Resistance and Revolution

Resistance and Revolution

This course brings together six distinguished scholars from the College of Humanities to explore movements of social resistance and revolution. Malcolm Alan Compitello, Professor and Head of Spanish and Portuguese, examines the Spanish Civil War as a crucial moment...
Exposed: Art History and Technology

Exposed: Art History and Technology

Science and technology enhance our understanding of cultural history by uniting scholars across disciplines in order to expand art historical perspectives and preserve cultural masterpieces. This course begins with an overview of the campus collections and the basic...
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...
Elementary My Dear…The Modern International Detective Tale

Elementary My Dear…The Modern International Detective Tale

Register Now Professor Compitello brings his popular summer 2014 course to Oro Valley! The detective tale, born of the work of Edgar Alan Poe and altered by Dashiell Hammett, evolved over time in the hands of international masters such as Jorge Luis Borges, Manuel...
Ancestral Hopi Archaeology

Ancestral Hopi Archaeology

The Hopi, who have maintained many of their ancient practices while deftly navigating the dramatic changes of the last 500 years, are among the world’s most fascinating and most studied peoples. This seminar will introduce participants to the archaeology,...
Controversial Issues in the Supreme Court

Controversial Issues in the Supreme Court

This course explores the United States Supreme Court and its role in deciding fundamental social questions. After an introductory class on the Court itself, we will focus on landmark cases involving race in education, abortion, religious freedom, and wartime...
Dante’s PURGATORIO

Dante’s PURGATORIO

Dante’s Purgatorio, as is well known, is not a standalone text; it is simply the second part of The Divine Comedy. In this course we will deal with Dante’s views on redemption and salvation as represented in his Purgatorio. Our focus will be the nature of sin: How it...
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 Second World War: Media, Technology, Remembrance

The Second World War: Media, Technology, Remembrance

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the central conflict of the twentieth century. Our approach to the topic will be roughly chronological and will attempt to treat each of the major theaters and battles, themes, and ideas of the conflict. We will trace...
Virgil’s Aeneid

Virgil’s Aeneid

This seminar examines Virgil’s Aeneid as well as the pivotal and turbulent context that led to its creation. The course begins with an introduction to the political turmoil that encompassed the fall of the Roman Republic and Octavian’s rise to power as Augustus...
The American West in Myth and Reality

The American West in Myth and Reality

Most of the people in the world know something about the American West. Usually popular ideas about it come from the work of novelists, artists, performers, filmmakers and TV producers, who created a mythical time and place where self-reliant pioneers overcame...
The Balkans: Identity in Contact and Conflict

The Balkans: Identity in Contact and Conflict

The Balkans has typically been described stereotypically and which countries belong in the Balkans today remains contentious. In this course, we will examine the Balkans from a variety of perspectives: the cultural-historical background of the Balkans as a...
Films in Context

Films in Context

To study film language is to explore how films use narrative structure, visual style and sound design. We will begin at the beginnings of film, from the 1890s through the 1910s feature, the European art film movements of the 1920s and the arrival of sound. With this...
The Sixties: Culture, Counterculture, Art

The Sixties: Culture, Counterculture, Art

This course will explore the culture, counterculture, and art of the long decade of the 1960s. Our focus will center on youthful artists in the United States, beginning with Abstract Expressionism and ending with Performance art and what critic Lucy Lippard called the...
Introduction to Reading William Faulkner

Introduction to Reading William Faulkner

In this course, we will focus on learning to read three of Faulkner’s most celebrated novels: The Sound and the Fury (1929), Light in August (1932), and Absalom, Absalom! (1936). “Learning to read,” means learning to analyze, interpret, and enjoy. We will ask...