The Course Catalog

Gulliver’s Travels Gulliver’s Travels

Gulliver’s Travels (1727) is Jonathan Swift’s wildly imaginative account of Lemuel Gulliver’s journey through fantastical lands. It is funny, moving and profound, a masterful satire that verges into...

How To Read Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology How To Read Ancient Greek Art and Archaeology

Basic Program students learn how to read texts closely, carefully, and systematically. Many of these texts are by ancient Greeks. Reading is also a good name for looking at ancient Greek material...

Indo-Iranians from Herodotus Indo-Iranians from Herodotus

Intended as a prologue to the Rigveda in Asian Classics: week 1 Persian religion and culture, week 2 Gathas, week 3 Scythian myth and culture; Thracians (also from Thucydides).

Introducing the Art and Thought of Hildegard of Bingen Introducing the Art and Thought of Hildegard of Bingen

Called the Sybil of the Rhine for her prophetic visions, Hildegard of Bingen towers as great creative genius: a visionary, visual and musical artist, a practicing physician and naturalist, formidable...

Introduction to Hume:
The Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and the Principles of Morality Introduction to Hume:
The Enquiries Concerning Human Understanding and the Principles of Morality

This class will take up the groundbreaking work of David Hume, specifically looking at the groundbreaking theories of understanding and morality that catalyzed Kant's career as an attempt to prove...

Introduction to Practicing Free Expression Introduction to Practicing Free Expression

Discourse rests at the nexus of academic inquiry, freedom of expression, and democratic participation.. The rigorous testing and refining of ideas necessary for pursuing knowledge and advancing...

Introduction to the Basic Program: How to Discuss Classic Texts Introduction to the Basic Program: How to Discuss Classic Texts

This course introduces students to the Basic Program practice of close reading and discussion. The text we will read closely and discuss is the U.S. Constitution. We will practice abandoning all our...

Introduction to the Basic Program: How to Read Classic Texts Introduction to the Basic Program: How to Read Classic Texts

This course is intended to address some of the more persistent and daunting difficulties we face when beginning to read classic texts of the Western cultural tradition.

We will begin from...

James Baldwin James Baldwin

In this survey of American author James Baldwin, we will look critically at the relationship between Baldwin’s corpus and the various roles Baldwin adopted, was assigned, or was posthumously given. We...

James Joyce's Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man James Joyce's Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

James Joyce's collection of short stories, Dubliners, and his semi-autobiographical first novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, will serve us as an introduction to a three-quarter treatment...