Departments in the Division of Arts & Humanities offer an array of undergraduate gateway courses that fulfill L&S Breadth requirements as well as the American Cultures requirement. Please find a selection of Fall 2024 classes below.
Learn more at https://classes.berkeley.edu/, check out freshman/sophomore seminars and Berkeley Connect classes to round out your schedule, and view the full array of language instruction across A&H on our Languages and Global Engagement page.
Study of the major developments, achievements, and contradictions in Greek culture from the Bronze Age to the 4th century BCE. Satisfies Arts & Literature, Historical Studies, or Philosophy & Values L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
The physical remains of the Greek world from the Bronze Age to 323 BCE will be studied, with emphasis on its artistic triumphs, as a means of understanding the culture of ancient Greece. Satisfies Arts & Literature or Historical Studies L&S Breadth. Course catalog link.
A first course in the language, processes, and media of visual art. Weekly lectures and studio problems will introduce students to the nature of art making and visual thinking. This course is a prerequisite for applying to the Art Practice major. Satisfies Arts & Literature L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
Celtic Studies 70 will provide an introduction to the history of the Celtic-speaking peoples from the time of the Indo-Europeans through to the present day. Satisfies Historical Studies or Social & Behavioral Sciences L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
What is meant when we say someone or something “sounds American”? Can a person sound like a certain gender, social class, sexuality, or race? How would we possibly define that sound? And what might it mean to think of a culture by the ways it sounds and listens, instead of how it looks or sees? This course will explore these questions and others by studying podcasts, poems, songs, novels, and the changing forms of sonic technologies like microphones, radios, mp3s, turntables, and more. Satisfies Arts & Literature L&S Breadth and meets the American Cultures requirement. Course catalog link
We discuss the history of racial mixture in the United States by taking three examples of communities with a Dutch-American connection as our starting point. We also look at the future and discuss the consequences of the fact that increasing numbers of Americans identify with multiple races/ethnicities. Taught in English. Satisfies the American Cultures requirement. Course catalog link
This introduction to the study of Buddhism will consider materials drawn from various Buddhist traditions of Asia, from ancient times down to the present day. The overarching emphasis throughout the course will be on the hermeneutic difficulties attendant upon the study of religion in general, and Buddhism in particular. Satisfies Philosophy & Values L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
The first in a two-semester sequence, introducing students to Chinese literature in translation. In addition to literary sources, a wide range of philosophical and historical texts will be covered, as well as aspects of visual and material culture. Satisfies Arts & Literature or Historical Studies L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
This course is an overview of Japanese literature and culture, 7th- through 18th-centuries. No previous course work in Japanese literature, history, or language is expected. Satisfies Arts & Literature or Historical Studies L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
A survey of pre-modern Korean literature and culture from the seventh century to the 19th century, focusing on the relation between literary texts and various aspects of performance tradition. All readings are in English. Satisfies Arts & Literature or Historical Studies L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
Historical survey of literature in English: Beginnings through Milton. Satisfies Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
In a world of expanding global commerce (imports like tea suddenly becoming commonplace in England), political revolution (English, American, French), and changing conceptions of what it means to be a man or woman (a new medical discourse viewing them as categorically distinct), increasingly available printed texts become sites of contestation—including debates about what constitutes "proper" language and Literature itself. Satisfies Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
This course will examine different examples of British, Irish, American, and global Anglophone literature from the middle of the 19th century through the middle of the 20th. Moving across a number of genres and movements, we will focus on the ways novelists, poets, and dramatists have used literary form to represent, question, and even produce different aspects of modernity (broadly construed). Satisfies Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth. Course cataloglink
This course is intended to introduce undergraduates to the study of a range of media, including photography, film, television, video, and print and digital media. The course will focus on questions of medium "specificity" or the key technological/material, formal and aesthetic features of different media and modes of address and representation that define them. Satisfies Arts & Literature L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
Taught in English. Roiled by revolution upon revolution, inundated by massive migration, and all but razed to the ground and rebuilt by Haussmannization, nineteenth-century Paris was a volatile place to call home. For many, finding and keeping a place to live within the city walls was an impossible task; those who did stay housed were constantly confronting the gaze of the unhoused others. What transpired in those gazes? What made them possible—and sometimes, impossible? Satisfies Arts & Literature or Historical Studies L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
Taught in English. The father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, is back with a vengeance. This seminar examines issues raised by Freud and their implications for understanding human culture. Topics include: dreams and the unconscious, narcissism and sexuality, death and loss, religion and Jewish identity, race and group psychology, and war and peaceful community. Class discussions will be devoted to Freud’s major writings along with texts by his interlocutors, successors, and critics. Satisfies Philosophy & Values L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
An introduction to the art of Egypt, Greece, Rome, and the European Middle Ages. Works of painting, sculpture, and architecture are presented chronologically and interpreted within their particular historical circumstances. Satisfies Arts & Literature or Historical Studies, L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
This course, for which no prior experience of Chinese art or history is required, will provide an overview of developments in the visual arts of China from the Neolithic period to the present. Special attention will be devoted to relating these developments to broader changes within culture. Some of the questions we will address include: What are the conventions and limits of representing deities in art? How do we understand different notions of naturalism in painting? How did artists take on political issues? Who were the various audiences that artists addressed in their work? How do we gauge their responses? Throughout this course, we will also consider the relationship between collecting and art history, how art collecting shaped and was shaped by changing notions of “China,” and the challenges of studying artifacts that have been removed from their original contexts. Satisfies Arts & Literature or Historical Studies Breadth. Course catalog link
Introduction to Italian studies through selected topics and themes integral to the history, literature, and arts of Italy from Dante to Fellini. Satisfies Arts & Literature, Historical Studies, or Social & Behavioral Sciences L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
The course is intended to give Jewish studies minors a general introduction to the field through a survey of religious and cultural expressions of Jews across time and geographies. No previous knowledge of Judaism or Jewish Studies is necessary. Satisfies Historical Studies or Philosophy & Values Breadth. Course catalog link
This course introduces students to the Ancient Middle Eastern world through its languages, texts, art, and material culture. Emphasis is placed on Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia as well as their neighbors in Iran, Turkey, Arabia, and Africa. No prior coursework is required. Satisfies Arts & Literature or Historical Studies L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
A writing course based on traditional harmony. Beginning linear and vertical analysis. For general students. Emphasis on written exercises. Satisfies Arts & Literature L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
Two perspectives are developed: 1) diverse music of groups in America, and 2) American music as a unique phenomenon. Groups considered are African, Asian, European, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American. Lectures and musical examples are organized by topics such as music of socio-economic subgroups within large groups, survival of culture, pan-ethnicity, religious and concert music, and the folk-popular music continuum. Meets the American Cultures Requirement. Satisfies Arts & Literature or Social & Behavioral Sciences, L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
Introduction to ethical and political philosophy. Satisfies Philosophy & Values or Social & Behavioral Sciences L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
Introduction to the philosophy of mind. Topics to be considered may include the relation between mind and body; the structure of action; the nature of desires and beliefs; the role of the unconscious. Satisfies Philosophy & Values L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
An introduction to practical reasoning and the critical analysis of argument. Topics treated will include: definition, the syllogism, the enthymeme, fallacies, as well as various non-logical appeals. Also, the course will treat in introductory fashion some ancient and modern attempts to relate rhetoric and logic. Satisfies Philosophy & Values L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
This course explores the most important cultural contributions of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It focuses on an interdisciplinary historical examination of the emergence of three central contemporary Nordic value systems: environmentalism, gender equality, and social solidarity/trust. Taught in English with readings in English. Satisfies Historical Studies and Social & Behavioral Sciences L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
In this course, we will read a variety of works—short stories, novels in verse, novels and novellas, and plays—by Alexander Pushkin, Mikhail Lermontov, Nikolai Gogol, Ivan Turgenev, Sofya Kovalevskaya, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Lev Tolstoy, and Anton Chekhov. These texts invite us to consider a number of significant social and political issues—such as imperial expansion and colonial wars, the relationship between Russia and the West, the struggle for women’s liberation, the emancipation of the serfs, and movements for radical social change—as well as questions about art, love, sex, and death. No knowledge of Russian is required; the classes and readings are in English. Satisfies Arts & Literature L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
This course is a survey of ancient South Asia, from around 2500 BCE to the 10th century CE. Close attention will be paid to the geography and ethnography of the region, its political and economic history, the religious, philosophical, literary, and artistic movements that have shaped it and contributed to its development as a unique, diverse, and fascinating civilization. We will cover broad patterns of historical change in ancient South Asia from the 10th century to the present, major cultural shifts and religious formations that have shaped South Asia over the past thousand-plus years, cultural texts that reflect the history of South Asia, and South Asia’s shifting relations with the world over the longue duree. Satisfies Historical Studies or Philosophy & Values L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
This course is a survey of the histories, cultures, and religions of mainland Southeast Asia from the period of the early Khmer empire until the 2000s. It surveys the countries of Cambodia, Myanmar/Burma, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. By the end of the course, students are expected to: (a) explain the broad patterns of historical change in mainland Southeast Asia from the 10th century to the present, (b) explain the major cultural shifts and religious formations that have shaped mainland Southeast Asia over the past thousand-plus years, (c) discuss cultural texts that reflect the history of mainland Southeast Asia, and (d) explain mainland Southeast Asia’s shifting relations with the world over the longue durée. Satisfies Historical Studies or International Studies, L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
When Gabriel García Márquez published his monumental novel 100 Years of Solitude in 1967 he transformed not only the history of Latin American literature, but the history of literature and culture throughout the world. But then what happened? Beginning with Márquez’s novel, and what Cuban author Alejo Carpentier called “the marvelous real” (lo real maravilloso), this course in English will explore how Latin American fiction of the last sixty years has adapted, rejected, or otherwise reimagined magical realism to invent new ways to narrate and respond to the world’s changing realities. Satisfies Arts & Literature L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
This course introduces the critical terms and practices of the contemporary study of performance. Several key terms and important genres of artistic and social performance will be engaged; the course will draw critical and disciplinary methods from anthropology and ethnography, from the theory of dance and theater, from literary and cultural theory. Satisfies Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth. Course catalog link
Dance as a meaning-making expressive form. Develop the tools necessary for looking at dance, analyzing it, writing about it, and understanding its place in larger social, cultural, political structures. Satisfies Arts & Literature, L&S Breadth or American Cultures Requirement. Course cataloglink