Course/Reweaving Project/Syllabus/2027 Spring
Properties
- academic-term
- 2027 Spring
- syllabus-status
- Draft
Overview
- Wednesday evenings, 4–7 p.m., in Cambridge, Massachusetts; twelve dated sessions from January 27 through April 21, 2027.
- Instructor: Person/Rebecca Henderson, John & Natty McArthur Professor at Harvard University.
- Teaching assistance and book scholarship enquiries: Person/Ray Carp.
- The document identifies itself as a draft syllabus for Spring 2027. Its filename carries the version label
Oct-26; the document does not state a publication date. Purpose
- An interdisciplinary conversation among university students and practitioners about living through interconnected social and ecological crises, choosing a life’s purpose, and finding useful ways to act.
- The course examines whether disconnection from oneself, other people, and nature helps explain these crises, and whether personal and collective inner work can contribute to systemic change.
- Readings, shared practices, and practitioner visits connect personal experience with institutions and social change. Intended outcomes include a sustaining personal practice, a better understanding of how systemic change happens, and possible directions for one’s own life.
Requirements
- Attend every class, apart from an absence approved in advance or a genuine emergency.
- Submit six responses to the readings, each no longer than 500 words. Responses are due approximately every other week on Monday evening before Wednesday’s class; prompts arrive a week beforehand. Specific submission dates are not listed in the draft.
- Join a small coached learning circle for an hour each week to support mutual learning and explore applications in everyday life. The draft anticipates virtual meetings but does not finalize the format.
- Spend at least fifteen minutes daily on a grounding or centering practice. Options include time in nature, journaling, gratitude, Tai Chi, and meditation.
Experiential Practice
- Shared exercises include deep listening, working with grief and difficult emotions, considering other perspectives, and noticing reactions to disagreement or challenging ideas.
- Exercise participation is voluntary. Some experiences may be challenging, and participants share responsibility for a supportive setting. Anyone who feels unsafe or uncomfortable is asked to contact Henderson or another teaching-team member for support.
Required Books
Schedule
January 27 — Introduction: What Is Going On?
- Required preparation
- Recommended preparation
February 3 — The Polycrisis and Possible Solutions
- Required preparation
- World Economic Forum, Global Risks Report 2026: “Key Findings,” pp. 7–12.
- Explore Probable Futures climate maps.
- “The Urgency of Building Systemic Risk Capacity in a Polycrisis World,” Person/Ajay Gambhir et al., One Earth 9(4), April 17, 2026: pp. 1–3 only.
- Person/Rupert Read/Book/22/Why Climate Breakdown Matters, Person/Rupert Read: “Introduction: On Climate, Ecological and Societal Breakdown,” labeled chapter X in the draft.
- Person/Sherri Mitchell/Book/18/Sacred Instructions, Person/Sherri Mitchell: chapter 2, “The Love of Thousands.”
- Choose a solutions topic from climate, food, water, or ecosystems and rewilding. Topic-specific readings are still to be supplied.
- Recommended preparation
February 10 — Reimagining Organizations and Governance
- Required preparation
- Case: “Nehemiah Mfg. Co.: Providing a Second Chance,” Person/Brian Trelstad, Harvard Business School Case 9-320-008.
- Case: “Reimagining Ashley Stewart (A),” Person/Jack Brookes, Person/Rebecca Henderson, and Person/James Rhee.
- Case: “Turning Ashley Stewart Around?” Person/Jack Brookes, Person/Rebecca Henderson, and Person/James Rhee.
- “Innovation in the 21st Century: Architectural Change, Purpose, and the Challenges of Our Time,” Person/Rebecca Henderson, Management Science 67(9), 2021: pp. 5479–5488.
- Person/Eric Ries/Book/26/Incorruptible, Person/Eric Ries: introduction and chapters 3 and 5.
- Case: “1worker1vote: MONDRAGON in the U.S.,” Person/Rebecca Henderson and Person/Michael Norris.
February 17 — Why Are We So Stuck?
- Required preparation
- Person/Vanessa Machado de Oliveira/Book/21/Hospicing Modernity, Person/Vanessa Machado de Oliveira: “Prep Work 1: Who the Heck Is Modernity?” pp. 15–29; “Prep Work 3: The Most Important Chapter,” pp. 41–61; and chapter 3, “The House of Modernity,” pp. 105–121.
- Person/Amitav Ghosh/Book/21/The Nutmeg’s Curse, Person/Amitav Ghosh: chapter 6, “Bonds of Earth.”
- “Settler Colonialism, Ecology, and Environmental Injustice,” Person/Kyle Whyte, Environment and Society: Advances in Research 9, 2018: pp. 125–144.
- Person/Robin Wall Kimmerer/Book/13/Braiding Sweetgrass, Person/Robin Wall Kimmerer: “Skywoman Falling,” pp. 3–10, and “Asters and Goldenrod,” pp. 37–45.
- “Prefixing the World,” Person/Jonathan Rowson: part 1, stopping before “Permacrisis Enter the Afterparty.”
- Book/24/The Blind Spot, Person/Adam Frank, Person/Evan Thompson, and Person/Marcelo Gleiser (2024): introduction.
- Recommended preparation
February 24 — Grief, Despair, and Cultivating the Self
- Required preparation
- Person/Mariana Alessandri/Book/23/Night Vision, Person/Mariana Alessandri: selected chapters, not yet specified.
- Person/Francis Weller/Book/15/The Wild Edge of Sorrow, Person/Francis Weller: selected chapters, not yet specified.
- Person/Valarie Kaur/Book/20/See No Stranger, Person/Valarie Kaur: selected chapters, not yet specified.
- Watch “The Long Journey to Becoming 10% Happier,” Person/Dan Harris.
- Listen to “The Science of Awe,” Person/Dacher Keltner, February 2023.
- The System Within: Addressing the Inner Dimensions of Sustainability and Systems Transformation, Person/Jamie Bristow and Person/Rosie Bell: introduction and sections 1–2.
- Person/David Abram/Book/96/The Spell of the Sensuous, Person/David Abram (1997): chapter 1, “The Ecology of Magic,” from p. 3 to the break at the top of p. 11.
- Recommended preparation
March 3 — What Might Change Look Like?
- Required preparation
- Lakota legend, “The End of the World.”
- “Deactivating the H2 Vortex,” Person/Jonathan Rowson.
- “What Is the Two Loops Model?” Berkana Institute, via Visible Network Labs.
- Person/David McRaney/Book/22/How Minds Change, Person/David McRaney: selected chapters, not yet specified.
- Person/Damon Centola/Book/21/Change, Person/Damon Centola: selected chapters, not yet specified.
- Watch Person/Tim Jackson’s TED talk “An Economic Reality Check,” for which a transcript is available; alternatively, read “The Myth of Growth,” pp. 1–16 in Person/Tim Jackson/Book/21/Post Growth.
- Book/23/Wellbeing, Person/Richard Layard and Person/Jan-Emmanuel De Neve: introduction and summary, pp. 1–14.
- Book/11/A Cooperative Species, Person/Samuel Bowles and Person/Herbert Gintis: selected chapters, not yet specified.
- Recommended preparation
March 10 — The Dynamics of Power
- Required preparation
- Case: “Brazil: Resistance and Re-democratization after the 1964 Military Coup,” Person/Zairo Cheibub, Person/Rebecca Henderson, and Person/Channing Spencer.
- Book/16/This Is an Uprising, Person/Mark Engler and Person/Paul Engler: introduction and “The Hybrid,” pp. 87–97.
- Book/21/Power, for All, Person/Julie Battilana and Person/Tiziana Casciaro: selected chapters, not yet specified.
- Person/Kazu Haga/Book/25/Fierce Vulnerability, Person/Kazu Haga: chapter 2, “The Compassion of Fierceness,” pp. 45–67.
- Recommended preparation
- Person/Hilary Cottam/Book/18/Radical Help, Person/Hilary Cottam: experiments 1 and 5.
- Book/17/The Nordic Secret, Person/Lene Rachel Andersen and Person/Tomas Björkman: chapter 7, “The Danish Spring.”
- “Bildung in the 21st Century,” Person/Jonathan Rowson.
- “The Making of Social Democracy,” Person/Daron Acemoglu et al., Journal of the European Economic Association (2025).
- Person/Marshall Ganz/Book/24/People, Power, Change, Person/Marshall Ganz: chapter 1, “Practicing Democracy”; alternatively, watch Ganz’s “Fighting for Change” on YouTube.
- “How Not to Do Activism,” Person/Michael Gecan, Boston Review, December 4, 2019.
March 24 — The Dynamics of Love
- Required preparation
- Case: “Martin Luther King and the Struggle for Black Voting Rights,” Person/David Moss.
- “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” Person/Martin Luther King Jr..
- Person/Howard Thurman/Book/49/Jesus and the Disinherited, Person/Howard Thurman: selected chapter, not yet specified.
- Person/Valarie Kaur/Book/20/See No Stranger, Person/Valarie Kaur: selected chapter, not yet specified.
- Person/bell hooks/Book/01/Salvation, Person/bell hooks: selected chapter, not yet specified.
- “Kin Relationality and Ecological Belonging: A Cultural Psychology of Indigenous Transcendence,” Person/Yuria Celidwen and Person/Dacher Keltner, Frontiers in Psychology (2023).
- Person/Killian Noe/Book/15/Descent into Love, Person/Killian Noe: chapter 1, “The Story before the Story.”
March 31 — Reimagining the Future and Driving Change
- Required preparation
- Case: “Leading and Learning from the Emerging Future: The Presencing Institute at a Crossroads,” Person/Nicole Marie and Person/Rebecca Henderson.
- Markets Built for Humans, Person/Eric Beinhocker and Person/Nick Hanauer.
- Person/Kristen R. Ghodsee/Book/23/Everyday Utopia, Person/Kristen R. Ghodsee: chapter 1, “To Boldly Know When No One Has Known Before.”
- Person/Rebecca Henderson/Book/20/Reimagining Capitalism, Person/Rebecca Henderson: chapter 7, “Changing Politics.”
- Watch “A Crash Course in Making Political Change,” Person/Katie Fahey, TED talk.
- “Critical Connections: Trust-Building as a Prerequisite to Systems Change,” Person/Susan M. Glisson, Du Bois Review 16(1), Spring 2019: pp. 181–188.
- Person/Martha Nussbaum/Book/13/Political Emotions, Person/Martha Nussbaum: “Teaching Patriotism,” pp. 204–225, and “How Love Matters for Justice,” pp. 387–397.
April 7 — Love and Power in Action
- Required preparation
- A regenerative-agriculture case, not yet identified.
- A climate-change case; the draft tentatively suggests Ørsted.
- Case: “Shorefast: A Strange and Familiar Way to Reimagine Capitalism,” Person/Brian Trelstad.
April 14 — Reimagining Democracy; The Human Side of Change
- The draft runs the phrases “Reimagining Democracy” and “The human side of change” together in its session heading, leaving the final title unclear.
- Required preparation
April 21 — What Is Mine to Do?
- Revisit the Great Salt Lake. The draft lists no additional reading or assignment for this final session.