by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
This seminar is a critical examination of the many areas which lie near science but which are not (for the most part) science, often called “marginal science” or “pseudoscience.” We will begin by examining scientific method and discovery science, falsifiability, and...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
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...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
This course focuses on Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE), the far-famed last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt and a key powerbroker during a period of important political change. Her legacy in the western world emphasizes her actions as a “romantic” agent, a deployer of...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
One testament to the impact of Ancient Greek tragedy is its enduring relevance. In this course, we’ll examine one story told over and over again over the millennia: The murder of the Greek warlord by the Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra and his cousin Aegisthus....
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
The food crops upon which our lives are so dependent each have their own, often meandering origin stories. In a process we now refer to as “crop evolution,” starting with wild or weedy plants, humans gather, tend, cultivate, domesticate, and modify crop plants to feed...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
Both Francisco de Goya and Pablo Picasso exercised a profound influence on the development of the techniques, forms and meaning of modern art. They also confronted modernity’s monsters and produced works that offer reflections on the relationship between social...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
This seminar will compare Evelyn Waugh’s 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited and its cinematic adaptation in the 1981 BBC television series with the same title. Both works recount some twenty years in the life of the gifted, central character and narrator Charles...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
Major advances in science in our lifetime have transformed healthcare and enabled the breakthroughs in medicine we enjoy today. We will explore the chronology of advances in the lab, and how they impact our health care. The study of diseases and discovery of new drugs...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
This course will cover the history of the oldest field of science, from prehistory and the ancient Greeks to research on the earliest instants of our 14-billion-year-old universe. We will be looking at the history of ideas and discoveries and the more profound...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
Arid and semiarid environments, commonly known as “deserts,” make up about one-third of the earth’s land surface and are home to more than one billion people. We will begin this course by discussing the geographical features of desert regions,...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
The monumental symphonies of Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), which have captivated and challenged musicians and audiences for more than a hundred years, stand as landmark works of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. In each of the unique works, Mahler drew...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
Food is essential for living. What and how much food is consumed impacts both quality and longevity of life. For some people, knowing where and how the source of their food was raised and harvested impacts that person’s ethical and moral beliefs. On the other hand,...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
The two extant passion settings by J.S. Bach continue to move audiences of all faiths as profound artistic expressions and rank as some of the most poignant musical compositions ever written. Holy Week of 2024 celebrates the 300th anniversary of the first time...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
In this course, we’ll explore the work of four writers contemporary to each other, week by week: Larry Levis, Carl Phillips, Ada Limón and Brigit Pegeen Kelly. We’ll spend time together learning about what makes them the celebrated writers they are—what formal...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
How are astronomers approaching their search for life in the universe? What have we learned from the surge of exoplanets discoveries? How likely is it that Earth does not host the only life in the Universe? In this course we explore the field of astrobiology,...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
This humanities seminar (2-hour, 10-week) is an examination of the art, architecture, sculpture, literature and history of the republic of Florence during its period of greatest importance to world history. We will begin by examining the first glimmerings in...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
Concentrating on five of Shakespeare’s comedies, this seminar will inquire into the ways in which Shakespeare’s development of comedy’s distinctive theme of romantic love enabled him to explore a range of issues. These include hetero- and homosexual love,...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
After Fitzgerald sent a copy of The Great Gatsby to Wharton, she wrote him back, saying that his was the fiction of the future, hers “the literary equivalent of gas chandeliers.” Although Wharton saw herself as an American Victorian as opposed to Fitzgerald the...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
This course explores the history of criminal justice systems in the ancient Mediterranean through close examination of select primary sources. Its primary focus is Greece and Rome, but it will also cover Pharaonic Egypt and the Ancient Near East. We shall move...
by bartmann | Apr 4, 2024
One hundred and one years since the signing of the Colorado River Compact, 24 years into a mega-drought, and two years away from new guidelines on sharing the waters, it’s time to take a close look at the past, present, and future of the Colorado River. Where...
