In the early 20th century, a group of Italian artists sought to embrace modernity in all its glorious messiness and contradictions. The result was Futurism, not a style but a way of looking at life. Its adherents called for abrupt change and the replacement of reason and order with vitality and force of will. Art historian Mary Ann Calo examines Futurism as both an idea and a development in the visual arts. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
Are you feeling like it’s impossible to repair our ailing democracy and the mechanisms that power it? Math holds the key to creating an infrastructure that benefits everyone, says math professor Ismar Volić. Presenting mathematical thinking as an objective, nonpartisan framework, Volic explains why the current voting system stifles political diversity and the Electoral College must be rethought—and suggests what can work better.
Discover the world’s deadliest caterpillars; a butterfly that shares its world with polar bears at one extreme and penguins at the other; and screaming moths that can jam the sonar of predatory bats. Wildlife documentary filmmaker Steve Nicholls looks at why it seems there’s no end to the tricks that evolution has come up with as it turned the Lepidoptera into one of the most successful of all insect groups.
What makes Dante’s Inferno essential reading today, even though it was written seven centuries ago? Literature professor Joseph Luzzi sheds light on the fascinating world of Dante’s epic poem in all its cultural and historical richness. He highlights Dante’s relationship to his beloved hometown of Florence, lacerating experience of exile, and lifelong devotion to his muse, Beatrice.
In May 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan and his army were on Richmond’s outskirts. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was assigned the daunting task of stopping a Union juggernaut capable of ending the Civil War. Thus, the stage was set for what became known as the Seven Days Battles. Led by Civil War tour guide Col. Marc Thompson, this tour travels to five of these battlefields plus other significant related locations.
In the late 1950s, having already won lasting fame as a novelist, John Steinbeck was seized by a powerful urge to return to a longtime dream: contemporizing Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d' Arthur. Public humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson offers a fascinating look at the book that became the critically dismissed The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights and Steinbeck’s quest to give new life to Malory and use the tales of King Arthur as a medium for his own expression.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the emerging profession of architecture in America was very much a man’s world. But several talented and tenacious women created doorways into it. Lecturer Bill Keene examines the careers of three of these pioneering women—Louise Blanchard Bethune, Marian Mahony, and Julia Morgan—and their importance in the development of the profession of architecture. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)