In the mid-20th century, three trailblazing women journalists bore witness to the great changes happening and transformed readers’ understanding of the world. Martha Gellhorn stowed away in the bathroom of a Red Cross hospital ship to report from Omaha Beach on D-Day. Emily “Mickey” Hahn filed stories from Japanese-occupied Shanghai that transported American readers into the wartime life of a Chinese family. Rebecca West interviewed the sister of Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s would-be assassin in 1930s Yugoslavia and then covered the Nuremberg trials. Journalist Julia Cooke shows how these three women not only found stories that others overlooked but also pioneered new ways of telling them.
Revamp your gel plate prints into new art projects. Make simple books, journals, print organizers, or boxes using bookmaking and other construction techniques.
Soaring spires, glittering stained-glass windows, and sculpted figures that seem to breathe with life—these are the hallmarks of Gothic art, a style that transformed cathedrals, churches, and civic spaces across medieval Europe. Art historian Janetta Rebold Benton, author of Art of the Middle Ages, explores this extraordinary period. Through architecture, sculpture, painting, and the decorative arts, Benton reveals the unrivaled richness and refinement of the Gothic era. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)
Many of the most beautiful buildings of the last 600 years have been erected in Asia, which is also known for its boldly modern cities. Kathleen James-Chakraborty, a professor of art history and architectural historian at University College Dublin, looks across the continent from Iran to Japan at both historic and contemporary buildings. She also highlights the important contributions that women have made as patrons and designers of innovative architecture. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)
Develop the skills to capture the essence and sense of place of your next travel destination. Step into documenting your travels from the angle of a photojournalist.
The American War of Independence freed the 13 British colonies in North America from Crown rule and set the stage for the United States’ bold experiment in self-government. Drawing on primary sources, historian Christopher Hamner traces the war from its roots in the crises of the 1770s through the opening campaigns of the conflict, culminating in the American victories at Trenton and Princeton and an examination of British strategy in a springtime series. This session focuses on pre-American Revolution events from the Boston Massacre in 1770 to the battle at Bunker Hill in June 1775.
Stretching for more than 1,400 miles across the northeastern coast of Australia, the Great Barrier Reef is home to the world’s largest coral reef system as well as an extraordinary range of marine life. Historian Justin M. Jacobs highlights the geological and biological evolution of the reef, its evolving cultural importance, and the manmade and environmental forces that now threaten its existence.
Around the year 1000, explorer Leif Erikson crossed west from Greenland and made his way down the coast to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Viking activity in the Americas has been more precisely dated to 1021 by scientists examining a Norse settlement in Newfoundland. But there is more to the story of Norse exploration of North America. Historian, writer, and BBC broadcaster Eleanor Barraclough shares other evidence and delves into the 19th-century afterlife of Viking adventures.
