Faust

Faust

Faust is alive and well. His emanations appear in literature, art, music, film, and cyberspace. Not only Adam and Eve but also Faust ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So he has excited the human imagination for centuries. But who was this...
Roman Archaeology: From Romulus to the Caesars

Roman Archaeology: From Romulus to the Caesars

Join anthropologist and classical archaeologist David Soren for an overview of ancient Rome. Moving from the Early Iron Age to the so-called fall of the Roman Empire, the course will also look at the mysterious people known as the Etruscans. It will delve into...
50 Years of Archaeology: A Celebration

50 Years of Archaeology: A Celebration

In this course Professor David Soren presents four of his most significant accomplishments from his fifty-year career in archaeology (Oxford University has cited his work as among the fifty greatest archaeological discoveries of all time). First, he will discuss his...
War in Ancient Greek Drama

War in Ancient Greek Drama

The first great work of Western literature, Homer’s phenomenal epic The Iliad, sings of the Trojan War, its horrors and its glories. To the ancient Greeks war was a fact of life. Proving oneself in battle was fundamental to becoming a man. Despite modern Western...
Mid-Victorian England: A Cultural History

Mid-Victorian England: A Cultural History

How can we best know the past, and how much can we really know of it? This interdisciplinary course will seek answers to these questions in relation to mid-Victorian England. We will read primary material published around 1859, providing a “snapshot” of a particularly...
Making Sense of Soviet History

Making Sense of Soviet History

The Bolshevik Revolution and the Soviet Union played defining roles in the twentieth century, yet are poorly understood. To help us to better grasp their history, this course will integrate the best scholarship and currently available evidence to provide a broad...
The Long Life of Sherlock Holmes

The Long Life of Sherlock Holmes

Sherlock Holmes never actually said “Elementary, my dear Watson!” There have been more than 60 Holmes films, including one in which he is portrayed by a mouse, one by a dog, and at least one as a woman. Arthur Conan Doyle, the original author, was a medical doctor, a...
Natural History and Ecology of the Southwest

Natural History and Ecology of the Southwest

While many people living in Tucson and its surroundings are experienced outdoor aficionados, many lack an understanding of our near neighbors–those plants and animals that live close to us in our urban environment. Certainly we can choose to ignore the flora and...
Technological Wonders of Classical Antiquity I

Technological Wonders of Classical Antiquity I

What were the key technologies and major technical achievements of classical Greek antiquity? This course examines two crucial and interconnected industries: ceramics and bronze-working. The two crafts are often discussed separately, but in this course we will focus...
Civil War in Song

Civil War in Song

The Civil War was not only pivotal moment in American history, it was a key moment in the development of American music. Even as the war was ripping the country in half, the military was bringing together soldiers from differing ethnic and musical backgrounds. The...
The Influence of Greece on Early Christianity

The Influence of Greece on Early Christianity

What was the relationship of ancient Greek culture to early Christianity? This seminar will open with two topics of significance in the early development of Christianity: the image (or icon) and the Jesus story itself. The course will also include lectures on the...
The Ever-Changing Brain

The Ever-Changing Brain

The human brain, guiding our every thought and action, is as complex as anything we know. Its almost unimaginable complexity arises from minute interconnections between tens of billions of nerve cells. If we could map every connection among the cells, we still would...
Shakespeare’s Tragedies

Shakespeare’s Tragedies

This course encompasses Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus, and King Lear. While addressing ourselves to such matters as language and theatricality, we shall approach plays primarily from the perspectives of...
Shakespeare’s Women

Shakespeare’s Women

Many of Shakespeare’s most powerful, intelligent, and subversive characters are female. How were such vividly complex roles constructed in a culture that legally defined women as property on the grounds of their intellectual and moral inferiority? Given the early...
Themes in Contemporary Postmodern Art

Themes in Contemporary Postmodern Art

This five-week course examines concepts that have become increasingly relevant to contemporary artists working in a variety of media over the past 50 years. It concentrates on more recent art, understood against the backdrop of modern art movements. In this class we...
The Tudors

The Tudors

Why study the Tudors? This dynasty has a special place in English history because it presided over the transition from medieval to modern (or so most historians, but not all, argue). In addition, the major figures, especially Henry VIII and Elizabeth I, have long...
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...
Men In Tights, Women Who Fight: Gender, Race, and Superheroes

Men In Tights, Women Who Fight: Gender, Race, and Superheroes

Superman, Wonder Woman, Spiderman, Batman, Captain America, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Black Widow–the list of America’s superheroes is long. Comic books, TV, and cinema have long built up the appeal of superheroes, and they remain popular. Embodiments of cultural...
Art as Plunder

Art as Plunder

Art has often been plundered or stolen during times of war, occupation, or even peace. This course explores the historical, political, and legal framework of specific moments when art has been taken. The class focuses on how art has been used for propagandistic...