Our understanding of dinosaur behavior has long been hampered by the inevitable lack of evidence from animals that went extinct more than 65 million years ago. But with the discovery of new specimens and the development of cutting-edge techniques, paleontologists are making huge advances in reconstructing how dinosaurs acted. Paleontologist David Hone provides a look at the fundamentals of dinosaur biology and evolution and describes feeding, communication, and social behavior.
Begun in 1337, the ground floor of Orsanmichele church in Florence, Italy, was originally a loggia-style market. When it was transformed, the inside was decorated with paintings of saints and the outside with statues by artists such as Donatello, Ghiberti, and Verrocchio. Today, the upper floor of Orsanmichele is a museum where all but one of the original sculptures are on display. Renaissance art expert Rocky Ruggiero highlights this museum and its treasures. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
Over the past half century, dwarves, hobbits, magic, dragons, runes, and other staples of fantastic realms have become entrenched in popular culture, from The Lord of the Rings to the Harry Potter series. There are substantive historical inspirations behind these phenomena. Historian Justin M. Jacobs discusses the evolving conceptions of fantastic elements in Eurasian history and lays bare the truth behind what he sees as four distorted myths of fantasy in our culture in this fall series. This session focuses on medieval bestiaries.
When the doors of Radio City Music Hall opened in 1932, New Yorkers entered a new world: a dazzling Art Deco fantasy of an entertainment palace far removed from the drab realities of the Great Depression. With its Hollywood films and lavish stage shows, “The Showplace of the Nation” has given generations of audiences a place to escape from the everyday and dream. Actor Tim Dolan surveys the history of this iconic theater, sharing its stories, secrets, traditions, and trivia.
Film historian Max Alvarez leads a perfect pre-Halloween evening: a nerve-shattering romp through the history of “creature features” spotlighting the screen’s most memorable monsters, mummies, werewolves, oversized insects, outer-space invaders, and aquatic predators—and the behind-the-scenes masterminds who brought them to life from the 1930s to today. It’s a guaranteed treat for fans of the Monsterverse.
Jack Kerouac’s On the Road from 1957 is almost synonymous with the postwar Beat and counterculture movements that rejected the staid domesticity of the 1950s in search of freedom and alternate ways of life. Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, discusses how characters based on the writer William S. Burroughs, the poet Allen Ginsberg, and Kerouac himself embraced new cultural forms like jazz and experimental literature as routes to meaning and artistic freedom.
Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau are three influential philosophers whose ideas have significantly shaped political theory and the understanding of the social contract. In a fall series, join Georgetown professor Joseph Hartman as he explores these thinkers who offered distinct perspectives on the nature of human beings, the origins of political authority, and the formation of societies. This session focuses on John Locke.
Art superstars Mary Cassatt, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Frida Kahlo didn’t evolve within a vacuum. They descended from centuries of celebrated women artists—as well as those whose names were lost. Art historian Nancy G. Heller traces the history of European and American women artists from the late 16th century to 1950, addressing the socioeconomic, political, and aesthetic significance of their work and placing their lives and art within the context of their male contemporaries. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)