New Courses 

During the 1920s, Aldous Huxley was beguiled by D.H. Lawrence and his life-affirming philosophy, but after moving to California in 1937 he became increasingly influenced by mysticism. He was initiated by Swami Prabhavananda of the Hollywood Vedanta Society, who would become Christopher Isherwood’s guru. On this course, we will explore how the spiritual interests of these British writers shaped the literary work they wrote in America.

This in-college literature course delves into the provocative and unsettling world of contemporary body horror - primarily by femme and queer authors. Over six-weeks we will explore how writers reframe the body as a site of both violence and transformation: using aesthetics of the uncanny, grotesque or abject to disturb and overturn societal norms surrounding gender, sexuality, identity, and power.

On this practical introductory course, you will develop solid foundational skills in Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign, following a natural print workflow. You will learn essential tools and techniques to manipulate images in Photoshop, create basic designs in Illustrator, and lay out single-page documents in InDesign. Additionally, you will explore how these programs integrate to enhance your creative projects.

What is a short story? Come and discuss its characteristics, its length, design, mood and style. What distinguishes it from other kinds of short narrative? We’ll compare short stories to other forms, such as myths, legends, anecdotes, fabliaux, parables, fables, and ‘tales’. We’ll look at some of the greatest practitioners including Edgar Allan Poe, Katherine Mansfield, and O’ Henry.

The katabasis or journey into the underworld is a standard element of many classical texts. This course explores what this journey and the return to the world above means in a selection of Greek and Roman texts with examples taken from mythological poetry, epic, and Athenian drama. We will also look at how later writers (Joseph Conrad, Margaret Atwood, Elena Ferrante) adopt and adapt this trope using it to explore colonialism, feminism and motherhood.

We will explore the history and evolution of the big band and large ensemble in jazz throughout the 20th century.

Join us to explore two of Shakespeare’s greatest plays, his tragedy King Lear, and his late ‘romance’, The Tempest. We’ll consider the connections – and differences - between these works, thinking about Shakespeare’s use of genre and language, the historical contexts, changing critical perspectives, and aspects of the plays in performance.

Are you curious about reading contemporary global literature? Would you like to understand what we mean by the ‘global novel’, reading across cultures and national borders? This in-college course will introduce you to the study of global literature through reading three brilliant 21st century global novels: Mohsin Hamid’s Exit West, Rana Dasgupta’s Tokyo Cancelled and Julie Otsuka’s Buddha in the Attic.

Study the history and form of this famous work in a short, enjoyable music history class.

Composer Luciano Berio and singer-composer Cathy Berberian were the power couple of contemporary music in the 1950s and 1960s, collaborating to discover new sounds and musical techniques and structures in works from Tema: Omaggio a Joyce and Sequenza III to Stripsody.