Current Courses
Our goal is to enhance the intellectual, social, and cultural life of adults by providing challenging, diverse, and relevant courses on academic topics. Most of our classes are four to six weeks long and meet once a week for 1-1/2 or 2 hours. Our volunteer instructors are motivated by their desire to share their knowledge and facilitate thoughtful discussions on academic topics.
We have two semesters: Fall and Winter/Spring.
Winter/Spring 2024 Courses
We have a record number of courses lined up for Winter/Spring 2024. Registration will open at 10:00 AM on December 4. Once you have decided which courses you want to take, click on the “Register for Courses” button. It will take you to the course registration program.
This winter/spring, DavidsonLearns is excited to offer a fascinating selection of in-person courses in both our traditional format and our shorter mini-course format. We routinely get requests for online courses, especially in the winter, so we are pleased to offer one traditional course online. Before registering for any of these courses, you first must have a DavidsonLearns account and be a current DavidsonLearns member. We encourage you to take care of both of these requirements now in order to avoid a delay when you register. If you need to create an account or become a DavidsonLearns member (or renew your membership), click here.
If you would like to take a course that is full, please add your name to the waitlist, and we will contact you if a seat becomes available. Please do not contact the instructor directly.
In-Person Mini Courses
In-Person Traditional Courses
Status: Closed
Contradictions in Behavior: Yours and Everyone Else’s
Instructor: Grace Mitchell, PhD
Looking for a new way to understand the strange and contradictory behavior of others, not to mention your own? This one-day workshop will provide a perspective you may not have considered: the profound influence of an individual’s “approach to life.” Based on data from original research in the fields of adult development and psychology, the instructor and a colleague identified seven distinct “approach to life” personality types and labeled them with easily understood sports metaphors. For example, do you approach life like a “lap swimmer,” becoming expert at what you do as you stay in your lane but resisting changing lanes? Each personality type exhibits both healthy and unhealthy attributes, and these can lead to contradictory behaviors. Course participants will identify their own dominant personality type using the Approach to Life Inventory (ALI) and will learn what research tells us about how that personality type responds to challenges, hopes, fears, and change.
Required and Suggested Readings
None
Status: Closed
Hot Topics in Healthcare for Aging Americans
Instructor: James A Hallock, MD
This course will examine two topics facing aging Americans. First, we will review the immunizations commonly prescribed for the elderly. Focusing on the current status of COVID, RSV, shingles, and other immunizations, we will trace the development of – and the changes in – these immunizations in recent years. The instructor will contact participants prior to the first class to ask what other areas of immunization they would like addressed. The second topic centers around physician availability in the US and the increasing number of internationally trained physicians. Are they as competent and well trained as physicians trained in the US?
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Required and Suggested Readings
None
Cost
$26
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Friday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Jan. 26; Feb. 2
Status: Closed
The Opioid Crisis and a Call to Action
Instructor: Peter Harnett, MS, MPH
This course will provide initial background on key aspects of the pharmacology of opioids and their medical use as analgesics, along with key facts highlighting the extent of the problem. For example, of the 109,000 overdose deaths in the US in 2022, roughly 80,000 were attributed to opioids. We will discuss how Oxycontin marketing led to a much larger number of Americans using opioids. From there, we will look at the four phases that mark the opioid crisis – opioid prescription, heroin use, fentanyl use, and the use of fentanyl mixed with other drugs. The instructor will share his family loss and discuss, in detail, actionable items that we as Americans can do to address the current opioid problem.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Suggested Readings
The Anonymous People. Directed by Greg D. Williams, 4th Dimensions Productions, 2013.
Keefe, Patrick Radden. Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty. Penguin Random House, 2021,
Pardo, Bryce et al. The Future of Fentanyl and Other Synthetic Opioids. Rand Corporation, 2021.
Cost
$13
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 50 students
Day
Thursday
Time
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Date
Feb. 22
Status: Closed
Perspectives on Traditional Music, Part II
Instructor: Bill Lawing, DMA
Students will explore the musical genre of Traditional Music through instructor lectures, discussions with performing artists, and attendance at two Traditional Music concerts at Davidson College. The day before each concert there will be a preparatory session in which students will learn more about the artists and their context within the genre. On the day of the concert, the class will meet for 45 minutes with the artists, who will give examples of what to expect in the upcoming performance.
Students need not have attended Perspectives on Traditional Music, Part I in order to enjoy Part II.
Concert 1 Background Lecture: The Junior Appalachian Musicians (JAMS) Program
Wednesday, January 31, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Concert 1: The Burnett Sisters
Thursday, February 1, 4:00 PM – 4:45 PM meet-the-artist session and 7:30 PM concert
The Burnett Sisters, three siblings from Boone, have been performing together from an early age. They have a wonderful style that recalls the early “sisters” groups of the '40s and '50s, grounded in a synthesis of folk, country, and swing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiAO0fNPg0o&list=RDEMm56BbJcJGHWsp7jRpJqmOA&start_radio=1
Concert 2 Background Lecture: Tim O’Brien: 50 Years of Nashville Royalty
Tuesday, April 9, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Concert 2: Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius
Wednesday, April 17, 4:00 PM – 4:45 PM meet-the-artist session and 7:30 PM concert
Tim O’Brien and his wife, Jan Fabricius, will be celebrating his 50th year in music on this tour. A West Virginia native, Tim O’Brien has spent most of his musical career in Nashville, performing both as a soloist and as a member of multiple national groups, including Hot Rize and The Earls of Leicester. He has won Grammy awards in both Traditional and Bluegrass categories, along with being a multiple winner of the IBMA Male Vocalist of the Year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZNCuHjKvVE
Required Reading
The instructor will provide a listening list on YouTube.
Cost
$26 for the DL course. Individual series performance ticket prices are $22 adults, $17 seniors.
Location
Enrollment
Day
Tue., Wed., Thur.
Time
Variable, see above
Date
see above
Min 5, Max 50 students
Status: Closed
Women of the Renaissance: Artist and Patrons
Instructor: Trinity Martinez, PhD
This course sheds light on the artistic practices and oeuvre of women artists of the Italic peninsula – while also emphasizing the role of female patronage – between the 15th and 16th centuries. The first hour of the lecture will provide a brief overview of women as artists and focus on the trailblazers Suor Plautilla Nelli, Sofonisba Anguissola, and Lavinia Fontana. The second hour of the lecture will examine the patronage of three strong Renaissance women: Christine de Pizan, Isabella d'Este, and Catherine de’ Medici.
Suggested Readings
IDEA: Isabella d’Este Archive. https://www.isabelladestearchive.org/general-3. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.
Loh, Maria H. “In the Sixteenth Century, Two Women Painters Challenged Gender Roles.” Art in America, February 25, 2020. https://www.artnews.com/art-in-america/features/sofonisba-anguissola-lavinia-fontana-italian-renaissance-women-painters-1202678831/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.
MacDonald, Deanna. "Female Artists in the Renaissance." Smarthistory, June 1, 2020. https://smarthistory.org/female-artists-renaissance/. Accessed 27 Oct. 2023.
Cost
$13
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 25 students
Day
Thursday
Time
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Date
Jan. 25
Status: Closed
Adventures in Genealogy
Instructor: Christopher J. Ritz, PhD
What did Great-Grandpa do for a living? How big was his family? Were they rich or poor? What was their religion? Did their physical characteristics match the majority of the local population’s? Can you discover genealogy’s “Holy Grail”: Great-Grandma’s hometown somewhere in the world? Constructing a timeline for your ancestors will connect you with the geography, history, and culture in which they lived, bringing together your own family stories with the powerful search engines of the internet.
We will sample the most popular genealogical websites as well as some unusual ones. This seminar is open to all, from beginners to professionals, and encourages an interactive exploration of your ancestors as well as their lives and times.
Participants are encouraged to use personal laptops in class, working on their own projects while learning from conversation with others in the group.
Suggested Readings
Several suggested texts will be available for examination at the first class. Students may want to obtain a copy of one of them.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 6, Max 10 students
Day
Thursday
Time
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Date
Jan. 18, 25; Feb. 1, 8, 15
Status: Closed
Around the Charlotte Region in Six Days
Instructor: Bill McCoy, PhD
The Charlotte region (Mecklenburg and surrounding counties) is one of the fastest growing areas in the US. Using the instructor’s personal experience working directly with city, town, and county governments in the region in conjunction with information from the regional archives of the UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, we’ll explore the history of the region and how it fits into the state’s context. We will include issues stemming from Charlotte’s explosive growth (jobs, housing, crime, education, transportation), from historical patterns in the surrounding counties, and from the way outlying areas connect to Charlotte. Because tourism plays a major role in the region’s economy, we’ll discuss what there is to see and do in the metropolis.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Suggested Readings
The instructor will suggest articles from the UNC Charlotte’s Urban Institute’s Website, https://ui.charlotte.edu/articles-research, and provide a short bibliography of books.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Jan. 16, 23, 30; Feb. 6, 13, 20
Status: Closed
Born in the USA: American Popular Music in the 20th Century
Instructor: Rachel Stewart
America's music in the 20th century tells the singular story of how people from different backgrounds and experiences have come together to create a uniquely American art form. In this course, we’ll explore the ways popular music influenced and was influenced by the remarkable events of “The American Century,” a time when the US was the dominant nation in the world in terms of politics, economics, science, and popular culture. We’ll consider the American musical scene through the lenses of civil rights and racism, feminism, technological change, and national politics.
This course is primarily lecture but includes some group participation
Required Readings
There are no required readings, but students are encouraged to create a Spotify account to listen to playlists of music relevant to each lesson (available for free with ads and other limitations or by subscription with no ads and more features). Instruction for using Spotify will be provided. The instructor will provide a list of readings, films, videos, podcasts, sites, and music that can be accessed via the internet from sources such as AllMusic.com and the podcast A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs.
Cost
$91
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 20 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Date
Jan. 16, 23, 30; Feb. 6, 13, 20, 27
Suggested Readings
Starr, Larry and Christopher Waterman. American Popular Music: From Minstrelsy to Mp3. Oxford University Press, 2021.
This book may also be available from other sources.
Status: Closed
The Cold War on the Silver Screen, Part III
Instructor: Peter Thorsheim, PhD
The Cold War tore our world apart on many levels: ideological, military, economic, geopolitical, and cultural. It was the time of Churchill's iron curtain speech, McCarthyism, show trials, covert action by the CIA and the KGB, fears of nuclear annihilation, and the rise – and fall – of the Berlin Wall. This course, which is the sequel to those offered in Fall 2022 and 2023, explores five other iconic movies that shed light on the anxieties of the Cold War: Death of Stalin, Rear Window, Bridge of Spies, Hidden Figures, and Charlie Wilson's War. Participants will watch these movies at home using a streaming service and discuss them in class.
DavidsonLearns members are welcome to sign up for Part III, whether or not they took Part I or Part II.
Required Viewings
The films can be rented, purchased, or streamed from various sources such as iTunes, Vudu, Amazon Prime, Google Play, YouTube, and for some, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Public Library.
Death of Stalin (2017)
Rear Window (1954)
Bridge of Spies (2015)
Hidden Figures (2016)
Charlie Wilson's War (2007)
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 20 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Jan. 17, 24, 31; Feb 7, 14
Suggested Readings
Recommended readings will include short online articles that can be accessed for free and two books that students can choose to purchase.
Status: Closed
Comparing the American and Chinese Navies
Instructor: Robert J. Murray
This course discusses the strategic importance (or unimportance) of navies for nations in general, and for the US and China in particular. While one hopes China and America can avoid conflict or even war, if they do not, their navies would most likely be engaged first. We will consider the strategic purposes and relative capabilities of navies now and in the likely future. Because navies are expensive to build and to maintain, we will ask whether investment in naval forces is worthwhile; and we will examine the cost, purpose, and implications of the current Chinese naval build-up.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 12, Max 40 students
Day
Thursday
Time
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Date
Mar. 21, 28; Apr. 4, 11, 18
Suggested Readings
The instructor will provide a list of suggested readings.
Status: Closed
Jefferson’s Daughters: Gender and Race at Monticello
Instructor: Catherine Kerrison, PhD
Each year, more than half a million people travel to Thomas Jefferson’s mountaintop home and plantation, seeking a tour that celebrates the life and mind of the drafter of the Declaration of Independence. A lover of harmony and order, Jefferson would be pleased. But now, as then, the regal serenity of this site masks the disorder of life at Monticello: hierarchical systems that ran counter to his stated ideals in the Declaration of Independence. Through our exploration of the lives of his three daughters at Monticello, we will treat broader questions of gender, race, and power in the early republic, and we will consider their continuing impact in our own day.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 8, Max 20 students
Day
Monday
Time
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Date
Feb. 19, 26; Mar. 4, 11, 18, 25
Required Readings
Kerrison, Catherine. Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America. Penguin Random House, 2019. (chapters 1, 7, 9, 11)
Other required material will be provided by the instructor, including
Allgor, Catherine. “Dolley Madison Takes Command,” in Parlor Politics: In Which the Ladies of Washington Help Build a City and a Government. UVA Press, 2000, pp. 48-88.
Stanton, Lucia. “Those Who Labor for My Happiness: Thomas Jefferson and his Slaves,” in “Those Who Labor for My Happiness”: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. University of Virginia Press, 2012, pp. 3-26.
These books may also be available from other sources.
Suggested Reading
The instructor will provide the additional suggested reading:
Lewis, Jan. “’The Blessings of Domestic Society’: Thomas Jefferson’s Family and the Transformation of American Politics.” Family, Slavery, and Love in the Early American Republic: The Essays of Jan Ellen Lewis, edited by Jan Ellen Lewis, Barry Bienstock, Annette Gordon-Reed, & Peter Onuf, Oxford UP, 2021, pp. 109-140.
Status: Closed
The Historical Origins of Modern Medicine
Instructor: Joe Konen, MD, MSPH
Together we will trace the evolution from pre-historic through modern times of various scientific, cultural, philosophical, ethical, and religious influences on the development of modern medicine. Our exploration will touch on the arts, humanities, and science of healing practices. We will focus on the last two centuries to explain present day medical achievements and the challenges in optimum health care delivery.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Thursday
Time
7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Date
Jan. 11, 18, 25; Feb. 1, 8, 15
Required Readings
Required readings will be provided by the instructor via Google Classroom on the internet.
Status: Closed
How Can We Live in a Deeply Connected World?
Instructor: Ron Schmidt, PhD
The dominant American cultural view of individualism is being challenged. The environmental movement, contemporary science, the Indigenous worldview, adherents to multiple spiritual traditions, and more are pointing us back to interdependence. In different ways, all these sources claim that there is no such thing as an independent individual person and that all of existence is deeply interconnected. This course will address the bases of this interdependence view and its implications for how we live individually and together.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Date
Mar. 5, 12, 19, 26; Apr. 2
Required Readings
Required and recommended materials will be distributed electronically by the instructor.
Possible examples:
Excerpts from Black Elk, The Sacred Pipe, 1953.
Excerpts from James Bridle, Ways of Being, 2022.
Excerpts from Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There, 1949.
Excerpts from Chelsey Luger and Thosh Collins, The Seven Circles: Indigenous Teachings for Living Well, 2022.
Excerpts from Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 2013.
Excerpts from Joanna Macy, World as Lover, World as Self: Courage for Global Justice and Planetary Renewal. 30th Anniversary ed., 2021.
Excerpts from Suzanne Simard, Finding the Mother Tree, 2021.
Excerpts from The Care Collective (Andreas Chatzidakis, Jamie Hakim, Jo Littler, Catherine Rottenberg, and Lynne Segal), The Care Manifesto: The Politics of Interdependence, 2020.
Status: Open
Imperial America: How the US Expanded Beyond the 48 States
Instructor: Jeanie Welch, MA
This course discusses how, in the 19th and early 20th centuries, the US expanded its territories through annexation of continental land, purchase of Alaska, annexation of Hawaii, and acquisition of territories in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. We’ll address such questions as why Russia wanted to sell and why the US wanted to buy Alaska; how the monarchy of Hawaii was ousted; and how acquisitions in the Pacific Ocean, the building of the Panama Canal, and purchase of the Virgin Islands resembled and differed from prior territorial expansions. We’ll look at what drove American expansionism in the 19th century and ask if the same forces were at play in the 20th.
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Thursday
Time
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Date
Apr. 11, 18, 25; May 2
Suggested Readings
The instructor will provide outlines and a list of suggested readings.
Status: Closed
Journeying Through the World of Islam
Instructor: Syed Rizwan Zamir, PhD
We will take a virtual tour of the world of Islam. Our journey will involve traveling in space (i.e., visiting various geographical locations with Muslim presence), and in time (i.e., visiting locations and events in Islamic history). But we will not just visit the world of Islam, but also the worldview that underlies this world, the Islamic outlook toward God, the world, life, humanity, beauty, love, knowledge, morality, and community. A community that began over 1400 years old and is touching 2.2 billion by 2030, the diversity and spectrum of Islam and what unites Islam and Muslims will also be pondered. Finally, our voyage will also ponder over the Islamic understanding of journeying itself, and on how Muslims understand Islam. Expect texts, artifacts, illustrations, maps, stats, and other surprises.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 18 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Date
Apr. 3, 10, 17, 24; May 1
Suggested Readings
The instructor will provide a list of suggested readings.
Status: Closed
Lynching and the Law in South Carolina History
Instructor: John Wertheimer, PhD, and
This course explores the legal history of lynching in South Carolina by focusing on the murder of Willie Earle in Greenville County, South Carolina, in 1947. The course will culminate with the showing and discussion of “Remembering Willie Earle,” a documentary film that the two instructors helped produce.
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Monday
Time
7:00 PM - 8:30 PM
Date
Apr. 8, 15, 22, 29
Required and Suggested Readings
None
Status: Closed
Memoir Writing Workshop: It’s My Story and I’m Stickin’ To It
Instructor: Colleen Thrailkill, EdD
Ever realize that you have a priceless slice of the past to donate to the future? You do – it’s called the story of your life. In this course, we will tap our memories to chronicle the vivid lessons and life experiences that molded us into who we are. Funny, poignant, heroic, or embarrassing, our lives are a bundle of stories that deserve to be recorded either as a private exercise or a gift to future family generations. This dynamic workshop will release the not-to-be forgotten tales of your life on earth.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 8, Max 10 students
Day
Monday
Time
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Date
Jan 22, 29; Feb. 5, 12, 19
Suggested Readings
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. 20th ed., Scribner, 2020.
Westover, Tara. Educated: A Memoir. Random House, 2018.
Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. Edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, translated by Susan Massotty, Bantam, 1997.
These books may also be available from other sources.
Status: Open
Poetry Critique Workshop
Instructor: Nora Hutton Shepard, MFA
A first aid station for poems. Bring your poems to share with fellow poets – a tried and true method to find out what is working in your poems and what may need to be re-examined. Fellow writers are often the best and most careful readers.
Participants must complete The Best Words in the Best Order before registering for this course.
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 10 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Date
May 7, 14, 21, 28
Required and Suggested Readings
All materials will be provided by the instructor.
Status: Closed
Poetry: The Best Words in the Best Order
Instructor: Nora Hutton Shepard, MFA
This class will be a dialogue between students, poems, and materials provided by the instructor to help all participants find, as Samuel Coleridge put it, “the best words and the best order” for their own poems. Whether you are an experienced poet or a novice, you will learn from reading selected poems, examining the work of each poet, creating your own poems, and engaging in conversation with other students about their work – all activities designed to enhance the development of your own writing through the lens of selected poets and class feedback. Poems will be from the work of W. H. Auden, Robert Frost, W. S. Merwin, John Balaban, Eleanor Wilner, Jamal May, Betty Adcock, Marilyn Nelson, Claudia Emerson, and others.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 12 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Date
Mar. 19, 26; Apr. 2, 9, 16, 23
Required and Suggested Readings
All materials will be provided by the instructor.
Status: Closed
Seneca Falls to Suffrage
Instructor: Sally McMillen, PhD
This course will cover the 72-year-long effort to gain women the right to vote. It will begin with the Seneca Falls convention of 1848, when women first publicly demanded the right to vote, and end in 1920 with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. It will focus on several heroines who led the fight for suffrage and their efforts through both the states and the federal government. It will also examine the intense opposition to women voting, helping to explain why the struggle was so difficult and so prolonged.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Thursday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Feb. 1, 8, 15, 22
Suggested Readings
The instructor will provide handouts.
Status: Closed
They Unspooled the Mysteries of the Heavens
Instructor: Mark Washburn
From ancient times to the 21st century, human history is speckled by the occasional gifted seers (and lucky kooks) who figured out the great mysteries of astronomy, how the planets moved, why the stars sparkle, and whether there are thirsty canal-builders on Mars. We look at 10 of the most influential and daring astronomers of all time, their amazing discoveries and occasional big blunders. No degree in physics is necessary; this historical tour is geared for a layman's understanding of astronomy and a modern ear for peculiar personalities.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 30 students
Day
Thursday
Time
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Date
Mar. 14, 21, 28; Apr 4, 11
Suggested Readings
The instructor will provide handouts.
Status: Closed
The Good Life
Instructor: Sean McKeever, PhD
What is a good life, a life that is good for the person whose life it is? We will explore four different approaches to understanding and thinking about what makes a life good: Is it maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain; is it achieving goals, or more generally getting what you want; is it living as a human should; or is it measured by what a person is capable of? For each approach, we will consider the associated philosophical position, the arguments in favor and against it, and the practical guidance each approach can offer. We will conclude by taking a brief look at the movement within psychology that attempts to understand happiness and what might be learned from this psychological research.
This course will have brief lectures followed by class discussion.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 16 students
Day
Friday
Time
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Date
Jan. 19, 26; Feb. 2, 9, 16
Required Readings
Readings will consist of classic philosophical sources and excerpts from more contemporary writings. These will either be freely available on the internet or will be provided by the instructor
Status: Closed
Tolstoy’s “War and Peace”
Instructor: Amanda Ewington, PhD
An adaptation of the instructor’s favorite seminar at Davidson College about her favorite literary text, this course is devoted to Tolstoy’s masterpiece, War and Peace. We will consider everything from historical and biographical context, to genre, translation, literary technique, the juicy plot, and the text’s enduring relevance against the backdrop of Russia’s war against Ukraine. War and Peace may be the greatest novel ever written, but its sheer size can be intimidating. Reading it for this course, with the instructor’s posted prompts to guide you, will inspire you to keep going, as you look forward to class discussion. Re-readers and first-timers are welcome. There’s just one requirement: You must be ready and eager to cover 1317 pages over 8 weeks.
Cost
$104
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 20 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
4:30 PM - 6:30 PM
Date
Jan. 3, 10, 17, 24, 31; Feb. 7, 14, 21
Required Reading
Tolstoy, Leo, translated by Louis & Alymer Maude. War & Peace. Revised and introduced by Amy Mandelker. Oxford UP, 2010.
This precise edition only. The instructor urges purchasing from Main Street Books (who confirm that they will stock this edition) to ensure that everyone is reading the same edition and to support our local independent bookstore.
Status: Closed
“Twelfth Night” in Five Acts
Instructor: Cynthia Lewis, PhD
Twelfth Night, one of Shakespeare’s most beloved and most often performed comedies, is riddled with complexities. The famed Royal Shakespeare Company director Trevor Nunn, who made a movie version in 1996, has called Twelfth Night “a masterpiece, a perfect work of art.” While his point of view may have its validity, the play’s ornate plot often verges on incoherence, its perplexing tone mixes gaiety and darkness, and it raises myriad baffling questions about identity, gender and sexuality, love, and even Christianity. In this course, we’ll study the play in depth, one act per week, combining a little lecture, a lot of discussion, and reading passages aloud.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 15 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Date
Jan. 24, 31; Feb. 7, 14, 21, 28
Required Reading
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Edited by Keir Elam, the Arden Edition Third Series, 2008.
This book may also be available from other sources.
Status: Closed
Revisiting the Economic and Related Effects of the Russo-Ukrainian War
Instructor: Joseph Papovich
This course offers an updated examination of the economic and other effects of this war on Ukraine, Russia, and Russia’s neighbors in the European Union -- states that are now moving to divorce themselves from their extensive energy reliance on Russia. We will also look at the impact of this war on developing countries that rely heavily on grain imports and other agricultural products from Russia and Ukraine. Finally, we will discuss the effect of the war in the US.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 25 students
Day
Monday
Time
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Date
Mar. 18, 25; Apr. 1, 8, 15
Suggested Readings
Students should be reading reports on this war, especially its economic implications with Europe and the developing world. The instructor will also send students newspaper and periodical articles related to each week’s class discussion.
Status: Closed
Visual Arts and the Mind: The Cognitive Science Behind Famous Works of Art
Instructor: Greta Munger, PhD
What do such disparate works as Namibian cave paintings, pointillist Georges Seurat, impressionist Claude Monet, and modernist Mark Rothko have in common? Color. How we see color brings our experience of these very different styles of art together, and each artist expresses more than color by taking advantage of how we see. Similarly, surrealist Salvador Dalí and Claude Monet both use spatial frequency to direct the viewer’s experience of their art in different ways.
This course will highlight these and other aspects of early visual processing, explaining the cognitive science behind famous works of art. Links to specific works of art (2-4 per session) will be available in advance, so students can study them before each class. As students progress through this course, not only will they discover a different way to look at paintings, they also will learn more about the human visual system.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 8, Max 16 students
Day
Monday
Time
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
Date
Feb. 19, 26; Mar. 4, 11
Required Readings
There are no required readings, but students should look at the following pieces of art in advance of the class session.
Session 1: Introduction
Indefinite Divisibility. Yves Tanguy.
The Toilet of Venus. Diego Velasquez.
Session 2: Color
A Sunday on la Grande Jatte. Georges Seurat
Ochre and Red on Red. Mark Rothko
Water Lilies. Claude Monet
Session 3: Spatial Frequency
The Four Trees. Claude Monet
Disappearing Bust of Voltaire. Salvador Dalí
Look for “Disappearing Bust of Voltaire” under “Paintings” tab
Mona Lisa. Leonardo da Vinci
There’s a short movie opening, and then you can zoom in and out using +/- buttons at lower right
Session 4: Attention
The Oxbow. Thomas Cole
Chinese landscape (no title). Gong Xian
New York, 1911. George Bellows
…And the Home of the Brave. Charles Demuth
Online Traditional Courses
Status: Closed
Classical French Cinema
Instructor: Alan Singerman, PhD
This course is an introduction to classical French cinema and should not be confused with Contemporary French Cinema, which was taught last spring. We will discuss one film a week that participants will watch online before the class. Films will include masterpieces of French cinema from the 1930s through the 1960s by renowned filmmakers, including Jean Renoir’s The Rules of the Game, Marcel Carné’s Children of Paradise, Jacques Tati’s Mr. Hulot’s Holiday, Alain Resnais’s Hiroshima mon amour, Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, and François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim.
Cost
$78
Location
Online, web address TBA
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 25 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Date
Feb. 20, 27; Mar. 5, 12, 19, 26
Suggested Readings
Selections from Alan Singerman. French Cinema: The Student’s Book. Hackett Publishing, 2006.
This book may also be available from other sources.