CVEC is offering fifteen courses for Fall 2024, eleven in person and four via Zoom. Please note that for the first time CVEC is offering a Saturday morning course. This page contains (1) a summary listing of the title, instructor, time and place of each course, and (2) a full description of each course with a brief biography of each instructor.
Start by scrolling down the list of courses, below. When you want to view the full information about a course and instructor, click on the “down” arrow near the right-hand margin of the page opposite the course name. The full course description will appear immediately below, and the arrow you clicked will become an “up” arrow. To hide the course description again, click on that “up” arrow and the course description will again be hidden.
We invite you to register for one or more courses by using the online form in this website. IMPORTANT NOTE: YOU ARE NOT ENROLLED IN A COURSE UNTIL YOU RECEIVE AN EMAIL CONFIRMATION OF YOUR ENROLLMENT FROM CVEC. We recommend that you NOT purchase the course materials until you receive that confirmation. If you have not heard from CVEC one week before classes are to start, then please contact Nicole Barnette at nbarnette@cvec,org to determine your status. Please review the “Registration Process” document in this website for a detailed description of the rules for registration.
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 will likely go and why. I believe every American should read it, because understanding how things came to be is often the first step toward knowing how to try to shape the future.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: The class will be a guided discussion of Colin Woodard’s book American Nations, available through bookfinder.com for less than $15 new or $7 used. The other readings will be sent to the class as attachments via email.
Week 1: Introduction and Part One, Origins: 1590 to 1769, pages 1-111.
Week 2: Part Two, Unlikely Allies: 1770 to 1815, pages 115-170.
Week 3: Part Three, Wars for the West: 1816-1877, pages 173-239.
Week 4: Part Four, Culture Wars: 1878-2010, pages, 243-322. Also: Colin Woodard, “The Maps That Show That City vs. Country Is Not Our Political Fault Line,” New York Times, July 30, 2018; “The Surprising Geography of Gun Violence,” Politico, April 23, 2023; and Colin Woodard, “The Pitfalls and Promise of America’s Founding Myths,” Smithsonian Magazine, Feb. 22, 2021.
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 focus on two main areas: environmental change through time and the effects of severe weather phenomena on human populations. Paul is currently a GIS technician within the Assessor’s Office at Rice County. Paul.Zunkel@RiceCountyMN.gov
Overview: This course will examine the development of the 12 railroad lines that once ran through Rice County, Minnesota. Specifically, this course will use railroad installation and construction as a lens through which Rice County history will be examined. This course will look to answer some important questions, including: Where were all of Rice County’s railroad lines located? Who owned these railroad lines? How and why were these locations chosen by the railroad companies? How did railroad lines affect and influence development within Rice County? What important events (in Rice County, in Minnesota, in the U.S., and globally) were taking place during construction of the 12 railroad lines? When and why were specific railroad lines abandoned? How were these abandoned railroad lines reidentified after abandonment? How do railroad lines currently affect Rice County’s development? No prior background in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Geospatial Analysis, or History is required to attend this course.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Short readings will be assigned every week. These readings will be available in PDF formatted files and/or via specifically identified websites. Students will review and discuss the majority of the 2013 report, Railroads in Minnesota, 1862-1956, from Schmidt et al. 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.
Week 1: Introductions. What did transportation in Minnesota and the U.S. look like before railroads? What event(s) helped to bring railroads to Minnesota and to Rice County? How did the boom-and-bust cycles of the U.S. economy affect railroad construction in Minnesota and Rice County? What railroad companies were selected to build railroads in Minnesota?
Week 2: Rice County’s first railroad (1865). How did the first wave of railroad expansion impact Rice County and Minnesota? What was the importance of “The Pioneer Route”?
Week 3: Rice County’s second railroad (1878). What is the “Grange movement” and how did the movement impact railroads in Rice County? What was the economic panic of 1873 and how did it affect Minnesota’s railroad network?
Week 4: Rice County’s third (1882) and fourth (1885) railroads. How did competition between railroads impact Rice County? How were monopolistic practices of regional and transcontinental railroads challenged by newer railroads in Minnesota?
Week 5: Rice County’s fifth (1900) and eighth (1905) railroads. How did the installation of branch lines impact the railroads in Rice County? How did the second economic depression impact Rice County’s railroads? How did World War I impact the railroad industry and Rice County’s railroad lines?
Week 6: Rice County’s sixth and seventh railroads (1902). How did railroads result in the creation of cities (ex. Lonsdale) in Rice County? (Possible field trip to the Northfield Depot.)
Week 7: Rice County’s ninth (1910) and 10th (1911*) railroads. How important is a horse (The Dan Savage story)? What is currently known regarding the Mill Towns State Trail in Rice County, especially between Faribault and Dundas?
Week 8: Rice County’s 11th & 12th railroads (1921). How did World War II impact the railroad industry and Rice County’s railroad lines? What factors contributed to the demise of Rice County’s railroads? When were the railroad lines in Rice County removed? How were the abandoned lines rediscovered decades after removal?
Andrea Een is a frequent chamber music player and solo player on violin, viola, and the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle. Graham Greene’s novels and the films made from them are among her all-time favorites. She directed the St. Olaf Film Society for one year! eenandrea2@gmail.com
Overview: British writer, playwright and screenwriter Graham Greene (1904-1991) was a journalist at the BBC, a widely traveled correspondent to Africa and Asia, and a spy for MI6. Though he was only married once, he was an inveterate womanizer and adventurer in the remnants of the British Empire. His novels are full of brilliantly drawn characters in many cultures, discussions of race and ethical choices, and the ideas individuals follow in foreign lands. We will discuss in class three of Greene’s finest novels: The End of the Affair (1951), The Heart of the Matter (1948), and The Quiet American (1955). To add color and authenticity to the novel settings we will also watch and discuss the three corresponding films plus one other classic: The Third Man (1949).
Course Materials and Class Schedule: All three books are available through bookfinder.com (The End of the Affair: less than $10 new or $5 used; The Heart of the Matter: less than $13 new or $5 used; The Quiet American: less than $12 new or $5 used). The End of the Affair, The Quiet American, and The Third Man films are available for home viewing through Amazon Prime as rentals for about $4. We will watch The Heart of the Matter together in class. In preparation for the first class, students will watch the PBS film biography of Graham Greene—Dangerous Edge, A Life of Graham Greene, available for home viewing on Prime Video for less than $4.
Week 1: Biography of Graham Greene. Assignment—A Dangerous Edge: A Life (film).
Week 2: Read The Quiet American; watch The Quiet American (2002, 2 hrs., Michael Caine, Brandon Fraser in Saigon during the 1950s).
Week 3: Read The End of the Affair; watch The End of the Affair (1999, 2 hrs., Julianne Moore, Ralph Fiennes, Stephen Rea in London during WWII).
Week 4: Read The Heart of the Matter.
Week 5: Watch The Heart of the Matter in class together (1953, 2 hrs., Trevor Howard, Maria Schell, Elizabeth Allan, and Denholm Elliott, set in Sierra Leone (also available on MUBI).
Week 6: Green as Screenplay writer. Read excerpts from The Third Man (novella, handout).
Week 7: Watch The Third Man (1950, Joseph Cotton, Trevor Howard; film noir directed by Carol Reed in war-damaged Vienna—also available on Netflix and Appletv.
Week 8: Review and discussion of thematic content in novels and comparison with films. Come to class with your favorite and least favorite stories and films!
Kay Smith taught mathematics at St. Olaf College for 37 years. While there, she frequently taught courses for non-majors that included a unit on social choice. Currently she volunteers as a tutor for the Northfield Community College Collaborative. In fall 2023 she taught the CVEC course History and Mathematics of Secret Codes. smithk@stolaf.edu
Overview: How should the preferences of individuals be translated fairly into collective decisions? With a text by Ismar Volić—Making Democracy Count: How Mathematics Improves Voting, Electoral Maps, and Representation—as our guide, we will examine this issue through a mathematical lens. We will learn about different voting and apportionment methods and how fairness criteria for these methods can be expressed mathematically. We will also explore what is possible: Are there methods that meet all our fairness criteria? While the text focuses on the political arena, the methods and analysis apply more broadly to situations where voting is used or limited resources are distributed. Relevant mathematical concepts will be explained; only basic arithmetic will be assumed.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Required text is Making Democracy Count by Ismar Volić (Princeton University Press, 2024). List price $32; used copies are available. There is also an e-book version. Excerpts from other sources will be provided at no additional cost to students in .pdf form or through links to websites.
Class sessions will include discussion, lecture, and mathematical exercises. Lectures will provide more details on topics introduced in the text and supplementary topics including the historical events that gave rise to the methods we are considering. Optional homework exercises will provide more practice with methods introduced in class and additional details for students who have more mathematical preparation.
Week 1: Elections with two options. Plurality method for three or more options. Problems with plurality.
Week 2: Other methods for three or more options—instant runoff, Borda count, sequential pairwise voting. Fairness criteria for analyzing voting methods. Arrow’s theorem.
Week 3: Strategic voting—voting to secure a better election outcome, although your vote may not reflect your actual preferences.
Week 4: Weighted voting—when some individuals’ votes count more than others. Approval voting.
Week 5: Apportionment methods (for example, how are seats in Congress assigned to states, how are buses distributed among routes?) and fairness criteria for apportionment.
Week 6: Electoral College—analyzed using the ideas and methods developed in previous classes.
Week 7: Gerrymandering and mathematical methods being used to analyze fairness of redistricting plans.
Week 8: Fair division (for example, how can inheritance of personal property be divided among heirs so that everyone is satisfied?).
Carol Trosset is a lifelong naturalist with a Ph.D. in cultural anthropology. Now retired and living in Cincinnati, Ohio, she studies the phenology of woodland wildflowers. She is the author of The Woods: The Natural History of an Acre in Southwestern Ohio, published in 2023 by the Ohio Biological Survey. trosset.edresearch@gmail.com
Overview: Plants and animals live in ways that respond to seasonal changes in their environments. Plants have evolved to bloom when their pollinators are active; birds migrate as their food source becomes available. The study of timing in nature is called “phenology,” and this field has become increasingly important as climate change alters the cues to which organisms respond.
Class participants will read about and discuss how a variety of plants, animals, and habitats are affected by seasonal cues. We will focus on the American Midwest but will also consider other ecosystems including the Arctic tundra. Each participant will select one plant near their home (such as a maple tree) to observe for the duration of the course and will record their observations for the citizen-science project Nature’s Notebook. This project is free and will be explained during the first class session. We will share our observations each week.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Our readings will be written by scientists but intended for general audiences. The instructor will provide the readings as .pdf documents, free of charge.
Week 1: What is phenology, Trosset’s wildflower research, Nature’s Notebook
Week 2: The importance of winter, how it affects plants and animals
Week 3: What happens in the spring, how organisms respond
Week 4: What happens in the fall, how organisms respond
Week 5: How climate change is altering phenology
Marie Gery’s teaching began with grade school, moved into high school, and then on to university classes. Many of her poems and stories have been published. Many haven’t. voglgery1@msn.com
Overview: Poetry offers opportunities for discovering and uncovering mysteries of reality in our lives. We look for words to share these realities with ourselves and others. Sometimes a poem writes a picture. Other times a poem embraces an emotion. Sometimes a poem tells a story. Poems, like people, come in many sizes and shapes. Minnesota poets may arrive at the door to read some of their work, talk about poetry, and answer questions. The Irish poet, John O’Donohue, ends “For a New Beginning” with:
Awaken your spirit to adventure
Hold nothing back, learn to find ease in risk;
Soon you will home in a new rhythm,
For your soul senses the world that awaits you.
Looking forward to meeting you and traveling this poetry journey. We’ll read, listen, discuss, and meet some Minnesota and Northfield poets.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Poems to be read and discussed in weeks 2, 4, 5 and 7 will be distributed at the previous week’s class or shared as email attachments prior to class.
Week 1: Introductions: Along with introducing ourselves, bring a poem to read (or to be read) that you either like or question.
Week 2: Story poems: “The Highway Man,” “The Ballad of the Harp Weaver.” Use of rhyme, imagery, and poetic feet.
Week 3: Visit from a poet who will their read work, talk about it, answer questions.
Week 4: Metre (or meter, if you prefer) – putting the accent where the writer put it: iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl (first two deal with 2 syllables, second two deal with 3 syllables).
Week 5: What happens in the poem: verbs actions – focus on what’s written. Other things: language, technique, special effects.
Week 6: Visit from another poet who will read their work, talk about it, answer questions.
Week 7: Poems in free verse. In other words, non-rhyming.
Week 8: Celebrate poetry with a lunch and poems you like and, perhaps, have written.
Tom Drucker retired in 2021 after decades of teaching mathematics, computer science, philosophy and the history of science, most recently at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. In between teaching at Dickinson College and Whitewater, he spent eight years as executive director of a Jewish congregation in Pennsylvania. For the last 25 years he has worked with groups in California, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin on behalf of dialogue between Jews and Muslims in this country. druckert@uww.edu
Overview: At the time of this writing, the situation in Gaza has heated up to the boiling point and beyond. That applies to the atmosphere on the ground there as well as around the world. This course is not intended for those who are disinclined to hear points of view with which they disagree. Our goal will be to understand how some of the extreme consequences have come about, to listen to and read those who prefer discussion and understanding to shouting and weapons. In a largely partisan setting, our aim will be to dig into the background. While paying attention to the long arc of history, in comparison to my spring 2023 course this one will focus more on the recent history.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Each class will involve discussion of readings with some commentary from the instructor. There will be a couple of short texts in addition to Avi Shlaim’s The Iron Wall, available new on bookfinder.com for as little as $17 and used for as little as $4. It is over 800 pages, so we shall be reading selected chapters. Two other texts will be Amanda Podany’s The Ancient Near East: A Very Short Introduction (available new or used on bookfinder.com for less than $15) and Amos Oz’s How To Cure a Fanatic (available new or used on bookfinder.com for less than $12) with which we shall conclude. Other readings will be distributed electronically throughout the course.
Week 1: The Ancient Near East (reading Podany)
Week 2: Biblical Judaism (texts from parts of the Old Testament)
Week 3: The Qu’ran (texts from the Qu’ran and from Meir Ben-Asher’s Jews and the Qu’ran)
Week 4: The Crusades (texts from Duncan and Opatowski’s War in the Holy Land)
Week 5: Enlightenment (texts from Walter Laqueur’s The Changing Face of Anti-Semitism and Bernard Lewis’s What Went Wrong?
Week 6: Zionism and the Balfour Declaration (and beyond) (texts from Tom Segev’s One Palestine Complete)
Week 7: State of Israel Through 1967 (The Iron Wall and a short novel available online about Israeli treatment of an Arab village)
Week 8: Oslo, the Death of Rabin and Settlers (The Iron Wall and How To Cure a Fanatic)
Peter Bailey is Piskor professor of English emeritus at St. Lawrence University. His teaching and writing focus on literary and film criticism. For CVEC he has taught courses on the films of Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and Woody Allen.
pbailey@stlawu.edu
Overview: For us “elder collegians,” the compositions of Paul Simon have been part of the soundtrack of our lives. “The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin’ Groovy)” evoked ’60s communality, and “Sounds of Silence” its disappearance. The energy of The Graduate derived from Simon tracks, while “The Late Great Johnny Ace” movingly eulogized John Lennon. The film One Trick Pony and Broadway play Capeman misfired, but Graceland provoked an infectious confluence of African and American pop music as well as substantial cultural controversy. In the 21st century, Simon’s cumulative 20 solo albums led to his becoming widely recognized as late 20thcentury America’s greatest songwriter. This course will follow his career via Robert Hilburn’s biography, Paul Simon: The Life, and through Simon’s selected anthology CD of favorite compositions, Paul Simon: Songwriter.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Robert Hilburn’s biography, Paul Simon: The Life, is available via bookfinder.com for about $14 new and $8 used. The Paul Simon: Songwriter CD is available from several sources at about $14 (class members will need to have access to a CD player). In relevant classes I will play segments of Alex Gibney’s excellent 2024 documentary, In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, which provides concert footage and interviews as Simon composed what he describes as his final album, Seven Psalms. In advance of each class, I will provide lyrics to the songs on which we’ll concentrate as we seek to illuminate the complex and stark vision of this American pop poet laureate.
Week 1: Simon and Garfunkel: “The Dangling Conversation”; Hilburn, “The Boxer” and “The Sounds of Silence,” pp. 7-119
Week 2: Simon without Garfunkel: Paul Simon (1972), There Goes Rhymin’ Simon (1973), and Still Crazy After All These Years (1975); Hilburn, “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” pp. 119-186; Hilburn, “Still Crazy After All These Years,” pp. 187-201
Week 3: That’s Why God Made the Movies: One Trick Pony (1980), album and film; Hilburn, pp. 203-229
Week 4: Everybody Thinks It’s True: Hearts and Bones (1984), Hilburn, pp. 229-246
Week 5: She Means We’re Bouncing into Graceland: Graceland (1986), Hilburn, pp. 247-285
Week 6: Sorrow’s Everywhere You Turn: Rhythm of the Saints (1990), Hilburn, pp. 286-306
Week 7: Can You Forgive Him?: Capeman (Broadway play) and Songs from the Capeman (1997); Hilburn, pp.307-318
Week 8: 21st Century Simon: So Beautiful, So What, and Seven Psalms; Hilburn, “Questions to the Angels,”pp. 319-392
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
Overview: My purpose in this course is to pay tribute to Irish authors who wrote literary works in the late 20th century that I think deserve to endure. The period 1966-2000 witnessed what could be described as a second Irish Literary Revival, so to represent it by three writers is of necessity a matter of taste. I have chosen William Trevor, Edna O’Brien and Seamus Heaney not only because I admire their writings but because they exemplify very different perspectives on their place and time. Trevor is elegiac about the experience of the Anglo-Irish remnant in Catholic Ireland; O’Brien has been speaking up for women for over 60 years; Heaney makes real the experience of a Northern Irish country boy who through education and poetic genius transcended the rancid sectarianism and savagery that beset his homeland then.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Texts will be William Trevor, Ireland: Selected Stories (Penguin Books, available used via bookfinder.com at less than $10); Edna O’Brien, The Love Object: Selected Stories (Faber and Faber, available via bookfinder.com new for less than $20 or used for less than $7); and Seamus Heaney, 100 Poems (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, available via bookfinder.com for less than $10 new or used).
Week 1: INTRODUCTION TO LATE 20th CENTURY IRISH HISTORY & LITERATURE. Trevor, IRELAND, The Distant Past (22); *Attracta
Week 2: IRELAND: The News from Ireland (178); Lost Ground (300)
Week 3: IRELAND: Autumn Sunshine (135); *Of the Cloth; The Ballroom of Romance (1); Paradise Lounge (155)
Week 4: O’Brien, THE LOVE OBJECT: Irish Revel (3); The Connor Girls (27); A Scandalous Woman (60); The Creature (98)
Week 5: THE LOVE OBJECT: Sister Imelda (113); A Rose in the Heart of New York (136); What a Sky (272); My Two Mothers (436)
Week 6: HEANEY: CHILDHOOD & FAMILY
HEANEY, 100 POEMS: Digging; Death of a Naturalist; Blackberry-Picking; Follower; Mid-Term Break; *Poem for Marie; Personal Helicon; The Forge; *Thatcher; Requiem for the Croppies; *The Wife’s Tale; Bogland; Anahorish; Mossbawn: Two Poems in Dedication, 1. Sunlight; Clearances 3, *4-5, 7 (97); The Harvest Bow (74), *Making Strange, The Stone Verdict (96); Seeing Things, iii (106); A Call (128); Keeping Going (119). *Patrick Kavanagh, Inniskeen Road; Epic
Week 7: MYTH & TRIBAL VIOLENCE: “LOST, UNHAPPY AND AT HOME”
100 POEMS: The Other Side (24); The Tollund Man (27); Punishment (41); *Strange Fruit; from Whatever You Say, Say Nothing (43); from Singing School (46); *The Toome Road; The Strand at Lough Beg (57); Casualty (59); Station Island VII (83); Two Lorries (122) * The Nod ; *The Wood Road
*Derek Mahon, Spring in Belfast
*Michael Longley, Letter to Derek Mahon; Wounds
Week 8: TAKING STOCK
100 POEMS: Glanmore Sonnets, # 2, 7, (68-9); *10; The Skunk (72); In Memoriam Francis Ledwidge (76); Station Island, XII (87); Alphabets (90); From the Republic of Conscience (94); *The annals say; St Kevin and the Blackbird (124); *In Iowa; *Out of This world #1 & 2; A Dog was Crying Tonight in Wicklow (129); Postscript (135); Anahorish 1944 (141); Midnight Anvil (147); Chanson d’Aventure; Miracle; Human Chain (157-61); In Time (169). *Heaney, Crediting Poetry (Nobel Prize speech)
*Seamus Deane, The Famous Seamus
Readings marked * will be made available as attachments or handouts
Sandy Johnson served as First UCC Northfield’s minister for 13 years, but before that she was on the research faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle. She taught classes in human development and research methods and conducted research on parent-child interaction in families with infants and toddlers. Sandyjohnson46@gmail.com
Overview: In an election year there is going to be political polling. The shortcomings of polls done in 2012, 2016, and 2020 have left many observers skeptical about the accuracy and usefulness of polling itself. This class will look at the strengths and limitations of polling, and at some of the improvements that might be made (alas, not in time for this election cycle). John Geraci’s Poll-arized: Why Americans Don’t Trust the Polls and How to Fix them Before It’s Too Late will be our guide, though we may not agree with his optimism. Along with polling, we’ll also look (albeit less intensely) at several kinds of data (and the accompanying statistics, charts, and graphs) that we deal with, even in non-election years. How are statistics (and particularly, proprietary algorithms) changing sports, airlines, retailers, health care, and education?
Course Materials and Class Schedule: John Geraci’s book, Poll-arized: Why Americans Don’t Trust the Polls and How to Fix them Before It’s Too Late, published by Houndstooth Press in 2022, is available for $12.99 on Amazon and for $3.99 on Amazon Kindle. Additional sources will be online articles related to graphs and charts, algorithms, sports statistics, airline fares, and other everyday matters. Class format will be mostly conversation based on discussion questions each week. Before the first session, participants will be asked to complete several short polls designed by the instructor. Their data will serve as the introduction to the content of the class.
Week 1: Why Polls Matter; Plus: Our Own Poll Results
Preparation: Text, Preface and Chapter 1. Also, please complete the polls sent to you before class (“Survey Monkey”)
Week 2: What Happened to the Polls in 2016 and 2020? Plus: Reading Graphs and Charts
Preparation: Text, Chapters 3 and 4. If you have time, Chapter 2 has interesting history about polling. Also please read about bar charts, pie charts, and line graphs in charts and graphs—a complete guide—storytelling with data.
Week 3: Which Pollsters are Most Trustworthy and Why? Plus: Who owns the data?
Preparation: Text, Chapter 5. Also please read about data ownership in Who owns the web’s data? (economist.com). (You may need to register to read this.)
Week 4: How Polls Go Bad, Especially at the Beginning. Plus: Algorithms and Their Secrets
Preparation: Text, Chapters 6 and 7. Also, please watch this TED talk: Bing Videos
Week 5: How Polls Go Bad due to Sampling Errors; Plus: Actuarial Tables
Preparation: Text, Chapter 8. Also, please read about actuarial tables; What Is an Actuarial Table? (moneygeek.com)
Week 6: How Polls Go Bad due to Data Collection Problems. Plus: Data Analytics and Sports
Preparation: Text, Chapter 9. Also, please read about new WNBA analytics: For the WNBA, Second Spectrum is revolutionary, not evolutionary (thenexthoops.com)
Week 7: Specific Challenges for Polls. Plus: How Much Is Your Airline Ticket?
Preparation: Text, Chapter 10. Also, please read How Airline Ticket Pricing Works (simpleflying.com).
Week 8: The Future of Polling. Plus: Numeracy
Preparation: Text, Chapter 11, 12 and Conclusion. Also, read the first part of this: Numeracy – Wikipedia
Brian O’Donnell is professor emeritus in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University. He is not a scholar of early Christianity but has a keen interest in the diverse interpretations of Jesus’s life and teachings and how these have influenced culture, thought and society.
bodonnel2@gmail.com
Overview: Over the past century, archaeological discoveries and scholarly research have revealed a remarkable diversity of beliefs and ideas about Jesus and his teachings prior to establishment of Christianity as the imperial religion of the Roman Empire. For example, some early groups asserted that Jesus was not a god-man but was fully human or that salvation was available to all. Other groups believed that the god of the Gospels was different from the god of the Tanakh (Hebrew Old Testament), or that the ruler of the world was an evil deity. Elaine Pagels makes an intriguing case for a feminine entity, “God the Mother,” as one variant conception of god in some Christian communities. Many scholars argue that Jesus was a social and religious revolutionary. Our reading and discussion group will explore the rich and diverse religious world that arose in the first centuries after the life of Jesus.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Course materials will include articles in pdf format that will be distributed by email, and online articles, podcasts, and videos. There will be about 25 to 75 pages of reading for each class meeting. Course format will be oriented to discussion with occasional brief presentations by the instructor and guest speakers. Importantly, the discussions will not be oriented toward arriving at the “correct” interpretation of texts or positions, or to make judgments regarding the validity of different religious beliefs.
Note: The instructor will provide links and/or pdf format materials for each class.
Week 1: In the Beginning
– From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians. Part 1. Frontline, PBS. Salon.com, March 23, 2014. OR: read transcript
– Ancient Jewish History: Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes. Jewish Virtual Library.
– Adam Gopnik. What did Jesus do? New Yorker, May 17, 2010
Week 2: The Early Jesus Groups
– From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians. Part 2. Frontline, PBS. Salon.com, March 23, 2014. OR: read transcript
– The Diversity of Early Christianity
– John D. Crossan. A kingdom of nuisances and nobodies. Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography.
– Jesus on social policy and economics – Gospel readings
Week 3: “Who do you say I am?”
Common Readings:
– Jesus on his identity – Gospel Readings
– Logos: philosophy and theology. Britannica
– Bart D. Ehrman. Did Jesus think he was God? New insights on Jesus’ own self-image.
Please read or listen to one of the following:
– Bart D. Ehrman. Interview on “Lost Christianities” with Terry Gross, Fresh Air, Dec. 17, 2003.
– Robert Wilkin. Celsus: A conservative Intellectual. In: The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 2nd ed., New Haven:Yale University Press, 2003.
Week 4: Gender, family and sexuality
– Jesus on the family and marriage – Gospel Readings
– Rebecca Denova, Ancient Christianity’s Effect on Society & Gender Roles.
– Amy-Jill Levine. The Gospel and Acts. In BH Dunning (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of New Testament, Gender and Sexuality. Topics: Celibacy and Singleness, Marriage and Divorce, Lust, Masturbation, Adultery, and Incest, Prostitution, Gender Roles: Masculinity, Gender Roles: Feminine Ideals, The Eunuch.
– Rebecca Denova. The Christian Concept of Human Sexuality as Sin.
Week 5: The Role of Women in Early Christianities
Please read two or three of the following:
– Catherine Kroger, The Neglected History of Women in the Early Church. Christian History Issue #17 in 1988
– Mimi Haddad. Women Leaders in the Early Church. Sojourners, Feb 16, 2009
– Karen L. King. Women In Ancient Christianity: The New Discoveries
– Elaine H. Pagels. What Became of God the Mother? Conflicting Images of God in Early Christianity. Signs , Vol. 2, No. 2 (Winter, 1976), pp. 293-303.
Week 6: Gnosticism and the Perennial Tradition
Please read two or three of the following:
– Elaine Pagels. The Gnostic Gospels.
– Rebecca Denova. Gnosticism. World History Encyclopedia. Last modified April 09, 2021.
– The Gospel of Mary. From The Nag Hammadi Library in English, J M Robinson, Harper Collins. Excerpt on PBS Frontline.
– Eliza Griswold. Richard Rohr Reorders the Universe. New Yorker, Feb 2, 2020.
Week 7: The End Times
Common material:
– Jesus on the coming Kingdom of God – Gospel Readings
– Excerpts from the Book of Revelation
– The Apocalypse. BBC.
Please read or listen to one of the following:
– Elaine Pagels interviewed by Terry Gross. Book Of Revelation: “Visions, Prophecy And Politics” OR: Read transcript
– BBC survey of beliefs about End Times
– Seventh-day Adventist Church: What to expect when Jesus returns
Week 8: The Afterlife
– Jesus on the afterlife – Gospel Readings
– Bart Ehrman. On early Judaism and its conception of the afterlife.
– Bart Ehrman interviewed by Terry Gross. Heaven And Hell Are ‘Not What Jesus Preached,’ Religion Scholar Says OR: Read transcript
– Jorge Borges, Review of Emanuel Swedenborg, Mystical Works (excerpt on the afterlife)
Wiebke Kuhn, Ph.D., is director of academic technology, Carleton College. wkuhn@carleton.edu
Overview: This interactive eight-week course offers an exploration of artificial intelligence (AI), with a focus on generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs). We will delve into some history, discuss ethical considerations, and dig into some (free) generative AI tools, such as Google Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT 3.5, 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 to make informed decisions on how to continue working with AI (or not). Themes to focus on will be determined by the participants. Use of a computer for at least parts of the course is required, and participants are encouraged to work on a project of their interest throughout the eight weeks.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Readings and videos for class preparation will be made available ahead of class as links or email attachments. Please note that this syllabus is not set in stone. The technology is moving so fast that it is possible we will be in a different place by Fall of 2024.
Week 1: Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Topics Covered: 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); “Artificial Intelligence: A Very Short Introduction” by Margaret A. Boden; “AI: Its nature and future” by Margaret A. Boden; Hampton 2024 AI Founder Report
Examples: The evolution of AI: From Turing Test to AlphaGo.
Videos/Podcasts: TED Talk: How AI can enhance our memory, work, and social lives
Week 2: Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs)
Topics Covered: 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; Seven things you should know about Generative AI
Examples: Applications of GPT-3 in creating text-based content.
Videos/Podcasts: Lex Fridman Podcast: Interviews with AI researchers discussing LLMs
Week 3: Generative AI and Large Multimedia Models
Topics Covered: 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 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: “Deep Learning for Vision Systems” by Mohamed Elgendy — focusing on chapters about multimodal deep learning; “Multimodal Machine Learning: A Survey and Taxonomy” by Tadas Baltrušaitis, Chaitanya Ahuja, and Louis-Philippe Morency.
Examples: Case study on DALL-E for art generation and its implications; Use of multimodal AI in automated surveillance systems.
Videos/Podcasts: TED Talk: How computers learn to recognize objects instantly; MIT CSAIL YouTube videos on multimodal AI research.
Week 4: Generative AI in Education
Topics Covered: 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: Artificial Intelligence in Education: Promises and Implications for Teaching and Learning by Columbia University Teachers College; Case study on using AI tools in classroom settings.
Examples: AI tutoring systems and personalized learning experiences.
Videos/Podcasts: TED Talk: The future of education is one-on-one, from AI
Week 5: Ethical, Social, and Economic Implications of AI
Topics Covered: Discussion on AI ethics: bias, privacy, and surveillance; AI’s impact on the economy and future job markets.
Hands-On Experience: Case studies review and ethical decision-making scenarios using AI, e.g., Princeton’s Dialogues on AI and Ethics
Readings: “Weapons of Math Destruction” by Cathy O’Neil; “Hello World: Being Human in the Age of Algorithms” by Hannah Fry.
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
Topics Covered: 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: Singularity University’s series on the future of AI
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: Project Presentations and Course Wrap-up
Topics Covered: Participants present their projects or findings; Group discussion on the personal and societal impact of AI.
Hands-On Experience: Presentations and discussion
Carol Rutz worked for Carleton College for 30 years, retiring in 2017, having taught writing courses and worked with faculty on writing across the curriculum. She served as the executive director of CVEC for four years; this will be the fourth course she has taught for CVEC. crutz@carleton.edu
Overview: According to some authorities, the earliest writing featuring time travel is Washington Irving’s 1819 story, “Rip Van Winkle.” In contrast to later work that offers time machines, wormholes, and other creative methods of moving from one time to another, a 20-year sleep seems pretty tame. Nevertheless, it inspired a genre. Not long after, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol brought his readers in 1843 a tale of supernatural intervention into a wretched life, using ghosts as the device to persuade Ebenezer Scrooge of the price of his accumulated life choices.
In this course, we will examine these early efforts for their imagination as well as their humor. For the rest of the course, we will study Jack Finney’s classic 1970 work, Time and Again. Native New Yorker Si Morley is recruited for a secret U.S. government project to achieve physical travel to and return from a past time. With meticulous detail, the novel explores a range of cultural, political, and industrial matters. We learn about Si Morley’s training by the masterminds behind the project as well as his interactions with characters from 1882. Implications for disturbing history by inserting a person into 1882 and returning him to 1970 are a key focus.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: The Washing Irving story will be distributed as a .pdf file. The Dickens novella, often illustrated, is available through bookfinder.com or other outlets for as little as $4. Finney’s Time and Again is available on Amazon in paperback for $15–$20 or used via bookfinder.com for as little as $7. After the first week, students can expect to read about 100 pages per week.
We will use a map of Manhattan to mark the sites noted in the Finney book that have changed since the 1880s. Those who are familiar with that city are more than welcome to instruct the rest of us.
Week 1: Introductions and Irving
Week 2: Dickens
Week 3: Finney, Introduction – Chapter 6
Week 4: Finney, Chapter 7 – Chapter 12
Week 5: Finney, Chapter 13 – Chapter 17
Week 6: Finney, Chapter 18 – Chapter 20 (over 100 pp. – pace yourselves)
Week 7: Finney, Chapter 21 – end of book, including epilogue
Week 8: Assessing time travel as a genre
Clifford Clark, professor of history and Hulings professor of American Studies emeritus at Carleton College, directed the American Studies Program for 20 years and team-taught courses in American history, sociology, architecture, literature, and economics. Along with Paul Boyer from the University of Wisconsin, he is one of the authors of the best-selling American History textbook, The Enduring Vision, now in its 10th edition.
cclark@carleton.edu
Overview: The debate over immigration is one of the most contentious issues in American politics today. Much of this debate is based on misinformation and negative stereotypes of the diverse immigrants themselves. This course will explore the history of American immigration in a global context, discussing the strengths and weaknesses of two new books: David Leonhardt, Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream and Hein de Haas, How Migration Really Works. Among the topics that we will explore are the forces that drive immigration, the patterns of immigrant integration into American society, and the national ideals and ideology by which previous Americans idealize or stigmatize the new arrivals.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Class discussions of the readings from these books will be prefaced by questions and short introductory comments about the history of American immigration. The Leonhardt book is available via bookfinder.com for $25 or less new and $16 or less used, and the de Haas for $27 or less new or used.
Week 1: What is the significance of personal immigration stories? Introductions. Tips for reading Historical and Sociological Studies: The Importance of Context, Questions, and Sources. Read: Hein de Haas, How Migration Really Works, pp. ix-x, 60-72, and David Leonhardt, Ours Was the Shining Future, pp. ix-xxiv, 3-46.
Week 2: In what ways is a global perspective on migration helpful? Yuval Harari (the author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind) in Cambridge, England, recently gave this presentation on YouTube. Watch it before class:
Read also: Leonhardt, Chapter 2, and de Haas, pp. 15-44.
Week 3: How did war and particularly World War II shape American attitudes toward immigration? Read: Leonhardt,Chapter 3, and de Haas, pp. 45-59.
Week 4: How can we understand why racism has persisted so strongly in the U.S.? Read: Leonhardt, Chapter 4. and de Haas, pp. 60-77.
Week 5: The Paradox of Prosperity: How did the American intellectual ferment and economic change in the 1960s interact with attitudes toward migration? Read: Leonhardt, Chapter 5, and de Haas, pp. 78-125.
Week 6: Shifting Political Party Allegiances in the 1960s and 1970s: How do those changes reshape American immigration policy? Read: Leonhardt, Chapters 6 & 7, and de Haas, pp. 129-144.
Week 7: Why is immigration a consistently difficult political problem? Read: Leonhardt, Chapters 8 & 9, and de Haas,pp. 160-179.
Week 8: What options exist for solving the debate over border policy? How have changes in the structure of the American economy in the past 40 years shaped the debate over immigration policy? Read: Leonhardt, Chapter 10 & Conclusion, and de Haas, pp.326-372.
Mary Savina is the Charles L. Denison professor of geology, emerita at Carleton, where she earned an undergraduate degree with majors in history and geology. Her research and teaching focus on the interaction of humans with the physical landscape, including water in its various manifestations.
msavina@carleton.edu
Overview: In this course, I will try to demonstrate how geology, geography, and topography affect the places where cities are established and how these cities operate. The class will cover some principles of geology in an applied context, including: How do cities expand? How do cities create underground infrastructure like tunnels? How are building foundations designed so that buildings stay upright? How do cities cope with climate and sea-level change, and with natural hazards like volcanoes and earthquakes? Where do cities get their water? No prior background in geology is needed for this course. The class periods will be a combination of illustrated lectures, guided discussions, and small group activities.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: I will assign readings every week. Some will be about large topics, such as building in areas with seismic hazards, responses to changing climate, etc., whereas others will focus more specifically on individual cities. These will come in the form of .pdf files and/or website links. In addition, we will read two books together. Alex Marshall’s Beneath the Metropolis: The Secret Lives of Cities (2006, Caroll and Graf, 257 pp.) has 12 short city case studies, highlighting the different compositions and human uses of underground space. The second book is a classic by David Macauley: Underground (Houghton Mifflin, 1976, 112 pp.) which is a basic introduction to foundations, tunnels, networks and other parts of urban undergrounds, lavishly illustrated with sketches. Bookfinder lists many used copies of each book for less than $10.
Reading from these books will be spread over several weeks.
I’ll provide references and “further reading” for each of the topics and cities, which some participants may find useful. These will, obviously, be optional.
About this course: I encountered Robert F. Legget’s 1973 book (Cities and Geology; McGraw-Hill, 624 pp.) when I was in graduate school at University of California, Berkeley. I found it fascinating, read it straight through (if memory serves me right) and learned all kinds of interesting things. For instance, despite having gone back and forth to Manhattan multiple times from my childhood home in Connecticut, it had never occurred to me to ask why there were no skyscrapers in Greenwich Village and nearby neighborhoods. (There are many skyscrapers in midtown Manhattan and in the Financial District). Since then, I have greatly enjoyed what I guess might be called “urban geology travel,” learning about underground conditions in places like San Francicso, Houston, New Orleans and London. Unfortunately, no one has seen fit to update Legget’s book, let alone create a version that is aimed at non-geologists.
No promises, but I may be able to arrange a visiting speaker or two. Tentatively, I will also lead a short field trip around the Carleton College campus, emphasizing the influence of topography and geologic history, as well as the origins of some of the building stones.
Tentative schedule:
Week 1: Introductions. What is urban geology? For that matter, what is geology? Some introductory geology basics and some urban environment basics. How the two intersect.
Week 2: Establishing cities. What part do geology and geography play? (examples from London, Minneapolis, New Orleans and some ancient cities)
Week 3: Materials and cities. Where do building stones come from? (optional field trip to Carleton campus)
Week 4: Planning and expanding cities; deconstructing topography (examples from Seattle, Boston, New York, San Francisco)
Week 5: Foundations (examples from New York, Boston, San Francisco and others)
Week 6: Excavations and underground infrastructure (examples from Twin Cities, New York, London)
Week 7: Geologic hazards, climate change and cities (examples from San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans, Chicago, New York)
Week 8: Summary