Special functions, KZ type equations and Representation theory

This paper is a set of lecture notes of my course "Special functions, KZ type equations, and representation theory" given at MIT during the spring semester of 2002. The notes do not contain new results, and are an exposition (mostly without proofs) of various published results in this area, illustrated by the simplest nontrivial examples. Some references are given at the end of each lecture, but their list is not complete; the reader is referred to the original articles for proofs and for complete references.