Fall 2026 Opera on Screen

Fall 2026 Opera on Screen

World-Class Opera. Shared Discovery. Free Community Screenings. Looking for an afternoon filled with extraordinary music, compelling stories, and friendly company? Join the Humanities Seminars Program this fall for free screenings of four legendary opera productions...
The Operas of Wagner

The Operas of Wagner

This course invites students into the bold world of Richard Wagner (1813–1883), whose operas reshaped the course of music history. Wagner’s works broke with convention through their seamless musical flow, adventurous chromatic harmony, and visionary approach to...
Vergil’s Aeneid: The Epic That Made Rome

Vergil’s Aeneid: The Epic That Made Rome

Since its completion in 19 BCE, the Aeneid has captivated readers with its artistic elegance, emotional depth, and thematic richness. In this course, we will follow Aeneas’ epic journey from the fallen city of Troy to Italy, where he must fulfill his destiny as the...
The Bible and the Quest for a Christian America

The Bible and the Quest for a Christian America

From Puritan New England to the present day, religion has been woven deeply into American public life, shaping ideas of national purpose, identity, and destiny. Yet the question of whether the United States is, or ever was, a Christian nation remains fiercely...
The Evolution of International Detective Fiction

The Evolution of International Detective Fiction

Few genres have proven as enduring or adaptable as detective fiction. From its nineteenth-century origins to its contemporary reinventions, the literature of detection continues to captivate readers while constantly reshaping its own rules. This course explores both...
Uncovering the Sun’s Fury: Miyake Events and Earth’s Past

Uncovering the Sun’s Fury: Miyake Events and Earth’s Past

For more than four billion years, Earth and Sun have been bound in a dynamic relationship. In our planet’s earliest era, powerful solar eruptions helped warm the young Earth and fueled the chemical reactions that shaped the atmosphere, oceans, and eventually life...
Meeting the Prehistoric Mind: Thinking in Symbols

Meeting the Prehistoric Mind: Thinking in Symbols

Language is one of the most fascinating things we humans do. It shapes how we think, how we connect with one another, and how we imagine the world. But where did this extraordinary ability come from? And what can the earliest traces of art, planning, and social life...
Documentary Film and the American Southwest

Documentary Film and the American Southwest

The American Southwest stands at the crossroads of many of the defining cultural, environmental, and political issues of our time. This course explores how documentary filmmakers have interpreted these complex realities, using the power of nonfiction storytelling to...