Please note that this course meets in Oro Valley!

Water is the most important resource associated with ecological and human well-being, economic productivity, and security. Stresses are placed on the Earth’s water resources by climate change, population growth, conflicts, and other social changes. Achieving a sustainable use of water may be the most critical issue of natural resource management now facing many societies. This course addresses the science and technology underlying sustainable water use. We will discuss water use within energy generation, domestic supplies, and agriculture while highlighting water use and modification along entire production and supply chains. Water use within agriculture, for example, accounts for more than 70% of the world’s freshwater use. We will also examine multi-disciplinary case studies that highlight specific challenges, successes, and failures in water use and management around the world today.

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 geopolitical construct, as well as the ethnic, national, and religious identities as interpreted by the people themselves, governing entities, and outside observers. Documentary and narrative films by Balkan filmmakers will enhance our exploration of the various social, historical, and cultural factors that influence a group's conception of themselves and others. Literature, music, cuisine, and language will also be examined as means of constructing and expressing identity in this highly diverse multi-cultural and multi-lingual region.

Required films will be accessible on YouTube and Kanopy, a free video streaming service available through the Pima County Public Library. 

To study film language is to explore how films use narrative structure, visual style and sound design. We will begin at the beginnings of film, from the 1890s through the 1910s feature, the European art film movements of the 1920s and the arrival of sound. With this grounding in camerawork, editing, sound, action, and motifs, we will turn to examine the theory and practice of stylistic devices that developed in the second half century of film history -- neo-realism, distanciation, and feminist film. Throughout the course we will screen films* that use film language in deliberate ways to engage the audience in reflection on humanity, social justice, and history. Filmmakers include Cheryl Dunye, R.W. Fassbinder, Warwick Thornton, Rene Clair, D.W. Griffith, Akira Kurosawa, Hiroshi Shimizu, Chris Marker, Pablo Larrain, and David Miller.

*All films are available through Kanopy.com, a free online streaming service.  To access this service, students need a Pima County Public Library card.

“No person ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he/she is not the same person.” If this is the human condition according to Heraclitus, what remains permanent in the midst of change? This course will explore the twin themes of permanence and change as they are expressed in William Wordsworth’s Intimations Ode and four American novels: F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Nella Larsen’s Passing, and Philip Roth’s The Human Stain. We will consider the specific cultural context and key concerns of each text. Themes to be explored include childhood in the early 19^th century for Wordsworth; the United States in the 1920s for Fitzgerald; the post WWI world that shapes Hemingway’s characters in Europe; the ambiguous nature of race and gender in the American scene for Larsen; and the American angst at the end of the Twentieth Century for Roth.

Explore ancient Greek plays as dynamic examples of live theater and discover the often-spectacular performance aspects that rival opera, Busby Berkeley musicals or Cirque de Soleil. In this course, we will examine the role of the chorus and the choral odes, which form the musical framework for the plays and whose musical stylings are incredibly diverse and creative. We will encounter memorable characters presented in highly dramatic scenes that are performed to the audience’s delight, horror, and edification. Addressing significant issues of the day, ancient Greek drama continues to resonate today, proving their perpetual timeliness and emerging as dynamic, living entities with much to offer a contemporary audience. Basing the thematic interpretation on the performance aspects results in a rich, multi-textured appreciation of the plays. 

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 physical hardship, dangerous Indians, and environmental challenges to populate the region. Reality suggests a different picture. Hundreds of thousands of homesteaders failed, the vast majority of would-be miners never struck it rich, and most pioneers never met hostile Indians. Yet, at the same time reality really did follow the script. For some people the West offered mineral wealth, a family farm or rich grazing land, personal adventure, or a chance to escape tiresome routines and start life over in a new place. This seminar will discuss both the realities and the myths most of us have about settling the American West.

This course will explore how the political developments at the turn of the twentieth century shaped the culture of Vienna. The failure of liberalism after its brief period in power due to the economic crisis of the 1870s, the rise of anti-Semitic parties, and World War I caused vast cultural upheaval that may be seen in the period’s works of literature, music, art, architecture, philosophy of science, Zionism, and psychoanalysis. We will examine how writers, artists, and other cultural figures dealt with the devastation of World War I and the fall of the Habsburg Empire after centuries of rule. Finally, this course will trace how all of these aspects were prophetic of the worst catastrophes that the twentieth century would bring.

This course explores the United States Supreme Court and its role in deciding fundamental social questions. After an introductory class on the Court itself, we will focus on landmark cases involving race in education, abortion, religious freedom, and wartime detention. Readings will include edited versions of the Court’s opinions. Students will develop a deeper understanding of the Court’s power, function, and role as part of the larger government, and appreciate whether and when we should accede to the Court’s interpretation of the Constitution.

The city has been the motor of progress in modernity and the crucible of many of the social movements that have contested the darker underside of the modern. This seminar will explore how cities came to reside at the center of the modern project, how they have been transformed over time, and what those transformations might mean. It will also examine how the work of artists, most importantly film makers, react to the urban process, and how their creations contribute to understanding the complex dynamic that forms the culture and politics of cities.

The class will focus on a variety of cities as well as important films about them to show how the city passes from backdrop to protagonist of the changes in the urban process. We will pay particular attention to the ways in which the content and form of film reveal the authors’ views, and we will work through the techniques necessary to decipher the creative process. This will allow all of those in the class to hone their analytic skills as urbanists as well as film viewers.

The tragicomedy genre, so prevalent in our day, has actually been evolving for many centuries. While one can take a primarily aesthetic approach to any genre--what makes comedy comedy?--here we will include a fuller consideration of history, stressing the social, political, and philosophical contexts of the particular plays.

How does a certain “age” or “culture” perceive tragicomedy? What are the roots of this standpoint, and how does it evolve across cultural and temporal barriers? How do interpretation and performance affect our understanding of the works today? How is it plays, on the page as well as performed, provide so many opportunities for critical thinking? Supplemental readings and viewings will complement the play reading list. Professional actors will present key scenes during many of the lectures.

One of the most popular and beloved novelists in the English language, Jane Austen wrote novels that have beguiled and challenged readers for two centuries.

For some, Austen is our beloved "Aunt Jane," chatting with us about tea parties, excursions in pony phaetons, and ill-advised epistolary relationships. For others, she is a subversive ironist whose piercing vision of human foibles offers us reflections relevant to our own lives and times.

How did this seventh child of a provincial clergyman, a single woman who lived an intensely domestic life, produce some of the greatest novels in the English language? What makes them great? We will examine and discuss Austen's complete works in this class. We will look at historical, literary historical, and cultural contexts of the works, paying particular attention to Austen's style and approach to the novel as a genre.

This course addresses the twentieth-century genocide that was the Holocaust, the attempted annihilation of European Jews and other designated racial and political opponents led by the Third Reich in Germany. We will review the horrific events of the Holocaust and explore the current scholarly understanding of this history: What does it mean to remember the Holocaust today?

The Holocaust continues to be relevant, and not only for surviving victims and perpetrators. We will consider how and why the Holocaust has been remembered in the United States and abroad, whether in museums and schools or popular culture and the Internet. We will also discuss in particular how visual evidence of atrocities has been circulated to provide testimony and promote popular awareness of the crime of genocide.

Perennially fascinating, ancient Greek mythology has inspired and continues to inform creative activity from “highbrow” literature to popular media. This course will explore major mythological events and characters beginning with the creation tale, which features a succession of generations of gods embroiled in gender and generational conflict. We will examine the gods’ importance in ancient Greek ritual and cultural life and then hero tales—Herakles, Oedipus, the Trojan War cycle, and more. By appreciating the diversity and complexities of ancient Greek mythological tales, we can move beyond the merely entertaining stories to learn that these myths touch on virtually every aspect of human relationships and activities. The stories reveal ancient Greek thinking on profound human issues, and these insights will in turn illuminate our contemporary values and beliefs.

The “scandalous female genre” has long had box-office value and cultural presence. This seminar explores the history of such women in films. We will first discuss genre conventions: how film style and storytelling present and comment on scandalous behavior. We then will explore how film-industry conditions permit and encourage portraying scandalous females. Each week we will engage a key question of interpretation: whether the character’s scandalous behavior is shameful, or whether it reveals and critiques gender norms and social-cultural conventions. This seminar covers: early film melodrama; the 1920s “new woman”; Production Code self-censorship (precode sexual-harassment films, code-era exploitation and containment of scandalous women, and postcode “adult-theme” women); how film promotion employs gender, genre, and star images; scandalous and unruly women of color; and second- and third-wave feminist icons.

The short story has held a prominent place in Latin American literature for at least 200 years, but it is only within the past few decades that it has become widely known in translation. The course will use the short story as a vehicle to introduce some of Latin America’s best-known writers, including Nobel Laureates Miguel Angel Asturias (Guatemala), Gabriel García Márquez (Colombia), and Mario Vargas Llosa (Peru), as well as Jorge.Luis Borges (Argentina) and Isabel Allende (Chile and the U.S.). The course will draw on their short stories and those of a few younger writers, including outstanding U.S. Latino and Latina writers. It will focus on the cultural, artistic, social, and political dimensions of a wide variety of this fascinating literary form.

This course explores Islam and Muslim societies in the contemporary period. It begins by focusing on the fundamentals of Islam, such as the life of Muhammad, the Qur’an, law, and theology. The topics we will discuss include opportunities for Muslims in the United States, Islamic spirituality (including Sufism), and successful Muslim-majority countries, such as Indonesia. The primary challenges we will address include political authoritarianism, sectarianism, and religious extremism. The objective of this seminar is to provide accurate information about the religion of Islam and to demystify Muslim cultures that frequently are portrayed in the media as violent and irrationally hostile to the West. Seminarians are encouraged to bring their questions regarding Islam and Muslims to this class.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS CLASS WILL BEGIN ON SEPTEMBER 28 AND END ON DECEMBER 7!

Many of Shakespeare’s most powerful, intelligent, and subversive characters are female. How were such vividly complex roles constructed in a culture that legally defined women as property on the grounds of their intellectual and moral inferiority? Given the early modern imperatives of feminine silence, chastity, and obedience, how is it that women impel Shakespeare’s plots, orchestrate conflicts, and—in many instances— impose “resolutions”?

This course will address the social and historical contexts of Shakespeare's women and how the playwright both generates and subverts his culture’s assumptions about gender. While examining the extraordinary vitality of his female characters, we will ask: What is their relation to the state, the family, the church, political economy, and desire? In short, what is their relation to order and disorder?

Each class will focus on a different play: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It, The Merchant of Venice, and Othello.

ATTEND THIS COURSE IN OUR NEW ORO VALLEY LOCATION

LOCATION: TOWN OF ORO VALLEY COUNCIL CHAMBER | 11000 N La Cañada Dr | Parking Is Free

Dante’s 700-year-old masterpiece the Divine Comedy still attracts great attention. For centuries readers have been drawn to his vivid description of the afterlife. This course will explore the first portion of the Divine Comedy, Inferno, in its entirety. The class will focus on the organization of his hell, from lesser to greater sins, the numerous historical personages and references in it, and its implicit theology. We will also look at Dante’s narrative, discussing how the actions of his characters and their respective punishments depict the true nature of the sins.

The purpose of Dante’s voyage is not about merely observing the torments of the damned, but rather about gaining knowledge of the true nature of evil. While many contemporary readers might disagree with the categories of Dante’s sins, the question of evil is as relevant today as it was in the fourteenth century.

This seminar examines the relations between culture and power in nineteenth-century France through the study of masterpieces of realist fiction. The realist novel is a cultural artefact specific to the nineteenth century, a genre born with the modern democratic nation-state at a time when (relative) freedom of expression allowed for the emergence of a public sphere. The four novels studied in this course also have in common that they are romans d’éducation (or Bildungsroman) thematically focused on young men’s struggles to succeed in a democratized society, i.e., to reap the revolutionary promise of freedom, fraternity, and equality. By giving voice and shape to the sociopolitical aspirations of the French people, the novel responded to the needs of an increasingly large reading public that faced the same dilemmas and recognized itself in it.

This course examines the issues, artists, and theories surrounding the rise of Postmodernism in the visual arts from 1970 into the twenty-first century. We will explore the emergence of pluralism in the visual arts against a backdrop of the rise of the global economy. And we will look at the “crisis” of postmodern culture, which critiques ideas of history, progress, and personal and cultural identities, as well as embracing irony and parody, pastiche, nostalgia, mass or “low” culture, and multiculturalism.

In a chronological fashion, and framed by a discussion of such midcentury artistic predecessors as Abstract Expressionism, Pop, and Minimal Art, the class traces the wide-ranging visual art practices that emerged in 1970s: Conceptual Art, Performance, Feminist Art and identity politics, art activism, the culture wars, Appropriation Art, Neoexpressionism, Street Art, the Young British Artists, the Museum, and Festivalism.

What's really in the Bible? As opposed to what we've been told by well-meaning but often not well-informed parents, clergy, and others? This course provides an innovative look at many instructive and amusing aspects of this most consequential book in Western culture. It examines clichés and received wisdom about the text, with a view to replacing widely accepted readings with students’ own more informed and insightful revisionings of the book. Not your average Bible reading class, this course aims to explore many controversial and contested passages, and to explode preconceived and ill-considered views about them.

For instance, did you know that Moses and Aaron were born of incest? That Abraham allowed his wife--who was his half-sister--to serve in the harems of two kings? That God tried, after browbeating Moses into leading the exodus, to kill him--with no warning or explanation?

And there are more surprises:

• The sin of Onan had nothing to do with masturbation, but was instead his refusal to impregnate his brother’s widow.
• Judah, ancestor of the greatest tribe of Israel, ordered his daughter-in-law to be burnt for harlotry, but desisted when he was exposed as one of her customers.
• David said that his love for Jonathan, Saul’s son, was “passing the love of women.”
• After becoming king, David committed adultery and then murder to cover it up.
• Solomon had his older brother, the rightful heir to the throne, executed on a trumped-up charge involving yet another concubine of David.
• Even in the New Testament Jesus says, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother.”

The course will examine explanations for these and other Biblical “problems” with the help of recent scholarship. To see the Bible in its depth and complexity, we will look at its blunt, earthy vigor and surprising treatments of God as a character in these stories: hence the focus on texts that are shocking, lurid, or simply inexplicable.

We will begin with the complex of legends about Moses and the possible historical reality behind his story. Then we will go back to the legends of Genesis, dominated by fratricidal conflict. Next, we follow the linked themes of warriors versus shepherds through several books, including the insistence that God is the true warrior-king and that human kingship is an affront to him. Finally, we arrive at David, who is the great ambiguous figure in the Bible. Additionally, we will explore why the Bible had such a formative effect on Western culture, one that transcends all the religious formulations that sought to embody it.

If you are open-minded and can tolerate my love of digressions (which I share with Holden Caulfield) and of sarcasm (my college major), you are welcome. Bring a Bible: any translation will do.

Utilitarianism is the idea that one ought to perform those actions that produce the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers, which is one of the most important views of morality ever developed. In this course we will explore Utilitarianism’s philosophical origins, its influences on politics and literature, and recent attempts to show that contemporary neuroscience and psychology validate it. We will read works of the philosophers David Hume, Adam Smith, and John Stuart Mill, and excerpts from the novels of Dickens and Dostoevsky. The contemporary writers we will critically examine include the Princeton philosopher Peter Singer, whose controversial Utilitarian views have sparked intense and often vitriolic political and moral debate throughout the world, and the Harvard psychologist Joshua Greene, who has claimed that the fMRI results of people making moral decisions provide powerful reasons for us all to become Utilitarians.

The United States was founded on broad principles of individual freedom – declarations of the right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” were central to the American Revolution and the subsequent foundations of the new country. Looking back, we know that those rights were meant at the time for white land-owning men, and it was only after two centuries of discrimination that formal actions were taken to eliminate institutional racism and gender discrimination from U.S. law.

This dismantling of institutional racism did not, however, encompass all Americans. Today, American Indians and Alaska Natives are under tremendous regulation and government oversight, regulations that do not apply to other groups within the United States. Each week of the class will focus on a different aspect of these regulations, with a particular focus on family and children, religion and culture, and control over various forms of property.

Professor Kosta repeats her popular course from 2015 with a few variations:

Germany’s Weimar Republic (1919-1933) rose out of the ashes of World War I to become both an immensely creative and fraught period of the twentieth century. The exciting capital Berlin, a laboratory of modernity, was the center of radical experimentation in the visual and performing arts, in mass entertainment and theater, and in literature and architecture. While the cultural stage was vibrant and intoxicating, the shell shock of World War I, the demands of the Versailles Treaty, economic instability, social upheaval, and political turmoil also haunted the celebrated roaring twenties. To explore the rich landscape of the 1920s, this seminar examines the avant-garde movements Expressionism and Dada along with the vast social changes and technological developments exemplified in Lang’s film Metropolis and Brecht’s theater. Still relevant today, this period continues to fascinate us.

The movie The Blue Angel will be screened in the classroom on February 12, 2018.

Art has often been plundered or stolen during times of war, occupation, or even peace. This course explores the historical, political, and legal framework of specific moments when art has been taken. The class focuses on how art has been used for propagandistic purposes, as pawns in high-stakes politics, or as a “cash cow” in the legitimate or black market. It also looks at ethical issues of museum collecting, the debate over cultural property, and the dilemma of recovery or repatriation of stolen art. Case studies include the looting of Greece by the Romans; plunder of art from Italy and Egypt by Napoleon Bonaparte; removal of sculpture from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin; seizure by the Nazis of art from Jews and museums; recent cases of the looting of archaeological sites and museums, especially in conflict zones in the Middle East; and museum thefts in Europe and the U.S.

England during the reign of Victoria is famous for industrial, scientific, and technological advances, as well as sexual repression. But it was also an era when the ghost story – and its extensions in longer fictions during one of the heydays of the English novel – flourished in print just as old traditions about the spirit world were being called into question by the many supposed “progresses” of the day. This seminar sets out to explain both the wide range of ghost stories during the time before and after Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” in 1843 (which will be included) and the many ways that “ghostliness” was incorporated into seemingly “realistic” Victorian fictions from Dickens to Henry James, partly through their reworkings of the earlier “Gothic” tradition in fiction and drama.

According to George Kennan, the Great War was “the seminal event of the Twentieth Century.” The war triggered both the Russian Revolution and the Irish Rebellion, and ended by toppling monarchies and destroying empires.

But perhaps the “shock of the new” that most surprised was the horror of modern, mechanized warfare. T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front are probably the most famous postwar texts, but they are only two of many brilliant literary works the war produced and that we will read. English poets like Wilfred Owen reshaped the way we perceive not only war but language itself.  And authors like Ernest Hemingway in In Our Time, and Humphrey Cobb in The Paths of Glory have brought the war into more recent books and films.

The Great War created a new kind of literature, ranging from pulp fiction to radical experimentations with form. This literary revolution occurred on both sides of the Atlantic and profoundly affected what we today call modernism.

Travels in Consciousness, taught by Norman Austin, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Classics,  will explore the history of consciousness as reflected in a variety of texts. Readings will range widely, from Bronze Age Greece to American authors of the Twentieth Century.  By “consciousness” is meant the ways in which individuals conceive of themselves and their world; it has to do not only with thought but also with feeling, volition, and behavior. So regarded consciousness constitutes individual identity and defines the human condition.  After an introductory presentation at the first meeting, the seminar will address itself to Homer’s Odyssey and Plato’s Phaedo, works that display two principal approaches to consciousness from antiquity: the poetic and the philosophical. Discussion of the Homeric consciousness will embrace such topics as fate, the gods, and the “self.” Plato’s dialogue will be studied as the seminal statement of the Platonic theory of the soul, which was adapted to become the foundation of Christian theology. The seminar will then leap forward to the English Renaissance and examine Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus as a dramatization of the tragediesinherent in the Platonic-Christian concept of the soul.  Matthew Arnold’s “Dover Beach” and T. S. Eliot’s “The Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” will be studied as poems sounding the death knell in the 19th century of the Christian concept of the soul and the breakdown in the early 20th  century of the old forms and ideas that had dominated Western consciousness since antiquity.  Selections will also be read from Emily Dickinson’s poems and Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass as indicators of the birth of a new definitively American and post-Christian idea of the soul. The seminar will then move back in time to study the consciousness of a lady-in-waiting at the court of the Empress of Japan at Kyoto, circa 1000 CE, the setting of Sei Shonagon’s memoir, Pillow Book. The seminar will conclude withToni Morrison’s Sula, a novel written by a modern African-American woman, which reflects a search for a new vocabulary in which to represent consciousness of the modern age.

Science fiction is a modern art form closely tied to advances in science and technology. It generates an imaginary space where a new development in science can be imaginatively tested for its possible effects on humanity. Some scenarios are cautionary, while others are hopeful and exhilarating. When combined with the fantasy genre, these stories set the imagination free to soar. This seminar will examine a series of great science fiction and fantasy narratives, including novels, short stories, movies, and TV shows. Whether the topic is robotics, artificial intelligence, space exploration, alien languages, enhanced intelligence, surveillance, time travel, or the future of gender, each of the works we consider will have a particular take on an alternate reality that humans may inhabit. 

Superman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Batman, Captain America, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Black Widow--the list of America’s superheroes is long. Comic books, TV, and cinema have long built up the appeal of superheroes, and they remain popular. Embodiments of cultural meanings, social practices, and political imaginaries, superheroes tell us stories about ourselves. Historically, representations of superheroes have been connected to national security and the Cold War, changing gender roles, racial stereotypes, and environmental issues. In this course we attend to gender, race, and sex as they play out in the bodies, lives, and storylines of America’s superheroes. We ask: What can Wonder Woman’s history tell us about gender and sex in the 20th century? How do Batman and Superman differently represent masculinity? And what do superheroes reveal about national identity, cultural memory, and collective hope? 

There Is Nothing Like a Dame! celebrates the women of Broadway who wrote the scripts, composed the songs, penned the lyrics, designed, directed, choreographed, and starred in classics of the American musical theater.
 
The seminar introduces the women of the Golden Age of musical theater who paved the way for the women now working on new musicals for the millennium. Revel in archival performances by the great ladies of Broadway past and cheer for the new divas of the Great White Way who are creating musical memories for a new generation of theatergoers.
 
There Is Nothing Like a Dame! also goes behind the curtain to explore the contributions of women to the American musical. Fighting social and theatrical sexism, the great women of Broadway created a musical heritage that endures today. That great dame Ethel Merman said it best when she belted out “Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better!”

I have put in [Ulysses] so many enigmas and  puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant.  James Joyce
                                                                                                                           
While most of the great avant-garde art works of the early 20thcentury rest securely within the canon of modernist classics, Ulysses (1922) continues to challenge and, as the author had hoped, puzzle us. We are still struggling to become Joyce’s contemporaries.
 
This seminar will continue the effort through a critical reading of the novel. After an introduction to some pertinent contexts, we shall proceed through several of the 18 episodes each meeting.
 
Weekly reading will average 80-some pages of the densely allusive narrative. The instructor will provide commentary and read crucial passages aloud. Ulysses is one of the most technically accomplished novels, and approaching it through listening is perhaps the surest way of becoming Joyce’s contemporary.

 With an eye to the esthetic qualities of the human body in motion, this course surveys diverse forms of dance in many cultures of the world in order to deepen our appreciation of the spiritual, emotional, and intellectual dimensions of this universal mode of expression. We begin with studying how and why the human body is uniquely designed for dancing. We continue with the study of rhythm as a psycho-kinesthetic phenomenon and observe how dance, song, and poetry arise in the same experience. We then trace the evolution of dance forms from spiritual to classical, folk, social, vernacular, and personal that societies typically develop through time. Special study will be given to the development of dance in ancient Greece that provided the foundation for dance as an art form in Western Civilization. The course is illustrated with visual and auditory materials of some of the most exotic and fascinating dance forms practiced in history and today. Live demonstrations and modest class participation will also animate our exploration of the Terpsichorean art!

Our global environmental problems need attention from almost all legal disciplines, including constitutional law, property law, natural resources regulation, and international and comparative law.  This timely class presents core issues in environmental law – broadly construed -- based on cutting-edge research by faculty at the College of Law. The issues are: how environmental law can be grounded in water law (Glennon); environmental law's constraints and competing concerns within the context of  international trade (Gantz); how migration of species is and can be regulated, with special reference to invasive species (Miller); the contested climate-change challenge, with a focus on the pressing question of which role our courts are and should be playing(Engel); the potential for constructive interaction between traditional land law and environmental law (Stavang).

ENDRE STAVANG is Professor of Law at the University of Oslo and Visiting Scholar in Residence (2012-13) at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. He initiated the Research Group on Natural Resource Law in Oslo and leads its property team. Stavang was a Fulbright research scholar for one year at Yale Law School and has hands on experience as an appellate court judge and an in-house oil, gas, and energy lawyer.

ROBERT GLENNON is the author of Unquenchable: America’s Water Crisis and What To Do About It, which was published in April 2009 by Island Press. His previous books include the highly-acclaimed Water Follies: Groundwater Pumping and the Fate of America’s Fresh Waters (2002). Glennon is Regents Professor and Morris K. Udall Professor of Law and Public Policy in the Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona.

DAVID GANTZ is Samuel M. Fegtly Professor of Law and Director, International Trade Law Program. He teaches/has taught International Trade Law, International Environmental Law NAFTA and Other Trade Agreements, Public International Law, Introduction to American Law and European Union Law. He is a graduate of Stanford Law School, and his contributions to public and institutional service and he has received many awards bout for this and for his teaching.

MARC L. MILLER is the Interim Dean & Ralph W. Bilby Professor at the University of Arizona College of Law. Dean Miller taught at Emory University Law School from 1988-2005, where he served as Associate Dean for Faculty and Scholarship (2003-2005). He is a graduate of the University of Chicago Law School and the author of more than 70 articles and essays on a wide range of environmental, criminal justice, immigration and legal theory topics. He currently serves as a series editor for The Edge - books focused on the intersection of environmental science, law, and policy. Dean Miller has been a visiting professor at Stanford Law School and Duke Law School. Dean Miller is a member of the American Law Institute (ALI), and an advisor to various criminal justice and environmental publications and organizations.

KIRSTEN ENGEL is the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of Law at the James E. Rogers College of Law at the University of Arizona where she teaches and researches in the areas of environmental and administrative law. The emphasis of her more recent scholarship is the response of state and local governments to climate change in the United States and especially the constitutional and economic impediments these governments face seeking to mitigate climate change in the absence of comprehensive federal climate change legislation. Dean Engel is the co-author of an environmental law textbook, book chapters and articles. Her work appears in journals such as the UCLA Law Review Discourse, the Minnesota Law Review, and the Ecology Law Quarterly. Prior to joining the law faculty at the University of Arizona, Dean Engel held numerous permanent and temporary appointments within academia and in the public and nonprofit sectors, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Massachusetts' Attorney General's Office, and Harvard, Vanderbilt, and Tulane Law Schools.

The cello is an incredibly expressive and versatile instrument, reflecting the scope and trends of western music history. In this course, we will explore the origins of the cello, compare the unique artistries of historic cellists, enjoy movements from the monumental Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Bach, look through the intimate lens of sonatas and chamber music, and indulge in the expressive and virtuosic brushstrokes of the concerto repertoire. Live performances by outstanding cellists from the University of Arizona Cello Studio will be featured in class. Finally, this incredibly rich and revealing repertoire will be framed within the larger context of the constantly changing trends that shape music history and culture.

This course traces the often-changing experiences American Indians had from just before the War for Independence to the twentieth century. It will focus on how they dealt with the expanding nation and its pioneer citizens. Their tactics varied from contact, cooperation, and competition to conflict with the newcomers. Major differences in how the two races saw their lands and resources explain the violence that resulted. The U.S. lacked any consistent policy for its treatment of the tribes; and even when its goals seemed humane, their implementation could be disastrous. When military operations ended, most of the survivors lived on reservations until after World War II. Since then, educated tribal leaders, changing federal laws, waning anti-Indian prejudice, and increasing cultural pride have brought major changes to their situation in the general society.

This course examines modern histories of collective memories through the institutions and technologies that facilitate recall, such as museums, photography, and visual culture. We will consider moments of tension when history and memory appear to be at odds, when competing interests in the meanings of the past have created social conflict, or when silences about the past are broken. Case studies may include: the Enola Gay exhibit at the Smithsonian in 1995; appeals for apologies for past atrocities, such as slavery, human trafficking, or genocide; or lynching photographs in the “Without Sanctuary” exhibit of 2002. While the course emphasizes how societies come to terms with painful or shameful memories, we will also focus on the ways in which visual sources, particularly photographs, have shaped discourses of memory. By learning from scratch how to “read” historical photographs, we will interrogate the ways in which iconic images, snapshots, and “Kodak moments” have become integral to thinking about collective memory.

Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron (ca. 1348-1351) is a masterpiece of world literature. Boccaccio is one of the Three Crowns, the three founding authors of Italian literature (along with Dante and Petrarch). Yet his Decameron is a conundrum. Composed in the wake of the Black Plague of 1348, the Decameron presents a world populated with flesh-and-blood individuals motivated by personal desires. Often its characters are women, and their desires are sexual; Boccaccio’s female characters use their intellect to achieve personal gratification. Yet to his contemporary readership, Boccaccio did not appear revolutionary. Although he was an innovative author in many ways, Boccaccio grounded his text in the tradition of bawdy literature already well established in the Middle Ages. In this seminar we will discuss the Decameron closely, examining its links to the works that preceded it, and its impact on subsequent literary developments throughout the world.  

U.S. intervention in underdeveloped countries raises many basic issues of international relations and foreign policy. The main purpose of this class is to provide students with an ability to examine such issues critically and in a historical context. Among the general areas we will look at are: the historical background that led to the emergence of the USA as a major power, beginning at the end of the 1940s; the role of covert operations during the Cold War; the Vietnam War and its long-term effects; the end of the Cold War; and the War on Terror. The course lectures will emphasize the remarkable continuity of U.S. policy from the Cold War through the period after it.

Stereotypes of dictators, machismo, endemic drug violence, and staunch Catholicism are often applied to Latin America. Countries as different as Argentina, Mexico, and Brazil are lumped together despite varying ethnicities and economics. How can we tell the difference between the myths and the realities? How can a little island like Cuba so enrage the United States? This ten-week course approaches these questions topically. Lectures and selected readings explore topics such as the decline of Catholicism, democracy, the role of Jews and Muslim immigrants in shaping this region, U.S.-Latin American relations, charismatic leaders, the history of drug production, and women in the future of Latin America. Military regimes and guerrilla movements will also be covered. The aim of this course is to inform, share opinions, entertain, and help people understand news and politics from an informed perspective.

Dante’s 700-year-old masterpiece the Divine Comedy still attracts great attention. For centuries readers have been drawn to his vivid description of the afterlife. This course will explore the first portion of the Divine Comedy, Inferno, in its entirety. The class will focus on the organization of his hell, from lesser to greater sins, the numerous historical personages and references in it, and its implicit theology. We will also look at Dante’s narrative, discussing how the actions of his characters and their respective punishments depict the true nature of the sins.

The purpose of Dante’s voyage is not about merely observing the torments of the damned, but rather about gaining knowledge of the true nature of evil. While many contemporary readers might disagree with the categories of Dante’s sins, the question of evil is as relevant today as it was in the fourteenth century.

This course explores the beliefs and cultures of Islam and the Muslim world. It covers the life and teachings of Muhammad, major themes of the Qur’an, and the primary differences between Sunni and Shi’i Muslims. It also introduces aspects of Muslim cultures in the Middle East and South Asia in order to demonstrate the plurality of traditions within the religion of Islam. It concludes with a review of American foreign policy in the Muslim world over the past half century and its impact on Muslim-American relations.

This class continues the discussion of Technological Wonders of Classical Antiquity from 2016. While the 2016 course focused on pyrotechnology (pottery and bronze-casting), this course will emphasize stone working (sculpture and temple architecture). The 2016 course is NOT a prerequisite to this class:

What were the key technologies and major technical advancements of classical Greek antiquity? This course examines the interrelated achievements of ancient sculpture making and temple construction. From the colossal nude males of the Archaic period to the stunning nude females of Hellenistic times, sculptors continued refining their craft to challenge both material limitations and cultural norms. The construction of such wonders as the Parthenon on the Athenian Acropolis required sculptors to work closely with stonemasons, gilders, and woodworkers for over a decade — a great accomplishment of architectural expertise, artistic inspiration, and managerial skill. The coordination of such a diverse group of technical specialists spanned the social strata of Athens and produced monuments that are as iconic today as they were in antiquity.

While many people living in Tucson and its surroundings are experienced outdoor aficionados, many lack an understanding of our near neighbors--those plants and animals that live close to us in our urban environment. Certainly we can choose to ignore the flora and fauna of our desert community and function reasonably well. Our lives are enriched, however, if we take the time to develop a better understanding of our companion species. Developing this awareness/knowledge ?is the goal of this course. Using ecology, the scientific analysis and study of interactions among organisms and their environment, we will also explore how these species interrelate. Lectures will explain some basic biological principles, how deserts are defined, how our deserts align themselves, and how biological organisms connect. Finally, students will get a sampling of information about the major types of flora and fauna that live near us.

Science and technology enhance our understanding of cultural history by uniting scholars across disciplines in order to expand art historical perspectives and preserve cultural masterpieces. This course begins with an overview of the campus collections and the basic tenets of museum collections care. Guest presentations by scholars from across the University of Arizona will examine the studies of art production, materials science, and cutting-edge dating and imaging methods. In conclusion, we will review the latest in conservation technology and the issues surrounding the collecting and preservation of contemporary art today.

This course steps back from polls and punditry to reflect on broader historical developments. It considers women in politics, divisions between rich and poor, and ethnic minorities becoming the new majority. To deepen our analyses, we will consider writings on politics and ethics, including some that shaped the founding of the republic as well as recent research on political cognition and moral imagination. That research has brought us back to Hume’s view that “reason is a slave of the passions,” something abundantly apparent in the current campaign. Stepping back from the attack ads, we will reflect on the rhetorical dynamics of American politics, including ongoing shifts in the principal parties, the role of debates as tests of character, the evolution of media and advertising, and other factors that shape how we feel about politics.

Berlin, capital of the Weimar Republic between the two World Wars, was one of the most exciting cities in Europe--the place of the most radical experimentation in the visual and performing arts, in mass entertainment and theater, in literature and architecture. Berlin was a laboratory of modernity. While the cultural stage was vibrant and intoxicating, the celebrated roaring twenties also was haunted by the shell shock of World War I and by economic instability, social upheaval, and political turmoil. This class explores avant-garde movements like Expressionism and Dada, as well as major works like Bertolt Brecht’s innovative play Three Penny Opera and Fritz Lang’s monumental film Metropolis. In this seminar we will consider the period’s challenges to notions of art, vast social changes, and the impact of mass culture and technological developments on twentieth-century sensibilities. And we will come to see why this period still fascinates us today.

"Gothic" literature, theater, and (more recently) films have been a part of Western culture for over 250 years and have presented us, in disguise, with heightened -- and sometimes lurid and monstrous -- symbols of what really haunts us as a culture in our individual, social, and cultural sub-conscious.

This course will look at how the Gothic began as a literary form in the 1760's, how and why it has changed as a mode of fiction over time, and the ways in which it draws out repressed levels of belief and feeling in our culture. By the end, we will try to answer a basic question: What is this "Gothic" phenomenon really about, and why does it keep appearing (like a ghost or vampire) in different forms right down to today?

Join anthropologist/classical archaeologist David Soren in a survey of the art and archaeology of ancient Rome. This course will highlight the major wonders of the Roman world from the 8th century B.C. to the 6th century A.D., including the historical truth behind Rome's alleged founders Romulus and Remus, the frightening demonology of the Etruscans, the remarkable seven-terraced sanctuary of Praeneste, and the unique construction of the Pantheon. Dr. Soren has recently been assigned to direct a miniseries on ancient Rome, and he will discuss highlights of his project throughout Italy. The course will proceed chronologically from the founding of Rome through the Roman Republic and Empire, and will also explore the latest evidence regarding the fall of the Roman Empire, including his own work on the role played by Plasmodium falciparum malaria and the new University of Arizona research into ancient climate change and what has been termed the decennial decimations.
 

What were the key technologies and major technical achievements of classical Greek antiquity? This course examines two crucial and interconnected industries: ceramics and bronze-working. The two crafts are often discussed separately, but in this course we will focus on their deeply rooted connections. We will examine the qualities of the raw materials used, the technological know-how of potters and bronze-smiths, the pyrotechnological principles of their kilns and furnaces, as well as the social, political, economic, and cultural milieus that promoted their breakthroughs. We will explore their workshops, toolkits, apprenticeship structures, and technological treatises by using ancient evidence (archaeological, visual, textual) as well by witnessing their enduring qualities in modern production contexts.

In this cultural excursion we will explore literary and artistic highlights of the diverse cultures that have flourished in the concise landmass of ancient Anatolia (modern Turkey) —Paleolithic and Neolithic habitation, Hittites, Amazons, Assyrians, Hebrew Biblical, Troy, Phrygia, Lydia, Lycia, Ionian Greeks, Roman, early Christian, Byzantine, Ottoman. Textbooks provide historical background; and art, architecture, poetry, philosophy, and other writings offer insights into the distinctive qualities that make these cultures memorable and still fascinating. The diverse values and creative expressions show the various ways human societies have addressed issues we still grapple with: gender identity, humans’ place in the world, relationship with the gods, and more. An exciting, illuminating exploration!
 

The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) or "The Good Fight," as was it was commonly called on the left, was democracy's first major confrontation with fascism. Its indelible mark on Spain and on the international community is still felt today.  This course will look at the war, its impact and rich international intellectual legacy. The examination of the war will begin with a consideration of it from the Spanish perspective, uncovering the deep tensions in Spanish society and politics that led up to the armed conflict. From there our analysis will move to the conflict's prosecution and the war's effects on Spanish civil society and on modern warfare. The Diaspora that took place in the wake of the war was one of the most significant in a continuing series of exiles unleashed by fratricidal conflicts around the globe and our study of the war will also take this into consideration. We will then look at the internationalization of the conflict as future adversaries in the Second World War took sides with either the duly elected republican government in Spain or the military insurgents led, eventually, by Francisco Franco. How Spain's turn from dictatorship to democracy became a model for democratic restoration around the world will conclude our historical analysis of the conflict and its results.

Our reading material will be drawn from some of classic studies of the Spanish society and the war including Gerald Brennan's The Spanish Labyrinth, and studies of the war and its aftermath by Hugh Thomas, Gabriel Jackson, Sir Raymond Carr and Paul Preston as well as Noam Chomsky’s seminal analysis of anarchism's key role in the war. We will tease out the international aspects of the war through an examination of Orwell's autobiographical reflections, Nolte’s compelling analysis of fascism and Rouse's study of the failed strategy of appeasement. From the moment the battle lines were drawn the Spanish Civil War galvanized the intellectual imagination of a vast array of international cultural creators including writers, film makers, visual artists and musicians. Our analysis of "The Good Fight" will necessarily be interspersed with a consideration of them and with a reflection on the unending tensions between art and politics. Among the works to be examined are Picasso’s Guernica and the British filmmaker Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom.
 

ATTEND THE INAUGURAL COURSE IN ORO VALLEY

LOCATION: TOWN OF ORO VALLEY COUNCIL CHAMBER | 11000 N La Cañada Dr | Parking Is Free

Jane Austen's portrayals of Regency England's provincial life provide fascinating commentary on social and economic issues as well as the characters' psychology and emotional lives. Throughout this class we will attend to the ironic presentation, where the narrative's implicit meaning often differs from what is literally expressed.  Such approaches will bring into focus the education of the main characters through the trials of their experiences. While the novels conform to the comedic mode, in which the principals ultimately realize their destinies as well-married men and women, their education displays the hazards, if not the flaws, of society and humanity. These are some of the ways in which Austen reworks the Bildungsroman formula to create narratives of poise, wit, and artistic seriousness. It is little wonder that Austen has long been regarded as the originator of the “great tradition” of the English novel.

This course explores the emergence of freedom as an ideal in Africa during and after the movements for national liberation. We will examine the people’s ongoing struggle to achieve social justice after colonial independence as a quest for meaningful freedom. To understand the emergence of this ideal and the nature of the people’s struggle, we will consider complex narratives (film, fiction) of major importance and read social theory (history, economics, sociology). The seminar’s scope is pan-African and covers the historical period of the 1950s to the present day. Areas of particular narrative interest include introspective gaze and intimate self, gender dynamics, national experience, globalization, and spirituality.

Sherlock Holmes never actually said “Elementary, my dear Watson!” There have been more than 60 Holmes films, including one in which he is portrayed by a mouse, one by a dog, and at least one as a woman. Arthur Conan Doyle, the original author, was a medical doctor, a freemason, and a believer in spiritualism and clairvoyance. These and other curious facts will be explored (or should we say “detected“?) in this seminar, as we examine a cross-section of the many adaptations of Doyle’s iconic detective. We will begin by reading many of the original short stories, followed by viewing film and television versions of Holmes, and ending with a smattering of fan fiction and popular-culture revisions of the Holmes character. Along the way we will consider how Sherlock Holmes changes over time and in different cultural moments. What is the enduring power of this mysterious figure, Sherlock Holmes?

In this course we’ll explore Homer’s brilliant storytelling in The Odyssey: his tales of Odysseus’s struggles to return home after the Trojan War. While the poem highlights the hero’s fantastic adventures, the underlying meanings reflect profound social concerns: female and male identities, and their respective realms and relationships; revisiting The Iliad’s military-centered notions of heroism from social-oriented perspectives; the roles of gods; storytelling traditions, and more. The class looks at how these diverse tales interweave to create Odysseus’s story, his journey, and the challenges he must face to become the worthy husband, father, son, and man of society praised by the poem. Appreciating ancient Greek views on these perennially important themes provides valuable insights into our own ideas about these complex social issues, and why this engaging ancient poem continues to influence our contemporary thinking and creativity

This course surveys the music of Ludwig van Beethoven from the perspectives of different professors at the Fred Fox School of Music. Jay Rosenblatt begins with an overview of Beethoven’s life: his youth in Bonn, the reasons for his move to Vienna, and the outline of his early, middle, and late style periods. He will also introduce the stylistic characteristics of Beethoven’s music. Subsequent sessions will be led by Bruce Chamberlain, Director of Choral Activities, who will consider Beethoven’s sacred music, particularly the Missa Solemnis; Thomas Cockrell, Director of Orchestral Activities, who will discuss Beethoven’s symphonies; John Milbauer, Professor of Piano, who will focus on Beethoven’s late piano work; and Tim Kantor, Assistant Professor of Violin, who will examine Beethoven’s chamber music from the perspective of a professional string quartet member.

This course brings together six distinguished scholars from the College of Humanities to explore movements of social resistance and revolution. Malcolm Alan Compitello, Professor and Head of Spanish and Portuguese, examines the Spanish Civil War as a crucial moment whose social and cultural impact is still felt today. Alain-Philippe Durand, Dean of the College, explores how wars and revolutions shape Jean Renoir’s 1930s films. Albert Welter, Professor and Head of East Asian Studies, focuses on the role that revolution has played in China’s 4,000-year history. Praise Zenenga, Associate Professor and Director of Africana Studies, addresses the important and multifaceted antiapartheid revolution in South Africa. Denis M. Provencher, Professor and Head of French and Italian, explores how North African immigrants to France resist and ultimately reshape narratives of national identity. Finally, Karen K. Seat, Associate Professor and Head of Religious Studies and Classics, will examine the sexual revolution of the 1960s and the rise of the religious right’s counterrevolution in the United States.

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes has undoubtedly profoundly influenced the techniques, form, and meaning of modern art. From his innovations that revolutionized making etchings to the form and content of his historical and allegorical painting, Goya’s influence on artistic creation is immense. This course will study that influence and examine how Goya’s view of the world and his thought emerged. We will see how his paintings and etchings evolved into a systematic criticism of the antiquated nature of Spain’s institutions and way of life. We will also explore how Napoleon’s invasion of Spain provoked a crisis in Goya’s thinking and painting, and how his growing physical infirmity and conflicts with the state affected his innovative later work, including the enigmatic black paintings. The course will also examine the Goya's influence on subsequent generations of artists.

This seminar will concentrate on eight of Shakespeare's comedies, among them Merchant of Venice, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, and The Tempest. The approach will assume that comedy is a genre distinguished not by light-hearted humor or triviality but by structure of plot. The action moves from conflict and separation to resolution and union, and the plays typically end in betrothal or marriage. But whatever its romance, Shakespeare's comedy is serious and psychologically realistic. The plays explore the hazards of human relationships and the perils of commitment. Ultimately it is the comic heroine's deep awareness of herself and the world that make possible the realization of the romantic ideal—if only within the confines of the play. Throughout the seminar analysis of the texts of the plays will be supplemented with video clips of their productions. 

Because insects account for more than half of all described species and have profound effects on our history and culture, knowledge of their contributions and influences is important. Ecologically, insects provide tremendous benefits and equally daunting challenges. They provide critical biological services in pollination, natural products, pest-population regulation, and human nutrition. Insects are also our chief competitors for food, and act as parasites and vectors of human disease, the source of much human misery. The impacts of insects on humans, both positive and negative, are also reflected in music, literature, art, and entertainment. In this class we will explore the diverse ways in which the lives of insects and humans are intertwined.

Specific topics we will address include: entomophagy (eating insects), entomophobia (fear of insects), insects in literature, insects in the movies, insect services and products, insects as totems, silk, and venomous insects.

Arizona’s general public seems to have a love/hate relationship with insects (and other arthropods) of all sorts. A survey conducted in Arizona revealed only 6% of participants enjoyed insects found outdoors (only 0.7% took pleasure in finding them inside their homes). A very small segment of US society, however, experiences a genuine neurosis related to arthropods. Most scholars think concern over insects is societally based since these beliefs are associated with Western European culture. Relationships between humans and arthropods in other parts of the world are dramatically different. As an example, entomophagy is commonly practiced in those parts of the world with scant protein resource. In western culture, however, most are repulsed by the idea of eating insects. It is odd that we eagerly consume scavenging lobsters and eschew plant-feeding grasshoppers. We will explore the reasons for this and other culturalinconsistencies.