Course Descriptions Fall 2025

Dan Van Tassel earned graduate degrees from the University of Iowa and taught literature at Pacific Lutheran University, Muskingum College, and Cal State San Marcos. His publications include numerous book reviews in Modern Fiction Studies, articles on Shakespeare, Hardy, Lawrence, and Beckett, and three recent books (Back to Barron, a chronicle of growing up in small-town America at mid-century; Journey by the Book: A Guide to Tales of Travel; and Beyond Barron: A Memoir). He has taught multiple CVEC courses and is a former chair of the CVEC board.

drvantassel2@gmail.com

Overview: In this course we’ll read and discuss a batch of short stories (10 altogether) and have fun advancing in our knowledge and appreciation of the genre. Stories long and short, classic and contemporary, have inspired tellers and spellbound audiences for time out of mind. 

Differing in length from novels and novellas, but employing similar characteristics and literary devices and likewise appealing to the imagination, the short story typically ends in what Joyce labeled an epiphany, a unifying insight for the reader, protagonist, or both. Another closure technique, pioneered by Guy de Maupassant and O. Henry, is the surprise-ending story. Penning short stories has often been the starting point for future novelists. A defining feature of the short story is its portrayal of a slice of life. Short stories, noted for both their unity and compactness, run from 500 to approximately 7,500 words, rarely longer. In structure, focusing on the depiction of a single incident or event, they frequently incorporate a beginning, a middle, and an end. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule: In this course we’ll read and discuss a batch of short stories (10 altogether) and have fun advancing in our knowledge and appreciation of the genre. In America and Europe, short stories became especially popular in the 19^th century with the reigning emphasis on realism. In a short story, you can count on a protagonist, usually in company with other characters, a setting, use of figurative language, dialogue or monologue, realism and/or allegory, symbolism, humor, even irony, and point of view along with other elements common to fiction.

Texts of all the assigned stories are readily available online gratis. Just enter the author and title and pop! the story you want is right in front of you. If you’d like a hard copy and don’t want to print the online text, you can buy a new paperback copy of the collected stories and others, The Seagull Book of Stories, ed by Joseph Kelly (Norton) for $41.25 (plus tax and shipping), or get a used earlier edition for a whole lot less, say between $6 and $10, from online sources such as Thrift Books, Powell’s City of Books, Amazon, Better World Books, or even Half-Price Books (located in Apple Valley). Else, you can simply bring your laptop with you to class.

A course packet, consisting of the syllabus and, in way of priming the pump, study and discussion guides for each of the ten short stories assigned, will be available two weeks before the term begins. The cost for the packet will be $7, and will be added to your registration fee. The packet will either be brought to our initial meeting or mailed to your address in advance.  A week prior to our first session, you’ll be emailed, as an attachment, a class roster to help you start getting acquainted with other members of the course. The syllabus below pinpoints, by title and author, the short stories assigned for discussion on given dates. 

Calendar of Readings for Class Discussion

Week 1: First, we’ll verify the course roster and take time to get acquainted with each other. After briefly orienting ourselves to the course packet, we’ll dive into a discussion of the first short story scheduled on our syllabus: Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour.” Following a brief break around 10:30, we’ll turn our attention to the second short story scheduled, Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants.” In discussing both assigned stories, we’ll rely heavily on the pertinent study guides in the packet.

Week 2: We’ll turn our attention this morning to John Cheever’s “The Swimmer,” in part a parody of suburbia’s fixation with their pools, BBQs, and social drinking. The study guide will be helpful in expanding our outlook and critique of the story. 

Week 3: Today’s a double treat. We’ll be exchanging views on two short stories: first, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings,” which will call for “our suspension of disbelief,” to summon a phrase from Wordsworth, and, following a break, James Joyce’s “Araby,” the latter a part of the collection Dubliners. Again, the study guides are apropos as starting points for our discussion. 

Week 4: Toss away your civies today and don a military uniform. We’re going be absorbed in and marching through episodes reflecting aspects of the Vietnam war as chronicled in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried.” Again, prepare for our gathering on the battlefield by reading the story at least twice, marking up the text, and paying attention to items raised in the corresponding study guide.

Week 5: Today we’ll share our collective views of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” not necessarily to reach a consensus but to deal with the richness and inexhaustibility of a work of art. The story’s ending is complex and demands our exchange of critical interpretations. The rather lengthy study guide should spark points of discussion.

Week 6: Louise Erdrich’s “I’m a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy,” a work by an author whose personal heritage includes her being part Ojibwa, will be our focus this morning. 

Week 7: The story we’re “doing” today is “The Chrysanthemums” by the author of Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck. As you’ll discover, it’s a tale not only dramatizing the protagonist’s care and keeping of the title flowers and even sharing a clump of them with a traveler who visits her and her husband’s farm but exploring and partially revealing her suppressed feelings. Reference your study guide and rivet attention on this psychological study. 

Week 8: For our finale we’ll traverse Eudora Welty’s “A Worn Path.” Relying on your field guide, have a field day with this story. It portrays a poor black woman engaged in a mini-odyssey at Christmas time to fetch a bottle of medicine and buy a toy for her ailing grandson and then is left facing the arduous task of having to retrace the route home. 

Steve Strand is Raymond Plank professor emeritus of incentive economics at Carleton. 

sstrand@carleton.edu   

Dan Sullivan, a sociologist, is president emeritus of St. Lawrence University and CVEC curriculum Director. Together, in Spring term 2023, they taught a CVEC course entitled “A Brief History of equality,” focused on the pathbreaking work of Thomas Piketty. 

 dsullivan@stlawu.edu

Overview:  Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has been explaining to average Americans in terms they can understand what’s going on in the economy and in the politics of the economy, using data and evidence, for decades. A lengthy stint as a columnist at the New York Times ended a few months ago, but that has been followed by an almost seven-day-a-week Substack column that has 373,000 followers, including Steve and Dan. It’s an evidence-based blow-by-blow seminar on how to understand the economic and political economic news of the day. We envision that, during our eight weeks, the class will read Krugman’s daily column along with us and once a week we will convene for a conversation and guided discussion, led primarily by Steve with support from Dan when it comes to politics and sociology. Ahead of each class we’ll send an email indicating what the focus will be on that day. In this kind of format, we can’t know a long time ahead what Krugman will be writing about—indeed, we don’t know if he and we will be alive at the beginning of Fall term. All of us will have to be flexible. But it’s a chance to engage, as a group, and learn from one of the great American economists during a time of huge political economic uncertainty and change.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Students can gain access to most of Krugman’s daily writings at no cost simply by entering paulkrugman.substack.com into their browser, or it shows up in the Substack app, which can be downloaded for free. However, we would also like to be able to discuss the writings accessible only through a subscription via Substack. Subscriptions can be by the month—a three-month subscription for $7 a month would cover the length of our course—or for an entire year at $70 if a student wants to continue to follow Krugman’s full daily writings after our course is finished. Students should acquire access to the subscription by Sept.1 (7 days before the first class). Our first class will focus on Krugman’s postings during that period. 

We suspect that occasionally we will encounter short writings by others that we believe will help our discussion. When that happens, we’ll send those to the class electronically (link or pdf).

Ron Rodman is Dye Family professor of music, emeritus, at Carleton College, where he taught courses in music theory, aural skills, music fundamentals, film and television music, and electroacoustic music. He is founder and director of The New Gem Theater Orchestra, which reproduces live vaudeville shows from the early 20^th century. 

rrodman@carleton.edu

Overview:  The American film musical is a genre that has its origins in American musical theater and is wedded to the technology of the cinema. It is a unique genre in film and deserves a study separate from that of film or theatrical studies. What the film musical lacks in the “liveness” of the theatrical stage, it more than makes up for in spectacle, thanks to camera angles, lighting, costumes, sound design, choreography, and location settings that the cinema makes possible. 

In the 1900s, the film musical developed as a genre with certain characteristics in production and narrative. In his 1987 book, The American Film Musical, Rick Altman enumerated several characteristics of the genre, including those within the narrative itself, such as the “dual-focus narrative,” of a heterogenous couple resolving into a “character dissolve” with the characters uniting in a romantic relationship, often resulting in marriage. Additionally, the production featured “audio dissolve,” in which characters broke into song on screen with an invisible orchestra accompaniment. These and other features came under scrutiny in the late 20^th century and continuing into the 21^st, as some film musicals diverted away from these formulae. In this online course, we will investigate how and why these later musicals differ from Altman’s model. Notably, as the genre developed it moved away from the utopian character dissolve feature, only to focus on more complex character traits. Finally, while film musicals always dealt with social issues (although in a somewhat subtle manner), in the 21^st century, musicals brought many of these issues to the forefront. Therefore, we will examine these films not only for their narrative, cinematic, and musical structures, but we will also read studies from scholars on how these films reflect the changing values of American society in the 21^st century.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Each week we will watch one featured film and read at least one critical work on that film for discussion. For each online class period, the first half of class will consist of discussion of the readings (in “chat rooms,” if the class roster is large enough) that deal with a particular topic ancillary to the featured films, and the second half will feature a discussion of the film itself. We will begin the course with some basic vocabulary, including some musical terms, that we can use as tools for later discussions and study a theory of narrative structure of classic film musicals.

Participants should watch the featured film for the week and read the assigned reading. Also, listed below are “For Further Consideration” films and readings that participants may wish to explore, although this is not required. Class time permitting, we may discuss some of these ancillary films and readings. 

Readings will come from various scholarly articles that deal with the individual films. These will be sent as PDFs via email. Several of them will be chapters in George Rodosthenous’ (ed.) book, Twenty-First Century Musicals: From Stage to Screen (Routledge 2018). Students may want to find the book in the library or purchase the book for further study. (Cost $52.99 for paperback, $45.04 for eBook. Purchasing the book is NOT required for the class!)

Films should be viewed independently from one of the available streaming sources (cost almost always $3.99 or less). Some may be available free through Kanopy or Hoopla at the Northfield Library. 

Week 1: Traditional RomComs: La La Land (2016).

Read: Rodosthenous: “Introduction.”

Watch: La La Land (2016)

Read: Gabbard: “La La Land is a Hit, But is it Good for Jazz?” Daedalus , Vol. 148, No. 2, (Spring 2019).

For Further Consideration: Once (2006)

Menendez Otero: “The Musical That Pretended It Wasn’t a Musical: Genre and Narrative Style in Once.

Week 2: The Postmodern Musical: Moulin Rouge! (2001).

Read: Merwe : “The Musical and Postmodernism in Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!”

 For Further Consideration: Chicago (2002).

Read: Gordon: “All That Jazz: The difficult Journey of Chicago from Stage to Screen” 

Margo: “Chicago and the Future of the Movie Musical”

Week 3: LGBTQ+ Issues: Rent (2005).

Sammartino: “Challenging ‘La Vie Bohème’: Community, Subculture, and Queer Temporality in Rent”.

Shields: ‘Bohemia is Dead’: Rent celebrating life in the face of death, chapter in Rodosthenous.

For Further Consideration: Emilia Perez (2024).

Read: Kay: “Jacques Audiard Lining Up Trans Musical Emilia Perez.” 

Week 4: Race: Dreamgirls (2006).

Read: Decker: “ ‘Big, as in Large, as in Huge’: Dreamgirls and difference in the performance of gender, blackness, and popular music history”; chapter in Rodosthenous.

For Further Consideration: Hairspray (2007).

Read: Mokad: At the Intersection of Music, Sexuality and Race: Hairspray’s Generic and Aesthetic Variances.”

Week 5: Disney Redux: Race, Feminism, and Fairy Tales. Wicked (2024).

Read: “Arriving Just in Time: The Socio-Political Relevancy of Wicked In 2024,”https://aiptcomics.com/2024/12/03/wicked-lgbtq-queer-musical-witch-oz/

For Further Consideration: Moana (2016).

Read: Dittmer: “Moana Made Waves: Discussing the Representation of Pacific Islanders in the Disney Movie Moana.”

Week 6: Immigrants in the U.S.: In the Heights (2021).

Read: Beck: “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Obama, In the Heights, and Movies About People from the Islands.”

For Further Consideration: West Side Story (2021).

Read: Popescu: “Updating a Classic: Progressive Hollywood’s Take on West Side Story.” 

Week 7: Noir musicals: Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007).

Read: Midgette and Pressley: “Into the woods of musicals’ sounds: Two critics on what sings on stage and screen.” 

For further consideration: The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

Sternfeld: “Ready for his Close-Up: From horror to romance in The Phantom of the Opera.”

Week 8: Jukebox Musicals and “Camp”: Mamma Mia! (2008).

Read: Lewis: “ ‘With a Bit of Rock Music, Everything is Fine’: Mamma Mia! and the Camp Sensibility on Screen.”

For further consideration: Barbie (2023).

Read: Byrnes, et al.: “’She’s everything’: Feminism and the Barbie Movie Creator”

https://bridge.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01BRC_INST/11mmqid/cdi_crossref_primary_10_1080_14680777_2024_2381254

Tom Drucker retired in 2021 and moved to Northfield after decades of teaching in STEM fields at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Ever since he played Cardinal Wolsey in a high school production of A Man for All Seasons, he has attached great importance to More’s combination of scholarship and honesty. He has also spent a fair amount of time on Renaissance Latin and literature, although he is just as glad to be reading More in English. 

druckert@uww.edu

Overview:  With the wealth of attention being given to Thomas Cromwell in the novels of Hilary Mantel, it’s worth reexamining one of his most famous victims. There is a classic biography by R.W. Chambers in addition to Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons. More was a many-sided individual and talking about him brings up many aspects of Tudor life and scholarship. We’ll start from his early life and the country’s emergence from the Wars of the Roses. Then it would be a matter of looking successively at his scholarship, the revival of classical learning, and his political activity.    It will be hard to stay off the topic of religion and its complexities in the England of the 1530’s.   We’ll conclude with the story of the last few months of his life when, almost alone among his friends, he stood out against the government’s attempt to coerce him into abandoning his conscience.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Thomas More occupies a unique place in the development of English religion. He was alive at the time that Henry VIII took the Church of England out of communion with the Church of Rome. Nevertheless, he was canonized in the twentieth century. Politicians, we know, are able to play fast and loose with their religious consciences but More could not do so. His religious perspective may not be ours, but his standing by principle rather than convenience cuts across denominational lines.

More was the center of a network of humanistic scholarship, and it is worth reminding us what humanism meant in the sixteenth century. His friend Erasmus even entitled one of his works with a pun on More’s name. In many ways the scholarship of the last few centuries was born out of More’s circle. We shall have to say something about whether that remains true of the academic world today.   

More created the world of Utopia. In a world where dystopic stories are the norm, we can ask what elements of More’s time led him to think that it was worth speculating about a better world than ours. We shall look at how the playwright Robert Bolt encapsulated what made More’s life an appealing example across almost five centuries.    

There are three books you should have to do justice to the course. The biography of More by R.W. Chambers (originally from the 1930’s) is available through bookfinder.com for $30 or less new and $15 or less used. More’s Utopia is available for $10 or less new and $5 or less used. The text of Robert Bolt’s play A Man for All Seasons is available for $15 or less new and $5 or less used. I’d recommend watching the movie made from Bolt’s play starring Paul Scofield, available online to rent for $3.99.   

Week 1: Background and Sources. Read Prologue to Chambers

Week 2: Humanism. Read Chambers, Act I

Week 3: Utopia and Richard III. Read More, Utopia and Chambers, Act II

Week 4: The King’s Servant. Read Chambers, Act III

Week 5: Dealing with Matters of Religion and State. Read Chambers, Act IV

Week 6: Dark Days for England and More. Read Chambers, Act V

Week 7: More on Stage and Screen. Read Robert Bolt, A Man for All Seasons and watch the film if possible

Week 8: Sainthood—Was More a Failure in His Time or Ours? Read Chambers, Epilogue

Diane Nemec Ignashev taught Russian language, literature, and film, gender studies, and film studies at Carleton College from 1981 to 2023. From 2012 until 2020 she also taught film studies and identity studies at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Her publications include seven volumes of literary translations from Russian, as well as several dozen articles in English and Russian on Russian literature and film.

dignashe@carleton.edu

Overview:  How do Russians talk about themselves? What, for example, did assassinated Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya mean when she famously compared Vladimir Putin to the “hero” of Nikolai Gogol’s “Overcoat” Akaky Akakievich? Through selections from canonical Russian literature and with illustrations from Russian cinema this course addresses cultural concepts inherited from Russia’s past that still shape politics, culture, and quotidian existence in Russia today. The majority of texts to be considered are drawn from the “long” 19^th century and to this day are included in the Russian national school curriculum. The two films screened were made in the 21^st century, but the issues they address are centuries old. Readings will be in English translation; films will be in Russian with English subtitles.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Class sessions will combine brief background lectures on contemporary issues with discussion based on close readings of the texts and films. Reading assignments are drawn from Russian short fiction and range in length from under 10 to slightly over 100 pages, most between 25-50 pages. Films are feature-length: 90–120 minutes. To prepare for class meetings participants should consider the assigned works carefully, preview study questions, and note in advance their own ideas for discussion. All course reading materials will be available for downloading online. A coursebook containing the printed readings will be available for an additional fee of $17. A common screening will be scheduled for our two films. Students preferring to screen them at home may do so for free via Kanopy or $3.99 on sites like Apple TV and Prime.

Week 1: Introduction: “There’s no understanding Russia with the mind …”; F. Tiutchev’s poem written in response to A. De Custine’s Russia in 1839

Week 2: “Holy Folly”: St. Theodosius, Abbot of the Crypt Monastery (ca. 1060); P. Lungin, The Island (film: 2006)

Week 3: Bureaucracy: A. Pushkin, “The Bronze Horseman” (1833); N. Gogolʹ, “The Overcoat” (1842)

Week 4: Intelligentsia: Superfluous Men. I. Turgenev, Fathers and Children (1860-61)

Week 5: Serfdom: I. Turgenev, “Mumu” (1852); A. Solzhenitsyn, “Matryona’s House” (1963)

Week 6: Colonialism: M. Lermontov, from A Hero of Our Time (1841); V. Korolenko, “Makar’s Dream” (1883) or L. Tolstoy, “Hadji Murat” (1912)

Week 7: Alcoholism: V. Erofeev, “Moscow to the End of the Line” (1973)

Week 8: The “Woman Question”, Nun or Whore? Reconsideration of woman characters in works read to date; Film: A. Zviagintsev, Elena (2011)

Peter Bailey is Piskor professor of English emeritus at St. Lawrence University. His teaching and writing focus on literary and film criticism. For CVEC he has taught courses on the films of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen, the songwriting of Paul Simon, and New York Cinematic Stories.

pbailey@stlawu.edu

Overview:  This course’s title is inspired by a Simon & Garfunkel song that has for its refrain, “Nothing but the dead and dying in my little town,” although the class content will be nothing like so morbid or bleak. Most of the films we will discuss this Fall are set in American small towns, such as Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire; Santa Rosa, California; or Anarene, Texas; while others are set in larger locales like Fargo, North Dakota; Baltimore, Maryland; or Rockaway and Brooklyn, New York, which are often depicted as circumscribed neighborhoods.

We begin with a 1939 adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town, which very effectively sets the tone for the following movies with its thoroughly unsettling combination of intense cultural nostalgia and fatalism. We conclude with the Coen brothers’ 1996 Fargo, which brilliantly mixes Midwestern innocence with villainy at once insidious, depraved and comedic. The course’s thematic quintessence resides in Hitchcock’s favorite among his films, Shadow of a Doubt, in which Uncle Charlie tells his niece, “You’re just an ordinary little girl, living in an ordinary little town. You wake up every morning of your life and you know perfectly well that there’s nothing in the world to trouble you. You go through your ordinary little day, and at night you sleep your untroubled ordinary little sleep, filled with peaceful stupid dreams. And I brought you nightmares.”

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Before each class I’ll distribute handouts about each film, providing historical context, production details, excerpts from reviews and biographical background on the moviemakers’ filmmaking challenges and tribulations. Discussion questions will be provided as well. These documents will inform but not limit our discussions, which will seek to clarify the dramatic arcs of the films while illuminating the significant cultural epochs—the influx of immigrants before WWI, the aftereffects of school segregation in America—that they dramatize. All films are available on Amazon Prime for roughly $3.99 each. 

Week 1: Sam Wood, Our Town (1939)

Week 2: Barry Levinson, Avalon (1990)

Week 3: Alfred Hitchcock, Shadow of a Doubt (1943)

Week 4: Woody Allen, Radio Days (1987)

Week 5: Barry Levinson, Liberty Heights (1999)

Week 6: Peter Bogdanovich, The Last Picture Show (1971)

Week 7: Spike Lee, Crooklyn (1994)

Week 8: Coen brothers, Fargo (1996)

Jon Olson is a retired U.S. Navy commander. After earning his BS in History from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1990 he spent his 21-year career as an active-duty naval intelligence officer (with a specialization in Human Intelligence) and lengthy operational experience in military and intelligence operations. He earned an MA in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College in 2004 and a Master of Public Affairs from the Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota in 2018.

jonolson1967@gmail.com

David Sauer is a retired CIA officer who served as chief of station and deputy chief of station in multiple overseas command positions in East Asia and South Asia. He graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College with a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and earned a Master’s Degree in Security Policy Studies from The George Washington University.

sauerdm66@gmail.com

Overview:  This is an overview course on terrorism and counterterrorism. Through lecture, in-class discussion of case studies, and film, we’ll explore different types of terrorism, assess the objectives of the terrorist groups, look at the strategies and tactics they employed to achieve those objectives, and ascertain whether they were successful. We’ll transition to the study of counterterrorism after we’ve established a strong understanding of what terrorism is, how it functions, and whether it succeeds. In our study of counterterrorism, we’ll look at several things that drive the creation of CT policy, strategy, and tactics, and then assess whether governments that have created and employed CT initiatives have succeeded against the perceived terrorist threat. We will, of course, also be paying attention to what’s going on in the world during the time we’re together.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  We will use Gus Martin, Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues (Sage Books) as our text. The book is updated every 3-4 years, so the 8^th edition (2024) is best but many of the chapters in earlier editions are similar and so any edition will be helpful for this course and not put students at a significant disadvantage. However, the 8^thedition is very expensive—$183 in paperback from the publisher and slightly less through Amazon. A 90-day rental can be obtained from Sage for $58 (slightly less from Amazon), though students will want to confirm that it can be downloaded successfully to their device (various Kindles, Macs and PCs). On the other hand, used paperback copies of earlier editions can be found through bookfinder.com for various prices: $58 or less for the 7^th edition (2020); $36 or less for the 6th (2017), 5^th (2015), and 4^th (2012) editions. In addition, we are contacting former CVEC students who took an earlier version of this course to see if they might have copies of the 6^th edition to sell. Reading will be 2-3 chapters per week.

We also ask students to view two films to help shape our broader understanding of terrorism and counterterrorism: The Battle of Algiers (dramatic film from 1966), Apple TV, YouTube, Prime Video, $3.99; and The Gatekeepers (documentary on Shin Bet from 2011), Amazon video, Prime video, Apple TV, $3.99. The Battle of Algiers portrays France’s efforts to retain control over Algeria in the face of the National Liberation Front’s efforts to gain independence for Algeria. The Gatekeepers is a documentary film covering Israel’s Shin Bet, and the policy, strategy, and tactics they’ve employed against a range of terrorist threats over the decades.

The instructors will assign students a block of terrorist groups to study for each session in the first half of the course. If students arrive for each class prepared to discuss the assigned terrorist groups, they’ll be able to contribute to every discussion.

In the days after you’ve registered and the course is yet to begin,  we urge you to start seeking news articles over the web that cover terrorist attacks, or CT operations designed to interdict terrorist operations, or to kill or capture terrorists. As you start to pay closer attention to those specific news articles, you’ll likely feel a bit overwhelmed at how prevalent they’ve become all around the world.

Week 1: Course Introduction / Defining Terrorism / Joining a Terrorist Group

We’ll meet and get to know each other, then we’ll start our initial discussions on terrorism. We’ll define terrorism, consider what terrorism is and is not, and then discuss what makes someone join a terrorist group. Familiarize yourself with the book and review the timeline of 2000 years of terrorism on the inside covers of the book. Please find a few articles regarding terrorism or counterterrorism that interest you and bring them to our first session.
Assigned Reading: Chapters 1, 2, 3.

Week 2: State-sponsored Terrorism and Political Terrorism

We’ll look at multiple forms of state-sponsored terrorism and then at political terrorism. 
Assigned Reading: Chapters 4, 7, 8.

Week 3: Dissident, Ethnic, and Nationalist Terrorism

We’ll differentiate between dissidents carrying out terrorist acts, terrorist groups fighting for ethnic causes, and terrorism rooted in nationalistic ideology.
Assigned Reading: Chapters 5, 8.

Week 4: Religious-based Terrorism

We’ll consider historical and modern-day instances of religiously driven terrorist movements.
Assigned Reading: Chapters 9, 11

Week 5: The Nexus of Terrorism and Transnational Organized Criminal Syndicates; US Domestic Terrorism

Research assigned drug cartels and organized criminal groups. We cast a wide net this week with various forms of US domestic terrorism, then we’ll look at the tools of terrorism.
Assigned Reading: Chapters 10, 12

Look at the US Treasury Department and their efforts to curtail terrorism financing post-9/11. Juan Zarate’s book, Treasury’s War, is excellent if you are seeking more sources. 

Week 6: Insurgency and Counterinsurgency 

This week we’ll start by considering the difference between a terrorist group and an insurgency, then we’ll switch focus and consider how to defeat an insurgency. We’ll wrap into our discussion on counterinsurgency the various ways to deal with captured insurgents.
Assigned Film: The Battle of Algiers. Please watch the film on your own time, but before we meet for class.

Week 7: The US Intelligence Community and Counterterrorism / Detention and Interrogation Operations / Criminal Prosecution of Terrorists

We’ll consider how the US Intelligence Community supports policymakers, federal law enforcement, and even the Department of Defense in defeating terrorist threats to the U.S. and our allies and friends. We’ll continue with a legal discussion on what do to with captured terrorists. 
Assigned Reading: Chapters 13, 14. Also, we’ll review the US National Counterterrorism Strategy and US National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, Guantanamo Bay Detention Operations, and other detention choices. We’ll do our best to have a meaningful discussion with you on this topic.
Assigned Film: The Gatekeepers

Week 8: Final Discussions on Terrorism and Counterterrorism / Terrorism and WMD / Modern Challenges with Terrorism

We wrap up the course by considering all the modern challenges connected to terrorism. We’ll talk about the nexus between terrorism and WMD, and about the current and future challenges with various forms of terrorism and what it means for U.S. national security policy and strategy. We’ll also consider the concept of Private Military Contractors (PMCs), and other operational concepts used to deal with terrorism around the world.
Assigned Reading: Chapter 15; look again at Chapter 11. Research Private Military Contractors

Pat Johnson, chair of the CVEC board, taught philosophy at the University of Dayton for 35 years and served as director of Women’s Studies, chair of the Department of Philosophy, associate dean in the College of Arts and Sciences, and alumni chair in Humanities.

pjohnson2@dayton.edu

Overview:  Human rights are currently facing multiple challenges. In the face of these challenges, this course explores five historical phases of the history of human rights: early ethical origins, the Enlightenment and liberalism, the Industrial Revolution and socialism, the Imperial Age and the issue of self-determination, and the contemporary era of globalization and populism and the redefining of human rights. The course will focus on how best to address current challenges to universal human rights.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The primary text is The Human Rights Reader, Third Edition edited by Micheline R. Ishay. Content Bookstore will have it in stock for $59. It was available through bookfinder.com for $30-$39. Please purchase the third edition. It is published in 2023 and updated considerably from the earlier editions. The book provides many of the major political essays, speeches, and documents to illustrate the development of human rights. Please notice that Chapter 16 is available online from Routledge. I have downloaded the .pdf and can share it with anyone who has difficulty downloading it. Because some of the sections of the book are long, the weekly syllabus identifies specific readings (about 30 pages a week) that will provide the focus for class discussions. Reading guides and discussion questions will be provided prior to each class.

Week 1: Origins of Human Rights

Before beginning the course, think about what you believe are the most pressing issue(s) facing human rights. Each week, return to these issues and ask how what we read helps you think about that issue or issues. Take time to write yourself a few notes each week.

Materials covered: Introduction and Part I (chapters 1, 2, and 3), pages 1-90. In 1947, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) undertook preliminary work on formulating a statement on basic human rights. Jacques Maritain was selected to guide this project. The documents in this Part represent the responses that he received to the challenge he issued: “to imagine an agreement of minds between men who come from the four corners of the globe and belong to different cultures and civilizations.” 

Read: Everyone should read pages 1-16. We will focus on the Introduction to Part I during the first hour of class. Then read one of the three chapters in Part I. You may select to look at materials related to a tradition that has influenced you, or you may read something that you know little about. We will explore agreements and differences about human rights in the various traditions and inquire into the possibility of an agreement on universal human rights. See section 15.8 for the declaration that emerged from this process.

Week 2: The Legacy of Early Liberalism and the Enlightenment

Read: Part II (chapter 4), pages 91-124. These readings give us a sense of liberal visions of human rights and the importance of rights to life, liberty, and property. Do read all of this chapter. These are documents that greatly influenced the Founders of the United States of America. We still debate these issues.

Week 3: The Legacy of Early Liberalism and the Enlightenment

Materials covered: Part II (chapters 5 and 6), pages 125-185. These readings address questions about how to address rights within and beyond national borders. Who should actually be included in the group who have human rights? We will focus on the role that nations play in guaranteeing human rights and how that impacts who is considered to have certain rights. These questions remain with us today.

Read: Section 5.12, Immanuel Kant: On Republican Peace and Cosmopolitan Order, pages 151-157.

Read: Chapter 6, pages 158-185. 

Week 4: The Socialist Contribution and the Industrial Age

Materials covered: Part III (chapters 7, 8, and 9), pages 187-284. These readings address the call for broadening human rights to address social issues, especially economic inequality. 

Read: In chapters 7 and 8, we will focus on Karl Marx. Sections 7.8–7.12 explore various demands for social and economic rights. (pages 213-218). Sections 8.1 and 8.10 explore his vision for the working classes (pages 226-229 and 256-258). 

Read: Sections 9.3, 9.6, 9.8, and 9.9 focus on socialist approaches to abolition, women’s rights, rights of soldiers, and gay rights (pages 272-273, 278-281, and 282-284).

Week 5: The Right to Self-Determination and the Imperial Age

Materials covered: Part IV (chapter 10), pages 285-339. These readings address the collapse of empires and the breakdown of colonialism. They begin with Eleanor Roosevelt’s discussion of the right to self-determination.

Read: Introduction to Part IV, pages 285-290.

Read: pages 291-293. Based on what interests you the most, read selected portions of the rest of chapter 10. The class will focus on the role of nationalism for the right of the self-determination of a people.

Week 6: Human Rights in the Era of Globalization and Populism

Materials covered: Part V (chapters 11 and 12), pages 341-463. These readings focus on the questions that globalization poses to human rights. How should rights be redefined, protected, and promoted in our current times?

Read: The introductory materials to Part V (pages 341-355). Section 11.4, Amartya Sen on Development as Freedom (pages 374-377), Section 11.8 on human rights and climate change (pages 392-396), and section 12.12 by the book’s author and editor, Micheline Ishay (pages 452-461).

Week 7: Human Rights in the Era of Globalization and Populism

Materials covered: Part V (chapter 13), pages 464-549. These readings return to the question, human rights for whom? Globalization has led to deepening tensions between the rights of citizens and immigrants or stateless people, and between those who advocate for universal human rights and those who are proponents of cultural (or specific group) rights.

Read: Section 13.1, Hannah Arendt on the rights of the stateless (pages 466-469), and section 13.9, Steven Lukes, “Five Fables about Human Rights” (pages 489-499). Then read at least one of the following sections: 13.15 on indigenous rights (pages 520-522); 13.16 on women’s rights (pages 523-529); 13.17 on same-sex sexualities (pages 530-534); 13.18 on transgender rights (pages 534-537); 13.19 on the new Jim Crow (pages 537-543); 13.20 on disability rights (pages 543-549).

Week 8: Human Rights in the Era of Globalization and Populism

Materials covered: Part V (chapter 14), pages 550-605. These documents look at the future of human rights in light of new technologies. 

Read: Sections 14.2 on surveillance capitalism and 14.3 on digital behavioral control (pages 554-565). The read section 14.9 on AI (pages 583-591).

We will also spend some time with a final discussion based on the issues that you have chosen to provide focus for your reading.

Diana Postlethwaite taught in the English Department at St. Olaf College from 1988-2018, where she held the Boldt Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities. Before that, she was on the faculty at The University of Chicago and Mt. Holyoke College. Her primary field was  19^th century and contemporary fiction, but she was fortunate also to be able to teach two other genres she loves, film and theater.

postleth@stolaf.edu

Overview: Since the ancient Greeks, encountering great literature has inspired subsequent writers speaking in their own times and voices. One of the richest experiences we can have as readers is getting reacquainted with a beloved classic; another is discovering a surprising and challenging new work of fiction. This course gives us the best of both worlds: a Shakespearean tragedy (Hamlet) and a 19^th-century American comic novel (Huckleberry Finn), paired with recent and critically acclaimed retellings which revisit these classics from 21^st century perspectives (Hamnet, by Maggie O’Farrell and James, by Percival Everett).

“Alchemy,” from Brittanica: 1 a science that was used in the Middle Ages with the goal of changing ordinary metals into gold; 2 a power or process that changes or transforms something in a mysterious or impressive way

Each of our four works can be read on its own with pleasure—but when they are juxtaposed, “alchemy” happens. And what if the 21^st-century literary alchemist begins with gold? We get double transformations, “mysterious” and “impressive,” in which both the original source and its reimagining may take on new meanings. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy is a double mystery: written by a man about whom we know relatively little biographically and featuring a complex hero who has been read (and played) in myriad ways. Mark Twain’s vernacular picaresque about a truant boy and a Black enslaved man on the run is a beloved classic yet disturbs modern readers with its attitudes towards race in America. O’Farrell and Everett both admire and challenge their sources. O’Farrell imagines: What could have been happening with Shakespeare’s wife and children in Stratford that inspired the play he wrote in London? Everett imagines: How might Twain’s novel look if its first-person narrator were not Huck, but Jim (James), an enslaved man? To read these twice-told tales beside their originals is to see reflected the cultural/historical times in which they were created, and to hold a mirror to our own contemporary values and beliefs.

This is a course for readers: there will be 150-200 pages of reading each week. It is also a class for speculators: we’ll be open to many different interpretations and reactions, with nothing set in stone and everyone in our class encouraged to form and express their own opinions. Hamlet and Huckleberry Finn are available in many editions. If you already own them, feel free to read what you have (make sure Huck Finn is the original, unedited text). If you are purchasing them, I recommend the Folger Shakespeare Library paperback edition of Hamlet (available via bookfinder.com for less than $8 new or $4 used) and the Oxford World Classics paperback edition of Huck Finn (available via bookfinder.com for less than $20 new or $7 used. Hamnet (paperback via bookfinder.com for less than $12 new or $5 used) and James (hardcover or softcover via bookfinder.com new or used for less than $16). All four are also available at any good bookstore. I would ask everyone to read and bring a paper copy of the texts with you to class, so that we can look together at the language. It’s wonderful to watch Shakespeare’s play on video, but don’t do so until after you’ve read it! There is an excellent Royal Shakespeare Company production starring David Tennant available on Netflix.

Week l: William Shakespeare, Hamlet (1601) [five acts]

Week 2: Hamlet (continued)

Week 3: Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet (2020) [320 pp]

Week 4: Hamnet (continued)

Week 5: Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn (1884) [300 pp]

Week 6: Huckleberry Finn (continued)

Week 7: Percival Everett, James (2024) [320 pp]

Week 8: James (continued)

Brian O’Donnell is a professor emeritus in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. He is not a philosopher but is keenly interested in how philosophical ideas have motivated scientific investigations and catalyzed social change.

bodonnel2@gmail.com

Overview:  This class will examine the contemporary field of applied philosophy. Applied philosophy employs traditional philosophical methods, such as critical thinking, observation, subjective experience and thought experiments to contentious social, technological and ethical issues. For example, how should a society accommodate values that differ among subcultures and social groups? Do we have an ethical imperative to share our wealth, and if so, how much should we give? Is it ethical to favor friends and family over others in society? Is gender a social category or an expression of biological difference? Applied philosophy often draws on empirical data, including experiments, to test the validity of ideas. A notable change within the philosophical community is the entry of women and people of color and the gradual recognition of philosophical traditions outside the Western canon.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Course materials will include articles distributed electronically and links to online articles, podcasts, and video presentations. On each topic, participants choose several readings or “listenings” from the material. Please keep a notebook with brief summaries of issues discussed in an article or podcast, and your own reactions to the philosophical arguments. During the discussion, participants may draw on the material they encountered as well as relevant outside information that bears on the topic, e.g. sociological, biological or psychological findings. The class will primarily be oriented to discussion of the often-divergent viewpoints of philosophers on different topics. Importantly, discussions are explorations, not debates. Differences in values and beliefs among participants will be respected.

Week 1: Feelings (Read or listen to four pieces)
– Mariana Alessandri: It’s a Terrible Day in the Neighborhood, and That’s O.K. – The Stone, NYT, Nov. 28, 2019
– Christina Caron: When Your Moral Compass Is Compromised. – NYT, Feb. 20, 2025
– Ariel Levy: “A World Without Pain. Does hurting make us human?” – The New Yorker, Jan. 13, 2020
– Daniel M. Haybron: Happiness and Its Discontents. – The Stone ,NYT, April 13, 2014
– Sabine Döring on Emotion – Philosophy Bites, Nigel Warburton, Aug. 14, 2009
– Dr Renee England: The philosophy of emotions. – The Philosophy Zone, Sarah Malik (moderator), June 14, 2024
– Jules Evans: An interview with Martha Nussbaum on Neo-Stoicism. – The History of Emotions Blog, Nov. 22, 2012

Week 2. Beliefs and Bias in Thinking (Read or listen to four pieces)
– Jonathan Ellis: Rationalization: Why your intelligence, vigilance and expertise probably don’t protect you – Imperfect Cognitions, Feb. 13, 2018
– Joe Pierre: When Are Conspiracy Beliefs Pathological? – Imperfect Cognitions, Feb. 12, 2025
– Cathy Legg.: Getting past post-truth. – The Philosopher’s Zone, David Rutledge (moderator), Feb. 26, 2025
– Bruce Hood on the Supernatural. – Social Science Bites, David Edmonds (moderator), June 4, 2014
– Lisa Bortolotti on Irrationality. – Philosophy Bites, March 19, 2015
– David Benatar on Bullshit. – With Rebecca Tuvel, Brain in a Vat., Dec. 8, 2024
– Positive Illusions – Wikipedia

Week 3. Alternate Universes and Selves (Read or listen to four pieces)
– Tim Wilkinson: The Multiverse Conundrum. – Philosophy Now, Issue 89
– Helen Beebee: Possible Worlds. – In Women of Ideas (Suki Finn, Ed.), Oxford University Press, 2021
– Deena Mousa: ‘Experience machines’: The 1970s thought experiment that speaks to our times. – BBC, 24 March 2024
– Dr. Laurie Paul on transformative events, responsibility and openness. – Christine Ko, Girl Doc Survival Guide, EP 94
– Katy Milkman on How to Change. – Social Science Bites David Edmonds (moderator), Feb. 3, 2025
– Human enhancement — Pew Research Center, 7/26/2016
– Jorge L. Borges: The Garden of Forking Paths. – Jorge Luis Borges: Collected Fictions, Andrew Hurley, translator, Viking Penguin, NY, 1998

Week 4. Mortality and Immortality (Read or listen to four pieces)
– Martin Hägglund: Why Mortality Makes Us Free. – The Stone, NYT, March 11, 2019
– Samuel Scheffler: The importance of the afterlife. Seriously. – The Stone, NYT
– Jacob Kehinde Olupona: Death Has Many Names. – Interviewer, George Yancy, NYT, Feb. 14, 2021
– George Yancy: Facing the Fact of My Death. The Stone, NYT, Feb 3, 2020
– John Martin Fischer. Life is good. The Philosopher’s Magazine.
– Joshua Rothman, “The case for not being born”, New Yorker, Nov 27, 2017. 
– Jorge Luis Borges, “The Immortal”, in Collected Fictions, Andrew Hurley, translator, Viking Penguin, NY, 1998.

Week 5. Multiculturalism (Read or listen to three pieces)
– Anne Phillips: Multiculturalism and Liberalism. – In Women of Ideas (Suki Finn, Ed.), Oxford University Press, 2021
– Kwame Anthony Appiah on Cosmopolitanism. – Philosophy Bites (David Edmonds & Nigel Warburton, Eds.), Oxford University Press, 2010
– Wendy Brown, “On Tolerance”, in Philosophy Bites (David Edmonds & Nigel Warburton, Eds.), Oxford University Press, 2010
– Karen Flikschuh, “Philosophy in Africa”, in Women of Ideas (Suki Finn, Ed.), Oxford University Press, 2021.
– Justin Kalef: “Is Cultural Relativism Racist?”, in Brain in a Vat. Aug. 16, 2020

Week 6. The Window of Appearances (Read or listen to four pieces)
– Heather Widdows, “The Ugly Side of Beauty”, in Guernica, Jan. 30, 2019
– Elna Baker, “It’s a Small World After All”, in This American Life, Episode89.
– Clare Chambers, “On the Unmodified Body”, in Philosophy Bites, July 1, 2022.
– George Yancy, “Walking while black in the ‘white gaze’,” The Stone, NYT, Sept. 1, 2013.
– Knausguard: Intelligence.
– Kate Pickett, “On the Case for Equality”, in Social Science Bites, David Edmonds and Nigel Warburton (moderators) July 1, 2013

Week 7. Sex and Gender (Read or listen to four pieces)
– Holly Lawford-Smith (with Raja Halwani), “Imagine There’s No Gender”, Brain in a Vat, July 30, 2023
– Amia Srinivasan, “What is a Woman?”, in Women of Ideas (Suki Finn, Ed.), Oxford University Press, 2021
– Michael Bailey, “My Research on Gender Dysphoria Was Censored. But I Won’t Be.” In The Free Press, July 10, 2023
– Catharine MacKinnon, “On Gender Crime”, in Philosophy Bites, March 26, 2011
– Amia Srinivasan, “Does anyone have the right to sex?” in London Review of Books, March 22, 2018.
– Janet Radcliffe Richards, “Men’s and Women’s Natures”, in Women of Ideas (Suki Finn, Ed.), Oxford University Press, 2021.

Week 8. Caring vs. Killing (Read or listen to four pieces)
– David Marchese, “Peter Singer Wants to Shatter Your Moral Complacency”, NYT Magazine, Nov 2 2024.
– Larry Temkin, “Obligations to the Needy”, Philosophy Bites, April 02, 2018
– Stephen T. Asma, “The Myth of Universal Love”, NYT: The Stone, January 5, 2013
– Steven Pinker, “Violence and Human Nature”. Social Science Bites. David Edmond & Nigel Warburton (moderators). 
– “Is there such a thing as a just war?”, Practical Ethics Bites. Jeff McMahan, Nigel Warburton, David Edmonds (moderators). 10/21/2014
– Erica Chenoweth on Nonviolent Resistance. Social Science Bites. April 2, 2019

Paul Zorn is professor emeritus of mathematics at St. Olaf College. For 38 years he taught St. Olaf courses, mainly in mathematics but also in science writing and in St. Olaf’s Great Conversation program, a five-semester general education sequence spanning over 4,000 years of human culture. In the 2000s he served both as president and as a journal editor for the Mathematical Association of America.

zorn@stolaf.edu

Overview:  We live surrounded by, if not drowning in, information. A lot of this information is in the form of numerical data and statistics derived, more or less wisely, from data: population, tax rates, national debt and deficit, accident rates, birth rates, sports statistics, GPA, GDP, risk tables, election results, disease incidence. What truths, falsehoods, and inanities can we sift from this flood of information? How can we try to recognize which is which? 

Statistics is, at its simplest, all about processing raw data into meaningful numbers. Modern technology makes collecting data easier than ever—and interpreting data harder and more important than ever. What can data and statistics say, for instance, about the implications of a worrisome health test for a rare disease, the relative inequality in various countries, or whether a new Walmart in town really decreases local incomes by 6%, as has been reported? Why do we usually prefer medians (whatever they are) to ordinary averages in reporting family income? What does it mean to be in the top decile of family income in the U.S.? Do speed limits work? Can all our children be above average? Are news media “biased”? Do we fear the right things? 

The course will focus mainly on describing some basic statistical ideas and techniques, and applying them, when appropriate, to questions like these, some—but not all—of which are ultimately numerical. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  One book required, another optional (see below); other materials will be made available in PDF form or with links to online sources. Available for $15 to $20 in paperback, less on Kindle, more in hardback. 

• Book 1: Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data, by Charles Wheelan. A friendly and readable introduction to the big ideas of statistics, minimizing calculation. 
• Book 2 (optional but recommended as good fun): How to Lie with Statistics, by Darrell Huff. From the 1950s and slightly dated but short, amusing, and clever; a true classic in its genre. 
• Additional materials made available in PDF form or online. 

Note: Please read and/or work on these assignments before class so that we can meaningfully discuss them. 

Week 1: Getting started, and big ideas
Reading: Wheelan book, Introduction, Chapters 1, 2. 
Class topics: Numbers, good, bad, and meaningless. Alphabet soup: ERA, RBI, HDI, GPA, GDP. False positives and false negatives. Mean v. median v. mode; why this matters. 

Week 2: Basics of statistics and data
Reading: Chapters 3, 4, 5, 7 of Wheelan book. 
Class topics: Basic statistical concepts. Good and bad data. First looks at probability. What is randomness? What is a bell curve? What’s “normal”? Careful counting. 

Week 3: Basics of probability
Reading: Chapters 6, 8, 9 of Wheelan book. 
Class topics: What’s “probable”? What should we “expect”? What is the famous “gambler’s fallacy”? Should anyone play Powerball? Is a full house in poker more likely than a flush? 

Week 4: Applications: Money, inequality, polling, risk, more
Reading: Chapter 10 and catch-up in Wheelan book. . 
Class topics: Rich, poor, equal, unequal. The Gini coefficient and why the CIA cares.  Are taxes “fair”? What do political polls tell us? Do we fear the right things? Other questions suggested by the class

Barbara Reed is professor emerita in religion and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College, where she taught from 1982 to 2021. Her courses focused on Buddhism, the religions of China and Japan, and East Asian cultures. As a Fulbright Fellow, she taught a course in comparative scriptures at Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts, a Buddhist college/monastery in northern Taiwan.

reed@stolaf.edu

Overview:  Images of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas are full of symbolism; each feature and pose represent aspects of his or her enlightenment and teachings. This course will explore these key Buddhist teachings through the reading of Buddhist texts and the examination of Buddhist art. In the fall, St. Olaf College will host “The Rubin Museum’s Gateway to Himalayan Art” at the Flaten Art Museum. Our course will use this exhibition to complement our reading of key Buddhist scriptures, popular narratives, and contemporary commentaries. Our topics will include the lives of the Buddhas in text and art, the symbolism of bodhisattvas, and the teachings of the Wheel of Existence.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Our course sessions will focus on discussions of short selections from Buddhist texts, approximately 30 pages per week. Before the first class these texts will be mailed to students in a coursebook for which there will be an extra fee of $16, including mailing. For each class meeting, I will also provide links to relevant online images. We will also utilize the Rubin Museum’s traveling exhibit and its rich online resources at https://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/. Before each class session I will email a brief introduction to the readings and suggested discussion questions. Class participants are also welcome to attend additional programming related to the exhibit.

Week 1: The Life of the Buddha (aka Siddhartha Gautama or Shakyamuni)

A brief introduction by Damien Keown, “The Buddha”

Stories of the enlightenment of Siddhartha Gautama written by Vietnamese master Thich Nhat Hanh, “Forest Ascetic” and “Pippala Leaf”

Images: Life story of Shakyamuni – image of 12 acts in the life of the Buddha

https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/c2006-66-164

https://rubinmuseum.org/life-story-of-buddha-shakyamuni

Week 2: Past Lives of the Buddha

Stories of previous lives of the Buddha from Aryasura, Jatakamala or The Marvelous Companion: Life stories of the Buddha

Video: Painting and video from the Rubin Museum
https://rubinmuseum.org/himalayan-art-up-close-stories-of-previous-lives-of-the-buddha-jataka/

Week 3: The Bodhisattva path and the celestial bodhisattvas

C. Olson, “The Bodhisattva’s Path to Perfection”; M. McArthur, “Tara: A Powerful Feminine Force in the Buddhist Pantheon”; and S. Batchelor, “Dropping Bodhisattva Gods”

Video: “How to recognize a bodhisattva” (with special attention to Maitreya)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-7v7V_knUU&ab_channel=Smarthistory

Image: Eleven-Headed Thousand-Armed Avalokiteshvara
https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/f1997-1-6/
Image: Red Avalokitesvara
https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/f1998-3-13/
Image: Bodhisattvas Maitreya and Manjusri in Tushita Heaven (online and at St. Olaf)
https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/c2002-21-3/

Week 4: Manifestations of Bodhisattvas, Tulkus, and the Dalai Lama

Tibetan tulkus (human manifestations of a Buddha or bodhisattva):
Martin Horan, “The tulku and rinpoche system in Tibetan Buddhism”
Ven. Tenzin Tharpa, “His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama”

H.H. the Fourteenth Dalai Lama’s favorite prayer: 
Excerpt from Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara, chapter 10

Minnesotan 18-year-old Jalue Dorje as a Tibetan tulku:
“Minnesota Buddhist Lama Celebrates 18th Birthday Before Himalayan Journey” Newsweek, Published Nov. 18, 2024

Image: The Fifth Dalai Lama, Ngawang Lobzang Gyatso (1617-1682) with Previous Incarnations
https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/c2003-9-2/

Image: Photograph of the Thirteenth Dalai Lama
https://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/essays/photograph-of-the-thirteenth-dalai-lama/

Week 5: Other Buddhas: Amitabha/Amitayus, Vairochana and the Medicine Buddha

Amitabha (or Amitayus), the Buddha of Limitless Life (or Limitless Light): 
Excerpt from the Sutra on Amitabha’s Land of Great Happiness (Sukhavati-vyuha Sutra) translated by Thich Nhat Hanh

Essay, video and paintings: Visualizing the All-knowing Vairochana Buddha through the Rubin Museum website: “Cultural Translation of a Tantric Visualization Practice”
https://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/essays/the-all-knowing-buddha-vairochana-visualization-album/

Image: Amitayus Buddha https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/c2006-66-143/enlarge/altviews/2766/

Image: The Medicine Buddha
https://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/exhibition/living-practices/secular-aims/medicine-buddha/

Week 6: Buddhist Sutras: two key scriptures 

The Buddha’s first sermon: Turning the Wheel of the Dharma:
Discourse on Turning the Wheel of the Dharma (Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, Samyutta Nikāya 56.11.) Translation by Thich Nhat Hanh; “The Heart Sutra”, a very short, often chanted scripture in Mahayana Buddhism; and “Commentary” from Awakening the Heart. 

Week 7: Buddhist Cosmology and the Wheel of Existence

R. Gethin, “Buddhist Cosmology”; M. Wijesinghe, “Ten ways of making merit”

Essay and Images: Visual explanation of Buddhist Cosmology (Rubin Museum website, also at St. Olaf exhibition) (Six realms of existence, links of dependent origination) 
https://rubinmuseum.org/projecthimalayanart/essays/wheel-of-existence/

Week 8: Buddhism and Medicine

Devotion to and inspiration from a healing buddha: D.H. Lee, “Bhaiṣajyaguru, The Medicine Buddha”; Psychology and Buddhism in dialogue:
R. Hanson, chapters 2 and 3 on suffering in Buddha’s Brain: The practical neuroscience of happiness, love, and wisdom.

Image: Medicine Buddha
https://rubinmuseum.org/collection/c2006-60-2/

Image: Medicine Buddha Palace
https://rubinmuseum.org/medicine-buddha-palace/

D. E. (Doug) Green taught English at Augsburg University for 33 years. He has published articles on Shakespeare, general-interest essays, and poetry. His poems have been recognized in local, regional, and national venues and several appear on the sidewalks in Northfield. His first collection, Jumping the Median, was published in 2019 by Encircle Publications. His chapbook Catastrophizing in Catastrophe appeared in March 2023. His work appears alongside four other poets of the Northfield Public Library in their anthology, We Look West. Along with his spouse Becky Boling, he served as Northfield Poet Laureate in 2023-24. Doug likes to say that he has been an occasional poet for 40 years.

greendepoet@gmail.com

Overview:  In an age when we’re always scrolling for the next great thing, this course asks us to slow down and really breathe in just a few poems each session. We will read between one and four poems each week depending on their difficulty and explore what they have to offer—by way of form, syntax, diction, sound, imagery, and/or meaning. Lyric poems we are likely to read closely include Adrienne Rich’s “Diving into the Wreck,” sonnets by Shakespeare, poems by Emily Dickinson and Gwendolyn Brooks, as well as works by contemporary poets. We will not assume that poets are in the business of not saying what they mean, but rather that they are saying exactly what they mean. We will consider what ambiguity is—is it, for instance, the opposite of clarity or possibly clarity in a different key?—and what, if anything, is its value? But mostly we will concentrate on what we derive individually and together from each poem we read—in terms of aesthetic pleasure, meaning, and personal relevance.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The instructor will supply digital copies of the poems we’ll be reading at the preceding class as well as prior to the first class. In addition to reading poems closely, carefully, and aloud, students should consider printing out and marking up the poems before our discussions. As we proceed, there may be opportunities for students to offer poems they have struggled with and would like to discuss. The instructor will also supply short critical/theoretical passages and links to web resources about the process of slow or close reading and a few other poetic matters, as needed.

Philip Spensley is professor emeritus of theatre from Concordia University in Montreal, was a member of Canada’s Stratford Shakespeare and Shaw Festival companies, has acted, written, directed and designed professionally for stage, acted for film and television (U.S., Canada and Europe), taught for university and professional theatre programs in Canada and the U.S., and has lectured, and given workshops around the world on theatre practice and pedagogy. pspensley@earthlink.net

Overview:  The theatre is a group experience. The audience reacts to cues that have been carefully planned. To help deepen an audience member’s experience and appreciation, this course will explore the means that theatre artists use to bring a play to life, to create its world, to communicate meaning, and to spark the collective emotional reactions we have when we experience a play. In evaluating conceptual choices made by the playwright, director, designers, and actors (both aesthetic and practical), we will take into account the influence of historical period and style, theatre architecture, actor-audience relationship, social expectations and psychological triggers. In doing so we will look at productions chosen by the instructor, as well as plays that class members have seen.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Class time will include lecture, discussion, demonstration (with class member participation at times), looking at scripts as provided by the instructor and viewing visual examples. There are no additional costs for students for materials provided via handouts, emailed PDFs, or online links.

Week 1: What is the nature of the theatre—its impetus, its obligations? What is a play? Dramatic genres and their respective intellectual and emotional demands and effects. Presentational styles and how they color our response.

Week 2: Physical and psychological elements of theatrical communication. Theatre “language”—what “speaks” to us and how. Theatrical conventions and how they steer our expectations. 

Week 3: The nature of perception—if theatre is illusion, what makes it real? Techniques that trigger emotion, intellect, and psyche. Composition, picturization, mood. 

Week 4: Tools and techniques put “into use” through artistic choices. The playwright and what’s in a script.

Week 5: Tools and techniques put “into use” through artistic choices: the director and what’s behind the directorial concept; the ground plan and what it provides.

Week 6: Tools and techniques put “into use” through artistic choices: the designers—what messages the set sends; what the lighting does; what the costumes tell us; how sound affects us.

Week 7: Tools and techniques put “into use” through artistic choices: the actor as the primary tool; the individual and integrated interplay “in action” of all the above 

Week 8: Tools of critical evaluation. Course review and wrap-up.

Wiebke Kuhn, Ph.D., is Director of Academic Technology and part of the AI Core and AI Coordinating team at Carleton College. She and her colleagues are guiding AI tool implementations and working with faculty, staff, and students to use generative AI critically and creatively.

wkuhn@carleton.edu

Overview:  This interactive 8-week course offers an exploration of artificial intelligence (AI), with a focus on generative Aim Large Language Models (LLMs), and the evolving space of AI Agents. We will delve into some history, discuss ethical considerations, and dig into some (free) generative AI tools, such as Google Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT 4o, and image and sound-based tools.  At the end of the course, participants will be able to use generative AI for tasks that may make their lives easier and make informed decisions on how to continue working with AI (or not). Use of a computer for at least parts of the course is required, and participants are encouraged to work on a project of their interest throughout the eight weeks.  

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Readings and videos for class preparation will be made available ahead of class as links or email attachments. Please note that this syllabus is not set in stone.  The technology is moving so fast that it is possible we will be in a different place by Fall of 2025.

Week 1: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence

• What is AI? Exploring definitions and the history of AI.
  • Overview of major AI milestones and current technologies.
  • Hands-on Experience: Simple AI demonstrations using online tools to understand basic concepts.
• Readings: Computing Machinery and Intelligence by A.M. Turing (1950); Hampton 2024 AI Founder Report
• Videos/Podcasts: TED Talk: How AI can enhance our memory, work, and social lives

Week 2: Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs)

• Deep dive into generative AI technologies and their applications. Exploration of LLMs: architecture, development, and impact.
• Hands-on Experience: Experimenting with generative models and interacting with GPT on platforms like OpenAI, Gemini, Claude, Perplexity.
• Readings: OpenAI blog posts on latest developments in LLMs. 7 Things you should know about Generative AI
• Examples: Applications of GPT-4 in creating text-based content.

Week 3: Generative AI and Image Creation, AI Agents

• Introduction to multimodal models: Understanding how AI integrates and interprets data from multiple sensory modes (text, image, audio, video).
• Key developments in the field: From early image recognition to advanced video analysis and generation.
• Applications in real-world scenarios: How these models are used in industries like media, security, and personal devices.
• Hands-on Experience: 
  • Interactive sessions with tools like OpenAI’s DALL-E (part of ChatGPT) or Google’s Video AI to create and manipulate images and videos.
  • Demonstrations of how AI integrates different data types to make decisions or create content.
• Readings: TBD
• Examples:
• Videos/Podcasts: TBD

Week 4: Generative AI in Education

·      Potential uses of generative AI in educational contexts.

• Benefits and challenges of AI-driven educational tools.
• Hands-on Experience: Exploring educational AI tools and discussing their practical applications in learning environments.
• Readings: TBD
• Videos/Podcasts: TED Talk: The future of education is one-on-one, from AI

Week 5: Ethical, Social, and Economic Implications of AI

• Discussion on AI ethics: bias, privacy, and surveillance. AI’s impact on the economy and future job markets.
• Hands-on Experience: Case studies review and ethical decision-making scenarios using AI, e.g., Princeton’s Dialogues on AI and Ethics
• Readings: TBD
• Examples: Case studies on biased algorithms and their impact.
• Videos/Podcasts: Ted Talk: When AI can fake reality, who can you trust?  By Sam Gregory

Week 6: AI Trends and Future Directions

• Emerging trends in AI technology. AI’s role in global challenges such as healthcare and climate change.
• Hands-on Experience: Exploring futuristic AI applications and predicting future AI trends.
• Readings: “Eternal Hospital” by Hao Jingfang
• Examples: Use cases of AI in healthcare and environmental management.
• Videos/Podcasts: TBD

Week 7: Making AI Work for You

• What areas do you want to discuss more deeply?
• What do you want to explore more?
• Design a plan of how you want to incorporate AI into your work, hobbies, interests – and where you want to be careful about using it.

Week 8: Course Wrap-up

Participants present their surprises or findings.
Group discussion on the personal and societal impact of AI.