History Lessons in NYC, New York

Join CourseHorse for our one-hour special virtual trivia night! Test your knowledge across a wide range of topics including music, movies, pop culture, history, sports, frozen foods, dog breeds, Seinfeld characters, ice cream flavors and many other surprises... How this will work: This will take place live over a Zoom conference. You will either...

Dinosaurs! Science! Adventure! Break out your pith helmet as we embark upon a brazen expedition through the halls of New York City's world-famous American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Join your maverick tour guide as we deftly navigate this massive 27-building, 1.6 million square foot landmark cultural institution. Learn the science...

Fake Archaeology: An April Fool’s Exploration of Aliens, Atlantis, and Freaky Artifacts The global presence of pyramids, the unknown purpose of Stonehenge, the lost continent of Atlantis… we’ve all heard the conspiracy theories that claim to prove ancient aliens visited Earth. But are aliens really the answer to the puzzles of the past?...

Rice around the world is thought of as Asian. But rice is just as African as it is Asian. Oryza glaberrima was cultivated from wild rice that needed humans when the Sahara was drying. That knowledge fueled the Trans Atlantic Slave Trade where Africans were brought west. Rice dominated the United States and particularly South Carolina for two hundred...

In 1603, one of the momentous events in history occurred when the Scottish King, James VI inherited the throne of England following the death of his cousin Elizabeth. He combined his two nations and called them Great Britain – and all subsequent kings and queens of Britain are his descendants to the present day.  The telling of British...

Meet the badass Brooklynites who brought us the ballot. Behind the stately facades of Brooklyn Heights’ most gracious brownstones lies the history of firebrand feminism! The wise “women of Brooklyn” were doctors, lawyers, educators and orators who made some of the foremost contributions to the Suffrage movement. Join us for a walk through their...

Our experience is a journey from the 1500s to the present day. We’ll start with explorers trying to find a route to Asia but then encountered a new land. I’ll share Harlem’s role in the American Revolution and the meeting of Alexander Hamilton and General George Washington. Our group will discuss the Trans Atlantic Slave trade in North, Central...

Modern archeology has altered our understanding of the world of the Bible. This course will take specific sites in the Holy Land whose excavations have raised new questions about our understanding of the Biblical narrative and its context. Excavations we’ll explore include Jericho, Megiddo, Jaffa, and the City of David in Jerusalem.

This class will be meeting virtually via Google Meet or Zoom. Please familiarize yourself with Zoom and download the mobile/desktop app at zoom.us in advance. (You'll probably need it anyway!) While many animals today face the threat of extinction, the numbers of dogs and cats are only climbing. They’ve tagged along at humanity’s heels...

Have you ever wondered what rationing during WWII was really like? Promoted as the ultimate patriotic duty for those on the home front, it also represented one of the real drudgeries of the War. Food historian Sarah Lohman explores the challenges that Americans faced throughout WWII as a result of wartime rationing and recreates some favorite wartime...

Intersectionality, a term coined by Kimberle Crenshaw, forcefully challenges the idea that gender is the primary factor organizing women’s lives. Drawing on black feminist and critical legal theory, Crenshaw maintains that the experience of being a woman must be understood through the interrelation of race and gender. In other words, she proposes...

Since the launch of Napster in 1999, there has been a massive transformation in how we create and consume media. This class charts the waves of change over the past two decades. We’ll start by looking at the tools and technology that underpin the digital revolution.  We’ll then trace what’s happened...

This class will be hosted virtually via Zoom. Please take a few minutes to download the Zoom desktop/mobile app ahead of time at zoom.us. The meeting link will be sent the day before class. This class will give you an overview of the court systems in the United States, including what kinds of cases go to what kinds of courts, and how a case...

This course will provide students with background information on Fair Housing. Students enrolled in this course, will have an in depth understanding of the creation and meaning of the law.  Topics to be explored include Fair Housing from the time of the civil war and the civil rights movement, to current times inclusive of green Fair Housing....

The word “fascism” is used frequently to describe intensely militaristic, racist, xenophobic, or repressive politics. Almost as often, fascism is used as a shorthand for a form of “totalitarian” government—where “jack-booted thugs” from “the state” control social, economic, and political life. With the rise of a dizzying array of...