What does it mean for a museum to be alive? This intensive four-week field course uses Barcelona and Berlin as living laboratories for that question. In Barcelona, we encounter institutions animated by modernist art, civic identity, and community memory. In Berlin, we confront museums built around absence, trauma, and contested ownership. Moving between them, students…
This course offers a comprehensive examination of medieval Asia Minor/Turkey with respect to the history and religious culture of the region. We familiarize ourselves with the Byzantine Empire, the Arab Caliphates, and the emergence of the Turkish Sultanate, and examine the early history of Christianity within the region, the arrival of Islam into the borderlands…
This course offers an introduction to major trajectories in the history of Chinese thought, including Confucian, Daoist, Mohist, Legalist, and Buddhist philosophical traditions. Readings in the classical primary texts of each tradition will be supplemented by consideration of how ancient Chinese ideas engage with contemporary concerns, both in Taiwan and in the broader world. The…
This course offers an introduction to the principal religious traditions of Chinese culture Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. Readings in the classical primary texts of each tradition as well as attention to ritual and practice will be supplemented by site visits to museums, temples, etc. Consideration will be given to how Chinese religious culture functions in…
Chinese calligraphy is an essential aspect of Chinese culture, encompassing the Chinese language, history, philosophy, and aesthetics. This course examines the philosophical traditions, literary expressions, and cultural significance of Chinese calligraphy. Through hands-on practice, students will learn the origins of the writing system, the structure of characters, the fundamentals of brush techniques, and the history…
This course introduces students to cinema studies and how this medium is used to depict social issues including the Spanish Civil War, domestic violence, physical and mental disabilities, and immigration, among other topics. Through the analysis of film techniques, students will improve upon their listening, written and oral skills, as well as expand their critical…
In this course we will analyze and interpret the different representations of the interpersonal, visual, geographical, artistic and literary spaces produced by Spanish artists and writers in their connection to the life, gastronomy, history, geography, and art of Spain. Visits to Madrid, Toledo, Salamanca, Ávila and Coca, as well as our stay in Segovia, will…
Castles, ghosts, forbidden caves, legendary heroes, haunted streets, and one of literature’s most famous seducers… this course explores Spain through the stories that have captured its imagination for centuries. Using Segovia as its home base and traveling to Toledo, Salamanca, Valladolid, and Madrid, students will discover how legends and myths remain alive in monuments, city…
This course examines international terrorism and violent extremism through historical, political, social, and cultural perspectives using Poland and Central Europe as a living classroom. Students will explore the evolution of terrorism and extremist movements, the conditions that contribute to radicalization, and the responses employed by governments, international organizations, and civil society to prevent and counter…
Poland in World War II was the site of Nazi Germany’s most brutal occupation policies and the epicenter of its Holocaust against the Jews. Engaging with the history-rich environments of Krakow and Warsaw, we will examine life under German occupation, the relationship between war and genocide, the implementation and impact of the Holocaust, and the…
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