Past Minicourses since 1992

Fall 1992

• Raising the Curtain on the Classics: An Exploration of Greek Tragedy – Johanna Glazewski
• A History of the American Presidency – Perry Leavell
• Matisse and Les Fauves: The Wonder Years – Karen Spitzberg

Spring 1993

• Fin de Siecle Vienna and the Birth of Modernity – John von der Heide
• Men and Women in Recent Cinema – Wendy Kolmar
• Congress: What’s Wrong and What’s Right – Philip Mundo
• Beneath the Surface: Philosophical Questions – Johannes Morsink

Fall 1993

• America in the Progressive Era: 1900 – 1920 – Perry Leavell
• Bright Lights, Big City – The Literature of New York – Jaqueline Berke
• The Reality Behind the Greek Myths – Johanna Glazewski
• The Social History of American Jazz – John von der Heide

Spring 1994

• Twentieth Century Short Fiction – Jill Fritz-Piggott
• Confucianism an Taoism: Understanding the Chinese Mind – Mai Leung Thayer
• Economic Issues of the Developing World – Fred Curtis
• America in the Great Depression – Perry Leavell

Fall 1994

The Romantic Era in Music – Lydia Ledeen
Vodka and authority Under the Tsars and Commissars – Lori Citti
The Quest in Mythology and Folklore – Joan Chamberlain Engelsman
The State of the Language and the Language of the State – James Hala

Spring 1995

• Genetics in Society – James J. Nagle
• United States Foreign Policy: Approaching the Twenty-First Century – Douglas Simon
• Hollywood’s Golden Years: 1930 – 1950 – Charles Wetzel
• The Novels of Willa Cather – Merrill Skaggs

Fall 1995

• The World of Italian Opera – Robert Butts
• An Introduction to Islam – Christopher Taylor New Jersey at 350+
• The Plays of Shakespeare – An Introduction – Frank Occhiogrosso
• A Little Darwin, Then and Now – David Kohn

Spring 1996

• American Identity: Then and Now – Perry Leavell
• The Universe: What’s Really Out There – Patricia Boeshaar
• Classical Theories of Justice in Today’s World – Johannes Morsink
• Don Juan on Stage and Screen: The Making of a Myth – Elaine Bunn
• Giuseppe Verdi, Master of Italian Opera – Robert Butts

Fall 1996

• African and African-American Art – Philip M. Peek
• A Tale of Two Cities: A History of New York and Newark – Kurt Piehler
• The Poets of Tin Pan Alley: The Lyrics of the Great American Songwriters – Frank Occhiogrosso
• Beyond Binoculars: The Natural History of New Jersey Birds – Jerald Dosch

Spring 1997

• Giacomo Puccini: Final Bloom of Italian Opera – Robert Butts
• Criminal Justice in America – Paul Wice
• The Theatre of Conscience – Rosemary McLaughlin
• Ancient Civilizations of the Aztecs and the Maya – Maria Masucci
• Art Collections and the Politics of Culture: A Journey Through the Art Museums of Russia – Lori Citti

Fall 1997

• English Poetry from Shakespeare to Auden – Frank Occhiogrosso
• A Centennial Celebration: The Music of Johannes Brahms – Robert Butts
• Vexing Issues in Biomedical Ethics – Donald Jones
• The Vietnam Experience: A Retrospective – Douglas Simon

Spring 1998

• The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach – Robert Butts
• Religions of India – Karen Prentiss
• Three Southern Writers – Merrill Skaggs
• The Middle East Since 1800 – Christopher Taylor

Fall 1998

• Masters of American Drama – Frank Occhiogrosso
• The Meaning of Life in Ancient Greece – John Lenz
• The Music of Mozart – Robert Butts
• The World Wars and the Great Dictators: Europe 1914-1945 – Jonathan Rose

Spring 1999

• The Music of Beethoven – Robert Butts
• Mark Twain – Merrill Skaggs
• Understanding Today’s Russia Through Its Past – Jason Merrill
• DNA: Biotechnology for the 21st Century – Louise Temple
• The Business of America – Perry Leavell

Fall 1999

• China in Transition – Catherine Keyser
• Russian Romanticism in Music – Robert Butts
• The American Folk Song – Frank Occhiogrosso
• The Short Story in 19th Century Russian Literature – Jason Merrill

Spring 2000

• European Art from AD 1000-1500 – Loughran O’Connor
• The Music of Tchaikovsky – Robert Butts
• The Congress and The Presidency at the Turn of the Century – Philip Mundo
• The World of Islam – Christopher Taylor (repeat)

Fall 2000

• Abraham Lincoln in American Memory – William Rogers
• Burghers, Sultans, and Courtesans: Commerce and Culture in the 17th Century – Barbara Tomlinson
• Mendelssohn and Schumann: Music of German Romanticism – Robert Butts
• The Poets of Broadway: Great Lyricists of the American Musical theater – Frank Occhiogrosso

Spring 2001

• Four Challenges to the Idea of Human Rights – Johannes Morsink
• The Story of the Symphony, Part I – Robert Butts
• Willa Cather’s Gendered quartet in Five Parts – Merrill Skaggs
• How Things Work: Physical Concepts in the World Around Us – Robert Fenstermacher
• The Jewish Experience: An Introduction to Judaism  – Allan Nadler

Fall 2001

• Adams to Arbus to Avedon: A Brief History of American Photography – Jim DelGiudice
• The Story of the Symphony, Part II – Robert Butts
• The Poets of Broadway: Great Lyricists of the American Musical Theater, Part II – Frank Occhiogrosso
• European Art of the Nineteenth Century – Loughran O’Connor

Spring 2001

• A Virtual Tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art – Barbara Tomlinson
• The History of Britain: Victoria to Tony Blair – Jonathan Rose
• The Classic Russian Novel – Jason Merrill
• The Music of Giuseppe Verdi – Robert Butts
• Political Islam – Christopher Taylor

Fall 2002

• America in the Progressive Era – Perry Leavell
• Opera Verismo: Puccini, Leoncavallo, and Mascagni – Robert Butts
• The Great Broadway Musicals – Frank Occhiogrosso

Spring 2003

• Drugs and Behavior – C. Robbin Timmmons
• How to Read a Great Book – Merrill Skaggs
• The History and Meaning of Abstract Painting – Mark Daniel Cohen
• Isms and Schisms: Music in the Early Twentieth Century – Robert Butts
• A History of Zionism and the Birth of Modern Israel – Allan Nadler

June 2003

• The Third Renaissance: The History of Modernism – Mark Daniel Cohen

Spring 2004

• The Evolution of the Art Museum – Barbara Tomlinson
• Music in the Modern Era – Robert Buttts
• Exploring the Brain – Roger Knowles
• Great American Musicals of the 1940s – Frank Occhiogrosso
• Faces of Our Civil War – Charles Wetzel

June 2004

• Tuesdays with Leonardo: The Artist, the Novel and the Code – Michael Christensen

Fall 2004

• Sacred Fury: The Rise of Global fundamentalism – Charles Selengut
• The Concerto II – Robert Butts
• 20th Century Irish and British Drama – Bernard McKenna
• The Election of 2004: Who Will Win and Why? – Joseph Romance
• Human Evolution – Tammy Windfelder

Spring 2005

• The History of The Portrait – Barbara Tomlinson
• Yeats and Joyce – Bernard McKenna
• Public Works and Politics in Ancient Rome – John Muccigrosso
• Bach and the Baroque – Robert Butts
• Early Christianity – William Stroker

June 2005

• Feminine Geographies: Women Artists and Writers of the Southwest – Elizabeth O’Brien
• Sacred Fury: The Rise of Global Fundamentalism – Charles Selengut

Fall 2005

Six Who Shaped American Art – Barbara Tomlinson
The Hebrew Bible and the Religion of Ancient Israel – William Stroker
Great American Musicals of the 1950s – Frank Occhiogrosso
The Classical Era: Mozart, Haydn and Beethoven – Robert Butts

Spring 2006

• Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War World – Douglas Simon
• A Linguistic view of Language – James Hala
• The Early Romantic Age in Music – Robert Butts
• The Art of Late Antiquity – Alison Poe
• Buddhism: The Path of Enlightenment – Karen Pechilis

Summer 2006

• China in Transition – Catherine Keyser
• The Spiritual Journey in Contemporary American Memoir and Fiction – Elizabeth O’Brien
• Popular Music in America – Robert Butts

Fall 2006

• Global Challenges for the 21st Century – Douglas Simon
• Exploring Alzheimer’s Disease – Roger Knowles
• Classical Mythology- John Lenz
• Late Romantic Passion in Music- Robert Butts
• Goddesses, Madonnas and Whores – Barbara Tomlinson

Spring 2007

• African American Heritage Through the Arts – Philip Peek
• Post Romanticism in Music: 1880-1920 – Robert Butts
• Varieties of Early Christianity – William Stroker
• Ancient Roman Art – Alison Poe
• Preserving Our Historic Places – Janice Armstrong

Summer 2007

• Middle East Politics – Carlos Yordan
• The Music of Johann Sebastian Bach – Robert Butts

Fall 2007

• The Art Collectors – Barbara Tomlinson
• International Relations of the Future – Douglas Simon
• Musical Masterpieces – Robert Butts
• Robber Barons and Reformers – Wyatt Evans
• British Drama of the 20th Century – Brandon Fralix

Spring 2008

• Brain, Mind, and Neuroethics – Graham Cousens
• On The Edge: Avant-Garde Musical Masterpiece – Robert Butts
• Shakespeare: All the Gifts of Nature – Gloria Rojas
• Art and Architecture of the Middle Ages – Alison Poe
• Terrorism in Global Perspective – Andrea Talentino and Carlos Yorda

Summer 2008

• The Literature of the Harlem Renaissance – Geraldine Wright-Smith
• A Brahms Sampler – Robert Butts

Fall 2008

• The Power of Art – Barbara Tomlinson
• Ten Photographs: Images that Changed Our world – Jim DelGiudice
• Great Poems of Walt Whitman – Merrill Skaggs
• Wagner’s Ring Cycle: The Curse of Love and Power – Robert Butts
• Secrets of Life: The History of Genetics in the 20th Century – Luis Campos

Spring 2009

• Commerce and Culture in the 17th Century – Barbara Tomlinson
• Green Economics for a Sustainable Environment – Fred Curtis
• British Romantic Extremes: Poetry and Prose – Robert Ready
• What Hath the Computer Wrought? – Steven Kass
• The Evolution of Our Political Parties – Joseph Romance
• Beethoven at Home – Robert Butts

Summer 2009

• The Making of Modern Ireland – David Cowell
• Leonard Bernstein – Robert Butts

Fall 2009

• Painting Against the Grain – Barbara Tomlinson
• Becoming “Paris” – Andre Benhaim
• Victorians – Robert Ready
• Chamber Music in the Romantic Era – Robert Butts
• The Major Christian Celebrations – William Stroker
• Woodrow Wilson – J. Perry Leavell

Spring 2010

• Mozart and the Creation of Modern Opera  – Robert Butts
• America and the World 2010 – Douglas Simon
• Ancient Greek Art  – Alison Poe
• American Stories  – Barbara Tomlinson
• From Isolationism to Internationalism and  Containment – J. Perry Leavell

Summer 2010

• Five Composers for the Cinema  –  Robert Butts
• Waging Peace in Northern Ireland – David Cowell

Fall 2010

• Small Details/Big Pictures – Barbara Tomlinson
• The Culture of Japan  -Yasuko Grosjean
• The Cold War – J. Perry Leavell
• The Gnostic Gospels – William Stroker
• The Music of Stephen Sondheim – Robert Butts

Spring 2011

• The World of the Future – Douglas Simon
• The Craft of Comedy – Jennifer Plants
• Contemporary Poetry – Peggy Samuels
• American Presidents and the Presidency I – J. Perry Leavell
• Varieties of Early Christianity – William Stroker
• Bel Canto Opera – Robert Butts

Summer 2011

• Science of the Kitchen – James Roche
• Music of the Cinema  –  Robert Butts
• Changing Britain  –  David Cowell

Fall 2011

• Art for the Masses – Barbara Tomlinson
• China’s Rise to Superpower Status – Catherine Keyser
• The American Presidency from the Civil War to World War II – Perry Leavell
• Beethoven’s Symphonies and Concertos – Robert Butts
• The Geologic History of New Jersey – Don Monteverde
• Classical Greek and Hellenistic Art – Alison Poe

Spring 2012

• Russian Musical Genius: Despite Stalin – Robert Butts
• The English Sonnet – Frank Occhiogrosso
• The Power of the American Presidency, 1945 to the Present – Perry Leavell
• Biomedical Ethics – Darrel Cole
• History, Society, and Memory in Great French Novels – Andre Benhaim
• The Religions of Ancient Israel – William Stroker

Summer 2012

• Music of the Cinema II – Robert Butts
• The Emergence of Modern Turkey  – David Cowell

Fall 2012

• The World of Islam – Christopher Taylor
• The Renaissance Reconsidered – Barbara Tomlinson
• A Brief History of Business in America – Perry Leavell
• Irish Poets and Playwrights since 1900 – Christine Kinealy
• Political Psychology and the 2012 Presidential Election – G. Scott Morgan
• Romanticism, Revolution, Realism: The Operas of Giuseppe Verdi – Robert Butts

Spring 2013

• Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein – Frank Occhiogrosso
• Changing Nature of National Security – Douglas Simon
• The Operas of Giacomo Puccini – Robert Butts
• Five Weeks in Philadelphia – Barbara Tomlinson
• America in the Progressive Era –  Perry Leavell
• The Gnostic Gospels — William Stroker

Summer 2013

• Great Film Scores III – Robert Butts
• The Art of Medieval Europe  –  Alison Poe

Fall 2013

• Causes and Aftermath of the Great Recession – Marc Tomljanovich
• New Jersey at 350:  A Survey of New Jersey’s History  – David Cowell
• A Brief History of American Photography  – James DelGiudice
• Religion and Social Ethics  – Darrell Cole
• Music in the Twentieth Century: Between the Wars  – Robert Butts
• America in the Twenties and Thirties  – J. Perry Leavell

Spring 2014

• Artists Who Happen to be Women – Barbara Tomlinson
• Music in the Twentieth Century: Between the Wars, Part II – Robert Butts
• Non-State Actors Shaping the International System  – Doug Simon
• The Poets of Tin Pan Alley – Frank Occhiogrosso
• America in the Forties and Fifties – J. Perry Leavell
• The Hebrew Bible and the Religion of Ancient Israel – William Stroker

Summer 2014

• New Jersey at 350 – David Cowell
• Great Film Scores !V  –  Robert Butts

Fall 2014

• Churchill: His Britain, His World – Jonathan Rose
• Music in the 1940s – Robert Butts
• Egypt Rising: The Making of Modern Egypt – David Cowell

Spring 2015

• How a Linguist Looks at English –  James Hala
• Music in the Fifties – Robert Butts
• America in the Sixties – J. Perry Leavell
• Five Great Challenges for Philosophy – Erik Anderson
• Shakespeare: An Introduction – Frank Occhiogrosso
• The Art of the Italian Renaissance –  Roberto Osti

Summer 2015

• The Middle East in the New Millennium – Jonathan Golden
• Go for Baroque – Robert Butts

Fall 2015

• The Mind-Body Problem – Anderson
• Topics in Amer. History – Leavell
• Music in the 1890s – Butts
• Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey – Lenz
• Rome – Hamilton
• What’s going On in Europe? – Cowell

Spring 2016

• Art Museums of Washington – Tomlinson
• The Self and the Illusion of Self – Anderson
• Introduction to Poetry – Occhiogrosso
• Key Issues for American Foreign Policy – Simon
• Music in the Modern Era 1900-1920 – Butts
• From  Famine to Freedom – Mullan

Summer 2016

• Five Centuries of NJ Architecture  –  Foster
• East Meets West  –  Golden
• Great Film Scores V – Butts

Fall 2016

• Music of the 1960s  – Butts
• Waging Peace – Cowell
• Greek Tragedy and Comedy – Lenz
• Five Social Theorists – Reader

Spring 2017

• In Search of a Visual Language – DelGiudice
• Great Art Exhibitions – Tomlinson
• Aesthetics and the Philosophy of Art – Anderson
• Va Pensiero: the Operas of Verdi – Butts
• The Politics of Ireland  –  Cowell
• The 60s and the Vietnam War –  Carter

Summer 2017

• Morris County, USA: A Living Tapestry – DelGiudice
• Leonard Bernstein and American Music – Butts
• Globalization, Migration and the Refugee Crisis – Goldman

Fall 2017

• A New Era for American Foreign Policy  – Douglas Simon
• Challenges to Democracy in America – J. Perry Leavell
• New Jersey at 350+ – David Cowell
• The Operas of Giacomo Puccini – Robert Butts

Spring 2018

• The Great War and Modern Memory – William Rogers
• Natural Beauty and the Appreciation of Natural Environments  –  Erik Anderson
• Exploring Beethoven  – Robert Butts
• Great Leaders and Political Ideas from Ancient Greece and Rome  –  John Lenz
• Music from the Films of Alfred Hitchcock  –  Robert Butt
• Using Poetry as Access to the Universal – Sean Nevin

Summer 2018

• Looking and Thinking Outside the Box – Barbara Tomlinson
• Musicals on Film – Robert Butts
• The Reformation at 500 – David Cowell

Fall 2018

• New Jersey Forests: Diversity, Ecology and Challenges – Sara Webb
• Mozart: The Creativity of Genius – Robert Butts
• Memory and the Brain – Graham Cousens
• Romantic Poetry-British Romantic Extremes – Robert Ready

Winter/Spring 2019

• Art That Can Take Your Breath Away — Dr. Barbara Tomlinson
• How Things Work–Physical Concepts in Our Daily World — Dr. Robert Fenstermacher
• Romanticism and Modernism: The Story of Russian Composition from Glinka to Shostakovich — Dr. Robert Butts
• The World Wars and the Great Dictators: Europe 1914-1945 — Dr. Jonathan Rose
• Franklin Roosevelt and American Democracy: 1933-1945 — Dr. Perry Leavell
• Tchaikovsky: Russia’s Greatest Composer — Dr. Robert Butts

Summer 2019

• Utopias in History and Literature — Dr. John Lenz
• Musicals on Film: Part II — Dr. Robert Butts
• Short, but not Small: Notable American Short Fiction from Jack London to Lucia Berlin — Laura Driver

Fall 2019

• Nice Presidents Finish Last: The Evolution of Presidential Power — Dr. Dan Cassino
• Alienation and Civic Culture in America and Europe:  From Kennedy Campaigning to 2020 — Dr. David Cowell
• Supreme Court of the United States: ‘Top Ten’ Cases You Need to Know and Understand —  Dr. Bruce Peabody
• Music in America —  Dr. Robert Butts
• Slavery and the Founding Fathers — Dr. Nicole Yanoso

Winter 2020

• The World of Exhibitions – Dr. Barbara Tomlinson
• Religious Pluralism in America – Dr. Jonathan Golden
• The United Nations in a Changing World – Dr Carlos Yordan
• How Things Work II – More Physical Concepts in Our Daily World – Dr. Robert Fenstermacher

Summer 2020

• The Story of the Symphony (virtual) – Dr. Robert Butts

Fall 2020

• Gothic Art (virtual) – Dr. Rita Keane

Winter 2021 (Virtual)

• Exhibitions Interrupted – Dr. Barbara Tomlinson
• Great Thinkers in the History of Western Political Thought: Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, and Marx – Dr. Ian Drake

Spring 2021 (Virtual)

• The Romantic Symphony (1820-1910) – Dr. Robert Butts
• Italian High Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture – Dr. Margaret Kuntz