Course Archive
Summer 2018
Summer 2018
David Soren
TUESDAYS
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Jul 10 to Jul 31
Experience the classical world and its enduring legacy on a tour led by archaeologist and art historian Dr. David Soren. Beginning with the amazing structures of ancient Greece and Rome, the course surveys the continuing influence of the classical ideal from antiquity into the Romantic Period and notes the influence of the great discoveries of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The Neo-Classical World of America culminated in the 1893 Chicago Exposition where the acanthus leaves on classical Corinthian columns were replaced by tobacco leaves! The significance of Thomas Jefferson's architecture and...
Summer 2018
Tyler Meier
WEDNESDAYS
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Jun 6 to Jun 27
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In a letter to Thomas Higginson, Emily Dickinson used these words to describe poetry: “If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can warm me, I know that is poetry. If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry.” Marianne Moore described poetry in her poem by the same title as imaginary gardens with real toads in them. To get a sense of American poetry in our contemporary moment, we will explore four different ways of approaching contemporary poetry. In each class in this four-week course, we will focus our reading and...
Summer 2018
Steve Smith
TUESDAYS
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
May 29 to Jun 26
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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...
Summer 2018
Patrick Lyons
WEDNESDAYS
9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
May 9 to May 30
The Hopi, who have maintained many of their ancient practices while deftly navigating the dramatic changes of the last 500 years, are among the world’s most fascinating and most studied peoples. This seminar will introduce participants to the archaeology, anthropology, and history of the Hopi people, answer questions, and dispel myths. Migration is the central theme of Hopi oral tradition and archaeological evidence lends strong support to the notion that Hopi ancestors migrated through many parts of the US Southwest and were key players in large-scale social transformations. This course will...
Spring 2018
Spring 2018
Thomas P. Miller
FRIDAYS
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Feb 2 to Feb 23
This seminar will examine the social movements that came to the fore in the year that began with the Tet Offensive and ended with the launch around the moon. The first three classes will examine the antiwar, civil rights, and women’s movements using images and texts to consider what the ‘60s came to represent. In our last class we will consider how the divisions between the counterculture and “moral majority” led to the election of Richard Nixon—and to the antigovernment sentiments that have spread from left to right in recent decades. In the last class we will also examine the environmental...
Spring 2018
Steve Smith
FRIDAYS
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Feb 2 to Feb 23
Professor Smith brings his popular June 2017 course to Oro Valley!
Environments commonly known as “deserts” occupy nearly one-third of the earth’s land surface and are home to about a billion people. We will first discuss the geographical features of deserts, answering seemingly simple questions: What is a desert, and why do they occur where they do? Humans are particularly maladapted to life in deserts, but many organisms exhibit remarkable adaptations to aridity. We will investigate examples of these within plants from different deserts. Here the key questions will be: How do these plants...
Spring 2018
Eleni Hasaki
THURSDAYS
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Feb 1 to Feb 22
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...
Spring 2018
Thomas P. Miller
THURSDAYS
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Feb 1 to Feb 23
This seminar will examine the social movements that came to the fore in the year that began with the Tet Offensive and ended with the launch around the moon. The first three classes will examine the antiwar, civil rights, and women’s movements using images and texts to consider what the ‘60s came to represent. In our last class we will consider how the divisions between the counterculture and “moral majority” led to the election of Richard Nixon—and to the antigovernment sentiments that have spread from left to right in recent decades. In the last class we will also examine the environmental...
Spring 2018
Dian Li
TUESDAYS
10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Jan 30 to Feb 27
In order to understand modern China, we must understand the changes that have shaken its cultural foundations and profoundly transformed the country with a speed unrivaled in recent world history. The term “modern” in this sense is more than a chronological marker but a new conceptualization of the self and the world. This seminar will explore the rationalization and execution of these changes and resistance to them in modern China. The course will focus on significant moments of rupture in 20th-century history and explore their political and social implications, particularly the context of...
Spring 2018
Barbara Kosta
MONDAYS
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Jan 29 to Feb 26
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...
Spring 2018
Malcolm Compitello, Alain-Philippe Durand, Albert Welter, Praise Zenenga, Denis Provencher, Karen Seat
WEDNESDAYS
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Jan 24 to Feb 28
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...
Spring 2018
Phyllis Taoua
WEDNESDAYS
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Jan 24 to Apr 4
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...
Spring 2018
Fabian Alfie
TUESDAYS
1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Jan 23 to Apr 3
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...
Spring 2018
Richard Poss
FRIDAYS
9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
Jan 19 to Apr 6
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,...
Fall 2017
Fall 2017
Celestino Fernandez
TUESDAYS
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Oct 24 to Nov 14
Since the formation of the current U.S.-Mexico border resulting from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase, immigration (both legal and unauthorized) across this border has been a hotly debated political issue. That debate continues today as seen in the rhetoric of last year’s presidential election and the various issues pertaining to the border, including “The Wall,” the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and immigration. This seminar will explore various immigration issues across the U.S.-Mexico border through historical, humanistic, and sociological lenses. It...
Fall 2017
Jay Rosenblatt
MONDAYS
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Oct 16 to Nov 13
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,...
Fall 2017
Bryan Carter
WEDNESDAYS
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Oct 11 to Nov 8
In the 1920s and 1930s the soulful rhythms of blues and jazz signaled an explosion of African American creativity. During this period, known as the New Negro Movement and later as the Harlem Renaissance, musicians, dancers, visual artists, writers, and scholars sought to define their African heritage in American culture. From just after World War I until just after the stock market crash in 1929, the vibrancy of the newly discovered African American art, music, and literature was celebrated in cities such as Harlem, Chicago, Washington, New York, and even as far away as Paris. In this course...
Fall 2017
Anna Dornhaus
THURSDAYS
1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Oct 5 to Dec 14
Biology has well-supported insights into how animals make decisions and why they behave the way they do, in contexts from foraging to cooperation. This knowledge is grounded in theory as well as empirical evidence. Generally these insights also apply to humans: humans evolved, and thus their brain as well as their preferences, capabilities, and learning abilities are all the result of natural selection, as they are for any other animal. What consequences does this have for our understanding of how people behave when shopping, budgeting time, parenting, loving, or hating? In this course, we...
Fall 2017
Jerry Hogle
WEDNESDAYS
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Oct 4 to Dec 13
This seminar focuses on the six poets (one recently rediscovered) who most defined English Romanticism in poetry and verse drama between 1798 and 1824. It emphasizes their philosophical, emotional, and stylistic tugs-of-war, despite their quite different politics: first, between proposals for revolutions in social organization and how individuals relate to the wider world (they all knew the American and French revolutions of the 1770s-90s), and second, retrogressive longings for earlier orders of being and poetic styles whose revivals promised a better world than the emerging one of rapid...
Fall 2017
Marie-Pierre Le Hir
TUESDAYS
9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Oct 3 to Dec 12
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...