HUMS 121b / ANTH 1200 / NELC 1200b, Unequal: Dynamics of Power and Social Hierarchy in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia  Gojko Barjamovic

The course "Unequal" examines the historical roots of intolerance, slavery, and imperialism, emphasizing how our perceptions of history shape contemporary beliefs and policies. It challenges the notion that inequality is an inevitable outcome of societal complexity, positing that historical narratives often frame progress and freedom while obscuring themes of inequality. By investigating early human history, the course aims to unpack the concepts of identity, possession, value, freedom, and power, exploring their impact on modern society. Rather than focusing on specific literature or chronological period, "Unequal" centers around critical questions about human culture. The course employs innovative experimental lab assignments, allowing students to engage with the past creatively, such as cooking ancient recipes, brewing beer, and creating virtual museum exhibits. This interdisciplinary approach encourages a deeper understanding of the historical context that informs present-day issues, inviting students to rethink common narratives and assumptions about equality and progress. Ultimately, the course aims to foster critical thinking about the interplay between history and contemporary society.  HU, SO  0 Course cr
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* HUMS 0204a / ITAL 0030a, Six Global Perspectives on Knights  Alessandro Giammei

What do Batman (the Dark Knight) and Orlando (Charlemagne’s wise paladin) have in common? What is the thread that connects the Jedi knights of Star Wars and those that sat around king Arthur’s round table? How did medieval history and Renaissance poetry inform the expanded universes of superhero movies and fantasy literature, along with the inexhaustible fan-fiction that further extends and queers them? Chivalry, as a code of conduct and a network of symbols, inspired some of the most entertaining stories of the so-called Western canon, blurring the divide between high and popular culture. It offered storytellers (and nerds) of all ages a set of norms to question, bend, and break—especially in terms of gender. It challenged the very format of books, re-defining for good concepts like literary irony, seriality, and inter-mediality. This seminar proposes six pretty good trans-historical archetipes of fictional knights, combining iconic figures such as Marvel’s Iron Man and Italo Calvino’s Agilulfo, Ludovico Ariosto’s Bradamante and Game of Thrones’ Brienne of Tarth, Don Quixote and the Mandalorian. By analyzing together their oaths, weapons, armors, and destinies we aim to develop reading and writing skills to tackle any text, from epic and scholarship to TV-shows and comic-books. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Students enroll concurrently with HUMS 0299, Six Global Perspectives Lab.  WR, HU  0 Course cr
TTh 4pm-5:15pm

* HUMS 0220a / ENGL 0820a, Six Global Perspectives on Biography  Ernest Mitchell

This course focuses on the humanities through an intensive study of transatlantic biographers. We examine six roles biographers can play: the archivalist, the contemporary, the fictionalizer, the listener, the miniaturist, and the systematizer. Our readings range widely over cultures, places, and times: from Senegalese griots to the Lives of Mary Shelley; from Gertrude Stein’s “autobiographies” to the microbiographies of Jorge Luis Borges; from fragments by Walter Benjamin to Daphne Brooks’ liner notes on Beyoncé. We devote sustained attention to developing writing skills and introduce students to the special collections, art galleries, and rare books libraries of Yale. Friday sessions alternate between writing workshops and field trips to Yale collections. This course is part of the "Six Pretty Good Ideas" program. Enrollment limited to first-year students. Students enroll concurrently with HUMS 0299, Six Global Perspectives Lab.  WR, HU  0 Course cr
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

* HUMS 0245a / NELC 0090a, Six Global Perspectives on Evil: Murder, Law, and True Crime in History  Staff

Harem conspiracies, kings’ assassinations, self-defense killings, witch hunts, and serial murderers. The history of murder, violence, and criminal investigation is as old as humankind. Yet, crime is not always considered evil, nor is evil always associated with crime. In this course, we discuss how the way evil was perceived and crime was punished has changed throughout history. From mythical accounts of murders, to real records of trials of humans, animals, and even objects accused of homicide or witchcraft, we analyze how aspects of social status or gender played a role in shaping punishment across Eastern and Western civilizations. We compare codified-law civilizations to those in which custom, social pressure, and community ethics determined correct behavior. Four historical cold cases with accompanying evidence are presented for in-class debate, and… perhaps students may be able to help solve an old mystery! At the end of the semester, we recreate historical trials using the same crime, evidence, and participants, but following the law and procedures of each one of the historical settings covered in this course. Will the verdict and sentence be any different? Friday sessions alternate between writing workshops and field trips to Yale collections.  Enrollment limited to first-year students. Students enroll concurrently with HUMS 0299, Six Global Perspectives Lab.  WR, HU  RP  1½ Course cr
MW 11:35am-12:50pm

* HUMS 0290a / CPLT 0280a, Medicine and the Humanities: Certainty and Unknowing  Matthew Morrison

Sherwin Nuland often referred to medicine as “the Uncertain Art.” In this course, we address the role of uncertainty in medicine, and the role that narrative plays in capturing that uncertainty. We focus our efforts on major authors and texts that define the modern medical humanities, with primary readings by Mikhail Bulgakov, Henry Marsh, Atul Gawande, and Lisa Sanders. Other topics include the philosophy of science (with a focus on Karl Popper), rationalism and romanticism (William James), and epistemology and scientism (Wittgenstein). Enrollment limited to first-year students.   HU
T 3:30pm-5:20pm

* HUMS 0320b / AMST 0029b / AMST 029 / ENGL 0729b, Henry Thoreau  Michael Warner

Henry Thoreau played a critical role in the development of environmentalism, American prose, civil rights, and the politics of protest. We read his writing in depth, and with care, understanding it both in its historical context and in its relation to present concerns of democracy and climate change. We read his published writing and parts of the journal, as well as biographical and contextual material. The class makes a field trip to Walden Pond and Concord, learning about climate change at Walden as revealed by Thoreau’s unparalleled documentation of his biotic surroundings. Student's consider Thoreau’s place in current debates about the environment and politics, and are encouraged to make connection with those debates in a final paper. Previously ENGL 029. Enrollment limited to first-year students.  HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* HUMS 0350a / HIST 0125 / HUMS 035 / PLSC 0243a, The American Death Penalty  Lincoln Caplan

This first-year seminar focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 44-year experiment in regulating the American death penalty. The aims of the course are to have students learn about the workings and history of the system of capital punishment in the U.S, which is one of the most controversial elements of American criminal justice, and decide whether, in their view, the experiment is succeeding or failing—why and how. For students interested in the criminal justice system. Enrollment limited to first-year students.   SO
TTh 1pm-2:15pm

* HUMS 0360a / HIST 0623a / JDST 0035a / RLST 0035a, Jerusalem: Judaism, Christianity, Islam  Sarit Kattan Gribetz

The Old City of Jerusalem is just 0.35 square miles large, about half the size of Yale’s campus. Have you ever wondered what makes this tiny city so beloved to—and the object of continual strife for—Jews, Christians, and Muslims? Through engagement with a wide range of sources—including biblical lamentations, archeological excavations, qur’anic passages, exegetical materials, medieval pilgrim itineraries, legal documents, maps, poetry, art, architecture, and international political resolutions—students develop the historiographical tools and theoretical frameworks to study the history of one of the world’s most enduringly important and bitterly contested cities.  Students encounter persistent themes central to the identity of Jerusalem: geography and topography; exile, diaspora, and return; destruction and trauma; religious violence and war; practices of pilgrimage; social diversity; missionizing; the rise of nationalism; peace efforts; the ethics of storytelling; and the stakes of studying the past. Enrollment limited to first-year students.   HU  RP
MW 2:30pm-3:45pm

* HUMS 0410a / GMAN 0400a, The Top Ten: Best Books of the 21st Century  Sophie Schweiger

In 2025, The New York Times published a list of “The Best 100 Books of the 21st Century.”  We will not read all of them. Instead, we will ask what it means to rank literature in the first place, as our class takes a closer look at some the different measures by which books can be made subject to a ranking—for example: sales numbers, expert opinion, and critical acclaim, or success through translation and adaptation. We study the different ways of awarding book prizes and curating lists of literature. Additionally, we study the circumstances that lead to literary “hypes,” including Netflix adaptations, BookTok, and the author-as-celebrity. We read novels and excerpts of novels by some of the New York Times’ top-ranked authors, as well as by Nobel Prize laureates of recent years, and compare the different modes of selection and the benefits as well as biases inherent to the respective lists. We also look at currently circulating lists of “banned books” and the works of literature banned from official reading lists and syllabi to understand another aspect of the politics behind the curation of lists. We close our literary journey with a text by author Toni Morrison who, curiously, made all three lists. Enrollment limited to first-year students.  HU
TTh 11:35am-12:50pm

* HUMS 434b / CLCV 1381b / NELC 1300b, Mesopotamia's Literary Legacy  Kathryn Slanski

This seminar explores myth, epic, love poetry, and wisdom literature from the ancient Near East, ca. 3000–323 BCE, within its own cultural context and in dialogue with literature from ancient Greece and the Hebrew Bible, conduits by which the literary legacy of the ancient Near East has left its mark on the Western tradition.  HU
TTh 2:30pm-3:45pm