Eight Great Rock Musicals: From Hair to Hamilton Eight Great Rock Musicals: From Hair to Hamilton
The sound and attitude of rock, pop and hip-hop have helped reinvent and reinvigorate the American musical theater. This course will focus on eight shows that shook up the world of Broadway and...
FIRE!! Writers, Musicians, and Visual Artists of the Harlem Renaissance I: 1918-1929 FIRE!! Writers, Musicians, and Visual Artists of the Harlem Renaissance I: 1918-1929
Exploding in the 1920s and 1930s the creative energy of Harlem’s poets, painters, novelists, jazz and blues musicians, sculptors, photographers, graphic designers, and filmmakers changed the face of...
Foundations of Western Metaphysics: Unity and Change: Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Aristotle Foundations of Western Metaphysics: Unity and Change: Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Aristotle
What are the roots of the philosophical development of Western science and philosophy? This class will take up a reading of Aristotle's Metaphysics, the first work of western philosophy to lay out a...
Freedom and Equality in the New World Freedom and Equality in the New World
Come read three texts concerning freedom and equality in the New World that will, in their individual ways, expand our ideas of what exactly the “Western tradition” says about who has freedom and self...
George Eliot's Romola: A Serial Reading George Eliot's Romola: A Serial Reading
George Eliot’s fourth novel, Romola (pronounced “ROE-mola”) superimposes Victorian themes and concerns onto the religious, political, and personal lives of 15th-century Florence. The result is a...
Global Histories of Race in Science and Medicine Global Histories of Race in Science and Medicine
Why do we call a white person “Caucasian”? Why is affirmative action in present-day Brazil based on racial classification? In this course, we will explore the ways in which government officials...
Goethe’s Faust: Knowledge, Striving, Bliss Goethe’s Faust: Knowledge, Striving, Bliss
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust is the work not only of a poet but also of a scientist, statesman, autobiographer, novelist, painter, art collector – in short, the work of a polymath. Like Dante’s...
Great Conductors and the Art of Interpretation Great Conductors and the Art of Interpretation
Why is every performance different, when the score remains the same? This course will provide insight into the decision-making process of an interpreter and the factors involved and offers an overview...
Gulliver’s Travels Gulliver’s Travels
Gulliver’s Travels (1727) is Jonathan Swift’s wildly imaginative account of Lemuel Gulliver’s journey through fantastical lands. It is funny, moving and profound, a masterful satire that verges into...
History of Sparta History of Sparta
Classical Greece is at the center of the Basic Program, and at the center of Classical Greece are Athens and Plato, at least, as far as the readings that make it into great books curriculums are...