Course Descriptions Fall 2026

Paul Niemisto is Associate Professor Emeritus of Music at St. Olaf College where he was conductor of the Norseman Band and instructor of lower brass instruments. He is founder and conductor of the Cannon Valley Regional Orchestra, founder of the annual Northfield Vintage Band Festival, founder and leader of Amerikan Poijat, a Finnish style brass septet which has toured internationally. He has a special interest in Finnish brass music. These interests were supported with three Fulbright grants, several American Scandinavian Foundation grants, and a doctorate from the University of Minnesota.
paul.niemisto@gmail.com

Overview: I have spent my career making brass and other wind instrument music, teaching others to do so, founding and leading music ensembles, studying and writing about them. The question I ask myself is “what are the things I would most like to share about brass and wind instrument music more broadly with a group of CVEC students?”—things they wouldn’t encounter simply through their own curiosity. That is my goal in this course. I call it a “salad” because there is no overarching theme or historical trajectory, just what I hope you will be glad to know about these topics. There will be reading, listening to music, discussion, and some sharing of facts and history by me that isn’t covered in the readings.

Course Materials and Class Schedule: Preparation for class will involve some reading. The short reading for the first week will be sent to the class as an e-mail attachment. The readings for Weeks 2-8 have been incorporated into a coursebook to be delivered to students at the first class, for which there will be an extra charge of $6 to be paid at the time of registration. Occasional out-of-class “listenings” will be made available as YouTube links.

Week 1: Brass instruments in American History from Antiquity to the War Between the States.

Week 2: The Northfield Vintage Band Festival – Reflecting on its Creation and Development on its 20th Anniversary.

Week 3: Ralph Kenny, Minneapolis Brass Instrument Maker and Trombonist at the Dawn of the Minneapolis Symphony.This will include an account of the founding of the Minneapolis Symphony under first conductor Emil Oberhöfer.

Week 4: James Reese Europe and the Harlem Hellfire Band which performed with Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I.

Week 5: The Discovery of early 1800s Experimental Brass-Valved Instruments in Kuopio Finland. 

Week 6: A Miracle in the Countryside: The Story of the Chatfield Brass Band Library (Minnesota).

Week 7: Boys of America (Ameriikan Poijat)- the Development of a Unique Finnish Brass Ensemble in the United States.

Week 8: “Normaalivanha” (Normal-Old) The Story of the Military Brass Band in Finland Prior to Independence (1850-1917); and Cornets & Pickaxes: Finnish Brass Bands on Minnesota’s Iron Range.

Gary Wagenbach is Winifred and Atherton Bean professor of Biology Science, Technology, and Society emeritus at Carleton. Gary taught a variety of courses in biology and environmental studies. Among other places, his professional work has taken him to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia; to marine centers in Bermuda, California and Washington State (among others); and to Myanmar. He has introduced college students, high school science teachers, neighbors, and many other people to the local Northfield/Rice County landscape. He has taught several courses for CVEC during the last 15+ years. gwagenba@gmail.com

Paul Zunkel is a former (2018-2023) assistant professor of Earth Science and former (2019-2023) director of the Aber Geospatial Analysis Laboratory at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. His research and teaching focused on two main areas: environmental change through time and the human-environmental interactions of severe weather phenomena with human populations. Paul is currently a GIS technician within the Assessor’s Office at Rice County.
Paul.Zunkel@RiceCountyMN.gov

Overview:  If asked to describe the topography of Rice County, many people, even long-time residents, might say “flat.” Not so! Participants in this course will observe and describe the landscape near the Valley Grove churches, a deep dive into a small part of the county. This area of elevated ridges and deep valleys sits astride three of the five biomes of Minnesota: Hardwood Forest, Tallgrass Prairie, and, between forest and prairie, Oak Savanna. Before Europeans arrived, Oak Savanna once covered about 10% of Minnesota; now only a hundredth of that 10% remains. The Valley Grove landscape also records a geologic history that goes back more than 400 million years. Thanks to glacial ice advances in the last few million years, the Rice County landscape also has samples of much older rocks, some 2.7 to 3.6 billion years old, from northern Minnesota. The modern landscape also reflects human settlement and management, which may go back as far as about 12,000 years.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  In this course, participants will make direct field observations of vegetation, soils, water, and other features at key sites, especially during the first four class periods. These observations will be supplemented by indoor explorations of topographic maps, aerial photos, LIDAR images and the interpretive GIS-based maps derived from these sources. Participants will try their hands at sketching some of the land and water features. Readings about the natural and human history will also be discussed. While we will visit key sites together, the instructors will also recommend (optional) places that participants can visit on their own. Walking will be about 1-3 city blocks in length for the outdoor activities. Gary and Linda Wagenbach’s 80-acre forest and prairie restoration protected by a conservation easement will be the nexus of our endeavors, with side trips to nearby sites. Before the first class, we will organize car transportation, including car-pools. From areas accessible by cars, we will travel via tractor and trailer. 

There will be occasional readings, some from Leopold (Aldo Leopold. A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. C. 1949) and Watts (May Theilgaard Watts. Reading The Landscape of America. C. 1957) in preparation for class. Books are available on Bookfinder.com and other sources. Maps will be sent as PDFs, or shown on screen in the classroom (NCCC 222). These materials will be sent to students either as email attachments or passed out in hard copy ahead of time in class.

Weeks 1-4 will be outdoors as conditions permit (September). If conditions do not permit, an alternative indoor location (TBA) will be available. Weeks 5-8 will be mostly indoors at NCCC #222 (October). For weeks 1-4, participants will need to wear and bring: clothing for the day and outside weather; sturdy shoes suitable for both dry and wet conditions; (optional) walking sticks for stability; day pack; water; snack; camera (optional), sketch book (recommend size about 6×9” to 8.5×11” with paper suitable for pencil/pen and spiral binding – available from local sources) (color pencils optional).

Week 1: Travel to field site on the Wagenbach property; Introductions. On-site field study of a DNR-listed oak savanna and associated landscape. Observe and describe (e.g. sketch, write, etc.) selected elements of this two-acre remnant. 

Week 2: Return to oak savanna field site. Discuss the physical setting of this site, including water and soil. Share observations and sketches. Frame more questions and show and discuss your observations. Reading: Léopold – Chapters “April” and “February”.

Week 3: Expand exploration of the larger setting for locations studied weeks 1-2 to include nearby water ways, forest, and the Valley Grove oak savanna restoration. Introduction to rocks (Treblehorn rock pile), soils, and bioturbation (Badger sign) as time permits.

Week 4: Visit upstream sites on Prairie Creek for observation and description. Develop a topographic profile for Prairie Creek from phone-app estimates of elevation. 

Week 5: Examine and discuss air photos, LIDAR, soils maps, and GIS-maps of Prairie Creek. Use field observations from weeks 1-4 and these tools to make a summary drawing of water pathways of the Prairie Creek watershed. Compare with the much smaller Spring Creek watershed near and in Northfield.

Week 6: Why are Prairie Creek and nearby landscapes the way they appear?  Try your hand at formulating explanations for patterns we have identified during Weeks 1-5. Reading: Watts. Chapters 6-7.

Week 7: Did glaciers shape the sites we are studying? Does the label “Driftless” apply?

Week 8: Final discussion (touching on a class selection of questions from our studies). Topics may include: How does a landscape history of a small area inform the history of a larger area? What is the “Big Woods Corridor”? The “Prairie Peninsula?” How did Native Americans settle and use the resources of Rice County? How did the landscape evolve after European settlement began? Who uses the landscape now – and what effects can be seen? What is the future of these landscapes with climate change? Is Leopold’s Land Ethic applicable to our study area? Selected maps will be sent as PDFs. Reading: Leopold. “Part III, The Upshot”.

David Nitz was a faculty member in physics at St. Olaf College from 1979 to 2019. Among the courses he taught in the general education curriculum were astronomy and musical acoustics. His research was in the field of atomic spectroscopy, with applications to astrophysics. His interests in retirement include cycling, cross-country skiing, baking bread, reading, playing guitar and trombone, and canoeing/star gazing in the Boundary Waters.
nitz@stolaf.edu

Overview:  This course will begin by looking at the physical description of wave motion, with an emphasis on concepts relevant to sound in general and musical sound in particular. From there we will examine the properties of vibrating strings, air columns, and solids, with applications to stringed instruments, wind instruments, and percussion instruments. Along the way we will dive into some special topics including musical scales and temperaments, human voice and hearing, pipe organs, and acoustic properties of listening spaces. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule: Class sessions will include both science and musical instrument demonstrations, some whole-class listening experiments, projection of visual aids such as video clips and real-time frequency spectrum analysis, and frequent Q & A. Additional resources will include links to the extensive Music Science website of the University of New South Wales and visits by guest experts in weeks 7 and 8.  Note that in week 7 the class will meet at St. John’s Church.

Weekly schedule of topics:

Week 1: Introduction to Vibrating Systems and Wave Motion

Week 2: Sound Waves in Air; Basics of Human Hearing

Week 3: Resonance and Waves on a String; Spectral Analysis of complex sound.

Week 4: Musical Scales and Temperament

Week 5: Stringed instruments, including the acoustic guitar

Week 6: Vibrating air columns; wind instruments and the human voice

Week 7: (meet at St. John’s Church). Pipe Organ (guest: Nathan Proctor); Acoustics of Listening Spaces

Week 8: Vibrating membranes and tone bars; Percussion Instruments (guest: Dave Hagedorn)

Diana Postlethwaite taught in the English Department at St. Olaf College from 1988 to 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:  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. Following the same structure as my Fall 2025 course, this new course gives us the best of both worlds: a Shakespearean tragedy (King Lear, 1605) and a modernist masterpiece (Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, 1925) paired with critically acclaimed retellings which revisit these classics from late-20^th-century perspectives (Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres and Michael Cunningham’s The Hours).

Every classic work of literature both reflects the times in which it was created and resonates with more universal human themes. Every “re-telling” is indebted to its original source even as it reframes that source in a different context.

This course’s “re-tellings” (both published in the 1990s) add a third layer to the structure: Smiley sets her version of King Lear on a family farm in the Iowa heartland in 1979; Cunningham’s novel transposes Virginia Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness story of a single day in 1923 London into a three-part kaleidoscope: Woolf writing Mrs. Dalloway in 1923, a Los Angeles housewife reading it in 1951, and a New York literary editor living it in 1998. And then, when read by us in 2026, Smiley’s and Cunningham’s settings may take on fascinating new cultural contexts, inviting us to compare their l990s retellings to challenges of our own 21^st century times: pandemics, wars, mental health issues, gender roles, family structures, the fate of our environment.

To read these twice-told tales beside their originals is to see reflected the cultural/historical times in which they were created, the times in which they were re-told, and perhaps to hold a mirror to some of our own contemporary values and beliefs.

Warning: the subject matter of this course deals with mature themes.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  This is a course for committed readers. 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. Everyone should read our books in paper editions that can be brought with you to class (we will be looking at the texts as we talk about them). (Do not haul a “complete works of Shakespeare” around). Best paperback editions of King Lear should have a glossary defining Shakespeare’s words on each page: Arden, Folger, Signet Classics and Penguin are all good, and can easily be found via bookfinder.com for less than $11. A Thousand Acres: Vintage press edition is available via Amazon Prime for less than $11. Mrs. Dalloway: many used copies of Vintage, Harcourt Brace, Penguin editions—Penguin editions selling for $7 or less via bookfinder.com. The Hours can be bought inexpensively (even new) in the Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition ($4 or less used via bookfinder.com), which is most common.

Film Versions: not required. I recommend not watching any films until after you have read the texts (though watching Lear as you read it may help you follow the play). There is an excellent 2008 film of King Lear from the Royal Shakespeare Company starring Ian McKellan (available on You Tube); and a somewhat mediocre 1998 film of A Thousand Acres is out there. The Hours is a starry 2002 film from a screenplay by David Hare, starring Nicole Kidman, Julianne Moore and Meryl Streep.

Week l: William Shakespeare, King Lear (1606) [five acts]

Week 2: King Lear  (continued)

Week 3: Jane Smiley, A Thousand Acres (1991), Chapters 1-23 (pp. 3-184)

Week 4: A Thousand Acres. Chapters 24-end (pp. 185-371)

Week 5: Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway (195 pp.)

Week 6: Mrs. Dalloway (continued)

Week 7: Michael Cunningham, The Hours (1998), (pp. 1-121) 

Week 8: The Hours (pp. 123-end)

Tom Drucker retired in 2021 and moved to Northfield after decades of teaching mathematics, computer science, philosophy and the history of science and mathematics, most recently at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. While a student at Princeton he was a regular visitor to Kuhn in his office. He has taught multiple CVEC courses and currently serves on the CVEC Board.  druckert@uww.edu

Overview:  The philosophy of science tries both to understand what scientists do and how they should proceed. One of the decisive changes in the field came in the second half of the twentieth century when Thomas Kuhn (among others) argued that the philosophy of science failed to do justice to what scientists did. In particular, it understated the vast differences between a theory that seeks to understand the world and the theory’s successor. In fact, Kuhn would claim that two successive theories aren’t talking about the same thing—they are “incommensurable”. Perhaps there really isn’t any one thing for the theories to be addressing.

Kuhn was not alone in his suggesting that different theories create different worlds. This relegation of reality to the realm of a fictitious creation has not, however,  gone unquestioned. One of the eloquent responses is the book The Ashtray (Or the Man Who Denied Reality) by the filmmaker Errol Morris. This course will try to explain the appeal of accounts of science like Kuhn’s and then investigate how Morris responds. Why “The Ashtray”? Join us to find out.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  We’ll start by looking at ‘classical’ philosophy of science as practiced, say, until 1970 or so. It had to deal with issues arising out of quantum mechanics but did not generally concern itself with whether there was a real world for science to be describing. As one theory gave way to another (say, Newton’s to Einstein’s), there was a sense of approximating more closely to an understanding of the ultimate reality of how the world works.

This picture was blown up by a number of authors in the 1970’s, of whom Kuhn is perhaps the best known. We shall also be looking at Sir Karl Popper, whose work on the logic of scientific discovery undermined some traditional assumptions. By comparison, the work of Paul Feyerabend left the philosophy of science in tatters. One standard picture of how science proceeded was by something called ‘the scientific method’ and that is still often taught to beginning students today. It is not a surprise that Feyerabend called his major work Against Method and that one of his favorite aphorisms about science was taken from Cole Porter: ‘Anything goes.’

For many philosophers Feyerabend’s views were a trifle extreme, but the work of the historian of science Thomas Kuhn in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions seemed designed to offer a historical basis for the attack on traditional philosophy of science. Kuhn argued there and in subsequent works that it was not that one theory gradually gave way to another, but that it required a revolution to overthrow the language and ideas of the old theory. Kuhn was an authority on the transition from the Ptolemaic to the Copernican theory of planetary motions and much of his thought came out of arguing for the drastic nature of the change.

I don’t need to state how prevalent Kuhn’s ideas soon became. The term ‘paradigm’ was picked up in all sorts of disciplines (having nothing to do with philosophy of science) and The Structure of Scientific Revolutions became one of the most cited books in the humanities and the social sciences. One can argue that the use of Kuhn’s terminology became paradigmatic in area after area.

In the meantime, there were critics of the Feyerabend and Kuhn approach. In a book originally entitled Popper and After David Stove, an Australian philosopher of science, argued that they had won verbal victories without striking at the heart of what physical theories were about. Stove’s book was reissued under the name Scientific Irrationalism and that may suggest the basis for his claim that Kuhn and others were missing the element of rationality that was crucial to the doing of science.

In this course we’ll be looking primarily at a different response. Before going into filmmaking, Errol Morris was a graduate student at Princeton and had occasion to engage in prolonged debates with Kuhn before the latter moved on to MIT. Many years after Kuhn’s death, Morris’s book The Ashtray is a protracted defense of the reality of the world studied by science and of the need for bringing rationality to bear. Scientific theories are not just a matter of fashion, as suggested by Feyerabend (and even, to some extent, by Kuhn). By the end of the course, I hope our discussions will have provided arguments and evidence that there is perhaps a real world after all.

The chief text will be The Ashtray (Or the Man Who Denied Reality) by Errol Morris. It is available via bookfinder.com new for about $35 and used for less than $10. In addition, we’ll be looking at pieces of Kuhn’s own writings from The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn: Incommensurability in Science, provided to the class as pdfs via email. We will look at that instead of his earlier The Structure of Scientific Revolutions because Kuhn’s views evolved from his earlier book. Selections from other authors will also be emailed as pdfs to the class.   

We’ll be covering a wide range of points of view, and there is certainly no universal agreement about which is the ‘right’ approach. I’m hoping that different perspectives may appeal to different class members. Discussion will help us thrash out some of the differences.

Week 1: Carl Hempel, ‘Operationism, Observation, and Scientific Theories’. This gives a picture of the classical approach.

Week 2: Keith Windschuttle, ‘Foreword’ in David Stove, Scientific Irrationalism’. We’ll also look at Stove’s own criticisms.

Week 3: Kuhn, ‘Taxonomy and Incommensurability’ in The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn, 167-190. This introduces Kuhn’s basic vocabulary.

Week 4: ‘Embodying the Past’ in The Last Writings of Thomas S. Kuhn, 71-89. The historical foundation for Kuhn’s approach.

Week 5: The Ashtray, 1-32. Kuhn and Kripke.

Week 6: The Ashtray, 33-70. Kuhn and Borges.

Week 7: The Ashtray, 71-108. Kuhn and Wittgenstein.

Week 8: The Ashtray, 109-168. Kuhn, Language and the World.

Peter Rachleff has spent the last 45 years exploring the intersections of race and class in the development of the United States. A graduate of Amherst College, he earned his Ph.D. at the University of Pittsburgh in 1981. From 1982 to 2012 he taught labor, immigration, and African American history at Macalester College. In 2014, Peter and his partner Beth Cleary (associate professor of Dramatic Arts & Dance at Macalester, 1993-2021) co-founded a nonprofit in an historic Carnegie Library in St. Paul, the East Side Freedom Library, with the mission to “inspire solidarity, work for justice, and advocate for equity for all.” rachleff@macalester.edu

Overview:  The vibrancy and resilience of Minnesotans’ resistance to ICE, occupation, and authoritarianism have grabbed international attention. Our relatives, friends and colleagues around the world have emailed, texted, and called us, asking “What makes Minnesota so special?” This eight-week class seeks to answer that question through an exploration of social movements in Minnesota history. We will investigate the ways that ordinary Minnesotans—farmers, workers, immigrants, indigenous people, people of color, women, GLBTQ+ folks, and students—organized themselves, stood up for themselves and their neighbors, promoted fairness, justice, and equality, and embodied mutuality and community. We will also investigate how participants in these movements were transformed by their involvement, what they learned from their experiences, and how they shared their knowledge with ensuing generations.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Each class session will be a guided discussion of readings and videos. The readings will be compiled as a coursebook for which students will pay an additional charge of $22, covering the costs of printing and mailing. The syllabus will include links to the videos.

Week 1: How Do We Think About Social Movements in History?

• Michael Hardt on Leaderless Movements and Organizing The Multitude | by Media For Us | Medium

• The Power of Hope in the Movements for Freedom: An Interview with Robin D. G. Kelley

• Everyone Can Be A Backtalker’: Kimberlé Crenshaw On Power, Collective Action And Her New Memoir

• Revolution as a New Beginning – Upping the Anti

Week 2: Populism and the Labor Movement of the Late 19^th/Early 20^th Century

• Populism in Minnesota, 1868–1896 | MNopedia

• The Rise and Fall of Midwest Populism

• MinneCulture | Like a Comet Streaking Across the Sky: The Investigative Journalism of Eva Valesh | News | KFAI | Minneapolis & Saint Paul

• The cooperative coopers of Minneapolis / Steve Leikin.

• Rebel Girls Women in the Mesabi Iron Range Strike of 1916

• Gerry Ronning on “Jackpine Savages”

Week 3: 19^th Century Movements for Equal Rights: Gender and Racial Justice

• The Perils of Peace Frederick Douglass, Winona, and Civil Rights in Minnesota after the Civil War

• Fredrick McGhee, Minnesota Lawyer born – African American Registry RCHS_Winter1999_Riehle.pdf  

• Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association | MNopedia

• Women’s Suffrage in Minnesota | Minnesota Digital Library

Week 4: The Labor Movement in the 1930s

• Peter Rachleff, “Organizing Wall-to-Wall” 

• 1934-and-Now-BY-RACHLEFF.v2. 

Week 5: 1960s-1970s Movements for Racial and Gender Justice

• American Indian Movement (AIM) | MNopedia 

• The-Everyday-Activism-of-the-North-Central-Voters-League-in-St.-Paul.

Week 6: 1960s-1970s and the Movement Against War and for Peace

• The Times They Are A Changin’: The Antiwar Movement and Identity Politics – 1965-1980 – Progressive Paradox: A Gateway to Minnesota’s Past

• Anti-Vietnam War Movement, 1963–1973 | MNopedia

• 1970 Student Strike–50 Years Later – UMN Libraries News & Events

Week 7: The Labor Movement in the Era of Neoliberalism

• “UAW 879: From Racism to International Solidarity”

• “The Hormel Strike at 35”

Week 8: The Movement Against Authoritarianism and ICE

• From Malcolm X to ICE: Echoes from Earlier Generations on Resistance – Minnesota Women’s Press

• Working-Class Resistance Forced ICE Out of Minneapolis https://againstthecurrent.org/minneapolis-peoples-metro-surge/#:~:text=People%E2%80%99s%20Metro%20Surge

• Dispatches from Minneapolis: The Movement Against ICE has Touched Every Inch of the City

• Minneapolis vs. ICE: A City in Revolt from Below

• Teachers Organizing Against ICE in Minneapolis Schools Are the Heart of the Resistance

Gerald Hoekstra taught music history at St. Olaf College for 33 years. In addition to teaching classroom courses in music history, he directed the St. Olaf Early Music Singers and the Collegium Musicum, ensembles that performed music of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Eras. hoekstra@stolaf.edu

Overview:  When, in 1723, Bach landed the position of Director of Music for the churches of Leipzig, he had finally arrived in a place that allowed him to develop to the fullest his talents as a composer. Before this he had been employed as an organist and court musician, posts that offered him few opportunities to write church music, and he was known primarily as a virtuoso keyboard player and composer of fine instrumental music, but not as a composer of the type of music that was so central to Lutheran worship at the time. So, it is not surprising that Bach was the city council’s third choice for this important and prestigious position.

Chief among Bach’s responsibilities in Leipzig was to provide music for the choirs of the city’s main churches. He plunged into this new task with great enthusiasm, and between 1723 and 1728 he produced five yearly cycles of Kirchenmusik (church music, or sacred cantatas), as well as motets, settings of the passion story, and other sacred works. This body of music contains some of the richest and most beautiful music in all of the sacred repertory. Viewing the cantata as a second sermon, one that would convey the message of the scripture not just to the head, but to the heart, of the worshipper, Bach employed the full range of styles, genres, and musical techniques available to him to unite words and music. In this class we will examine Bach’s sacred music in the context of the composer’s life, Lutheran theology and liturgy of the time, and communal life in early 18^th-century Leipzig. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Preparation for class will involve short readings and listening to selections of music. Participants must have access to a computer. Course materials will be: 1) a printed handout containing a syllabus of the daily topics, along with reading and listening assignments for the eight weeks of classes; a Glossary of Terms and Baroque Forms and Genres; a list of recordings of the music available on YouTube; texts and English translations for the musical works to be studied in the class; and 2) a printed coursebook containing the readings for the class. A separate charge of $8 will be added to the registration fee for the coursebook.

Week 1: Introduction to the Baroque Era in music history; guidance for listening to Baroque music and doing the listening assignments; a brief introduction to music styles and forms of the Baroque Era.

Week 2: Overview of Bach’s life and career as a context for examining his church music; 18^th-century Lutheran theology and Bach’s music; examination and discussion of one of the earliest cantatas

Reading: “Johann Sebastian Bach: A Portrait in Outline,” from The New Bach Reader: A Life of Johann Sebastian Bach in Letters and Documents, ed. by Hans David and Arthur Mendel, revised and expanded by Christoph Wolff (2002)

Listening: Cantata 106 “Gottes Zeit ist die allerbesten Zeit” (funeral, 1707)

Week 3: The Lutheran liturgy and its music: cantatas, motets, passions, chorales; two early cantatas

Reading: Excerpt from Gunther Stiller, J. S. Bach and Liturgical Life in Leipzig (St. Louis, 1984)

Listening: Cantata 4 “Christ lag in Todesbanden” (Easter 1708, 1725); Cantata 61 “Nun komm der Heiden Heiland” (Advent 1714)

Week 4: Bach’s musicians and their instruments; Cantatas 21 and 26

Reading: Bach’s “Short but Most Necessary Draft for a Well-Appointed Church Music,” from The New Bach Reader

Listening: Cantata 21 “Ich hatte viel Bekümmernis” (Trinity III 1714); Cantata 26 “Ach wie flüchtig, ach wie nichtig” (Trinity XXIV 1724)

Week 5: Bach’s audience; Cantatas 77 and 78

Reading: Kevorkian, “The Reception of the Cantata during Leipzig Church Services, 1700-1750, “Early Music,” 2002

Listening: Cantata 78 “Jesu, der du meine Seele” (Trinity XIV 1724); Cantata 77 “Du sollt Gott, deinen Heren, lieben” (Trinity XIII 1724)

Week 6: Bach and his contemporaries; Cantatas 140 and 51; the Magnificat in D; madrigalian poetry in Lutheran church music

Reading: “Criticism and Controversy,” from The New Bach Reader (critique by Johann Adolph Scheibe and defense by Joh. Abraham Birnbaum)

Listening: Cantata 140 “Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme” (Trinity XXVII 1731); Cantata 51 “Jauchzet Gott” (Trinity XV 1730); Magnificat in D, BWV 243 (1723, rev. 1733)

Week 7: Holy Week in Leipzig’s churches; The St. Matthew Passion

Reading: none

Listening: The St. Matthew Passion (1727): Part I:  Opening chorus through no. 8, Aria “Buß und Reu”; Part II: No. 41a, Recitative, through the final chorus

Week 8: Bach’s later life and works; The Mass in B Minor; Bach after 1750

Reading: none

Listening: Mass in B Minor (assembled 1747-49): Kyrie and Credo

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, Woody Allen, and Merchant/ Ivory/Jhabvala, as well as courses on the music of Paul Simon, New York Stories, In My Little Town at the Movies, and Misfits at the Movies.
pbailey@stlawu.edu

Overview:  Hollywood seems convinced that only sequels are “bankable”—that is, certain to produce boffo box office magic. Why not CVEC? You don’t need to have enrolled in Misfits at the Movies this past spring to take this “Sequel” because we’ll summarize the term’s heady findings in the first session this fall. Among those discoveries are that movie misfits tell us a very good deal about the cultures from which they feel estranged, and that a good proportion of them seek nothing other than inclusion within the society they feel has ostracized them. We’re likely to end up feeling as well that we have more misfit in us than we admitted before discussing these nine movies. The Sequel class will feature WWII returnees finding themselves misfits in middle class America in The Best Years of Our Lives, James Dean desperately seeking to be as “good” as his more successful brother Aaron in Elia Kazan’s East of Eden, Thelma and Louise taking to the highway after killing a would-be rapist in Ridley Scott’s movie, the class culminating with orphan Hugo Cabret inhabiting a Paris train station while seeking to determine why “I am so alone”—those four, and five more films. In addition to their shared texts—or subtexts—of misfitism, these nine films constitute intellectually provocative American cinema, movies that substantially reward our lively two hours of debate over them each week.

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 circumscribe our discussions, which will seek to clarify the dramatic arcs of the films poised between the protagonists’ deeper descents into alienation and their opposed attraction towards the dreaded normalcy. All films are available on Amazon Prime for roughly $3.99 per movie. 

Week 1: William Wyler, The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Week 2: Elia Kazan, East of Eden (1955)

Week 3: J. Lee Thompson, Cape Fear (1962); Martin Scorsese, Cape Fear (1993)

Week 4: Robert Ellis Miller, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)

Week 5: David Lynch, Blue Velvet (1986)

Week 6: Ridley Scott, Thelma and Louise (1991)

Week 7: Lasse Hallstrom, The Cider House Rules (1999)

Week 8: Martin Scorsese, Hugo (2011)

Daniel Sullivan, a sociologist who began his teaching career at Carleton, is president emeritus of St. Lawrence University and former president of Allegheny College. He is currently chair of the CVEC Curriculum Committee.
dsullivan@stlawu.edu

Overview: Colin Woodard’s 2011 book, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America, shows how patterns of immigration laid the foundation for the geographical divisions we see in American politics today. Our politics still reflect where immigrants came from and when, where they settled, and the cultures they brought with them. As our November elections approach, Woodard’s book provides critical insights into how things may go and why. I believe every American should read Woodard, because understanding how things came to be is often the first step toward knowing how to try to shape the future. It was the focus of a four-week CVEC course I taught in Fall 2024.

I admit to struggling with what I should do to help shape the future, but recently I read Levitsky and Ziblatt’s Tyranny of the Minority, published in 2023 not long before the 2024 election—a sober foreshadowing of what did in fact occur. Authors of an earlier book entitled How Democracies Die, they share in the new book their deep and comprehensive comparative analysis of what has worked and what hasn’t worked globally for democracies. As with Woodard’s book I think it too is something every American should read.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The class will be a guided discussion of American Nations and Tyranny of the Minority. Woodard is available through bookfinder.com for less than $15 new or $7 used. The other Week 4 readings will be sent to the class as attachments via email. Levitsky and Ziblatt is available through bookfinder.com for less than $20 new or $10 used.

Week 1: Woodard—Introduction and Part One, Origins: 1590 to 1769, pages 1-111.

Week 2: Woodard—Part Two, Unlikely Allies: 1770 to 1815, pages 115-170.

Week 3: Woodard—Part Three, Wars for the West: 1816-1877, pages 173-239.

Week 4: Woodard—Part Four, Culture Wars: 1878-2010, pages, 243-322; plus Colin Woodard, “The Maps That Show That City vs. Country Is Not Our Political Fault Line,” The New York Times, July 30, 2018; Colin Woodard, “The Surprising Geography of Gun Violence,” Politico, April 23, 2023; Colin Woodard, “The Pitfalls and Promise of America’s Founding Myths,” Smithsonian Magazine, Feb. 22, 2021; and Michael P. Zuckert, A Nation  So Conceived, Conclusion, pp. 350-364.

Week 5: Levitsky and Ziblatt—Introduction; Chapter 1: Fear of Losing; Chapter 2: The Banality of Authoritarianism

Week 6: Levitsky and Ziblatt—Chapter 3: It Has Happened Here; Chapter 4: Why the Republican Party Abandoned Democracy

Week 7: Levitsky and Ziblatt—Chapter 5: Fettered Majorities; Chapter 6: Minority Rule

Week 8: Levitsky and Ziblatt—Chapter 7: America the Outlier; Chapter 8: Democratizing our Democracy

Brian O’Donnell is a professor emeritus in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. He has a B.A. in literature from Oberlin College and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from SUNY Stony Brook. He has investigated the psychology and biology of psychotic disorders and psychoactive drugs for several decades, supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation and Indiana University. bodonnel2@gmail.com

Overview:  Psychoactive drugs can alter perception, thinking, mood, energy level and movement control. The population of the United States consumes a vast spectrum of psychoactive drugs, both legal and illicit, recreational and medicinal. These include sedatives, stimulants, anti-depressants, sleep agents, psychedelics, analgesics, and cannabinoids. This course will examine different types of psychoactive drugs, how they affect the individual and their role in (or prohibition by) society. Topics addressed will include psychological and biological effects, phenomenological experiences, religious perspectives, social and criminal policy, medicinal uses, addictions and addiction treatment. Classes will be oriented toward discussion of issues and readings rather than presentations.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The United States has experienced a long and polarizing debate regarding the harms vs. benefits of psychoactive drug use. Additionally, criminalization of the use of some drugs has resulted in a staggering increase in incarceration, coupled with an increase in illicit drug use. We will examine the complex issues involved in drug use with fresh eyes and base our discussions on evidence from historical, scientific and clinical sources.

No text is required for the course. On each topic, participants choose several readings, videos or podcasts. These will be distributed electronically as .pdf documents or as links. There will be about 25 to 50 pages of reading for each class meeting. Topics will be adjusted depending on specific interests of students in the class.

Week 1: Overview.

• “I was so high: Prologue, Act One, Act Two”, This American Life, May 2, 2014. Podcast.
• “Pleasure, poison, prescription, prayer: The worlds of mind-altering substances.” Exhibit brochure, Hearst Museum of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, 2019.
• Michael Pollan, “How should we do drugs now?”, The New York Times Magazine, July 9, 2021 https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/09/opinion/sunday/drug-legalization-mdma-psilocybin.html
• Porter, E., “Numbers Tell of Failure in Drug War”, The New York Times, July 3, 2012.

Weak 2: Cannabis overview. Please read or listen to four of the following:

• Pollan, M., “Cannabis, forgetting and the botany of desire”, UC Berkeley: Townsend Center for the Humanities. 2003, pp. 1-19. If you prefer an audio experience, a recording of Pollan’s lecture is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeCra-sn0dI.
• Sohn, E., “Balancing act: Weighing the dangers of cannabis”, Nature 2019: 572, S16-S18 (2019).
• Rosalsky, Greg, “The Data On Legalizing Weed”, NPR: Planet Money, March 16, 2021.
• Span, P., “Lighting up later in life”, New York Times, March 20, 2021.
• Caron C., “Cannabis for Better Sex? Hereʼs What the Science Says”, The New York Times, 4/01/22.
• Anahita Bassir, Nia, MD, “Cannabidiol as an Adjunctive Treatment for Schizophrenia”.
• A good overview of the biology and effects of cannabis: Nicoll, R.A., Alger, B.E., “The brain’s own marijuana”, Scientific American, 2004:69-75.

Week 3: Cannabis as Medicine? Please read or listen to three of the following:

• Peter Grinspoon, “Cannabidiol (CBD)-what we know and what we don’t”, Harvard Health Publishing, Sept. 24, 2021
• Excellent talk by researcher Matt Hill, a neuroscientist at the University of Calgary, on potential for use of cannabis compounds as an adjunctive treatment in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tiqFDVhbX-U.
• Melinda Wenner Moyer, “Cannabis Use in Pregnancy May Lead to a More Anxious, Aggressive Child”, New York Times, Nov. 19, 2021.
• Zuardi, A.W., “History of cannabis as medicine: a review”, Rev Bras Psiqultr, 2006; 28(2):153-7.
• Aaron Carrol, “The Reasonable Way to View Marijuanaʼs Risks”, The New York Times, Jan. 14, 2019.

Week 4: Stimulants. Please read three of the following:

• Michael Pollan, “The invisible addiction: is it time to give up caffeine?”, The Guardian, July 6, 2021.
• Proctor, R.N., “The cigarette catastrophe continues”, Lancet, Volume 385, Issue 9972, pp 938-939, March 14, 2015.
• Jesse Hicks, “Fast Times: The Life, Death, and Rebirth of Amphetamine”, Science History Institute, April 14, 2012.
• Robles, F., “Meth, the Forgotten Killer, Is Back. And It’s Everywhere”, The New York Times, Feb. 13, 2018.
• Carole Cadwalladr, “Students used to take drugs to get high. Now they take them to get higher grades”, The Guardian, Feb. 14, 2015.

Week 5: Psychedelics overview. Please read or listen to four of the following:

• Marlene Dobkin de Rios, “Psychedelic Drugs”, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, second edition (2005).
• Andrew Jacobs, “How Psychedelics Affect the Brain”, The New York Times, April 7, 2026.
• Alvord, L., “The Healing Properties of Navajo Ceremonies,” Simon Ortiz and Labriola Center Lecture on Indigenous Land, Culture, and Community, Arizona State University, Oct. 22, 2015. Dr. Alvord video (begin at 12 minutes into the recording).
• Sam S.B. Shonkoff, “What the Study of Religion Can Teach Us About Psychedelics.”
• Casey Schwartz, “Taking Ayahuasca When Youʼre a Senior Citizen”, The New York Times, Oct. 17, 2019.
• William R. Smith, Paul S. Appelbaum, “Two Models of Legalization of Psychedelic Substances: Reasons for Concern”. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2021;326(8):697-698.

Week 6: Psychedelics as Medicine. Please read or listen to four of the following:

• Paul Tullis, “How ecstasy and psilocybin are shaking up psychiatry”, Nature, Vol. 58, Jan. 28, 2021.
• Andrew Jacobs, “Legal Use of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms Begins in Oregon”, The New York Times, Jan. 3, 2023.
• Andrew Jacobs, “MDMA Therapy in Australia Shows Results, but the Cost Is Limiting Access”, The New York Times, March 24, 2026.
• Rachel Nuwer, “Magic mushrooms could help people quit smoking”, BBC, May 1, 2026.
• Dodge, D., “The Ketamine Cure”, The New York Times, Nov. 4, 2021.
• Caron C., “Can MDMA Save a Marriage?”, The New York Times, Feb, 8, 2022.

Week 7: Opioids. Please read or listen to three of the following:

• Gravitz, L., “Unravelling the mystery of opioid addiction”, Nature, 573, S20-S21
• Breithaupt, D., “The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs: An Interview with Johann Hari”, Los Angeles Review of Books, March 31, 2016. 
• Travis Rieder, “The agony of opioid withdrawal—and what doctors should tell patients about it”, (TED talk)
• NPR interview with Carl Erik Fisher, a physician who struggled with his own addictions. https://www.npr.org/2022/01/20/1074202087/the-urge-language-addiction-recovery-carl-erik-fisher
• DeWeerdt, S., “Tracing the US opioid crisis to its roots”, Nature, 2019: 573, S10-S12 at https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02686-2.

Week 8: Opioid addictions and drug policy. Please read or listen to three of the following:

• Lopez, G., “The perils of legalization”, The New York Times, April 24, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/24/briefing/drug-legalization-opioid-crisis-week-ahead.html.

• Hart, C., “Viewing addiction as a brain disease promotes social injustice”, Nature Human Behavior, 2017: 1(3), 0055 at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-017-0055..

• National Institute on Drug Abuse: “Effective Treatments for Opioid Addiction”.

• Rich, et al., “Medicine and the Epidemic of Incarceration in the United States”, New England Journal of Medicine,2011: 2081-2083. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3154686/.

Peggy Sheldon has worked in education for about 35 years, both as a high school teacher and as a college Gifted Studies consultant at St. Thomas University. She founded and served for 21 years as the Executive Director of the US Academic Triathlon, an enrichment activity sanctioned by the Minnesota Department of Education for which she wrote and produced the curriculum. She also has worked as a photojournalist and retired to Northfield in 2012. plsheldon118@gmail.com

Overview:  What an adventure! Celia Hayes’ well-researched The Adelsverein Trilogy is a fascinating fictional historical look into the challenges of immigrating from Germany to America in the 1840s. We will delve into how German immigrants settled large parts of Texas, fleeing the Rhineland for a new life with no guarantees. Classes will consist of informal text-based discussions of Book 1 of the trilogy—The Gathering— augmented by several other sources as we delve into why so many German people found a home and made a life in the Texas hill country. At key points in the class, joining us remotely from Germany, retired Carleton and St. Olaf Professor Joachim “Yogi” Reppmann, a historian of German overseas migration & of the democratic revolutionaries of 1848 who settled in the US, will help us draw parallels with the experiences of the large number of German immigrants to Minnesota during the same period.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  For those who would prefer it the entire trilogy, which includes fascinating historical notes, is available from Amazon new in two forms: a hardcover book or a Kindle version for $47 or $9 respectively. Students who prefer to acquire just Book 1, The Gathering, can find it in paperback via bookfinder.com new or used for less than $18 or in a Kindle version for less than $5. Course materials also will include free handouts and presentations via the internet on how to see what our ancestors saw and did at the time this story unfolds. Optional additional readings will be presented during class time. 

Week 1: First, we’ll take a little time to get acquainted and review the syllabus and “Food for thought” questions. We’ll talk about how and why German people came to the New World in the 19^th century. Dr. Reppmann will tell us what it was like in Germany then, and how our main characters would’ve viewed America. Then we’ll discuss the Prelude to The Gathering, which you should read before the first class.

Week 2: Hearing about Adelsverein. Read Ch. 1 & 2. What were the German people told? Was any of it truly a representation of what they were getting into? At the time, there were nearly 500 dialects of the German language. How did they communicate? Under the auspices of a society of misguided noblemen of Mainz, they set out. Their own skills, their decisions of what to bring, and their trust in the future came to bear. 

Week 3: Voyagers crossing an ocean, doing business and speaking English. We’ll read about what actually happened when our intrepid travelers saw their new land. Giving birth in a ship’s hold full of chickens, being exposed to the plague, existing in an assigned small space all come into play as the travelers board the ship. Had they brought what they needed? Did they care that this was the land of “Six Flags”? Read Ch. 3 & 4.

Week 4: Weeping and remembering Zion. Their adventures continue, accompanied by soldiers. Falling into a river, meeting an informed botanist, and deciding whether to strike out into a wilderness without help are among the challenges. Read Ch. 5-7.

Week 5: We’ll discuss whether we would advise the characters in the book to leave Germany or stay home, knowing what we’ve learned so far. Would you tell them to stay, go back to Europe, or keep moving away? What is a “Dutchman”? How do women and men manipulate one another to survive this new climate and lifestyle? Have members of the class been to Texas Hill country? Luchenbach? Friedricksberg? Read Ch. 8-12.

Week 6: The business of living. The extended family grows. We’ll see living conditions from the history of Minnesota and contrast how different native tribes in the North and South operated, with a highlight from the American Indian Museum at Mille Lacs. Read Ch. 13-15.

Week 7: Read to the end of Book One. How do settlers make a house into a home? Welcome a baby? We’ll take a look back: how far has this family come, in terms of quality of life, safety and security for the future, number of survivors, etc.? As a class, how has our own understanding evolved? We’ll take a look at work on your family history or genealogy. 

Week 8: Read The Finale: The fourth of July 1853. We’ll discuss how German immigrants have affected both Minnesota and Texas. There will be a recap of the history we’ve learned, plus more from Yogi, who will give information that he has gleaned from his thorough, hands-on research. Class members also would be invited to present, either aloud or in writing, their own stories, if they’d like to share.

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 course covers the U.S. Intelligence Community, how intelligence supports national security policy development, and how intelligence is applied to execute strategy in pursuit of policy objectives (specifically, implementation of national security and foreign policy initiatives). Studying the structure, processes, procedures, oversight, and capabilities of the Intelligence Community will enhance students’ understanding of how intelligence supported or failed policymakers in national security decision-making, including the areas of diplomatic and economic cooperation and engagement, and security challenges ranging from deterrence to conventional war.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  In six two-hour sessions, retired CIA Senior Intelligence Service executive David Sauer and retired Commander Jon Olson, a career U.S. Navy intelligence officer, will take students through a detailed study of how the U.S. Intelligence Community is organized; differences between how civilian-led and DoD-centric intelligence agencies, offices, and commands function; how the intelligence community is funded; and how intelligence operations are carried out in support of national security interests. We’ll have in-depth discussions of intelligence oversight, legal frameworks for intelligence, and intelligence collection methodologies. There is no required reading but for added background students may wish to read the suggested sections below from Mark Lowenthal, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, CQ Press; Ninth edition (June 7, 2022). Though the paper edition is very expensive to purchase new ($129), it is available via bookfinder.com for 60-day rental at $52.02 or via Kindle for as little as $43.26.  Earlier editions—less current—are available used via bookfinder.com in the $30 range.

Week 1 (Sept. 10): In this first week we’ll dive right in to learn why countries maintain intelligence agencies and run operations. We’ll look at how the U.S. Intelligence Community is organized, and we’ll look at the intelligence cycle to better understand how policymakers guide intelligence community operations, and how they use finished intelligence to make national security decisions. Suggested reading before Week 1: Chapters 1 through 4

Week 2 (Sept. 17): During this week we’ll take a deep dive into the various intelligence collection disciplines, we’ll look at how intelligence analysts produce finished intelligence products, and we’ll consider, more deeply, the relationship between career intelligence professionals and policymakers. Finally, we’ll take a brief look at foreign intelligence services in a compare/contrast assessment. Suggested reading before Week 2: Chapters 5, 6, 9, and 15

Week 3 (Sept. 24): This week’s session will be spent looking at the importance of counterintelligence as a partner operation to all intelligence collection disciplines, but perhaps most importantly as a partner to Human Intelligence (HUMINT) operations. Because these two intelligence topics invariably hit the front pages when things go wrong, we’ll also look at Intelligence Oversight. Suggested reading before Week 3: Chapters 7, 8, 10, and 13

Week 4 (Oct. 1): In this fourth session, we’ll consider the challenge of collection, processing, and analyzing intelligence linked to both nation states and transnational issues. David Sauer and Jon Olson will provide anecdotal tales from their respective careers in how their work impacted these intelligence functions and objectives. Suggested reading before Week 4: Chapters 11, 12, and 14

Week 5 (Oct.8): This class session will cover intelligence reform, what led to the latest significant reform, and we’ll consider other reforms that may be needed to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the U.S. Intelligence Community. We’ll also look at the U.S. Intelligence Community budgeting process and how the different funding streams direct intelligence community activities based on authorities in U.S. Code. Suggested research before Week 5: Do an in-depth search on U.S. Intelligence Community budgets

Week 6 (Oct. 15): In this final session, we’ll look at the role Covert Action plays in American national security, how oversight and accountability function to ensure the U.S, Intelligence Community operates within the legal, ethical, and moral boundaries of American society. We’ll also consider other moral, ethical, and legal issues associated with intelligence, and we’ll consider the future of where the U.S. Intelligence Community may be headed based on technology breakthroughs, changes in the global balance of power, and other factors. Suggested research before Week 6: Research covert action, and search for new security and defense technologies that interest you—we can discuss these in class.

Norman Crouch earned graduate degrees at the University of Wisconsin and taught medical microbiology and conducted virus research while on faculties at the University of Iowa and the University of Illinois. After years of teaching and research at these institutions, he became director of the Minnesota Department of Health’s Public Health Laboratory in St Paul and then Assistant Commissioner of Health for the State of Minnesota, overseeing the Bureau of Health Protection, which included the Divisions of Environmental Health; Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Prevention and Control; the Public Health Laboratory; and the Office of Emergency Response. nacrouch11@gmail.com  

Overview:  We live in a world of microbes. They are in the soil we touch, in the air we breathe, and on surfaces we contact. They also cover our bodies, skin, hair, mouth, and digestive tract. While most are helpful, even essential, some are harmful and may cause serious disease. We will explore the nature of this microscopic world and how it affects our lives. Emphasis will be on medical microbiology, how germs cause disease and how our bodies function to protect us. For this, we will explore and discuss the diversity of microbes, the nature of our defenses against infection, the immune system, vaccines, the use of antibiotics, the role of public health, and the current challenge of emerging new infectious diseases. This course is designed for students interested in learning more about the consequential interaction between microbes and us. While we will talk about science, a science background is not necessary.

Course Materials and Class Schedule: No textbook will be required. Some reading for enhancement will be provided using online documents and internet links sent out before each class. For each weekly session, I will provide in advance a PowerPoint presentation covering the material to be discussed. Classes will provide time for relevant stories about our experiences, and time for asking questions, participating in discussion, and satisfying your curiosity. At its conclusion, members of this class should have a better understanding of what the microbial world is and how it influences our everyday life.

Week 1: For many centuries the very existence of microbe-life was unknown; these tiny creatures were invisible to us. Then, in 1683, through the magic of a simple lens, handcrafted and used by a curious Dutchman, they were first seen. About 200 years later, scientific causes for contagious diseases, rotting of matter, and spoilage of liquids became understood. We will explore how this revelation occurred.

Week 2: We will discuss these fascinating creatures and learn about their diversity, why they are invisible, how we observe them, how they grow, and what their roles are in nature. These roles include recycling nature’s chemical elements, production of important industrial products, and manufacture of foods and beverages.

Week 3: Though most of the different kinds of microbes are beneficial to us, or live with us in harmony, some cause disease. For the remainder of this course, we will examine this potentially fatal struggle between us and them. This is the field of medical microbiology. We will begin with a discussion about how microbes cause disease.

Week 4: While disease-producing microbes have an arsenal of ways to damage us, we have strong defenses against this onslaught. In addition to learning about physical barriers to infection, and what is called innate immunity, we will discuss our ability to mount an immune response to invasion by microbes and the poisons some of them produce.

Week 5: A form of vaccine was used in China during the 10^th century in attempts to prevent smallpox. In 1796, the first real vaccine for this devastating disease was given experimentally to a young boy by a doctor in England. It was a success, even before it was known what caused the infection. Since that time, remarkable vaccines have been developed for a variety of infections caused by both bacteria and viruses. The consequences of their use have been remarkable throughout the world.

Week 6: During this week, we will discuss antibiotics: how they were accidentally discovered, how they are produced, how they are tested, how they are used to treat infections, and how their use may be threatened in the future.

Week 7: Now that we have discussed how microbes cause disease and how we can counter their ability to do so, we will focus on infections that were a major threat in the near and distant past. Are they still a threat? Additionally, could there be emerging new infections to threaten us in the future?

Week 8: We will conclude our exploration of medical microbiology by a discussion of public health. While health care focuses on diagnosis and treatment of the individual patient, public health focuses on disease prevention and protecting the health of the entire population. Metaphorically, while health care treats individual trees, public health protects the forest. Our discussion will include early detection of infectious diseases followed by rapid responses to protect and control.

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. She taught her first course in CVEC in Fall 2025. dignashe@carleton.edu  

Overview:  Widely considered Russia’s most read novel, The Master and Margarita is funny, tragic, strange, and deeply engaging—there is truly never a dull moment. Bulgakov has woven together three simultaneous plots: a mysterious foreigner named Woland (a Mephistophelic figure) and his unforgettable entourage—a wisecracking giant black cat, a fixer, an assassin, and a female vampire—arrive in in Stalin’s Moscow and wreak havoc. At the same time, in ancient Yershalaim, Pontius Pilate considers the fate of a wandering philosopher named Yeshua. And the love story? Margarita, one of literature’s most remarkable heroines, takes extreme measures to save her beloved writer, the novel’s eponymous Master. A film adaptation of the novel, available at no cost, will be offered to help students visualize events. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The required text is Pevear and Volokhonsky’s Penguin Classics translation (the 2016 edition, sold for ±$12 new and $5 used on amazon.com): Please buy only this edition, and be sure to consult the notes at the end of the book as you read.

Classes will combine brief lectures (with slides) and discussion. We’ll cover the historical background, Bulgakov’s biography, the novel’s plot, and add a bit of literary analysis to address both the novel’s greatness and its weaknesses. Reading assignments will be about 60 pages per week for seven weeks (the first week’s assignment will be shorter), with a final session devoted to conclusions and discussion of the film. Short reading guides will be provided. 

Week 1: Introduction & Notes (optional), Chapters 1–3

Week 2: Chapters 4–9

Week 3: Chapters 10–14

Week 4: Chapters 15–18

Week 5: Chapters 19–23

Week 6: Chapters 24–27

Week 7: Chapters 28–32 + Epilogue

Week 8: View film (will be available online), concluding discussion of novel and film

Bill Peterson is retired Executive Director of Friends of San Lucas, a Minnesota-based non-profit which supports development work in Guatemala. He spent the majority of his career in non-profit work as a lay minister, teacher and executive. He lives on the Little Cannon River with his spouse, two exceptional British Labradors and several chickens (numbers vary depending on predation volatility). bipet001@gmail.com

Overview:  In 2015 Connie Newton and Fran Early wrote a book with the title Doing Good … Says Who? which dared to present some of the less successful stories of international development work. Using this book as our guide and supplementing it with TED Talks, articles and your experiences, we will look at the many ways that trying to be helpful can go wrong, and, more importantly, what the strategies are for getting it right. Along the way we will discuss what to look for when you are engaged with a non-profit organization and how to ensure you are supporting impactful work. While the class will focus on international work, it will also apply to domestic organizations as well.

This class will be highly participatory. Participants will be encouraged to bring in profiles of organizations with which they have engaged as case studies as we explore the many ways to approach non-profit development work.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The class will be a guided discussion of Doing Good … Says Who. It is widely available new and used online (e.g. used at bookfinder.com for less than $10). Other readings and resources will be provided.

Week 1: Chapter 1 and “The Danger of A Single Story”, TED Talk

Week 2: Chapters 2 and 3. “Duffle Bag Medicine,” article

Week 3: Chapters 4 and 5. Evaluating a 990 form.

Week 4: Book conclusion and final thoughts.