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 2025 Courses
We have a record number of courses lined up for Winter/Spring 2025. Registration will open on December 2 at 10:00 AM. 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.
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.
DavidsonLearns is excited to offer a fascinating selection of in-person and online courses in both our traditional format and our shorter mini-course format. Before registering for any of these courses, you 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.
In-Person Mini Courses
Online Mini Courses
Status: Open
Generative Artificial Intelligence: Understanding Capabilities, Opportunities, and Risks
Instructor: Steve Hall
Dive into the fascinating world of Generative AI! This course offers an introduction to AI, focusing on how AI can create (generate) images, text, music, and more. Explore how Gen AI works, its exciting applications, and the potential risks it brings. Whether you’re curious about AI’s creative power or concerned about its impact, this course will help you understand what Gen AI is all about.
This class is primarily lecture/presentation, with some student interaction and Q&A at the end of each session.
Required and Suggested Materials
None
Cost
$39
Location
Enrollment
Min 25, Max 50 students
Day
Thursday
Time
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Date
Jan. 16, 23, 30
Status: Open
Perspectives on Traditional Music, Part II
Instructor: Bill Lawing, DMA
Students will explore the genre of Traditional Music through instructor lectures, discussions with performing artists, and attendance at Traditional Music concerts at Davidson College. The day before the concerts, 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 to enjoy Part II.
Mandolin Symposium
Background Lecture: Thursday, February 6, 3:00 PM – 4:15 PM
Concert 1: Friday, February 7, 4:00-4:45 PM meet-the-artists session and 7:30 PM concert
Concert 2: Saturday, February 8, afternoon workshops and master class, 7:30 PM concert
Headlining the symposium is Mike Compton, the mandolin professor at the renowned Old-Time/Bluegrass School at East Tennessee. He will be joined by two regional and four local artists.
Mike Compton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q87i1MQEx7E
Jonah Horton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsu7gGLb8aA
Tony Williamson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfea1sBx_gE&list=PLC878J8mcBo90k37lQHE-6U0zEGxvrtIy
Laura Boosinger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IiJMcG4ISsw
Sierra Hull
Background Lecture: Monday, March 3, 3:00 – 4:15 PM
Concert 3: Wednesday, March 5, 4:00-4:45 PM meet-the-artist session and 7:30 PM concert
Sierra Hull, who visited before in 2017, continues to be regarded as the greatest mandolinist of her generation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSuUXQSMhrI
Required Materials
The instructor will provide a listening list for YouTube.
Day
Varies
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 25 students
Cost
$26
Meet the Artist
Time
4:00 PM - 4:45 PM
Date
Feb. 7; Mar. 5
Location
Status: Open
Exploring the Social Behavior of South African Mammals with Photography
Instructor: Verna Case, PhD
Socioecology is a field of biology that examines the social behavior of animals as evolutionary adaptations to their environment. Dr. Case will review concepts of socioecology using an archive of her photographs of some of Africa’s most charismatic mammals. She has been taking Davidson College students to Africa since 2000 and has a rich portfolio of photographs illustrating a variety of species and their social behavior. Dr. Case will convey her love for animals and what they can teach us about our own behavior through the eyes of a scientist and photographer.
Required and Suggested Materials
None
Cost
$26
Location
Enrollment
Min 8, Max 15 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
1:30 PM - 2:30 PM
Date
Mar. 12, 19
Status: Open
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 Materials
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 10, Max 20 students
Day
Friday
Time
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Date
Feb. 21
In-Person Traditional Courses
Status: Open
Furnishing the Renaissance Home: Domestic Objects for Women
Instructor: Trinity Martinez, PhD
The 14th to 16th century Renaissance home was furnished with sumptuous and lavishly decorated objects. These precious objects included – but were not limited to – illuminated manuscripts, musical instruments, cassoni (wedding chests), lettucci (daybeds), cofanetto (a small casket that could be filled with jewelry), and textiles. This two-hour lecture pays special attention to these objects which, until recently, were largely neglected in Renaissance scholarship in favor of large-scale works and architecture. The focus of this on-line talk is on objects made for – and used by – women of means.
Required or Suggested Materials
None
Cost
$13
Location
Online, web address TBA
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 40 students
Day
Friday
Time
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Date
Jan. 17
Status: Open
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 Materials
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
Tuesday
Time
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Date
Mar. 11, 18, 25; Apr. 1, 8
Status: Open
Baseball, Mythology, and the Meaning of Life
Instructor: Andy Abrams, JD
As a French-born American historian Jacques Barzun once famously observed, “Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball.” Since its creation, baseball has been a mirror of the American experience. With its use of ritual, superstition, and most importantly, myth, it has also proven to be an instructive reflection of the human, not just the American, experience. This course will examine the history of the “game” in the context of ethnicity, race, and gender, and how society has historically used the power of myth to establish and perpetuate the values of our society. Using Bernard Malamud’s classic baseball work, The Natural, we will pay particular attention to the “hero’s journey” archetype to explore how this archetypal myth defines the American experience and, more broadly, the human condition.
Required Materials
Malamud, Bernard. The Natural. Macmillan, 2003.
This book may also be available from other sources, including the public library; any edition is fine.
Suggested Materials
The instructor will provide links to on-line sources, such as Joseph Campbell’s Power of the Myth.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 25 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Feb. 18, 25; Mar. 4, 11, 18
Status: Open
Blues You Can Use
Instructor: Rachel Stewart
The Blues is a distinctively American music form whose roots originated when slaves from Africa were brought to the South. Formed in part from slaves’ field hollers and from call-and-response church music, the Blues is Black music. Although aspects of the Blues can be found in jazz and is foundational for rock and roll, the Blues genre has distinctive musical forms and lyrics that we will discuss as we review Blues artists and listen to their music. Social influences – including gender, economics, exploitation, appropriation, and elements of American society – shaped the Blues’ history, visibility, and popularity. We’ll discuss the general question “Can white boys [people] play the Blues?” and controversies related to that question.
Suggested Materials
Guralnick, Peter. Feel Like Going Home: Portraits in Blues and Rock ‘n’ Roll. Hachette, 1999.
Oliver, Paul. Blues Fell This Morning: Meaning in the Blues. Cambridge Press, 1990.
Oliver, Paul. Blues Off the Record: Thirty Years of Blues Commentary. Da Capo Press, 1984. This book is out of print, but used copies are available. It may also be available from other sources.
Students can listen to representative Blues artists by downloading a free version of Spotify and can watch videos of Blues artists and brief historical lessons on YouTube.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 20 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Date
Jan. 14, 21, 28; Feb. 4, 11, 18
Status: Open
British and Irish History on Film: The Potato Famine to WWI
Instructor: Peter Thorsheim, PhD
During the 19th century the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland possessed the largest industrial economy and the biggest empire that the world had ever seen. Although these changes brought great wealth and power to some, they caused great suffering to many – both inside and outside the UK. Moreover, the technologies and national rivalries unleashed by industrialization and imperialism made the massive scale and bloodshed of World War I possible. This course explores this dynamic period in history through five exemplary, and at times challenging, feature films that students will watch at home and discuss in class.
Required and Suggested Materials
Students will be required to watch five feature-length movies at home. The instructor will provide a short article related to each film as recommended reading. The films we will explore are
Black ’47. Directed by Lance Daly, Element Pictures, 2018.
The Elephant Man. Directed by David Lynch, Paramount Pictures, 1980.
Howards End. Directed by James Ivory, Sony Pictures Classic, 1992.
Joyeux Noël. Directed by Christian Carion, Sony Pictures Classic, 2005.
Mrs Brown. Directed by John Madden, Miramax International, 1997.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 20 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Jan. 14, 21, 28; Feb. 4, 11
Status: Open
The Fifties: A Critical Decade
Instructor: Sally McMillen, PhD
Many feel that the 1950s, often called the Eisenhower years, was a quiescent period. Yet this decade transformed the nation. In this course we will delve into and discuss some of its more significant events: the Cold War; McCarthyism; and civil rights events including Emmett Till’s murder and the integration of Little Rock’s Central High. We will examine new forms of entertainment through television, including Elvis and rock and roll, and classic movies like High Noon and On the Waterfront. We will look at a nascent sexual revolution and the publication of Peyton Place; the polio epidemic and the development of a vaccine; and the creation of Barbie, Disneyland, and McDonalds. Relive or live through an exciting decade!
Required Materials
No book is required; but to be prepared for some topics and discussion, every student must have internet access on a laptop or computer in order to watch movies, listen to testimony, speeches, music, etc.
Suggested Materials
Halberstam, David. The Fifties. Penguin Random House, 1994.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Thursday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30AM
Date
Jan. 16, 23, 30; Feb. 6, 13
Status: Open
The Historical Origins of Modern Medicine
Instructor: Joe Konen, MD, MSPH
Together we will trace the evolution from prehistoric 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.
Required Materials
Required readings will be provided by the instructor via Google Classroom on the internet.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 8, Max 15 students
Day
Thursday
Time
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Date
Jan. 16, 23, 30; Feb. 6, 13, 20
Status: Open
Hitler, Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust
Instructor: Burkhard Henke, PhD
In the first half of this course, we will examine the rise of Hitler and Nazism, analyze the organization of the racial state, and consider the popularity of the regime. In the second half, we will look at World War II and the Holocaust. By reading Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel, Maus, we will gain insight into the complexities involved in understanding, interpreting, remembering, and representing the Holocaust.
Required Materials
Epstein, Catherine A. Nazi Germany: Confronting the Myths. Wiley, 2014.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus I: A Survivor's Tale: My Father Bleeds History, Penguin Random House, 1986.
Spiegelman, Art. Maus II: A Survivor's Tale: And Here My Troubles Began, Penguin Random House, 1992.
These books may also be available from other sources.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 25 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Jan. 22, 29; Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26
Status: Open
Indigenous Nations and the United States
Instructor: Ron Schmidt, PhD
This course aims to foster understanding of the relationships between Indigenous nations and the US. We will examine the historical contexts and cultural conflicts of these relationships, we will look at the legal and political structures governing the relationships, and we will discuss some unresolved issues, such as environmental destruction, cultural revitalization, food sovereignty, economic development, decolonization, and legal jurisdiction.
Suggested Materials
The instructor will provide a list of suggested material to read and watch. These will include book chapters, journal articles, YouTube videos, etc.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 25 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
1:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Date
Feb. 4, 11, 18, 25; Mar. 4
Status: Open
Interest Rates, the Federal Reserve, and the Bond Market
Instructor: Richard M. Reid, MBA
This course will discuss the Federal Reserve policies towards interest rates, the tools at its disposal, and how the Fed balances inflation and unemployment in the US economy. Interest rate changes are one of the risks in bond investing, and they will be analyzed along with credit and structure considerations.
Required and Suggested Materials
None
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 8, Max 15 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
6:00 PM - 7:30 PM
Date
Mar. 19, 26; Apr. 2, 9
Status: Open
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.
Suggested Materials
King, Stephen. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft. 20th ed., Scribner, 2020.
Westover, Tara. Educated: A Memoir. Random House, 2022.
Frank, Anne. The Diary of a Young Girl. Edited by Otto H. Frank and Mirjam Pressler, translated by Susan Massotty, Bantam, 1997.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 10 students
Day
Monday
Time
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Date
Feb. 24; Mar. 3, 10, 17, 24
Status: Open
Memory Culture: History, Memory, and Politics in German Culture
from 1945 to the Present
Instructor: Scott Denham, PhD
How can Vergangenheitsaufarbeitung — the German method of working through the past — build democratic political culture and further reconciliation between victims and perpetrators after the Holocaust? How is collective, public memory politicized and to what ends? Topics include
-
German and Austrian postwar history and complicity, guilt, and victimhood
-
historians’ debates on the originality and singularity of the Holocaust
-
the Crimes of the Wehrmacht exhibition and historical work on allied bombings of German cities
-
a comparison of the Holocaust to the genocide of the Herero and Nama peoples of Namibia (colonial German Southwest Africa)
-
a comparison of the German memory culture to the memory culture of the Black experience in the Atlantic world as victims of enslavement
-
inherited trauma
-
Holocaust spaces, memorials, and museum culture in Germany and Austria
-
German response to the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, 2023
-
the experience of the East German dictatorship and Germans as victims in the context of that authoritarian police state
-
the concept of Heimat (home, home place, or space) as a specifically German example of a kind of hermetic collective memory.
For more detail see https://www.scottdenham.net/erinnerungskultur/. This course presupposes no prior knowledge.
Required Materials
The instructor will provide a list of readings and film screenings. Students should expect six to ten hours of reading per week. There will be several film screenings, one or two of which may be all-day screenings scheduled on a Saturday or Sunday.
Cost
$104
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 20 students
Day
Thursday
Time
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Date
Jan. 23; Feb. 6, 20; Mar. 6, 20; Apr. 3, 17; May 1
Status: Open
Shakespeare’s “Othello” in Five Acts
Instructor: Cynthia Lewis, PhD
Is Othello a racist play, and if so, by what standard? Or does it include racist perspectives that are not endorsed by the play as a whole? These questions have swirled around Othello in recent years, sparking fierce debate that this class will explore. Although racial matters are inextricably woven into the play’s fabric, we’ll also examine the myriad beauties of the play’s structure, language, and characterization. We will look at other controversial positions, such as the play’s handling of gender. In group meetings that will involve some lecture, plenty of discussion, and lots of reading aloud, we’ll explore one act per week, with a final sixth week to pull together our thinking.
Required Materials
Shakespeare, William. Othello. The Arden Shakespeare Third Series, 2nd ed. Edited by E. A. J. Honigmann. Bloomsbury, 2016.
The book may be available from other sources, but be sure to purchase this particular edition so that all class members have the same editorial information and can stay together when locating passages by page numbers.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 14 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Date
Jan. 29; Feb. 5, 12, 19, 26; Mar. 5
Status: Open
The Overland Campaign: Eight Weeks of Fighting That Changed the Civil War
Instructor: Eric Hight
Between the first week of May and mid-June 1864, Grant and Lee traded powerful blows in what came to be known as the Overland Campaign. Unlike previous military operations, when one army would retreat after an engagement and it might be weeks or months before the next clash, the Overland Campaign subjected soldiers to a form of continuous combat that featured massive battles separated by brief interludes of skirmishing. This course will examine the fighting that occurred at The Wilderness (May 5-6), Spotsylvania Court House (May 8-21), the North Anna River (May 23-26), Cold Harbor (June 1-3), and around Petersburg (until July 30).
Required Materials
Mackowski, Chris. Hell Itself: The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864. Savas Beatie, 2016.
Mackowski, Chris, and Kris White. A Season of Slaughter: The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, May 8-21, 1864. Savas Beatie, 2013.
Mackowski, Chris. Strike Them a Blow: Battle along the North Anna River, May 21-25, 1864. Savas Beatie, 2015.
Davis, Dan, and Phillip Greenwalt. Hurricane from the Heavens: The Battle of Cold Harbor, May 26-June 5,1864. Savas Beatie, 2014.
These books may also be available from other sources.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 20 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Date
Mar. 5, 12, 19, 26; Apr. 2, 9
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 20 students
Day
Thursday
Time
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Date
Mar. 6, 13, 20, 27; Apr. 3, 10
Status: Open
Philosophical Considerations in Economic Policymaking
Instructor: Shyam Gouri Suresh, PhD
In this course, we will explore various economic theories, as well as various philosophical and political considerations that are relevant for policymaking. Should equality be sacrificed for efficiency; should efficiency be sacrificed for equality? How do we safeguard rights while creating regulations? How do we balance local interests versus national or even global interests … or current generations versus future generations? All discussions will be grounded in the context of relevant contemporary debates among economists and policymakers.
Suggested Materials
Caplan, Bryan and Zach Weinersmith. Open Borders: The Science and Ethics of Immigration. First Second, 2019.
This book is out of print, but used copies are available. It may also be available from other sources.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 15 students
Day
Thursday
Time
9:00 AM - 10:15 AM
Date
Mar. 20, 27; Apr. 3, 10, 17
Status: Open
A Political History and Virtual Tour of the Panama Canal
Instructor: J. Michael Hogan, PhD
This course surveys the history of political debate over the Panama Canal – a monumental engineering feat that signaled America’s rise to world leadership. For some, the Panama Canal has long symbolized American greatness; it testifies to the nation’s strength, ingenuity, and perseverance. For others, the canal symbolizes something very different: an imperialistic foreign policy that is both anachronistic and morally wrong. This course focuses on the political rhetoric that imbued the “Big Ditch” with these larger symbolic trappings – from the national celebration of the Canal led by Theodore Roosevelt to the “Great Debate” over Panama between Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan. We’ll conclude with an update on more recent developments in Panama and a virtual tour of this marvel of human creation.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Suggested Materials
McCullough, David. The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914. Simon & Schuster, 2004.
Panama Canal: Post Panamax. Directed by Mark Baker, Miami: Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc., 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YzCULxAmkRU
Panama Canal: Prized Possession. Directed by Jack Kelly and Mark Baker, Miami: Community Television Foundation of South Florida, Inc., 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFxYPgzhOQk
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 25 students
Day
Tuesday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Mar. 25; Apr. 1, 8, 15
Status: Open
The Politics of US Trade Policy: Where It Might Go in the Future and Do Tariffs Matter?
Instructor: Joe Papovich
From the end of World War II until 2017, the US led the world in trying to build a rules-based, open international trading system, in part by negotiating the reduction of foreign barriers to American exports and investment in exchange for reciprocal commitments by the US. President Trump publicly stopped this practice, raised tariffs on many foreign products, and encouraged reliance on US manufacturing. President Biden quietly and partly continued Trump’s approach. Has this radical change over the past 8 years signaled that the WW II goal of promoting open markets to trade has ended? Regardless of who occupies the White House, what role will import tariffs likely play and do they matter? What has the new administration said and done to indicate where trade policy might go in 2025 and beyond?
Required Materials
The instructor will provide readings, mostly articles from newspapers and periodicals, for discussion in class.
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 10, Max 20 students
Day
Thursday
Time
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Date
Apr. 24; May 1, 8, 15
Status: Open
Public Voices of the Enslaved
Instructor: Van E. Hillard, PhD
One chief route for accessing the lives of 19th-century enslaved persons in the US is the genre traditionally called the slave narrative. These first-person accounts were prepared for European-American audiences sympathetic to the abolitionist cause but generally unfamiliar with the exact moral and emotional dimensions of the lives of those held in bondage. We will study Frederick Douglass’ Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs’ Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl as rhetorical documents, identifying their persuasive effects, speculating about their reception by their contemporary readers, and describing their documentary powers as classics of American letters.
Required Materials
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, Written by Himself. (Second Norton Critical Edition). Edited by William L. Andrews and William S. McFeely. Norton, 2016.
Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. (Second Norton Critical Edition). Edited by Frances Smith Foster and Richard Yarborough. Norton, 2018.
These books may also be available from other sources but be sure to purchase these particular editions so that all class members have the same editorial information and can stay together when locating passages by page numbers.
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 15 students
Day
Wednesday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Jan. 15, 22, 29; Feb. 5, 12
Status: Open
They Stole the Secrets of the Cold War
Instructor: Mark Washburn
Meet the 10 greatest spies in the post-World War II era, including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and others you may never have heard of: turncoat FBI and CIA agents, Soviet officers (one called the "$2 Billion Spy" whose data on Soviet radar saved the US military in research costs), and two beguiling women whose demure manners gave them entrée to a trove of information priceless to their governments. We will share intrepid tales worthy of James Bond, and – alas, more than once – Inspector Clouseau.
This course will be primarily lecture, but it will include some group participation.
Required and Suggested Materials
None
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 30 students
Day
Thursday
Time
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Date
Apr. 17, 24; May 1, 8, 15
Status: Open
Titans of Engineering: Five American Wonders
Instructor: Mark Washburn
Explore five diverse, groundbreaking American engineering wonders of the first half of the 20th century. In the little-known history of developing these marvels and of the innovative genius behind them, there seemed no challenge that couldn’t be overcome by sheer imagination and brute strength. We will look at the construction of the Hoover Dam, the Overseas Railroad to Key West, the Pentagon, the Pennsylvania Turnpike, and the B-52 bomber. These mammoth creations defied conventions of their time and endure to this day.
Required and Suggested Materials
None
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 30 students
Day
Thursday
Time
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM
Date
Mar. 13, 20, 27; Apr. 3, 10
Status: Open
Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina”
Instructor: Amanda Ewington, PhD
Anna Karenina was Tolstoy’s last major novel before the spiritual crisis that led him to renounce his earlier texts (and royalties) in favor of work “for the people.” This exquisitely crafted literary masterpiece has entered the European canon of “adultery novels,” but it is far more than a tale of illicit love. Anna Karenina engages intensely with the literary, social, political, religious, philosophical, and even agricultural questions that preoccupied Tolstoy as Russia entered the age of European modernity in the 1870s, with revolution looming just a few decades in the future. The instructor will provide reading questions prior to each class session and will open each class with a mini-lecture for context. Re-readers and first-timers are welcome!
DavidsonLearns students will have the option to join one of the instructor’s parallel Davidson College seminar sessions and to attend the college students’ creative responses to Anna Karenina at the Verna Miller Case Research and Creative Works Symposium on May 8.
Required Materials
Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina. Translated by Constance Garnett. Revised by Leonard J. Kent and Nina Berberova. Penguin Random House, 2000.
This book may also be available from other sources, but it is important to get this precise edition.
Cost
$78
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 20 students
Day
Monday
Time
3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
Date
Jan. 27; Feb. 10, 24; Mar. 17, 31; Apr. 14
Status: Open
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.
Required Materials
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
Mona Lisa. Leonardo da Vinci
Session 4: Faces & Bodies
Portrait de Dora Maar. Pablo Picasso
Vertumnus. Giuseppe Arcimboldo
Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau). John Singer Sargent
Napoleon I on His Imperial Throne. Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Session 5: Attention
The Oxbow. Thomas Cole
Chinese landscape (no title). Gong Xian
New York, 1911. George Bellows
…And the Home of the Brave. Charles Demuth
Cost
$65
Location
Enrollment
Min 9, Max 18 students
Day
Monday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Feb. 10, 17, 24; Mar. 3, 10
Status: Open
The Winning of the West: The History of the American Frontier, 1540-1917
Instructor: Jeanie M. Welch, MA
This course covers the history of the Trans-Mississippi West from its earliest recorded history to the early 20th century. It includes Spanish occupation, the Louisiana Purchase, the mountain men, Texas independence, the Mexican War, the Gold Rush, the transcontinental railroad, wars with Native Americans, range wars, and the Oklahoma Land Rush.
Required and Suggested Materials
None
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 10 students
Day
Monday
Time
2:00 PM - 3:30 PM
Date
Mar. 17, 24, 31; Apr. 7
Status: Open
The World’s Greatest Short Stories
Instructor: Zoran Kuzmanovich, PhD
We will read the most reprinted and most analyzed short stories from different parts of the world and discuss the ways those stories treat love, death, and art. Writers may include Gogol, Hawthorne, Gordimer, Poe, Joyce, Kafka, Borges, O’Connor, Nabokov, Ha-Jin, Murakami, Saunders, Lispector, Garcia Marquez, Allende, Keret, etc.
Required Materials
Rubenstein, Roberta, and Charles R. Larson. Worlds of Fiction. Pearson, 2002.
This book is out of print, but used copies are available. It may also be available from other sources but be sure to get the SECOND EDITION.
The instructor will provide additional handouts. Expect to read about 30 pages per week.
Cost
$52
Location
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 12 students
Day
Monday
Time
10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Date
Jan. 13, 20, 27; Feb. 3
Online Traditional Courses
Status: Open
Filmmaking Pioneers
Instructor: Alan Singerman, PhD
This course takes us back to the blockbuster films that marked and influenced the history of cinema at its beginnings: D. W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation (1916), F. W. Murnau’s The Last Laugh (1924), Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin (1925), Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930), Charlie Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936), and Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1940). Students watch the films on their own and then meet with the instructor each week for brief lectures followed by discussion.
Required Materials
The instructor will distribute reflection/discussion topics for each film to participants by email.
Battleship Potemkin. Directed by Sergei Eisenstein, Goskino, 1925.
Birth of a Nation. Directed by D. W. Griffith, Epoch Producing, 1916.
The Blue Angel. Directed by Josef von Sternberg, Universum Films,1930.
Citizen Kane. Directed by Orson Welles, RKO Radio Pictures, 1940.
The Last Laugh. Directed by F. W. Murnau, Universal Pictures, 1924.
Modern Times. Directed by Charlie Chaplin, United Artists, 1936.
Films are available for free through Charlotte Mecklenburg Library and are widely available on streaming services.
Cost
$78
Location
Online, web address TBA
Enrollment
Min 5, Max 20 students
Day
Monday
Time
10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
Date
Feb. 17, 24; Mar. 3, 10, 17, 24