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In this seminar-style course, participants will view and discuss together the entire PBS documentary film series Eyes on the Prize, Part 1: America's Civil Rights Years, widely considered to be a masterful documentation of critical events in the Civil Rights Movement. Enrollees also will be required to read written reflections on the Movement by the late Dr. Vincent Harding, a renowned historian and speech writer for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his book Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement. Dr. Harding and Dr. Jones were close friends for more than 30 years. Accordingly, Dr. Jones will bring to class discussions much of what he learned during many conversations about Harding's perspective on the Movement. Additionally, Dr. Jones will share his own experiences of the Movement during his high school and college years, impacting significantly his lifelong professional and personal development.

Required: Vincent Harding, Hope and History: Why We Must Share the Story of the Movement, Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1990.

Mrs. Moore and her son’s fiancé Adela travel to India, determined to experience “the real India,” beyond the club-bound official British colony. While exploring the Malabar Caves, Adela suffers an ambiguous assault and their Indian friend Dr. Aziz is charged with the crime. The ensuing trial destroys friendships and questions the reliability of “truth,” especially when class and race are involved. In this subtle picture of India under the British Raj, well-meaning characters are doomed to find that cultural and sexual misunderstandings damage their own and others' lives. In a novel considered one of the best of the 20th century, Forster, a member of the Bloomsbury Group, calls upon his own experiences in India. Although Indian independence is 20 years in the future, Forster exposes the imperial system as dangerous to people on both sides of the divide. Class discussion will allow us to explore current examples of similar misunderstandings.

Required Text: E. M. Forster, A Passage to India. Intro by Pankaj Mishra, Penguin Classics, ISBN 978-0-241-54042, or equivalent.

All civilizations eventually collapse. Historically, the average lifetime of civilizations is about 250 years, the age of the United States. The life cycle of civilizations follow a similar pattern of 7 stages, with common factors contributing to eventual collapse. From climate change to economic turmoil to the rise of authoritarianism, current circumstances indicate that the US and much of the world are now in the crisis and decline stage, with collapse on the horizon.

In this course we will address the seven stages of civilizations, current trends that point to civilization collapse, the grief cycle as a model of the personal experience of collapse, practical steps you can take to survive and adapt to collapse, indigenous cultures as a model for sustainable communities, and how to be content and resilient in the face of collapse.

What is a “conspiracy theory?” Why has it become popular in recent decades? How do we understand its role in the culture and in politics? How does it relate to misinformation and disinformation. How has the term been used/misused? How do the social scientists, social theorists and the philosophers think about “conspiracy theory” and all that it means for our contemporary period? The course will explore these issues.

We will use the book Conspiracy/Theory, a book of critical essays by professors from different disciplines edited by Joseph Masco and Lisa Weeden. There will be a limited amount of supplemental reading to guide our discussions. The course will be in the form of a seminar which will require reading each week so that we can all benefit from an informed discussion.

Required text: Conspiracy/Theory by Joseph Maasco and Lisa Weeden Duke University Press, 2024 ($28.98 paperback)

Great Decisions is a course on United States foreign policy. Each week, we will focus on a specific topic related to that policy from a U.S. perspective. Other perspectives on that policy topic are valued and encouraged. In addition, each week the class will watch a video, prepared by the Foreign Policy Association, to further define the week’s topic. Students are encouraged to provide their thoughts and opinions on the presented materials and be ready to discuss with and learn from their classmates. Topics included are:

• •America and the World: Trump 2.0 Foreign Policy
• •Trump Tariffs and the Future of the World Economy
• •U.S.-China Relations
• Ruptured Alliances and the Risk of Nuclear Proliferation
• Ukraine and the Future of European Security
• Multilateral Institutions in a Changing World Order
• U.S. Engagement of Africa
• The Future of Human Rights and International Law

Required Text: Great Decisions Briefing Book 2026, available from the Foreign Policy Association

Come join a fun and joyful journey through 40 years of Jamaican music, designed to trigger dopamine and create a sense of well-being. You will explore the magical waters of Jamaican music and its ability to connect and unify people across cultures.  The course will feature 120 unique Jamaican singers, instrumentalists, producers, and DJ Toasters, but will not include Bob Marley. It will explore genres from the 1940s to the 1990s, including Mento/Calypso, Ska, Rock Steady, Reggae, and Dancehall. 

The format will be similar to a live radio show or DJ session, with 85% of the time dedicated to listening. You'll also participate in discussions and provide feedback on tracks and videos. Come catch the beat and dip your toes into this rich musical history. 

This course delves into how a bastion of learning was stitched together across the last three decades. We will explore the development via a variety of architectural approaches, both obvious and subtle, that resulted in the campus being recognized as one of the most beautiful collegiate campuses. Reinforced by three short tours of new builds, renovations, and site projects, we will follow a course that explores lessons learned, reasons for the projects, and the commitment of four chancellors that has transformed the campus into one that our students and community show exceptional appreciation for. In-class discussions will be informed by the master planning history of the campus, the approach to design, and the alignment to core principles of durability, sustainability, and functionality. The final session will broaden to consider how DU compares and fits within the continuum of American collegiate campus planning and design.

Recommended: From the Rockies To The World by Allen D. Breck, Campus and An American Planning Tradition by Paul Venable Turner

Gunfighter showdowns, horseback train robberies, and Indian-war last stands are among the most familiar devices in American culture. So are Western landscapes that signify both the heroic conquest of nature and its quiet contemplation. In this course, we’ll look at the history shaping these aspects of Colorado and the West, and their evolving cultural significance. We’ll begin with Indian-white conflict in the post-Civil War era, focusing on the Great Sioux War of the 1870s. Next we’ll look at frontier violence, using gunfighters and outlaw gangs to explore what one historian called “the western civil war of incorporation.”

We’ll then shift to how the West was reconceived from a place of hardship to one of inspiration and easy living. Besides historical scholarship, we’ll examine how writers and impresarios turned these western themes into new genres of entertainment and leisure that remain potent today.

Required: Elliott West, Continental Reckoning: The American West in the Age of Expansion (University of Nebraska Press, 2023); Ron Hansen, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Harper, 2007); free registration to JSTOR online journals repository; streaming of three movies (The Searchers, Little Big Man, The Missing)

This course is centered on the stories of specific individuals: refugees, designated enemy aliens, and those that enabled their escape from France during WWII. Meet and learn about the unsung heroes who spirited Europe’s most prominent artists and intellectuals (among them, Marc Chagall, Max Ernst, Wanda Landowska, Heinrich Mann, Franz Werfel, Hannah Arendt) from under the nose of Nazi terror. In 1940, the private non-profit Emergency Rescue Committee sent the 32-year-old American journalist, Varian Fry, to Marseille with a list of two hundred people and $3,000. Fry’s charge: rescue these acknowledged giants of western civilization from imminent demise. Instead, Fry and an unlikely cast of characters rescued two thousand people via derring-do, subterfuge and unremitting courage. Moreover, the arrival of this wave of immigrants permanently changed the face of American culture. The magic and heroism of this drama is infectious.

Recommended Prerequisite Movie: Varian’s War: The Forgotten Hero 

Recommended Book: Andy Marino, A Quiet American: The Secret War of Varian Fry