Course Descriptions Spring 2026

Pat Johnson, chair of the CVEC board, taught philosophy at the University of Dayton for 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: In Giving Up is Unforgivable, A Manual for Keeping a Democracy, Joyce Vance argues that the work of democracy belongs to the people. She explores how we can save our Republic and move forward with a renewed commitment to democracy. We will read her book, follow her daily newsletters on “Civil Discourse,” and discuss why giving up is unforgivable.

Course Materials and Class Schedule: Joyce Vance is the former US attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. She resigned after 25 years as a career federal prosecutor and is now the author of “Civil Discourse,” a daily newsletter that guides readers through contemporary issues, explaining their legal context and political history. Her recent book, Giving Up is Unforgivable, is a guide for keeping a strong democracy. It places our current political crisis in historical context and sketches a vision for what is possible. She argues that the rule of law matters, and that we can do something individually and collectively to preserve and strengthen our democracy.   

The book is available at Content for $28 and elsewhere new and used for less. We will also follow her Substack, “Civil Discourse,” which is available free of charge (although paid subscriptions are welcomed for $50 a year). I have a subscription and will share specific newsletters with you if you don’t want to subscribe. The book is 173 pages, so there will be plenty of time each week to discuss each chapter and to follow current issues related to the book.

Week 1: Read the Introduction and Chapter 1, “Don’t Be the Frog.” This chapter outlines the parameters of our current constitutional crisis.

Week 2: Read Chapter 2, “The Myth of Broken Institutions.” This chapter is about how our institutions were designed to work and how we can strengthen them.

Week 3: Read Chapter 3, “How Democracy Works for Us.” This chapter addresses the question, why have a democracy at all?

Week 4: Read Chapter 4, “A New Lost Cause.” This chapter looks at what we can learn from the Founding Fathers, literature, and American history.

Week 5: Read Chapter 5, “RBG’s Umbrella.” This chapter focuses on voting.

Week 6: Read Chapter 6, “We are the cavalry.” This chapter focuses on what we can do, individually and collectively.

Week 7: Read the Conclusion and Postscript. Does she challenge you to become involved in service?

Week 8: Final discussion. We will read from “Civic Discourse” and ask where we are in the work of saving our Republic and advancing democracy.

Dan Van Tassel, “an alumnus of St. Olaf College,” 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 (12 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 de Maupassant and O. Henry, is the surprise-ending story. Penning short stories has often been the starting point for future novelists. 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, though definitely a pattern less belabored than in longer forms of fiction. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Penning short stories has often been the starting point for future novelists, just as sonnets have served as a proving ground for the would-be poet intent on going on to create longer forms of verse or epics. In America and Europe, short stories became especially popular in the 19^th century with the reigning emphasis on realism. A defining feature of the short story is its portrayal of a slice of life. But beyond such formative definitions are stories that embody a myth or, to summon narratives by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “magical realism.” Indeed, there are as many versions of short stories as authors of them. Brevity or shortness is the chief shaping factor in prose narratives in the category of literature under scrutiny in this course. In a short story, you can count on a protagonist, usually in company with other characters, a setting, use of figurative language and distinctive stylistic features, 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 out the online texts, you can buy a new paperback copy of the fifth edition of The Seagull Book of Stories, edited by Joseph Kelly (Norton) for $41.25 (plus tax and shipping). But it doesn’t include three of our assigned stories (“The Swimmer,” by John Cheever, “A Worn Path,” by Eudora Welty, and “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter,” by D. H. Lawrence.) An alternative is to 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). A 2001 edition would come up short on only two of our assigned stories (“Why I Live at the P.O.,” by Eudora Welty, and “I’m a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy,” by Louise Erdrich). By buying either, you would still end up printing out two or three missing stories. Another option would be to bring your laptop with you to class. 

A course packet, consisting of the syllabus and—a way of priming the pump—study and discussion guides for each of the dozen short stories assigned, will be available at least a week before the term begins. The cost for the packet is $8.00 and will be added to your registration fee. A copy can either be picked up at our initial meeting or delivered to your address in advance. Prior to our first session, you’ll be emailed a class roster to help you start getting acquainted with other members of the class.

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.” In advance, read the story twice and go over the study guide. After a brief break midway, we’ll turn our attention to the second short story scheduled: “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. Again, referencing the study guide, rivet your attention on this psychological study. The difference in length of the stories is conspicuous. Both, however, feature a female protagonist who secretly yearns for a different life from her customary married state when an event occurs which prompts consideration of a change in routine.

Week 2: We turn our attention next 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 another 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 entitled Dubliners. Again, the study guides are apropos as starting points for our discussion.

Week 4: Toss away your civvies 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 let’s 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 first focus for today’s class. Next, we’ll share our views about Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants,” a story whose full meaning depends on what isn’t said as much as what is said in the ensuing dialogue.

Week 7: Today we share our feelings about the plight of a woman whose brothers offer no assistance to their sister as they break up the household and whose life is saved by a man who, having served as her rescuer, finds himself in the mystery of an unanticipated romance. Welcome to D. H. Lawrence’s “The Horse Dealer’s Daughter.” 

Week 8: For our finale we’ll first 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. The second half of class we’ll compare notes on another story by Welty, entitled “Why I Live at the P.O.” It portrays a family feud from the perspective of a first-person narrator whose delightfully colloquial language and animated defenses invoke and re-enliven clichés and culminate in her firm vows to ignore her family and enjoy living apart from them.

Rod Christensen, MD, is a retired family physician who practiced in Northfield for 25 years before finishing his career in leadership positions with Allina Health. He has taught six previous courses in CVEC and is a member of the CVEC Board of Directors. chris719@charter.net

Overview:  We have all experienced awe at some point in our lives, but how well do we understand it? What does it mean to us? Is it common for us now, and does that matter? We will learn from Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor who has spent his career studying human emotion, by reading his book: Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life. The first part of each session will be spent discussing the book together. We will spend the second part sharing stories about awe from our own lives, both experiences we remember that have been important to us, and new examples of awe we each seek out during the course. Keltner contends that finding awe and helping it flourish in our lives can be very beneficial to us all.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  This course will be highly participatory—do not expect to hear lectures. The book is quite engaging, mixing cross-cultural studies, well-described neuroscience, examples from the arts, and moving personal stories. It will lead us into rich discussions. As we share our own personal experiences with awe, we will often be able to connect them to the topics we discuss that week. Between sessions, we will follow Keltner’s advice and learn to deliberately seek and nurture awe. The book is available new at Content, discounted from $18, or used from bookfinder.com for $10 or less. Expect to read about 45 pages weekly. 

Week 1: Introduction, Chapter 1, and pp. 104-108.

• The author’s experience as a researcher, and a story of profound awe in his life. 
• The “Eight wonders of life” that are common causes of awe, and how they vary between cultures. 
• How to take an “awe walk.”

Week 2: Chapters 2 and 3 

• How experiencing awe can change the way we think, and how that happens in our brains.
• How awe feels to us—physical reactions to awe. 
• How awe and culture evolve together. 

Week 3: Chapters 4 and 5 

• “Moral beauty” as a cause of awe. Our awe at the actions of others. 
• Can awe be contagious? Self-perpetuating? 
• Awe that we experience when part of a group, playing or moving together. 

Week 4: Chapters 6 and 7. 

• Awe elicited by the natural world. 
• Is this kind of awe deeply evolved? Is there a biological need for it? 
• Awe created by listening to music–our physical and collective responses, and how we derive meaning from music. 

Week 5: Chapters 8 and 9 

• Visual art, geometric patterns and physical beauty as causes of awe. 
• Spiritual awe, related to faith and/or mystery. 
• Is there a need for this kind of awe across times and places? 

Week 6: Chapters 10 and 11 

• Can we cultivate awe to our benefit?
• Awe at the extremes of life: birth and death. 
• How does a feeling of awe help create meaning at these times? 
• Can we now define awe? Can we explain it? 

Tom Drucker: From the time that, as an undergraduate, he was cast as Laertes in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to his inclusion of Arcadia in a course on mathematics and literature, he has been fascinated by Stoppard’s use of language to prevent our taking almost any idea for granted. He retired after decades of teaching mathematics and other courses at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in 2021 and has taught multiple courses for CVEC.

druckert@uww.edu

Overview:  With the death of British playwright Tom Stoppard last November, one of the most successful authors for the stage has taken his last bow. His work caught the attention of the theatre-going public in 1966 and his plays were recognized on both sides of the Atlantic for 59 years. They ranged from the almost farcical to the profoundly serious. This class is intended to take us from Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to Leopoldstadt and to see how aspects of his Czech and Jewish background were combined with his interests in philosophy, mathematics, and physics.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  When Stoppard was asked what Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead was about, he would reply, “It’s about two courtiers from Elsinore.” That play is one among many that have built on aspects of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but 60 years after its premiere it continues to hold the stage. We’ll aim to figure out whether it still deserves to hold the stage so much later. From there we’ll proceed toThe Real Inspector Hound, a memorable send-up of British country-house murder mysteries. Then we’ll proceed to Jumpers, in which one of the characters is convinced by Zeno’s paradoxical arguments and believes that St. Sebastian died of fright. As readers and viewers of Stoppard have long known, it is hard to predict in which direction he will be going next.

In addition to his plays, Stoppard also was a screenwriter, including adapting Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead for the screen in a version with Gary Oldman and Tim Roth. He has much of the credit for the Academy Award-winning screenplay for Shakespeare in Love. He did adaptations of a number of standard European theatre works for the English stage. We’ll be busy enough with the plays he both conceived and wrote. Stoppard asked Hermione Lee to write his life, and the book appeared in the United States and the United Kingdom in 2020. For those looking for biographical information, it can’t be improved on. With the number of plays we’ll be reading, it would be a bit much to ask anyone to purchase the biography, but it is worth looking at.

Each class will be devoted to discussion of one of Stoppard’s plays. Total reading for the course will be about 660 pages. The plays will be provided to students in a coursebook, for which an extra charge of $20 will be due upon registration. It will be mailed to registered students at least a week prior to the first class.

Week 1: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Week 2: The Real Inspector Hound

Week 3: Jumpers

Week 4: Dogg’s Hamlet

Week 5: Hapgood

Week 6: Arcadia

Week 7: The Invention of Love

Week 8: Leopoldstadt

Joe Moravchik has a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a J.D. from the William Mitchell College of Law.  He held a State of Wisconsin DOJ Board of Standards Police Officer’s License during his service as a police officer and is a graduate of the Milwaukee County Sheriff & Police Academy. Joe was a multi-time winner of the Wisconsin Attorney General’s prestigious Exemplary Officer Award for high quality performance and professional dedication. jmoravchik1525@gmail.com

John Robison was a business lawyer for 41 years, spending most of that time in Madison, Wisconsin. He followed U.S. Supreme Court decisions during that time as a hobby. He is co-executive director of CVEC.

johnrobison3123@gmail.com

Overview:  Probably nothing defines the essence of what it means to be an American better than the Bill of Rights. These allocations of power between our government and the individual have dominated our national identity and occupied our courts since they were adopted. We will briefly explore the origins of these rights, but will spend most of our time discussing their interpretation and implementation. We will cover many Supreme Court cases, but this course will focus on the outcomes of those cases rather than on an in-depth review of their reasoning. We expect that a majority of class time will be spent discussing the Court’s interpretations of these rights, and how those interpretations are implemented in practice, especially in day-to-day police work.  

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The only book to be purchased for this course is The Bill of Rights – A User’s Guide by Linda R. Monk (5th Edition). This is a readable overview of the origin and interpretations of the Bill of Rights. It is available at Amazon and other online booksellers, and may be available at Content Bookstore (call first). It’s a softcover book that should cost about $20 or less. In addition, the instructors will provide an outline of approximately 30 pages that will be provided digitally for no charge; students who want a hard copy may obtain one for the cost of photocopying. 

Week 1: Introduction; Why have a Bill of Rights? Freedom of Speech

Week 2: Freedom of Speech (cont.). The Right to Bear Arms 

Week 3: Search and Seizure 

Week 4: Freedom of Religion

Week 5: Right Against Self-Incrimination; Right to Counsel 

Week 6: Cruel and Unusual Punishment

Week 7: Right to Privacy 

Week 8: Right to Property; Conclusions

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:  This course is an introduction to the meteorological phenomena that affect Minnesota, including: blizzards, ice storms, thunderstorms, lightning, hail, flash floods, tornadoes, and ENSO (El Niño, La Niña, & the Southern Oscillation). Attention will be given to each weather phenomenon, its causes, its associated hazards, and best safety practices during the event. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Every week during the course students will examine a unique meteorological phenomenon that impacts and/or affects the state of Minnesota. Each class session will be divided into two portions. The first portion of class will be spent introducing the specific phenomenon, learning the conditions necessary for its formation, understanding the conceptual nature and movement of the phenomenon, and recognizing the steps necessary to stay safe during these events. In the second portion of class students will analyze and review a Minnesotaspecific, historical case-study of the phenomenon in question.  

Short readings will be assigned almost every week. These readings will be available in PDF formatted files, via specifically identified websites, and/or the Minnesota Weather Almanac (Second Edition).  PDF files will be available to students before the start of the course. A complete syllabus specifying the weekly readings will be emailed to enrolled students prior to the first day of class. Students are encouraged to purchase Minnesota Weather Almanac: Second Edition (2015) by Mark W. Seeley (former Minnesota State Climatologist). The book is an easy and enjoyable read with statistics and weather history specific to Minnesota. This text can be purchased either new or used for under $15. 

By the end of the course, students will have learned what environments are most conducive to different forms of severe weather formation, be able to recognize radar patterns indicating a potential for severe weather occurrence, discriminate the atmospheric conditions favorable for severe weather development, describe the effects that El Niño/Southern Oscillation have on Minnesota and global weather patterns, and list the steps necessary to stay safe during these events. No prior background in Atmospheric Science, Meteorology, Climatology, and/or Geography is required to attend this course. 

Week 1: Introductions.  Weather Basics. 

            – What are fluid dynamics, anyway?

            – Understanding Weather Radar. 

Week 2: Winter Events.

            – NTSB report AAR-73-10 (Cessna 182 (N70586)).

– The Halloween Blizzard of 1991.

– Extratropical cyclone of October 26-27, 2010.

Week 3: Thunderstorms. 

– Rice County thunderstorms on September 20^th, 2018.

Week 4: Damaging Winds & Floods.

            – The Great Flood of 1993.

Week 5: Lightning & Hail.

            – May 15^th, 1998 hailstorm.

– The ‘Peony Pummeler’ hailstorm on June 11^th, 2017.

Week 6: Tornadoes. 

            – Minnesota storm chasing with Dr. Paul Zunkel.

Week 7: Droughts & Heatwaves. 

            – The drought of 1988. 

Week 8: El Niño, La Niña, & Southern Oscillation. 

            – Future climate changes and their impacts on Minnesota.

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, and “New York Stories” and “In My Little Town” at the movies.

pbailey@stlawu.edu

Overview:  This course’s title derives from Arthur Miller’s screenplay The Misfits, directed by John Huston, dramatizing four outsiders who seek to redeem their failures in the world by corralling wild horses to be processed for dog food. What they have in common with Sally Bowles (Cabaret), Travis Bickle (Taxi Driver), and Roberta Glass (Desperately Seeking Susan) is their resort to extreme measures in their efforts to overcome their isolation and to transform their eccentricities into respect from others (or for themselves). Reverend Ernst Toller (First Reformed) tries to avenge human indifference to environmental devastation by attempting to blow up a church. Jack Lucas (The Fisher King) must climb the face of a Manhattan building to retrieve the Holy Grail which will stir homeless Perry from his coma and thus absolve Jack from his guilt in Perry’s wife’s death. What distinguishes these films is the very substantial sympathy their accomplished directors extend to these misfits—save, certainly, for Joyce Carol Oates’/Joyce Chopra’s The Misfit (Smooth Talk), and for Woody Allen, who clearly believes that his six erotomanic misfits deserve everything they get.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Before each class I’ll distribute handouts about the 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 poised between the protagonists’ deeper descents into alienation and the opposed attraction towards the dreaded normalcy. All films are available on Amazon Prime for roughly $3.99 per movie. 

Week 1: John Huston, The Misfits (1961)

Week 2: Bob Fosse, Cabaret (1972)

Week 3: Martin Scorsese, Taxi Driver (1975)

Week 4: Joyce Chopra, Smooth Talk (1985)

Week 5: Susan Seidelman, Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

Week 6: Terry Gilliam, The Fisher King (1991)

Week 7: Woody Allen, You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010)

Week 8: Paul Scrader, First Reformed (2017)

Barbara Evans is a retired high school speech and English teacher. After teaching in Rochester for 34 years, she relocated to Northfield where her interest in architecture blossomed. She is a member of the Heritage Preservation Commission, has given walking and bus tours of the city, and has taught multiple CVEC courses with Northfield as the focus. 

barbjevans@aol.com

Overview:  This course falls into the Northfield history category. It won’t directly duplicate a previous class that I’ve offered but will have some overlapping information for people who may have taken previous classes about Northfield from me. One difference is the focus on who, what, where, when, why, and how the town of Northfield began. We will explore how those values and actions exist today and how they connect to our present. The course will also include participants sharing information about organizations and groups that people have created (non-profits, churches, schools, media, etc.) with their history and current status. People in the class will be encouraged to share what organizations they belong to (50 North, Library, congregations, Rotary, Northfield Historical Society, the co-op or other groups) and to research how they began and share how these groups function in 2026. Most of the “tours” will become the homework of the course. Between classes I will be asking students to explore certain places (the campuses of Carleton and St. Olaf for example) after instruction and directions to enhance what we will have discussed in class. Towards the end of class I am willing to offer a few tours to parks and neighborhoods or the commercial district, dates based on class interest and the weather. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  There is no text to purchase for this course. Readings will be provided by online documents emailed to participants or by internet links sent to the class. Handouts may also be distributed in class. Participants will enhance the classroom experience by doing site visits on their own between classes with directions from the instructor. 

This class will meet for seven sessions beginning April 2nd (one week later than the start of the term) with half an hour added to four of the sessions to equal 16 hours of class. The first class will meet from 9:30-noon. The next three sessions are two-hour classes from 9:30-11:30. The last three sessions are 2½-hour classes from 9:30-noon. Extended class time may be used for site visits. The instructor reserves the right to change the order of these topics. 

Week 1*: Introduction to the founders of Northfield and its early growth

Week 2: Milling and agriculture

Week 3: Carleton College 

Week 4: St. Olaf  College 

Week 5*: Churches and organizations

Week 6*: Business and commercial buildings

Week 7*: Residences and families

signifies 2 ½-hour class from 9:30-noon

Raymond De Vries is professor emeritus at the University of Michigan. From 2006 to 2021 he was a member of the Center for Bioethics and Social Sciences in Medicine, with appointments in the Departments of Learning Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Sociology. Before moving to Michigan, he was a member of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at St. Olaf College (1988-2005).

rdevries@med.umich.edu

Overview: Every day we are called on to make ethical decisions. We don’t often notice the moral weight of our choices—in part because most of these decisions have a “baked in” morality that is invisible to us. And to be fair, we would not get much done if we needed to consult a moral calculator to guide us when we shop, set our thermostats, or open our computers. In this four-week course we will look closely at the ethics of everyday life, considering our moral obligations as citizens who want to do the “right” thing. What must we know to make good choices? Should we all be moral theorists? Must we think through the ethical consequences of our shopping lists—for everything from groceries to the clothes we wear? 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  When confronted with a moral question—for example (and uniquely relevant to today’s events), when, if ever, is civil disobedience justified?—most of us have an opinion about the right answer. However, we don’t often reflect on the reasoning we use to make our judgments. In this short course we will think together about the different ways we decide if something is (morally) right or wrong. We will begin with a short introduction to moral theory and then move on to apply what we have learned to a number of personal and societal issues we are facing today. 

Short readings will be assigned each week. Classes will typically begin with a moral problem/dilemma, leading us to reflect on the basis of our moral reasoning—how we decide what is right. For weeks two, three, and four, we will use readings from two sources: the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online) and excerpts taken from Thinking Ethically: A Handbook for Making Moral Choices, a new book by Scott Gelfand. You need not read both: they cover the same ground, just in different styles. If you are so inclined, you can purchase the Gelfand book—available from a variety of sources for $20-$25—but I will make the excerpts available online for those who do not wish to buy the book.

Week 1: Setting the stage—introduction to moral theory

Before our first class meeting you should watch this 50-minute recording from the Harvard University series on Justice: Justice: What is the right thing to do? How do you know? It can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBdfcR-8hEY. You may also want to watch this short video, taken from the television series The Good Place, offering a graphic depiction of the “trolley problem”—a classic tool for introducing moral theory: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtRhrfhP5b4. We will also watch it in class.

Week 2: Virtue ethics: does intention matter? 

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/

Thinking Ethically: A Handbook for Making Moral Choices, pages 109-124

Week 3: Care ethics: it is all about relationships.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-ethics/

Thinking Ethically: A Handbook for Making Moral Choices, pages 141-158

Week 4: Our obligations to others: Affirmative action, charity, living with those whose opinions we abhor

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philanthropy/

Thinking Ethically: A Handbook for Making Moral Choices, pages 159-174; 195-214

Laurel Carrington is professor emerita of history at St. Olaf College, teaching courses in the periods of the Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation. In addition, she taught many cohorts in The Great Conversation program (now called Enduring Questions), a five-course interdisciplinary sequence exploring works in western humanities and the fine arts. Her chief research interest was the Dutch humanist scholar and theologian Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466-1536).

laurelcarrington@gmail.com

Overview:  On Nov. 27, 1095 at the Council of Clermont, Pope Urban II gave an address to an audience of clergy and laypeople that turned out to be one of the most momentous speeches ever given, for it was this speech that launched the First Crusade. The Crusading era lasted from 1095 until the fall of the last Christian-held city in 1291, but crusades continued for centuries thereafter against those regarded as enemies of the Church.

What exactly is a crusade? The simplest answer is that it is a holy war, undertaken for the sake of supporting or advancing one’s religious beliefs. In this instance, the primary objective was to occupy the Holy Land at the expense of its Muslim rulers. Urban’s speech describes their occupation of Christian sacred spaces as a dire offense against God, one that the European nobility had a duty to rectify. The next two centuries saw a stream of people and resources heading east to create and defend the Crusader States, but in the end the Muslims were able to recover everything they had lost. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  In this course, we will read a variety of sources from people living through the events of this time, with a view to understanding their motives, their experiences, and their legacy. Individuals who participated were from every walk of life, from children and peasants to nobles and kings. During their time in the East they encountered a world far different from the one they had left. The results of these encounters would permanently alter European culture in innumerable ways.

Usually, the first hour of class will be devoted to a discussion of the sources and the issues, while part of the second hour will be an interactive lecture preparing the class for the following week. All readings will be available in a coursebook that will be mailed to participants before the opening class. A charge of $20 will be added to the registration fee to cover the cost of printing and mailing.

Week 1: Introduction and background. Pope John VIII: Indulgence for Fighting the Heathen; The Acts of the Council of Charroux; Ralph Glaber: On the First Millennium; Annalist of Nieder-Altaich: The Great German Pilgrimage of 1064-65; Gregory VII: Call for a “Crusade“; Urban II: Speech at the Council of Clermont. 
Lecture introducing the First Crusade. 

Week 2: The First Crusade. Emico: Peter the Hermit; Anna Comena: The Bad Manners of a Crusading Prince; The Capture of Jerusalem; The Latins in the Levant; Crusader Letters. 
Lecture introducing the Latin Christian states in the Holy Land.

Week 3: Discussion of sources for the Latin Christian States. The Seigneury of Joscelin; The Council of Nablus; The Siege of Tyre; The Chronicle of Matthew of Edessa; The Taxes of the City of Jerusalem; Usmah Ibn Munqidh: Autobiography.
Lecture introducing the military orders.

Week 4: Discussion of sources for the military orders. The Military Orders; William of Tyre: The Foundation of the Order of Knights Templar; Bernard of Clairvaux: In Praise of the New Knighthood; The Primitive Rule of the Templars. 
Lecture introducing the Second Crusade.

Week 5: Discussion of sources from the Second Crusade. William of Tyre: The Fall of Edessa; Eugenia III: Summons to a Crusade; Letter of Pope Eugenia III to King Louis VII of France; Otto of Freising: The Legend of Prester John; Odo of Deuil: The Crusade of Louis VII; The Genoese Expedition to Almeria; Contemporary Letters and Texts Concerning the Second Crusade. 
Lecture introducing the Third Crusade. 

Week 6: Discussion of sources from the Third Crusade. The Siege and Capture of Acre, 1191; Henry II, King of England: The Saladin Tithe; Philip Augustus Returns to France, 1191; Richard the Lionheart Makes Peace with Saladin, 1192; Letter on the Sacred Expedition of the Emperor Frederick I; The Crusade of Frederick Barbarossa: Letters; The Decline of Christian Power in the Holy Land, 1164; The Battle of Hattin (1187): Four Accounts. 
Lecture introducing the Fourth Crusade.

Week 7: Discussion of sources from the Fourth Crusade. The Fourth Crusade 1204: Collected Sources; Pope Innocent III: Reprimand of Papal Legate; Contemporary Documents concerning the Fourth Crusade and the Latin Empire of Constantinople. 
Lecture introducing the Fifth and later Crusades.

Week 8: Discussion of sources from the later Crusades. Chronica Regiae Coloniensis: The Children’s Crusade; Innocent III: Summons to a Crusade; Philip de Navarre: The Crusade of Frederick II; The Capture of Jerusalem, 1244; The Seventh Crusade (1249), according to Abu Al-Faraj Gregory Bar Hebraeus; Guy, A Knight: Letter from the Sixth Crusade; Accounts about the Loss of Acre; Ludolph of Suchem: The Fall of Acre, 1291; The Surrender of Gaston Castle (1268), according to The Catalan Rule of the Templars. 
Final discussion of the legacy of the Crusading Era.

Jim McDonnell retired from the Carleton English Department in 2007 after teaching there for 38 years. He spent most of his early childhood in rural Ireland and has frequently returned there. 

jmcdonne@carleton.edu

Dan Sullivan, a sociologist, is president emeritus of St. Lawrence University and CVEC curriculum director.

dsullivan@stlawu.edu

Overview:  The Republic of Ireland is a profoundly self-reflective country that has an extraordinary amount of change to be reflective about. In 2013 its government set up the Expert Advisory Group (EAG) on Centenary Commemorations, a non-partisan body of historians and archivists that provided guidance for Ireland’s Decade of Centenaries (2012–2023). The initial statement of aims by the advisory group said:

The decade of commemorations recalls some of the most significant events in the history of modern Ireland and the modern world: a decade of unprecedented violence, death, destruction and forced resettlement, but also the exercise of national self-determination resulting in major changes in government and political boundaries.

This course is more ambitious in its time coverage—a whole century not just a decade—but also, of necessity, much more superficial. The only text for the class is an anthology published in 2016 by Penguin Books, Ireland, The Autobiography, edited by John Bowman, which is subtitled: “One hundred years of Irish Life told by its people.” In it, Irish men and women from every part of Ireland and its social structure describe what is happening/has happened as they see it. With its aid, supplemented by a few handouts, we will attempt to cover the whole long century between the Easter Rising of 1916 and the anxious year 2026. The unavoidable topics for any discussion of the past hundred plus years in Ireland are: exceptionalism, patriotism, self-deception, change & modernity, “troubles,” religion, emigration, immigration, America, England, Europe, education, literature, music, sports, wealth, corruption, abuse, disillusionment, recovery.

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The Bowman book is available new in paperback for $19.95 and used for as little as $10 through Amazon.com or bookfinder.com. A few short, supplemental readings will be provided free of charge either by emailed PDF or distributed in class in print form. Classes will be a guided discussion of the readings.

Week 1: Bowman—Introduction, xiii- xviii; pp. 1-33: the Easter Rising (1916)

Week 2: Bowman—34-106: Aftermath of the Rising: electoral victory of Sinn Fein, War of Independence & Civil War, (1916-23)

Week 3: Bowman—pp. 107-189: First decades of Independence, DeValera’s Ireland; 1937 constitution; The Emergency [WWII] (1923-45)

Week 4: Bowman—pp. 190-249: Post-War Stagnation & Emigration, (1945-62)

Week 5: Bowman—pp. 250-313: Television, John F. Kennedy, EEC membership, Troubles in the North: (1963-79)

Week 6: Bowman—pp. 314-58: The Haughey Years; Corruption; continued violence in the North (1979-92)

Week 7: Bowman—pp. 359-408: Scandals, Peace in the North, and Celtic Tiger (1992-2008)

Week 8: Bowman—pp. 410-66: Economic Crash, Recovery, cultural liberalization, Brexit and other complications. Conclusion in which nothing is concluded. (2008-26)

Paul Kluge was raised on a Northwest Wisconsin dairy farm. After spending four years in U.S. Army Intelligence during the Vietnam War, he attended UW-Stout. Several years ago he retired from a 15-year job as Human Resource Specialist at a large processing plant and began to write novels.

pakluge@yahoo.com

Overview:  For nearly a decade I have been working to complete a trilogy of historical novels I call Vietnam Re-Visits. They are Weeds of War: Those Who Bled at Dien Bien Phu; Irish Weeds: Those Who Survive; and The Tilted Palace: Weeds of Misfortune. The timeframe covers the French-Indochina War through the American-Vietnam War and beyond, 1946-1991.My purpose in writing has been to bring credible awareness and sensibility to the Vietnam experience. This class will explore one of America’s most misunderstood and sensitive sore spots. The U.S. involvement in Indochina has been consequential for Asia and a multitude of governments and people in diverse regions of the globe. 

Partisan ideology lies vacant in these novels as the characters brawl with realistic circumstance. There are no heroes, only people with human responses whose reactions have changed the world in which we live and breathe. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  The Trilogy novels will be read in order, about 88 pages per class. Contesting misconceptions, myths, and the perceived reality of that time is the point. We will explore the text, discuss, and ask questions. Blunders in military and governmental strategy, leadership, and policy will be exposed, their hubris made obvious. All three books are available in new softcover through Amazon.com for $15 each and in a series of three books on Kindle for $21 total. While supplies last, complete softcover sets are available from the author for $40. 

Week 1: Weeds of War, 5-30

Week 2: Weeds of War, 31-125

Week 3: Weeds of War, 126-222

Week 4: end Weeds of War, 223-234; begin Irish Weeds, 2-72

Week 5: end Irish Weeds, 73-181

Week 6: Tilted Palace, 3-96

Week 7: Tilted Palace, 97-193

Week 8: Tilted Palace, 194-279, the end

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 course offers an exploration of artificial intelligence (AI), with a focus on generative AI 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 4.0, 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 also to 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 this spring.

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: TBD.
• 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’sDialogues 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

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

Ed Langerak is professor emeritus of philosophy at St. Olaf College, where he taught for 40 years. He has taught nine Elder Collegium courses on such topics as the role of religion in public life, mortality and the meaning of life, aging, and topics in ethics.
langerak@stolaf.edu

Overview:  In our pluralistic society there are sharp disagreements over politics, religion, morality, and social issues, among many others. Sometimes these disagreements can be due to ignorance, stupidity, and corruption on one side or the other (or both), but often they are the result of good and intelligent people viewing things differently. In either case, we have the problem of how to get along with each other, and that’s what this course is about. We will discuss practical tips for avoiding too much animosity when debating opponents, but the emphasis will be on developing a framework of ideas for being appropriately open minded to disagreeable views without being a wishy-washy wimp. This will be a seminar style course, with emphasis on participant discussion. This course will overlap perhaps 25% with courses I taught in 2014 and 2016 on “The Role of Religion in Public Life.” 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Our main text will be my book Civil Disagreement: Personal Integrity in a Pluralistic World (Georgetown University Press, 2014, 958-1-62616-033-0). It’s still in print, but new copies have become very expensive; used copies are available on bookfinder.com starting at $10. The supplemental readings will come to students as email attachments or links as necessary.

Week 1: Introductions; Convictions, commitments, and encountering differences. Civil Disagreement (hereafter CD), preface, 1-7 and 54-57; Mary Midgley, “Trying Out One’s New Sword.”

Week 2: Conversations and arguments. CD, 7-22; Roxane Gay, “Civility is a Fantasy.” 

Week 3: Diversity and pluralism. CD, 31-45; Sisela Bok, “Cultural Diversity and Common Values.” Reference to Thomas Nagel, “Fragmentation of Value.” 

Week 4: Religion a special case?; Perspective pluralism. CD, 45-62; Christian Smith, “Narratives to Live By.” Reference to William Perry, Forms of Intellectual and Ethical Development in the College Years. 

Week 5: What toleration is and isn’t. CD, 77-90. References to Immanuel Kant, “What is Enlightenment” and Robert Erlewine, Monotheism and Tolerance. 

Week 6: Compromising with and without integrity. CD, 90-96 and 143-46. References to Martin Benjamin, Splitting the Difference: Compromise and Integrity in Ethics and Politics; and Chris Voss, Never Split the Difference: Negotiating as if Your Life Depended on It. 

Week 7: Liberalism and the role of religion in public life. CD, 107-123. References to Robert Audi, Religious Commitment and Secular Reason; and Christopher Eberle, Religious Conviction in Liberal Politics. 

Week 8: Coping with deep dissenters. CD, 123-33; UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reference to Susan Moller Okin, “Mistresses of Their Own Destiny.” Remaining issues.

Joel Weisberg is Stark professor of physics and astronomy and the natural sciences, emeritus, at Carleton College. He taught astronomy, cosmology, physics, and science and society courses at Carleton for 35 years, after a similar three-year stint at Princeton. He and his students used radio telescopes across the world to study pulsars, the interstellar medium, and general relativity. He has continued various teaching and research activities since retiring almost seven years ago.

jweisber@carleton.edu

Overview:  Cosmology is the investigation of the past, present, and future history of the universe and of its general nature. Virtually all cultures throughout history have attempted to wrestle with cosmological questions, such as the origin of the universe. In the last hundred years, however, we have managed to perform key observations of the nature of the universe. Now a cosmology must not conflict with these observations if it is to be considered scientifically viable. This development marks a watershed moment, which can be called the era of Modern Scientific Cosmology. 

Course Materials and Class Schedule:  Students are asked to purchase Cosmology: The Science of the Universe, 2^nd edition, by Edward Harrison. (Cambridge University Press, 2000). Available as paperback (reprinted 2022, $44.99 new); or as hardcover, used, online at bookfinder.com for $20 to $50. Do not purchase the first edition! Although many cosmology books for intelligent laypeople have been published since Harrison’s 2^nd edition, and although the field is fast-moving, I have not been able to find a newer one that is as accessible and thought-provoking. Students will also read some Scientific American-level articles to cover cosmological advances made since the Harrison 2^nd edition’s original (2000) publication. These will be sent online to class members as PDFs. I estimate ~6 articles × ~ 6 pages/article ≈ 36 pages.

Please read the following selections before class so that we can meaningfully discuss them in class. You might find it useful to take notes as you read, in order to inform your in-class discussion. Also, as you read, please jot down at least one question to send to the instructor by noon of the class day. This gives him (barely) enough time to organize your questions logically and to choose those most useful to address in class.

The meaning of fractional pages is as follows.  Harrison divides each page into two columns, so 117.3 implies 0.3 (or 30%) of page 117, which means a little over halfway down the first column (and 117.6 means a little way past the start of the second column).

Note: Each chapter concludes with a “Reflections” section, which is optional. These Reflections frequently consist of very thought-provoking and fascinating questions; though their level varies widely. We will discuss some of them in class, and of course you are free to look at them beforehand if you wish!

Week 1:           
– Chapt. 1: “What is Cosmology?” (8 pages) Then skip Chapts. 2&3!
– Chapt. 4: “Cosmology after Newton and before Einstein.” (15 pages)

Week 2:    
– Chapt. 5: “Stars.” (18 pages)
– Chapt. 6 through p.117.3; A little more on stars. (4 pages)

Week 3:    
– Finish Chapt. 6:  Normal and Active Galaxies. (12 pages)
– Chapt. 7: “Location and the Cosmic Center.”  Go lightly on p.136.8-137.1 and 137.6-138.8 (Cosmic Background Radiation),  as we will cover it much more extensively in Class 7.  (8 pages)
– Begin Chapt. 8 through p. 149.6: Containment. (3 pages)

Week 4:    
– Finish Chapt. 8: “Containment and the Cosmic Edge.” (13 pages)
– Chapt. 9:  “Space & Time.”  (11 pages)

Week 5:     
– Chapt. 10: “Curved Space” through p. 194.3 and Fig. 10.8 (5 pages)
– Chapt. 11: “Special Relativity” through p.209.8. (4 pages)
– Chapt. 12: General relativity and curved space: p.224.5-225.2 and fig. 12.7. (1 page)
– Chapt. 14 “Expansion of the Universe” through p.282.55. (The “location principle” of  p.279.7 was first defined on p.134.5.)  (13 pages) Skip the equations in Chapt. 14 except Eqs. 14.6 and 9, but please wrestle hard with the material. (See more on Chapt. 14 below.)
– Scientific American: “Misconceptions About the Big Bang” (pdf) (10 pages)

Week 6:       
– Jump to two later small chunks of Chapt. 14: First, pp.285.9 – 286.6; and, Figs. 14.18 – 14.22 on pp. 290 – 291.  These figures are graphs of the past, present, and future fates of possible kinds of universes. Note that the vertical axis, R, can be thought of as the distance between two clusters of galaxies. (2 pages) Then skip Chapts. 15-17. 
– Chapt. 18: “The Many Universes” through p.355.8 and 357.3-357.6, then Figs. 18.3, .4, .5, .10, .12, .13; all with the above-mentioned and above-defined vertical axis, R. (5 pages)
– Handouts: Accel.pdf & American Scientist, “Tearing Apart the Universe [with Dark  Energy]. (7 pages)

Week 7:      
– Chapt. 19: “Observational Cosmology” through p.391.5 except right half of p. 389.  Then review p.136.8-137.1, and 137.6-138.8 (without the math.)  (4 pages)
– Jump to pp. 394.6-395.8 and figs. 19.5 and 19.7-19.9 of Chapt. 19. (1 page)
– “The dark side of the universe,”  a 2017 American Scientist pdf principally on dark matter. (8 pages)
– Chapt. 20: “The early universe” through p.415.8. (3 pages)

Week 8:      
– Black Holes: First, notes from Joel; then various readings from Chapt. 13 (TBA). (5 pages)
– Planets beyond the Solar System; life beyond Earth: First, Harrison Chapter 26, “Life in the Universe”: p. 535.0-540.7; then other recent external readings. (15 pages)