1917 and the Background of the Great War

1917 and the Background of the Great War

Attend In Person OR Online! See Below for full details about our new Hybrid courses This course centers on the recent, brilliant film 1917 as a touchstone for discussing the literature, film, music, and painting of World War I. Sam Mendez’s movie was nominated for ten...
Leonard Bernstein’s Musical Worlds

Leonard Bernstein’s Musical Worlds

Attend In Person OR Online! See Below for full details about our new Hybrid courses Leonard Bernstein embraced a remarkable range of roles in his career, including composer, conductor, pianist, educator, multimedia pioneer, and engaged citizen. This course presents...
World War I and the US: Causes and Consequences

World War I and the US: Causes and Consequences

Attend In Person OR Online In this course, we will cover the causes of WWI and the role of the United States in the conflict. The course will begin with the primary focus on the war itself. We will explore what was occurring on the U.S. home front. Next, we will spend...
Enigmas of the Universe

Enigmas of the Universe

Attend In Person OR Online Astronomy has seen tremendous progress in the past century. Large telescopes on the ground and in space now give us views of the universe across the electromagnetic spectrum. Powerful computers can handle exponentially increasing volumes of...
Haydn’s ‘Creation:’ Which Libretto, Which Language

Haydn’s ‘Creation:’ Which Libretto, Which Language

Attend In Person OR Online Haydn’s Creation is considered one of his greatest achievements and is undoubtedly a masterwork of the choral/orchestral oratorio tradition. The original English libretto is shrouded in mystery and Haydn needed it translated into German for...
The Colorado River: Past, Present, and Future

The Colorado River: Past, Present, and Future

Attend In Person OR Online The Colorado River starts in a high mountain meadow, flows through forests and canyons, and past tribal nations. The river now generates power and is diverted to farms and cities — and no longer reaches the sea. How did we get here?...
The Erotic, Laughter, and Spirituality

The Erotic, Laughter, and Spirituality

Course Cancelled We regret to say that this course must be cancelled and apologize for any inconvenience caused. We are currently working with Professor Classen to secure a future HSP course for those interested in the topic of Medieval German poetry. Many people know...
World War I and the Avant-Garde

World War I and the Avant-Garde

Attend In Person OR Online The course investigates the ecology of war in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century to determine its impact on post-war perception, avant-garde art and architecture, and conceptions of place and memory. The primary focus will be...
Chinese Poetry Then and Now

Chinese Poetry Then and Now

Attend In Person OR Online It is for good reason that China is often called a land of poetry. As the longest continuous form of creative writing in the country, poetry has been a defining feature in the life of China’s elite, from their participation in the civil...
J.S. Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello

J.S. Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello

Attend In Person OR Online This four-week course will explore the cello’s magnum opus, J. S. Bach’s Six Suites for Solo Cello. Through these six masterpieces we will discuss Bach’s life in the 1720s, analyze the compositional ingenuity, examine Baroque musical...
Language and Identity – DEEP DIVE SEMINAR

Language and Identity – DEEP DIVE SEMINAR

NEW! HSP Deep Dive Seminar Humans use language not just to communicate information but also to indicate identity, that is, the “self versus other” or “us versus them” distinction. Judges 12:6 describes how the pronunciation of the Hebrew word shibboleth was used by...
Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623)

Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623)

Attend In Person OR Online This seminar will explore the enduring relevance of Shakespeare’s drama, extending from love to politics, to human fate. To mark the 400th anniversary of the First Folio, we shall study six of the plays in their genres: comedy,...
How America Became a Right-Wing Nation: Lessons from the 1970s

How America Became a Right-Wing Nation: Lessons from the 1970s

Attend In Person OR Online The decade of the 1970s represented a turning point in US politics, which shifted in a rightward direction toward free market economics at the domestic level, combined with more militaristic and interventionist policies overseas. The course...