Upcoming Roster

Summer 2024

Summer 2024 MLAS courses begin Monday, June 3 and end Wednesday, August 7.

 

MLAS 6400: Seminar in Literature and Creative Writing: Seeking Adventure, Treasure, or Protection: Great Literary Quests from Homer to Toni Morrison
Prof. Robert Barsky Department of French and Italian and the Vanderbilt Law School
Evening that the course will meet: Wednesdays, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description: 
World literature is rife with characters who have set out in search of new horizons or fresh starts, either because they are bored, desperate, or in need of enlightenment. In this course we’ll accompany some of the most memorable literary characters ever created, from Odysseus and Don Quixote to Scrooge and Frankenstein’s monster, focusing upon what led them to embark upon their quest. Following in the footsteps of these remarkable literary creations will lead us into vast realms of inquiry, and will (re)kindle the excitement and the perils of seeking adventure, or protection.
(Literature and Creative Writing, Social Science)

 

MLAS 6600: Seminar in Social Science: World Cup Soccer and Socio-Political implications
Prof. Celso Castilho  Department of History and Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies
Evening that the course will meet: Mondays, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description:
By most measures, the 1994 Men’s World Cup was an extraordinary success. It drew historic crowds across 9 host cities. It made FIFA a lot of money. It made the US Soccer Federation a lot of money, providing the impetus for a men’s professional league. On the field, the US team exceeded expectations, and advanced to the second round. The world cup also changed how the U.S. media in general, and the sporting media in particular, dealt with soccer. In particular, print and TV media played a major role in detailing fan culture, often intertwining it in discussions about immigration and national identity. Among the recurrent questions asked were: how “American” was soccer, and why did the U.S. not enjoy greater “home-field advantage”? These are among the issues we’ll explore. Broadly, this class offers fresh perspectives to think about the interconnections between the sporting and political arenas, as these and other questions about fan culture remain visible ahead of the upcoming 2026 Men’s World Cup that the US will co-host alongside Mexico and Canada.
(Social Science, History)

 

 

Fall 2024

Fall 2024 MLAS courses begin Monday, August 26 and end Wednesday, December 4.

 

MLAS 6200: Seminar in Fine and Creative Arts: Italian Cinema
Prof. Andrea Mirabile   Department of French and Italian
Evening that the course will meet: Mondays, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description: 
Italy is often associated with ancient art and architecture, from imperial Rome to the glorious Renaissance of Florence and Venice. Nevertheless, Italy is also one of the birthplaces of what is arguably the most modern of artforms: cinema. More than a century ago, decades before Hollywood studios, Italian directors created colossal movies that made world audiences dream about biblical stories, medieval legends, and exotic adventures in faraway lands. Moreover, after WWII Italian filmmakers reinvented the way in which films are conceived, produced, and interpreted. Antonioni, De Sica, Olmi, Rossellini, Visconti, Fellini deliberately mixed the staged and the un-staged, fiction and history, the sensual and the political in a 'new realism' / 'art film' aesthetic that will prove to be profoundly influential, on both sides of the Atlantic, even in the current era of multimedia experimentations and virtual reality. The course celebrates the vitality of Italian cinema from its distant beginning to the present, with a special focus on the golden age period between the early 1940s and the late 1990s. Knowledge of Italian is not required.
(Fine and Creative Arts)

 

MLAS 6400: Seminar in Literature and Creative Writing: Shakespeare and the Invention of Character
Prof. Lynn Enterline   Department of English, Emerita
Evening that the course will meet: Tuesdays, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description:
“That’s he that was Othello: here I am.” This is but one of many moments where Shakespeare represents a character in crisis. In this course, we will investigate why the inner worlds and motives of his characters have attracted so much interest and speculation from audiences, actors, and critics. Considering soliloquies as well as dialogues, rhetorical questions, and literary allusions that convey the sense of a textured and tantalizingly mysterious interior life, we will survey all genres of Shakespeare’s work (dramatic as well as lyric and narrative poetry) by taking the question of “character” to be one that requires close literary, rhetorical, and historical analysis. Our study of each of his works will revolve around a number of interrelated topics important in Shakespeare’s life and habits of invention: the myths that dominated what 16 ^th century writers dubbed “the renaissance” or cultural “rebirth” from the classical past; the Tudor educational revolution and its transmission of European “humanism”; the practices of the commercial theater in Shakespeare’s London; and the close connection between the stage and the burgeoning legal profession. Studying Shakespeare’s emotional characters and literary representations of personal interiority will allow us to think about 16 ^th century experiences of social distinction—i.e. socially marked and contested differences between genders, classes, and races. Overall, this course will allow students several ways to approach an impossible question: How did Shakespeare become “Shakespeare?”
(Literature and Creative Writing)

 

MLAS 6700 Interdisciplinary Seminar (Core Course): The Dilemmas of Modern American Foreign policy in Historical Perspective
Prof.  Thomas Alan Schwartz  Department of History
Evening that the course will meet: Wednesdays, 6:00-8:30 pm
Course Description:
Ukraine, the Middle East, Iran, China, North Korea, and Haiti. The headlines tell the stories of dramatic foreign policy crises throughout the world and the efforts of the American Presidents and policymakers to cope with these myriad challenges.  Why have these crises erupted now and how best can they be addressed?  This course will explore the historical background to the most important international issues of today, the policies and actions of previous American leaders, and what lessons history might afford about such crises and their resolution. 
(Core Course or History)

 

3/26/24