First Year Focus Classes
Click on each title for more information.
The Challenges of World Poverty
14.73
E. Duflo, D. Donaldson
Lecture: MW 1–2.30
Recitation: F1
This course is designed for students who are interested in the challenges posed by massive and persistent world poverty. More
The Supernatural in Music, Literature and Culture
21A.113J
C. Shadle, M. Fuller, J. Howe
Undergrad (Fall) HASS-D, Category 3 Communication Intensive HASS
(Same subject as 21L.013J, 21M.013J)
Prerequisites: None
Units: 3-0-9
Enter the HASS-D lottery to take this subject.
Explores the relationship between music and the supernatural, focusing on the social history and context of supernatural beliefs as reflected in key literary and musical works from 1600 to the present. More
Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies
21A.114J
T. DeFrantz, S. Alexandre, C. Capozzola
Undergrad (Fall) HASS-D, Category 4 Communication Intensive HASS
(Same subject as 24.912J, SP.417J, 21H.106J, 21L.008J, 21M.630J, 21W.741J)
Prerequisites: None
Units: 3-0-9
Enter the HASS-D lottery to take this subject.
An interdisciplinary survey of people of African descent that draws on the overlapping approaches of history, literature, anthropology, legal studies, media studies, performance, linguistics, and creative writing. More
How Culture Works
21A.109
M. Buyandelger, E. C. James
HASS-D, Category 4
Prerequisites: None
Units: 3-0-9
Introduces diverse meanings and uses of the concept of culture with historical and contemporary examples from scholarship and popular media around the globe. More
Globalization: The Good, the Bad and the In-Between
21F.076
M. Resnick, P. Tang
Undergrad (Fall) HASS-D, Category 4
Communication Intensive HASS
Prerequisites: None.
Coreq: 21F.171-175, 21F.181-185, 21F.371-374, 21F.471-474, 21F.571-576, 21F.771-774, or 21F.792
Units: 3-0-6
Enter the HASS-D lottery to take this subject.
Examines the cultural paradoxes of contemporary globalization. Studies the cultural, linguistic, social and political impact of globalization across international borders and on specific language communities. More
How to Stage a Revolution
21H.001
J. Ravel, C. Wilder, E. Wood
Undergrad (Fall) HASS-D, Category 5
Communication Intensive HASS
Prereq: None
Units: 3-0-9
Enter the HASS-D lottery to take this subject.
Explores fundamental questions about the causes and nature of revolutions by looking at how people overthrow their rulers and establish new governments. More
Empire: Introduction to Ancient and Medieval Studies
21H.007J
A.Bahr, W. Broadhead, E. Goldberg
Undergrad (Fall) HASS Elective
(Same subject as 21L.014J)
Prerequisites: None
Units: 3-0-9
Interdisciplinary investigation of three of the best-documented pre-modern empires: the Roman empire of Augustus, the Frankish empire of Charlemagne, and the English empire in the age of the Hundred Years War. More
The Art of the Probable
21L.017
A.Kibel, S. Raman
Undergrad (Spring) HASS-D, Category 2
Communication Intensive HASS
Prerequisites: None
Units: 3-0-9
Examines literary texts and films in relation to the history of the idea of probability. Traces the growing importance of probability both as a measure of the reliability of ideas or beliefs and also as a basic property of things and the world. More
Massachusetts Institute of Technology