The purpose of this course is to introduce you to the fascinating world of Israel's neighboring civilizations in biblical times. It offers a comparative study that examines the relationship between the Bible and these civilizations. We will discuss a selection of biblical traditions, genres, and themes from a comparative perspective, and show how the ancient Near Eastern materials shed new light on these topics. While the course will refer to a variety of civilizations, a special focus will be placed on Mesopotamia and its relationship to the bible.

Manuscript illumination, which has been emerged with abstract and naturalistic features, is considered a national art in Afghanistan. In addition to being used for various purposes, it has been mainly used for decoration of religious, scholarly, and historical manuscripts. The content of this course addresses two main objectives: (a) contemporary manuscript illumination of Herat—focusing on principles of Herat Timurid School of Art (b) contemporary manuscript illumination of Herat in accordance to the contemporary manuscript illumination structures and forms of Herat. This is an introductory course to manuscript illuminations. Those who are interested in art can take this course; they are not required to be art majors. This course will be taught by Professor Ahmad Shoaib Saljoqi, who has designed and decorated hundreds of illuminated manuscripts.

The fashion industry has a large influence on the global economy and is more and more known for its social and environmental impact. Everywhere, new sustainable initiatives are arising from recycling, upcycling to creating clothes from compostable materials. Circularity tough, is a complex phenomenon. What will the future bring us? Are we indeed going to decompose our clothes in our own garden? This online course brings you a comprehensive introduction in circular fashion brought to you by roughly thirty different experts from both academia and practice. You will learn about the versatile task of transitioning towards circular fashion, from the unique collaboration between Wageningen University & Research, ArtEZ University of the Arts and many other experts. After the course you will know the core concepts and tools to help better understand circular economy in the fashion industry. Some of the topics that are covered focus on understanding the challenge of recycling, design for circularity, alternative textiles through biobased innovation and circular business modelling to help bring innovations to the market. For whom? This course will provide designers, retailers, scientists, engineers and all working at the industry or with an interest in fashion with holistic insights in the complex challenges of circular fashion, while engaging you to start the transition to circularity within your personal and/or professional practices. We will bring together art, design and science to move beyond an ego-centric approach of fashion and start from an ecosystems perspective. Learn the theory, understand the practice and start your own circular fashion journey. Join the movement towards a circular fashion industry!

Introduction Owing to its rapid development in recent years, China has been in the spotlight of the international arena. While understanding modern China's economy, technology and politics is important, knowing its cultural roots and evolution is no less crucial for seeing the full picture of Chinese culture. This course introduces 5 interesting aspects of Chinese culture in transformation. Key questions of the course What are the Four Great Classical Chinese Novels? What are the stories about? Why are they so famous and influential in Chinese literature? What is special about the art of Chinese operas? What are the symbolic meanings behind the face make-up, gestures and costumes? How do the operas serve as a medium for transmitting knowledge in Chinese culture? Why did the private Confucian academies thrive in the Song dynasty? Why was the famous Donglin Academy suppressed by the state in the Ming dynasty? How were the private academies engaged in the state educational reforms in the late Qing dynasty? How did New Confucianism emerge as a movement in the 20th century? What were the aspirations of the New Confucians? How did they address modern challenges to the development of Chinese science, democracy and cosmology? Did they succeed in modernizing Confucianism? What were the traditional expectations of gender roles in China? How was gender politics heightened in the labour force in early New China? What light does the film Li Shuangshuang shed on the gender awareness of Chinese socialism? Course Design A team of 5 experts in Chinese culture has designed the course. They are, in alphabetical order, Dr Chun, Dr. Li, Dr Lin, Dr Wu and Dr Zhang. The compact design of the mini-lectures suits the busy schedule of edX learners. Introduction by animation hosts highlights the key questions of each unit. Illustrations and maps are designed to liven up the mini-lectures. Self-learning is supported by review questions and forums. Cross-referencing enhances a fruitful learning experience across the units of the HKPolyUx series on Chinese culture.

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 the city, will witness the excitement and loss of change. Kiyochika Kobayashi’s woodblock prints of Tokyo in the late 1870s convey a moody view on the cusp of change as the new capital, formerly Edo, begins modernization with Western influences. Koizumi Kishio’s depictions of the “Imperial Capital” in the 1930s show the lively cosmopolitanism and move toward ultranationalism that placed the emperor at its center. Learners will navigate visual primary sources and use them to investigate: • Tokyo, through the many locations depicted at different points in time, especially helpful if they would like visit these sites today; • the Meiji restoration and how Tokyo emerged from the earlier city of Edo to become Japan’s capital; • cultural and political interactions between east and west; • how Tokyo was rebuilt from various forms of destruction; • methods used by scholars and curators of the Visualizing Cultures project and Smithsonian Institution to develop online content and exhibitions; • the ability of visual motifs to capture tangible and intangible qualities of time and place; • how to read image sets, especially useful in the large digital archives of today; • woodblock print series, distribution, and competition from other media. The format of roundtable discussions between art historian, historians, and media specialists sets up a discursive and exploratory style of learning. Learners will be exposed to multiple points of view as the teaching team brings together scholars who have studied the topics from different disciplines. Learners will engage with visual evidence as primary sources to assemble arguments. For teachers, the course presents a number of units from the online resource, MIT Visualizing Cultures (VC). The course instructors are the authors of VC units, and guide students into the rich content on the site. The VC website, widely taught in both secondary and college courses, is the primary resource for this course. Educators can selectively pick modules that target needs in their classrooms; the course can be used in a “flipped” classroom where students are assigned modules as homework.

Pow! Bang! Kaboom! Superhero stories, first arriving on the scene in the late 1930s, are now among the most popular forms of global entertainment. The study of philosophy has been around for centuries. Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes, a SmithsonianX and Harvard Division of Continuing Education course, blends these superheroes narratives with the core areas of philosophy. SmithsonianX has partnered with the Harvard Division of Continuing Education to bring this course from the Harvard Extension School to edX. This introductory philosophy course, led by Professor Christopher Robichaud of the Harvard Kennedy School, offers an exciting lens to interpret key philosophical ideas — metaphysics and epistemology, social and political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, existentialism, moral relativism, and much more. From Superman's embrace of truth, justice, and the American way to Wonder Woman's efforts at promoting peace rather than war, from Spider-Man's personal struggles at balancing his romantic life with his crime fighting exploits to the X-Men's social struggles with combating prejudice, Power and Responsibility: Doing Philosophy with Superheroes will give you the chance to explore philosophy through the many superhero narratives via videos, readings, and a meaningful course community. We invite both those new to philosophy and philosophy lovers to join us on this journey!

How do we deal with the challenges and threats to vernacular architecture and make sure that it is sustained in this modern urbanized world? This is the key question we will try to answer in this course. This architecture course takes you on a journey of understanding and appreciating the value of our everyday built environment. In the first two modules, we will explore the deeper socio-cultural meaning of rural vernacular architecture and look at the urban vernacular and challenges of people migrating from villages to live in cities; in module 3, we will focus on what we call ‘informal settlements’ in Asian cities; and in the final two modules, we will explore answers to a few questions that are very relevant to the current status and future development of vernacular architecture, such as: How can we conserve and sustain our vernacular cultural heritage? How can we reconcile tradition with modernity and originality? We will also cast our eyes into the future, and discuss how the field of vernacular architecture might evolve and develop in the years to come. Ultimately, the goal of this 5-week course is to help you establish your own viewpoints about the more complex or even contradictory issues in vernacular architecture, so you can make informed decisions regarding the protection and conservation of your local vernacular environments. Special note: This course can be taken independently from The Search of Vernacular Architecture of Asia, Part 1 . 我们要如何应对本土建筑面临的挑战和威胁？并确保本土建筑在这个现代城市化的世界中持续存在？ 我们在本课程中将解决這些问题。 本建筑课程将带领你理解和欣赏我们日常建筑环境。前两个单元，我们将探索农村本土建筑的深层社会文化意义，并了解城市本土建筑和从农村移居到城市的人们所面临的挑战；第三单元，我们将专注于亚洲几大城市中，我们所谓的“非正式定居点”；最后两个单元，我们将探索与本土建筑当前形势和未来发展相关的几个问题，例如：我们如何保护和维持我们的本土文化遗产？我们如何平衡传统与现代性和原真性？我们也将放眼未来，讨论本土建筑领域可能会往哪个方向演变，在未来几年可能会有怎样的发展。這5周的课程旨在帮助你在本土建筑领域一些更為复杂或更深層次的问题上形成你自己的见解，便于你能夠在本土环境的保护和保育方面做出明智的决定。 特别说明：本课程可独立于“亚洲乡土建筑研究（第一部分）”，单独选修。

This MITx course was developed in collaboration with HarvardX and is co-taught by MIT, Harvard, and Duke historians. You will examine Japanese history in a new way—through the images created by those who were there—and the skills and questions involved in reading history through images in the digital format. The introductory module considers methodologies historians use to “visualize” the past, followed by three modules that explore the themes of Westernization, in Commodore Perry’s 1853-54 expedition to Japan; social protest, in Tokyo’s 1905 Hibiya Riot; and modernity, as seen in the archives of the major Japanese cosmetics company, Shiseido. VJxwill cover the following topics in four modules: Module 0: Introduction: New Historical Sources for a Digital Age (Professors Dower, Gordon, Miyagawa). Digitization has dramatically altered historians' access to primary sources, making large databases of the visual record readily accessible. How is historical methodology changing in response to this seismic shift? How can scholars, students, and the general public make optimal use of these new digital resources? Module 1: Black Ships & Samurai (Professor Dower). Commodore Matthew Perry's 1853-54 expedition to force Japan to open its doors to the outside world is an extraordinary moment to look at by examining and comparing the visual representations left to us by both the American and Japanese sides of this encounter. This module also addresses the rapid Westernization undertaken by Japan in the half century following the Perry mission. Module 2: Social Protest in Imperial Japan: The Hibiya Riot of 1905 (Professor Gordon). The dramatic daily reports from participants in the massive "Hibiya Riot" in 1905, the first major social protest in the age of "imperial democracy" in Japan, offer a vivid and fresh perspective on the contentious domestic politics of an emerging imperial power. Module 3: Modernity in Interwar Japan: Shiseido & Consumer Culture (Professors Dower, Gordon, Weisenfeld). Exploring the vast archives of the Shiseido cosmetics company opens a fascinating window on the emergence of consumer culture, modern roles for women, and global cosmopolitanism from the 'teens through the 1920s and even into the era of Japanese militarism and aggression in the 1930s. This module will also tap other Visualizing Cultures units on modernization and modernity.

We tend to think of art and technology as two separate, almost opposite things. But what if we showed you that the development of technology owes its debt to artists? And that art would not be what it is, without technology ? "The digital age", born out of the scientific and technological revolutions of the last 500 years, exposes the artificial divergence of disciplinary categories. It is an exciting moment in art and design history. On the one hand, technological tools change what we are capable of doing – and contemporary artists/designers indeed use those technologies with much imagination: from image processing to immersive virtual environments; from social networks to flash mobs and cyber-attacks; from fake news to surveillance systems - art had never had so many tools to play while directly interacting with us within our social realities. On the other hand, art does so while examining, distorting, criticizing and inventing new technologies as it allows us to imagine the furthest frontiers of what technology may be able to do. This course aims to look at these inter-disciplinary cross-overs between art, design and technology while asking: how does this new technological age is changing our culture, society and life? What do these teach us about ourselves? How can we reflect through it about our pasts, presents and futures? The course is aimed at anyone who is curious about what it means to be born and to live in "the digital age". The course combines lectures, interviews with theoreticians and artists, artwork analysis, case studies and stimulating discussions. The course also offers some practical exercises that will introduce you to basics in programming, digital image processing and 3D printing. You would not need preliminary knowledge of art history, but such knowledge may be helpful. This course was created and produced by Shenkar - Engineering. Design. Art.

Module 1: Books, Scrolls, and Religious Devotion This unit offers special access to a unique group of books and scrolls and sacred objects once interred inside a thirteenth-century Buddhist sculpture of Prince Shotoku, now in the collection of the Harvard Art Museums. The works to be studied represent the most prevalent formats of Japanese books, but they display striking material idiosyncrasies that will help us understand how and why manuscripts were made, and how they could be personalized for individual readers, motivated, in this case, by religious devotion. Module 2: Visual and Textual Storytelling: Short-Story Scrolls Enter into the storyworlds of two lively illustrated Japanese tales, The Tale of the Rat (Nezumi sôshi) and The Chrysanthemum Spirit (Kiku no sei monogatari) in the Harvard Art Museums. Both tales are illustrated in the “small scroll” ( ko-e ) format, roughly half the size of standard scrolls, resembling medieval paperbacks, and intended for personal reading and private libraries. This unit focuses on reading experience, exploring the interrelationship between word and image, and explaining how literary and pictorial conventions work together to communicate a story. Module 3: “Multimedia” Books: The Tale of Genji Japan’s most celebrated work of fiction, The Tale of Genji , has been continuously read from the time it appeared in the eleventh-century to the present day and provides a perfect case study for exploring various book formats over the centuries in Japan. Using decorated manuscripts, richly illustrated albums, and a playful printed book of a Genji spin-off, A Fraudulent Murasaki’s Rustic Genji (Nise Murasaki Inaka Genji), this unit showcases the spectacular visual and material properties of Genji volumes that make them suggestive of “multimedia” books.