology, given on an individual basis and directly supervised by a member of the department. May be taken for a letter grade or pass/fail. To enroll, a student must submit a petition form, signed by the adviser with whom they wish to study, and a proposed plan of study.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
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This is a reading group for students to discuss recent advances in the economics of health equity. Topics will include equity in all dimensions: race/ethnicity; gender orientation; disability status; and others. Students will read papers, present, and discuss them. Interested students should talk to Professor Alsan or Professor Cutler.
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Never be lost again! Find your way on sea, land, or air by employing celestial and terrestrial techniques. Acquire expertise in using navigators' tools (sextant, compass, and charts) while learning the steps to the celestial dance of the sun, moon, stars, and planets. This 108-year-old course continues to rely on practical skills and collaborative problem-solving, while utilizing historical artifacts (instruments, maps, captains' logs) and student-built devices. Culminating in a day-long cruise to practice navigation skills.
Science is focused on discovering and explaining the world around and within us. This has been its goal for hundreds of years and has produced astonishing breakthroughs from population genetics to general relativity, to plate tectonics. Artificial intelligence is touted as a tool for learning about a complex system in ways that humans can’t and has seen exceptional progress in natural language processing and image identification. In this seminar we explore the emerging linkages between scientific inquiry and artificial intelligence.
This graduate course considers quantitative approaches to crustal deformation outside of classical numerical methods. Beginning with observational constraints such as fractal fault structure and kinematic histories, the course first develops the Somigiana tensor and distance scaling relationships. This is followed by an overview of boundary integral methods, both in their classical form and in possible nonlocal, higher-order, and mollified extensions. Fracture is treated using maximum-entropy concepts, and similar rheology-free descriptions of two-dimensional orogens are considered. Inertial and quasi-static discrete element models, along with smooth particle hydrodynamics, are discussed in the context of finite deformation problems. This leads naturally to peridynamic models that do not include notions of strain and stress. The course concludes with lattice models of fracture and finite-deformation orogenic evolution.
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What is an authentic life? This seminar engages some of the most fundamental questions of human existence dialogically with selected ancient texts and the literary works of 19th and 20th-century authors often associated with the movement called “existentialism.” The seminar centers on unhurried reading, the sharing of diverse interpretations of seminar materials, and thoughtful conversations with peers about how to live an authentic life and encourage meaningful relationships. The seminar begins with careful reading of several works foundational to the arts and humanities: the early Socratic dialogues, The Books of Genesis and Job from the Hebrew Bible, and selected letters and gospels from the New Testament.
This course considers how we can write histories of religious animals and the Unseen. Students will be introduced to academic literature that has criticized scholarly and popular conceptions of humans having a special status, and assumptions that the religious sentience of non-human animals and the materiality of spirits cannot be studied academically. Students will then be introduced to a variety of sources containing rich information on religious animals and the supernatural from Islamic societies of the globe. In doing so, the course pays particular attention to how human and non-human animals were understood to be religious beings whose bodies and activities were always tethered to the Unseen. Students will be encouraged to explore how the divide between human and non-human animals might not have been evident in societies of the past and the present. Students will moreover be encouraged to engage how these sources may prompt us to remember, or rather realize, that all aspects of material life, including animals’ bodies, physical resources and technologies, were inextricably linked to the imagined non-material realms of the Unseen. On the whole, this seminar class takes steps towards recounting histories of religious animals and the Unseen.
We will consider types of sacrifice, blood and bloodless offerings, and recurrent religious concepts: e.g., cosmogony, consecration, thanksgiving, communion, reciprocity, substitution, efficacy, violence, transgression, expiation, catharsis, human and divine hierarchy, gendered and racialized dimensions, and sacerdotal authority. We will also consider leading theories of sacrifice. In the first semester, cases will be drawn from Mesoamerican, Incan, Vedic and Hindu, Celtic, West African and diasporic traditions. Students will be encouraged to develop their own research and understanding. Jointly offered by Harvard Divinity School as HDS 3254A.
Modern concepts of "book" and "authorship" often do not fit much of our ancient Jewish and Christian evidence for literary production. In many cases--from biblical and NT literature to the Dead Sea Scrolls to LXX to Old Testament pseudepigrapha to New Testament apocrypha to Hekhalot literature--our evidence resists the limitation of "authorial creativity" to one closed and complete moment of composition, let alone a single "author," instead reflecting processes more akin to what we call redaction, compilation, anthologizing, etc. The same units can be repeatedly reconfigured into new orders and structures. Translations can shift a text's identity or setting. Excerpts can sometimes take on a life of their own. Anthologies can have orchestrating logics of meaning-making beyond their contexts. This advanced seminar explores these questions through a series of test-cases, with the aim of bringing multiple corpora and special subfields into productive conversation. Patterned on a laboratory, there will be many student-led textual discussions, collaborative in-class work with primary sources, etc. Enrollment for this course is limited and by application; interested students should email the instructor outlining their ancient language background and any relevant previous coursework as well as describing one text or textual tradition on which they would like to focus in this context.
This course will explore the place of the New Testament and early Christianity in the history of gender and sexuality. Through a close examination of relevant primary literature, we will seek to understand how the early Christian tradition was shaped by the sex and gender protocols of the ancient Mediterranean world; how it, in turn, reshaped that world; and how the texts and practices in question have played a foundational role in the history of Western thought, and continue to impact cultural and religious debates today. We will also work to become familiar with the increasingly developed (and complex) scholarly conversation surrounding these issues. This is a limited enrollment course. Please email the instructor (bdunning@hds.harvard.edu) with a short introduction including relevant background and reasons for wanting to enroll in the course. Students will be notified of acceptance before the enrollment deadline.
This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of demonology in early Christianity. The course will begin with the sudden explosion of interest in demons in ancient Judaism in the 3rd c. BCE, the role of demons in the Christian New Testament, and their role in early Christian thought, especially in the writings of Origen of Alexandria (d. 185-253 CE). The course will then move into early monastic demonology and focus on such figures as Antony the Great, Athanasius, Evagrius Pontus, Pachomius, Shenoute, and others, and such texts as the various collections of apophthegmata patrum, or "Sayings of the Fathers." Among other things, the course will question of the category of "demon" understood as an evil spirit or entity, its relationship to the pre-Christian notion of the daimōn , and how demons were understood to be related to angels and humans. If time permits, the course will look at the development of Christian demonology in early medieval Eastern Christianity.
This course is an introduction to the philosophy of language. We’ll cover major topics that have shaped the philosophical study of language into the present and that have also become key resources in philosophy more generally: compositionality, meaning, pragmatics, context-sensitivity, speech acts, and reference. If you don’t know what any of these words mean, don’t worry, that’s what the course is for. So let me describe the course in a different way. It’s a central fact about language that we can use language to communicate about the world around us. That has two implications: language is about the world. How does that happen? After all, there are lots of human cultural achievements, such as music, that aren't about the world. Second, in order to communicate, a hearer must be able to figure out what a speaker is trying to get across to them, just on the basis of the words used. So there must be some pretty clear rules for how to connect words with meanings. But if you’ve ever tried programming, you know how incredibly constraining it is to have set rules about how to use expressions. It’s super hard to get a computer to do anything, and there’s a lot of stuff you can’t tell it. Human language is incredibly flexible. So how can language be so flexible while also being rule based? In one form or another, the philosophical work we discuss in the course addresses itself to these two broad concerns: how language is about the world, and how to reconcile rules and flexibility in language use.
This course is an introduction to logic for students who have no background in either logic, math, or computer science. It is designed to provide important concepts and skills that will help students succeed in fields where logical reasoning is helpful (pretty much all fields, then), and to prepare them for further study of logic at the 100-level.
What is a human being? How ought I to live my life? These questions hold a central position in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy. Moreover, the second question was typically understood by reference to the first: given what a human being is, how ought I to live my life? Human nature was supposed to be a key reason why one ought to act in some ways rather than others, and why certain goals should be the ones to shape and structure one’s life. In this course, we study several philosophers, including Plato, Aristotle, the Epicureans, and the Stoics. We will examine and discuss their thinking on human nature and how we ought to live our lives, with an eye to understanding how and why, in the view of these philosophers, we ought to live our lives in certain ways and in pursuit of certain goals given what it is to be a human being. We shall, among other things, consider Plato’s thinking about death and the soul in the Phaedo ; look at what the rationality of human nature means for the conduct of life according to Aristotle; discuss the Epicurean arguments against the fear of death; and investigate the striking claim made by the Stoics that being a good (virtuous) person is the only thing that matters in life.
You probably want to live the best life for yourself. But what would that look like? Feeling pleasure, and avoiding pain? Having your desires satisfied? Maybe achieving knowledge, or securing fulfilling relationships? You might also care about living a moral life. But what would that look like? What actions are morally right or wrong, and what makes them that way? In this introduction to ethics, we'll begin by looking at three important theories of the good life: the pleasure theory, the desire-satisfaction theory, and the pluralist theory. We'll then turn to moral theories, investigating the relative strengths and weaknesses of those views that focus only on our actions' consequences, and those that reject this approach. In closing, we'll consider questions about the status of morality. What kind of judgment are we making when we say, for example, that something is morally wrong? Are there moral facts awaiting our discovery? If there are, how did they come to be - are they determined by humans and varying across cultures, like facts about the law or etiquette? Or perhaps determined by God? Or could they somehow have not been determined by anyone, standing as fundamental facts about reality?
A philosophical examination of the mind and its relation to the natural world. Topics include: the mind - body problem, consciousness, other minds, animal cognition, and artificial intelligence. Readings will consist primarily of influential papers from the latter half of the 20th Century.
Who do we believe, and who do we dismiss? Who tend to get treated as trustworthy, credible sources of information, and who tend not to? Whose voices get amplified and whose get silenced? Whose ideas are taken up and whose are ignored? Whose problems get studied, and who lacks the educational, financial, personal, emotional, or political resources and opportunities to adequately study theirs? Who gets to be ignorant?<br>These are all central questions in the study of epistemic injustice. The growing realization that injustice, marginalization, oppression, and violence can take distinctly epistemic forms and lead to distinctly epistemic wrongs has quickly become one of the most important discussions in epistemology - the study of knowledge and related topics such as learning, understanding, justification, evidence, trustworthiness, and ignorance. In this course, we will look at some of the most influential research on epistemic injustice, including special attention to Miranda Fricker’s seminal work <i>Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing</i>, important historical precursors to it, criticisms of it, and recent literature expanding on our understanding of ways that epistemic injustice can affect us.
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Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that asks and seeks to answer questions about the most fundamental aspects of reality: What kinds of things are there? When do two things make up another thing? What does it mean for one thing to be like another? How do things change while still being themselves? This course will introduce you to some of the most basic concepts and tools of metaphysics that will enable you to understand questions such as these and attempts to answer them, and ultimately to pose your own questions and craft your own answers. We will begin by investigating the nature and structure of ordinary objects, such as tables and chairs. We will then turn to questions concerning objects in space and time, as well as the nature and structure of space and time themselves. Along the way, we will also consider more curious entities such as holes and clouds, and explore connections to physics and science fiction, from the idea of extra spatial dimensions to the possibility of time travel.
Not long ago, highly capable AI agents were the stuff of science fiction. Today, most of us interact with them many times a day (often without even noticing it!). Scholars from diverse fields are now racing to determine what impact this rapid shift is likely to have both on our society and on humanity more generally. This course will first examine how artificial agents are currently designed and then discuss whether we should attribute to them typical human capacities like believing, thinking, preferring, planning, deceiving and manipulating. We will then examine some of the conceptual, social and ethical puzzles raised by these new agents. Topics will include: AI companionship; human-AI team decision-making; AI agents in science; AI freewill and responsibility; the future of work; and AI alignment, safety and existential risk. The course is designed both for humanities-inclined students interested in digging into some technical details of AI and technically-inclined students interested in examining AI’s ethical implications.
This course explores contemporary homesteading as a way of life, from the mid-20th c to present. Readings will explore meanings and motivations (including politics and ideology) for homesteading, the practical skills and logistics of homesteading (canning, foraging, and provisioning; textile production; animal husbandry; waste and water management, etc.), viral marketing of the “off grid” lifestyle and influencer culture on perceptions and practices of homesteading, and the “folk ideas” that undergird urban-rural mobility. We will primarily focus on case studies from North America, Europe, and East Asia, but a culminating capstone project will invite students to bring in case studies from other locales.
Are quilts the great American (folk) art? From intricately stitched whole-cloth quilts, to the improvisational patchworks of Gee's Bend; from the graphic simplicity of Amish quilts to the cozy pastels of depression-era quilts; from the Aids Quilt to art quilts; quilts have taken on extraordinary significance in American culture. This class surveys the evolution of quilt-making as a social practice, considering the role of quilts in articulations of gender, ethnic, class and religious identities, and their positions within discourses of domesticity, technology, consumerism, and cultural hierarchy.
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This course continues the study of Middle Welsh grammar and practice in translation and in addition provides an introduction to the manuscript sources and their cultural contexts. Gradually the focus will move away from prose towards verse and the latter part of the course will focus on intricacies of medieval Welsh poetics.
This course provides an introduction both to the language (including an overview of its origins as a Celtic language) and to the literary culture of medieval Wales, with particular attention to narrative prose literature and its Celtic, Welsh and Norman contexts. By the end of the term we will have read in the original one of the Four Branches of the Mabinogi and selections from other texts. The initial focus will be on learning the language before turning to literary texts. For those interested in the linguistic aspects of Middle Welsh further study support can be provided, and they may be also interested in Celtic 221, The Celtic Languages: A Linguistic Introduction.
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Celtic languages are today spoken primarily in western Britain, Brittany, Ireland and Scotland, but originally they were spoken across the whole of western Europe before the spread of the Roman Empire. This course explores the sources for the Celtic languages, their Indo-European origins, and their historical development from the earliest evidence through to the modern languages. After a survey of the different types of evidence available to us and an overview of their development, we consider the phonology, morphology, and syntax of the different languages with a focus on the historical development of the languages. The course will be of interest both to Celticists and to those interested in historical linguistics, especially the development of the Indo-European languages. The course will be accessible to those who have not yet learnt a Celtic language, but Welsh 225a, Medieval Welsh Language and Literature, can provide a useful starting point.
‘From Manuscripts to Book’ will begin with a broad survey of the history, theory and methodologies of textual criticism and in its origins in the editing of classical and biblical texts before moving on to consider their application to medieval texts. There are probably more texts preserved in medieval and early modern manuscripts written in Celtic languages and Latin from the Celtic-speaking world that have never been edited than for any other literary culture in the western world. In addition to acquiring the theoretical and methodological underpinnings, the students will gain practical expertise in editing passages of texts in different genres, ranging from single-manuscript editions to those where multiple manuscripts are involved. While the course is intended primarily for graduate students in Celtic and the focus will be primarily medieval and early-modern, editing of modern texts will also be considered. Although aimed at Celticists, other interested students with adjacent interests (e.g. in Latin) are welcome to attend.
We will study sacrifice in these religions through their sacred texts and images, including in ancient India (Vedic) and later Hinduism and Buddhism; ancient Greece and Rome; the Abrahamic traditions (ancient Israelite and later Judaism; Christianity, and Islam); and ancient Mesoamerica (Mayan and Aztec). Through selected recent writing in philosophy, theology, and social psychology, as well as poetry and film, we will also consider the value and persistence of sacrifice. Why do laboratory scientists still use the term for animal subjects? Should war be considered sacrifice? Is sacrifice still an ideal? As a motivation, is it as powerful as self-interest?
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In this class, we will seek ways to mend our relationship to the earth. To prepare ourselves, we will study the stories, values, assumptions, and commitments that have been drivers of climate change and other environmental challenges. On the basis of this study, we will explore the potential for imaginative cultural work to foster a better future. Week-to-week, faculty guests from across Harvard will introduce us to perspectives and methods from an array of fields, including history, literature, music, design, art, philosophy, and religion. As the semester unfolds, we will use what we learn in these sessions to refine our understanding of the contradictory narratives, competing values, human frailties, and historical blind spots that have drawn us into our current environmental predicaments. From this foundation, we will imagine how cultural work might help extricate humanity from these predicaments and put us on a better path.
This is a course on history and methods. We will trace how the understanding of what it means to compare has changed through time and space. We will examine the sociopolitical roots of the discipline and think together with the intellectuals who shaped its different stages. To tell the stories of the discipline is, of course, also to inquire into its methods. We will experiment with different analytical modes, and see how they allow us to interact with literary texts. And we will explore theoretical and critical possibilities of both grounding and expanding our readings.
How to tell a story? How do writers discover character, imagine worlds, and shape narrative time? This open-enrollment creative writing course will focus on the cornerstones of storytelling. We will move through an expansive reading list-for there is no writing without reading-designed to showcase the many different shapes a story can take. Ask any writer why they became a writer, and they'll tell you that it's because they read. (Octavia Butler, who came from a poor family, once said that she became a writer because she had access to public libraries. Books, in other words; they showed her what was possible.) These conversations about “reading like a writer” will, in turn, inform the creative work you generate this semester: you will write your own stories, exploring different styles and literary techniques. You can expect to leave the course with a portfolio of creative work.
In the second half of the class, divided into two equal segments of 55 minutes each, we will be workshopping the writing of two students. To this end, every week two students will hand in something they have written, to the tune of 2,500-5,000 words, to me and to everyone in the group, ideally one week before their turn. At our first meeting, I will circulate a rota for you to put down your names and walk you through the syllabus, the aims and objectives of the course, workshop rules, expectations, requirements etc. For our first workshopping session, two students should hand in work five to seven days before. Our goal is for each of you to have two turns, and approximately 5-10,000 words of your work critiqued, by the time semester ends. Copies of these writing samples will be returned to you at the end of each workshop with comments from me and from everyone in class. You are also expected to hand in to me the letters that you write to your peers, giving feedback on their work; 25% of your grade depends on this (see ‘Course policies, assignments, grading’ document. Work submitted must be single-sided, double-spaced, paginated and, ideally, bearing a title. It must have your name on it and, on the top right-hand corner of the first page, my name and ‘Advanced Fiction, Spring 2026’.
What is Language? Is language “a uniquely human gift”? Is it central to the human experience, as many have suggested? Why do some writers say that Language is what “makes us human?” Do other animals have Language? Do AI models “know a language”? What does it even mean to ask questions like these? Do languages vary from one another without limit? Or is there an underlying common core beneath the surface diversity? How similar are languages across modalities (signed/spoken)? Do the languages we know determine the thoughts we can think? Do we think (only) in language? Are there right and wrong ways of speaking? Who decides? What’s the difference between a language and a dialect? Where do our words come from? It’s said that more than half of the world’s languages and maybe as many as 90% are “endangered” and may no longer be spoken by the end of the century. Are they “unsuited to the modern world”’ or are other factors at play? Are some languages more logical than others? Students in this course will be exposed to classical and new questions about language, and will gain practical skills in linguistic analysis along with an appreciation of how one can approach these questions analytically. Our aim is not to present answers, but to foster critical thinking in order to understand on the one hand what such questions mean, and on the other, how one might approach them and why various answers have been given from a diversity of perspectives from Linguistics, Philosophy, Languages and Literatures, Psychology, Computer Science, Anthropology, and related fields in the humanities and sciences. This course can also be used to satisfy any introductory prerequisites for more advanced coursework in Linguistics, and the distributional requirement in Arts & Humanities.
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Korean 150a is an advanced course in reading and translating modern Korean for students who possess advanced level proficiency of Korean. This course focuses on developing practical skills through reading and translation of texts and media from various genres (e.g., literature, webtoons, manuals, academic writing, film, entertainment shows). Students will also compare their works with existing published translations when available and examine how different translation choices shape meaning and style. In addition, the course introduces key translation theories and emphasizes their informed application to actual translation tasks. Translation will be both directions (Korean to English and English to Korean), all theoretical readings will be in English.
In this intermediate-level language course, you will explore social justice issues related to education, labor, environment and sustainability, race, gender, migration, among other topics of relevance in Lusophone countries nowadays. You will engage with a range of texts (e.g. written, audiovisual, visual) from different sources (e.g., social media, Youtube, TV, literature) to build vocabulary and review and refine various grammatical structures. You will also build on oral, written, and intercultural competences through communicative activities and interactive discussions with Portuguese-speaking guests and improve your linguistic skills in real contexts (via Teletandem). By the end of this class, you will have further developed your linguistic and culture competence, and will have deepened your understanding of social justice issues that have impacted the lives of Portuguese-speaking communities around the world.
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This course presents a diverse set of literary and cultural materials that will help understand Spain’s frequently contested Modernity. The guiding topic of discussion will be the conflicting definitions of Spanish national identity from the 18th to the 21stcenturies. Materials include short stories, philosophical and political essays, travelers’ letters, memoirs, journals, travelogues, films and poems.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken pass/fail. This course can be used to fulfill the Language & Literature distribution requirement for the undergraduate secondary field in Medieval Studies. It also can be used to satisfy the distribution requirements for the graduate secondary field in Medieval Studies.
A two-term continuation of the study of Thai at the intermediate level. Students build on acquired proficiency at the elementary level (or its equivalent) towards achieving more fluency in reading, speaking, writing, and listening comprehension of standard Thai, as well as in cultural-social skills. Introduces new vocabulary and grammar through communicative tasks and text readings, mainly using the situational-communicative methodology.
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Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. Please contact the department to learn more. First Meeting times will be posted on the Department of South Asian Studies' website in shortly before the term begins: sas.fas.harvard.edu
Not open to auditors. Cannot be taken Pass/Fail. Languages in the tutorial program are offered when there is demonstrated curricular or academic need on the part of the student, and when suitable instruction can be arranged. Please contact the department to learn more. First Meeting times will be posted on the Department of South Asian Studies' website in shortly before the term begins: sas.fas.harvard.edu
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In recent decades, specialists across a range of subfields have richly explored meaning-making with past in modes apart from the writing of history, including the importance of gaps, silences, and omissions. Most of this discussion, however, has focused on modernity. This seminar explores ancient examples from across Eurasia. We will discuss the theorization of memory and forgetting within Memory Studies, thus, but also engage Jewish, Roman, Christian, Chinese, Buddhist, and other sources.
This course provides a broad overview of the Roman world through the physical traces of its past-its sites, architecture, art, and objects-from Rome's foundation in the Iron Age (8th c. BCE) to the age of Constantine (4th c. CE). It offers knowledge about core categories of archaeological artifacts and remains within their physical setting and within the context of Roman history, culture, and society. Topics addressed will include the development of Roman cities, rural landscapes, engineering, the army, domestic life, slavery, and more. Within each of the topics we will also address issues of methods, theoretical approaches, and problems of current archaeological research on the Roman world. We will make use of the latest data from excavations across the Roman empire to trace how our understanding of the Roman world has changed over time and how it still informs our understanding of the present.
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Statues in marble and bronze count among the most prominent artworks that survived from Greek and Roman antiquity. Since the first discoveries of classical sculptures in the Renaissance, ancient statues not only served as paragons for the perfect, idealized representation of the human body, they also largely coined the conventions of the visual appearance and materiality of contemporary sculpture: the whiteness of marble and the dark surface of bronze became the standards of statuary representation in modern art, and that didn’t change until very recently, despite the fact that the original polychromy of ancient sculpture was discovered already in the 18th century and had been widely discussed throughout the 19th century. It is only in recent years that we learn through new investigation methods about the color traces of classical sculptures and are able to reconstruct their original polychromy.
Discussion and presentations on epigrams of the Greek Anthology, chiefly those of the Hellenistic period (3rd c. to 1st c. BCE), with reception in Catullus, Horace, Martial, Latin Anthology; embedding in more capacious genres; in Greek epigram of the imperial, late antique and Byzantine periods; in humanist poets of the Renaissance and early modern periods (Poliziano, Florent Chrétien, Pontano, Marullo); English poetry of the 17th c. (Donne, Jonson, Herbert, Marvell, Milton); the Modernists to the Beats (Pound, Eliot, H.D., Cavafy, Edgar Lee Masters, Kenneth Rexroth); reception in translation, all languages.
This seminar will focus on the formal structures of the epic genre. Through a comparative approach, we will study the narrative, stylistic and linguistic components of the epic genre across the Greco-Roman epic tradition. Formulae, sacrifices, arming scenes, combat and death, catalogues, storms, and messenger scenes are some examples of recurrent epic structures. What can the handling of these mundane elements of the epic genre tell us about each poet’s narrative approach and poetics? What flexibility for innovation is created by the fixity of these structures? What, if any, is the ideology of epic forms and how does it evolve? A comparative study of Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid will be used as a point of departure for the study of each device. Class participants will be asked to adopt one other epic work (e.g. Odyssey ; Apollonius of Rhodes, Argonautica ; Ovid, Metamorphoses; Quintus of Smyrna, Posthomerica , etc.) and become class experts over the course of the semester. Scholarship on ancient epic will be read side-by-side with modern theoretical work on epic narrative, time and space.
This course brings together ancient Greek art and literature to explore how connections between the human body and material objects were imagined and represented in antiquity. Drawing on statues, ceramics, metalwork, and other artifacts alongside a range of literary texts, including Homeric epic, Pindar’s victory odes, Athenian drama, and medical writings, we will examine how ideas about the body and its material dimensions emerged in social contexts such as sanctuaries, drinking parties, and gravesites.
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Korean 140b is the second half of fourth-year Korean which is designed to enhance students’ language abilities beyond the high-intermediate level in reading, speaking, and writing in order to begin understanding the social, cultural, and historical issues of contemporary Korea. Hence, the aim of the course includes (i) comprehending authentic materials from a wide variety of topics and genres from contemporary Korean literature, movies, and dramas, (ii) understanding the essential points of oral and written discourses that are linguistically complex, (iii) discussing concrete topics relating to major issues of contemporary Korean society and culture through supporting opinions, refutations, hypotheses, and detailed explanations of ideas, and (iv) writing about a variety of topics in Korean culture and society in detail with significant accuracy in grammar and structure.
Korean 120b is the second half of the intermediate course and the continuation of Korean 120a. This course is designed for students who have completed Korean 120a or have demonstrated equivalent proficiency. The goal of this course is to increase students’ ability to communicate in Korean in a wide range of daily life situations, and the course places equal focus on expanding and consolidating students’ fundamental structural knowledge of Korean. Students are introduced to reading and listening materials, of increasing complexity, on a variety of topics in modern Korean society and culture.
This intensive beginning class is for students with no previous formal training in Spanish, but with competence in at least one language other than English. In this class, students explore a host of social, cultural, and environmental issues that have historically impacted the lives and livelihoods of local, national, and foreign Spanish-speaking communities. Throughout the semester, students interact constantly with instructors, peers, and native Spanish speakers around the world as they explore culturally and linguistically rich content. Through discussions and critical analyses of authentic multimodal texts (e.g., written, audiovisual, visual) from many different sources (e.g., social media, newspapers), students develop a wide array of linguistic functions, such as the ability to make detailed descriptions or to narrate in different time frames. By the end of this class, students a) will have significantly advanced their linguistic competence, and b) will have deepened their understanding of the cultures and worldviews of Spanish-speaking communities in the United States, Latin America, and Spain.
An exploration of German audio media from early radio plays and radio art ( Hörspiel, Radiokunst ) to contemporary media. The course cultivates critical listening skills through engagement with a broad range of genres spanning the early 1920s to the present-from traditional radio dramas and crime series to experimental sound art and podcasts. In dialogue with key theoretical approaches to radio and sound, we will examine the relationship between audio and written texts, analyze the linguistic and stylistic features of scriptwriting, and gain insight into production processes and methods. The course culminates in a creative project: the production of an original radio play or podcast.
This course examines German Romanticism as a set of collective intellectual practices: a sustained, contentious experiment in thinking (and sometimes loving) together. We begin with the Romantic fragment and theory of irony as a social and formal framework, then trace how the central problem of German Idealism -- the fracture between self and world -- was answered differently depending on who was doing the answering and through what medium. Around the vibrant university town of Jena, Novalis and Hölderlin responded to the philosopher Fichte's notion of a perpetually striving, creative subject of self-invention - a view of the self still very much with us today. Concurrently, Goethe and Karoline von Günderrode responded in poetry to Schelling's notion of nature as a living, free agent of self-production. Alongside these philosophical confrontations, we will examine Romanticism's collective publication projects ( Symphilosophie ) and its public influence campaigns, including intellectual journals (Schlegel's Athenäum vs. Schiller's Die Horen ) and the transcription of oral folk traditions of the fairy tale ( Märchen ) and song ( Lied ), which generated new genres such as the artistic fairy tale ( Kunstmärchen ). Finally, we will attend to the ways in which Romanticism's early focus on the philosophical 'Absolute' shifts toward a more religious, neomedieval register in late Romantic works. Thematic foci include: the fragment and Romantic irony; philosophical style and its publics; the dialectic of subject and nature; folk tradition and national identity; and the discovery of yearning, dreams, and the uncanny as Romanticism's contribution to psychology.
A complete second-year course in one term for students with basic knowledge of German. Focus on enhancing students' communicative competencies in all four skill areas. Introduction to various cultural topics of the German-speaking countries through the use of literary and non-literary texts, current news, and contemporary film.
This course proposes to shift our perspective from land to sea and to read the latter instead as archive and as history-making site. We will consider the ocean as an inventory of colonial and neocolonial fictions as well as a repository for histories of migratory fluxes (forced and coerced, i.e. slavery, indenture, blackbirding, current migrant crises), militarization and nuclearizaton, and climate crises. We will also explore the ocean’s potential for liberatory aesthetics and decolonial epistemologies. In brief, we will be reading from an oceanic perspective. Primary readings will include works by Maryse Condé, Édouard Glissant, Shenaz Patel, Kama La Mackerel, Nathacha Appanah, Khal Torabully, Chantal Spitz, Titaua Peu, Amitav Ghosh, NourbeSe Philip and Rita Indiana. These will be supplemented with secondary materials such as documentary films, colonial travel narratives, military and diplomatic cables, theoretical texts, and public essays.
This intensive Beginning French course provides an accelerated introduction to Beginning French with intensive work on interpersonal communication and interpreting and producing language in written and oral forms. Students explore diverse facets of Parisian life through the interpretation and exploration of photos, art, and film and through interactions with native French speakers. Students learn to speak and write in the past, present, and future, make descriptions, ask questions, make comparisons, accept and refuse invitations, give advice, and express hypothetical situations, emotions, and opinions.
French 16 offers an introduction to reading and translating academic French texts for students who require a basic knowledge of French for research purposes. The course presents vocabulary and the principal structures of French grammar in a systematic and coherent order. The course begins with simple texts and advertisements, then moves to academic texts with more complex structures, and ends with the translation and analysis of literary works and philosophical texts. Students discuss the complexities of translation, consider what makes a "good translation," and experiment thoughtfully with AI tools. Course assignments are discipline-specific to accommodate students’ research needs.
What is the place of the human within nature? How are cultural concepts of what is ‘natural’ or ‘artificial’ reflected in and shaped by texts from different periods? Where do our ideas about ecology and climate today have their roots? How can a text, or a film, be ‘ecological’? In this course, we will investigate a range of literary, critical, and filmic texts from across a wide timespan, exploring the diversity but also sometimes surprising continuity of thought across times and cultures. We will read closely, among other eco-criticism, Timothy Morton’s Dark Ecology (2016), approaching their pragmatic and anti-purist ecological model critically, in comparison with other critical and textual formulations of what it means to be ‘ecological’. In medieval and early modern texts, as in contemporary film and critical writing, we will explore ecology as a formal and textural property as much as (or even rather than) a theme or issue.
Introduction to Uyghur, the Turkic language spoken in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and throughout Central Asia. This class is for students who have little or no previous knowledge of Uyghur. The course will introduce the basic letters and sounds of the Perso-Arabic based Uyghur script. In addition to the script, the students will gain some fundamental knowledge of the grammar and develop preliminary conversation skills. All four areas of skill: reading, writing, listening and speaking will be emphasized through lectures, drills, and use of media to facilitate basic language acquisition.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
We carry cameras in our pockets every day yet seldom pause to consider what it means to encounter the world through their lens. We accumulate moving images into vast, often unseen personal archives, hidden away in clouds, but rarely do we return to them to examine the forms of meaning and lived experience they produce. Documentary cinema offers a way to re-engage with this material: to explore the world through film, attune ourselves to the unpredictability of reality, translate it into images and sounds, and shape those elements into a subjective cinematographic experience we can share with others. This practice-based seminar introduces students to the forms, techniques, concepts, and materials of nonfiction filmmaking.
This graduate-level studio class is for advanced students working on a long-term project who wish to develop their studio and moving image practices in a dedicated studio space. The course is centered around critique and shared readings, equipment and materials workshops, and studio visits with occasional visiting artists and filmmakers.
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In this first-year seminar, students are invited to take what might be considered mere entertainment very seriously, closely reading texts of traditional stories in tandem with critically viewing animation that draws its inspiration from those stories. For a final assignment, each student will be called upon to choose some animation (a short or a clip from a feature-length film) to share with the rest of the seminar, to provide some background for it, and to lead a discussion of the animation in light of what else we will have seen, learned, and said. While the instructor’s contribution to the seminar will primarily focus on animation from 1900 to 1960, students, when choosing which sample of animation to share will be welcome to present later or contemporary examples of the cartooning art-including perhaps even their own.
In this course, students will develop and refine their Irish-language skills through the study of poetry from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Together, we will explore a dynamic period in Irish literary history, from the late seventeenth century, when Irish was losing its place as a language of prestige, to the burgeoning Gaelic Revival of the late nineteenth century. Along the way, students will encounter a rich range of voices and experiences as they read poems shaped by political upheaval, social change, and cultural renewal. Topics range from protest, violence, censorship, gender and racial politics to family, love, and loyalty.
As the title announces, the seminar emphasizes the loves of two extraordinary individuals. The theme encompasses the immense and mystifying spectrum of this feeling, including intense affections within a romantic couple, deep but differing bonds between individual believers and their God, passions that folks feel for vocations and avocations, and other types of pleasure also. It probes central issues of individuality and the power of institutions. We will explore who Abelard and Heloise were as persons and as a couple (before and after his castration), what they reveal about their now-distant days, and what they can help us to perceive about our own selves and moment in history. They taught each other much and can teach us nowadays too. Does human nature change? Are human beings today unique? Should we be as open to the inspiration of people from the past as from other cultures today?
In this graduate seminar, we will carefully read and study Plato’s dialogue on knowledge ( epistême ), the Theaetetus . Plato’s Theaetetus is a foundational text of epistemology, and it had enormous influence on the development of Stoicism, ancient skepticism and Platonism, as well as on 20th-century philosophers like Gettier, Sellars and Wittgenstein. Is truth relative? Is knowledge sense-perception or empirical? Is it true belief or true belief together with an account justifying what is believed? Approaching the dialogue on its own terms, we will consider these and other questions with the help of contemporary and ancient scholarship.
Aims at further development of skills in speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing. Selected readings in prose (literary and journalistic), poetry, folksongs, modern music, and theater serve as an introduction to aspects of modern Greek literature and culture. The course is conducted in Greek. Grammar is reviewed in the context of readings.
Aims at further development of skills in speaking, comprehension, reading, and writing. Selected readings in prose (literary and journalistic), poetry, folksongs, modern music, and theater serve as an introduction to aspects of modern Greek literature and culture. The course is conducted in Greek. Grammar is reviewed in the context of readings.
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This course is designed for students who possess an intermediate level in Modern Greek. It aims at further development of reading and listening comprehension as well as oral and written expression. The students will expand their vocabulary in thematic areas, such as traveling, leisure activities, education, employment, and technology. The course will complete the fundamental aspects of Greek grammar by covering advanced grammatical phenomena, such as the passive voice, subordinate clauses, and participles. At the same time, the students will delve deeper into Modern Greek culture by exploring various cultural media, including literature, film, and music.
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This course will cover the history of ancient Greece from the Bronze Age Minoan and Mycenaean palace civilizations to the Roman conquest of the East Mediterranean. Attention will be paid to the major political, social, economic, and cultural transformations, all set within their Mediterranean and west Asian environments. Students will explore the wide variety of textual sources (in translation) and archaeological evidence out of which historians seek to understand ancient Greece.
This course is an introduction to the study of Greco-Roman mythology. Our primary goal will be to familiarize ourselves with some of the core texts that form this tradition. As we become "mythologically literate" in this extended universe, we will also pursue our second goal, surveying how modern readers have approached and responded to these myths. We will consider how the same set of myths can mean radically different things to different people in different periods, and how they have been appropriated to speak to contemporary concerns. At the same time, we will be looking for commonalities across the different instantiations of these myths, as we attempt to answer the more general questions, "What is myth?" and "What does myth mean to us today?"
This course provides a broad overview of the Roman world through the physical traces of its past-its sites, architecture, art, and objects-from Rome’s foundation in the Iron Age (8th c. BCE) to the age of Constantine (4th c. CE). It offers knowledge about core categories of archaeological artifacts and remains within their physical setting and within the context of Roman history, culture, and society. Topics addressed will include the development of Roman cities, rural landscapes, engineering, the army, domestic life, slavery, and more. Within each of the topics we will also address issues of methods, theoretical approaches, and problems of current archaeological research on the Roman world. We will make use of the latest data from excavations across the Roman empire to trace how our understanding of the Roman world has changed over time and how it still informs our understanding of the present.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This course introduces a range of Manchu-, Chinese-, and Western-language materials used for research in Manchu studies, both pre- and post-conquest periods. The goal is to become familiar with the types of sources available for research in Manchu studies, in particular those available in the Harvard-Yenching library, in order to produce a seminar paper on a subject of individual interest. Reading ability in Manchu and literary Chinese is required.
Advanced language practice through the reading and analysis of authentic academic texts in humanities disciplines (e.g., art, literature, cinematic studies). May be offered independently in Chinese, or linked with an English-language content course. Specific content varies by year.
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The seminar will investigate selected events in Korean history to map the interaction between historical writing and politics: the origins of Korea; Korean territory and the Korean people; cultural contacts with China and Japan and indigenization; social and regional marginalization and discrimination; Confucian transformation of Chosŏn Korea and its legacy in contemporary Korean culture; the legacy of pre-World War II Japanese occupation; and the contending history of popular movements and religion. Why have some historians pictured Korea as a Japanese colony, a miniature replica of China, or a local variant of Chinese civilization?
Examines the cultural implications of the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). We will examine how art was violent towards people and how violence was turned into an art. We will also consider the link between violence, trauma, memory and writing. Materials include memoir, fiction, essay, "revolutionary Peking Opera," and film.
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Continuation of Vietnamese BA. Students strengthen their ability to communicate in predictable, everyday contexts through authentic, multimodal materials and real-world tasks. Focus is on expanding vocabulary and grammar while building confidence in spoken and written Vietnamese.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Korean 123xb is a continuation of Korean Bx and is for those who have received significant exposure to Korean language and culture and thus have some listening and speaking skills. It is an accelerated course covering important grammatical structures and materials from Intermediate Korean (120a and 120b) for the purpose of providing tools to build upon the basic foundation of student’s Korean language ability. Hence, this class is designed to meet the linguisitic needs that are unique to heritage language students to (i) increase accuracy in grammar, (ii) develop basic reading writing skills, and (iii) expand vocabulary through introduction of Chinese characters.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
This calendar view is meant for planning and visualizing a typical weekly schedule with the selected classes. You can use the Subscribe or Download buttons to add your actual day-to-day schedule to applications such as Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, and Outlook.
Source: Harvard University's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 61
