French gastronomy has long been the benchmark for the world’s finest cuisine. The creativity bubbling up in French food today is rooted in thousands of years of culinary history, the collective heritage of a country that has always focused (sometimes obsessively) on everything that is put on the table. Susan Herrmann Loomis, author, cooking teacher, and French cuisine expert, leads a lively tour through the centuries that showcases the rich history of a unique and beloved cuisine and the influences that shaped it.
The late 18th century was a period rife with revolutionary fervor and transformative ideas that altered the course of history. The American Declaration of Independence, adopted in 1776, and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, ratified in 1789, were radical manifestos that proclaimed new principles of governance and human dignity and challenged centuries-old political and social structures. Historian Alexander Mikaberidze explores these groundbreaking documents and the individuals who dared to imagine a new order that ignited flames of liberty that spread throughout the world.
New York City in the early decades of the 20th century was a shaping force of America’s national culture. Cultural historian George Scheper explores the impact of the Progressive Era and the subsequent Jazz Age as reflected in the art, literature, and architecture created in the metropolis. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
Cave temples at sites such as Ajanta, Ellora, Elephanta, and Badami are notable not just for their antiquity and religious significance but also for the ingenious, sophisticated techniques used to excavate them from the sides of mountains. Art historian Robert DeCaroli examines the history of these Jain, Buddhist, Hindu, and Ajivika temples and monasteries, how they were made, and how they are being protected today. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)
Since the days of Christopher Columbus and the earliest European explorers, Italians have made their way to American shores. But only since the late 19th century have Italian immigrants by the millions made a major impact on American culture. Writer and lecturer Adam Tanner tells a personal story of sleuthing into the archives of Southern Italian villages to uncover the ancestry of his grandfather, who moved to the United States at the peak of this immigration boom. His broader narrative examines how Italian Americans changed our popular culture, politics, and, of course, food.
Discover the power of reflective writing inspired by visual art guided by the founding instructor of the National Gallery of Art’s Writing Salon, Mary Hall Surface. Step into the Expressionist paintings of the fascinating early 20th-century German artist Gabriele Münter. Slow down, look closely, and reflect as you explore the window as a metaphor for shifting perspectives in our lives.
Though the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin in 1852 helped propel the nation into the Civil War, the author has generally been thought of as having little engagement with the conflict itself. Author and scholar Robert S. Levine addresses that assumption by reviewing key moments in Stowe’s career from 1852 to 1870, focusing on the Civil War period with a discussion of her letters, novels, and essays—and providing a new picture of Stowe as a vigorous exponent of interracial democracy long after the publication of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
Poet William Butler Yeats was a key figure in the Irish Literary Revival, the cultural movement that preceded the country’s political independence from Britain. Lucy Collins, editor of the Irish University Review and an associate professor at University College Dublin, explores the cultural politics of early 20th-century Ireland as the crucible within which Yeats’ work was formed and examines how the political and the personal combine in some of his greatest poems.
