All upcoming World History programs

In the 19th century, European artists looked to North Africa for exotic inspiration and new artistic experience. Eugène Delacroix spent six months in Morocco, filling sketchbooks that helped shape Orientalism. His example inspired Henri Matisse, Wassily Kandinsky, Gabriele Münter, Paul Klee, and August Macke. In a four-session series, art historian Joseph Paul Cassar examines how travel to North Africa reshaped their artistic ideas. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1 credit)

The story of the 1692 Salem witch trials is well known, but Salem actually marked the end of a long, widespread witch craze. Historian Kate E. Bush traces witch trials back to their origins in Europe during the 15th century. Bush explores how new beliefs about certain people, most often women, working in league with the Devil took hold during that time and led to witch hunts. She also examines the enduring stereotypes that defined the witch in popular imagination.

Built from scratch in the 1950s, the Modernist city of Brasilia was designed to express new ideas about urban living and city planning while relocating the national capital from the coast to a more central site in the Brazilian highlands. Historian Justin M. Jacobs surveys Brasilia’s carefully designed downtown landscapes and creative solutions to urban housing, all meant to synchronize with one another and provide a progressive model for a better world.

The World’s Fairs of the 1930s offered visions of a world in flux—attempting to chart a future at a moment when nothing felt stable. As the Great Depression reshaped daily life and global tensions mounted, fairs in Chicago, Paris, and New York became spectacular stages where nations expressed optimism, power, and unease through architecture, technology, and performance. In a 3-part series, art historian Jennie Hirsh examines this trio of landmark fairs, revealing how they transformed crisis into dazzling displays that captured both the aspirations and anxieties of their era. This session focuses on the World's Fair of Paris 1937.

The Uffizi Gallery in Florence is one of the world’s great museums and an early model of the modern gallery. Even before its 1765 opening, visitors could request access. Housed in Giorgio Vasari’s 1559 building for the Medici, it now displays masterpieces by Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Michelangelo, and Raphael. Art historian Elaine Ruffolo leads a two-part virtual exploration of its history, architecture, and Renaissance art. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)

Founded after the First Crusade to protect pilgrims, the Templar Order evolved into a powerful religious-military order, major landholder, and influential financial force. Its history reveals tensions between faith and violence, poverty and wealth, secrecy and authority. Medieval historian Jochen Schenk of the University of Glasgow traces its rise, dramatic suppression in the early-14th century, and transformation into a legend, exploring why it became influential, vulnerable, and enduring.

Explore the art and architecture of the Middle Ages through four transformational moments in history and how painters, sculptors, and architects responded to them. Independent art historian Judy Scott Feldman examines the art of the thousand-year period between classical antiquity and the Renaissance and its relationship to an evolving society infused with faith and spirituality. (World Art History Certificate core course, 1 credit)

In the first half of the 20th century, German art was shaped by dramatic political and social upheaval, especially in the years surrounding World War I. Movements such as Expressionism, Dada, and the New Objectivity reflected the era’s turbulence. Art historian Aneta Georgievska-Shine explores how artists of the period expressed their disillusionment with war and the prolonged uncertainty of the Weimar Republic—ultimately destroyed by the rise of Nazism. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit) 

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) has been alternately diminished, reclaimed, and celebrated, reflecting broader debates about what it means to be French. Dumas, the author of The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, was of mixed-race heritage, and his experiences with racism further complicated his status. Historian Eric Martone traces how Dumas’ reception has evolved from his century through the present.

Luis Barragán, a leading figure of 20th-century modern architecture, transformed design through bold color, light, and space. Art historian Jennie Hirsh highlights his Mexico City projects, including Casa Luis Barragán, Jardines del Pedregal, the Hotel Camino Real, and Casa Gilardi. She also examines his influence on postwar and contemporary artists and the complex fate of his archives in Switzerland. (World Art History Certificate elective, 1/2 credit)