Courses: Spring   

**This class will be taught on Zoom**

Modern and Contemporary architects have taken on the challenge to design buildings that are not only functional, but also beautiful and exciting to explore, that not only respond to our needs, but even offer new possibilities for us to live, work, learn, explore, etc. This class will focus on 6 pioneering architects: Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, Thomas Heatherwick, Santiago Calatrava and Herzog & DeMeuron, that took on the lead as visionaries in their fields, rethinking the potential of innovative materials, pushing new technologies, striving for sustainability, and creating most unique buildings which will stand out as the masterpieces of their era.

Week by Week Outline 

Week 1, Frank Lloyd Wright 

No other architect in the US changed the way we think about the built environment in modern times  more than Frank Lloyd Wright. With a career spanning 7 decades, he first made a name for himself with  his Prairie Homes, coining the term ‘Organic Architecture’ and culminating with Falling Waters, built on  top of a waterfall! Taliesin East in Wisconsin was designed as his own experimental home, including the  innovative FLW Fellowship, but it also became the site of terrible personal tragedy. In California the  Hollyhock and Hanna Houses are amongst his most beautiful designs. His oeuvre grew to include places of worship and entertainment, factory buildings, hotels, with the  Guggenheim Museum in NYC as his final and arguably most famous masterpiece – 8 of his buildings are on the UNESCO World Heritage List. We will explore many of his outstanding designs together and follow the development of his style, use  of materials and techniques, including the decorative arts! 

Week 2, Frank Gehry 

LA based world-renowned architect Frank Gehry created his first pioneering buildings with unusual  material inspired by their surroundings and in a deconstructive style, early on already thinking of  architecture in sculptural terms. Soon his curvy, energetic signature style emerged and with the help of  cutting-edge computer technology, the Disney Concert Hall in LA and the Guggenheim Museum in  Bilbao made him a Starchitect! Each one of his buildings seem unique and mesmerizing, inviting physical  exploration. Each project also closely connects to its natural and cultural environment in always new  ways. Gehry is also known for his furniture and lamp designs, which are independent of his buildings. A  brand-new spectacular design is in the making for the Guggenheim Museum of Abu Dhabi, bringing  together the expertise and creative brilliancy of a lifetime! 

Week 3, Zaha Hadid 

Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid was the first woman to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, a most  innovative designer who created a wide variety of cutting-edge dynamic buildings worldwide. She  started off her career focusing first on painting inspired by Russian Suprematism to find a revolutionary  new approach to designing buildings and spaces and went on to create some of the most beautiful  buildings of our time, using fluid curving lines, creating a sense of movement and freedom. Dedicated to  exploring the most innovative materials and sustainable technology, her buildings also aim at being in  close relationship to their surroundings, offering meaningful connections. 

Week 4, Thomas Heatherwick 

The British architect and designer Thomas Heatherwick, together with his studio, approaches each  project, from building to furniture and object design with playful curiosity and a sense of  experimentation, thus arriving at quite novel solutions. He engages people, inspiring an excitement to  explore his spaces. Nature plays an important part in his designs, not only for creation of forms, but he  also includes plants in his building designs, acknowledging their importance in our urban environment.  His Goggle Campus structures in Silicon Valley use dragon sale solar panels for the roof, to make it  energy efficient. A culmination of his engagement with nature might be his newest addition to NYC’s  waterfront, Little Island, a unique circular pier, beautifully landscaped, with outside performance spaces  and interactive public art.  

Week 5, Santiago Calatrava 

In the US the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava might be best known for the World Trade Center  Transportation Hub in NYC and the Milwaukee Art Museum and his designs are beloved by many for  their extraordinary sculptural qualities, elegantly white and seemingly gravity defying. His oeuvre  includes many bridges, including Sundial Bridge in Turtle Bay, CA and transportation related buildings,  reflecting the fluid dynamics of our time. His buildings consist of organic shapes, completely turning  their backs to International Style regularity, becoming unique creations which are always surprising and  exciting to explore. 

Week 6, Herzog & De Meuron 

The Pritzker Prize winning Swiss architect duo of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron have graced many of our cities with their unique buildings and never fail to amaze. The De Young Museum in San  Francisco, carefully designed to fit into its Golden Gate Park surroundings, is one of several impressive  museum structures, including the famous Tate Modern and in the US the Walker Art Center in  Minneapolis, the Parrish Art Museum on Long Island, as well as the Perez Art Museum in Miami. They  are also known for their sports arenas in Munich and Beijing, the extraordinary Elbphilharmonie in  Hamburg and many residential and commercial buildings, always finding most unique designs, sensitive  to their clients’ needs. 

**This class will be taught on Zoom**

Many contemporary artists are using their art to engage with cultural, social and personal narratives. These artists share a common thread in their work: they all explore themes of identity, culture, & social issues, often drawing from their own backgrounds or experiences. Hung Liu, Ai Weiwei, and Anselm Kiefer address the question of personal and collective history and memory. Multimedia artists Pepon Osario, Jeffrey Gibson, and Edgar Heap of Birds utilize found objects and text in their work. Gibson and Heap-of-Birds challenge the absence of Native American practices in visual culture while Pepon Osorio uses different objects in his pieces to portray political and social issues in the Latino community. Doris Salcedo and Kara Walker create site-specific installations that transform spaces into places of reflection and mourning. These artists draw inspiration from the intersection of personal and collective memory that spark wider cultural conversations often addressing aspects of history previously overlooked. This course will explore how contemporary artists responded to their culture and social context offering a new view to the western art historical canon by questioning established norms and narratives, they contribute to a broader reevaluation of cultural heritage and its impact on contemporary society.
 

Week by Week Outline:

Week 1 Overview and sampling of artists/works to be discussed in the course.

Artists Hung Liu, Ai Weiwei, Pepon Osorio, Juane Quick-To-See Smith, Jeffrey Gibson, Amy Sherald, Kehinde Wiley, El Anatsui, Yinka Shonibare, Ruth Asawa, Julie Mehretu, , Olafur Eliasson, Kara Walker and Doris Salcedo, share several key elements in their work:

1. Cultural and Social Commentary

2. Personal and Collective Histories

3. Innovative Use of Materials and Techniques:

4. Activism and Advocacy

 

Week 1 Hung Liu - Her work often reflects her experiences as a Chinese immigrant, blending traditional Chinese art with contemporary themes.

 

Week 2 Ai Weiwei - Known for his provocative art and activism, Ai Weiwei addresses political and social issues, particularly related to human rights and freedom of expression.

Doris Salcedo is known for creating site-specific installations that transform spaces into places of reflection and mourning. Her installations often include subtle, haunting elements that invite viewers to engage with the emotional and historical weight of the work.

Anselm Keifer incorporates materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead and shellac in his work while addressing taboo and controversial issues from recent history.

 

Week 3 Pepon Osorio - His art explores themes of identity, cultural heritage, and social issues, often using installations to address these topics.

Juane Quick-To-See Smith, Jeffrey Gibson and Edgar Heap-Of-Birds Her Both artists embrace their Native American identity and history, blending traditional and contemporary elements.

 

Week 4 Amy Sherald - Known for her portraiture, Sherald explores themes of identity and representation, particularly focusing on African American subjects.

Kehinde Wiley - His portraits challenge traditional representations of Black individuals, often placing them in classical poses and settings.

 

Week 5 El Anatsui - His large-scale sculptures and installations use discarded materials to comment on themes of consumption, history, and the environment.

Ruth Asawa - Known for her intricate wire sculptures, Asawa’s work often reflects her experiences as an artist and immigrant, exploring themes of form and abstraction.

Yinka Shonibare - His work often addresses post-colonial themes, identity, and the legacy of colonialism through the use of vibrant, African-inspired fabrics.

 

Week 6 Explore four site specific works, commissioned by SFMOMA,

Kara Walker’s Garden of automatons, Fortuna and the Immortality Garden, (Machine), Julie Mehretu’s site-specific diptych, Howl, Olafur Eliasson’s, One-way colour tunnel and Barbara Stauffacher Solomon’s large-scale, “supergraphics” commission for SFMOMA’s lobby, Strips of Stripes. These installations are on extended view at SFMOMA giving participants an opportunity to view the works in-situ.
 

**This class is a Hybrid. This section of the class will be taught In-Person**

This course will take a broad view of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from its history in myth and media, to its actual implementation and to the social and ethical issues it brings to the present and future. Particular  focus is paid to the current discussion surrounding the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and  associated chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and others. 

Week by Week Outline 

● Week 1 

o What is a “working definition” of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Does it really satisfy adopted definitions of intelligence? 

o How has AI been portrayed in popular culture? – from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The  Terminator, Bladerunner, The Matrix and many more- 

▪ What did these depictions of the technology get right? What did they get wrong? ▪ How has popular culture affected the perception and reception of AI technologies  by the general public?

o What are examples of AI already prevalent in everyday life (both visible and invisible)? ● Week 2 

o The growth of Artificial Intelligence as a mainstream discipline – are machines actually capable of independent thought? Can machines truly be creative? What trust and security  concerns might their adoption bring to users? 

▪ What are the fundamental concepts of AI, Neural Networks and Machine Learning  (ML)? 

▪ How do AI systems learn and what do they learn from? 

o What are the associated technologies, research and applications that have driven the  evolution and growth of AI? 

o What are the current research, technical, legal and ethical challenges facing AI growth? ● Week 3 

o Who are the major players in the AI industry – OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, etc.? o What is behind the “chatbot explosion” – ChapGPT, Gemini, Llama and their peers? o Why are venture capitalists (VCs) rushing to fund “The Intelligence Age?” 

● Week 4 

o What are the philosophical and moral issues facing “An AI Society” 

o What is the impact of AI tools on the future of education and learning 

o What are the implications of AI in the workplace and the business and financial  communities? 

o Is regulation of AI possible? If so, who would be the regulators and how would regulations  be enforced? 

● Week 5 

o What is Artificial Generalized Intelligence (AGI) and how is it different? Is AGI possible, if so,  when, and what will be its impact? 

o What is “The Singularity” – are AI and ML an unstoppable part of the predicted path for  human evolution? What are augmented systems? 

● Week 6 

o Who and what will drive the future of AI? 

o What resources are required for AI growth and implementation? How will these resource  requirements impact environmental issues? 

o Is the “AI race” real as nations strive for supremacy in the field? Do AI technologies  represent a global threat or an opportunity? 

o What are the U.S. government goals and policies re: AI? 

**This class is a Hybrid. This section of the class will be taught on Zoom**

This course will take a broad view of Artificial Intelligence (AI) from its history in myth and media, to its actual implementation and to the social and ethical issues it brings to the present and future. Particular  focus is paid to the current discussion surrounding the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and  associated chatbots such as ChatGPT, Gemini and others. 

Week by Week Outline 

● Week 1 

o What is a “working definition” of Artificial Intelligence (AI)? Does it really satisfy adopted definitions of intelligence? 

o How has AI been portrayed in popular culture? – from 2001: A Space Odyssey to The  Terminator, Bladerunner, The Matrix and many more- 

▪ What did these depictions of the technology get right? What did they get wrong? ▪ How has popular culture affected the perception and reception of AI technologies  by the general public?

o What are examples of AI already prevalent in everyday life (both visible and invisible)? ● Week 2 

o The growth of Artificial Intelligence as a mainstream discipline – are machines actually capable of independent thought? Can machines truly be creative? What trust and security  concerns might their adoption bring to users? 

▪ What are the fundamental concepts of AI, Neural Networks and Machine Learning  (ML)? 

▪ How do AI systems learn and what do they learn from? 

o What are the associated technologies, research and applications that have driven the  evolution and growth of AI? 

o What are the current research, technical, legal and ethical challenges facing AI growth? ● Week 3 

o Who are the major players in the AI industry – OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, etc.? o What is behind the “chatbot explosion” – ChapGPT, Gemini, Llama and their peers? o Why are venture capitalists (VCs) rushing to fund “The Intelligence Age?” 

● Week 4 

o What are the philosophical and moral issues facing “An AI Society” 

o What is the impact of AI tools on the future of education and learning 

o What are the implications of AI in the workplace and the business and financial  communities? 

o Is regulation of AI possible? If so, who would be the regulators and how would regulations  be enforced? 

● Week 5 

o What is Artificial Generalized Intelligence (AGI) and how is it different? Is AGI possible, if so,  when, and what will be its impact? 

o What is “The Singularity” – are AI and ML an unstoppable part of the predicted path for  human evolution? What are augmented systems? 

● Week 6 

o Who and what will drive the future of AI? 

o What resources are required for AI growth and implementation? How will these resource  requirements impact environmental issues? 

o Is the “AI race” real as nations strive for supremacy in the field? Do AI technologies  represent a global threat or an opportunity? 

o What are the U.S. government goals and policies re: AI? 

**This class is a Hybrid. This section of the class will be taught In-Person.**

Opera fans love Giacomo Puccini. He never fails to thrill us with his soaring melodies or to move us with  his pathos. But let’s a take closer look at Puccini’s world and discover what lies behind the music, as we  watch Puccini evolve from a composer in the grand tradition of Italian opera into a ground-breaking  exponent of supercharged post-Romantic “verismo.” We’ll search for the real people and true stories  behind his operas, and uncover fascinating details about Puccini’s, often tumultuous, career. Video  examples (with subtitles) will explore his emotionally stirring music dramas. No previous opera  background required.  

Week by Week Outline (If course is accepted, this  

will be included in the course catalog.) 

Week I: We start with the “unknown Puccini” -- his early operas Le Villi, a fairy-tale opera about the  ghosts of jilted maidens, and Edgar, the story of a knight torn between sensual indulgence and pure  love. Then we look at Puccini’s first big hit, Manon Lescaut, the story of a young girl whose love for  riches and luxury has tragic consequences.  

Week II: The ever-popular weeper La Bohème has a fascinating back-story, which we will explore in 

depth. It will be part of San Francisco Opera’s summer season in June.  

Week III: It’s time for the tempestuous Tosca, which unfolds against historical backdrop of the  Napoleonic wars in Italy. We will have much to discuss. 

Week IV: Two Puccini operas are based on American plays by the San Francisco-born playwright David  Belasco: Madama Butterfly, and The Girl of the Golden West. In the latter, Puccini goes impressionistic  as he explores California, and we will find out why. 

Week V: La Rondine (The Swallow) is Puccini’s nod to the style of Viennese operetta, while Il Trittico is  three operas in one: a triple bill that starts with a violent shocker called Il Tabarro (The Cloak), and  includes the heartstrings-tugging Suor Angelica, and the delicious comedy Gianni Schicchi. 

Week VI: Puccini’s unfinished masterpiece Turandot is a grandly extravagant fairly-tale about a Chinese  princess with a heart of ice and the hero who solves her three riddles and conquers her heart.  

**This class is a Hybrid. This section of the class will be taught on Zoom.**

Opera fans love Giacomo Puccini. He never fails to thrill us with his soaring melodies or to move us with  his pathos. But let’s a take closer look at Puccini’s world and discover what lies behind the music, as we  watch Puccini evolve from a composer in the grand tradition of Italian opera into a ground-breaking  exponent of supercharged post-Romantic “verismo.” We’ll search for the real people and true stories  behind his operas, and uncover fascinating details about Puccini’s, often tumultuous, career. Video  examples (with subtitles) will explore his emotionally stirring music dramas. No previous opera  background required.  

Week by Week Outline (If course is accepted, this  

will be included in the course catalog.) 

Week I: We start with the “unknown Puccini” -- his early operas Le Villi, a fairy-tale opera about the  ghosts of jilted maidens, and Edgar, the story of a knight torn between sensual indulgence and pure  love. Then we look at Puccini’s first big hit, Manon Lescaut, the story of a young girl whose love for  riches and luxury has tragic consequences.  

Week II: The ever-popular weeper La Bohème has a fascinating back-story, which we will explore in 

depth. It will be part of San Francisco Opera’s summer season in June.  

Week III: It’s time for the tempestuous Tosca, which unfolds against historical backdrop of the  Napoleonic wars in Italy. We will have much to discuss. 

Week IV: Two Puccini operas are based on American plays by the San Francisco-born playwright David  Belasco: Madama Butterfly, and The Girl of the Golden West. In the latter, Puccini goes impressionistic  as he explores California, and we will find out why. 

Week V: La Rondine (The Swallow) is Puccini’s nod to the style of Viennese operetta, while Il Trittico is  three operas in one: a triple bill that starts with a violent shocker called Il Tabarro (The Cloak), and  includes the heartstrings-tugging Suor Angelica, and the delicious comedy Gianni Schicchi. 

Week VI: Puccini’s unfinished masterpiece Turandot is a grandly extravagant fairly-tale about a Chinese  princess with a heart of ice and the hero who solves her three riddles and conquers her heart.  

**This class will be held In-Person**

One of the "Great American Novels," Herman Melville's 1851 Moby-Dick is exciting, encylopedic,  dramatic, comic (at times), tragic throughout—and undeniably long. This course does not  assume that everyone will read the whole book (though perhaps some will), but it will get us all  the way through what the narrator ("Call me Ishmael) tells us about the harsh trade of whaling,  about the ill-fated voyage of the Pequod, and about its captain's megalomania. Lectures will  summarize the book, contextualize it in pre-Civil War America, and delve into passages of  Melville's masterful prose. In-class discussions will focus on selections and issues of importance.  

Week by Week Outline 

1. On land: Ishmael and Queequeg: Chapters 1-23 

2. At sea: Ahab: Chapters 24-42 

3. The first whale: Chapters 43-70 

4. Plunging deeper into whales and whaling: Chapters 71-98 

5. Preparing for the chase: Chapters 99-117 

6. The chase: Chapters 118-135 

**This class will be taught In-Person**

**Please note that this class will run April 23 - May 28.**

The contributions of Women to the Great American Songbook have long been overlooked, yet many of their songs are still beloved and performed today. Celebrating the lives, times, and music of our greatest women songwriters while shining a light on the struggle they went through to compete, this class aims to repair the cultural amnesia that made great women composers and lyricists invisible. We also will explore the development of popular music through social and cultural changes which shaped the songs we heard and loved.  

Spanning the decades through Tin Pan Alley, Broadway, Jazz, Country, Folk, Motown and Rock – women like Dorothy Fields, (Sunny Side of the Street), Mary Lou Williams, Ann Ronnel (Willow Weep for Me), Peggy Lee, Carole King, Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, Patti Smith, Joni Mitchell, Laura Nyro, Bonnie Raitt - we take a fascinating journey through the development of the music business and examine the work, life and times of important women who created unforgettable music. With biographical detail, music appreciation, sing-a-longs, video and music clips and some live performance.

Week 1: Early Tin Pan Alley years – ‘The Hustlers’ – Dorothy Fields, Tot Seymour, Vee Lawnhurst, Dana Suesse, Bernice Petkere. We’ll explore those exciting years when popular music shifted from mostly Irish songwriters to predominantly Jewish songwriters who were inspired by Black music and early jazz – while examining the role women composers had in the pre-radio and gramophone era.  

Week 2: 1930 – 1945 – Broadway, Hollywood and Jazz – Doris Fisher, Dorothy Fields, Ann Ronell, Lil Hardin Armstrong, Mary Lou Williams.   Broadway shows were adapted by the Hollywood movie industry, and we’ll look at the role women composers had in these important years.  Meanwhile, we look at what some important women in jazz were up to – and see how Mary Lou Williams catapulted this music into a new sophisticated stratosphere.

Week 3: The Women of Country Music –  Maybelle Carter, Cindy Walker, Loretta Lynn, Bobbie Gentry, Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift. They say country music is ‘three chords and the truth’ – and women songwriters have always been powerful truth tellers in this genre, often having to navigate complex cultural images of what a woman should say and do. 

Week 4: 1945 – 1960  – Peggy Lee, Carolyn Leigh, Billie Holiday, Betty Comden and Fran Landesman – back to Dorothy Fields.  Swinging hard, while influenced by the Beat movement and rapidly changing sexual roles, these women songwriters made their voices known while sometimes having to battle powerful political and corporate forces. 

Week 5: The Sixties and Motown – Carole King, Valerie Simpson (Ashford & Simpson), Cynthia Weill, Ellie Greenwich – Teen Tin Pan Alley gave us a generational soundtrack.

Week 6: Singer/Songwriters of Folk, Rock and R & B – Joni Mitchell, Odetta, Laura Nyro, Patti Smith and Beyonce - Popular songwriting moved beyond Billboard hits into journeys of personal discovery.  

**This class will be taught In-Person**

Looking back on turning points, highlights and lowlights of our lives can be invigorating and  illuminating, and the process can result in arresting, evocative, publishable pieces. Our class will  focus on writing flash memoir, brief true stories under 2,000 words. Each week we’ll examine the  story-telling building blocks vital for memoir: vivid characters and settings, careful narrative  pacing, lucid language, insightful musing. We’ll read and discuss a variety of brief published  memoirs and embark each week on writing new flash pieces of our own. We’ll also discuss  publication opportunities and best practices for submitting. 

 

***This class will be presented via Zoom***

In this poetry workshop, we will explore poems based on visual art, sculpture, music and dance. Topics include: 

• Fifteen Ways to approach ekphrastic poetry 
• How to give your reader entrance to the art
• Writing poems inspired by music 
• Writing poems inspired by dance 
• Virtuoso Editing Techniques 
   

Poetry is the language of the soul. It’s a powerful technique to access your inner wisdom and express it with power and beauty. Diane Frank provides a safe and supportive environment to create and share poems. She works closely and personally with each writer to help you break through to a deeper level of expression. 
 

Week 1: 

•    Introduction to Ekphrastic Poetry. 
•    Going beyond what you see in the painting. 
•    Fifteen ways to approach ekphrastic poetry.  
•    Introduction to the virtual art gallery. 
•    The Writer’s Toolbox 
•    Free Write and reading circle. 
   

Week 2:

•    Poems inspired by music.
•    Five ways to approach poems inspired by music. 
•    Youtube links for music to inspire poems. 
•    The Writer’s Toolbox 
•     A gentle approach to workshopping poems. 
•     Workshop of poems by course participants. 
   

Week 3: 

•     Guest poet: Stewart Florsheim 
•     Discussion of ways to enter an ekphrastic poem based on visual art. 
•     The Writer’s Toolbox: Virtuoso Editing Techniques 
•     Workshop of poems by course participants. 
   

Week 4: 

•    Poems inspired by dance. 
•    Ways to approach poems inspired by dance. 
•    Point of View: The dancer, the observer, or from the inside. 
•    Providing entrance, rather than judging the performance
•    The Writer’s Toolbox: Virtuoso Editing Techniques 
•    Workshop of poems by course participants. 
   

   Week 5: 

•    Quotes by artists about their creative process. 
•     Discussion of the freedom to be inventive. 
•     How adding ekphrastic poems to a book takes the whole book to a new level.
•    The Writer’s Toolbox:  Where in the art does your idea jump off? 
•    Workshop of poems by course participants. 
   

Week 6: 

•    Ways to stay inspired and keep writing. 
•    Exploring the mystery of language. 
•    Workshop of poems by course participants. 

 

**This class will be taught on Zoom**

We explore the short story form by diving into the work of six of the finest American short story writers of the postwar years. Each week we will focus on the output of a single writer, reading three of his/her stories and exploring the sources and particularities of that storyteller’s distinctive narratives style and thematic concerns. Some of these writers, like Eudora Welty and John Cheever, we have touched on in previous sessions. Others, like Mary McCarthy and John O’Hara, are unjustly neglected by many readers today. Stories will be provided electronically by the instructor and participants should read the assigned stories in advance of each class. There is no prerequisite.
 

Week by Week Outline (If course is accepted, this will be included in the course catalog.)

Wk 1: John O’Hara

Wk 2: Eudora Welty

Wk 3: John Cheever

Wk 4: Mary McCarthy

Wk 5: Bernard Malamud

Wk 6: Elizabeth Spencer

**This class will be taught In-Person**

Howard Hawks did it all: comedy, film noir, westerns, dramas, science fiction, war films, gangster films,  and just about everything else in between.  

One of the most prolific directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age, he worked across genres, and  pioneered the screwball comedy and gangster film, along the way creating benchmark movies that  still attract eager fans. 

Leonard Maltin called him "the greatest American director who is not a household name."  Roger Ebert called him "one of the greatest American directors of pure movies.” Jean-Luc Godard said  he was "the greatest of all American artists". 

This class will examine six Hawks classics: Scarface (1932); His Girl Friday (1940);  Ball of Fire (1941); To Have and Have Not (1944); The Big Sleep (1946); and Red River (1948). 

Week by Week Outline 

1 Scarface (1932) 

2 His Girl Friday (1940) 

3 Ball of Fire (1941) 

4 To Have and Have Not (1944) 

5 The Big Sleep (1946) 

6 and Red River (1948)

**This class will be taught In-Person**

The Italian Renaissance, that quintessential flowering of European culture, would have been impossible without the prior flowering of Islamic cultures and their links to civilizations of the East. Philosophy, science, math, astronomy, medicine—even the linear perspective that dominated European painting, architecture and townscape for four hundred years—were fed by a culture of intellectual inquiry unconstrained by the kind of religious dogma that crippled comparable explorations in the Christian West. In this far-flung global history, for example, the Arab math behind European perspective traversed the Silk Roads from India via Persia and Turkey, synthesizing the Greek mathematical tradition en route. 

WEEK 1: The Italian Renaissance has international origins and would be inconceivable without Islamic contributions through the Silk Roads, Ottoman Empire, Muslim Spain and cosmopolitan Venice--evident in astronomy and medicine, translations from Greek humanist texts, and in the paintings of Alberti, Mantegna, Van Eyck, Holbein and others.

WEEK 2: Behind the glorious achievements of the Renaissance are centuries of both conflict and harmony between Judaism, Christianity and Islam, including wars, crusades and colonization, as well as diplomacy and alliances, trade and commerce, art and architecture, philosophical and theological dialogue.

WEEK 3: A revolution in 11th-century Arab optical science develops linear perspective, which while not related to the individual gaze of the West, ultimately lays the groundwork for 400 years of western aesthetics.

WEEK 4: Alhazen’s work is translated from Arabic to Latin c.1200, from Latin to Italian c.1350, is widely read as artists begin to experiment with 3-D architectural forms, and by the early 15th century is translated by painters and architects from mathematical abstraction into full-blown linear perspective and urban form. 

WEEK 5: The legal, economic and political individual, social basis for single-point perspective, emerges with the 11th-century emergence of market towns against the feudal system, along with secular and canon law and the new vernacular literatures like Italian.

WEEK 6: Venice, with commercial links from the Baltic to China, and its core relations in trade and conflict with the Ottoman Empire, is economically and culturally the pivot between East and West and between Renaissance and Enlightenment.

**This class will be taught on Zoom.**

One of the challenges to creating an informed opinion is that everything happens in a context. While one  can perhaps learn the specific actions that take place in the Middle East, and particularly in Israel and  Palestine, without understanding the history of the area, one cannot hope to understand why those  actions take place. Further, the actions in Israel and Palestine very much impact life here in the United  States. This course will attempt to consider the history of the area and understand the roots of the conflict  between Israelis and Palestinians. Though it is an incredibly challenging topic to consider, it is imperative  to understanding one of the most divisive issues of our era.  

Week by Week Outline

Week 1 - Understanding Settler Colonialism; The Origin of the Jews - This week will delve into  colonialism versus settler colonialism, in order to understand the nation of Israel as colonial, but not settler  colonialism. With that basis, it will then grasp how the history of the Jews in the land of Israel also affects  this understanding of colonialism. It will examine how Jews have Canaanite roots and have lived in that  land for thousands of years. 

Week 2 - When Judea Became Palestine; The Origin of the Arabs - This class considers the origin of the  term “Palestine,” and how the first people called “Palestinians” were historically Jews (by the historian  Herodotus). It will look at the official changing of the name of the territory by the Roman Emperor Hadrian  in the second second. Then, it will shift to consider the origin of the Arab. They too have roots in the  Canaanites, and have thus lived in the land approximately as long as Jews.  

Week 3 - Origins of a Jewish National Identity; Origins of a Palestinian Identity - This week quickly passes  through the Middle Ages to look at nationalism and its impact on both Jewish and Palestinian  independence. Jewish independence really took shape in the 1800s, while Palestinian independence came  about more slowly and was hampered both by Britain and the other Arab nations. 

Week 4 - Partition Plans, the 1948 War, and the Nakba - This week will note the time of the British  Mandate over Palestine and the attempts to create a Palestinian identity. It will look at the US partition  plan, the Arab rejection of the plan, and the expulsion of the Palestinians by the IDF in 1948/1949 (the  Nakba). 

Week 5 - The PLO, the Impact of 1967, and the Settlers - This examines the time period between 1948 and  1967, noting Israel’s absentee property law, and the way in which both Egypt and Jordan prevented  Palestinian independence. It also considers Jordan’s lack of adherence to the Armistice Agreement in 1949.  It looks at the origins of the 1967 war, and the impact of the Israeli settlements. 

Week 6 - Hamas, Oslo, and the Netanyahu Era - This final class considers the development of Hamas as the  PLO shifted its approach, and the eventual coming together of the Oslo Accords. These appeared to have  significant promise, although various outside elements attempted to derail the peace process, and were  ultimately successful. It will end with the Gaza withdrawal in 2005 and the election of Hamas.