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...
The Romantic Poets: Revolution and Retrospection

The Romantic Poets: Revolution and Retrospection

This seminar focuses on the six poets (one recently rediscovered) who most defined English Romanticism in poetry and verse drama between 1798 and 1824. It emphasizes their philosophical, emotional, and stylistic tugs-of-war, despite their quite different politics:...
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...
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...
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

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...
Modern China and Its Literary Reflections

Modern China and Its Literary Reflections

In order to understand modern China, we must understand the changes that have shaken its cultural foundations and profoundly transformed the country with a speed unrivaled in recent world history. The term “modern” in this sense is more than a chronological marker but...
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...
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...
Great Romantic Composer-Pianists of the 19th Century

Great Romantic Composer-Pianists of the 19th Century

What inspired Romantic composers of the 19th century to create the significant piano works that continue to speak profoundly to today’s audiences? Throughout the Romantic era the piano and the pianist-composers who wrote for it assumed an increasingly important role...
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,...
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...
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...
World War I

World War I

2018 marks the centennial of the Great War, as World War I was originally known. The War ended the Concert of Europe, reworked global geography and transformed the domestic structures of the combatants. This course will examine the War’s origins, explore how it ended...
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...
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...
Art and the Classical Ideal

Art and the Classical Ideal

Experience the classical world and its enduring legacy on a tour led by archaeologist and art historian Dr. David Soren. Beginning with the amazing structures of ancient Greece and Rome, the course surveys the continuing influence of the classical ideal from antiquity...