All upcoming Lectures

Poland has 23 national parks, ranging from very small to well-known throughout Europe. Tour guide Christopher Skutela leads a visual journey to several of them, including a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the site of the country’s highest mountain, and a 220-square-mile park.

Sam Gennawey, a former urban planner, theme park historian, and author of Sacred Landscapes: One Van Lifer's Six-Year, 175,000-Mile National Park Journey likens the National Park Service (NPS) to a meticulously curated museum that showcases the nation’s most culturally significant landscapes. As he examines nature-focused parks and the architecture that frames them—from vintage “Parkitecture” lodges to modern visitor centers—he offers his unique perspective on landscape storytelling, his experience visiting nearly 390 parks, and his insight as a longtime NPS volunteer.

The year 2025 marks the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which met in 325 in the presence of Constantine, the first Christian Roman emperor. The gathering of some 250 bishops was a momentous event and is remembered as the first ecumenical council, which composed the original Nicene Creed still used in modified form today. However, what really happened at the council remains controversial. Historian David Gwynn explores Nicaea’s disputed legacy for both Christianity and the Roman empire.

Behind the grandeur of the Tudor throne lurked a deep fascination with alchemy, astrology, and signs from the divine. Major events such as marriages, coronations, treaties, and military campaigns were often timed according to favorable alignments of the stars. Historian Cheryl White unlocks a hidden world of power where monarchs sometimes navigated political intrigue with the assistance of the dark currents of occult belief.

Artistic patronage was an important tool in a Renaissance pope’s arsenal, employed both to display power and to communicate and persuade. Art historian Liz Lev looks at the fruitful connection between popes and art from the halcyon days of 15th-century Popes Sixtus IV and Julius II to the Enlightenment era, examining a variety of masterworks including the Laocoön statue and frescoes by Botticelli and Raphael. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Drawing on one of the greatest Post-Impressionist and early modern art collections in the world, Barnes Foundation educator Penny Hansen guides a five-part series of online tours that examine the paintings of artists who helped shape a revolutionary period in the history of art. High-definition Deep Zoom technology provides close-up views of their canvases. This session highlights Henri Matisse.

When figures represent abstract concepts—such as justice, envy, or time—an artwork enters the world of allegory. Art historian Noah Charney breaks down how allegories were constructed by artists and contrasts Titian’s straightforward Allegory of Prudence with a brilliant and baffling painting by Bronzino, Allegory with Venus and Cupid, a multilayered complex riddle. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Few movements have defined a region’s identity as clearly as California Modernism. From the 1920s through the 1960s, noted contemporary architects, designers, and developers transformed Los Angeles into a showcase of modern living. Using glass, steel, and concrete, they created homes that embodied clarity, openness, and light. Art historian Jennie Hirsh explores the generation of architectural visionaries who reshaped the modern landscape of design across California and beyond. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Alzheimer’s disease, and the dementias in general, are among the most-feared consequences of being lucky enough to survive into older age. Barry Gordon, a nationally recognized expert on memory and memory disorders, sheds light on these debilitating conditions and provides guidance on what you need to know to take the most informed and active steps if faced with one of them—whether personally or in a family member or friend.

For centuries, mariners spun tales of gargantuan waves in the open ocean, annihilating walls of water measuring 100 feet high or taller. Though once dismissed as impossible, new evidence has led oceanographers to determine that we have underestimated how the seas behave at their most ferocious. Journalist and author Susan Casey provides a look at these colossal, ship-swallowing rogue waves—noting that as scientists scramble to understand this phenomenon, others, including extreme surfers, view the giant waves as the ultimate challenge.