U.S. News
Elite Tuition Funds Unusual Harvard Course Examined
Clear Facts
- Harvard University offers a course titled “The Aquatic, Arboreal, and Atmospheric Life of Blackness.”
- The class is housed in the Divinity School and covers Black experiences related to trees, water, and the environment.
- Harvard tuition is nearly $60,000 per year, with exemptions for families making under $200,000.
Harvard University has introduced a course that examines how Black individuals relate to natural elements such as trees and water. The class is part of the Divinity School’s religious and theological studies program and provides students with four credits.
Course materials claim to explore “the intersection of Black ecologies and Black religion and theology.”
“The course investigates how the knowledge generated from these relationships foster anarchist and liberative practices that create alternative epistemic pathways for a more just relationship to earth, as well as counternarratives for challenging prevailing understandings of environmental concepts such as climate change, the Anthropocene, and extraction.”
The course description has prompted criticism for its unusual subject matter and approach. Tuition for Harvard stands at close to $60,000 yearly, though families earning below $200,000 may qualify for free admission.
Previous work at the divinity school shows a pattern of integrating racial topics with religious studies, including a 2021 article that linked Buddhism and “the specific work of racial justice.”
“[R]acial injustice is something we need to explore, not only cognitively or intellectually—it’s also an experiential, body-based reality. It’s about how we are together,” the article stated.
Harvard declined to comment on the course when asked.
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