Great theater has the power to both entertain and inspire. At its best, a play can inform and even transform lives. This course features spectacle theater from Greek origins to today's socially relevant musicals, the work of our best playwrights, plays about famous people, and a focus on the actors' craft. Short scenes from staged plays on video, as well as actors performing live scenes and monologues via Zoom will be presented and discussed. We explore what engages us, makes us laugh, what touches our hearts, and what helps us live richer lives in tough times.

Part one of a four-part survey of environmental arts of the Western world. This course covers the architectural and arts history of the Aegean, Greek, Roman, early Christian and Byzantine cultures encompassing early Medieval, Romanesque and Gothic periods. Instruction focuses on the man-built environment as influenced by geographical location, as well as the social, religious, economic and political forces of each historical period. Topics include major monuments in terms of function, symbolism, methods of fabrication, style, use of color, ornament and significance. The major artists, architects and designers of the various periods are also introduced. Illustrated lectures, selected readings and student projects develop an appreciation of the rich cultural heritage of the Western world, as well as the ability to utilize library and museum resources and recognize and evaluate significant environmental design movements. The course helps students understand the achievements of the past in order to more fully understand the present.

is designed for college seniors and provides them the foundation to understand their role as military officers and how they are directly tied to our National Security. It is an overview of the complex social and political issues facing the military profession and requires a measure of sophistication commensurate with the senior college level.

Over the course of the past several decades, conventional art historical narratives have been overturned. Previously marginalized artistic tendencies and artists (read: women and people of color) have been inserted and highlighted, as is evidenced today by entering almost any museum. During this period, the dominant 1960s conception of Feminist Art as pertaining to white, middle-class women based in the U.S. broadened to include artists of color and different social classes, and men and people of various sexual orientations, while becoming international in scope. The recently published book Mothers of Invention: The Feminist Roots of Contemporary Art (2025) puts forth the notion that Feminist Art may be identified as the primary source of innovation in art produced over the course of the past half-century; that as an art positioned outside the mainstream, it was empowered to break rules and forge new paths, which are still being explored today. Using this new book as a primary text, this class will explore work being created by artists in Los Angeles today, taking into account historical precedents found in Feminist art of the ‘60s, ‘70s, and before.  

The course will begin with two online sessions examining concepts introduced in Mothers of Invention and following its thematic approach, with the focus being on performance art, ecofeminism, abstraction, and craft. Figuration will be considered as well. Among the pioneering artists to be discussed are Hilma af Klint, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Annie Albers, Louise Bourgeois, Alma Thomas, Niki de Saint-Phalle, Marina Abramovic, Laurie Anderson, Catherine Opie, and Betye Saar. The next three session will be spent visiting museums, galleries, and artist studios in the Los Angeles area, where we will explore and discuss work pertinent to the subject matter of our class. The final session will again be online, with one of the authors of the class text meeting with us on Zoom. At that time, we will also discuss the following: how do we define Feminist Art and is the concept still relevant today?