Sacred Places

Sacred Places

Religion is often viewed as among the most intangible aspects of culture. Yet, from cathedrals to pyramids, some of the largest and longest-lasting monuments of past societies are religious. Today people throughout the world continue to worship in, make pilgrimages...
The Plays of August Wilson

The Plays of August Wilson

August Wilson left as his legacy a ten-play cycle that documents each decade of the 20th century in terms of the African American experience. In his plays Wilson adeptly explores key historical moments in the so-called “American Century.” The course begins with Gem of...
To Bennu and Back: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission

To Bennu and Back: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Mission

Dante Lauretta is principal investigator of the OSIRIS-REx mission and a professor of planetary science at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory. His research interests focus on the chemistry and mineralogy of asteroids and comets, and he is an...
The Supreme Court’s Role in a Polarized Society

The Supreme Court’s Role in a Polarized Society

Online Registration Opens: Monday, October 12, 2020 at 8 AM (AZ Time) A Review of the 2019-2020 Term & Preview of the 2020-2021 Term The Supreme Court’s last term dealt with issues of abortion, Second Amendment, sex discrimination, religion, and the weight to be...
Television and U.S. Culture

Television and U.S. Culture

Kill your television. TV is furniture. Film and theater are art. These are the vastly different and competing views on the value of television and its place in society today. When television began, it was on 8-in black-and-white sets. Today it arrives in color and...
The Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Human Experience

The Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Human Experience

Every day we are confronted with paranormal and supernatural beliefs – loosely defined as things that exist or occur outside the natural world – and surveys show that most people in the United States and throughout the world are supernatural/paranormal...
Latin America Through Film

Latin America Through Film

This course provides a historical overview of Latin America through films. Special attention is paid to the different conceptualizations of the political, social and artistic purposes of film. This course takes a cultural studies approach to film; that is, it involves...
The Long Reach of Roman Architecture before the Renaissance

The Long Reach of Roman Architecture before the Renaissance

We know that many of the achievements of the Italian Renaissance were founded on a revival of ancient Roman civilization. Less well-known is the variety of ways, moments, and places in which Roman architecture inspired medieval building. On the one hand, Early...
The Dolce Stil Nuovo and Dante

The Dolce Stil Nuovo and Dante

Throughout the ages, expressions of passion and commitment have been central to love poets. This course will focus on the medieval foundations of Italian poetry—and by extension, the rebirth of European literature. The movement known as the dolce stil nuovo (sweet new...
The Visual Culture of Modern Spirituality and Religion

The Visual Culture of Modern Spirituality and Religion

In this course we will consider historical and contemporary examples of architecture and the visual arts concerned with defining and engaging the spiritual and the sacred. This series of lectures will cover primarily American examples of religious utopian communal...
Histories of Memories in the 19th Century

Histories of Memories in the 19th Century

The past is what happened. History is what we write about it. History and memory are not opposed terms; rather, history and memory shape each other through remembering, forgetting and erasure. Historical narratives are always informed by memories of the past that are...
Art History of the Cinema

Art History of the Cinema

Join Professor Soren for a personal online course showing the relationship of Art History and Cinema and featuring films such as Fritz Lang’s Metropolis and Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur. In addition there will be a special live visit from Rick Polizzi,...
The History of Yoga

The History of Yoga

Yoga is a ubiquitous presence in the landscape of American fitness culture. For many, it is synonymous with selfcare and holistic healthy living. While yoga is often vaguely connected to Asian traditions, its long history as a philosophical and religious system can be...
Superhumanists! HSP Faculty Train You for the Tokyo Olympics

Superhumanists! HSP Faculty Train You for the Tokyo Olympics

Did you know that the Olympic rings logo—designed by Frenchman Pierre de Coubertin—includes at least one color from every national flag in the world? Or that three countries—Sweden, Austria, and Japan—have all selected athletes in their 70s to represent them in past...
Journeys to Geriatrica: Keeping our Minds Active as We Age

Journeys to Geriatrica: Keeping our Minds Active as We Age

How come a retired pediatrician, as far from a geriatrician as you can get, wrote a book on aging? This retired pediatrician became a nonagenarian! What does this book cover? It is a travel guide to the land of Geriatrica where us aging folks live with maps drawn by...
A Symposium on the Spirit World

A Symposium on the Spirit World

“Alcohol is the anesthesia by which we endure the operation of life,” quipped George Bernard Shaw. To be sure there is truth in this observation, but it’s hardly the whole story. For millennia, human beings have been fermenting and distilling spirits and putting...
Caravaggio

Caravaggio

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) was both a beloved and rejected painter of the Baroque era. His paintings, which often included realistic figures, theatrical lighting, and dark, obscure settings activated a deep sense of spiritual contemplation for many....
Supreme Court Cases During A Pandemic

Supreme Court Cases During A Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to many legal and sociopolitical debates. This course will review the US Supreme Court’s role in those debates. The course will start off with a review of the Court’s 2020-2021 term. We will then explore in greater detail...
Two Novels, Two Cities, Two Centuries: Dickens and McCann

Two Novels, Two Cities, Two Centuries: Dickens and McCann

When Charles Dickens published Bleak House in the early 1850’s, London was the world’s wealthiest and most powerful city. It was also among the most crowded, polluted, and poverty-stricken places on the planet, where rich and poor lived separate but intertwined lives...