The most notorious murder of the Middle Ages took place in Canterbury Cathedral, where Archbishop Thomas Becket was killed by four knights of King Henry II in December 1170. Historian Jennifer Paxton explores how the archbishop fell afoul of his king for both personal and political reasons; ignited a political dispute that convulsed church and state for almost a decade; and why Becket’s violent death turned him from a lightning rod for controversy into the most important saint in Europe.
The Civil War had as profound and lasting an impact on American art as it did on American culture. Eleanor Jones Harvey, author of The Civil War and American Art and senior curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, explores the “metaphorical war” in which landscape painters conveyed the mood of the nation in their work and genre painters addressed slavery and questioned the kind of nation that would emerge from the conflict. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
In 15th-century Europe, members of the cultural elite, including Petrarch, Machiavelli, and Montaigne, assembled personal libraries as refuges from persecutions and pandemics. These were known as Renaissance studiolos (or "little studios”). Literature professor Andrew Hui tells the story of these spaces dedicated to self-cultivation and reveals how they became both a remedy and a poison for the soul.
In the latter half of the 20th century, architects broke free from the restraints of individual traditional styles and found new inspiration in a mix of them, creating combinations of bright colors and asymmetrical shapes interpreted in a variety of materials. Modern architecture specialist Bill Keene surveys the diverse threads linking the elements in this approach to design as seen in the works of I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, and other Postmodern creators who rejected the formal for the unusual, the colorful, and the unexpected. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
Beginning in the mid-1950s, rock music found a surprising home on mainstream television, including on programs hosted by Milton Berle, Steve Allen, and Ed Sullivan. Elvis, for example, appeared on all three shows. But it was the appearance of the Beatles on “The Ed Sullivan Show” in 1964 that changed the face of pop culture, leading to an explosion of televised rock, from prime-time variety shows like “Shindig” to the sitcom antics of “The Monkees.” Media historian Brian Rose presents a lively survey of how rock and television grew up together.
The disappointments and sorrows of life can leave us hurting and isolated. But journalist Steven Petrow, has a surprising insight: Joy is always present—in our everyday routines, in ties to those we care about, even in our grief. In a conversation with Todd Doughty, author of Little Pieces of Hope: Happy-Making Things in a Difficult World, Petrow draws on personal experiences, research, and interviews with experts to describe the many expressions of joy and how to find, cultivate, and share it.
Few of Shakespeare’s tragedies are as admired today as his theatrical masterpiece Othello from around 1603. Joseph Luzzi, professor of literature at Bard College, guides participants through an in-depth discussion of the play’s key elements, including its representations of race, inquiry into human emotions (especially jealousy), and extraordinarily powerful poetic language.
Folklorists Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman explore an array of chilling holiday folklore from around the world, including the German Krampus who visits children who don’t make the “nice” list, the Icelandic Jólakötturinn, a gigantic cat that devours naughty children, and the Welsh Mari Lwyd, a skeletal horse with a taste for song and poetry. They reintroduce you to a more complex vision of winter, one that’s easy to forget in an increasingly hectic and standardized season.
