THE UNIVERSITY  TRUSTEES,

BOARD  OF REGENTS AND FELLOWS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA   commonly called  '' THE PRESIDENT AND FELLOWS OF UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA''  is  the  UA's  governing body. The trustees are appointed by the REGENT  TRUSTEES  of  THE  UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA UNIVERSITY SYSTEM  and represented in the UA by the UA's President, Vice President and  the Chief Administrative Officer(CAO).

THE UNIVERSITY`S ADMINISTRATION;-

DR MARSHALL & REBECCA WARNEKE -CHANCELLOR      

OF THE UNIVERSITY AND   

THE BOARD

DR. TERRY  VANBUSKIRK

PRO-CHANCELLOR 

PROF. ENGR. GAMALIEL ONYEKA O. PRINCE.          DSc. PhD. LLD. Ed.D. ThD. D.Litt

PRESIDENT/VICE-CHANCELLOR

DR. PRINCESS SHULLAM FCAO. PhD.  M.Ed.               VICE-PRESIDENT FOR INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS      & ENROLMENT      

REV, DR. MICHAEL  L. LUTHER SR.                                     VICE-PRESIDENT SPIRITUAL FORMATION AND PASTORAL CARE

DR. MODESTO A.R  TORRES PhD.  MSc. MBA 

PROVOST ABD CHIEF ACADEMIC OFFICER 

DR. REBECCA SCOTT WILLIAM DBA. MBA BA.          VICE-PRESIDENT FOR ADMINISTRATION  , HUM  RES. &  FINANCIAL AID

 MRS GRACIA ROEMER ASB., BA. PHIL M.Ed.

      THE  UOA  FACULTY 

This is a  partial list of UA's faculty members . Included in this list are the names of outstanding instructors,lecturers and professors that prepared the lecture materials that are being used by the students of UA made available by the recording company from where the UA  receives its educational supplies for its students that are  in distance education.

1 Professor David Thurn ,BA Colgate university,M DIV Harvard University, PhD  Cornell University, Princeton professor of humanities.

2 Professor Glen S Holland , AB Drama Stanford University,TH MA Mansfield College,University of Oxford, England UK. PhD Biblical Studies, University of Chicago Divinity School.

3 Professor  Amy Jill Levine, PhD. MA  Duke University

professor at Vanderbuilt Uuniversity

*The Great Courses Professors

*The Great Courses Professors E-lectures and pre-recorded videos are used for many of  the UoA  Distance-learning Program. The Great Courses , E-lectures and pre-recorded videos is a copyright property of its owners – © The Teaching Company, LLC. All rights reserved.

Faculty  of English , Linguistics and Communication

Professor Anne Curzan, Ph.D

• University of Michigan
• University of Michigan

I love this chance to share my passion for exploring the history of language and the dynamics of everyday talk. It allows us to see and hear the language around us in entirely new ways.

Dr. Anne Curzan is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of English at the University of Michigan. She earned a B.A. in Linguistics from Yale University and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan. Professor Curzan has won several awards for teaching, including the University of Michigan's Henry Russel Award, the Faculty Recognition Award, and the John Dewey Award. Her research interests include the history of English, language and gender, corpus linguistics, historical sociolinguistics, pedagogy, and lexicography. In addition to writing numerous articles, reviews, and edited volumes, Professor Curzan is the author of Gender Shifts in the History of English and the coauthor of How English Works: A Linguistic Introduction and First Day to Final Grade: A Graduate Student's Guide to Teaching. Beyond her teaching and research interests, she is a member of the American Dialect Society and sits on the usage panel for the American Heritage Dictionary. She can also be found talking about language in her column, Talking About Words, in Michigan Today and on the segment, That's What They Say, on Michigan Radio.

*The Great Courses Professor of English Grammar  Bootcamp

Professor James Pfrehm, PhD

• Ithaca College
• University of Wisconsin, Madison

Whether its literature, business, science, philosophy, music or history; German-speaking culture has literally helped shaped the world we live in today.

James Pfrehm is an Associate Professor of German and Linguistics at Ithaca College. He received a master’s degree in German Literature from the University of Washington and a doctorate in Germanic Linguistics from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Dr. Pfrehm’s teaching and research areas include the German language; the literature and culture of German-speaking countries; and several subfields of linguistics, primarily sociolinguistics, dialectology, linguistic anthropology, and technolingualism. He has taught at universities in Heidelberg and Münster, has written and presented his research at numerous academic conferences, and has led several workshops at universities across the United States on teaching foreign languages with technology.

Dr. Pfrehm has received recognition from the Student Governance Council at Ithaca College for his outstanding teaching and commitment to his students, and he has earned various institutional grants to take students abroad for short-term study experiences.

Dr. Pfrehm is the author of Technolingualism and Austrian Standard German. In addition, he is the author or coauthor of two foreign language textbooks: Kunterbunt und kurz geschrieben and Textures. He is also a published playwright and has had multiple plays produced by theaters in the United States and Canada.

*The Great Courses Professor of German Language and Culture

Professor Jennifer Cognard-Black, Ph.D.

• St. Mary’s College of Maryland
• The Ohio State University

Each of us has the capacity to write meaningful essays that tap into the heartbeat of humanity.

Dr. Jennifer Cognard-Black is Professor of English at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a public liberal arts college. She graduated summa cum laude from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a dual degree in Music and English. She studied under Jane Smiley for her M.A. in Fiction and Essay Writing at Iowa State University and received her Ph.D. in 19th-Century British and American Literature from The Ohio State University.

Among her awards for teaching and writing, she was named a Fulbright Scholar to Slovenia, where she taught the American novel and creative writing. She was the recipient of a Maryland State Arts Council individual artist award and was twice the recipient of the Faculty Student Life Award, the most prestigious teaching award at St. Mary’s, selected by the students themselves. She was awarded Mellon Foundation grants on three separate occasions, and she won a gold medal in the national 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards contest for an anthology she edited. Nebraska Wesleyan University has named her a Distinguished Alumna and an Outstanding Graduate.

Professor Cognard-Black’s publications are extensive and eclectic, reflecting her intellectual background as both a writer and a literary critic. She is the author of numerous books, has published her essays and short fiction in a number of journals, and she has appeared on NPR.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Fiction

Professor James Scott Bell, JD

• University of Southern California Gould School of Law

The tools and techniques you learn can be applied at any stage of your writing and will serve you the rest of your writing life.

James Scott Bell is an award-winning novelist and writing instructor. He is a winner of the International Thriller Writers Award and the author of the #1 best-selling book on writing, Plot & Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot That Grips Readers from Start to Finish. He received his BA in Film Studies from the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he studied writing with Raymond Carver, and his JD with honors from the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. A former trial lawyer, Mr. Bell now writes and speaks full time.

Mr. Bell is a prolific author. His works include the Mike Romeo thriller series (Romeo’s Rules, Romeo’s Way, Romeo’s Hammer, and Romeo’s Fight), the Ty Buchanan legal thriller series (Try Dying, Try Darkness, and Try Fear), and the novels Your Son Is Alive, Don’t Leave Me, Blind Justice, and Final Witness. He has written several popular writing books, including Just Write: Creating Unforgettable Fiction and a Rewarding Writing Life; Conflict and Suspense; and The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises. Mr. Bell has also published How to Write Dazzling Dialogue: The Fastest Way to Improve Any Manuscript; Write Your Novel from the Middle: A New Approach for Plotters, Pantsers and Everyone in Between; Super Structure: The Key to Unleashing the Power of Story; How to Write Pulp Fiction; and How to Make a Living as a Writer.

Mr. Bell served as a fiction columnist for Writer’s Digest. He has taught novel writing at Pepperdine University as well as in writing seminars across the United States and many parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

*The Great Courses Professor of   FICTION. NOVEL  AND WRITING

Professor Mark G. Frank, Ph.D.

• University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
• Cornell University

Nonverbal communication has similar but not identical features to verbal communication. It is in those differences where we glean maximum insights.

Dr. Mark G. Frank is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Communication, as well as the Director of the Communication Science Center at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York. Dr. Frank received his B.A. in Psychology from the University at Buffalo and received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Cornell University.

Dr. Frank’s work has examined the behaviors associated with real versus falsified emotions, behaviors that occur when people lie, and the factors that make people better or worse judges of emotion and deception. His work has been funded by The National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. Department of Defense, and the intelligence community. He has used these findings to lecture, consult with, and train U.S. federal law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, local and state agencies, and selected foreign agencies. He has presented briefings on deception and counterterrorism to the U.S. Congress and the National Academies of Sciences.

In 2005, Dr. Frank won The Rutgers College Class of 1962 Presidential Public Service Award for his uncompensated work with law enforcement and other professionals. He has also won a Visionary Innovator Award from the University at Buffalo for being a co-inventor of patented software that reads facial expressions in real time. Dr. Frank has also received a National Research Service Award from the National Institute of Mental Health.

Dr. Frank has published numerous research papers. He has also coedited two books. He has appeared more than 100 times in print, radio, and television outlets.

*The Great Courses Professor of   COMMUNICATION SCIENCE 

 Professor John McWhorter, Ph.D.

• Columbia University
• Stanford University

Far from being a language in decline, we have reason to believe that English, with all its beauty and quirks and illogicities, will be carried far into the future.

Dr. John McWhorter is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He previously was Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his B.A. from Rutgers University, his M.A. from New York University, and his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Stanford University. Professor McWhorter specializes in language change and language contact. He is the author of The Power of Babel: A Natural History of Language; The Word on the Street, a book on dialects and Black English; and Doing Our Own Thing: The Degradation of Language and Music in America and Why We Should, Like, Care. A Contributing Editor at The New Republic, he has also been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Time, and The New Yorker. Frequently sought after by the media, Professor McWhorter has appeared on Dateline NBC, Politically Incorrect, Talk of the Nation, Today, Good Morning America, The Jim Lehrer NewsHour, Up with Chris Hayes, and Fresh Air.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Linguistics

Professor Michael Carasik, Ph.D.

• University of Pennsylvania
• Brandeis University

Reading the Bible in Hebrew is like traveling back in time. You can hear voices from 2500 years ago speaking directly to you.

Dr. Michael Carasik has taught Biblical Hebrew since 1991 and is currently adjunct assistant professor of Biblical Hebrew at the University of Pennsylvania, where he has taught since 2000. He earned his PhD in Bible and Ancient Near East from Brandeis University.

A member of the University of Pennsylvania’s Faculty Working Group on Recovered Language Pedagogies, Professor Carasik has also taught at Hebrew College, Northeastern University, the University of Delaware, Gratz College, the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and Saint Joseph’s University. In addition, he has taught adults in the Kerem, Melton, and Me’ah/ConText programs.

Professor Carasik is the creator, editor, and translator of The Commentators’ Bible (The JPS Miqra’ot Gedolot), an English-language version of the traditional Jewish Bible commentaries dating from the 11th to the 16th centuries. He also is the author of Theologies of the Mind in Biblical Israel, a description of the Israelite understanding of psychology as revealed in the Bible, and The Bible’s Many Voices, a layperson’s guide to what the human authors of the Bible meant by their writing. Professor Carasik’s other publications include numerous articles, reviews, reference book entries, and translations.

Professor Carasik has worked for the National Hebrew Proficiency Guidelines Committee, has been a columnist for Jewish Ideas Daily, and has spoken at synagogues around the United States. He has served the Philadelphia Jewish community as vice president of the Center City Eruv Committee and president of the Center City Kehillah, and has hosted the weekly Torah Talk podcast since 2009. He is the weekday Torah reader at historic congregation Kesher Israel in Philadelphia and blogs as The Bible Guy on WordPress.com.

Professor Bill Worden, Associate Professor of Spanish

• The University of Alabama
• Brown University

The ideal language learner is a motivated student who is unafraid to make mistakes. Motivation leads to a high level of engagement with the language, and accepting errors as a natural part of the language learning process helps students keep working toward proficiency even when things get difficult.

Dr. Bill Worden is an Associate Professor of Spanish at The University of Alabama. He received his A.B. in Mathematics from Dartmouth College, his M.A. in Spanish from Middlebury College and his Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from Brown University.

Since 2002, Dr. Worden has taught a wide variety of courses at The University of Alabama, ranging from Introductory Spanish and Advanced Grammar and Composition to undergraduate and graduate courses in 16th- and 17th-century Spanish literature.

Dr. Worden’s main area of research is the work of Miguel de Cervantes, especially his novel Don Quixote. Dr. Worden has published in the fields of early modern Spanish literature, colonial Cuban theater, and 19th-century Spanish literature. He has also published on pedagogical topics, including how to teach Spanish at the middle school and high school levels, and has lectured on approaches for helping beginning language students become comfortable speaking Spanish.

Dr. Worden was awarded the David and Ruth Kossoff Prize for Leadership in Language Teaching by the Department of Hispanic Studies at Brown University, as well as the Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching by the Graduate School at Brown. In 2013, the Alabama Association of Foreign Language Teachers selected Dr. Worden as the winner of the annual Outstanding Foreign Language Teacher Award for Postsecondary.

*The Great Courses Professor of   SPANISH

Professor Angus Fletcher, Ph.D.

• The Ohio State University
• Yale University

If you want to learn more about stories and the incredible things they can do, there’s no better place to start than screenplays.

Angus Fletcher is a Professor of English and Film at The Ohio State University and a core faculty member at Project Narrative. He has previously taught at Stanford University, the University of Southern California, and Yale University. He holds a Ph.D. in English from Yale.

Professor Fletcher’s academic research into story science has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He has received teaching awards from Yale and the University of Southern California, and he was listed as one of Hollywood’s top educators by Variety magazine.

Professor Fletcher is the author of more than a dozen feature screenplays and television pilots, including a J. R. R. Tolkien biopic for the producers of The Lord of the Rings series, an adaptation of The Longest Journey for the estate of E. M. Forster, and an adaptation of The Variable Man for the estate of Philip K. Dick. He has also published several academic books and more than two dozen articles. His most recent book is Comic Democracies: From Ancient Athens to the American Republic.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Fiction & Screen Writing

 Professor Gary K. Wolfe, Ph.D.

• Roosevelt University's Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies
• University of Chicago

SF has become so diversified in the last several decades that I don’t think any one theoretical approach can account for what it does in all its varieties.

Dr. Gary K. Wolfe is a Professor of Humanities in Roosevelt University’s Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies. He earned his B.A. from the University of Kansas and his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Dr. Wolfe has earned many awards, including the Pilgrim Award from the Science Fiction Research Association, the Distinguished Scholarship Award from the International Association for the Fantastic in the Arts, the Eaton Award from the Eaton Science Fiction Conference, the British Science Fiction Association Award for Best Non-Fiction, the Locus Award for Non-Fiction, and the World Fantasy Award for criticism and reviews. He has been nominated for the prestigious Hugo Award from the World Science Fiction Convention, twice for his nonfiction and three times for the podcast he co-hosts with Jonathan Strahan.

A reviewer for Locus magazine since 1991 and the Chicago Tribune since 2013, and author or editor of a dozen books, Dr. Wolfe also edited the 2012 Library of America ‘s American Science Fiction: Nine Classic Novels of the 1950s and edits a series of monographs on science fiction authors for the University of Illinois Press.

Professor Hannah B. Harvey, Ph.D.

• Professional Storyteller
• The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Storytelling is core to the human experience - you shape your identity through stories. Who we are, where we come from, why we’re here - these are all life-shaping stories. If you don't know your story, you don't know yourself.

Dr. Hannah B. Harvey is an award-winning teacher, an internationally recognized performer, and a nationally known professional storyteller. She earned her Ph.D. in Performance Studies/Communication Studies at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she was also a teaching fellow. While teaching at Kennesaw State University, she received an Honors Program Distinguished Teacher award and an Alumni Association Commendation for Teaching Impact. As a performance ethnographer, Dr. Harvey develops oral histories into theatrical and solo storytelling works that highlight the true stories of contemporary Appalachian people. Her ongoing fieldwork with disabled coal miners in southwest Virginia culminated in a live ethnographic performance of their oral histories, Out of the Dark: The Oral Histories of Appalachian Coal Miners, earning her a directing award from adjudicators at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival in 2007 and three year-end awards from professional critics in 2005. Her written research has been honored by the American Folklore Society and been featured in Storytelling, Self, Society, of which she is managing editor. Dr. Harvey has delivered award-winning performances and has conducted workshops at festivals and universities in the United States and around the world. She has performed as a featured teller at the National Storytelling Festival in Tennessee; received accolades for her performances at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland; and led intercultural workshops at the University Hassan II, Ben M'Sik, in Casablanca, Morocco.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Children  Fiction

Professor Ann Williams, Ph.D., DEA

• Metropolitan State University of Denver
• Université Lyon 2

I suspect that as you discover more about French-speaking cultures in this course, you will find all kinds of reasons to learn this beautiful language.

Ann Williams is a Professor of French at the Metropolitan State University of Denver, where she teaches courses in language, literature, and culture. She earned her Ph.D. from Northwestern University and earned a Diplôme d’études approfondies from the Université Lyon 2. In May 2016, the French Ministère de l’Éducation nationale named her Chevalier dans l’ordre des Palmes académiques, an order of distinguished academics. She received the 2013 U.S. Professor of the Year Award for baccalaureate colleges from the Council for Advancement of Support and Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Professor Williams has coauthored four college-level French textbooks. She regularly presents conference papers and writes on contemporary France and the teaching of French. Professor Williams has been involved professionally with the Educational Testing Service, including work as a test developer. Throughout her career, she has received several awards from her university and from foreign-language professional organizations. Since 1990, Professor Williams has been an actor with L’Alliance & Co., a French-language theater company in Denver.

Professor Williams is an energetic supporter of foreign-language learning and international studies, often using her own trajectory to show students how they can benefit from the experience provided through contact with languages and cultures that are different from their own. In her teaching and research, she focuses on life skills gained through language study: intercultural communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and flexibility.

Professor Joseph H. Shieber, PhD

• Lafayette College
• Brown University

The study of knowledge is as old as philosophy itself.

Joseph H. Shieber is an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at Lafayette College, where he has taught since 2003. Before arriving at Lafayette, he taught philosophy at Brown University, Connecticut College, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Shieber earned a BA in Literature from Yale University, studied mathematics and philosophy at the Freie Universität Berlin, and earned AM and PhD degrees in Philosophy from Brown University.

Dr. Shieber has published numerous articles in epistemology, philosophy of language, and the history of modern philosophy in some of the top journals in the field of philosophy. He is also the author of Testimony: A Philosophical Introduction as well as a monthly Monday columnist for 3 Quarks Daily (www.3quarksdaily.com).

Dr. Shieber is a recipient of the Thomas Roy and Lura Forrest Jones Faculty Lecture Award in recognition of excellence in teaching and scholarship from Lafayette College. He regularly teaches courses in theory of knowledge, philosophy of language, history of 20th-century philosophy, logic, and metaphysics as well as a first-year seminar on propaganda.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Theories of Knowledge: Epistemology and Formal Logic

Professor David Kyle Johnson, Ph.D., University of Oklahoma

• King's College
• University of Oklahoma

Connect with Professor:

We can always take comfort in the fact that we can find and do embrace answers to metaphysical questions.

Dr. David Kyle Johnson is Associate Professor of Philosophy at King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. He earned a master’s degree and doctorate in philosophy from the University of Oklahoma.

At Oklahoma, he won the coveted Kenneth Merrill Graduate Teaching Award. In 2011, the American Philosophical Association’s committee on public philosophy gave him an award for his ability to make philosophy accessible to the general public.

Professor Johnson regularly teaches classes on metaphysics, philosophy of religion, philosophy of mind, and logic, as well as courses on critical thinking and scientific reasoning. He has published papers on human freedom, the problem of natural evil, the multiverse, the existence of souls, and many related topics in such journals as Religious Studies, Sophia, Philo, Philosophy and Literature, and Think. He also maintains two blogs for Psychology Today.

Professor Johnson also publishes prolifically on the intersection of pop culture and philosophy. One of his books, Inception and Philosophy: Because It’s Never Just a Dream, inspired an authors@Google talk with more than half-a-million YouTube views. He also has written numerous articles that explore the relationship between philosophical questions and such pop cultural phenomena as The Hobbit, Doctor Who, Batman, South Park, Johnny Cash, Quentin Tarantino, and Christmas.

Testimonials

"Professor David Johnson presents, difficult to understand content, clearly and excitedly. The information is in a logical sequence and leads to a modern metaphysical theory that literally changes my perception."

*The Great Courses Professor of       

• State University of New York, Stony Brook
• Boston University

In the end, imagining a world of fact without value is quite nearly impossible for creatures like us. Our lives are woven in terms of the things we value.

Dr. Patrick Grim is Distinguished Teaching Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He graduated with highest honors in anthropology and philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz. He was named a Fulbright Fellow to the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, from which he earned his B.Phil. He earned his Ph.D. from Boston University. Professor Grim is the recipient of several honors and awards. In addition to being named SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor, Dr. Grim has been awarded the President and Chancellor's awards for excellence in teaching and was elected to the Academy of Teachers and Scholars. The Weinberg Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Michigan in 2006, Professor Grim has also held visiting fellowships at the Center for Complex Systems at Michigan and at the Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. Professor Grim, author of The Incomplete Universe: Totality, Knowledge, and Truth; coauthor of The Philosophical Computer: Exploratory Essays in Philosophical Computer Modeling; and editor of the forthcoming Mind and Consciousness: 5 Questions, is widely published in scholarly journals. He is the founder and coeditor of 25 volumes of The Philosopher's Annual, an anthology of the best articles published in philosophy each year.

Testimonials

"Professor Grim blends intellect, imagination and creativity, not only as he presents his lectures, but he teaches how to connect with those tools, through practical examples and thought experiments throughout the course."

*The Great Courses Professor of Mind-Body Philosophy

Professor Steven Gimbel, Ph.D.

• Gettysburg College
• Johns Hopkins University

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Scientists give us new accounts of how the universe works, and philosophers unpack those theories to see what they tell us about what is real.

Professor Steven Gimbel holds the Edwin T. Johnson and Cynthia Shearer Johnson Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, where he also serves as Chair of the Philosophy Department. He received his bachelor's degree in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and his doctoral degree in Philosophy from the Johns Hopkins University, where he wrote his dissertation on interpretations and the philosophical ramifications of relativity theory. At Gettysburg, he has been honored with the Luther W. and Bernice L. Thompson Distinguished Teaching Award.

Professor Gimbel’s research focuses on the philosophy of science, particularly the nature of scientific reasoning and the ways that science and culture interact. He has published many scholarly articles and four books, including Einstein’s Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion; and Einstein: His Space and Times. His books have been highly praised in periodicals such as The New York Review of Books, Physics Today, and The New York Times, which applauded his skill as “an engaging writer…[taking] readers on enlightening excursions…wherever his curiosity leads.”

*The Great Courses Professor of   Formal Logic

Professor Mark Berkson, Ph.D.

• Hamline University
• Stanford University

Religious traditions should be approached not merely as objects of analysis, but also as challenges to be experienced subjectively. A deep encounter with another religion engenders intellectual and spiritual exploration and growth.

Dr. Mark Berkson is Professor of Religion at Hamline University. He earned a B.A. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, an M.A. from Stanford University in East Asian Studies, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Religious Studies and Humanities. He has twice received Faculty Member of the Year awards and has received multiple fellowships for his work in Asian religions. A world traveler, he has lived in China and visited religious and pilgrimage sites in countries such as India, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Greece. Professor Berkson has given well over 100 presentations at conferences, universities, community meetings, and churches, and he has also appeared on radio and television news shows in segments dealing with religious issues. His scholarly work has addressed topics such as comparative religious thought, religious ethics, death and dying, and interfaith dialogue and has appeared in books and in such prestigious journals as the Journal of Religious Ethics, Teaching Theology & Religion, and Buddhist-Christian Studies.

Testimonials

"Professor Berkson's enthusiasm for the subject matter and skill as a speaker hold your attention throughout the series."

Professor Steven Gimbel, Ph.D.

• Gettysburg College
• Johns Hopkins University

Connect with Professor:

Scientists give us new accounts of how the universe works, and philosophers unpack those theories to see what they tell us about what is real.

Professor Steven Gimbel holds the Edwin T. Johnson and Cynthia Shearer Johnson Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities at Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania, where he also serves as Chair of the Philosophy Department. He received his bachelor's degree in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and his doctoral degree in Philosophy from the Johns Hopkins University, where he wrote his dissertation on interpretations and the philosophical ramifications of relativity theory. At Gettysburg, he has been honored with the Luther W. and Bernice L. Thompson Distinguished Teaching Award.

Professor Gimbel’s research focuses on the philosophy of science, particularly the nature of scientific reasoning and the ways that science and culture interact. He has published many scholarly articles and four books, including Einstein’s Jewish Science: Physics at the Intersection of Politics and Religion; and Einstein: His Space and Times. His books have been highly praised in periodicals such as The New York Review of Books, Physics Today, and The New York Times, which applauded his skill as “an engaging writer…[taking] readers on enlightening excursions…wherever his curiosity leads.”

*The Great Courses Professor of   Redefining Reality: The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

No subject is bigger than reality itself and nothing is more challenging to understand, since what counts as reality has been undergoing continual revision for centuries. The quest to pin down what’s real is both philosophical and scientific. Redefining Reality , presented by award-winning Professor of Philosophy Steven Gimbel, shows that separating the real from the illusory is an exhilarating intellectual...

• Purdue University
• Duke University

Every turning point in the medieval world discussed in these lectures shifted the flow of the river of history, bringing us ever closer to the modern world.

Dr. Dorsey Armstrong is Associate Professor of English and Medieval Literature at Purdue University, where she has taught since 2002. The holder of an A.B. in English and Creative Writing from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Medieval Literature from Duke University, she also taught at Centenary College of Louisiana and at California State University, Long Beach. Her research interests include medieval women writers, late-medieval print culture, and the Arthurian legend, on which she has published extensively, including the 2009 book Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur: A New Modern English Translation Based on the Winchester Manuscript and Gender and the Chivalric Community in Sir Thomas Malory's Morte d'Arthur, published in 2003. In January 2009, she became editor-in-chief of the academic journal Arthuriana, which publishes the most cutting-edge research on the legend of King Arthur, from its medieval origins to its enactments in the present moment. Her current research project-Mapping Malory's Morte-is an exploration of the role played by geography in Malory's version of the story of King Arthur.

*The Great Courses Professor of   English, Medieval Philosophy and Literature

Professor Lawrence Cahoone, Ph.D.

• College of the Holy Cross
• Stony Brook University

The Great Courses deeply challenged my skills in teaching philosophy, while making it fun too.

Dr. Lawrence Cahoone is Professor of Philosophy at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, where he has taught since 2000. He holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. A two-time winner of the Undergraduate Philosophy Association Teaching Award at Boston University who has taught more than 50 different philosophy courses, Professor Cahoone is not only a skilled teacher, but also an author. With a background in recent European, American, and social and political philosophy, as well as interests in postmodernism, metaphysics, and the latter's relation to the natural sciences, he has written:

• The Orders of Nature
• Cultural Revolutions: Reason versus Culture in Philosophy, Politics, and Jihad
• Civil Society: The Conservative Meaning of Liberal Politics
• The Ends of Philosophy: Pragmatism, Foundationalism, and Postmodernism
• The Dilemma of Modernity: Philosophy, Culture, and Anti-Culture

He edited From Modernism to Postmodernism: An Anthology and his play, Wise Guys: A Philosophical Comedy, is available at HeartlandPlays.com

*The Great Courses Professor of   Political Philosophy

Faculty of Mathematics

Professor John Keyser, Ph.D.

• Texas A&M University
• University of North Carolina

Just as language helps us organize and describe ideas for people, programming languages help us organize and describe ideas for the computer.

Dr. John Keyser is a Professor and the Associate Department Head for Academics in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he has taught since earning his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina. As an undergraduate, he earned three bachelor’s degrees—in Computer Science, Engineering Physics, and Applied Math—from Abilene Christian University.

Dr. Keyser’s interest in computing, physics, and math steered him into a career in computer graphics, allowing him to combine all three disciplines. He has published widely on geometric modeling, physically based simulation for graphics, and a variety of other graphics topics.

Dr. Keyser’s teaching ranges from introductory undergraduate courses in computing and programming to graduate courses in modeling and simulation. Among these, he created a new Programming Studio course that has become required for all Computer Science and Computer Engineering majors at Texas A&M. He has been honored three times with Texas A&M’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching—once at the university level and twice from the Dwight Look College of Engineering. As an Assistant Professor, he was named a Montague Scholar by the Center for Teaching Excellence. He also won the Tenneco Meritorious Teaching Award and the Theta Tau Most Informative Lecturer Award.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Computer Science, Engineering Physics, Applied Math, and  Programming Languages

 Professor Francis Su, PhD

• Harvey Mudd College
• Harvard University

Linear algebra is about seeing the world visually in a completely different way. It’s about growing in your ability to recognize the hidden mathematical structures that underlie the everyday problems we encounter.

Francis Su is the Benediktsson-Karwa Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College. He earned his Ph.D. from Harvard University, and he has held visiting professorships at Cornell University and the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California. In 2015 and 2016, he served as president of the Mathematical Association of America (MAA).

Professor Su’s research focuses on geometric and topological combinatorics and their applications to the social sciences. He has published numerous scientific papers, and his work on the rental harmony problem (the question of how to divide rent fairly among roommates) was featured in The New York Times. He also wrote the book, Mathematics and Human Flourishing.

Professor Su’s teaching and writing are nationally renowned. The MAA has recognized his work with the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award and the Henry L. Alder Award for exemplary teaching, as well as the Paul R. Halmos-Lester R. Ford Award and the Merten M. Hasse Prize for distinguished writing. He is the author of the popular Math Fun Facts website; has a widely used YouTube course on real analysis; and is the creator the math news app MathFeed,. Professor Su’s notoriety as a popularizer prompted WIRED magazine to call him, “the mathematician who will make you fall in love with numbers.”

*The Great Courses Professor of   Linear Algebra and Geometry.

Professor Talithia Williams, Ph.D.

• Harvey Mudd College
• Rice University

To truly appreciate statistical information, we have to understand the language of statistics, the assumptions of statistics, and how we reason in the face of uncertainty.

Talithia Williams is an Associate Professor of Mathematics and the Associate Dean for Research and Experiential Learning at Harvey Mudd College. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Mathematics from Spelman College, a master’s degree in mathematics from Howard University and her Ph.D. in Statistics from Rice University. Her professional experiences include research appointments at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and the National Security Agency.

Renowned for her popular TED Talk, “Own Your Body’s Data,” Dr. Williams takes sophisticated numerical concepts and makes them understandable to a wide audience. She won the Mathematical Association of America’s Henry L. Alder Award for Distinguished Teaching by a Beginning College or University Mathematics Faculty Member, which honors faculty members whose teaching is effective and extraordinary, and extends its influence beyond the classroom.

In her research, Dr. Williams develops statistical models that emphasize the spatial and temporal structure of data. She has partnered with the World Health Organization in developing a model to predict the annual number of cataract surgeries needed to eliminate blindness in Africa.

Dr. Williams is cohost of the PBS series NOVA Wonders, and she has delivered speeches around the country on the value of statistics in quantifying personal health information.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Statistics

Professor James S. Tanton, Ph.D.

Princeton University

• The Mathematical Association of America
• Princeton University

Connect with Professor:

Our complex society demands not only mastery of quantitative skills, but also the confidence to ask new questions, to explore, wonder, flail, to rely on ones wits, and to innovate. Let's teach joyous and successful thinking.

Dr. James Tanton is the Mathematician in Residence at The Mathematical Association of America (MAA). He earned a Ph.D. in Mathematics from Princeton University.
A former high school teacher at St. Mark's School in Southborough and a lifelong educator, he is the recipient of the Beckenbach Book Prize from the MAA, the George Howell Kidder Faculty Prize from St. Mark's School, and a Raytheon Math Hero Award for excellence in math teaching.
Professor Tanton is the author of a number of books on mathematics including Solve This: Math Activities for Students and Clubs, The Encyclopedia of Mathematics, and Mathematics Galore!
Professor Tanton founded the St. Mark’s Institute of Mathematics, an outreach program promoting joyful and effective mathematics education. He also conducts the professional development program for Math for America in Washington, D.C.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Geometry

 Professor Bruce H. Edwards, Ph.D.

• University of Florida
• Dartmouth College

I love mathematics and tried to communicate this passion to others, regardless of their mathematical backgrounds.  Professor of Multivariable Calculus: I and II Precalculus and Trigonometry

Dr. Bruce H. Edwards is Professor of Mathematics at the University of Florida. Professor Edwards received his B.S. in Mathematics from Stanford University and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Dartmouth College. After his years at Stanford, he taught mathematics at a university near Bogota·, Colombia, as a Peace Corps volunteer. Professor Edwards has won many teaching awards at the University of Florida, including Teacher of the Year in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Liberal Arts and Sciences Student Council Teacher of the Year, and the University of Florida Honors Program Teacher of the Year. He was selected by the Office of Alumni Affairs to be the Distinguished Alumni Professor for 1991-1993. Professor Edwards has taught a variety of mathematics courses at the University of Florida, from first-year calculus to graduate-level classes in algebra and numerical analysis. He has been a frequent speaker at research conferences and meetings of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. He has also coauthored a wide range of mathematics textbooks with Professor Ron Larson. Their textbooks have been honored with various awards from the Text and Academic Authors Association.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Calculus, Algebra and Numerical Analysis.

Professor James A. Sellers, Ph.D.

• The Pennsylvania State University
• The Pennsylvania State University

If you are shaky on basic math facts, algebra will be harder for you than it needs to be. Spend every day reviewing flashcards of math facts, and you will be surprised at how much better at math you are!

Dr. James A. Sellers is Professor of Mathematics and Director of Undergraduate Mathematics at The Pennsylvania State University. He earned his B.S. in Mathematics from The University of Texas at San Antonio and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from Penn State. In the past few years, Professor Sellers has received the Teresa Cohen Mathematics Service Award from the Penn State Department of Mathematics and the Mathematical Association of America Allegheny Mountain Section Mentoring Award. More than 60 of Professor Sellers's research articles on partitions and related topics have been published in a wide variety of peer-reviewed journals. In 2008, he was a visiting scholar at the Isaac Newton Institute at the University of Cambridge. Professor Sellers has enjoyed many interactions at the high school and middle school levels. He has served as an instructor of middle-school students in the TexPREP program in San Antonio, Texas. He has also worked with Saxon Publishers on revisions to a number of its high-school textbooks. As a home educator and father of five, he has spoken to various home education organizations about mathematics curricula and teaching issues.  Algebra I and  II .  Fundamental of  Mathematics  Professor.

 Professor Robert L. Devaney, Ph.D.

• Boston University
• University of California, Berkeley

The field of differential equations has changed remarkably because of computer graphics. It is now fascinating to see how solutions of these equations evolve visually, especially those that are chaotic.

Dr. Robert L. Devaney is Professor of Mathematics at Boston University. He earned his undergraduate degree from the College of the Holy Cross and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. His main area of research is dynamical systems, including chaos. Professor Devaney's teaching has been recognized with many awards, including the Feld Family Professor of Teaching Excellence, the Scholar/Teacher of the Year, and the Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence, all from Boston University; and the Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo Award for Distinguished University Teaching from the Mathematical Association of America. In 2002 he received a National Science Foundation Director's Award for Distinguished Teaching Scholars, as well as the International Conference on Technology in Collegiate Mathematics Award for Excellence and Innovation with the Use of Technology in Collegiate Mathematics. In 2004 he was named the Carnegie/CASE Massachusetts Professor of the Year, and in 2009 he was inducted into the Massachusetts Mathematics Educators Hall of Fame. Since 1989 Professor Devaney has been director of the National Science Foundation's Dynamical Systems and Technology Project, leading to a wide array of computer programs for exploring dynamical systems. He also produced the Mandelbrot Set Explorer, an online, interactive series to introduce students at all levels to the mathematics behind the fractal images known as the Mandelbrot and Julia sets. In addition to writing many professional papers and books, Professor Devaney is the coauthor of Differential Equations, a textbook now in its 4th edition, which takes a fundamentally visual approach to solving ordinary differential equations.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Differential Equation, College Mathematics

Professor Arthur T. Benjamin, Ph.D.

• Harvey Mudd College
• Johns Hopkins University

Connect with Professor:

As a professor, I have always wanted to bring math to the masses. The Great Courses has helped make that wish come true.

Dr. Arthur T. Benjamin is Professor of Mathematics at Harvey Mudd College. He earned a Ph.D. in Mathematical Sciences from Johns Hopkins University in 1989. Professor Benjamin's teaching has been honored repeatedly by the Mathematical Association of America (MAA). In 2000, he received the MAA Deborah and Franklin Tepper Haimo National Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching of Mathematics. The MAA also named Professor Benjamin the 2006-2008 George Pólya Lecturer. In 2012, Princeton Review profiled him in The Best 300 Professors. He is a professional magician, whose techniques are explained in his book Secrets of Mental Math: The Mathemagician's Guide to Lightning Calculation and Amazing Math Tricks. Professor Benjamin also served for five years as coeditor of Math Horizons magazine. An avid games player, Dr. Benjamin is a past winner of the American Backgammon Tour and has written more than 15 papers on the mathematics of games and puzzles. Professor Benjamin has appeared on dozens of television and radio programs and has been featured in publications, including Scientific American, People, and The New York Times. In 2005, Reader's Digest called him America's Best Math Whiz.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Discrete Mathematics 

Professor William Dunham, Ph.D.

• Muhlenberg College
• The Ohio State University

Mathematics is perhaps the most useful of subjects, but my interests are not utilitarian. Rather, I look to the great landmarks from the history of mathematics and present them as creative achievements that are a joy to behold.

Dr. William Dunham is the Truman Koehler Professor of Mathematics at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Pittsburgh and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics from The Ohio State University. Before his current appointment at Muhlenberg, Dr. Dunham taught at Hanover College in Indiana, receiving teaching awards from both institutions as well as the Award for Distinguished College or University Teaching from the Eastern Pennsylvania and Delaware Section of the Mathematical Association of America. He was a Visiting Professor at Ohio State and at Harvard University, where he was invited to teach an undergraduate course on the work of Leonhard Euler and to deliver the Clay Public Lecture in 2008. Dr. Dunham's great theorems approach to teaching mathematics was fostered by a 1983 summer grant from the Lilly Endowment, which also led to his first book, Journey Through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics-a Book-of-the-Month Club selection that has been translated into five languages. Other books followed in addition to articles on mathematics and its history, earning him numerous awards from the Mathematical Association of America and other organizations. He has presented popular talks on mathematics throughout the United States and has appeared on the BBC and NPR's Talk of the Nation: Science Friday.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Mathematical  Theorems

 Faculty of Physics

Professor Richard Wolfson, Ph.D.

• Middlebury College
• Dartmouth College

Physics explains the workings of the universe at the deepest level, the everyday natural phenomena that are all around us, and the technologies that enable modern society. It's an essential liberal art.

Dr. Richard Wolfson is the Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics at Middlebury College, where he also teaches Climate Change in Middlebury's Environmental Studies Program. He completed his undergraduate work at MIT and Swarthmore College, graduating from Swarthmore with a double major in Physics and Philosophy. He holds a master's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Physics from Dartmouth.

Professor Wolfson's published work encompasses diverse fields such as medical physics, plasma physics, solar energy engineering, electronic circuit design, observational astronomy, theoretical astrophysics, nuclear issues, and climate change. His current research involves the eruptive behavior of the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, as well as terrestrial climate change and the sun–Earth connection.

Professor Wolfson is the author of several books, including the college textbooks Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Essential University Physics,and Energy, Environment, and Climate. He is also an interpreter of science for the nonspecialist, a contributor to Scientific American, and author of the books Nuclear Choices: A Citizen's Guide to Nuclear Technology and Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified.

*The Great Courses Professor of   

1. Understanding Modern Electronics

      2.  Physics and Our Universe: How It All 

      3. Earth's Changing Climate

      4. Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution:         Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition

       5. Introduction to C++

Testimonials

"Dr. Wolfson covers his topics in physics thoroughly and in an entertaining fashion. His sequence of subjects is novel and he manages transitions and cross-references extremely well."

"Professor Wolfson lectures were superb, enthusiastic, never dull. He is an excellent teacher. Highly recommended, I wish I could go back to college and take more courses from him!"

"Professor Wolfson is easily the most gifted lecturer I have ever encountered including in 5 years of college and 2 years of grad school."

"One can't beat Richard Wolfson as a coherent, organized, knowledgeable and effective lecturer."

Faculty of Chemistry , Organic Chemistry and                    Molecular  Chemistry

 Professor Ron B. Davis Jr., Ph.D.

• Georgetown University
• Pennsylvania State University

I hope this will be a lifelong journey exploring and appreciating the rich and beautiful chemistry which breathes life into our planet, the chemistry of molecules based on carbon.

Dr. Ron B. Davis, Jr. is an Associate Teaching Professor of Chemistry at Georgetown University, where he has been teaching introductory organic chemistry laboratories since 2008. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from The Pennsylvania State University. Prior to teaching chemistry at the undergraduate level, Professor Davis spent several years as a pharmaceutical research and development chemist.

Professor Davis’s research focuses on the fundamental forces governing the interactions of proteins with small organic molecules. His research has been published in such scholarly journals as Proteins and Biochemistry and has been presented at the Annual Symposium of The Protein Society. He also maintains an educational YouTube channel and provides interviews and content to various media outlets, including The Discovery Channel.

At The Pennsylvania State University, Professor Davis received a Dalalian Fellowship and the Dan Waugh Teaching Award. He is also a member of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society.

*The Great Courses Professor of    General  College  Chemistry .

Faculty of Astronomy, Cosmology , Astrophysics  &  Space Science

Professor Alex Filippenko, Ph.D.

• University of California, Berkeley
• California Institute of Technology

Perhaps the next time you go out to the countryside, you will ponder the magnificence of the Universe and its contents—and the fact that, through careful experiments, observations, and thought, humans are coming to a good understanding of what makes it all tick.

Dr. Alex Filippenko is Professor of Astronomy and the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Distinguished Professor in the Physical Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. He earned his B.A. in Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. in Astronomy from the California Institute of Technology.

Dr. Filippenko's research accomplishments, documented in more than 500 scientific publications and 600 abstracts and astronomical circulars, are among the most highly cited in the world. Science magazine credited two international teams of astronomers (on which he was the only coauthor contributing to both teams) with the top "Science Breakthrough of 1998" for research on exploding stars (supernovae), which shows that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, propelled by mysterious "dark energy." Professor Filippenko received a share of the 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize for this discovery, work that went on to receive the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. Professor Filippenko also leads the world's most successful robotic search for exploding stars.

Dr. Filippenko was elected in 2009 to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors accorded to a U.S. scientist. He has also been recognized with several major awards, including the 2010 Richard H. Emmons Award for excellence in the teaching of college-level introductory astronomy for non-science majors from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, the 2007 Richtmyer Memorial Award of the American Association of Physics Teachers, the 1997 Robert M. Petrie Prize of the Canadian Astronomical Society, and the 1992 Newton Lacy Pierce Prize of the American Astronomical Society. He was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2001 and a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar in 2002.

In 2006, he was honored nationally as the "Outstanding Doctoral and Research Universities Professor of the Year" by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education.

At UC Berkeley, Dr. Filippenko's teaching awards include the Donald S. Noyce Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching in the Physical Sciences and the Distinguished Teaching Award. He was also voted the Best Professor on Campus nine times in student polls.

Dr. Filippenko is coauthor of The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium, now in its 4th edition (2013), and winner of the 2001 Texty Excellence Award for best new textbook in the physical sciences. He has played a prominent role in numerous television documentaries, including about 40 episodes spanning six seasons of The Universe on The History Channel.

Testimonials

"Alex Filippenko sets the standard of what great teaching is all about. May we all be willing to learn with the same level of enthusiasm he shows us in these lectures."

"Professor Filippenko is a master of this information, and his enthusiasm is contagious! Highly recommended!!"

"Professor Alex Filippenko delivers the lectures with passion, honesty and he uses helpful visual aids in understanding complex theories. By the end of the course, he is a close friend."

*The Great Courses Professor of    :   

• Northwestern University
• University of California, Los Angeles

I have found no better way to communicate the joy of discovery in astronomy than through the beautiful cosmic images obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope.

Dr. David M. Meyer is Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Northwestern University, where he is also Director of the Dearborn Observatory and Co-Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Exploration and Research in Astrophysics. He earned his B.S. in Astrophysics from the University of Wisconsin, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of California, Los Angeles. He continued his studies as a Robert R. McCormick Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Chicago's Enrico Fermi Institute before joining the Northwestern faculty. Professor Meyer's research focuses on the spectroscopic study of interstellar and extragalactic gas clouds-work carried out over the past 15 years with the help of the Hubble Space Telescope. Along with his collaborators, Professor Meyer has conducted 20 research projects with Hubble, resulting in 25 peer-reviewed publications. He has also served five times on the committee that annually selects the most deserving proposals for Hubble observing time. During his career at Northwestern, Professor Meyer has specialized in designing and teaching introductory undergraduate courses in astronomy, cosmology, and astro-biology for non-science majors. His many teaching awards include the Charles Deering McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence, Northwestern's highest teaching honor. Beyond campus, Professor Meyer has delivered popular talks on Hubble to young and old in settings as far-flung as a transatlantic crossing.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Introductory Undergraduate courses in Astronomy, Cosmology, and Astro-Biology.

Professor Sabine Stanley, PhD

• Johns Hopkins University
• Harvard University

I’m here to lead you through the solar system; back in time and even to planets around other stars in a way you’ve never experienced before.

Sabine Stanley, Ph.D., is a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. She received a HBSc degree in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Toronto and then completed M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Geophysics from Harvard University. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, Professor Stanley was a postdoctoral researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor at the University of Toronto. At Johns Hopkins, she also holds appointments in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy, the Applied Physics Laboratory’s Space Exploration Sector, and the Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute.

Professor Stanley has received several honors and awards for both her research and teaching. Her research honors include the American Geophysical Union’s William Gilbert Award for her major theoretical contributions to the study of planetary magnetism, and her teaching awards include the Dean’s Outstanding Teaching Award from the University of Toronto.

Professor Stanley’s research includes studies of the magnetic fields of Earth, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and exoplanets. She is also a coinvestigator on NASA’s Mars InSight mission. In addition to her research work, Professor Stanley has served as the editor of the Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets and has chaired the Women in Physics Canada Conference.

*The Great Courses Professor of  Geophysics, Physics and Astronomy

Professor Joshua Winn, Ph.D.

• Princeton University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

There are so many reasons to study exoplanets, including exploration, the search for life, the rich physics problem of planet formation, and the technological challenge.

Dr. Joshua N. Winn is the Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. After earning his Ph.D. in Physics from MIT, he held fellowships from the National Science Foundation and NASA at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.

Dr. Winn’s research goals are to explore the properties of planets around other stars, understand how planets form and evolve, and make progress on the age-old question of whether there are other planets capable of supporting life. He was a member of the science team of NASA’s Kepler mission and is the Deputy Science Director of a future NASA mission called the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite. He has authored or coauthored more than 100 scientific articles on the subject of exoplanetary science.

At MIT, Dr. Winn teaches physics and astronomy and has won several awards for his dedication to his students, including the Buechner Faculty Teaching Prize in 2008 and the School of Science Prize for Excellence in Graduate Teaching in 2013. His talent for communicating science to the general public was honed during graduate school, when he wrote for the science section of The Economist.4.5out of580% of reviewers would recommend this product

*The Great Courses Professor of   Astrophysical Sciences, physics and astronomy.

 Professor Felix J. Lockman, Ph.D.

• Principal Scientist at the Green Bank Observatory
• University of Massachusetts Amherst

Astronomy, by looking outward, leads us to questions that reflect upon ourselves in very deep ways.

Felix J. Lockman, Ph.D., is the Green Bank Telescope Principal Scientist at the Green Bank Observatory, a facility of the National Science Foundation. He did his undergraduate work at Drexel University and received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Lockman’s area of research is the structure and evolution of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, with a special emphasis on radio observations of neutral hydrogen. He was project scientist for the Green Bank Telescope during its construction phase and then moved to the Green Bank Observatory, where he was the site director for six years.

Dr. Lockman’s research has involved studies of the ionized, neutral atomic, and molecular gas in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. He has published numerous articles in professional journals and edited several books, including Gaseous Halos of Galaxies and But It Was Fun: The First Forty Years of Radio Astronomy at Green Bank. Dr. Lockman’s 1990 review article on hydrogen in the Milky Way, coauthored with Dr. John M. Dickey of the University of Tasmania, is the most cited publication in the history of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. In 2013, he was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in recognition of his significant studies of neutral hydrogen in our galaxy and others, and for his service to U.S. radio astronomy.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Radio Astronomy.

Professor Mark Whittle, Ph.D.

• University of Virginia
• University of Cambridge

Creating my course on cosmology required me to see ourselves and our world as true cosmic citizens. I hope those who watch my course will also begin to see themselves from this new cosmic perspective.

Dr. Mark Whittle is Professor of Astronomy at the University of Virginia, where he has been teaching since 1986. He teaches on the solar system, stars, galaxies, cosmology, and observing techniques. He also gives frequent public lectures, and he is committed to community outreach on all areas of astronomy, particularly cosmology. Professor Whittle's research centers on various aspects of nuclear activity in galaxies, a phenomenon that arises from gas falling onto supermassive black holes. His most recent work focuses on the properties of jets that emerge from Seyfert galaxies and the role they play in energizing the central few thousand light-years. Professor Whittle uses both optical and radio telescopes for his research, including the Hubble Space Telescope. Professor Whittle was a Mackinnon Scholar at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, where he obtained his B.A. Honors in Physics, First Class. He earned his M.A. in Physics at Oxford and his Ph.D. in Astronomy at the University of Cambridge.

Testimonials

"Professor Whittle is crystal clear, concise, organized, and in full mastery of his material. His enthusiasm for each of theme is infectious, and he has worked hard to make each theme accessible to the reasonably intelligent layman."

*The Great Courses Professor of   Cosmology: The History and Nature of Our Universe

General Biology.  Microbiology, Marine Biology and Oceanography.  Evolutionary   Biology  and  Paleontology, Zoology and  Botany, Anatomy and Physiology, Environmental Sciences and Engineering

Professor Stephen Nowicki, Ph.D.

• Duke University
• Cornell University

It’s almost 75 years later, and we find ourselves in much the same position as Wells described in 1929. Our knowledge of biology has exploded in recent years and it continues to expand exponentially.

Dr. Stephen Nowicki is Bass Fellow and Professor of Biology at Duke University. He is also Dean and Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education at Duke, and holds appointments in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences and in the Neurobiology Department at Duke University Medical Center. Prior to taking his position at Duke, he was a post-doctoral fellow and assistant professor at The Rockefeller University. Professor Nowicki earned his undergraduate degree and a master's degree at Tufts University, and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He is the recipient of the Robert B. Cox Distinguished Teaching Award from Duke University. He has been awarded fellowships from the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Professor Nowicki has published more than 65 scholarly articles in academic journals and is coauthor of the book The Evolution of Animal/Communication: Reliability and Deceit in Signaling Systems.

Testimonials

"Professor Nowicky's approach to making the complexities of biology comprehensible to a science illiterate like me is very effective. Excellent communicator."

*The Great Courses Professor of   General Biology.  Microbiology

• College of the Atlantic
• Memorial University of Newfoundland

We should save the ocean because it is our ethical responsibility–because we can; and because if we do, the ocean will likely save us.

Sean K. Todd holds the Steven K. Katona Chair in Marine Sciences at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Professor Todd received a Joint Honors undergraduate degree in Marine Biology and Oceanography from Bangor University in the United Kingdom and his master’s and doctoral degrees in Biopsychology at Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. He joined the College of the Atlantic as a faculty member in Biology & Marine Mammals and became the inaugural holder of the Steven K. Katona Chair in Marine Sciences in 2006. That same year, he also became director of Allied Whale, the college’s marine mammal research program, which includes the Marine Mammal Stranding Response Program, one of two programs responsible for stranding response in Maine.

Professor Todd’s marine mammal research interests include foraging ecology, population studies, bioacoustics, and fishery interactions. He has authored or coauthored a variety of peer-reviewed papers for journals including the Canadian Journal of Zoology, Marine Mammal Science, the Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, and Marine Policy. He has also completed several invited chapters for books, and his work has been featured on BBC, CBC, PBS, NPR, and Scientific American Frontiers.

 *The Great Courses Professor of   Marine Biology, Oceanography

Professor Donald E. Moore III, Ph.D.

• Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute
• State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry

While most the time, the public sees a zoo as an entertaining and educational way to spend a Saturday afternoon-and it very much is-your average accredited zoo is also a vital part of research and conservation activities going on across the world.

Dr. Donald E. Moore III, director of the Oregon Zoo and senior science advisor at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute, is a conservation biologist with nearly 40 years of experience in wildlife conservation, animal welfare, and zoo management. He earned a bachelor’s degree in Wildlife Management and Zoology and a doctoral degree in Conservation Biology from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry.

Dr. Moore worked at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo from 2006 to 2016. He was the associate director of Animal Care Sciences from 2006 to 2014 and served as a senior scientist for conservation programs on assignment with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. In his time at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, Dr. Moore helped implement major renovations, such as the Elephant Trails and American Trail exhibits.

Prior to joining the Smithsonian, Dr. Moore worked at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York, where he was curator of Central Park Zoo, director of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park Zoo, and co-chair of the society’s renowned Animal Enrichment Program.

Dr. Moore has led international workshops in modern zoo design and accreditation, animal behavior and enrichment, and ecotourism in Spain, Malaysia, and South America, where he has conducted much of his conservation biology research. He is the author of Disney Learning’s Disney’s Wonderful World of Animals.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Biology and Zoology

 Professor Catherine Kleier, Ph.D.

• Regis University
• University of California, Los Angeles

Wherever we look, I think we can be surprised at what’s out there in the plant kingdom.

Dr. Catherine Kleier is a Professor of Biology and former chair of the Department of Biology at Regis University in Denver, Colorado. Professor Kleier holds a Ph.D. in Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution from the University of California, Los Angeles. She also holds an M.S. in General Science with an emphasis in botany and plant pathology from Oregon State University and a B.A. in Ecology, Population, and Organismic Biology from the University of Colorado Boulder.

The recipient of numerous honors and awards, Dr. Kleier was named Colorado Professor of the Year in 2015 by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. In 2014, she was elected Faculty Lecturer of the Year at Regis University. In previous years, she was selected as a scholar for the Aspen Institute’s Aspen Environment Forum and was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at the University of Otago in New Zealand.

Professor Kleier teaches courses in plant physiology, ecology, and environmental science. Her current research includes long-term restoration ecology on trails in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, plant impacts from skiing, and urban ecology. Her laboratory work has focused on the effect of magnesium chloride on the growth and reproduction of plants.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Plant Science: An Introduction to Botany. Ecology, Population, and Organismic Biology

• The University of British Columbia
• University of Leicester

I love investigating life’s story and how major geological events have colored that story. I am also passionate about helping people ‘read the rocks’ so they can peel back the pages of Earth’s history for themselves.

Dr. Stuart Sutherland is a Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at The University of British Columbia (UBC). Raised in the United Kingdom, he earned an undergraduate degree in geology from the University of Plymouth and a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Leicester for his studies on Silurian microfossils called chitinozoa. Professor Sutherland discovered his passion for teaching during an appointment at Brunel University in London. He went on to postdoctoral research at the Natural History Museum in London, working with other paleontologists to understand the Devonian organic-walled microfossils of the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain. During this time, he completed a postgraduate teaching degree at Sheffield Hallam University. Since 2000, Professor Sutherland has been on the faculty at UBC’s Vancouver campus, where his interests center on Earth history and paleontology. He is a three-time winner of the UBC Earth and Ocean Sciences Teaching Award. He also received the Faculty of Science Teaching Award and the Killam Teaching Prize, and he was named a “popular professor” in two editions of Maclean’s Guide to Canadian Universities..

*The Great Courses Professor of    Introduction to Paleontology.

 Professor Alyssa Crittenden, Ph.D.

• University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• University of California, San Diego

Our long evolutionary relationship with food is often hailed by anthropologists as one of the key milestones in human evolution.

Dr. Alyssa Crittenden is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Medicine. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Crittenden’s focus in anthropology is on behavioral ecology and nutritional anthropology. She does field research among the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, East Africa. Her research interests include the evolution of the human diet, the evolution of childhood, and the origins of the division of labor between the sexes. Dr. Crittenden’s work crosses several disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, ecology, nutrition, and human biology.

Dr. Crittenden has received multiple awards for her research contributions, including the prestigious Nevada Regents’ Rising Researcher Award for 2017. Her research on the role of honey in human evolution and her work on Hadza diet and the gut microbiome have been widely published in both top-tier academic journals and highlighted in popular outlets, such as National Geographic magazine, Smithsonian magazine, and Psychology Today. Dr. Crittenden has also appeared on the BBC, on PBS and NPR, as well as in several documentaries. Her research among the Hadza was the basis of a TED Talk for EDxUNLV in 2016.

1. 1.       *The Great Courses Professor of   Food, Science, and the Human Body

Professor Scott M. Lacy, Ph.D

• Fairfield University
• University of California, Santa Barbara

Anthropology inspires us to integrate multiple perspectives to enthusiastically explore our human condition and all its history and diversity.

Scott M. Lacy is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where he teaches anthropology, environmental studies, and black studies courses. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his research interests include cross-cultural knowledge production, food systems, intellectual property rights associated with seed, and the anthropology of happiness.

In addition to being an award-winning teacher and two-time Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Lacy is a coauthor of two popular textbooks, Applying Anthropology and Applying Cultural Anthropology, and he has published a number of book chapters and articles that document cross-cultural knowledge production in agriculture, community development, engineering, and even nanotechnology. Dr. Lacy has presented his work as a consultant or keynote speaker for numerous organizations, including Engineers Without Borders and the Peace Corps. His nonprofit and academic work has been featured in two major documentaries: Sustaining Life and Nyogonfe: Together.

*The Great Courses Professor of   Anthropology and the Study of Humanity

 Professor Stuart Sutherland, Ph.D.

• The University of British Columbia
• University of Leicester

I love investigating life’s story and how major geological events have colored that story. I am also passionate about helping people ‘read the rocks’ so they can peel back the pages of Earth’s history for themselves.

Dr. Stuart Sutherland is a Professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences at The University of British Columbia (UBC). Raised in the United Kingdom, he earned an undergraduate degree in geology from the University of Plymouth and a Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Leicester for his studies on Silurian microfossils called chitinozoa. Professor Sutherland discovered his passion for teaching during an appointment at Brunel University in London. He went on to postdoctoral research at the Natural History Museum in London, working with other paleontologists to understand the Devonian organic-walled microfossils of the Cantabrian Mountains of northern Spain. During this time, he completed a postgraduate teaching degree at Sheffield Hallam University. Since 2000, Professor Sutherland has been on the faculty at UBC’s Vancouver campus, where his interests center on Earth history and paleontology. He is a three-time winner of the UBC Earth and Ocean Sciences Teaching Award. He also received the Faculty of Science Teaching Award and the Killam Teaching Prize, and he was named a “popular professor” in two editions of Maclean’s Guide to Canadian Universities.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Geology, Paleontology, Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences

Professor Richard Wolfson, Ph.D.

• Middlebury College
• Dartmouth College

Physics explains the workings of the universe at the deepest level, the everyday natural phenomena that are all around us, and the technologies that enable modern society. It's an essential liberal art.

Dr. Richard Wolfson is the Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics at Middlebury College, where he also teaches Climate Change in Middlebury's Environmental Studies Program. He completed his undergraduate work at MIT and Swarthmore College, graduating from Swarthmore with a double major in Physics and Philosophy. He holds a master's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Physics from Dartmouth.

Professor Wolfson's published work encompasses diverse fields such as medical physics, plasma physics, solar energy engineering, electronic circuit design, observational astronomy, theoretical astrophysics, nuclear issues, and climate change. His current research involves the eruptive behavior of the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, as well as terrestrial climate change and the sun–Earth connection.

Professor Wolfson is the author of several books, including the college textbooks Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Essential University Physics,and Energy, Environment, and Climate. He is also an interpreter of science for the nonspecialist, a contributor to Scientific American, and author of the books Nuclear Choices: A Citizen's Guide to Nuclear Technology and Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified.

Testimonials

"Dr. Wolfson covers his topics in physics thoroughly and in an entertaining fashion. His sequence of subjects is novel and he manages transitions and cross-references extremely well."

"Professor Wolfson lectures were superb, enthusiaistic, never dull. He is an excellent teacher. Highly recommended, I wish I could go back to college and take more courses from him!" 

"Professor Wolfson is easily the most gifted lecturer I have ever encountered including in 5 years of college and 2 years of grad school."

"One can't beat Richard Wolfson as a coherent, organized, knowledgable and effective lecturer."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

FilterUnderstanding Modern Electronics                                                                       Physics and Our Universe: How It All Works                    

Earth's Changing Climate                                                    Physics in Your Life

Einstein's Relativity and the Quantum Revolution: Modern Physics for Non-Scientists, 2nd Edition

Introduction to C++ & Understanding Modern Electronics

 Professor Benjamin Schumacher, Ph.D.

• Kenyon College
• The University of Texas at Austin

Gravity is about both phenomena near at hand at the human scale, everyday and intuitive, and phenomena far off at an astronomical scale.

Dr. Benjamin Schumacher is Professor of Physics at Kenyon College, where he has taught for 20 years. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from The University of Texas at Austin in 1990. Professor Schumacher is the author of numerous scientific papers and two books, including Physics in Spacetime: An Introduction to Special Relativity. As one of the founders of quantum information theory, he introduced the term qubit, invented quantum data compression (also known as Schumacher compression), and established several fundamental results about the information capacity of quantum systems. For his contributions, he won the 2002 Quantum Communication Award, the premier international prize in the field, and was named a Fellow of the American Physical Society. Besides working on quantum information theory, he has done physics research on black holes, thermodynamics, and statistical mechanics. Professor Schumacher has spent sabbaticals working at Los Alamos National Laboratory and as a Moore Distinguished Scholar at the Institute for Quantum Information at California Institute of Technology. He has also done research at the Isaac Newton Institute of Cambridge University, the Santa Fe Institute, the Perimeter Institute, the University of New Mexico, the University of Montreal, the University of Innsbruck, and the University of Queensland.

Testimonials

"If only I had had lecturers like Schumacher in college, I might have made something of myself. You will be entertained, and your head will spin."

"Professor Schumacher covers an amazing amount of material in a clear and concise way with helpful graphics and demonstrations to reinforce learning."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

Black Holes, Tides, and Curved Spacetime: Understanding Gravity4.8out of93% of reviewers would recommend this product

Impossible: Physics beyond the Edge4.6out of91% of reviewers would recommend this product

Quantum Mechanics: The Physics of the Microscopic World

Introduction to Astrophysics

 Professor Jeffrey C. Grossman, Ph.D.

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The Sun is the opposite of a laser. If it were a laser, we’d have an easier time making solar cells because we could tailor our converters of light energy to one specific wavelength.

Dr. Jeffrey C. Grossman is Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He earned his B.A. in Physics from Johns Hopkins University and his M.S. in Physics and his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Before joining MIT, Professor Grossman founded and headed the Computational Nanoscience research group at the University of California, Berkeley, which focused on designing new materials for energy applications. At MIT, he heads a research group devoted to understanding, predicting, and designing novel materials with applications in energy conversion, energy storage, and thermal transport. As a Lawrence Fellow at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, he received the Physics Directorate Outstanding Science and Technology Achievement Award. He was also awarded a coveted Sloan Fellowship soon after joining MIT. Professor Grossman's current research centers on the development of new solar thermal fuels, the design of nano-scale technologies for sequencing DNA in hours, three-dimensional photovoltaic panels, new materials to convert waste heat into electricity, and more. He has also developed entirely new ways to encourage idea generation and creativity in interdisciplinary science, including 'speedstorming,' a method of pair-wise idea generation that works similarly to a round-robin 'speed-dating' technique.

Testimonials

 "I was amazed to find a professor who could speak the languages of chemistry, physics, biology, mathematics and engineering in a single course, but Dr. Grossman does it!"

 *The Great Courses Professor of    

 Thermodynamics: Four Laws That Move the Universe

Professor Frank Cardulla, M.S.

• Niles North High School
• University of Illinois

I hope you choose to join our family of students in high school, college, home school, and those who want to learn just for learning’s sake. Helping students has been my life's mission and I’d love to try and help you as well.

Professor Frank Cardulla taught at Niles North High School in Skokie, IL, from 1964 to 1999. He subsequently taught at Lake Forest High School and Libertyville High School. Professor Cardulla earned both his B.S. in Teaching of Chemistry with honors and his M.S. in Teaching of Physical Sciences from the University of Illinois. He has received the National Catalyst Award for Outstanding Chemistry Teaching, a Presidential Award for Science Teaching, and the National James Bryant Conant Award. Additionally, he has received citations from institutions such as MIT and the University of Chicago for being named "most influential teacher" by attending students. He has taught a wide variety of high school science courses, including regular-level and Honors and Advanced Placement Chemistry; Chemistry for the Health Sciences and Chemistry in the Community; regular-level Physics; and Science for Special Education Students. He served as Science Seminar Director and, additionally, was an Adjunct Professor for the Science Methods Teaching Course at Northwestern University.

Testimonials

"Frank Cardulla is a born educator. He knows how to break a complex topic down so it makes sense to a novice. I'm a "mature" student taking chemistry for the first time, and I don't know how I'd get through my course without this series."

"Of the many Great Courses I have purchased over the years, this was, by far, the best. Frank Cardulla was consistently engaging and should win a 'teacher of the year' award!"

"Well taught. Excellent organization. Professor Cardulla truly made it easy to learn chemistry."

 Professor Kevin Ahern, PhD

• Oregon State University
• Oregon State University

Biochemistry combines the best of chemistry with the best of biology.

Kevin Ahern is a Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at Oregon State University (OSU), where he also received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Biophysics. He has served on the OSU faculty in Biochemistry/Biophysics since the mid-1990s. Dr. Ahern is the coauthor of three popular biochemistry textbooks; two cowritten with his wife, Indira Rajagopal. In addition, he has published more than 700 articles. Professor Ahern has been widely recognized for his teaching and was a two-time national finalist for Baylor University’s prestigious Robert Foster Cherry Award for Great Teaching, as well as OSU’s nominee for the U.S. Professor of the Year Award in 2009. He received OSU’s highest teaching recognition, the Elizabeth P. Ritchie Distinguished Professor Award, and is an Eminent Professor of OSU’s Honors College. In addition, he was named an OSU top professor by students, a record of 14 times, and was inducted into OSU Libraries’ Open Access Hall of Fame in 2013. In 2019, Professor Ahern was the recipient of a Fulbright U.S. Scholar Award. As an academic advisor, he won every university award given in that field. Among his students, Dr. Ahern is renowned for writing and performing poems and songs to help them learn complicated material, with more than 100 “metabolic melodies” to his credit.

• Georgetown University
• Pennsylvania State University

I hope this will be a lifelong journey exploring and appreciating the rich and beautiful chemistry which breathes life into our planet, the chemistry of molecules based on carbon.

Dr. Ron B. Davis, Jr. is an Associate Teaching Professor of Chemistry at Georgetown University, where he has been teaching introductory organic chemistry laboratories since 2008. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry from The Pennsylvania State University. Prior to teaching chemistry at the undergraduate level, Professor Davis spent several years as a pharmaceutical research and development chemist.

Professor Davis’s research focuses on the fundamental forces governing the interactions of proteins with small organic molecules. His research has been published in such scholarly journals as Proteins and Biochemistry and has been presented at the Annual Symposium of The Protein Society. He also maintains an educational YouTube channel and provides interviews and content to various media outlets, including The Discovery Channel.
At The Pennsylvania State University, Professor Davis received a Dalalian Fellowship and the Dan Waugh Teaching Award. He is also a member of the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society.

"This is a great opportunity for the everyday person to learn the difference between butane and octane, or the difference between a carbohydrate and protein or why the leaves turn red in the autumn. The benefits are abundant and the possibilities are endless."*The Great Courses Professor of   Chemistry and Our Universe: How It All Works

 Professor John J. Renton, Ph.D.

• West Virginia University
• West Virginia University

My goal as a teacher, be it in the classroom or by way of my Great Course, is to have my students develop an understanding and appreciation of the geology that surrounds them every day and wherever they may travel.

Dr. John J. Renton is Professor of Geology at West Virginia University where he has been teaching for more than 40 years. He earned his bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Waynesburg College and went on to earn his master's degree and Ph.D. in Geology from West Virginia University. Professor Renton is the recipient of several awards for his success in teaching, including the Outstanding Educator Award from the Eastern Section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, the Outstanding Teacher Award from the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, and the Outstanding Teacher Award from the West Virginia University Foundation. Professor Renton is the author of the textbook, Planet Earth. He has also authored or coauthored 45 papers and has been part of more than $4 million of coal-related research grants.

Testimonials

"Wow! Wow! Wow!  This guy is good (Dr. Renton).  I have been thru many years of higher education, both undergrad and doctoral (Also post doc.)  Very few can matach the level of teaching skills he has."

 Professor Michael E. Wysession, Ph.D.

• Washington University in St. Louis
• Northwestern University

Earth is an amazing and wondrous planet. Learning more about it gives us new eyes that increases our ability to appreciate its beauty and complexity.

Dr. Michael E. Wysession is the Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Professor Wysession earned his Sc.B. in Geophysics from Brown University and his Ph.D. from Northwestern University. An established leader in seismology and geophysical education, Professor Wysession is noted for his development of a new way to create three-dimensional images of Earth's interior from seismic waves. These images have provided scientists with insights into the makeup of Earth and its evolution throughout history. Professor Wysession is the coauthor of An Introduction to Seismology, Earthquakes, and Earth Structure; the lead author of Physical Science: Concepts in Action; and the primary writer for the texts Earth Science, Earth's Interior, Earth's Changing Surface, and Earth's Waters. Professor Wysession received a Science and Engineering Fellowship from the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, a National Science Foundation Presidential Faculty Fellowship, and fellowships from the Kemper and Lily Foundations. He has received the Innovation Award of the St. Louis Science Academy and the Distinguished Faculty Award of Washington University. In 2005, Professor Wysession had a Distinguished Lectureship with the Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology and the Seismological Society of America. In 2014, Wysession received the inaugural Ambassador Award of the American Geophysical Union.

Testimonials   "Professor Wysession's approach to teaching geology, as demonstrated in this course, is simply impressive. It kept me enthralled throughout."

 "Profession Wysession is a superb presenter, clearly excited about and at home with his subject matter, and his briskly paced, clearly explained lectures are beautifully enhanced with appropriate visuals."

*The Great Courses Professor of    The Science of Energy: Resources and Power Explained

4.4out of5

83% of reviewers would recommend this product

Energy is the engine that fuels civilization. To comprehend the issues surrounding energy production, distribution, and consumption in the 21st century, you need to understand the science behind how energy works. And you need a reliable, unbiased source to give you the facts you need to form your own educated opinions. This course imparts essential information for any well-informed citizen of the world.

*The Great Courses Professor of    The World's Greatest Geological Wonders: 36 Spectacular Sites

Geological wonders are like great works of art. They are impressive, beautiful, mysterious, and surprising. Whether you are planning your next vacation or exploring the world from home, you owe it to your planet to know the places that make it exceptional throughout the solar system. The World’s Greatest Geological Wonders: 36 Spectacular Sites is your gateway to an unrivaled adventure. In 36 lavishly...

*The Great Courses Professor of    How the Earth Works

The combination of continents, oceans, and atmosphere makes Earth unique among all the planets in the solar system, and perhaps in the galaxy. These features also create the conditions for life in all its diversity. But where did the land, water, and air come from? And how do these systems work together to produce the complex phenomena that are evident everywhere on this beautiful planet? How the Earth Works takes...

Outdoor Fundamentals & The World’s Greatest Geological Wonders

Make the most out of your next outdoor adventure with help from this two-course set. In Outdoor Fundamentals: Everything You Need to Know to Stay Safe, a highly experienced and accredited wilderness guide gives you the practical skills and knowledge you need to set off for the water or the woods. And in The World’s Greatest Geological Wonders: 36 Spectacular Sights, get an introduction to Earth’s most...

Professor Paul Robbins, Ph.D.

• University of Wisconsin, Madison
• Clark University

If we look back on the history of cartography, we can gain fascinating insights into some very different cultures by looking at the maps they’ve left behind.

Professor Paul Robbins is the Director of the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He has a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology from UW–Madison, and a master’s degree and a doctorate in Geography from Clark University. An award-winning professor, he previously led the School of Geography and Development at The University of Arizona, and he has also taught at The Ohio State University.

Professor Robbins has years of experience as a geographic researcher and educator, specializing in human interactions with nature and the politics of natural resource management. He has taught topics ranging from environmental studies and natural resource policy to social theory. His research addresses questions spanning conservation conflicts, urban ecology, and environment and health interactions. He has done extensive fieldwork in rural India, as well as a range of research in the American Southwest, Yellowstone National Park, and elsewhere.

He is the author of numerous books and articles, including the foundational textbook Political Ecology: A Critical Introduction and the award-winning Lawn People: How Grasses, Weeds, and Chemicals Make Us Who We Are. Professor Robbins has been interviewed by numerous media organizations, including The New York Times, and has been a guest on national radio and television programs, including National Public Radio’s Science Friday.

Testimonials

"Professor Robins is a fantastic lecturer. The course was well structured and the lectures were presented in an absolutely fascinating fashion, and the Professor’s sense of humor served to animate the lectures and bring a lighter touch to them."

 Professor Robert G. Fovell, Ph.D.

• University of California, Los Angeles
• University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

The English poet John Keats complained that by explaining how it worked, Sir Isaac Newton had 'unweaved the rainbow.' I could not disagree more. Our appreciation for Nature is enhanced by understanding her design.

Dr. Robert G. Fovell is Professor of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he serves as cofounder and cochair of the Interdepartmental Program in Mathematics/Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. A committed classroom teacher, Professor Fovell teaches courses on topics including atmospheric dynamics, thermodynamics, weather prediction and forecasting, and cloud dynamics. In 2005, he was awarded a UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award (the Harvey L. Eby Award for the Art of Teaching). He has also taken his insights to a broader audience while serving as a commentator for programs on the National Geographic Channel and the Discovery Channel. Outside the classroom, Professor Fovell is an active researcher. He is affiliated with UCLA's Institute of the Environment and the Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering and is a member of the American Meteorological Society, the Royal Meteorological Society, and the American Geophysical Union. He has published extensively, particularly on the subjects of squall lines and storm dynamics, and has served as an associate editor of the Monthly Weather Review.

Testimonials

"Professor Fovell has a great presentation style, emphasizing again and again the really key facts. "

*The Great Courses Professor of    

 Professor Molly Bishop Shadel, J.D.

• University of Virginia School of Law
• Columbia University

If you can think like a lawyer, you have gained valuable insight into how things get done in this country.

Molly Bishop Shadel is a Professor of Law at the University of Virginia School of Law, where she teaches negotiations and advocacy classes and is a senior fellow at the Center for National Security Law. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University with an A.B. in English and American Literature and Language. Professor Shadel earned her J.D. from Columbia University.

Professor Shadel clerked for the Honorable Eugene H. Nickerson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. Before joining the faculty of the University of Virginia, Professor Shadel worked as an attorney at the law firm of Covington & Burling, and then at the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Intelligence Policy and Review. Professor Shadel joined the faculty at the University of Virginia School of Law in 2005.

Professor Shadel is the author of two books: Finding Your Voice in Law School: Mastering Classroom Cold Calls, Job Interviews, and Other Verbal Challenges and Tongue-Tied America: Reviving the Art of Verbal Persuasion. Professor Shadel is also a planning faculty member of the Leadership in Academic Matters program, a biannual, semester-long leadership course for University of Virginia professors and administrators.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Law

 Professor Joseph L. Hoffmann, J.D.

• Indiana University Maurer School of Law
• University of Washington School of Law

Criminal law has become the sole province of the government acting on behalf of society as a whole, rather than on behalf of the crime victims.

Joseph L. Hoffmann is the Harry Pratter Professor of Law at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he has taught since 1986. He received a J.D. (cum laude) from the University of Washington School of Law. After law school, Professor Hoffmann clerked for the Honorable Phyllis A. Kravitch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and for then-associate justice William H. Rehnquist of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Professor Hoffmann is a nationally recognized scholar in the fields of criminal law, criminal procedure, habeas corpus, and the death penalty. He was a co-principal investigator for the Capital Jury Project, the largest empirical project ever to study jury decision making in capital cases, and has been a consultant in criminal and death penalty cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

At Indiana University, Professor Hoffmann has been recognized with the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, the Leon H. Wallace Teaching Award, the Trustees’ Teaching Award, the Teaching Excellence Recognition Award, and the Gavel Award.

Professor Hoffmann is the co-author of two of the leading casebooks used by law students across the United States: Defining Crimes and Comprehensive Criminal Procedure. In 2007, Professor Hoffmann appeared in the PBS series The Supreme Court.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Law

Professor Peter J. Smith, J.D.

• The George Washington University Law School
• Harvard Law School

Whether you realize it or not, we think about the substantive law all the time in our daily lives. Every time we get behind the wheel of a car, or go outside to shovel snow from the sidewalk in front of our house, or decide whether to look at a text message while we’re driving, we’re thinking about the obligations we have to avoid causing injuries to others.

Peter J. Smith is the Arthur Selwyn Miller Research Professor of Law at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C. He received his B.A. (magna cum laude) from Yale University and his J.D. (magna cum laude) from Harvard Law School, where he received the Sears Prize for highest academic performance.

Before joining the faculty at GW Law, Professor Smith was an attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, where he represented the government in the U.S. Courts of Appeals. At the Department of Justice, he defended the constitutionality of a number of federal statutes, including the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act (cases ultimately resolved by the Supreme Court). Before he worked at the Department of Justice, Professor Smith clerked for Judge Phyllis A. Kravitch of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Professor Smith has twice received the Distinguished Faculty Service Award for outstanding teaching at GW Law. He has published dozens of scholarly articles and is the co-author of a popular casebook on constitutional law, Constitutional Law: A Contemporary Approach. His research focuses on constitutional law, constitutional interpretation, and civil procedure.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Law

Professor Edward K. Cheng, J.D.

• Vanderbilt Law School
• Harvard Law School

In a sense, tort law is the law of everyday life, and so many cases seem strikingly familiar, or at least relatable.

Edward K. Cheng is a Professor of Law at Vanderbilt Law School, where he focuses on scientific and expert evidence and the interaction of law and statistics.

Professor Cheng holds a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School, where he was the Articles, Book Reviews & Commentaries Chair of the Harvard Law Review; an M.A. in statistics from Columbia University; an M.Sc. (with distinction) in information systems from the London School of Economics, where he was a Fulbright Scholar; and a B.S.E. (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa) in electrical engineering from Princeton University. He clerked for Judge Stephen F. Williams of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and previously taught at Northwestern University and Brooklyn Law School.

Professor Cheng is a co-author of the five-volume treatise Modern Scientific Evidence: The Law and Science of Expert Testimony. His research has appeared publications including the Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, and Columbia Law Review.

A six-time winner of the Hall-Hartman Outstanding Professor Award for Excellence in Teaching at Vanderbilt, Professor Cheng is a former chair of the Section on Evidence of the Association of American Law Schools and is the host of Excited Utterance, a podcast on scholarship in evidence and proof.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Law

Professor George S. Geis, JD, MBA

• University of Virginia School of Law
• The University of Chicago

Corporations have a tremendous influence on our lives. Corporate law is societies means of facilitating the good that corporations do while reining in bad behavior. Setting the boundaries of fair play so that different players can focus their energy and resources on productive efforts.

George S. Geis is the William S. Potter Professor of Law at the University of Virginia (UVA) School of Law. He is also the faculty director of the John W. Glynn, Jr. Law & Business Program, and he previously served as the UVA School of Law’s vice dean. Professor Geis received a B.S. in finance from the University of California, Berkeley, and he earned a J.D. with honors and an M.B.A. with honors from The University of Chicago. Before his appointment to the UVA School of Law faculty, Professor Geis taught at The University of Alabama School of Law. He also spent five years as a management consultant with McKinsey & Company, where he served clients on corporate strategy, merger planning, and many other issues. 

Professor Geis teaches courses on contracts, corporations, agency and partnership, accounting, and corporate finance. He has won numerous teaching awards, including the 2019 All-University Teaching Award at UVA. He has also taught courses as a visiting professor at The University of Chicago; Georgetown University Law Center; the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad, India; the University of Auckland in New Zealand; and the University of Trento in Italy.

Professor Geis is the coauthor of Digital Deals: Strategies for Selecting and Structuring Partnerships, a book on business partnership and alliance strategies. His articles include “Traceable Shares and Corporate Law,” published in the Northwestern University Law Review; “Internal Poison Pills,” published in the New York University Law Review; and “Ex-Ante Corporate Governance,” published in The Journal of Corporation Law. His work has also appeared in many other leading academic journals. 

Professor Geis’s research focuses on problems related to business alliances, merger transactions, shareholder litigation, and other topics involving the intersection of law and business.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Law

 Professor David Horton, JD

• University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law
• University of California, Davis, School of Law

Today, contracts are everywhere. So learning how they work and how courts interpret them can be valuable no matter who you are or what you do.

David Horton is a Professor of Law at the University of California, Davis, School of Law. He earned his BA cum laude from Carleton College and his J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as Chief Articles Editor of the UCLA Law Review. After graduating, Professor Horton clerked for the Honorable Ronald M. Whyte of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.

Professor Horton is the coauthor of three casebooks: Beasties v. Monster: A Primer of Law School and American Legal System; the eighth edition of Cases, Problems, and Materials on Contracts(with Douglas Whaley); and Wills, Trusts, and Estates: The Essentials (with Reid Weisbord and Stephen Urice). He has also published more than 30 law review articles in publications such as The Yale Law Journal, Stanford Law Review, New York UniversityLaw Review, University of Pennsylvania Law Review, California Law Review, Duke Law Journal, Northwestern University Law Review, and The Georgetown Law Journal.

Professor Horton’s academic writing has won The Association of American Law Schools’ Scholarly Papers Competition and the Mangano Dispute Resolution Advancement Award. In 2017, he was selected as a UC Davis Chancellor’s Fellow.

Professor Horton teaches Contracts; Introduction to Law; and Trusts, Wills, and Estates. Additionally, he teaches a seminar on the Federal Arbitration Act. In 2015, he won the UC Davis School of Law’s Distinguished Teaching Award. *The Great Courses Professor of    Law

Professor Eric Berger, JD

• University of Nebraska College of Law
• Columbia Law School

Constitutional law is endlessly rich and fascinating; and it really matters. Constitution law determines what our federal and state governments are permitted to do and what rights we have as individuals.

Eric Berger is a Professor of Law and the Associate Dean for Faculty at the University of Nebraska College of Law. He received his BA with honors in History from Brown University and his JD from Columbia Law School, where he was a Kent Scholar and an Articles Editor on the Columbia Law Review.

Professor Berger teaches Constitutional Law I, Constitutional Law II, Constitutional History, Federal Courts, Legislation and Regulation, and Statutory Interpretation. He has been voted Professor of the Year by the upperclass law students at Nebraska five times. He has also received the College Distinguished Teaching Award and the Law Alumni Council Distinguished Faculty Award.

Professor Berger clerked for the Honorable Merrick B. Garland on the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He then practiced in Jenner & Block’s Washington DC law office, where he worked on litigation in several state and federal trial and appellate courts, including the US Supreme Court. Professor Berger’s work there included cases involving lethal injection, same-sex marriage, the detention of foreign nationals at Guantánamo Bay, and internet obscenity.

Professor Berger’s scholarship focuses on constitutional law. Much of his work has explored judicial decision making in constitutional cases, with special attention to deference and other under-theorized factors driving constitutional outcomes. His article Individual Rights, Judicial Deference, and Administrative Law Norms in Constitutional Decision Making was named the winner of the American Constitution Society’s Richard D. Cudahy Writing Competition on Regulatory and Administrative Law. Another of his articles, The Rhetoric of Constitutional Absolutism, was reviewed in the online journal Jotwell. Professor Berger has also written extensively about lethal injection and Eighth Amendment doctrine.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Law

Professor Joseph Koterski, S.J., Ph.D.

• Fordham University
• St. Louis University

As a Jesuit priest, I think there is something from this tradition that I can bring to bear, that will be of great interest to those who share my convictions, those who do not, and to those who are interested and searching.

A member of the Society of Jesus, Father Joseph Koterski is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University, where he specializes in the history of medieval philosophy and natural law ethics. Before taking his position at Fordham University, Father Koterski taught at the Center for Thomistic Studies at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. He earned his doctorate in Philosophy from St. Louis University, after receiving an H.A.B. in Classics from Xavier University. As a priest ordained in 1992, Father Koterski brings an added dimension of insight to his study of theology and biblical texts. He earned his Master of Divinity and License of Sacred Theology from the Weston School of Theology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Father Koterski is a veteran Great Courses instructor and a respected teacher and scholar. At Fordham, he has been recognized for his teaching skills and was awarded the Dean's Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching and the Graduate Teacher of the Year Award. He serves as the editor-in-chief of the International Philosophical Quarterly and is coeditor of the Fordham University Press Series in Moral Philosophy and Moral Theology.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Law.

 Professor Frank B. Cross, J.D.

• The University of Texas at Austin
• Harvard Law School

There are generally considered to be four legal requirements for contract. These are agreement, consideration, capacity and legality.

Professor Frank B. Cross is Professor in the Department of Information, Risk, and Operations Management at The University of Texas at Austin and a former attorney with the law firm of Kirkland & Ellis in Washington, D.C. He earned his B.A. from the University of Kansas and his J.D. from Harvard Law School. At Texas, Professor Cross has taught undergraduate classes, MBA classes, and executive-education courses in aspects of the legal environment in business. He has been honored as the nation's outstanding professor by the Academy of Legal Studies in Business. He was recognized as a top teacher by the Business Week guide to MBA programs. Professor Cross has authored many publications, including more than 30 articles in journals of law, science, policy, and management. He has published four textbooks for business law classes, as well as several other academic books. Professor Cross serves on the editorial boards of four journals, including the American Business Journal. *The Great Courses Professor of    Law

Professor Hans-Friedrich Mueller, Ph.D.

• Union College
• The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

The Latin language offers keys to more than most people can imagine…until they too learn Latin. I have devoted my life to helping others obtain the keys that they need to unlock the intellectual treasures that interest them most.

Dr. Hans-Friedrich Mueller is the Thomas B. Lamont Professor of Ancient and Modern Literature at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He earned his M.A. in Latin from the University of Florida and his Ph.D. in Classical Philology from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before coming to Union College, he taught at The Florida State University and the University of Florida. Professor Mueller won the American Philological Association's Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Classics at the College Level, as well as two awards for excellence in teaching at The Florida State University. At the University of Florida, he developed a graduate distance-learning program in classics for high school teachers. In addition to writing numerous articles, Professor Mueller is the author of Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus, the editor of an abridged edition of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and the translator of Andreas Mehl's Roman Historiography: An Introduction to Its Basic Aspects and Development. He is also the author of Caesar: Selections from his Commentarii De Bello Gallico and coauthor of Caesar: A LEGAMUS Transitional Reader.                                   *The Great Courses Professor of    Law



MODESTO A.R  TORRES PhD.  MSc. MBA Florida Institute of Techmology   MSc. University of the State of NY.  B.Sc Engr. Polytechnic University of Pueto Rico POSITION ;  PROFESSOR/ PROCTOR at University of North Carolina . Distinguished Professor  Education Education : Dip. Computer Sc, BA ENGLISH AND ADMINISTRATION Cambridge international college U.K , B.Sc Computer Engineering,Mechanical Engineering and Maths , M.Sc Maths Ed/System Engineering, PhD Mathematics/Computational Engineering/Science computing , Doctor  of Science in Science Engineering and Technology Education,

Dr.  Wen  Zhang  PhD Computational Analysis and Mathematics, Shanghai University, 2009.  

5   Professor Robert H. KANE, Ph D . MA  Yale University. over 30 years at University of Texas(AUSTIN) Faculty.

6 PROFESSOR GEORGE OHLSCHIAGER, JD. LCSW, PROFESSOR AT LIBERTY UNIVERSITY AND ST PETRESBURG THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

7 PROFESSOR GARY J. OLIVER, PHD, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND PRACTICAL THEOLOGY AT JOHN BROWN UNIVERSITY,LICENSED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST,CERTIFIED FAMILY LIFE EDUCATOR APPROVED SUPERVISOR AAMFT.

8 PROFESSOR GLEN HAVENS MD  UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA AND WRGHT STATE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE FOR HIS RESIDENCY.

9 PROFESSOR MARK LAASER ,PHD

10 PROFESSOR DIANE LANGBERG, PHD, LICENSED PSYCHOLOGIST

11 PROFESSOR LIND MINTLE, PHD,LICENSED SOCIAL WORKER

12 PROFESSOR TROY MORGAN J.D., ESQ

13 PROFESSOR DOUGLAS E, LOSENAU, EdD L.PSY PROFESSOR AT PSYCHOLOGICAL STUDIES  INSTITUTE ATLANTA

14 PROFESSOR GARY SIBCY PHD,L.PSY, ASSIT. PROFESSOR DOCTORALPROG.IN COUNSELING, LIBERTY UNIVERSITY.

15  PROFESSOR WESLY K. STAFFORD PHD,GRADUATE OF  MOODY BIBLE INSTITUTE, BIOLA UNIVERSITY,WHEATON COLLEGE GRADUATE SCHOOL,AND MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY

16 PROFESSOR DAVID STOOP,. PHD, PART-TIME PROFESSOR GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGY FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, AUTHOR OF 25 BOOKS, ORDAINED MINISTER WITH THE CHRISTIAN AND MISSIOARY ALLIANCE

17 PROFESSOR DANIELS. SWEENEY,PHD., PROFESSOR GRADUATE DEPT. OF COUNSELING AT GEORGE FOX UNIVERSITY

18 PROFESSOR BAYSYLE J.(BOZ) TCHIVIDIAN, JD. ADJUCNT PROFESSOR AT STETSON UNIVERSITY AND DAYTONA COMMUNITY COLLEGE. FORMER ASST. STATE ATTORNEY, 7TH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT(1994-2001).BOZ WAS CHIEF PROSECUTOR SEXUAL CRIMES DIVISION.

19 PROFESSOR JOHN TRENT PHD

20 PROFESSOR TOM WHITEMAN,L.PSY PHD

21 PROFESSOR H.NORMAN WIRIGHT. M.A. MRE., LMFT.,

22PROFESSOR MARK CRAWFORD,PHD  CLINICAL PSY .ST LUIS UNIVERSITY.

23 PROFESSOR ARCHIBALD HART, PHD,FPPRIS  PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AND DEAN EMERITUS DEPT. CLINICAL PSY AT FULLER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

24 PROFESSOR CATHERINE HART WEBER, PHD

 

Senior Lecturer and Director of Engineering & Technology Management Department at the University of America.

Mohamed G. Kafafy holds a PhD in (Administration) Engineering & Technology Management, Universidad San Juan De La Crux, MSc , Helwan University  and BSc in Mechanical Engineering with honor HTI Cairo. As well as Certifications such as: Certified Quality Director, Certified HR Consultant, Certified Arbitration Judge and Certified Management Consultant (CMC). Also, He holds fellowships of the: Royal Institute, World Association of Doctorate Degree Holders, American Academy of Project Management, Swiss Institute of Management,  DTMSI, Chartered Institute of Management & Leadership, American Association of Higher Education and Institute of Management Consultants (FIMC) as well as recognized Member of Accreditation Council for Business School Programs (ACBSP).

In December 2010 Dr. Mohamed Kafafy received the US President's Award from the Corporation for National & Community Service (CNCS) and the President Barack Obama. 

Dr. Mohamed G. Kafafy has an international reputation as a Seminar Leader and Consultant in Mechanical & Industrial Engineering, Business Management, Supply Chain, HR and Corporate Development & Governance. With over 20 years of experience, he offers both an academic and practical approach to Engineering and Business Management, through his operational and managerial experience in different industries and as an Educator, Trainer, and Consultant of several academic and professional bodies around the world.

 

DR JAMES O` CLOCK (COMMANDER) NOAA RETIRED USA .

 EDUCATION ;D.Hum.Let . in Ethics The University of America.                                                                                                                                                    M.sc. Mgt, Regis University, MA Ethics Trinity International university.                                                                                                                  B.sc Electrical. Engineering SOUTH DAKOTA SCHOOL OF MINES,                                         

EXPERIENCE; (COMMANDER) NOAA WAS. DC.  USA.  RETIRED.

10 years experience in teaching Bioethics.

 Adjunct Lecturer in Engineering/ Bioethics.

MRS GRACIA ROEMER ASB., BA. PHIL M.Ed.

POSITION;  LECTURER IN PHILOSOPHY .

EDUCATION . M..Ed SALT LAKE BAPTIST COLLEGE UTA BA (HONS) Philosophy/Religion Minor; business administration, NORTHEAST MISSOURI STATE UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE OF BUSINESS DEGREE Court Reporting TRUMAN STATE UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE 10 years of court reporting, education and research experience . 

 

REV. PROF MARSHALL WARNEKE DD.               Senior professor of theologyEDUCATION TH.B. SALT LAKE BAPTIST COLLEGE UTA USA TH.M. SALT LAKE BAPTIST COLLEGE UTA USA DD SALT LAKE BAPTIST COLLEGE UTA EXPERIENCE ;40 years of experience Christian education and pastoral ministry Founding senior pastor Bible Baptist Church of Salt Lake Utah Senior professor 

 

 

REV. PROF TERRY .E VANBUSKIRK ,  PROFESSOR                                                                                                             PROFESSOR.                                                                                                                      EDUCATION • Doctor of Literature -1994 Salt Lake Baptist College Specialty, the Christian Bible • Doctor of Theology -1999 Salt Lake Baptist College

EXPER

 

 

 

IENCE

Salt Lake Baptist College Tenured professor from September of 1990 to present.

• Professor of: Theology, Pastoral Theology, Faith, Manners and Customs of Bible Times, Christian Counseling, Bible Doctrines, Song Leading, the Church and Missions, Public Speaking, Homiletics, I Corinthians, Hebrews, I John, Old Testament Survey, New Testament Survey, Sacred music , Bible Translations, Greek, and Hermeneutics             

                                                                                     

 

            CHANCELLOR`S MESSAGE

        ''..Lesser minds discuss people ,ordinary minds discuss things, great minds discuss ideas....'' Socrates.

Welcome to the University of America, the institution where great minds are made with great ideas with  great tools and  great experience.  Here, there is no room for mediocrity . Our students are being trained to be the best of the best - revolutionary thinkers , avid leaders, scientists, engineers, technicians,  administrators, entrepreneurs, educators, economists, industrialists , philosophers, jurists, theologians and scholars of repute. When you register  to study in UA, you will have the opportunity to learn from reputable international faculty. Study in an international setting, visit important places and people which relate to your studies .  You will undertake hands-on practical activities  in the laboratories industries ,banks and  work in various settings that will help you develop work relationships plus practical experience in your subject area before graduating!

Does this sound like where you would want to be? If it is, then take your time to browse through this website, then come  and  join us in this exciting journey of a life-time.

Yours truly

 DR.  MARSHALL WARNEKE.

CHANCELLOR /CHAIRMAN                                                                                              BOARD REGENTS AND FELLOWS .

          PRO-CHANCELLOR`S  MESSAGE

   On behalf of the Board of Regents and Fellows of this university, I welcome all of you as you browse through this website. The University of America has helped shape the lives of so many men and women from around the world who are now leaders and very successful individuals in their communities in the respective areas of their specializations. This is because this university is in the business of training and shaping future leaders of the world. Are you willing to eschew mediocrity and train to be one of those future leaders and experts of your generation?  If yes is your answer, then you must make a decision that will impact your life forever. The University of America will help make your dreams come true and will give you the opportunity to obtain a global  education .  This is your opportunity, seize it !

 Wishing you  all the best.       

DR. TERRY E. VANBUSKIRK

PRO-CHANCELLOR 

 The U.A is also a United Nations Impact(UNAI) Institution                               

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 ACCREDITATION

The Accreditation Agency Curacao .

The University of America is a member of The Accreditation Agency Curacao (AAC).

The Accreditation Agency Curacao (AAC) is a regional and international Accrediting Agency of Higher Education officially recognized by the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of the Government of Curacao. AAC is a member of The International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), affiliate ofEuropean Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) and the US. CHEA CIQG.

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           The UA is accredited by ATHE LTD with recognized Centre ID: 946.  ATHE is a U.K is national Awarding and accrediting body recognized by the UK Government through the OFqual with the Ofqual Recognition Number RN5344, for all Law, Business  Management and Administration  , Computing ,Health and Social Care, Health Management,Travel and Tourism  and related programs. For more  information see www. athe.co.uk

Click here to see ATHE Letter of Confirmation of delivery of qualifications TUoA

  * CHARTERD AND ACCREDITED . The UA College of Science & Technology is a tertiary institution registered by The Registrar General as a Tertiary Education Company under the Companies and Allied Matters Act of 1990 with the Registration no RC1129763.  Licensed by the Federal Ministry of Education and regionally accredited by the National Board for Technical Education with Accreditation No: C/TEB.553/Vol. 1/257.

                 The University of America also known as University Foundation of America / Fundacion  Universidad de America (FUA) Bogota, DC. is accredited by the Ministerio de Educacion Nacional (CO). Codigo # 1715 .  Certifica : RL-01955-2008  https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/portal/                                                                                                     And Listed in the International Association of Universities` Worldwide Database of Higher Education Institutions, Systems & Credentials, as: 

University Foundation of America            Colombia                   Fundacion Universidad de America (FUA)

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 The University of America

Wilhelminalaan 13, P.O.Box 4762,

Willemstad, Curacao. Netherland Antilles.    

Phone:+1951-239-3084        (599-9) 737 4557               

Fax: (599-9) 737 4563 

info@ua-edu.us

          THE  UOA  FACULTY 

         Faculty of UoA College Natural Health Science                                            (UACNHS) Curacao.                                              reddens fructum suum et folia ligni ad sanitatem gentium.            The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Rev. 22:2c

Professor Princess Shullam CMD

Professor Roy Benaroch, M.D.

• Emory University
• Emory University

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Doctoring is about listening and paying attention. There's a lot to know, too-- but if you're not paying attention, you'll be misguided by what you think you already know. An open mind is a better diagnostic tool than one stuffed with facts.

Dr. Roy Benaroch is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Emory University School of Medicine. He earned his B.S. in Engineering at Tulane University, followed by his M.D. at Emory University. He completed his residency through Emory University’s affiliated hospitals in 1997, serving as chief resident and instructor of pediatrics in 1998. Board certified in general pediatrics in 1997, Dr. Benaroch practices full time at Pediatric Physicians, PC, located near Atlanta, Georgia. In his dual roles, he teaches medical students and residents at his practice and gives regular lectures to physician’s assistants at Emory University.

Dr. Benaroch has published two books on parenting and pediatric health topics: Solving Health and Behavioral Problems from Birth through Preschool: A Parent’s Guide and A Guide to Getting the Best Health Care for Your Child. He also has a blog for parents and health professionals at pediatricinsider.com, and he has served as a featured expert on WebMD.com. Dr. Benaroch also serves on the board of directors of the Cobb Health Futures Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit group dedicated to public health for people of all backgrounds.

Testimonials "Dr. Benaroch does an excellent job of presenting possible cases in a systematic and interesting manner which should engage listeners at all levels."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

Medical School for Everyone: Pediatrics Grand Rounds

Medical School for Everyone: Emergency Medicine

The Skeptic’s Guide to Health, Medicine, and the Media

Professor Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D.

• Yale School of Medicine
• Yale School of Medicine

The underlying philosophy of the Hippocratic physicians was that disease involves a patient’s entire body and mind, so therapy must be directed to the whole context of the patient’s life situation rather than a small part of it.

Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland (1930-2014) was Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine and Fellow of the university's Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He served on the executive committees of Yale's Whitney Humanities Center and its Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project. Professor Nuland was a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, New York University, and the Yale School of Medicine, from which he earned his M.D. After training in surgery at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, he practiced and taught there for three decades. He considered the bedside and operative care of over 10,000 patients to be the most rewarding work of his career. He taught bioethics and medical history to undergraduates and medical students. Dr. Nuland is the author of eight books, including Doctors: The Biography of Medicine and The Wisdom of the Body. He is also the author of How We Die, a reflection on the modern way of death, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 34 weeks. This book won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and the Book Critics Circle Award. Dr. Nuland has written dozens of articles for magazines and periodicals, including The New Yorker, Time, Life, National Geographic, Discover, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

Testimonials

"Dr. Nuland's lecture is like sitting and listening to a story teller. The subject matter is extremely interesting and it is just fascinating to hear him tell it. You can tell that he really loves the material and has a gift for presenting it."

Professor Anthony A. Goodman, M.D.

• Montana State University
• Cornell Medical College

It is the greatest gift to be able to explore the ever-changing outer edges of science and share them with my students.

Dr. Anthony A. Goodman is Adjunct Professor of Medicine at Montana State University and Affiliate Professor in the Department of Biological Structure at the University of Washington School of Medicine. He earned his B.A. from Harvard College and his M.D. from Cornell Medical College and trained as a surgical intern and resident at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. He completed his surgical training and served as chief resident at the Harvard Surgical Service of Boston City Hospital, the New England Deaconess Hospital, the Lahey Clinic, and Cambridge City Hospital. For 20 years, Dr. Goodman worked as a general surgeon in south Florida and served as Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Miami School of Medicine. In addition, he served as a surgeon with the U.S. Army Medical Corps and on the hospital ship for Project HOPE. He was also Visiting Professor of Surgery at the Christchurch, New Zealand, Clinical School of Medicine. Founder of the Broward Surgical Society, Dr. Goodman is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Surgery.

Testimonials

"Dr. Goodman should be cloned.  He is better than any professor I had in college.  I didn't want his courses to end."

"Dr. Goodman obviously finds his subject fascinating and made it fascinating to me. His presentations were clear and always related to issues the average person cares about."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

The Myths of Nutrition and Fitness

Lifelong Health: Achieving Optimum Well-Being at Any Age

The Human Body: How We Fail, How We Heal

Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology

The Skeptic’s Guide to Health, Medicine, and the Media & Lifelong Health

Your Essential Guide to Living Longer & Better

The New Science Of Health, Mind, and Body

What Science Knows about Cancer & Lifelong Health: Achieving Optimum Well-Being at Any Age

Medical Myths, Lies, and Half-Truths & Lifelong Health

An Introduction to Infectious Diseases

Stress and Your Body

Understanding the Human Body: An Introduction to Anatomy and Physiology

Mysteries of the Microscopic World

How to Stay Fit as You Age & Lifelong Health: Achieving Optimum Well-Being at Any Age

 Professor David Sadava, Ph.D.

• City of Hope Medical Center, Claremont Colleges
• University of California, San Diego

The DNA double helix, discovered in 1953, is one of the great icons of science in our society, rivaling the atom in its pervasiveness in our culture.

Dr. David Sadava is Adjunct Professor of Cancer Cell Biology at the City of Hope Medical Center in Duarte, CA, and the Pritzker Family Foundation Professor of Biology, Emeritus, at The Claremont Colleges. Professor Sadava graduated from Carleton University as the science medalist with a B.S. with first-class honors in biology and chemistry. A Woodrow Wilson Fellow, he earned a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of California, San Diego. Following postdoctoral research at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, he joined the faculty at Claremont, where he twice won the Huntoon Award for Superior Teaching and received numerous other faculty honors. He has been a visiting professor at the University of Colorado and at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Sadava has held numerous research grants and written more than 55 peer-reviewed scientific research papers, many with his undergraduate students as coauthors. His research concerns resistance to chemotherapy in human lung cancer, with a view to developing new, plant-based medicines to treat this disease. He is the author or coauthor of five books, including the recently published 10th edition of a leading biology textbook, Life: The Science of Biology, as well as a new biology textbook, Principles of Life.

Testimonials

"Excellent!  I'm impressed with the ability of Dr. Sadava to make a complicated subject so easy and fully comprehensive.  Excellent teacher!"

Naturopathy, Complementary and Integrative Medicine

Professor Mimi Guarneri, M.D.

• Pacific Pearl La Jolla
• FACC The State University of New York Downstate Medical Center

You have the power to be your own best medicine. It is my personal hope that the science of natural healing provides you with all the necessary tools, science, and wisdom to start your healing journey.

Dr. Mimi Guarneri is board-certified in cardiology, internal medicine, nuclear medicine, and holistic medicine. She earned her medical degree from The State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, where she graduated first in her class. She completed her internship and residency at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, and held cardiology fellowships at New York University Langone Medical Center and the Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. While serving as an attending physician in interventional cardiology at the Scripps Clinic, Dr. Guarneri recognized the need for a more comprehensive and holistic approach to cardiovascular disease. As a result, she founded the Scripps Center for Integrative Medicine, where she used state-of-the-art cardiac imaging technology and lifestyle-change programs to prevent, diagnose, and treat cardiovascular disease. In recognition of her leadership in the field of integrative medicine, Dr. Guarneri received the Linus Pauling Functional Medicine Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012 and the Bravewell Physician Leadership Award for Integrative Medicine in 2011. She was recently elected president of the American Board of Integrative and Holistic Medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Cardiology, Alpha Omega Alpha, and the American Medical Women's Association. She is also a diplomate of the American Board of Holistic Medicine. Dr. Guarneri has authored several articles that have appeared in professional journals such as the Journal of Echocardiography and the Annals of Internal Medicine. She is also the author of The Heart Speaks, a collection of stories from heart patients who have benefited from integrative medicine approaches. The Heart Speaks and her clinical work have been featured on NBC's Today show and PBS's To the Contrary and Full Focus. Her work was also featured in a two-part PBS documentary, The New Medicine.

Professor Brent A. Bauer, M.D.

• Director of the Mayo Clinic Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program
• Mayo Graduate School of Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine

There has been a shift of focus toward wellness and preventative medicine in medicine today, and this is where complementary practices can play a huge role.

Brent A. Bauer, M.D., is board-certified in internal medicine, a Professor of Medicine, and the director of the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic, where he has been on staff for 24 years. His main research interest has been the scientific evaluation of integrative medicine therapies, which patients and consumers are using with increasing frequency. Dr. Bauer’s work is at the forefront of the emerging field of integrative medicine, which combines the best of conventional medicine with the best of evidence-based complementary therapies.

Dr. Bauer has written several book chapters and more than 100 papers on integrative therapies, and he is the medical editor of Mayo Clinic Book of Alternative Medicine. He is a member of numerous scientific review panels and is currently collaborating on more than 20 studies being conducted at Mayo Clinic. He is the medical director of Rejuvenate, the first spa at Mayo Clinic, and of the Well Living Lab, a collaboration between Delos and the Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation.

Professor Jason M. Satterfield, Ph.D.

• University of California, San Francisco
• University of Pennsylvania

Doing a comprehensive course on mind-body medicine has been a lifelong dream. We can all manage our health and alter our environments. Next up: cognitive therapy tools that can improve health and wellness. Onward and upward!

Professor Jason M. Satterfield is Professor of Clinical Medicine, Director of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and Director of Behavioral Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He earned his B.S. in Brain Sciences from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. He currently directs the UCSF Behavioral Medicine Unit, which integrates mental and behavioral health services into adult primary care. Professor Satterfield’s book, A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to the Beginning of the End of Life: Minding the Body, was recognized as a Self-Help Book of Merit by the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. He served on the Behavioral and Social Science Subcommittee that revised the Medical College Admission Test-work that was recently featured in the New England Journal of Medicine and The New York Times. Professor Satterfield is also part of a core interdisciplinary team that is writing a medical textbook based on the biopsychosocial model. He has been nominated for multiple teaching awards at UCSF, and he is often competitively selected to teach at national conferences for a wide variety of health professionals, including physicians, nurses, social workers, and psychologists.

physicians, nurses, social workers, and psychologists.

Testimonials

"Professor Satterfield is a masterful instructor who presents a wealth of information with empirical studies and good examples."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

Mind-Body Medicine: The New Science of Optimal Health                                                                                 Masters of Mindfulness: Transforming Your Mind and Body  Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: Techniques for Retraining Your Brain

Professor Dean Hodgkin, B.Sc.

• University of Portsmouth
• University of Portsmouth

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Teaching people how the body works and so how exercise can be of benefit is my mission in life, hence I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work with The Great Courses.

International fitness expert Dean Hodgkin has presented master classes and seminars to fitness instructors in more than 30 countries. Voted Best International Fitness Presenter at the One Body One World awards in New York, he has appeared on numerous television and radio programs worldwide. A three-time World Karate Champion and a two-time European Karate Champion, Hodgkin earned a B.Sc. honors degree in Mathematics and Management Studies from the University of Portsmouth. He continued his education at Leicester College, where he was awarded the Certificate in Exercise and Health Studies by the Physical Education Association of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the leading qualification in the field at the time. Since then he has accrued a wide and impressive array of vocational qualifications and is a regular attendee at conferences focused on the latest health and fitness research findings. At the 2012 International Fitness Showcase-Europe's largest group exercise event, attracting more than 7,000 participants-Hodgkin received a Lifetime Achievement Award for his services to the fitness industry.

*The Great Courses Professor of Physiology & Fitness                                                                                                         Essentials of Strength Training4.6out of590% of reviewers would recommend this product

Professor Kimberlee Bethany Bonura, Ph.D.

• Fitness and Wellness Consultant
• Florida State University

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Fitness at any age is built on a solid foundation of self-care, including sufficient sleep, stress management, and a healthy diet; supportive and nurturing relationships; and an exercise program that you actually enjoy.

Dr. Kimberlee Bethany Bonura is a fitness and wellness consultant with decades of experience teaching the benefits of physical and mental health to elite athletes, higher education institutions, nonprofit community organizations, and corporations. She earned her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology, with a research emphasis in sport and exercise psychology, from Florida State University. Her doctoral dissertation won national awards from the American Psychological Association (Division 47) and the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Dr. Bonura is a triple-certified yoga instructor, registered with the Yoga Alliance and a member of the International Association of Yoga Therapists. She also holds certifications as a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, kickboxing instructor, tai chi and qigong instructor, senior fitness specialist, weight management instructor, and prenatal and youth fitness specialist-all issued by the Aerobics and Fitness Association of America and the International Fitness Professionals Association. She has developed specialized programs in seated/chair yoga for older adults; yoga for empowerment to encourage self-esteem; partner yoga for family and marital enhancement; and more. Featured widely in national and international publications, Dr. Bonura is a peer reviewer for journals including the Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, and the Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology.

Testimonials

"Professor Bonura is highly knowledgeable in the area and is VERY thorough in presenting the material! Bravo!"

Professor Barbara K. Bruce, Ph.D., L.P.

• Mayo Clinic College of Science and Medicine, Mayo Clinic
• Louisiana State University

Everyone agrees that pain is a universal human experience, but not everyone knows what to do about it.

Barbara K. Bruce, Ph.D., L.P., is a clinical health psychologist in the Mayo Clinic Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, and Associate Professor of Psychology at the Mayo Clinic College of Science and Medicine, Mayo Clinic. She holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where she also earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. In addition, she holds a Master’s Degree in Physiological Psychology from the University of New Orleans.

Dr. Bruce has spent her entire career in the field of pain management. She served as Clinical Director of the Mayo Clinic Pain Rehabilitation Center Program in Rochester, MN, where she also led the development of the Mayo Clinic Pediatric Pain Rehabilitation Program. She is currently located at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, FL, where she has developed and currently leads its fibromyalgia and chronic abdominal pain treatment programs.

Dr. Bruce is widely published in scholarly journals addressing issues of pain management, including The Clinical Journal of Pain, Clinical Pediatrics, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, and Journal of Pediatric Psychology. Her research interests include the effective treatment for chronic benign pain and cancer pain, controversial use of maintenance opioid therapy in chronic non-cancer pain, and understanding the role of multidisciplinary psychosocial factors in treatment.

*The Great Courses Professor of    The Mayo Clinic Guide to Pain Relief

Professor Michael Ormsbee, Ph.D.

• Florida State University
• East Carolina University

The quality of our calories has as much of an impact on our body composition overall health as the total number of calories that we eat daily.

Dr. Michael Ormsbee is an Associate Professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food, and Exercise Sciences and Interim Director of the Institute of Sports Sciences and Medicine in the College of Human Sciences at Florida State University. He received his B.S. in Exercise Science from Skidmore College, his M.S. in Exercise Physiology (research emphasis in Sports Nutrition) from South Dakota State University, and his Ph.D. in Bioenergetics from East Carolina University. He is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa and a Fellow of the American College of Sports Medicine and the International Society of Sports Nutrition.

Dr. Ormsbee researches the interaction of exercise training, nutrition, and supplementation to achieve optimal body composition, human performance, and health in populations ranging from younger athletes to older adults. His work has been published in numerous scientific journals as well as consumer publications, and he has been featured as a nutrition and exercise expert on radio and TV.

Both his teaching and research have been recognized with numerous awards, including the 2013–2014 University Teaching Award, the Excellence in Online Course Design Award, the Excellence in Online Teaching Award, and the 2013 Transformation through Teaching Award. In 2015, he received the prestigious FSU Guardian of the Flame Award, granted to faculty members whose contributions have advanced FSU as a leading institution of higher education.

Changing Body Composition through Diet and Exercise

Professor Roberta H. Anding, M.S.

• Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital
• Louisiana State University

I thoroughly enjoyed making 'Nutrition Made Clear' with The Teaching Company. The attention to detail and accuracy was impressive and beyond my wildest dreams. Not only did I become a humble professor, I became a customer.

Professor Roberta H. Anding is a registered dietitian and Director of Sports Nutrition and a clinical dietitian at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital. She also teaches and lectures in the Baylor College of Medicine's Department of Pediatrics, Section of Adolescent Medicine and Sports Medicine, and in the Department of Kinesiology at Rice University. In addition, she is a registered dietitian with the American Dietetic Association, a certified specialist in sports dietetics, a certified diabetes educator, and the dietitian for the Houston Texans NFL franchise. She received her bachelor's degree in Dietetics and her master's degree in Nutrition from Louisiana State University. Throughout her prolific career, Professor Anding has received numerous awards and accolades, including the Texas Distinguished Dietitian Award, the Texas Dietetic Association Media Award, the John P. McGovern Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award from the University of Houston School of Nursing, and the Houston Area Dietetic Association's Texas Distinguished Dietitian of the Year award several years running. She has also published work in a variety of scientific and medical publications, including Pediatrics, the Journal of Adolescent Health, and Critical Care Nursing.

Testimonials

"Professor Anding's experience and practice is impressive and her use of real-world examples are sure to be relevant to your interests in nutrition."*The Great Courses Professor of    

Professor Elizabeth A. Murray, Ph.D.

• Mount St. Joseph University
• University of Cincinnati

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With nearly 30 years in the field, I guess I was 'forensic' before it was cool! I find forensic science to be a fascinating subject that incorporates law, ethics, psychology, history, and technology, as it aids our global community.

Dr. Elizabeth A. Murray is a forensic anthropologist and also Professor of Biology at Mount St. Joseph University, where she teaches doctoral-level human gross anatomy and undergraduate-level anatomy and physiology, as well as forensic science. She earned her bachelor's degree in biology from Mount St. Joseph University and her master's degree in anthropology and Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies in Human Biology from the University of Cincinnati. Most of Professor Murray's forensic casework has been in Ohio and Kentucky, where she has participated in hundreds of investigations. She is one of fewer than 100 anthropologists certified as a Diplomate by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology. Professor Murray has been honored with the Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award, and she twice earned the Clifford Excellence in Teaching Award. She has served as an instructor for numerous organizations, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, and the International Association of Coroners & Medical Examiners. Her television appearances include National Geographic's Buried Secrets, Discovery Health's Skeleton Stories, The New Detectives, and Forensic Files. Her book Death: Corpses, Cadavers, and Other Grave Matters was named one of the top ten summer titles for students by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Her 2012 book, Forensic Identification: Putting a Name and Face on Death, was recently selected as one of the outstanding books of 2012 by the prestigious National Science Teacher's Association.

"Professor Elizabeth Murray is a world-class lecturer, with well-paced and interesting lectures.
What a find she is for The Great Courses!"

• University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• University of California, San Diego

Our long evolutionary relationship with food is often hailed by anthropologists as one of the key milestones in human evolution.

Dr. Alyssa Crittenden is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she is also an Adjunct Associate Professor in the School of Medicine. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Crittenden’s focus in anthropology is on behavioral ecology and nutritional anthropology. She does field research among the Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, East Africa. Her research interests include the evolution of the human diet, the evolution of childhood, and the origins of the division of labor between the sexes. Dr. Crittenden’s work crosses several disciplines, including anthropology, psychology, ecology, nutrition, and human biology.

Dr. Crittenden has received multiple awards for her research contributions, including the prestigious Nevada Regents’ Rising Researcher Award for 2017. Her research on the role of honey in human evolution and her work on Hadza diet and the gut microbiome have been widely published in both top-tier academic journals and highlighted in popular outlets, such as National Geographic magazine, Smithsonian magazine, and Psychology Today. Dr. Crittenden has also appeared on the BBC, on PBS and NPR, as well as in several documentaries. Her research among the Hadza was the basis of a TED Talk for EDxUNLV in 2016.

1.    *The Great Courses Professor of    Food, Science, and the Human Body

 Professor John Keyser, Ph.D.

• Texas A&M University
• University of North Carolina

Just as language helps us organize and describe ideas for people, programming languages help us organize and describe ideas for the computer.

Dr. John Keyser is a Professor and the Associate Department Head for Academics in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, where he has taught since earning his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the University of North Carolina. As an undergraduate, he earned three bachelor’s degrees—in Computer Science, Engineering Physics, and Applied Math—from Abilene Christian University.

Dr. Keyser’s interest in computing, physics, and math steered him into a career in computer graphics, allowing him to combine all three disciplines. He has published widely on geometric modeling, physically based simulation for graphics, and a variety of other graphics topics.

Dr. Keyser’s teaching ranges from introductory undergraduate courses in computing and programming to graduate courses in modeling and simulation. Among these, he created a new Programming Studio course that has become required for all Computer Science and Computer Engineering majors at Texas A&M. He has been honored three times with Texas A&M’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Teaching—once at the university level and twice from the Dwight Look College of Engineering. As an Assistant Professor, he was named a Montague Scholar by the Center for Teaching Excellence. He also won the Tenneco Meritorious Teaching Award and the Theta Tau Most Informative Lecturer Award.

*The Great Courses Professor of    

*The Great Courses Professor of    Computer Science , Software Engineering and  Programming

 Professor Lawrence Weinstein, Ph.D.

• Old Dominion University
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The philosopher's stone of the alchemists turns out to be the nucleus, involving forces much greater than anything in chemistry.

Lawrence Weinstein is a Professor of Physics at Old Dominion University (ODU) and a researcher at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. He received his undergraduate degree from Yale University and his doctorate in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Professor Weinstein’s research involves electron scattering to study the structure of the nucleus and proton.

Among his many awards, Professor Weinstein received the ODU Teaching with Technology Award, was named University Professor for his outstanding teaching, and received the A. Rufus Tonelson Faculty Award from ODU, the George B. Pegram Award for Excellence in Physics Education in the Southeast from the American Physical Society, and the Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award. In recognition of his research, Professor Weinstein was named an Eminent Scholar, a distinction reserved for only four percent of the ODU faculty, and he was named a fellow of the American Physical Society.

Professor Weinstein is the author of Guesstimation (with John Adam) and Guesstimation 2.0, about techniques for finding approximate solutions to any problem. He has coauthored more than 200 publications in professional journals, with more than 10,000 citations. He has given more than 110 professional presentations, in addition to more than 75 talks and physics demonstrations for community groups, high schools, and middle schools.

Testimonials

 *The Great Courses Professor of    Nuclear Physics and  Nuclear  Engineering

 Professor Stephen Ressler, Ph.D.

• United States Military Academy, West Point
• Lehigh University

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In over two decades as a teacher, I’ve never experienced anything quite like commitment of The Great Courses to rigor in the course development process and uncompromising production quality in the studio.

Dr. Stephen Ressler is Professor Emeritus from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a Distinguished Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). A registered Professional Engineer in Virginia, he earned a B.S. from West Point and an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from Lehigh University, as well as a Master of Strategic Studies from the U.S. Army War College. Professor Ressler's papers on engineering education have won seven Best Paper awards from the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE). Professor Ressler has also won numerous awards from the ASCE, including the President's Medal and the 2011 Outstanding Projects and Leaders Award-the organization's highest award. His other accolades include the Bliss Medal for Outstanding Contributions to Engineering Education from the Society of American Military Engineers and the Norm Augustine Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Communications from the American Association of Engineering Societies. Professor Ressler served for 34 years as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and retired at the rank of Brigadier General in 2013. While on active duty, he served in a variety of military engineering assignments around the world. He is also a developer and principal instructor for the Excellence in Civil Engineering Education Teaching Workshop, which has trained more than 500 civil engineering faculty members from more than 200 colleges and universities.

Testimonials

"Professor Ressler makes engineering come alive! Whether exploring great structures or ancient infrastructure, his presentation of fundamental engineering principles provides anyone who views his courses with a more rigorous way to look at the world around them. "

"Professor Stephen Ressler is engaging, funny, incredibly knowledgable and fantastic at conveying the occasionally complex mix of engineering, history, and culture that forms the heart of this course." 

"Professor Ressler is an excellent lecturer. His models make the structural elements of sites very clear and understandable, both to engineers and non-engineers. "

"Professor Ressler did an outstanding job of explaining complex subject matter in an easy to learn format. His use of models was very helpful in understanding the material. Highly recommend this for anyone interested in the subject."

*The Great Courses Professor of  1. General Engineering  I- Do-It-Yourself Engineering

$269.95$49.95–$269.95Taught by Professor Stephen Ressler of West Point, this course conducts you through 17 thrilling engineering projects that you can build at home—from a suspension bridge across a small stream to a low-altitude sounding rocket. Dr. Ressler walks you through the entire process, from design to build to test, showing you how to think like an engineer in approaching any problem.

General Engineering  II- Everyday Engineering: Understanding the Marvels of Daily Life

Get a field guide to the engineering marvels of the everyday world all around you. Discover the remarkable technologies that enable our way of life—masterpieces of engineering that have been so beautifully integrated into the fabric of modern civilization that we often take them for granted. Explore the workings of the fascinating buildings, devices, and public utilities that we use almost every minute of the day.

 General Engineering  III - Understanding Greek and Roman Technology: From Catapult to the Pantheon

Famed for great thinkers, poets, artists, and leaders, ancient Greece and Rome were also home to some of the most creative engineers who ever lived. Modern research is shedding new light on these renowned wonders—impressive buildings, infrastructure systems, and machines that were profoundly important in their own day and have had a lasting impact on the development of civilization. Now, in Understanding...

 Civil  and  Structural  Engineering  I - Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity

$254.95$39.95–$254Experience the engineering genius that makes works such as the Giza pyramids, Brunelleschi's dome, and the Brooklyn Bridge possible with Understanding the World's Greatest Structures: Science and Innovation from Antiquity to Modernity. Delivered by award-winning Professor Stephen Ressler, these 24 lectures take you on a richly illustrated tour that deftly blends history and science to create an unforgettable survey...

Electronics Engineering and Cyber Security

 Professor Richard Wolfson, Ph.D.

• Middlebury College
• Dartmouth College

Physics explains the workings of the universe at the deepest level, the everyday natural phenomena that are all around us, and the technologies that enable modern society. It's an essential liberal art.

Dr. Richard Wolfson is the Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics at Middlebury College, where he also teaches Climate Change in Middlebury's Environmental Studies Program. He completed his undergraduate work at MIT and Swarthmore College, graduating from Swarthmore with a double major in Physics and Philosophy. He holds a master's degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Physics from Dartmouth.

Professor Wolfson's published work encompasses diverse fields such as medical physics, plasma physics, solar energy engineering, electronic circuit design, observational astronomy, theoretical astrophysics, nuclear issues, and climate change. His current research involves the eruptive behavior of the sun's outer atmosphere, or corona, as well as terrestrial climate change and the sun–Earth connection.

Professor Wolfson is the author of several books, including the college textbooks Physics for Scientists and Engineers, Essential University Physics,and Energy, Environment, and Climate. He is also an interpreter of science for the nonspecialist, a contributor to Scientific American, and author of the books Nuclear Choices: A Citizen's Guide to Nuclear Technology and Simply Einstein: Relativity Demystified.

Testimonials

"Dr. Wolfson covers his topics in physics thoroughly and in an entertaining fashion. His sequence of subjects is novel and he manages transitions and cross-references extremely well."

"Professor Wolfson lectures were superb, enthusiaistic, never dull. He is an excellent teacher. Highly recommended, I wish I could go back to college and take more courses from him!"

"Professor Wolfson is easily the most gifted lecturer I have ever encountered including in 5 years of college and 2 years of grad school."

"One can't beat Richard Wolfson as a coherent, organized, knowledgable and effective lecturer."

 Professor Paul Rosenzweig, JD

• The George Washington University Law School
• The University of Chicago Law School

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If you’ve learned anything in this course, I hope it is that cyberspace is remarkable and useful precisely because it is open and unstructured.

Paul Rosenzweig is a Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School. He earned his JD from the University of Chicago Law School and then served as a law clerk to the Honorable R. Lanier Anderson III of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He was chosen as the 15th annual Sommerfeld Lecturer at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School and was awarded a Carnegie Fellowship at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

In his nonacademic endeavors, Mr. Rosenzweig is a senior fellow at the R Street Institute, a public policy think tank in Washington DC. He is also the founder of Red Branch Consulting PLLC, a homeland security consulting company, as well as a senior advisor to The Chertoff Group. Mr. Rosenzweig formerly served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy in the US Department of Homeland Security, and he is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at the Homeland Security Studies and Analysis Institute. He is also an advisor to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Law and National Security and a contributing editor of the Lawfare blog.

Mr. Rosenzweig is the author of Cyber Warfare: How Conflicts in Cyberspace Are Challenging America and Changing the World, coauthor of Winning the Long War: Lessons from the Cold War for Defeating Terrorism and Preserving Freedom, and coeditor of both National Security Law in the News: A Guide for Journalists, Scholars, and Policymakers and Whistleblowers, Leaks, and the Media: The First Amendment and National Security.

Mr. Rosenzweig’s other Great Courses are Thinking about Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare and The Surveillance State: Big Data, Freedom, and You.

Testimonials

"Professor Rosenzweig is an excellent speaker, dynamic, well-informed, and presents plenty of examples to stress his points."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

1. Investigating American Presidents

Paul Rosenzweig

4.8out of5

95% of reviewers would recommend this product

What limits are there—if any—on presidential power? How do we keep such power in check? In the 12 timely lectures of Investigating American Presidents, Paul Rosenzweig of The George Washington University School of Law guides you through the ins and outs of presidential investigations, using past scandals and controversies as a lens through which to make sense of current (and future) ones.

2. The Surveillance State: Big Data, Freedom, and You

Paul Rosenzweig

The technological advances of the 21st century have brought both benefits and new questions about privacy and civil liberties. Around the globe, governments and corporations are capturing and analyzing vast quantities of information. Uncover how they gather and use the data, and explore the tension between security and freedom. Get the facts to make your own reasonable choices—and step toward an empowered future.

3. Thinking about Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare

Paul Rosenzweig

Virtually every aspect of global civilization now depends on interconnected cyber systems to operate; systems that have helped advance medicine, streamline everyday commerce, and so much more. Which makes keeping these systems safe from threat one of the most pressing problems we face. Now, in the 18 lectures of Thinking about Cybersecurity: From Cyber Crime to Cyber Warfare, delivered by cybersecurity expert Paul...

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering / Aviation

Professor James W. Gregory, Ph.D.

• The Ohio State University
• Purdue University

It has been the constant of trying to break the bonds of Earth that has fueled our efforts to engage in flight.

James W. Gregory is Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at The Ohio State University. He received a bachelor of science degree in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech and a doctorate in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University. He is also an instrument-rated private pilot with more than 200 hours of flight time in gliders and single- and multi-engine aircraft.

Prior to his arrival at Ohio State in 2008, Dr. Gregory’s work experience included stints at Delta Air Lines, NASA’s Glenn Research Center, and Tohoku University in Japan. He also served as a policy fellow at the National Academy of Engineering, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the United States Air Force Academy, and he held a summer faculty fellowship at the Air Force Research Laboratory Air Vehicles Directorate.

Dr. Gregory’s innovative teaching has earned him Ohio State’s David C. McCarthy Engineering Teaching Award and the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Professor Award, as well as the SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award. In 2014–2015, he was honored as a Fulbright Scholar at the Israel Institute of Technology (Technion) in Haifa, Israel.

Dr. Gregory’s research has been funded by more than $10 million from industry and government, and has resulted in more than 100 publications. He is currently completing a book on the flight testing of light aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Testimonials

*The Great Courses Professor of The Science of Flight

 Professor Patrick N. Allitt, Ph.D.

Emory University

We owe so much of our world to the Industrial Revolution. The Great Courses partners with the Smithsonian to examine the extraordinary events and uncover the far-reaching impact of this incredible era. In 36 fascinating lectures, Professor Allitt introduces you to the inventors, businessmen, and workers responsible for transforming our lives and fueling one of the greatest periods of innovation in human history.

*The Great Courses Professor of    The Industrial Revolution

 Nanotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences

 Professor Shana Kelley

• University of Toronto
• California Institute of Technology

As you might imagine, nanoscientists derive lots of inspiration from biology. We look at the complex world of biology and we marvel at its ability to selforganize and we try to recreate what we see with the tools of nanotechnology.

Dr. Shana Kelley is the former director of the Division of Biomolecular Sciences at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Toronto. She earned her Ph.D. in Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology. Professor Kelley's research has been featured in Scientific American and Nature Medicine, among other publications. Her work has been recognized with a variety of awards, including a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, a Sloan Research Fellowship, and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. She currently serves as Chief Technology Officer for a firm she cofounded, which is based on her work in biomolecular sensing.

Professor Ted Sargent, Ph.D.

• University of Toronto
• University of Toronto

Our capability to understand and engineer materials on the nanoscale has enabled the computer revolution.

Dr. Ted Sargent holds the Canada Research Chair in Nanotechnology in The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Toronto, where he also earned his Ph.D. His research has been disseminated in leading scientific journals, and he is the author of The Dance of Molecules: How Nanotechnology Is Changing Our Lives. In 2007 he addressed the pathbreaking Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Conference in Monterey, California. Professor Sargent founded and serves as Chief Technology Officer and a director of InVisage Technologies Inc., which was honored with The Wall Street Journal 2010 Technology Innovation Award.

 Professor John Long, Ph.D.

• Vassar College
• Duke University

The field of robotics offers an endlessly exciting way of seeing our world. Almost everything around you – any machine, any electronics component, any animal, anything that humans do – has potential implications for robotics, which has implications for you.

Dr. John Long is a Professor of Biology and a Professor of Cognitive Science on the John Guy Vassar Chair of Natural History at Vassar College. He also serves as the Director of Vassar’s Interdisciplinary Robotics Research Laboratory, which he helped found in 2003. Professor Long received his Ph.D. in Zoology from Duke University.

Internationally recognized for his work in biorobotics and evolutionary robotics, Professor Long creates autonomous robotic models of animals—both living and extinct—in order to study how the animals work, behave, and evolve. He also designs and builds bioinspired robots in collaboration with computer scientists, electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, physicists, and development-stage robotics companies. Professor Long’s research currently is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). He has received previous research funding awards from the NSF, the Office of Naval Research, the U.S. Small Business Administration, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Professor Long is the author of Darwin’s Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us about the History of Life and the Future of Technology. He and his robots have been featured in the journal Science, in the international press; on numerous news programs; and in science documentaries, including Through the Wormhole, Evolve, and Predator X.

Testimonials

"The professor is very entertaining and funny. He makes the concepts simple to understand and all the concrete examples he his presenting make the course more appealing."

"He makes the concepts simple to understand and all the concrete examples he is presenting make the course more appealing. His ''how to'' is also very interesting for anybody who wants to build a robot. I liked very much the different applications of robotics and all the explanations behind."    

Professor Jeffrey L. Kasser, Ph.D.

• Colorado State University
• University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Philosophy of science should help us look at claims made within science, and claims made about science, and help us make informed judgments about how and what we're to think about each case.

Dr. Jeffrey L. Kasser is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Colorado State University. He earned his B.A. from Rice University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. As a graduate student, Dr. Kasser taught Philosophy of Science to Ph.D. students in Michigan's School of Nursing. He was the first recipient of the John Dewey Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Education given by the Department of Philosophy at Michigan. While completing his dissertation, Dr. Kasser taught at Wesleyan University. He then moved on to Colby College, where he helped direct the Integrated Studies Program and received the Charles Bassett Teaching Award in 2003. Professor Kasser's dissertation concerned Charles S. Peirce's conception of inquiry. The classical pragmatism of Peirce and of William James serves as the focus of much of his research. He won the 1998 essay prize of the Charles S. Peirce Society for his essay, Peirce's Supposed Psychologism.

Testimonials

"An excellent lecturer, Mr.Kesser really knows the subject and did a fantastic exposition, full of examples, arguments, and explanations that become more and more accessible at each review."

*The Great Courses Professor of    Philosophy of Science

• Lehigh University
• Boston University

After 50 years, I continue to find new depths and fresh excitement in studying the history and philosophy of science.

Dr. Steven L. Goldman is the Andrew W. Mellon Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Lehigh University, where he has taught for 30 years. He earned his B.S. in Physics at the Polytechnic University of New York and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy from Boston University.

Before taking his position at Lehigh, Professor Goldman taught at The Pennsylvania State University, where he was a cofounder of one of the first U.S. academic programs in science, technology, and society studies.

Professor Goldman has received the Lindback Distinguished Teaching Award from Lehigh University. A prolific author, he has written or edited eight books, including Science, Technology, and Social Progress, and he has an impressive list of scholarly articles and reviews to his credit. He has been a national lecturer for the scientific research society Sigma Xi and a national program consultant for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Testimonials

"Professor Goldman has taken a difficult subject and made it very easy to understand without resorting to jargon. I liked his approach to the subject and closure was succinct."

"Dr. Goldman is a brilliant man and an outstanding teacher. I am quite fortunate to have discovered your company through Dr. Goldman!"

"Professor Goldman was one of the most engaging and challenging teachers I have ever had. I have never been so sorry to see a course end!"

 *The Great Courses Professor of   

Great Scientific Ideas That Changed the World

In this course you will explore ideas that-when society has been willing to pursue them-have helped form the foundation of modern life. You'll discover there is no sharp distinction between ideas that are classified as scientific and those that are classified as philosophical or mathematical, or even between scientific ideas and political, religious, or aesthetic ideas. In each lecture, you also will examine the...

Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How They Know 

Explore the history of competing conceptions of scientific knowledge over issues such as evolution from the onset of the Scientific Revolution in the 1600s to the present.

 Science in the 20th Century: A Social-Intellectual Survey

Follow the fascinating story of science as it unfolds in the 20th century. Learn the distinctive ideas that characterize 20th-century science, organized into five major themes: matter and energy, the universe, Earth, life, and humanity. Discover the most significant developments in anthropology, archaeology, history, linguistics, sociology, political science, economics, psychology, and cognitive science—alongside...

Professor Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D.

• Yale School of Medicine
• Yale School of Medicine

The underlying philosophy of the Hippocratic physicians was that disease involves a patient’s entire body and mind, so therapy must be directed to the whole context of the patient’s life situation rather than a small part of it.

Dr. Sherwin B. Nuland (1930-2014) was Clinical Professor of Surgery at the Yale School of Medicine and Fellow of the university's Institution for Social and Policy Studies. He served on the executive committees of Yale's Whitney Humanities Center and its Interdisciplinary Bioethics Project. Professor Nuland was a graduate of the Bronx High School of Science, New York University, and the Yale School of Medicine, from which he earned his M.D. After training in surgery at the Yale-New Haven Hospital, he practiced and taught there for three decades. He considered the bedside and operative care of over 10,000 patients to be the most rewarding work of his career. He taught bioethics and medical history to undergraduates and medical students. Dr. Nuland is the author of eight books, including Doctors: The Biography of Medicine and The Wisdom of the Body. He is also the author of How We Die, a reflection on the modern way of death, which was on the New York Times best-seller list for 34 weeks. This book won the National Book Award and was a finalist for the 1995 Pulitzer Prize and the Book Critics Circle Award. Dr. Nuland has written dozens of articles for magazines and periodicals, including The New Yorker, Time, Life, National Geographic, Discover, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times.

Testimonials

"Dr. Nuland's lecture is like sitting and listening to a story teller. The subject matter is extremely interesting and it is just fascinating to hear him tell it. You can tell that he really loves the material and has a gift for presenting it."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

1. 1.   Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed Through BiographySherwin B. Nuland . What major discoveries made modern medicine possible? Who were the fascinating individuals responsible for these discoveries? What qualities prepared each of them for their unique roles in medical history? Discover the answers in Doctors: The History of Scientific Medicine Revealed. Here, Professor Sherwin B. Nuland draws on the lives of 12 of medicine's greatest contributors to tell the human story behind the...

Professor Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.

• Philosophy Faculty, Oxford University; Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, Georgetown University
• City University of New York

Developments in philosophy are chiefly in the form of greater clarity, an ever more refined sense of just what makes the problem problematic. If ignorance is not thereby totally overcome, at least it is exposed.

Dr. Daniel N. Robinson is a member of the philosophy faculty at Oxford University, where he has lectured annually since 1991. He is also Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at Georgetown University, on whose faculty he served for 30 years. He was formerly Adjunct Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, and he also held positions at Amherst College and at Princeton University.

Professor Robinson earned his Ph.D. in Neuropsychology from City University of New York.

He is past president of two divisions of the American Psychological Association: the Division of History of Psychology, from which he received the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Division of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology, from which he received the Distinguished Contribution Award.

Professor Robinson is author or editor of more than 40 books, including Wild Beasts & Idle Humours: The Insanity Defense from Antiquity to the Present, An Intellectual History of Psychology, The Mind: An Oxford Reader, and Aristotle’s Psychology. He is former editor of the Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology. Dr. Robinson has also published widely on the constitutional history of the U.S. and its philosophical foundations, with original research appearing in the International Journal of Constitutional Law and The American Journal of Jurisprudence. He is coeditor of The American Founding: Its Intellectual and Moral Framework (London: Continuum, 2012).

Testimonials

"I believe Dr. Robinson is probably the best examply of an erudite, prepared teacher i have encountered.  His courses show careful preparation and excellent delievery."

"Professor Robinson offers a very interesting presentation of great ideas. I learned so much and had great fun. He has a wonderful dry sense of humor and a big heart." 

"Although I have a PhD, I've rarely had the experience of listening to such artful teaching; it makes my continual education a delightful pursuit."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

1. Consciousness and Its Implications

Daniel N. Robinson

Join distinguished philosopher, psychologist, and award-winning Professor Daniel N. Robinson and explore fascinating questions about human consciousness in Consciousness and Its Implications. You'll probe the depths of this mysterious subject from the perspective of the philosopher, the psychologist, the scientist, and the doctor. A master storyteller, Professor Robinson brings this riveting topic to life with...

2. Great Ideas of Philosophy, 2nd Edition

Daniel N. Robinson

These lectures offer a coherent and beautifully articulated introduction to the great philosophic conversation of the ages. They cover an enormous range of seminal thinkers and perspectives, but always from the vantage point of the enduring questions: What can we know? How ought we to act? How should we order our life together? Dr. Robinson's lectures make the idea of philosophy thrilling, passionate, human, and...

3. American Ideals: Founding a "Republic of Virtue"

Daniel N. Robinson

Just which "ideals" were affirmed by the Founders? What lessons of history were closely studied by them? American Ideals: Founding a "Republic of Virtue" is an invitation to enter this part of the American debate regarding human nature and the conditions right for its flourishing. In these carefully crafted lectures, Professor Daniel N. Robinson traces the dominant features of the early American ethos that...

1. 4.       Greek Legacy: Classical Origins of the Modern World

Daniel N. Robinson

In the 12 lectures of Greek Legacy: Classical Origins of the Modern World, explore the continuing influence of the classical Greek achievement on contemporary life. Your guide to the rise, fall, and return of Greek influence on Western culture is acclaimed Professor Daniel N. Robinson. He explores this rich legacy in specific aspects of our 21st-century lives, including: literature, art and architecture, learning,...

5. Great Ideas of Psychology

Daniel N. Robinson .This introduction to psychology stands out because it brilliantly analyzes the larger intellectual context in which the discipline has grown up. From Plato and Aristotle to Freud and Jung, you follow the fascinating debates that occur and recur as one school of thought after another seeks answers to the continuing mysteries of the mind.

Anthropology

Professor Scott M. Lacy, Ph.D.

• Fairfield University
• University of California, Santa Barbara

Anthropology inspires us to integrate multiple perspectives to enthusiastically explore our human condition and all its history and diversity.

Scott M. Lacy is an Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology at Fairfield University in Connecticut, where he teaches anthropology, environmental studies, and black studies courses. He earned his Ph.D. in Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and his research interests include cross-cultural knowledge production, food systems, intellectual property rights associated with seed, and the anthropology of happiness.

In addition to being an award-winning teacher and two-time Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Lacy is a coauthor of two popular textbooks, Applying Anthropology and Applying Cultural Anthropology, and he has published a number of book chapters and articles that document cross-cultural knowledge production in agriculture, community development, engineering, and even nanotechnology. Dr. Lacy has presented his work as a consultant or keynote speaker for numerous organizations, including Engineers Without Borders and the Peace Corps. His nonprofit and academic work has been featured in two major documentaries: Sustaining Life and Nyogonfe: Together.

Dr. Lacy has worked in Mali since 1994, when he first served in the Peace Corps. Since then, he has partnered with family farmers, teachers, community leaders, plant scientists, engineers, and a host of other knowledge specialists in Mali and throughout the world. He is also the founder and executive director of African Sky, a nonprofit organization that serves hardworking farm families in rural Mali, West Africa.

   *The Great Courses Professor of    

 Archaeology

*The Great Courses Professor of    Archaeology: An Introduction to the World's Greatest Sites

National Geographic Explorer Eric H. Cline, Ph.D.

The George Washington University Capitol Archaeological Institute

Archaeology brings us face-to-face with our distant ancestors and with life as it was lived in long-ago civilizations. This thrilling new course, produced in partnership with National Geographic, introduces you to over 20 of the most significant archaeological sites on the planet, providing both an in-depth look at the sites themselves and an insider’s view of the history, science, and technology of archaeology.

Comparative international Education

Professor Alexander W. Wiseman, Ph.D.

• Lehigh University
• The Pennsylvania State University

Knowing how the world learns is a stepping-stone to understanding how students acquire skills and knowledge, teachers teach, and education systems function in the best (and worst) ways.

Professor Alexander W. Wiseman is an Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in both Comparative and International Education and Educational Theory and Policy from The Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Wiseman has more than 19 years of professional experience, working worldwide with government education departments, university-based teacher education programs, and community-based professional development programs for teachers. He also has been a classroom teacher in both the United States and East Asia, and he currently serves as a frequent strategic planning and development consultant for ministries of education and national education organizations worldwide. He is a co-chair of the Committee on International Accreditation for the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation.

Professor Wiseman is the author of many research-to-practice articles and books. Recent articles have appeared in Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education; Prospects: Quarterly Review of Comparative Education; American Behavioral Scientist; Computers & Education; and Research in Comparative and International Education. In addition, Professor Wiseman serves as the series editor for the International Perspectives on Education and Society volume series and as the chief editor of the Annual Review of Comparative and International Education volume. He also is the senior editor of the peer-reviewed journal FIRE: Forum for International Research in Education.

Testimonials

Professor Patrick N. Allitt, Ph.D.

Emory University

Learn how to reach astounding new levels of success as a teacher with The Art of Teaching: Best Practices from a Master Educator. These 24 lectures, delivered by award-winning Professor Patrick N. Allitt, will help you develop and enhance your teaching style; provide you with invaluable methods, tools, and advice for handling all manner of teaching scenarios; and open your eyes to how other teachers—and their students—think about and approach this life-changing profession.

*The Great Courses Professor    

Professor Monisha Pasupathi, Ph.D.

• University of Utah
• Stanford University

I became a professor in the first place so that I could spend my life learning; the opportunity to both learn and tell others about the process of learning was irresistible.

Dr. Monisha Pasupathi is Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Utah. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University. She joined the faculty at Utah in 1999 after completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Germany. Professor Pasupathi has been honored multiple times for her teaching. She was named Best Psychology Professor by her university's chapter of Psi Chi, the National Honor Society in Psychology. Psi Chi also awarded her the Outstanding Educator Award and Favorite Professor Award. Professor Pasupathi's research focuses on how people of all ages learn from their experiences, particularly through storytelling. She is coeditor of Narrative Development in Adolescence: Creating the Storied Self, and her work has been published widely in scholarly journals.

Testimonials

"Professor Pasupathi is a superb lecturer not only in terms of the mastery of her subject but also her wonderful diction and ability to crisply and effectively explain concepts."

  World School of Economics                                   Economics , Business Banking and Finance

Professor Timothy Taylor, M.Econ.

• Macalester College
• Stanford University

Connect with Professor:

My wife says that I am an evangelist, with economics as my religion. I’m not sure this is altogether a good thing! But maybe it explains my enthusiasm for prepping and giving these lectures.

Professor Timothy Taylor is Managing Editor of the prominent Journal of Economic Perspectives, published by the American Economic Association. He earned his Master's degree in Economics from Stanford University.

Professor Taylor has won student-voted teaching awards for his Introductory Economics classes at Stanford University. At the University of Minnesota, he was named a Distinguished Lecturer by the Department of Economics and voted Teacher of the Year by the Master's degree students at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

In 2007, Professor Taylor published the first Principles of Economics textbook, available as a free download from Freeload Press. He has also edited a wide range of books and reports and published articles on globalization, the new economy, and outsourcing. From 1989 to 1997, Professor Taylor wrote an economics opinion column for the San Jose Mercury-News.

Testimonials

"Professor Taylor made a seemingly difficult course very fun, and very easy to understand with great examples to make the points of the lectures."

"Professor Taylor's lecture style, clear explanations, subtle humor and support of free markets gave me a new knowledge base. This was my first formal economics course and I am grateful to Timothy Taylor for making it a great experience!"

"Professor Taylor is a very engaging lecturer. He really keeps your attention. He has a sense of humor and the course (and each lecture in it) is very well organized. I highly recommend him!"

*The Great Courses Professor of    

1. Unexpected Economics. Timothy Taylor 

Grasp as never before the ways in which economics operates in areas you may never have considered. Delivered by acclaimed economist and Professor Timothy Taylor, the 24 lectures of Unexpected Economics offer a wide-ranging investigation of how economic thinking—whether applied personally, nationally, or globally—relates to, and sheds fresh light on, just about everything. Using findings from recent Nobel...

1. 2.       America and the New Global Economy

Timothy Taylor

Join expert economist and award-winning Professor Timothy Taylor as he takes you through the last 50 years of world economic history. In the 36 lectures of America and the New Global Economy, travel beyond the economy of the United States and explore the recent history of economies in countries and regions such as China, India, the Middle East, and Latin America. Study international perspectives on the new global...

1. 3.       Economics, 3rd Edition

Timothy Taylor

We are all economists—when we work, buy, save, invest, pay taxes, and vote. It repays us many times over to be good economists. Economic issues are active in our lives every day. This course helps you think about and discuss economic issues that affect you and the nation every day—interest rates, unemployment, personal investing, budget deficits, globalization, and many more—with a greater level of knowledge...

1. 4.       Legacies of Great Economists

Timothy Taylor

When it comes to economics and economic theory, a few thinkers dominate the landscape: Adam Smith. Karl Marx. Alfred Marshall. John Maynard Keynes. Legacies of Great Economists by economist and Professor Timothy Taylor acquaint you with the thoughts, theories, and lives of these and other great economists—those individuals who have shaped the world of economics and influenced our lives. These lectures provide... 

5. History of the U.S. Economy in the 20th Century

Timothy Taylor

Speaking with authority and credibility, economist and award-winning Professor Timothy Taylor delivers a wealth of insights into the economic history of the last 100 years of our nation in A History of the U.S. Economy in the 20th Century. This fast-paced course introduces you to vital economic lessons learned in the last century and provides you with invaluable guidance for understanding the current economy. In...

6. A Brief History of the World & Economics, 3rd Edition

Venture through the expanse of human development and civilization around the globe with A Brief History of the World. Then, gain a more sophisticated understanding of the fundamentals of economics—from interest rates to globalization—with Economics, 3rd Edition.

Professor Scott Huettel, Ph.D.

• Duke University
• Duke University

Understanding how people make decisions is one of the deepest challenges in current science – one that has implications for everything from how our brains function to how societies flourish in an interconnected world.

Professor Scott Huettel is the Jerry G. and Patricia Crawford Hubbard Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University. He earned his Ph.D. from Duke in Experimental Psychology and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in functional brain imaging and decision science at the university’s medical center. He is also the founding Director of the Duke Center for Interdisciplinary Decision Science. Professor Huettel is a leading researcher at the intersection of behavioral economics and neuroscience. His laboratory uses a combination of behavioral, genetic, physiological, and neuroscience techniques to discover the neural mechanisms that underlie higher cognition, with a focus on economic and social decision making. He is an author of more than 100 scientific publications, including articles in Science, Nature Neuroscience, Nature Reviews Neuroscience, Neuron, Psychological Science, and other top journals in several fields. His research has been featured in CNN, Newsweek, Money magazine, NPR Science Friday, and many other media outlets. He is lead author on a primary textbook in neuroscience, Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and he is a coeditor of the textbook Principles of Cognitive Neuroscience. Professor Huettel is a recipient of the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Mentoring from the Duke University Graduate School, and has been recognized as one of the top 5 percent of undergraduate instructors at Duke.

Testimonials

"Professor Huetell was easy to listen to and delivered a nearly flawless presentation. He did an admirable job at tying the information together and summarizing the main points."     

 Professor Steve L. Slezak, Ph.D.

• University of Cincinnati
• University of California, San Diego

As a professor, my job is not to simply provide information or to tell you what to think. Rather, I think my job as a professor is to teach you how to think for yourself.

Dr. Steve L. Slezak is Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Cincinnati and Director of the university's Carl H. Lindner III Center for Insurance and Risk Management. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego. Before joining the University of Cincinnati, he was on the faculty of the finance departments at the University of Michigan and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Professor Slezak's honors from the University of Cincinnati include the Harold J. Grilliot Award for Exemplary Service to Undergraduate Organizations and the Michael L. Dean Excellence in Classroom Education and Learning EXCEL Graduate Teaching Award. He also received the Weatherspoon Award for Excellence in MBA Teaching at UNC, Chapel Hill. Professor Slezak's teaching focuses on investments, risk management, and insurance, and his research examines the adverse effects of informational problems on managerial incentives and risk management. The results of his work have appeared in top-tier finance and economics journals, including The Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, The Review of Financial Studies, and the Journal of Economics and Management Strategy.

Testimonials

"Dr Slezak has done an excellent job in the design and sequencing of the concepts and knowledge transfer."

 Professor Ramon P. DeGennaro, Ph.D.

• The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• The Ohio State University

I like teaching things that will let people solve problems for the next 50 years, and if something can be automated, then I don't want to teach it.

Dr. Ramon P. DeGennaro is the CBA Professor in Banking and Finance at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In addition, he consults in the areas of business valuation, investments, and financial management and is a Luminary Member of the Angel Capital Group. He also served as a Visiting Scholar at the Federal Reserve Banks of Cleveland and Atlanta and for the American Institute for Economic Research. Professor DeGennaro holds a Ph.D. in Finance from The Ohio State University.

At The University of Tennessee, Professor DeGennaro has been nominated for the Allen H. Keally Outstanding Teacher Award, the John B. Ross Outstanding Teaching Award (three times), and the College of Business Outstanding Teaching Award.

Professor DeGennaro has presented original research at dozens of professional conferences, and he is the recipient of more than 50 research and professional development grants. His current research involves investments, financial markets, and entrepreneurship. He has published more than 40 refereed articles on investments, financial market volatility, small-firm finance, the term structure of interest rates, financial institutions, and prediction markets. He also has written research reports, book chapters, book reviews, and several Federal Reserve publications.

Testimonials

"Professor DeGennaro does an excellent job of explaining clearly, and with just the right amount of detail."

Professor Connel Fullenkamp, Ph.D.

• Duke University
• Harvard University

I love that the The Great Courses gives me a chance I wouldn’t otherwise have to teach people who love to learn. I really enjoy the challenge of putting together courses that are engaging and useful!

Professor Connel Fullenkamp is Professor of the Practice and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Economics at Duke University. He teaches financial economics courses, such as corporate finance, as well as core courses, such as economic principles. In addition to teaching, he serves as a consultant for the Duke Center for International Development. Prior to joining the Duke faculty in 1999, Professor Fullenkamp was a faculty member in the Department of Finance within the Mendoza College of Business at the University of Notre Dame. Originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Professor Fullenkamp earned his undergraduate degree in Economics from Michigan State University. In addition to receiving the Harry S. Truman Scholarship, he was named one of the university's Alumni Distinguished Scholars. He earned his master's and doctorate degrees in Economics from Harvard University, where he was also awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. Professor Fullenkamp's areas of interest include financial market development and regulation, economic policy, and immigrant remittances. His work has appeared in a number of prestigious academic journals, including the Review of Economic Dynamics, The Cato Journal, and the Journal of Banking and Finance. He also does consulting work for the IMF Institute at the International Monetary Fund, training government officials around the world. He is a member of the IMF Institute's finance team, whose purpose is to train central bankers and other officials in financial market regulation, focusing on derivatives and other new financial instruments. In recognition of his teaching excellence, Professor Fullenkamp has received Duke University's Alumni Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching Award as well as the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business Outstanding Teacher Award. Along with Sunil Sharma, Professor Fullenkamp won the third annual ICFR-Financial Times Research Prize for their paper on international financial regulation.

Testimonials

"Dr. Fullenkamp gives clear and comprehensive explanations of the terms and strategies used in the investing world so that I feel I can now navigate the forest of jargon with more confidence."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

1. Crashes and Crises: Lessons from a History of Financial Disasters

Connel Fullenkamp

4.6out of5

89% of reviewers would recommend this product

Professor Connel Fullenkamp of Duke University guides you through four centuries of economic disasters—from tulip mania in the 1600s to the Great Recession of 2007–2009. Each of his 24 lectures covers a notable incident of financial misfortune or folly. He explains basic economic concepts and inoculates you against the gullibility, overconfidence, and herd mentality that have lured many to financial ruin. 

2. The Economics of Uncertainty

Connel Fullenkamp

Learn to cope with uncertainty and risk with advice from a master economist. Economic uncertainty is like the weather: you can’t stop storms, but understanding them prepares you. Uncertainty is beyond our control, but when you take the mystery and dread out of uncertainty, you can respond much more effectively. The practical and empowering lectures of The Economics of Uncertainty give you tools to deal with risk. 

3. Financial Literacy: Finding Your Way in the Financial Markets

Connel Fullenkamp

With record-breaking highs one minute and economy-rocking lows the next—not to mention arcane rules and ambiguous terminology—it can seem as if there’s no way to feel truly comfortable in the financial markets. But there is, and it’s more accessible than you might think. Financial Literacy: Finding Your Way in the Financial Markets is an essential primer on this domain, from its functions, strengths,... 

1. Understanding Investments

Learn how to invest with skill and confidence to attain your financial goals with the 24 timely and informative lectures of Understanding Investments. Economist and Professor Connel Fullenkamp explains the fundamentals of investing to those new to the subject while broadening and deepening the knowledge of more experienced investors. He clearly explains the various kinds of financial markets, the different kinds of...

Professor Michael K. Salemi, Ph.D.

• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
• University of Minnesota, Minneapolis

Most of us like money and believe we should have more of it.

Dr. Michael K. Salemi is Professor of Economics at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He completed undergraduate studies in economics at St. Mary's College in Winona, Minnesota, master's degrees in economics from Purdue University and the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis, and a doctorate in economics from the University of Minnesota-Minneapolis. Professor Salemi has received numerous teaching awards from UNC-Chapel Hill, including the Tanner Award for Teaching and the Economics Undergraduate and Graduate Teaching awards. He has been recognized nationally with the Bower Medal in Economic Education from the Council for Economic Education and the Villard Award for Research in Economic Education from the National Association of Economic Educators. The Gus A. Stavros Center named him a Great Teacher in Economics in 2007. Professor Salemi is the author of two books and more than 60 published articles in macroeconomics, domestic and international monetary theory, and economic education. An acknowledged expert in economic education, Professor Salemi has been an instructor, workshop director, and workshop program director for national programs in teacher education. He has served on and chaired the Committee on Economic Education for the American Economic Association.

Testimonials

"Professor Salemi is an outstanding, terrific lecturer! His enthusiasm, clarity, organization, articulation, and sheer joy of teaching would make almost any subject come alive."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

Professor Michael Finke

• Texas Tech University
• The Ohio State University

Money Management requires knowledge...but it also requires an understanding of how we as fallible humans make mistakes.

Professor Michael Finke is a Professor of Personal Financial Planning and Director of the Retirement Planning and Living Consortium at Texas Tech University, where he leads the doctoral program—considered the premier academic program in financial planning. He has doctoral degrees in Consumer Science from The Ohio State University and in Finance from the University of Missouri.

A longtime advocate for ethical financial advice, Professor Finke is the former president of the American Council on Consumer Interests and serves as an expert on regulatory and legal issues related to financial planning. He is the author of numerous award-winning research articles in the fields of retirement income, investment advice, and investor decision-making. He has also received numerous awards as an instructor of a wide range of financial planning courses, from basic undergraduate personal finance to doctoral-level research methods.

He frequently speaks at industry and academic conferences on advanced financial planning topics. As an expert on personal finance issues, Professor Finke has appeared in the national press, including the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, USA TODAY, Kiplinger’s Personal Finance, and SmartMoney. He is also a frequent guest on national radio shows, such as NPR’s On Point with Tom Ashbrook.

Testimonials

"Professor Finke explains concepts clearly and logically, and I can gladly recommend this course to anyone interested in financial planning."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

 Professor Michael G. Goldsby, Ph.D.

• Ball State University
• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

The bottom line is that anyone can come up with a great business idea if they’re willing to take the time to learn the right skills and build the right toolkit to get it done.

Dr. Michael G. Goldsby is the Stoops Distinguished Professor of Entrepreneurship and Executive Director of the Entrepreneurship Center in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. He earned his undergraduate degree in Business Economics and Public Policy from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, his master’s degree in Economics from Indiana State University, and his doctorate in Strategic Management and Business Ethics from the Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he was awarded the Jack Hoover Award for Teaching Excellence.

Professor Goldsby’s current research focuses on recognition and development of opportunities, design, innovation, and applied creativity. He is a member of many management professional organizations and offers consulting and workshop services to companies, communities, and universities. In addition to his numerous refereed journal articles, Dr. Goldsby coauthored Innovation Acceleration: Transforming Organizational Thinking, and his research has been reported by major international media outlets, including CBS, MSNBC, CNN, and the Associated Press. His study on entrepreneurship and fitness was covered by Runner’s World, Prevention magazine, Muscle & Fitness, and Health magazine.

In his spare time, Dr. Goldsby enjoys athletic pursuits. He has run 25 marathons, including eight Boston Marathons, and he completed his first IRONMAN Triathlon in 2012.

Testimonials

"The Entrepreneur's Toolkit is very well put together and easy to follow. I highly recommend these courses to anyone who is thinking of starting a new business or someone who wants their existing business to grow."

Professor Colin McAllister, D.M.A.

• University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
• University of California, San Diego

Most importantly, good technique allows us to express our musicality without inhibition.

Colin McAllister is the Music Program Director at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. He earned his master’s and doctorate degrees in Musical Arts at the University of California, San Diego, where he studied guitar with Celin and Pepe Romero, interpretation with Bertram Turetzky, and conducting with Harvey Sollberger and Rand Steiger.

Dr. McAllister has taught the guitar and performed professionally as a guitarist for more than 25 years. He has made more than 1,000 appearances with organizations including the San Diego Opera, the San Diego Symphony, and the Colorado Symphony. Dr. McAllister is also a member of the jazz ensemble Hennessy 6. He is endorsed by PRS Guitars, and is also an Artist Partner with Taylor Guitars.

Dr. McAllister has recorded on several record labels, including Albany Records, Tzadik Records, and Naxos. He also pursues research interests in 3rd and 4th century religious beliefs related to apocalypticism and early medieval commentary on the Book of Revelation.

Dr. McAllister lives in Manitou Springs, Colorado, with his wife Barbara and their children. In addition to his academic studies in music and the apocalypse, he has climbed more than 35 of Colorado’s 14,000-foot peaks, along with Mount Whitney in California and three high volcanoes in Mexico.

Testimonials

*The Great Courses Professor of   Playing Guitar like a Pro: Lead, Solo, and Group Performance

Professor Pamela D. Pike, PhD

• Louisiana State University
• University of Oklahoma

I think you’ll enjoy exploring musical concepts while making music at the piano.

Pamela D. Pike is the Aloysia Landry Barineau Professor of Piano Pedagogy at Louisiana State University (LSU), where she coordinates the group piano and piano pedagogy programs. She earned a Bachelor of Music with honors in Piano Performance from The University of Western Ontario, a Master of Music in Piano Pedagogy and Music History from Southern Illinois University, and a PhD in Music Education and Piano Pedagogy from the University of Oklahoma.

Dr. Pike has published more than three dozen scholarly articles, is the editor-in-chief of Clavier Companion magazine, and she is the author of the book, Dynamic Group-Piano Teaching: Transforming Group Theory into Teaching Practice. A Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM), she has extensive experience teaching piano to students of all ages, both privately and in group settings. In addition to teaching piano, Dr. Pike is dedicated to helping pedagogy students develop the skills necessary to become successful piano teachers. Graduates of the LSU piano pedagogy program work in colleges and private studios throughout the United States and on four continents.

Dr. Pike serves as a commissioner and chair for the International Society for Music Education’s Commission on the Education of the Professional Musician. She has served as president of the Louisiana Music Teachers Association and of the Baton Rouge Music Teachers Association. She has won the Louisiana Music Teachers Association Outstanding Teacher Award, the LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award, and the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association Teacher of the Year Award.

*The Great Courses Professor of    How to Play Piano

 San Francisco Performances

University of California, Berkeley

Connect with Professor:

For thousands of years cultures have celebrated themselves through their music. Let us always be willing and able to join that celebration by listening as carefully as we can to what, through music, we have to say to one another.

Dr. Robert Greenberg is Music Historian-in-Residence with San Francisco Performances. A graduate of Princeton University, Professor Greenberg holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley. He has seen his compositions—which include more than 45 works for a wide variety of instrumental and vocal ensembles—performed all over the world, including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, England, Ireland, Greece, Italy, and the Netherlands.

He has served on the faculties of the University of California, Berkeley; California State University, Hayward; and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and has lectured for some of the most prestigious musical and arts organizations in the United States, including the San Francisco Symphony, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, the Van Cliburn Foundation, and the Chicago Symphony. For The Great Courses, he has recorded more than 500 lectures on a range of composers and classical music genres.

Professor Greenberg is a Steinway Artist. His many other honors include three Nicola de Lorenzo Composition Prizes and a Koussevitzky commission from the Library of Congress. He has been profiled in various major publications, including The Wall Street Journal; Inc. magazine; and the London Times.

Testimonials

" I am a huge fan of Professor Greenberg! I have played music most of my life and love going to classical concerts. Now I will have a much better understanding of why I love the music so!"

"I was a music education major and definately wish I had Robert Greenberg as a professor.  He is extremely knowledgeable, appropriately funny and ties all the historical facts together so well they are rememberd and understood very clearly."

"Professor Robert Greenberg is wonderfully passionate, humorous, witty and knowledgeable. He is living what he is teaching. What a joy it would be to his student."

 *The Great Courses Professor of    

1.  Great Music of the Twentieth Century

Robert Greenberg

The 20th century was a breeding ground of musical innovation and transformation unlike any other era in history. Within this course, you’ll discover the genius of composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Schoenberg, Webern, Bartók, Ligeti, Adès, and many others. In Great Music of the 20th Century, you’ll experience the superlative musical art that so vividly and unforgettably speaks to the life of our times.

2. Music as a Mirror of History

Robert Greenberg

Uncover the fascinating and surprising connections between famous music and historical events, led by celebrated composer and music historian Professor Robert Greenberg. In Music as a Mirror of History, music lovers and history enthusiasts alike will be enthralled by this exploration of how momentous compositions have responded to—and inspired—pivotal points in the history of the world.

3. The 23 Greatest Solo Piano Works

Robert Greenberg

The piano has inspired many of the greatest compositional works in the Western concert repertoire since the mid-18th century. These historic milestones in piano writing are celebrated for their compositional mastery and their extraordinary power to move listeners and mirror human experience; their use of the piano in groundbreaking or unique ways; and the fact that they have stood the test of time. Now, in The...

4. The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works

Robert Greenberg

In The 30 Greatest Orchestral Works, join Great Courses favorite Professor Robert Greenberg as he guides you through 30 works that, in his expert opinion, can be considered among the greatest orchestral works in the history of Western concert music. Rich with detailed musical excerpts, these 32 lectures will open your ears to the profound joy and meaning of landmark creations by Haydn, Beethoven, Stravinsky, and...

5.The Music of Richard Wagner

Robert Greenberg

6. String Quartets of Beethoven

Robert Greenberg

In The String Quartets of Beethoven, award-winning composer and celebrated Great Courses Professor Robert Greenberg guides you through the power and beauty of the maestro's 16 quartets for two violins, viola, and cello. This captivating new course is a rare opportunity for you to grasp the musical riches and spiritual greatness of the quartets in a clear and accessible way. In twenty-four 45-minute lectures,...

7. Understanding the Fundamentals of Music

Robert Greenberg

Professor Robert Greenberg offers a spirited introduction to the mysterious realm of music theory—the complex syntax of structural and instrumental resources that composers draw on. Sidestepping the necessity to read music, these lectures represent a rare opportunity for learning music theory—for understanding the processes of composition. The course will reward you many times over as you find yourself enjoying... 8.     How to Listen to and Understand Great Music, 3rd Edition

Robert Greenberg

This course can permanently enrich your life. With Professor Robert Greenberg as your teacher, you will hear and understand an entire language of unmatched beauty, genius, and power. Using digitally recorded passages to illustrate his points, Professor Greenberg takes you inside magnificent compositions by Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Verdi, Wagner, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Stravinsky, and more. After...

9.  The Concerto

Robert Greenberg

A concerto is exciting in ways that no other instrumental music can match. Where a symphony enthralls us with themes that are contrasted, varied, transformed, and developed, a concerto adds the extra dimension of human drama—the exhilaration of a soloist or group of soloists ringing forth against the mass of the orchestra. In this course, Professor Robert Greenberg gives you a guided tour of the concerto from its...

10.   Beethoven's Piano Sonatas

Robert Greenberg

Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas provide a window into his personal musical development and highlight the piano as an evolving instrument. Professor Robert Greenberg combines analysis of extensive musical excerpts with historical anecdotes, metaphors, and humor to show what goes on inside a musical composition and how Beethoven often broke all former rules to achieve a new, powerful effect.

 11.   Chamber Music of Mozart

Robert Greenberg

Professor Robert Greenberg of San Francisco Performances presents an outstanding opportunity to study and enjoy a variety of chamber works drawn primarily from Mozart’s golden years in Vienna, 1781–1791. The centerpiece of this 16-lecture course is the set of six Haydn string quartets that Mozart dedicated to his friend, the great Joseph Haydn.

12.   The Symphony

Robert Greenberg

This course brings longtime Teaching Company favorite Professor Robert Greenberg to a 300-year survey of the symphony with the enthusiasm, energy, and breadth of knowledge that are his trademarks. As you explore the evolution and development of this remarkable musical genre, you enjoy musical excerpts from well- known compositions in addition to some that may be new to you, along with enlightening musical and...

13.   Life and Operas of Verdi

Robert Greenberg

Giuseppe Verdi is still the most popular composer in the 400-year history of opera. What were the sources of his unbridled creativity? And why have his operas left such a lasting impression on the history of classical music? Discover the answers in The Life and Operas of Verdi, a fascinating 36-lecture course taught by award-winning composer and Professor Robert Greenberg. Tour Verdi's life and music, and trace his...

14.   Operas of Mozart

Robert Greenberg

15.   Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann-Their Lives and Music

Robert Greenberg

Meet Robert and Clara Wieck Schumann, the most brilliant, gifted, troubled, and unique couple in the history of concert music. In Great Masters: Robert and Clara Schumann—Their Lives and Music, taught by popular Teaching Company Professor Robert Greenberg, learn why this critic and composer and his pianist wife have earned a distinct place in the annals of Western music. These fascinating lectures take you...

16.   Great Masters: Shostakovich-His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

Discover the extraordinary life, times, and music of Dmitri Shostakovich, the great composer who proved to be a faithful witness to the survival of the human spirit under totalitarianism. In Great Masters: Shostakovich—His Life and Music, award-winning composer and Professor Robert Greenberg reveals why Shostakovich is, without a doubt, one of the most central composers of the 20th century. In addition to...

17.   Great Masters: Brahms-His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

Great Masters: Brahms—His Life and Music is a course that links the complexities of this enduring Western composer with his electrifying works through biographical information and musical commentary. Join award-winning composer and Professor Robert Greenberg on an examination of how Brahms found unique ways of combining the formal complexity of older Classical genres with the melodic inventiveness, harmonic...

18.   Great Masters: Liszt-His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

Musically, Franz Liszt is one of the most written about but least understood composers of the 19th century. Join award-winning Professor Robert Greenberg on a fascinating journey to learn the truth about this enduring composer in Great Masters: Liszt—His Life and Music. More than anyone before him, it was Liszt who created one of the most enduring archetypes of the Romantic era: the artist "who walks with God...

19.   Great Masters: Beethoven-His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

Place the life of Ludwig van Beethoven in a stronger social, political, and cultural framework with Great Masters: Beethoven—His Life and Music. Award-winning composer and Professor Robert Greenberg makes the case that Beethoven was one of the most prolific and inspiring forces in the history of music, after whom nothing would ever be the same again. You'll learn about Beethoven's dysfunctional family life,...

20.   Great Masters: Mahler-His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

More than many other composers, Gustav Mahler's works are highly personal expressions of his inner world—one characterized by an overwhelming sense of alienation and loneliness. Great Masters: Mahler—His Life and Music is a biographical and musical study of Mahler, who, along with being a composer, was the greatest opera conductor of his time. Professor Robert Greenberg's lectures bring to life this...

 21.   Great Masters: Stravinsky-His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

Award-winning Professor Robert Greenberg's Great Masters: Stravinsky—His Life and Music depicts the career of Igor Stravinsky as a dizzying, enthralling progression that creates a virtual artistic history of the West from the 1890s to the late 1960s. Discover this master of musical creativity to be a one-man compendium of people, places, compositional styles, and techniques. Among other things, these lectures...

22.   Great Masters: Haydn-His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

Experience the musical riches of Franz Joseph Haydn, an artist so technically superb that he has come to exemplify the Classical style. In Great Masters: Haydn—His Life and Music, explore the life, works, and legacy of one of the most original and influential composers of all time. Taught by award-winning Professor Robert Greenberg, this course will reveal Haydn's extraordinary achievements not merely as technical...

23.   Great Masters: Mozart-His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

24.   Great Masters: Tchaikovsky—His Life and Music

Robert Greenberg

Discover why Peter Illych Tchaikovsky exhibits as close a link as you will find anywhere between an artist's inner world and the outward products of his creative activity with Great Masters: Tchaikovsky—His Life and Music. Award-winning Professor Robert Greenberg reveals how, as a man, Tchaikovsky was defined by his music, which became an outlet for all the shifting moods of his turbulent soul. Tchaikovsky...

25.   How to Listen to and Understand Opera

Robert Greenberg

For more than 400 years, opera has been one of the most popular performing arts. Professor Robert Greenberg can show you how you can learn to understand, appreciate—even to love—opera in just 32 lectures. With the knowledge of opera from this course, you will understand how opera is a unique marriage of words and music in which the whole is far greater than its parts. You will learn the reasons for...

 26.   Symphonies of Beethoven

Robert Greenberg

Almost since their creation, Ludwig van Beethoven's nine symphonies-each one pathbreaking and stunning-have formed the cornerstone of orchestral literature. Viewed from the unique vantage point that Professor Robert Greenberg offers, "The Nine" bear witness to Beethoven's artistic brilliance as well as the profound and continuing influence of his achievements.

27.   Bach and the High Baroque

Robert Greenberg

The music of Johann Sebastian Bach fuses emotional power, religious devotion, technical virtuosity, diverse national styles, and sheer genius in ways that are unforgettable, delightful, and moving. Professor Robert Greenberg explains all this and more with compelling insight, deep human sympathy, and puckish wit. Join him, and learn to hear Bach with more pleasure and understanding than ever before.

28.   Concert Masterworks

Robert Greenberg

This course examines eight great concert masterworks by Mozart, Beethoven, Dvorák, Strauss, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Liszt. You explore the life, times, personality, and stylistic assumptions of the composers and analyze each composition's form, themes, thematic relationships, and expressive content. You will also discuss the impact on musical development of the Enlightenment aesthetic ideal, nationalism,...

29.   (SET) America’s Musical Heritage & Great Music of the 20th Century

Robert Greenberg

Discover the power music has to shape entire nations and centuries with this two-course set that pairs America’s Musical Heritage with Great Music of the 20th Century. In the first course, you’ll explore over 200 years of American music alongside Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. And in the second, you’ll examine the genius of composers such as Debussy, Stravinsky, Ligeti, and others who spoke to the life of... 

Faculty of Sacred  Music

Professor Charles Edward McGuire , Ph.D.

• Oberlin College
• Harvard University

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Sacred music is an immense topic. Nearly every culture across the globe includes music for their religious rituals.

Charles Edward McGuire is Professor of Musicology at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, where he has taught since 2001. He earned a B.Mus. in musicology from the Oberlin Conservatory and a B.A. from Oberlin College with high honors in history, and received his A.M. and Ph.D. in music from Harvard University.

At Oberlin, Professor McGuire teaches music history, including courses on 19th-century music, Ludwig van Beethoven, Mozart ‘s operas, the symphony in the 19th century, music and narrative, film music history, music in London, and romanticism and medievalism in 19th-century London.

Professor McGuire has published extensively on British music, including studies of compositions by Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughan Williams, as well as works on musical festivals. He is the author of the monographs Music and Victorian Philanthropy: The Tonic Sol-fa Movement; Elgar ‘s Oratorios: The Creation of an Epic Narrative; and The Historical Dictionary of English Music, which he co-authored with Oberlin colleague Professor Steven Plank. He has presented papers at numerous international musicological conferences, and is a frequent invited speaker for panel discussions and pre-concert talks.

Professor McGuire has received a Teaching Excellence Award at Oberlin, as well as being a three-time winner of a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching from Harvard University.

*The Great Courses Professor of    The Great Works of Sacred Music

 University of America Divinity School

Faculty of Religion

Professor Andrew Newberg

• Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
• University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Ever since I can remember, I’ve been interested in questions related to religion and God.

Dr. Andrew Newberg is the Director of Research at the Myrna Brind Center of Integrative Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. He is also a Professor in the Departments of Emergency Medicine and Radiology at Thomas Jefferson University, and he teaches undergraduate courses at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Newberg received his medical degree in 1993 from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia, and he completed a fellowship in Nuclear Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nuclear Medicine. Dr. Newberg has actively pursued neuroimaging research projects, including studies of aging and dementia, epilepsy, and other neurological and psychiatric disorders. He has been particularly involved in the study of religious and spiritual experiences and the relationship among the brain, religion, and health. Dr. Newberg's research has included analyzing brain scans of people in prayer, meditation, rituals, and various trance states. His research also has included understanding the physiological correlates of acupuncture therapy, massage, and other types of alternative therapies. Dr. Newberg has taught medical students, undergraduate and graduate students, and medical residents about stress management, spirituality and health, and the neurophysiology of religious experience. In 2010, he was named Teacher of the Year for the University of Pennsylvania's Biological Basis of Behavior Program. Dr. Newberg has published numerous articles and chapters on brain function, brain imaging, and the study of religious and spiritual experiences. He is the author of Principles of Neurotheology, a culmination of ideas based on his research over the past 10 years. He is a coauthor of the best-selling books How God Changes Your Brain and Why God Won't Go Away: Brain Science and the Biology of Belief. His most recent book, Words Can Change Your Brain, was published in June 2012. Dr. Newberg is also a coauthor of Born to Believe: God, Science, and the Origin of Ordinary and Extraordinary Beliefs and The Mystical Mind: Probing the Biology of Religious Experience, both of which explore the relationship between neuroscience and spiritual experience. The latter book received the 2000 award for Outstanding Books in Theology and the Natural Sciences presented by the Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences. Dr. Newberg has presented his work at scientific and religious meetings around the world and has appeared on Good Morning America, Nightline, CNN, and ABC's World News Tonight. His research also has appeared in Newsweek; TIME; The New York Times; Los Angeles Times; Scientific American; O, The Oprah Magazine; and Reader's Digest.

Testimonials

"Congratulations Professor Newberg on a great presentation, that for me was well researched, delivered with precision, and created such mental stimulation that I must now find answers to hundreds of questions."

Professor Mark Berkson, Ph.D.

• Hamline University
• Stanford University

Religious traditions should be approached not merely as objects of analysis, but also as challenges to be experienced subjectively. A deep encounter with another religion engenders intellectual and spiritual exploration and growth.

Dr. Mark Berkson is Professor of Religion at Hamline University. He earned a B.A. from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, an M.A. from Stanford University in East Asian Studies, and a Ph.D. from Stanford University in Religious Studies and Humanities. He has twice received Faculty Member of the Year awards and has received multiple fellowships for his work in Asian religions. A world traveler, he has lived in China and visited religious and pilgrimage sites in countries such as India, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and Greece. Professor Berkson has given well over 100 presentations at conferences, universities, community meetings, and churches, and he has also appeared on radio and television news shows in segments dealing with religious issues. His scholarly work has addressed topics such as comparative religious thought, religious ethics, death and dying, and interfaith dialogue and has appeared in books and in such prestigious journals as the Journal of Religious Ethics, Teaching Theology & Religion, and Buddhist-Christian Studies.

Testimonials

"Professor Berkson's enthusiasm for the subject matter and skill as a speaker hold your attention throughout the series."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

 Professor Grant L. Voth, Ph.D.

• Monterey Peninsula College
• Purdue University

No idea of any single culture will ever capture the entire human sense of god, or creation, or the hero; and to get a more complete human picture, we have to look at the myths of many cultures.

Dr. Grant L. Voth is Professor Emeritus at Monterey Peninsula College in California. He earned his M.A. in English Education from St. Thomas College in St. Paul, MN, and his Ph.D. in English from Purdue University. Throughout his distinguished career, Professor Voth has earned a host of teaching awards and accolades, including the Allen Griffin Award for Excellence in Teaching, and he was named Teacher of the Year by the Monterey Peninsula College Students' Association. He is the author of insightful scholarly books and articles on subjects ranging from Shakespeare to Edward Gibbon to modern American fiction, and he wrote many of the official study guides for the BBC's acclaimed project, The Shakespeare Plays. Before joining the faculty at Monterey Peninsula College, Professor Voth taught at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University and for several years served as a consultant on interdisciplinary studies programs for the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has led travel-study tours to countries including England, Ireland, France, Greece, and Turkey, and he is a frequent guest lecturer for the internationally acclaimed Carmel Bach Festival in Carmel, California.

Testimonials

"Professor Voth opens our eyes to other wonderful books that seem perennially over-shadowed and not quite able to find a sunny patch for themselves."

"Dr. Voth, a talented teacher, lifts us out of our familiar box of Great Literature and shows us the other side of the tracks: the also-rans, the not quite so great literature, but still great reading, thrilling stories, and engaging themes."

"Professor Voth's knowledge of and enthusiasm for world literature is inspirational. I found myself with a free week to keep watching his lectures and that's just what I did."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

Professor Kathryn McClymond, Ph.D.

• Georgia State University
• Harvard University

…Myths still speak to universal human experience, containing kernels of truth that seem to transcend space and time.

Professor Kathryn McClymond is Chair and Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Georgia State University, where she has taught since 1999. Professor McClymond graduated cum laude from Harvard University with a degree in History and Literature and later pursued her M.A. and Ph.D. in Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her focus was on comparative ritual studies, with an emphasis on Hindu and Jewish traditions.

Professor McClymond has published widely on religion and ritual, focusing on sacrifice and violence. She also has been involved in collaborative research that emphasizes the importance of story and narrative in individual lives. Current projects include developing an oral history archive of the religious life stories of residents of Atlanta, Georgia, and an interdisciplinary program that encourages military personnel and veterans to integrate morally traumatic experiences into their own moral and ethical life stories.

Professor McClymond is the recipient of the Georgia State University College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award (2006) and the Georgia State University Distinguished Honors Professor Award (2002). In 2013, she was elected to the American Society for the Study of Religion. She also has been a member of the Board of Regents for the University of California.

Professor McClymond is the author of Beyond Sacred Violence: A Comparative Study of Sacrifice and the forthcoming Ritual Gone Wrong: What We Learn from Ritual Disruption, as well as numerous academic articles.

Testimonials

• University of Redlands
• The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Ancient African myths considered some of humanity’s earliest thoughts about divinity, the world, and life itself.

Professor Julius H. Bailey is a Professor of Religion at the University of Redlands. He received a B.A. in Religious Studies from Occidental College and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests include African mythology, African American religious history, and new religious movements. He teaches courses on varied aspects of religion.

Professor Bailey’s research focuses on the diverse experiences of the African diaspora. His first book is entitled Around the Family Altar: Domesticity in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, 1865–1900. This work examines the ideology of domesticity in the lives of African Americans in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church and its distinctiveness in light of recent studies of 19th-century white Protestant and Catholic homes. The book traces the efforts of AME Church leaders and members to apply notions of domesticity to the challenges facing the denomination after the Civil War, such as regional tensions, the restoration of families after slavery, the licensing of female preachers, and the spiritual nurturing of children.

Professor Bailey’s second book is Race Patriotism: Protest and Print Culture in the AME Church. This work analyzes the ways in which various understandings of race, gender, and place influenced the framing of social issues for African Americans in the 19th century. Issues discussed include westward migration, the selection of the appropriate referent for the race, social Darwinism, the viability of emigration to Africa, and cultural and religious connections to African traditional religions.

Professor Bailey’s research also looks at African American new religious movements. His work on this topic includes “‘Cult’ Knowledge: The Challenges of Studying New Religious Movements in America” (a chapter in Doing Recent History: On Privacy, Copyright, Video Games, Institutional Review Boards, Activist Scholarship, and History That Talks Back) and “The Final Frontier: Secrecy, Identity, and the Media in the Rise and Fall of the United Nuwaubian Nation of Moors,” published in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion. The professor also has written an article on white supremacist movements, “Fearing Hate: Reexamining the Media Coverage of the Christian Identity Movement,” which appeared in the Journal for the Study of Radicalism.

Professor Bailey is currently at work on two books, a collection of international myths and a textbook on African American religious history.

*The Great Courses Professor of    Great Mythologies of the World

• Beloit College
• University of Chicago

The myth that began all Chinese myths tells the story, not of how the world began, but of a culture hero who transformed daily human life.

Professor Robert André LaFleur is Professor of History and Anthropology at Beloit College in Wisconsin, where he has taught since 1998. Having graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Carleton College, Professor LaFleur received his doctorate from The University of Chicago’s John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, where he combined work in three distinct fields: anthropology, history, and Chinese literature.

Professor LaFleur’s current work combines historical research using Chinese, Japanese, and Korean sources with anthropological fieldwork on each of China’s five sacred mountains. He is also doing research for an intellectual biography of Marcel Granet, a French scholar of China.

Professor LaFleur received the Charles S. Bassett Teaching Award from Colby College in 1998, as well as the James R. Underkofler Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award from Beloit College in 2001 and 2011. He was also a finalist in 2010 for the Eugene Asher Distinguished Teaching Award from the American Historical Association. He is the recipient of a Millicent C. McIntosh Fellowship from the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation and has been a frequent visiting scholar with the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research in the Humanities and the East-West Center in Honolulu. In 2013, Professor LaFleur gave a month-long series of lectures and seminars at Beijing University. He spent 2014 on a research fellowship at the Internationales Kolleg für Geisteswissenschaftliche Forschung (International Consortium for Research in the Humanities) in Erlangen, Germany.

Professor LaFleur is the lead author and editor of two textbooks: China: A Global Studies Handbook and a thoroughly revised and expanded version, Asia in Focus: China. He has published book chapters and articles about topics ranging from Chinese historiography, literature, and calendars to ethnicity and mythology. He also has presented dozens of research papers on topics ranging from China, Japan, and Korea to the history and anthropology of Oceania.

Testimonials

• The Ohio State University
• Yale University

What the people we will study would want us to do is to read their texts, to consider with open minds what they teach us, and—just possibly—to pursue our own quests for the truth about God and ourselves—that is, to seek our own gnosis.

Professor David Brakke is the Joe R. Engle Chair in the History of Christianity and Professor of History at The Ohio State University. He received his B.A. in English from the University of Virginia, his M.Div. from Harvard Divinity School, and his Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Yale University. He taught for 19 years in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University.

Professor Brakke has published extensively on the history and literature of ancient Christianity, especially Egyptian Christianity, early monasticism, the formation of the biblical canon, and Gnosticism. His books include The Gnostics: Myth, Ritual, and Diversity in Early Christianity; Demons and the Making of the Monk: Spiritual Combat in Early Christianity; and Introduction to Christianity, with Mary Jo Weaver. He has co-edited six volumes of scholarly essays and contributed nearly 40 articles to professional journals and volumes. From 2005 to 2015, he served as editor of the Journal of Early Christian Studies.

At Indiana University, Professor Brakke received recognition for his teaching and research, including the Outstanding Junior Faculty Award. He has held several important fellowships, including ones from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He is currently preparing a revised edition of Bentley Layton’s The Gnostic Scriptures.

Testimonials

"Dr. Brakke's lectures have done a masterful job educating me through his manner of clear and inclusive information provided by his method of presentation and as a result of his exemplary scholarship."

*The Great Courses Professor of    

Professor Robert D. Miller II, PhD

• The Catholic University of America
• University of Michigan

Join me for this fascinating exploration of the old testament; stepping back in time to witness the historical birth of a book that continues to shape our world.

Robert D. Miller II is Ordinary Professor of Old Testament at The Catholic University of America. He received a PhD in Biblical and Near Eastern Studies from the University of Michigan. He is a research associate at the University of Pretoria and a life member of St John’s College Cambridge.

Professor Miller is a scholar of the history, literature, religion, and archaeology of ancient Israel. His books Chieftains of the Highland Clans: A History of Israel in the 12th and 11th Centuries BC and Oral Tradition in Ancient Israel, as well as related articles, made him a recognized authority on early Israel. Other books by him include Covenant and Grace in the Old Testament: Assyrian Propaganda and Israelite Faith and The Dragon, the Mountain, and the Nations: An Old Testament Myth, Its Origins, and Its Afterlives.

Professor Miller has worked in the interface of science and theology as the recipient of two major grants in that area, and he participates in Jewish-Christian and Muslim-Christian dialogue at local and international levels. He is a former member of the board of trustees of the American Schools of Oriental Research and was one of the translators of the New American Bible Revised Edition. In 2015, he received the Teacher of the Year Award from his university’s School of Theology and Religious Studies Student Association.

Testimonials

 Professor Gary A. Rendsburg, Ph.D.

• Rutgers University
• New York University

I’ve always had a love of history, so I very much enjoy bringing this aspect to our course.

Dr. Gary A. Rendsburg holds the Blanche and Irving Laurie Chair in Jewish History in the Department of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University, where he also holds an appointment in the History Department. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies from New York University and taught at Canisius College and Cornell University-the latter for 18 years-before joining the Rutgers faculty in 2004. The author of six books and more than 120 scholarly articles, Professor Rendsburg takes a special interest in literary approaches to the Bible, the history of the Hebrew language, the history of ancient Israel, and the development of Judaism in the post-biblical period. His works include The Bible and the Ancient Near East (1997), a general survey of the biblical world coauthored with the late Cyrus H. Gordon, and, most recently, Solomon's Vineyard: Literary and Linguistic Studies in the Song of Songs (2009), coauthored with Scott B. Noegel. Professor Rendsburg has visited all of the major archaeological sites in Israel, Egypt, and Jordan and has explored Qumran, the site of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, repeatedly for several decades. He has participated in excavations at Tel Dor and Caesarea. His main research interests are the literature of the Bible, the history of ancient Israel, the historical development of the Hebrew language, and the relationship between ancient Egypt and ancient Israel. Professor Rendsburg has received several fellowships including the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Testimonials

"Professor Rendsburg took a subject that is widely known to all Judeo-Christians and made it seem new and exciting. I only wished there was more!"

"Professor Rendsburg is a master of the subject and has clearly put much effort into these lectures, which are very well-organized."

Professor Martyn Oliver, PhD

• American University
• Boston University

The Qur'an is an endlessly fascinating, complicated, often misunderstood text. It is also a beautiful, moving text full of moments of tenderness, authority and mystery.

Martyn Oliver is a Senior Professorial Lecturer at American University, where he also serves as the director of the Undergraduate Religious Studies and Arab World Studies programs. He received his B.A. in Religion from the University of Puget Sound and his Ph.D. in Religion and Literature from Boston University. In 2015, he was the recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As a scholar of religion and Islam, Dr. Oliver has published widely in both academic and popular publications. He is recognized for his expertise on Islam in American culture, and he has had speaking engagements with the U.S. Department of State and the Defense Intelligence Agency. Dr. Oliver has also made media appearance on CBS and NPR. From 2009 to 2013, he served as the president of the American Religion and Literature Society.

*The Great Courses Professor of  Introduction to the Qur'an