“Humanity does not gradually progress from combat to combat until it arrives at universal reciprocity, where the rule of law finally replaces warfare, humanity installs each of its violences in a system of rules and thus proceeds from domination to … [Read more]
Fall, 2016: Shakespeare’s First Folio
Seven years after William Shakespeare died, one of the world’s most important books was published: a collection of thirty-six plays that we now call the “First Folio.” Without the First Folio, we would not have Julius Caesar, Macbeth, The Taming of … [Read more]
Summer, 2016: Shakespeare & Law
Shakespeare’s lines reverberate not only on stages, movie screens, and in classrooms, but also in courtrooms: he has been cited in more than 800 judicial opinions. This course will explore three of Shakespeare’s plays through the lens of the law, … [Read more]
Spring, 2016: John Milton’s Paradise Lost
William Blake, Satan Watching Endearments of Adam and Eve. 1816. For 350 years, John Milton’s Paradise Lost has awed, angered, and inspired its readers. It’s a poem of enormous ambition and profound beauty, one that novelists, classical composers, … [Read more]
Fall, 2015: Shakespeare
Many of Shakespeare’s plays explore concerns about “faking it”: the anxious feeling people have about the authenticity of their social interactions. This course will examine three of Shakespeare’s plays (a comedy, a tragedy, and a history) through … [Read more]
Spring, 2015: The Violence of the Law
Mass incarceration, police brutality, torture, and botched executions raise questions about the violence of the law: Must the law be violent to control violence? Does the law’s violence promote justice or disrupt it? How are law and … [Read more]