<p>Are there any classes at Harvard that explore the entire western canon of literature and philosophy- ie from Homer to Woolf or something? I’m thinking of classes like the HUM Sequence at Princeton and the LitHum class in the core at Columbia, or Directed Studies at Yale. Is there a parallel at Harvard? I was looking at the course catalog and didn’t see one. Does anyone know anything like that? Thank you so much.</p>
<p>Harvard will launch its first Integrated Humanities course in 07-08 in response to the Integrated Life Sciences courses and the new life sciences concentrations. Peruse past articles of The Crimson: <a href=“http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512757[/url]”>http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=512757</a> is one.</p>
<p>Last year, James Russell offered a very intense two-part freshman seminar series exploring the literary canon.
Literature Humanities: The Foundation Texts of the West
<a href=“my.harvard”>my.harvard;
and
Literature Humanities: Medieval and Modern Classics
<a href=“my.harvard”>my.harvard;
<p>Not sure if they’ll be offered again next year, though.</p>
<p>Thanks a ton- those are exactly the type of thing I’ve been looking in vain for. justforgetme, is it easy to get in to freshman seminars you want to? With enrollment limited to 12, I mean. Because that one looks fantastic.</p>
<p>The most complete programs are Stanford’s SLE, Yale’s DS and Columbia’s core, and, of course, Chicago.</p>
<p>Those new Harvard courses are much more like Stanford’s IHUM than it is SLE. A course on “odysseys” with Homer and Nietzsche can hardly be expected to be “complete” that any of the programs listed above are.</p>
<p>Zephyr, that program at Stanford looks really cool… how did you hear about it? Are you a stanford student? Because I had never heard of it… do you have any more details? Honestly, I hadn’t been considering Stanford all too seriously, but that looks really interesting… I agree, the courses mentioned at Harvard, other than the Russel seminar, do see lacking compared to many of the others.</p>
<p>Monsieur, it just depends on the seminar and how many people are interested in it. Some of the super-popular ones (with Nobel winners and the like) are just lotteried, others are based on essays, others try to create an intellectually diverse group of students. I had a few friends who didn’t get into their first choice seminars, but then emailed the professors and got in when others dropped out.</p>
<p>As an upperclassman, I think your opportunity to dig into the Western Cannon would be in a Literature or Hist + Lit or English seminar. I don’t know much about any of those concentrations (can find out more if you want), but I’d bet one of them has a pretty intensive tutorial or seminar that reads the canon. Not sure if you’d be able to take this if you’re not in the concentration though.</p>
<p>Zephyr is a Stanford student who loves to post on the Harvard board.</p>
<p>“Zephyr is a Stanford student who loves to post on the Harvard board.”</p>
<p>Why only Harvard? I post on a lot of boards.</p>
<p>I only post on the Harvard board, so I have no idea where else you post.</p>