The Meaning of Freedom in Africa

The Meaning of Freedom in Africa

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...
Between World Wars: Germany’s Roaring Twenties

Between World Wars: Germany’s Roaring Twenties

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...
Technological Wonders of Classical Antiquity II

Technological Wonders of Classical Antiquity II

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...
Deserts, Plants, and People

Deserts, Plants, and People

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...
Histories of Memories

Histories of Memories

This course examines modern histories of collective memories through the institutions and technologies that facilitate recall, such as museums, photography, and visual culture. We will consider moments of tension when history and memory appear to be at odds, when...
Islam in the 21st Century: Resources and Challenges

Islam in the 21st Century: Resources and Challenges

This course explores Islam and Muslim societies in the contemporary period. It begins by focusing on the fundamentals of Islam, such as the life of Muhammad, the Qur’an, law, and theology. The topics we will discuss include opportunities for Muslims in the United...
Has the United States Become an Empire?

Has the United States Become an Empire?

U.S. intervention in underdeveloped countries raises many basic issues of international relations and foreign policy. The main purpose of this class is to provide students with an ability to examine such issues critically and in a historical context. Among the general...
Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology

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...
Beethoven

Beethoven

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...
1968

1968

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...
Sense of Wonder: Stories of Fantasy and Science Fiction

Sense of Wonder: Stories of Fantasy and Science Fiction

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...
Immigration and the U.S. – Mexico Border

Immigration and the U.S. – Mexico Border

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...
Masterpieces of French Realist Fiction

Masterpieces of French Realist Fiction

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...
Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron and Bawdy Medieval Literature

Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron and Bawdy Medieval Literature

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...
1968 (2nd section)

1968 (2nd section)

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...
The Ever-Changing Brain

The Ever-Changing Brain

Professor Tolbert brings back her popular spring 2016 course with some exciting updates! Please Note: We will be offering two sessions of this course in the coming semester. Session 1 will be held in the morning from 9 – 11 AM. Session 2 will be held in the...
The History Plays of Shakespeare’s Second Tetralogy

The History Plays of Shakespeare’s Second Tetralogy

Register Now Shakespeare’s history plays have never been more relevant. In reading Richard II; Henry IV, Part One; Henry IV, Part Two; and Henry V, this seminar will encounter some of the enduring political questions: the transference of power from one reign—or...
Deserts, Plants, and People

Deserts, Plants, and People

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,...
Contemporary Poetry through Four Lenses

Contemporary Poetry through Four Lenses

Register Now 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...