Smithsonian Associates - Educating and Entertaining Audiences for More Than 50 Years

Dante’s epic poem has provided inspiration for countless artists—from manuscript illuminators to painters and sculptors from a variety of cultures and time periods. Art historian Aneta Georgievska Shine explores some of the greatest of those works by such artists as Botticelli, Blake, Redon, and Rodin. (World Art History Certificate elective,1 credit)

Join Author Michael Gorra in an exploration of works by William Faulkner, one of the greatest—and most problematic—figures in American literature. This session focuses on Absalom, Absalom!

The famous breaking of the Mayan code in the late 20th century revolutionized the study of these peoples and of ancient America. Humanities scholar George Scheper examines how interdisciplinary study of the Maya extends beyond the traditional archaeological focus to comprise political and social history, art, comparative religion, and ecology.

From colossal Olmec heads to the paintings of Frida Kahlo, Aztec temples to Mexican murals, this survey of Latin American art sweeps through the centuries. Join art historian Michele Greet, who traces the significant creators and trends that defined and shaped the arts of Latin America from their earliest expressions through the 19th and 20th centuries. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)

Smithsonian curators started collecting Olympic artifacts in earnest in the 1970s and ’80s. Join Kenneth Cohen, a curator at the National Museum of American History, for an engaging discussion about what’s in the Smithsonian’s Olympic collections—and what’s not—as well as a look at how Smithsonian curators might approach the Games this year and beyond.

Their scandals became the stuff of legends, but this royal family in just three generations, reshaped the monarchy and changed England, Europe, and the world. Scholar Carol Ann Lloyd Stanger of the Folger Shakespeare Library leads a look behind the Tudors’ carefully contrived image of monarchy.

Tudor and Renaissance scholar Carol Ann Lloyd-Stanger explores how London served as a backdrop and inspiration for William Shakespeare. She reveals how he was inspired by the humanity he observed in the city to create the unforgettable worlds of his plays.