Summer 2015
In the 1800s the newly created United States of America was seized by what was labeled “Manifest Destiny”–a deep-seated drive to expand from coast to coast. This drive encountered several obstacles, ranging from the challenges presented by geography and travel to the fact that large segments of land were already claimed by America’s indigenous people. […]
This seminar begins by putting Dubliners and Portrait of an Artist into their social and literary contexts. We will then spend two meetings on each work. Though in different genres—the short story and the education novel—they are companion pieces in significant ways. Dubliners illustrates the oppression of Irish Catholics by British Protestants and by Irish […]
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 Republican Rome’s development into an international powerhouse, drawing cultural inspiration from […]
Virginia Woolf famously said that Middlemarch is “one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.” It is also frequently said to be the best nineteenth-century novel written in English and the most perfect example of classic British realism. Its capacious scope, depth of compassion, and careful attention to the details of human experience […]
What’s really in the Bible? As opposed to what we’ve been told by well-meaning but often not well-informed parents, clergy, and others? This course provides an innovative look at many instructive and amusing aspects of this most consequential book in Western culture. It examines clichés and received wisdom about the text, with a view to […]
What were the key technologies and major technical achievements of classical Greek antiquity? This course examines crucial technological wonders from ancient Greece, focusing on: temple construction (the Parthenon), the mastery of fire for bronzes (the Delphi Charioteer) and ceramics (the Euphronios Vase), and the transformation of marble into sculptures (the Aphrodite of Melos). We will […]