Luis Buñuel and the Evolution of the Surrealist Imagination

Luis Buñuel and the Evolution of the Surrealist Imagination

The Spanish film Director Luis Buñuel played a decisive role in the development of modern cinema and contributed richly to the development of national cinemas in Spain, his country of origin, Mexico and France. A surrealist from the beginning to the end of his long...
Dancing: Body and Soul

Dancing: Body and Soul

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...
Travels in Consciousness

Travels in Consciousness

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...
What’s the good in party politics?

What’s the good in party politics?

  Alexander Hamilton promised that the Constitution would “unite parties for the general welfare,” but Washington perceived that “the baneful effects of the spirit of Party” continued to threaten the republic. In the centuries since, we have blamed partisans and...
Classics of the Gothic: From Fiction to Film

Classics of the Gothic: From Fiction to Film

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...
Climate Change: Natural and Otherwise

Climate Change: Natural and Otherwise

This course will give students an understanding of how the Earth’s climate changes naturally, as well as how humans are driving this change. We will explore what is likely to happen in the future, resulting both from natural change and change driven by the...
Contemporary Law and Policy: Four Perspectives

Contemporary Law and Policy: Four Perspectives

When Oliver Wendell Holmes declared that “the life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience,” he meant that law is a messy and imperfect invention reflecting the human condition. This course will explore the imperfect nature of law today by focusing on...
Dante’s Purgatorio

Dante’s Purgatorio

Using the recent translation by Jean and Robert Hollander, we will deal with Dante’s views on human nature as represented in his Purgatorio. We shall discuss the nature of sin: how it is that appetites which keep the body and species alive are evil (i.e., lust and...
American Vaudeville: Forgotten Stars of the Footlights

American Vaudeville: Forgotten Stars of the Footlights

Two years ago the Main Library of the University of Arizona was given a massive donation of original collections from the American Vaudeville Museum by its curators Frank Cullen and Donald McNeilly. This collection is one of the largest in the world. To commemorate...
Text and the City: Rome in Legend, Myth, and Imagination

Text and the City: Rome in Legend, Myth, and Imagination

Rome survives despite nearly 3,000 years of invasions by Sabines, Gauls, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Huns, Normans, Napoleon, Hitler, and mass tourism. In this course we will visit Rome, interwoven in texts and art, from antiquity through the twentieth century. We will...
Dancin’ Fools–The Art of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly

Dancin’ Fools–The Art of Fred Astaire and Gene Kelly

Gene Kelly once said that “the history of dance on film begins with Astaire.” One might say that the history of dance on film ends with Kelly. Dancin’ Fools will explore the Broadway and Hollywood careers of these two iconic song and dance men who define the Golden...
Classic Comedies of European Theatre

Classic Comedies of European Theatre

What makes comedy comedy? Does the comedic aesthetic evolve across cultural and temporal barriers? How do interpretation and performance affect our understanding of the works? What does it mean that comedy is deadly serious? These are a few of the questions to be...
Two Hundred Years of Franz Liszt

Two Hundred Years of Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt (1811–1886) is one of the seminal figures of the 19th century. As one of the great piano virtuosos, he toured Europe from one end to the other, coming into contact with virtually all the prominent figures of the period. As a composer, he contributed to all...
Democracy, A Work in Progress

Democracy, A Work in Progress

This course is now sold out. Click here to join the course wait list. If space opens up we will contact those on the wait list on a first come, first served basis. This course examines Supreme Court decisions and related social movements as historical case studies in...
Evolution of Cognition

Evolution of Cognition

This course is now sold out. Click here to join the course wait list. If space opens up we will contact those on the wait list on a first come, first served basis. Why are humans such a unique species on earth—or are we? We often think our intelligence (or more...
Reading the Russian Classics

Reading the Russian Classics

What makes Russian literature so Russian? This course will take us through two of the best-known Russian classics—Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov—as well as Turgenev’s little-known Sportsman’s Sketches as we uncover the world of...
Theater and Performance in Apartheid South Africa

Theater and Performance in Apartheid South Africa

This course surveys theater and performance produced in apartheid South Africa between 1970 and 1994, an era commonly seen as one of intense cultural struggle and resistance. We will chronologically study the history, development, and aesthetics of South African...
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,...
Insects and Human Culture

Insects and Human Culture

Please Note: This course will be held in Oro Valley at the Western National Parks Association (12880 N Vistoso Village Dr). The relationship between humans and insects can be antagonistic. Only about 6% of people said that they enjoyed having insects in their yards....
How Buddhism Changed World Civilization

How Buddhism Changed World Civilization

Sorry! This course has sold out. Click here to join the course waitlist How did Buddhism change world civilization? This is a puzzling question for many people interested in philosophy, spirituality, and practice. As a major religious tradition, Buddhism deserves our...