The Course Catalog

Each quarter, we offer lifelong learners access to more than 70 courses at the University of Chicago.

Click through on any course below to register online. For registration questions, please contact grahamregistrar@uchicago.edu  or call 773.702.7249.

Summer quarter courses are now open for registration below.

Day(s)
Great Performers
HUAS78077 Summer

The Great Performers and the Art of Interpretation The Great Performers and the Art of Interpretation

Why does the same piece of music sound so different when played by different performers? Why and how do Toscanini and Karajan, or Rubinstein and Horowitz project such different worlds of emotion and...

Apple with carved heart rate on it
MLAP 33350 Summer

The Normal and the Pathological: Sickness, Care, and Wellbeing Across Cultures The Normal and the Pathological: Sickness, Care, and Wellbeing Across Cultures

Taking its title from an important text by historian and philosopher of medicine Georges Canguilhem, this class considers how sickness, care, and wellbeing have been differently understood and...

Virgil and Ovid
HUAS80041 Summer

The Roman Epic: Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses The Roman Epic: Virgil's Aeneid and Ovid's Metamorphoses

Writing in times of change and conflict in the empire’s first century, Virgil and Ovid thought and spoke about their contemporary worlds by turning to Graeco-Roman myth, including the stories of...

Gravity's Rainbow
HUAS80039 Summer

Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow

In this monumental novel of 1973, heir to Moby-Dick, Ulysses, and To the Lighthouse, Pynchon envisions a world that has surrendered, in the late stages of the second world war, to eruptive cognitive...

Portrait of Tsar Nicholas II
MLAP 46400 Summer

Tsars, Soviets, and Putin: Modern Russia, 1860-present Tsars, Soviets, and Putin: Modern Russia, 1860-present

This course provides an overview of the history of Russia and its empires, told through original primary sources. Covering the period from 1860 to the present, we will examine the allure and...

Virginia Woolf's The Years
BASC80026 Summer

Virginia Woolf’s The Years Virginia Woolf’s The Years

In the follow up to her classic A Room of One's Own, Woolf's "Three Guineas" offers an ahead-of-its-time account of the impact of ideals of masculinity on society, by way of pondering how women might...

Virginia Woolf's Three Guineas
BASC80025 Summer

Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas Virginia Woolf’s Three Guineas

In this follow up to her classic A Room of One's Own, Woolf's "Three Guineas" offers an ahead-of-its-time account of the impact of ideals of masculinity on society, by way of pondering how women might...

School of Athens by Raphael
BASC70156 Summer

Western Civilization versus Ancient Greek Politics Western Civilization versus Ancient Greek Politics

There’s a tension running through the Western tradition—and the Basic Program four-year curriculum—about what to do with the ancient Greek idea of political freedom. Dust off your Herodotus, Plato...

Ghost Stories
BASC70196 Summer

What are Ghost Stories About? What are Ghost Stories About?

Well... ghosts. But what else? How do the presence of ghosts inflect the stories we tell about ourselves? This course approaches such questions through a close reading of classics in the ghost story...

The muse of poetry painted by Raphael
MLAP 32350 Autumn

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Poet? Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Poet?

Sad, but true. Many folks who enjoy reading fiction, drama, and memoirs feel considerably less comfortable with poetry. Our course will address this anxiety head on. Through close-textual analyses and...