Harvard University courses

What is a just society? What do we owe one another as citizens? What is a good life? These questions, long debated by philosophers, arise with special urgency at a time of pandemic and racial reckoning. The course explores these questions by considering how…

This course looks at a variety of intersections between psychology and the American criminal legal system, with a particular eye on issues related to power and privilege. Students are introduced to the stages and processes of the criminal legal system and…

This course is designed for students who wish to build upon the skills developed in EXPO S-25 in order to produce more advanced research and writing in the social sciences. The course is also appropriate for students who wish to review their research and…

We are entering a new era in which a fundamental understanding of developmental biology and regeneration plays a critical role. In this course, embryonic and adult stem cells in different organisms are examined in terms of their molecular, cellular, and…

This course introduces students to key concepts, actors, and events in the politics of China. The rise of China is one of the most important realities of the twenty-first century and has changed the world's economic, political, and military realities. Does…

This course examines critical issues in middle and high school mathematics education in the United States from a variety of perspectives. Questions addressed include: what are the goals of mathematics education at the middle and high school level? Why does…

Biochemical engineering harnesses living cells as miniature chemical reactors, enabling the production of designer molecules ranging from pharmaceuticals to plastics to biofuels. Live cells possess unique capabilities to manufacture complex chemical entities,…

Despite globalization, the nation-state is still a major actor in today's world. This course tries to understand why this is so by examining the role that nationalism plays in peoples' identities and the effects of globalization on nations and nation-states.…

Food and eating are not just necessary for life, they are the basis of culture. Through selection, ingestion, and digestion of food, we make the outside world a part of us. It is not surprising then that food and its associated practices have long nourished…

In this course, students work on real-world problems that do not have obvious solutions. As part of a project team, students are matched with a client that has a difficult challenge. The project team analyzes the challenge in the context of broader systems…

Harvard University presents "Personal Finance and Financial Well-Being," a meticulously designed course within the Emerging/Needs Review category. This course delves into essential financial strategies, offering students the tools to enhance their financial…

Indian Buddhism has inspired philosophers for almost 2500 years. Yet, relative to Euro-American philosophy, Buddhist philosophy has received little attention. In this course, we explore the rich traditions of Indian Buddhist philosophy. More specifically, we…

This course is designed for students interested in the challenges and controversies for corporate governance as it attempts to focus on global problems such as climate change; political uncertainties; environmental, social, and governance (ESG)…

Why are some cities and states richer than others? What drives people and businesses to cluster in certain places and not others? This course explores the economic forces that shape local outcomes, such as productivity, wages, housing, and inequality, and how…

What is populism, and how much of a threat is it to democracy? The recent rise of authoritarian-populism, across both long-established and developing democracies, has posed new challenges for good governance. This course explores the conditions for the rise…

This is an intensive workshop in the craft of writing short fiction. It is for writers who love to read short stories and want to make their own short stories come alive on the page. Students should arrive having read widely among past and contemporary…

How do we know how humans evolved? This course investigates the evidence and methods used to reconstruct human evolution. We review eight million years of evolutionary history, focusing on the origins of defining features of our species such as bipedalism,…

What do our ghost stories say and what do our beasts betray about us? Which witches bewitch us, which rumors consume us, and what sense can be made of what haunts us? Restless spirits, alien invaders, wicked witches, bloodthirsty vampires, legendary cryptids,…

A theoretical and practical introduction to the role of strategic communication and public relations in corporate, nonprofit, and political spheres. Includes analysis and practical application of the skills involved in building strategic communication…

There is widespread agreement that global and local food systems must be improved in order to promote long-term sustainability, but there is widespread disagreement about exactly what those changes should be. This course provides an overview of key approaches…

This course is a comprehensive survey of chemistry for the general student that emphasizes the principles underlying the formation and interaction of chemical substances: stoichiometry, states of matter, thermochemistry, atomic and molecular structure,…

This course aims to introduce students to a practical, hands-on approach to effective public speaking. Our focus is on developing a personal style of speaking that is confident, spontaneous, energetic, and vocally and physically expressive. Through exercises,…

This course provides an introductory survey of the field of finance. It examines the agents, instruments, and institutions that make up the financial system of the modern economy, such as bonds, the stock market, derivatives, and the money market. Along the…

The goal of this course is to develop skills for making corporate investment decisions and for analyzing risk. Topics include discounted cash flow and other valuation techniques; risk and return; capital asset pricing model; corporate capital structure and…

This course is a capstone for students earning a Master of Liberal Arts, sustainability degree. Course deliverables include a detailed, actionable, and measurable sustainability action plan (SAP), as well as a presentation to be given to the class and to…

This course is an introduction to electromagnetism, wave optics, and ray optics. Topics covered include electrostatics, circuits, magnetism, diffraction, interference, and image formation via reflection and refraction. This course has a laboratory component…

This course is about how to lift the veil of an insider's industry. Students learn how quantitative finance is applied in practice and utilized by the world's largest investment banks, asset management firms, hedge funds, pension plans, and insurance…

No one wants someone they love to starve or go without medicine or shelter, but one in ten people go hungry every day, a record-high number are homeless every night, and nearly three million children live in extreme poverty in the United States, one of the…

This course exposes the student to the basic principles of test construction and interpretation, including issues related to reliability and validity. Additionally, issues related to test administration, scoring, and reporting are explored, with emphasis…

This course examines how domestic and international legal institutions regulate the law of war, crimes against humanity, torture, and genocide, and the main legal theories that lawyers and judges use to address their violation. Students are introduced to the…

Harvard University presents an in-depth exploration of Start-Ups from the Perspective of Business and Intellectual Property Law, a pivotal course in the Emerging / Needs Review category. This program delves into the legal and business frameworks essential for…

The course examines the science of happiness and well-being through lenses of positive psychology, neuroscience, and organizational behavior. We translate findings from academic research on human flourishing into attitudes, behaviors, and practices that…

This course offers an in-depth overview of the management consulting industry and the skills required to succeed within it. Topics include the structure, conduct, and performance of the management consulting industry; firms in the industry and their…

This course is designed to foster a deep understanding of neurodiversity and equip students with the knowledge, skills, and tools to create inclusive and supportive environments for individuals with diverse neurological profiles. Students embark on a…

This course is designed for students with little or no prior instruction in ancient Greek who are committed to learning the language at rapid speed. Equivalent to the first two semesters of college-level instruction, it covers all basic grammar and vocabulary…

Speaking the language of modern mathematics requires fluency with the topics of this course: infinite series, integration, and differential equations. We model practical situations using integrals and differential equations. Students learn how to represent…

This course is designed to make students familiar with the fundamental concepts, methods, and ethics of conducting research in the field of psychopathology. Students gain an understanding of the research process, starting from the development of a research…

This course introduces students to the Arabic language. Emphasis is placed on building communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing), as well as on developing intercultural competence in relation to Arab cultures.

This course considers how culture shapes the economic aspects of our lives. That is, we seek to understand the economy not as a separate realm with its own special logic and structure but instead as embedded in the social relations, identities, and cultural…

This course examines the history of the form, including graphic novels and comic strips, and explores the building blocks necessary to create effective comics based upon personal experiences and research. Students are taught ways to access their writing and…

How would you choose the ideal worker out of 400 applicants? Is it possible to predict employee motivation? Are virtual teams more effective than in-person teams? Questions like these can be answered through the help of industrial and organizational (I/O)…

This course trains students in the skills of critically engaging the scholarly literature in their field of study. They learn how to assess the presuppositions, argumentation, methodology, evidence, and conclusions of scholarly writing in their discipline.…

Humankind faces tremendous challenges. Lives and livelihoods of civilians around the world are threatened by conflict, the health of individuals everywhere is at risk due to infectious diseases such as COVID-19, and our planet is threatened by the…

The main purpose of this course is to introduce students to the world of mathematical formalism, proof writing, and basic proof techniques (contraposition, contradiction, induction, direct proof, and exhaustive case work). This course aids students as they…

This course is designed for students who wish to acquire a precise reading knowledge of sophisticated German prose for research, study, and/or career purposes. The course focuses on grammar topics, parsing, and translation, for which texts from a variety of…

This course helps students develop academically strong, team-based capstone proposals. It is mandatory for candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, systems engineering, who wish to register for CSCI E-599c in the coming fall term. Students develop a capstone…

This course covers machine learning techniques that can be applied to the fields of economics and finance. The techniques covered in this course include multiple linear regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), ridge regression,…

In this course, students not only learn practical techniques for handling high-stakes deals and partnerships, but also practice using artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools to simulate real-world negotiation scenarios such as negotiating salaries, hiring…

In this course, students identify their core values, explore how to align them with daily actions, and apply the framework of design thinking to lead to meaningful change. They develop the skills to navigate ambiguity and complexity in problem-solving,…

This course immerses students in a single, real-world entrepreneurial challenge from a for-profit, nonprofit, or government organization. Across the course, students work directly with senior executives and relevant stakeholders—conducting interviews,…