The British passed it off as an unhappy disturbance, but to city leaders the March 1770 confrontation with Redcoats that left five Bostonians dead was a horrid massacre. Historian Richard Bell examines why the complicated story of the “affray on King Street” is even more intriguing than Paul Revere’s famous engraving of it has led us to believe.
The radical innovations made by European and American painters and sculptors between 1900 and 1960 forever altered the way we think about visual art. In a richly illustrated 5-session series, art historian Nancy G. Heller discusses major works by the period’s seminal painters and sculptors, emphasizing their broader socio-political and aesthetic contexts. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)
Situated between India, Persia, and the Greco-Roman world, the region of greater Gandhara (stretching through parts of modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) produced artwork that blended influences and ideas from many cultures. Art historian Robert DeCaroli examines the origins of the region’s material culture, explores the ways imperial and religious power were displayed, and traces the role of trade in the exchange of ideas. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)
Historian Eleanor Barraclough digs into the day-to-day lives of the real Vikings—not the storied kings, raiders, and saga heroes but the ordinary people: the merchants, artisans, slaves, and storytellers who shaped the medieval Nordic world. Barraclough’s tools are artifacts such as a comb engraved with the earliest traces of a new writing system, a pagan shrine found deep beneath a lava field, and a note from an angry wife to a husband too long at the tavern.
The magnificent temple complex of Angkor Wat in Cambodia marks the rise of the Khmer Empire in Southeast Asia and its incorporation of Indic cultural influences into the architecture of one of the largest religious monuments in the world. Historian Justin M. Jacobs also explores how it became a center of Buddhist worship, a symbol of French imperial pretensions, and finally an icon of the modern Cambodian nation and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The rapid changes brought during the first weeks after Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany in January 1933 made it clear to the country’s Jewish population that they would never be viewed as assimilated German citizens. Historian Michael Brenner explores the broad variety of reactions from Jews to Hitler’s rise—including Zionist, Liberal, and Orthodox branches—ranging from attempts to accommodate the new regime to religious responses to calls for emigration.
From the 8th to the 14th centuries, Andalusia—Spain under Muslim rule—flourished as an artistic, cultural, scientific, and intellectual hub for the Mediterranean world. Jewish, Christian, and Islamic artisans, translators, philosophers, architects, and scientists all contributed to a vibrant cultural exchange. Art historian Louisa Woodville discusses the region’s artistic legacy and this unique convergence of influences. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
In our modern world, arms and armor reign supreme in the fantasy realms of pop culture. One of the world’s largest private collections of arms and armor holds more than 6,000 objects, spanning 6,000 years. It includes pre-Middle Age Viking swords, a rare ancient Greek iron breastplate, and one of the best examples in the world of a Chalcidian bronze helmet (ca. 450 B.C.E.). Nick Richey, “keeper of the arms,” introduces the collection and discusses avenues of preservation that range from traditional restoration to cutting-edge digitization for a burgeoning metaverse.
