World War I

World War I

2018 marks the centennial of the Great War, as World War I was originally known. The War ended the Concert of Europe, reworked global geography and transformed the domestic structures of the combatants. This course will examine the War’s origins, explore how it ended...
The Balkans: Identity in Contact and Conflict

The Balkans: Identity in Contact and Conflict

The Balkans has typically been described stereotypically and which countries belong in the Balkans today remains contentious. In this course, we will examine the Balkans from a variety of perspectives: the cultural-historical background of the Balkans as a...
The Second World War: Media, Technology, Remembrance

The Second World War: Media, Technology, Remembrance

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the central conflict of the twentieth century. Our approach to the topic will be roughly chronological and will attempt to treat each of the major theaters and battles, themes, and ideas of the conflict. We will trace...
The American West in Myth and Reality

The American West in Myth and Reality

Most of the people in the world know something about the American West. Usually popular ideas about it come from the work of novelists, artists, performers, filmmakers and TV producers, who created a mythical time and place where self-reliant pioneers overcame...
Pueblos and their Ancestors – SECTION 1

Pueblos and their Ancestors – SECTION 1

Sorry! This course has sold out. Click here to join the course waitlist Many of us are familiar with and may have even visited the seemingly mystical places in the Four Corners of the U.S. Southwest on the Colorado Plateau, including Mesa Verde, Chaco Canyon, Canyon...
A Cultural History of German Romanticism

A Cultural History of German Romanticism

Romanticism embraces love and sensuality, but it includes much more. The romantic movement powerfully affected all forms of literature and the arts, and even science. In this seminar we investigate several texts in historical, political, philosophical, literary,...
Religion, Gods, and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt

Religion, Gods, and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt

This course will survey the fundamentals of ancient Egyptian religion from the Predynastic period (ca. 4000 BC) to the end of the New Kingdom (ca. 1000 BC). Material will be covered both as an overview of how things unfolded over the various periods as well as how...
Has the United States Become an Empire?

Has the United States Become an Empire?

Since the end of the Cold War the US has been widely viewed as an imperial power–one having a truly global level of influence with no peer. Instead of colonies the US has hundreds of military bases throughout the world. The “imperial”...
Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival

Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival

In life we search for God, spirituality, meaning, or identity. In medieval Italian literature Dante did this best in his Divina Commedia. In medieval German literature Wolfram von Eschenbach’s Parzival did the same. This course examines his monumental Grail romance...
Love in the Time of Pandemic: Boccaccio’s Decameron

Love in the Time of Pandemic: Boccaccio’s Decameron

Please Note: Summer 2020 Course Registration Opens Online on Monday, May 11th at 8AM Aristotle described the human species as a “social animal,” and that designation is perhaps more relevant than ever today. As people face “stay-at-home” orders due to COVID-19,...
The Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci

The Art and Science of Leonardo da Vinci

Please Note: Summer 2020 Course Registration Opens Online on Monday, May 11th at 8AM Leonardo continues to fascinate and provoke, his myriad activities still studied by experts in a wide variety of fields. New discoveries are continually being made about his...
Outsiders, Outliers, and Monsters in Renaissance Literature

Outsiders, Outliers, and Monsters in Renaissance Literature

NEW! HSP Deep Dive Seminar The social, economic, religious, and political instability of the Renaissance informed some of the most brilliantly anxious literature in the history of England. As some authors strained to construct coherent identities, hierarchies, and...
Language and Identity

Language and Identity

Please Note: Summer 2020 Course Registration Opens Online on Monday, May 11th at 8AM This course explores the relationship between language and identity–how individual and group identities interact with language use. Language can show belonging/not belonging to...
Dante’s Paradiso

Dante’s Paradiso

Please Note: Summer 2020 Course Registration Opens Online on Monday, May 11th at 8AM This class deals with the climax of Dante’s Divine Comedy. While Inferno depicts sin and evil, and Purgatorio portrays redemption, Paradiso illustrates the possibility of...
Soul Music and the Civil Rights Movement

Soul Music and the Civil Rights Movement

Please Note: Summer 2020 Course Registration Opens Online on Monday, May 11th at 8AM Rhythm and blues music emerged as a genre in the late 1940s, coinciding with the rise of multiple civil rights movements in the United States. This course explores culture and...
Tackling the Russian Soul

Tackling the Russian Soul

Sorry! This course has sold out. Click here to join the course waitlist This course explores the nuances and key features of the Russian cultural-societal-historical experience often called “the Russian Soul.” Caught between East and West, Asia and Europe, and...
Localizing the Sacred: Medieval Christian Architecture and Art

Localizing the Sacred: Medieval Christian Architecture and Art

Saints and cult sites were central to religious practice in the Christian Middle Ages. This course examines four sites (Qalʿat Simʿān, Constantinople, Conques, and Chartres) to find evolving concepts of sanctity and forms of cultic practice in medieval sociopolitical...