Has The World in a Box inspired to learn more about the Arts? Try taking a course with the OU.

An Introduction to the Humanities (A103)
You will get from this course a lively and varied grounding in the eight disciplines in the Arts Faculty: art history, literature, music, philosophy, classical studies, history, religious studies and history of science. The subjects are introduced in attractive case studies combined with multidisciplinary sections on the French Revolution and the 1960s. The course will help you to express yourself more clearly and develop the reading, analysis and interpretation skills you need before moving on to more specialized courses at Level 2. It is not necessary to have studied in this area before.

From Enlightenment to Romanticism c.1780-1830 (A207)
Central to this interdisciplinary text-led course is a wide range of European texts associated with the transition from Enlightenment to Romanticism. It includes music, philosophical and scientific writings, poetry, paintings, and architecture by people as varied as Mozart, Schubert, Hume, Rousseau, Sade, Robert Owen, Delacroix, on topics as varied as Napoleon, religion, slavery and the exploration of Africa, Soane's museum and the Brighton Pavilion, and Goethe's Faust. This course develops your knowledge and skills across a range of Arts disciplines, building on those introduced at Level 1 (A103) and preparing for further interdisciplinary study at Level 3.

Art and its Histories (A216)
This introduction to art history will interest students who are new to the discipline and those who have already studied in this area. The six course books, covering the period from the Renaissance to the present day, explore the changing intellectual traditions, institutions, social practices and issues of taste governing artistic values, drawing on the different approaches that characterize recent art history. The book titles reflect the themes round which the course is structured: Academies, Museums and the canons of art, The changing status of the artist, Gender and art, The challenge of the avant-garde, Views of difference: Different views of art, Contemporary cultures of display.

The Rise of Scientific Europe 1500-1800 (AS208)
Why did modern science develop only in Europe, and in some parts rather than others? We examine these questions through primary and secondary sources. After a survey of Chinese science, Arabic science and the roots of European science, we concentrate on Copernicus and the spread of his astronomical theory; the conditions in Italy that stimulated Galileo's work and led to his trial; the distinctive environment of Portuguese and Spanish science; developments in the German states; the surge of French and seventeenth-century English science; Newtonianism; and the Scottish enlightenment. We also look at Sweden, Russia and the Balkans, countries rarely mentioned in this context.

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