This course is a research seminar offered in partnership with the Mass General Postdoc Association (MGPA) Science Communications Committee. Each week, two research fellows (MDs or PhDs) at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School will deliver a presentation on their ongoing research. Informative talks will be followed by interactive Q&A sessions with class participants. The far-ranging topics will cover different fields in medical research, including neuroscience, oncology, cardiology, and epidemiology. No prior scientific knowledge is expected from course participants, and no weekly preparation is required. The…

What does it mean to be human? We could turn to science or philosophy for an answer, but there is another, more adventurous path open to us: poetry that reveals the human condition, in all of its vexing complexity. Nowhere is this exploration of humanity more apparent than in the great odes, which began in classical times as celebrations of important events – as in Pindar’s odes on the Olympic Games. Soon the Pindaric ode gave way to another form, which became the vehicle for revealing the deepest…

The Massachusetts Bay Colony and the Plymouth Plantation are generally thought of as communities of refuge for English religious dissidents. They were also entrepreneurial ventures financed by English investors. This course examines the history of these ventures and some of the entrepreneurial characters engaged in these enterprises. At the beginning of the 17th century, three major drivers in England stimulated these ventures. First was commercial speculation among businessmen. Second were the dreams of feudal estates in the minds of the nobility. Third was the desire for religious freedom…

It isn’t possible to be sentient on this planet and not be aware of the Beatles. They were the biggest global pop-cultural phenomenon of the 1960s, with an impact that endures to this day. Although this course will touch on the Fab Four’s influence on culture and other musicians, its focus will be on the band’s music, from the earliest recordings through “Abbey Road.” The format will be partly lecture accompanied by brief illustrative samplings of music and videos, and partly class discussion. Participants may be assigned short…

Edith Wharton and Henry James, although 20 years apart in age, were the closest of friends. They shared their lives, their friends, and their literary careers. Henry James was seldom free with his praise, except for Edith. The only other close literary friendship James maintained was with Constance Fenimore Woolson, whose suicide was wrenching to him. This course will look closely at these friendships. We will read two very short novels by Henry James, Washington Square and Daisy Miller, along with The Custom of the Country and Summer…

Do you need an antidote for global warming? If so, join me in an armchair adventure to the cold wastelands of the earth. Sometimes one can visit these places as an explorer or tourist, and at other times they come to us in the form of weather extremes. We will learn about the year without a summer, and the history of ice – from a Boston viewpoint. Travel with us to the Arctic and the Antarctic; join the hunt for the Northwest Passage; and learn about my own…

This seminar salutes the 2023 125th anniversary of George Gershwin’s birth by exploring some of his scores from both stage and screen, putting his songs and music into their contexts. From the stage are Strike Up the Band and Of Thee I Sing, both Gilbert & Sullivan-influenced political satires. The films include two adaptations of his Broadway show Girl Crazy; two original scores, Shall We Dance and A Damsel in Distress; a posthumous “catalogue” film, An American in Paris; Woody Allen’s comedy Manhattan which features a score of…

“You cannot serve God and Mammon.” - Matthew 6:24   “Render unto Caesar things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.” - Matthew 22:21   “Our father’s God, to Thee, Author of Liberty, To Thee we sing; Long may our land be bright, With freedom’s holy light; Protect us by Thy might, Great God, our King.” - America, fourth stanza   Through much of civilized history, religious and worldly powers have coexisted, in varying patterns ranging from total cooperation and synthesis to outright hostility.…

Francisco Goya (1746-1828), one of Spain’s most famous artists, was one of the last of the Old Masters and the first of the Moderns. He was the creator of menacing and melancholy images in oils; a master of enigmatic, satirical, and revolutionary drawings and etchings; and the champion of the Spanish people, recording their lives and sufferings in war. Goya’s moods were many -- from the gaiety and tenderness of the tapestry cartoons to the mysterious darkness of the so-called “Black Paintings,” executed in his old age. This…

Chances are that you have never heard of the Macchiaioli: an artistic movement similar to French Impressionism that represented a rebellion against the Florentine Academy. One of the earliest developments in European modern art, this movement and its artists are often overlooked outside of Italy. The paintings of the Macchiaioli are worth exploring for the authenticity with which they captured the world around them as Italy became a nation and traditional rural life was giving way to modernity. While the Macchiaioli artists were working in Italy, across the…

Jane Austen has long been one of the most popular English novelists, admired by a wide audience of readers and scholars. All six of her completed novels have been continuously in print since 1833 and each is now widely available in multiple editions. In recent years, the appetite for Jane Austen has become positively insatiable! Feature-length movies have been made of all of Austen’s novels; two film dramatizations of Austen’s life have appeared: Miss Austen Regrets on PBS and Becoming Jane; and numerous contemporary authors have tried to…

In modern times, the rise of the internet, social media and mass communication has provided fertile ground for the amplification of demagoguery. The craft of the demagogue and the use of populist appeals, however, has been around for thousands of years. In this seminar, we will focus on the history of demagoguery and propaganda and the tools and techniques that are used to deceive us. We will strive to improve our critical thinking when assessing information presented to us.   This interactive seminar will start in antiquity, where…

John F. Kennedy begins his book Profiles in Courage as follows: “This is a book about the most admirable of human virtues – courage…and these are the stories of the pressures experienced by eight United States Senators and the grace with which they endured.” This course will demonstrate that physicians, at times, are called upon to display courage as well.   Ignaz Simmelweiss, a Hungarian physician, championed hand washing to combat postpartum infection and is known as the “savior of mothers.” Frances Kelsey, a young physician at the…

This seminar series will present current research that may someday dramatically impact the future of science and medicine. Local scientists will share their stories and facilitate interactive discussions spanning a broad range of interdisciplinary research. Speakers include scientists in a wide variety of disciplines with experience in academia and industry who are conducting basic research at the bench and closely interfacing with clinical practice. Participants will engage in meaningful conversation about exciting topics––from “converting atmospheric carbon dioxide into fuels” and “synthesizing compounds against multidrug-resistant bacteria,” to “bringing artificial…

In modern times King Lear has been widely regarded as Shakespeare's greatest play – certainly his most heart-breaking.   We will read and discuss the text of this masterpiece at our first three meetings. Then, using the Norton Critical Edition, we will study contexts, from Shakespeare's varied sources to modern critical essays.   Viewing YouTube performances, we will also discover the rich stage and film history of this unique tragedy.   Note: No class will be held on Patriots' Day, Monday, April 15. The seminar will resume on…

Humans spend one-third of their lives sleeping, but most of us know very little about it. The primary goals of this course are to: 1) introduce the study of sleep, 2) understand how the character and patterns of sleep change throughout one’s lifespan and, 3) perhaps most importantly, answer “Why do we sleep?” To this end, we will focus specifically on the intersection between sleep and memory consolidation. We will seek scientifically informed answers to questions like: Why do we dream? What happens in our brains and bodies…

In this five-session course, we will view and discuss four classics of East Central European cinema from the late 1950s and 1960s. These films were produced during a period of cultural relaxation in the East Bloc – a springtime, or “Thaw,” in the words of Soviet writer, Ilya Ehrenburg -- following the long winter of Stalinism. We’ll begin with Polish director Andrzej Wajda’s Ashes and Diamonds from 1958, then move to the Czech “New Wave” with Jiri Menzel’s Closely Watched Trains from 1966, followed by Hungarian director István…

The House of Habsburg took root in the 13th century at a small castle in the canton of Aargau in modern day Switzerland. Over the ensuing centuries it expanded and mutated to dominate Central Europe, the Low Countries, parts of Italy, Iberia, large tracts of North and South America, and the Philippines at various times. It was the first empire on which the sun never set, and its head usually held the elective title of Holy Roman Emperor. This growth was accomplished not so much by conquest, but…

This course will be a book-by-book close reading of books 7 through 12 of the Iliad, the great epic of ancient Greece. The Iliad is the earliest work in ancient Greek, written down sometime around 750–730 BC. Attributed to Homer, the Iliad was constructed by generations of bards orally retelling and commemorating in song a war fought in previous generations over the plains of Troy. The epic tells the tale of the wrath of the Greeks’ greatest warrior, Achilles, whose withdrawal from the conflict changes the course of…

This course tells the story of the Mamluks, a slave dynasty and founders of a powerful sultanate that lasted for two and a half centuries (1250-1517). The sultanate was a military state whose frontiers extended from Egypt to Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and the Hijaz (Saudi Arabia), but its power was concentrated in Cairo (al-Qahira). The “Slave Kings” stopped the Mongol invasion and drove the Crusaders from the Holy Land.   The Mamluk sultans were prolific patrons of architecture and contributed immensely to the fabric of historic Cairo, which reached…

Today, F. Scott Fitzgerald is known for his novels, but in his own time his fame rested squarely on his prolific achievement as one of America’s most gifted writers of short stories and novellas. There is something magical about Fitzgerald. While much has been written about the Jazz Age lives of Scott and Zelda, the real magic lies embedded in his prose. This course will explore the depth and extraordinary range of Fitzgerald’s literary talents. Come delight in Fitzgerald’s style, with stories that conjure up a lost era…

This course will examine archetypes of evil and ‘fallen’ women through the lens of Victorian writers, artists, and social mores. We will read and review extracts from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations, considering their female protagonists against the backdrop of Victorian society and its cultural norms. As we explore the characters of Jane Eyre, Bertha Rochester, Miss Havisham and Estella, we’ll see how rising feminism begins to challenge deeply rooted female stereotypes. We will also discuss how some key poems, extracts from other novels,…