History Online Courses for SF State Students
Found 72 listings, displaying 1-20
Today, finding happiness is about mindfulness and discovering your true self. You may have heard that happiness is found by looking within. Ancient Chinese philosophy challenges all of these modern assumptions. From Confucianism to Daoism, the philosophies developed over two thousand years ago...
In this course, we will explore a series of contemporary conflicts in different regions of the world with a special focus on identifying and analyzing the diverse and complex roles that religions play in both promoting and mitigating violence in each context. Students will learn a method for...
The study of religion is the study of a rich and fascinating dimension of human experience that includes but goes well beyond beliefs and ritual practices. In this religion course, learners explore case studies about how religions are internally diverse, how they evolve and change through time,...
This literature course explores how great writers refract their world and how their works are transformed when they intervene in our global cultural landscape today. No national literature has ever grown up in isolation from the cultures around it; from the earliest periods, great works of...
How do we read Shakespeare? Do his plays belong to the past, or the present? To a famed dramatic genius or to readers and audiences around the globe? What do his plays really mean? Moving between the world in which Shakespeare lived and the present day, this course will introduce different kinds...
This course aims to familiarize its audience with the evolution of life, culture, society, and politics in the Qatari peninsula from ancient to contemporary times. In this regard, it will focus on history, geography, archaeology, and culture. Its audience will gain an extensive understanding of...
Terrorism has gone from a persistent yet marginal security concern to one of the most important security problems of our day. There are few countries that do not suffer from some form of terrorism. Though many attempts at terrorism fail, some groups wage lengthy and bloody campaigns and, in...
When studying the Jewish Bible and other historical works, the physical attributes—the form of the writing, whether it be scroll, codex, or simply a printed page layout, in addition to the size and shape—determine how we read the book and understand its meaning. Whether you are interested in lit...
Join me for an introductory course on biblical archaeology of ancient Israel and Judah during the Iron Age (ca. 1200-586 BCE). In this course, we will use cutting-edge, inter-disciplinary archaeological research to explore the fascinating field of archaeology, the history of this era, and it's...
This course looks at the history of Italy, which dates back 150 years. The lessons in this course will explore the making of Italy, using a concrete or symbolically significant event for each period or problem. Our interpretation revolves around two apparently conflicting assumptions. On the one...
In China’s history, there has been a longstanding belief that being cultured and being moral are necessary for a person to participate in public life. We often think of China in political terms – and focus on the history of government – or in social terms – and study the role of the family...
We are living in a contentious time in history. Fundamental disagreements on critical policy, economic, and political issues make it essential to learn how to compose an effectiveargument and to analyze the arguments of others. This ability will help you engage in civil discourse and make needed...
This course shows the emergence of modern Tokyo through artist renderings of its neighborhoods, daily life and nightlife, nested between its recurring destruction by natural disasters and war. Students will learn about the tradition of the “100 views,” and through these composite depictions of...
In questo corso si discuterà della storia d'Italia, una vicenda che conta centocinquant'anni. Nelle lezioni, questa vicenda verrà affrontata partendo, ogni volta, da un avvenimento concretamente o simbolicamente significativo dei diversi periodi e problemi. Nel nostro viaggio, emergerà una po...
La nascita e lo sviluppo della letteratura latina furono profondamente condizionati da un lato dall'influenza della cultura greca con la quale i Romani entrarono in contatto a partire dal II sec. a. C. soprattutto per la loro politica espansionistica nel Mediterraneo e poi in Oriente; dall'altro...
In recent years, Tokyo became a global tourist destination as interest in the city increased in the lead-up to the planned 2020 Olympics. While the Olympic venues are concentrated in the city’s southwest and along the waterfront, Tokyo’s historical center and the roots of its urban culture are...
In the first act of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet , the Ghost of the dead King of Denmark appears to his son, setting off a chain of events that culminates in the play’s notoriously bloody finale. But how would this mysterious figure have been understood in Shakespeare’s time? Harvard profe...
In the first act of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice , the Jewish moneylender Shylock proposes a “merry sport” to the merchant Antonio: he will lend Antonio the money he needs if Antonio agrees to let Shylock take a pound of his flesh should he default. Shylock calls this contr...
In this course, we'll read William Shakespeare’s Othello and discuss the play from a variety of perspectives. The goal of the course is not to cover everything that has been written on Othello. Rather, it is to find a single point of entry to help us think about the play as a whole. Our entry p...
The Tale of Genji ( Genji Monogatari ) is a long-form narrative composed in Japan at the beginning of the eleventh century. It depicts relationships both harmonious and discordant among a wide cast of the men and women of the Heian court. These revolve around the many love affairs of the main...
