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Being Human

J-Term 2025

Taught by Marshall Ganz and Chris Robichaud

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Teaching Team

Alyssa Ashcraft

Taarini Goyal�HEAD TF

Lacey Connelly

Mariana Garza Frech

zehra imam

Prof Marshall Ganz

Prof Chris Robichaud

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Head TF

Teaching Fellows

Learning Teams

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43 Students

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10 Schools and Programs

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18 Countries

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Learning Teams

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Course Overview

Jan 6 Grounding

Jan 7 - 8 The Human Animal: Being, Feeling, and Knowing I & II

Jan 9 The Cultural Human: Story and Music

Jan 10 The Cultural Human: Visual Arts, Dance, and Philosophy

Jan 11 Dehumanizing I & II

Jan 12 SUNDAY

Jan 13 - 14 Humanizing I & II

Jan 15 Conclusion

Jan 22 Final Assignment Due

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Modalities

  • Readings
  • Arts
  • Film
  • Stories
  • Games
  • Discussion
  • Practice
  • Writing

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Pedagogy

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Pedagogy

Interdependent Learning

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WELCOME AND GROUNDING

Why we are here –

  • Name
  • School
  • Where do you call home?
  • What do or did your parents/caregivers do?
  • Share an experience that moved you to join?
  • What does “being human” mean to you?

Teaching Team and

Students Introductions

Day 1

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WELCOME AND GROUNDING

Made with love by Siddhi Patil

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THE HUMAN ANIMAL: BEING, FEELING, AND KNOWING

Day 1

Day 2

  • The Blind Spot by Adam Frank, Evan Thompson, and Marcelo Gleiser, 2024, Ch: Introduction, Ch 6: Life, Ch 8: Consciousness.

Day 2

Day 3

Group discussion

Movie Screening: “Arrival”

Q&A with Ray Nayler (author)

Learning Teams discussion

“The Mountain in the Sea”

Group discussion

Lecture and

group discussion

Challenger, Damasio, Abrams

Human across languages

Launching Learning Teams

Lecture

Group discussion

Play

Learning Teams discussion

“Arrival”

“The Mind”

Group discussion

“The Blind Spot”

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Optional Experience - Screening Arrival

THE HUMAN ANIMAL: BEING, FEELING, AND KNOWING

  1. Dr. Louise Banks discovers that the process of translating Abbott and Costello’s language changes her experiences. She is now sometimes able to see in four dimensions by having premonitions of her future, especially of her yet-to-be-born daughter Hannah, who is fated to die at a young age. For this crucial aspect of the story to make sense, what do you see it as suggesting the relationship is between language, mind, and reality?

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  • The visitors want humanity to learn to speak their language. It will unite humanity, and it will position us to be able to help the visitors 3000 years from now. But will humanity stay human if it comes to regularly experience the world as the visitors do, by learning their language?

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  • Conflict across the globe emerges between human governments and the visitors when there is disagreement over how to translate some of their language. Importantly, the disagreement is over whether the visitors have come to offer us a tool for us to use or whether they have come to use a weapon on us. It’s suggested that the Chinese government misinterpreted the visitors as bringing a weapon because they were using Mahjong, a competitive game, to help with their translation. What does this teach us about the use of models and about engaging across difference?

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  • Louise chooses to enter into a relationship with Dr. Ian Donnelly that she knows will result in Hannah coming into the world, only to die a little over a decade later, still as a child. Ian for his part will leave Louise after learning that she knew ahead of time that Hannah would die this way. Do you agree with Louise’s choice? Do you think Ian’s reaction is understandable? How can we understand what it is to be human by considering the choice Louise faced?

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THE HUMAN ANIMAL: BEING, FEELING, AND KNOWING

  • Dr. Ha Nguyen writes in her book: "What does it mean to be a self? I think, more than anything else, it means the ability to select between different possible outcomes in order to direct oneself toward a desired outcome...It is the ability to choose. We live in choices." Do you agree that this is what it is to be a self? The book presents evidence that the octopi community has language and culture and community. Is that sufficient to establish that they are also selves, in this sense?
  • What do you think about "point-five" technology? Would you use it to have your own personal Kamran?
  • Ha tells Evrim, "You are also human. It doesn't matter what you are made of, or how you are born. That isn't what determines it. What determines you are human is that you fully participate in human interaction and the human symbolic world. You live in the world humans created, perceiving the world as humans perceive it, processing information as humans process it. What more is there? Being human means perceiving the world in a human way.” Do you agree with Ha that this is what it is to be human?

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Review this chart that compares what we mean when we say “human” in different languages (aided by AI). What differences and commonalities do you notice? What is your own understanding of the word?

What we mean when we say “human”.

THE HUMAN ANIMAL: BEING, FEELING, AND KNOWING

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THE HUMAN ANIMAL: BEING, FEELING, AND KNOWING

Ray Nayler

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Made with love by Siddhi Patil

THE HUMAN ANIMAL: BEING, FEELING, AND KNOWING

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THE CULTURAL HUMAN: STORY AND MUSIC

Readings

Music

  • Voyager Golden Record

Day 4

Visit to the

Harvard Art Museum

Lecture: What is a story?

The Power of Story

Stories as Myth

Lecture

Learning Team reading Creation Myths

Creation Myths

Genesis read aloud

Group Share Out

and Discussion

Salma’s music exercise

Golden Record II

Music

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THE CULTURAL HUMAN: STORY AND MUSIC

Creation Myths

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The Dreaming (Australia, Aboriginal Cultures), Popol Vuh (Maya, Central America), Iroquois Creation Story (North America), Pangu and the Cosmic Egg (China), Yoruba Creation Myth (West Africa)

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  • What values or lessons (morals) do the storytellers seem to be teaching?
  • Were there narrative moments you found particularly moving, meaningful, or puzzling?
  • What may have surprised you in this reading, especially if you’ve read this story before
  • What questions did your reading of the story raise for you?

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THE CULTURAL HUMAN: STORY AND MUSIC

Music

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What would you add to the next Golden record and why?

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  • How does it make us feel?
  • What does this song tell us about us?

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THE CULTURAL HUMAN: STORY AND MUSIC

Made with love by Siddhi Patil

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THE CULTURAL HUMAN: VISUAL ARTS, PHILOSOPHY, AND DANCE

Readings:

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Art:

  • The First Art: Rock Art and Cave Paintings
  • Representation of Creation in Visual Art
  • Representation of Human Form in Visual Art

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Dance

  • Solo Dance (Bharatnatyam), Pair Dance (Tango), Group Dance (Dabka and Hakka)

Day 5

Art making session

at HGSE

Debrief Museum visit

Art representations

of human forms

Learning Teams Share Out and Discussion

Moral Foundations

Lecture: Prehistoric art

Looking at dance

and group discussion

Visual arts

Philosophy

Dance

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Optional Experience: Guided Visit to the Harvard Art Museum

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THE CULTURAL HUMAN: VISUAL ARTS, PHILOSOPHY, AND DANCE

Each group given a separate art piece of human form and asked to discuss:

  • Describe your experience of this artwork.
  • What details stand out, and why do you think the artist emphasized them?
  • What values and beliefs does this artwork communicate?
  • Are you moved to connect with the figure's posture, expression, or interaction?
  • Imagine stepping into this artwork—what would the figure's presence feel like in real life?

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THE CULTURAL HUMAN: VISUAL ARTS, PHILOSOPHY, AND DANCE

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THE CULTURAL HUMAN: VISUAL ARTS, PHILOSOPHY, AND DANCE

Made with love by Siddhi Patil

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DEHUMANIZING

Day 6

Artistic Representation

of Dehumanization

Learning Team Check In

Whole Group Share Out

Dehumanization

Power:

Lecture and Discussion

Lecture and Discussion

Learning Team Discussion

Making Monsters:

Video: Modern Times

Lecture

Learning Team Discussion

Lecture and Discussion

Mechanization/

Commodification:

Readings:

Art

In tomorrow’s session, we will turn to dehumanization: the ways that people come to devalue one another to serve certain ends. Dehumanization is a broad topic and the subject of much debate. In preparation for class tomorrow, please take some time to create an artistic representation of your experience of dehumanization.

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Optional Experience: Interactive Art Making �(Artistic Representation of Dehumanizing)

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DEHUMANIZING

Take 4 minutes per person, each turn:

  1. The artist shows their artwork (without explaining anything about it)
  2. Team members (except the artist) share feelings that are coming up when looking at the artwork
  3. Artist shares:
  4. Why is this my expression of the experience of dehumanization?
  5. What were the challenges of producing it?
  6. Did your feelings and/or thinking change or become clearer throughout the process of creating the art?

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  • When, if ever, have you experienced this type of dehumanization or contributed to it?
  • Did it work the way the authors suggest works?
  • What did you learn from this reflection?

DEHUMANIZING

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Caste, Part I, Chapter Three: An American Untouchable

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“To recalibrate how we see ourselves, I use language that may be more commonly associated with people in other cultures, to suggest a new way of understanding our hierarchy: Dominant caste, ruling majority, favored caste, or upper caste, instead of, or in addition to, white. Middle castes instead of, or in addition to, Asian or Latino. Subordinate caste, lowest caste, bottom caste, disfavored caste, historically stigmatized instead of African-America. Original, conquered, or indigenous peoples instead of, or in addition to, Native American. Marginalized people in addition to, or instead of, women of any race, or minorities of any kind.”

DEHUMANIZING

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DEHUMANIZING

Made with love by Siddhi Patil

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HUMANIZING: MICRO

Readings:

Music

  • One Summer’s Day by Joe Hisaishi

Day 7

Poetry and grounding

Sharing moments

Reflection with

Full Group

Magic

Music

Learning Teams Discussion

Share Out/Discussion

Strategies for Rehumanizing

Cultivating Awe, Wonder,

and Curiosity

Lecture

Kant, Ganz and Freire

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HUMANIZING: MICRO

In Learning Teams

  • Think about a specific moment in which you felt seen, heard, and valued for the person you are — your unique complexity, vulnerabilities, strengths, challenges and possibilities. Be prepared to tell us the story of this moment in as vivid detail as you can, using your words to show us your experience rather than simply tell us about it.

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HUMANIZING: MICRO

Magic

  • How did this make you feel?

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Musical Awe

  • Did you experience wonder and/or awe in listening to this?
  • If so, when, at what point, why at that point?
  • Regardless, what other thoughts and feelings did you experience when listening to the piece?

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HUMANIZING: MICRO

Made with love by Siddhi Patil

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HUMANIZING: MACRO

Readings:

Day 8

Optional experience:

Games, art and music

Humanizing through Art

The Uncontrollability

of the World

Billie Holiday’s

“Strange Fruit”

Learning Teams Discussion

Afrofuturism

Montgomery Bus Boycott

Miracle of the Fast

Peregrinacion, Penitencia, Revolucion

Humanizing the System

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HUMANIZING: MACRO

  • From the lecture, the cases, and your own circumstances, how can you use your resources to rehumanize caste in the areas that are specific to you?

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HUMANIZING: MACRO

  • What did you experience watching this performance?
  • What do you think it’s trying to do?
  • What lessons can you extract from what it’s trying to do?

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Optional Experience: Class Party

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HUMANIZING: MACRO

Made with love by Siddhi Patil

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CONCLUDING

Day 9

Learning Teams Check In

What Have We Learned about Being Human?

Evaluation

What Have

We Learned as a Team?

Conclusion

Celebration

Takeaways

  • What insights have you drawn?
  • How could they inform your practice?
  • What have the challenges been?
  • What remains unresolved?

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Reflection and Feedback

  • First, each team member will have one minute to share what they they think they contributed to the work of the team and what their growth edges may be.
  • Second, one by one, each other team member will have one minute to offer their own feedback to the first person on their contribution and need for growth.
  • Then as a Learning Team, consider ways in which you may or may not wish to continue learning together.

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CONCLUDING

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STUDENT EXPERIENCE

“So much of academia involves intense policing of language. It involves hushing certain people. Almost requiring people to act invisibly. When the teaching team set the tone on the first day, they made clear this class wasn't about that. So rather than tearing each other down, we built one another up and approached disagreement with generosity.”

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“[The teaching team] trusted us - that's something a lot of people and classes say, but not something we get to see and that everyone means. They showed us they meant it. They showed us we mattered.”

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“People were very open. People came out of their shells as they gained trust. Vulnerability led to connection which led to generosity which led to trust which helped us grapple with these really big and amorphous issues.”

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STUDENT EXPERIENCE

“If we cannot see ourselves in others, actively pay attention to each other, and wonder about one another, our practice of democracy itself will continue to face challenges. I see leadership as leadership with rather than leadership for - as an active dance with ourselves, each other, and our broader community of beings.”

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“This is the best experience I’ve had with learning teams BY FAR! The way that the conversation and the topics of the class. Through that we’ve really humanized each other and built deep appreciation for each other. I am very grateful for it and for all the times we spend together discussing. I know four times in learning teams might seem like a lot, but after each discussion, we’re craving to for more conversation with each other.”

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In one sentence, how would you describe what it is “to be human” in your own terms?

“To be human is to stand on the precipice of knowing and not knowing”

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“Seeing the divine in others”

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“To be human is to recognize ourselves as a system, and as part of a system, and to live at that edge”

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“To be human is to embrace both our strengths and imperfections, to connect with others through empathy and love, and to find meaning and purpose in the beauty of our shared journey.”

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“To lead from love, not fear, actively noticing and wondering in concert with each other and our broader world”

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“Being human: acting on and within tension(s)”

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Student Reflections (Video)

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