CVEC is offering fifteen courses for Winter, eleven in person, three online via Zoom, and one “hybrid” course with both in-person and Zoom participants. This page contains (1) a summary listing of the title, instructor, time, and location of each course, (2) a full description of each course with a brief biography of the instructor, and (3) a description of any books or other materials that will be needed for the course.
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 start, then please email 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.
Pat Johnson, chair of the CVEC board, taught philosophy at the University of Dayton for 35 years. While there she 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. She has taught several courses for CVEC and taken a number of others. pjohnson2@dayton.edu
Overview: We take joy in our friends and even experience them as undeserved gifts. Why think about friendship? Many philosophers have reflected on friendship to understand what it means to live well together. We will consider what their reflections suggest for our daily lives. How can thinking about friendship help us find ways to understand each other, care for each other, and develop various types of friendships and communities of friends that enable us to thrive, and survive, together?
“Hybrid” Course: This course will be CVEC’s first experiment with a “hybrid” course, with students participating both in person and by Zoom. For this experiment, we think that the experience will be more enjoyable if a majority of the participants are present in person, with a smaller number attending online. Therefore, we will be registering about 15 people for in-person attendance and 5 or so for Zoom. Those who register for this course will be asked to choose one or the other. However, people who sign up for one form of attendance are welcome to use the other form when it suits their needs. For example, if you opt for in-person attendance, you can still attend by Zoom if you should become ill or wish to travel for a couple of weeks. And conversely, if you sign up for Zoom, you are always welcome to appear in person. After all, one of the goals of this “hybrid” class is to give our students increased flexibility!
Course Materials and Class Schedule: The primary text is Other Selves: Philosophers on Friendship, edited by Michael Pakaluk. It is available through bookfinder.com for as little as $8.97 used and $17.94 new. There will be additional readings made available electronically or in paper form if you let me know well in advance of class that you need them. The course will encourage discussion. A reading and discussion guide will be distributed before each class.
Week 1: Friendship and the Art of Living Together
Read: “Friendship and the Art of Living Together” by Patricia Altenbernd Johnson, to be distributed electronically. This article focuses on the thinking of Hans-Georg Gadamer. We will use his reflections to help frame the rest of the course.
Week 2: Friendship and the Art of Conversation
Read: Plato’s Lysis (Pakaluk, pages 1-27). We will begin with some reflections on conversation and its role in friendship before discussing Lysis.
Week 3: Friendship and the Practice of Virtue
Read: Selections from Aristotle (Pakaluk, pages 28-76). Aristotle’s work on friendship is extremely influential on many of the thinkers who come after him.
Week 4: Friendship Reveals Our Common Nature
Read: Cicero’s De Amicitia (Pakaluk, pages 77-124) and Emerson’s “Friendship” (Pakaluk, pages 218-232). While these two thinkers lived over 1,800 years apart, both ask us to think about how friendship helps us understand what it is to be human.
Week 5: Friendship and the Experience of the Divine
Read: Aelred of Rievaulx’s “Spiritual Friendship” (Pakaluk, pages 129-145). Aelred is one of the earliest Christian thinkers to emphasize friendship as part of a spiritual life. The Aquinas selection is difficult to read because of his use of the method of disputation. I will pull a few selections from that reading for us to look at in class.
Week 6: Some Cautions About Friendship
Read: Kant’s Lecture on Friendship (Pakaluk, pages 208-217); Kierkegaard’s “You shall Love Your Neighbor” (Pakaluk, pages 233-247); and Seneca’s “On Philosophy and Friendship” and “On Grief for Lost Friends” (Pakaluk, pages 117-128). All of these philosophers offer cautions about the risks of friendship.
Week 7: Friendship’s role in strengthening families and communities
Read: Mill’s (and Taylor’s) The Subjection of Women, Chapter 4 and Friedman’s “Feminism and Modern Friendship: Dislocating the Community,” both to be distributed electronically. Many of the philosophers that we read in the first six weeks have little positive to say about women in friendship relationships. Mill (and Taylor who worked closely with, and eventually married Mill) and Friedman provide us with a more direct opportunity to think about friendship in a context that includes women.
Week 8: Civic Friendship
Read: Schwarzenbach’s “Civic Friendship,” to be distributed electronically. As far back as the Greeks, friendship was seen to have an important role in the polis. Is this still true for the modern state? Is friendship essential to holding our modern democracy together and to strengthening it so that we can live well together?
Rich Noer taught physics for 38 years at Carleton. Courses connecting physics with the (other) humanities, usually through history and philosophy, were a special interest. His seven previous courses in the Elder Collegium continued this interest. rnoer@carleton.edu
Overview: “The light fantastic” normally refers to dancing. But the phrase works here too. Of the five senses, the most important in revealing the world in which we live is sight, and light is the messenger for sight. In this course we’ll explore the many ways that people’s understanding of that messenger has danced around from “primitive” times to the present—as emanations from our eyes as we scan the world, to emanations and reflections from external objects that are decoded by our eyes and brain. And we’ll study how those emanations have danced in people’s minds—from flowing bits of matter, to vibrating stresses in the “ether,” to fields oscillating in the vacuum of empty space, to quantum photons “conspiring” to look like fields. Do we now have a true understanding?
Course Materials and Class Schedule: This will be version 2 of the course I previously taught in Winter term 2024. Our text this time will be The Fire Within the Eye: A Historical Essay on the Nature and Meaning of Light, written for a general audience by physicist David Park after his retirement from the Williams College faculty. The book is out of print, but new hardbound copies are available at $20-$30 and many used copies (hard- and soft-bound) can be had for $5-$10 (e.g., bookfinder.com). I’ll assign about half the book, omitting sections that stray from the main focus of our course, and I will distribute occasional supplementary materials by email.
Classes will consist mainly of informal lectures, easily interrupted by student questions, comments and discussion. Most of the class time will be devoted to discussing the relevant ideas and results in ways intended to clarify and expand on the week’s readings. There will be occasional demonstrations. Below is a provisional schedule; a revised detailed version with specific page numbers will be distributed shortly before the first class.
Week 1: Ancient ideas of light (chapters 1.2.3)
Plato, Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Alkindi, Alhazen
Week 2: Medieval and Renaissance views (13-17th centuries) (chapters 4,6)
Roger Bacon, Kepler, Descartes, Fermat
Week 3: Light as particles; interference (17th century) (chapter 7)
Francis Bacon on methodology
Hooke, Newton, Huygens argue for particles
Week 4: Light as waves (18th century) (chapter 8)
Young, Fresnel argue for waves
Polarization, interference, diffraction, color
Week 5: Light as electromagnetic waves (19th century) (chapter 9)
Faraday: electric and magnetic fields become real
Maxwell’s prediction of electromagnetic waves and their speed
Week 6: Light in the laboratory (17-19th centuries) (chapters 7,9)
Light speed measurements, from Galileo to Römer & others
Laboratory production of electromagnetic waves: Hertz
The electromagnetic spectrum: 15 orders of magnitude
Week 7: The ether as the light medium (19th century) (chapter 9)
Michelson & Morley fail to detect the ether
Einstein’s relativity destroys the ether
Week 8: Quantum physics subdues the waves (20-21st centuries) (chapter 10)
Einstein’s photon particles as fundamental light messengers
Quantum duality: light as both particles and waves?
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.
laurelcarrington@gmail.com
Overview: During the 16th century, the unthinkable happened: the western Christian church became divided, never to recover the unity which it had enjoyed for centuries. Of course, it had never been a monolith, for over the centuries of its history there were numerous conflicts that threatened to tear it apart. However, the Protestant Reformation was of a magnitude that the church had never previously experienced. At the time, people did not intend to divide the church, but to reform it. There had been many initiatives for reform in the past, but the changes that Martin Luther and his fellow reformers proposed threatened the very foundations on which the authority of the church rested. This course will examine the progress of the reform, and the issues that divided Western Europe into warring camps.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: All of the readings for this course are available in a course-book, which can be purchased for $18 (included in the course fee of $68). Classes will include discussions of the readings and lectures providing context and introducing readings for the following week. I will provide lecture notes plus discussion questions by email in order to help students prepare for each class.
Week 1: Introduction to the period; the state of the church leading up to the Reformation; pre-Reformation critiques of the Avignon papacy. Readings: Raimon de Cornet Poem Criticizing the Avignon Papacy, Petrarch Letter Criticizing the Avignon Papacy, Pope Gregory XI: Condemnation of Wycliffe, Wycliffe Reply. Introduction to the Indulgence Controversy.
Week 2: The Indulgence Controversy and Luther’s 95 Theses. Readings: Johann Tetzel Sermon on Indulgences, Martin Luther Letter to the Archbishop of Mainz, Luther 95 Theses. Introduction to Luther’s Freedom of a Christian.
Week 3: Readings: Martin Luther On the Freedom of a Christian, Luther and Charles V at the Diet of Worms (1521). Introduction to the Eucharistic Controversy.
Week 4: The Eucharistic Controversy. Readings: Wikipedia article Lord’s Supper in Reformed Theology, Sixty-Seven Articles of Zwingli (1523), The Marburg Colloquy. Introduction to the Radical Reformation and the German Peasants’ War.
Week 5: The Radicals and the German Peasants. Readings: The Shleitheim Confession, Thomas Muntzer An Exposition of the Second Chapter of Daniel, The Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasantry 1525, Martin Luther A Reply to the Twelve Articles of the peasants in Swabia, Luther Against the Robbing and Murderous Hordes. Introduction to Calvin.
Week 6: Calvin and the Reform in Geneva. Readings: John Calvin Reply to Sadoleto 1539, Calvin On Predestination, Ordinances for the Regulation of the Churches. Introduction to the Catholic Reformation.
Week 7: The Catholic Reformation. Readings: Cajetan On Faith and Works, The Council of Trent The Thirteenth Session, Trent Rules on Prohibited Books, St. Ignatius Loyola Spiritual Exercises. Introduction to the English Reformation.
Week 8: The English Reformation and a tentative peace. Readings: Thomas Cranmer Letter on Henry VIII’s divorce, The Act of Supremacy, Anne Boleyn Letter to Henry VIII 1536, The Suppression of Glastonbury Abbey, The Thirty Nine Articles 1571, 1662, The Religious Peace of Augsburg (September 25, 1555). Final reflections.
John Barbour was a professor of religion at St. Olaf College for 36 years until his retirement in 2018. His academic field was religion and literature, focusing on the modern novel and religious autobiography. He has written five scholarly books and Renunciation: A Novel. This is John’s sixth CVEC course. barbourj@stolaf.edu
Overview: George Eliot’s Middlemarch (published 1872) is the classic Victorian novel, and by most accounts one of the greatest novels of any time or place. This course involves close reading and discussion of the novel, focusing each week on one of its eight Books. Among many themes we will discuss: the challenges of marriage, the possibility of morality with and without belief in God, the impact of change on rural England, the roles of women, Eliot’s psychological insights, the search for meaningful work and vocation, relationships between older and younger generations, and the historical and intellectual backgrounds of the novel. We will consider Eliot’s literary techniques, especially characterization, plotting, and the narrator’s perspective and voice. If you engage deeply with Middlemarch, you will have one of the most engrossing, profound, and satisfying reading experiences of your life.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: We will read one of the eight books of Middlemarch each week, including the first session. That means about a hundred pages of demanding reading per week. Questions will be sent to the class ahead of each meeting to help you prepare for class. The class will be based largely on discussion, with the instructor sometimes lecturing for short periods. Because we will often be examining particular passages closely, it will help us to be “on the same page” if we all use the same edition of Middlemarch. I hope you will get the Penguin Classics edition (ISBN-13: 978-0-141-43954-9), edited by Rosemary Ashton. It can be obtained at Content Bookstore or online via bookfinder.com for less than $15.
Week 1: Book 1
Week 2: Book 2
Week 3: Book 3
Week 4: Book 4
Week 5: Book 5
Week 6: Book 6
Week 7: Book 7
Week 8: Book 8
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 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 no other document defines 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 of course refer to 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 which interpretations of these rights best fulfill the promise of America.
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 (Expanded and Updated 5th Edition, 2018). This is a readable overview of the origin and interpretations of the Bill of Rights. It is available at Content Bookstore for $19, less a 10% discount, and is also available at online sites. 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
Dave Hagedorn is a percussionist and retired college jazz band director. Jazz I at St. Olaf College won two DownBeat student music awards under his leadership, and also toured Cuba in 2016. Currently, he performs regularly in Northfield and the Twin Cities. Hagedorn holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, The New England Conservatory and University of Minnesota. hagedorn@stolaf.edu
Overview: This course is designed to enhance understanding of jazz by making students aware of how composition and improvisation intersect and change through history. We will study the music from its beginnings to the present, with a large emphasis on listening skills. No musical experience is required, but you need to be able to count to 4 and group those counts, normally in sections of 4, 8, 12, 16 and 32. Many recordings will be used for more than just a unit, so listening will get more in-depth. Most of the recordings will be available on YouTube, and the instructor will send mp3 recordings of those that are not. In order to have time for comparison, we will not listen to entire recordings in class. Though the volume of listening in preparation for class looks large in the syllabus because of the number of pieces and partial pieces we will cover, students should expect to have to allocate roughly two hours per class to listening.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: The class is organized by topic and then discussed historically each week. This will point out innovations through time on each instrument, rather than dealing with a specific time period each week. A week is also devoted to Minnesota musicians, and the last week for current trends. Performers studied are the primary innovators on specific instruments, so there will be a number of players not studied.
A textbook will be used to help navigate through the recordings. This book is organized so you can use clock time to reinforce hearing the events that happen in the music. The book has many more examples than we can cover in an eight-week class so would be a great resource for further study on your own.
Jazz Essential Listening, second edition, Scott Deveaux and Gary Giddins
W.W. Norton, 2019, ISBN: 978-0-393-66739-4. Paperback new, $116.25; digital version with playback, $39.95. The first edition, though more affordable, does not have quite all the examples listed below, but it does have most, so we can make it work. Used paperback copies of it on bookfinder.com available for as little as $6; 2+ month rental for $18.98; the instructor is also able to share a free downloaded .pdf of the first edition if requested.
The last two sessions involve music with Minnesota connections, and current artists, so the textbook does not have listening guides for that music.
Week 1: What is Jazz? is Leonard Bernstein’s recording from 1956. The first half of the Bernstein recording is https://youtu.be/jqY5UFQxIl0?si=gURQdQrR4U6fZaIn and the second half is https://youtu.be/19gCQxudw6g?si=DQLQ0BSiFZJ4Cana. Please listen to both of them ((42 minutes total) before the first class. This recording is a great introduction to the styles and forms that are present in jazz, and Bernstein does some comparisons to classical music. We can refer to this for discussions throughout the entire term. In this class we will explore several elements of jazz: the instruments—brass (solo and section), woodwinds (solo and section); rhythm section; forms and arrangements—blues, free form/atonality, small groups/large ensembles; styles and innovations. A list of what students should listen to in preparation for this and all other classes will be shared with enrolled students once the class membership is determined.
Week 2: The trumpet
Week 3: Alto and tenor saxophones
Week 4: Piano
Week 5: Big band
Week 6: Vocalists
Week 7: Minnesota/Twin Cities connections
Week 8: Current and Fusion
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. His lifelong reading of serious fiction has been driven by curiosity about why people behave the way they do. He has taught two previous courses in CVEC. chris719@charter.net
Overview: George Saunders, Booker Prize winner for his novel Lincoln in the Bardo, writes short stories of striking empathy. We will read his recent book, A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, in which he revises a class he teaches for graduate student writers. Each of seven sections includes a short story by a 19th century Russian (Chekhov, Tolstoy, Gogol, Turgenev), followed by his chatty, humorous, fascinating analysis of why it works. We will also read seven of Saunders’ own short stories from Tenth of December. Their settings will be uncomfortably familiar to us, and while his stories couldn’t seem more different from the Russian classics, we will explore some often surprising connections.
It is likely we will have different opinions and preferences, but together we may well learn to read more alertly and with greater pleasure. Please be aware that while Saunders’ essays are generous and kind, his stories are often unsettling and sometimes quite vulgar, although always with purpose.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Expanded description: Students will need to purchase A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, available through bookfinder.com new for $16 or less or used for $13 or less, and Tenth of December, also available through bookfinder.com new for less than $11 or used for less than $6. Expect to read around 60 pages each week, and to participate in lively discussion.
Week 1
Swim:“We Begin” and “In the Cart” (57 pages)
George Saunders eases us into his teaching method by alternating a page or two of Chekhov’s story with his analysis, introducing us to concepts we will use throughout. We will discuss how Chekhov uses seemingly small details to build empathy and tension, and then takes advantage of our expectations to surprise us. What did Saunders notice that we didn’t? Do his observations deepen the story’s meaning? Is noticing the author’s technique helpful, or distracting? What does this story tell us about disappointment, displacement and nostalgia?
Week 2
Swim: “The Singers” and “The Heart of the Story” (47 pages)
Tenth: “My Chivalrous Fiasco” (12 pages)
Now we begin our standard pattern, reading Sauders’ selected Russian story, his essay in response, and then one of Saunders’ own stories. These two stories share a type of setting: a business designed for diversion for those living in a difficult place. We will discuss the purpose of art, and its ability to transport us. Is that important, or just a temporary distraction? We will apply Saunders’ technique of listing Things I Couldn’t Help Noticing to his own story.
Week 3
Swim: “The Darling” and “A Pattern Story” (42 pages)
Tenth: “Al Roosten” (18 pages)
These stories share some themes of self-awareness and delusion, and we will explore how patterns in a story can draw us in and reveal details of a character’s personality. Is the character thriving in a groove, or mired in a rut? Or sometimes a little of each? Saunders describes the importance of escalation in a story, and we will contrast that with these stories’ quiet endings.
Week 4
Swim: “Master and Man” and “And Yet They Drove On” (79 pages)
Tenth: “Sticks” (2 pages)
This week includes our longest and shortest stories, so we will discuss how the author knows when a story is finished, and what makes us wish for more, or feel overstuffed. These stories share themes of atonement and redemption, and how self-awareness may or may not make forgiveness possible. Both stories use facts to describe people; we will consider how the authors use those facts to lead us to build our own understanding of character.
Week 5
Swim: “The Nose” and “The Door to the Truth Might be Strangeness” (56 pages)
Tenth: “Exhortation” (8 pages)
“The Nose” is an absurd story, and Saunders helps us understand how writing in that style can allow us to notice things differently, opening us to insights we might otherwise gloss over in a realistic story. Some of his other short story collections are frequently absurd. In Tenth of December that technique is less prominent, but in “Exhortation” we come to see that the narrator is attempting to deal rationally with an absurd situation. Is it harder to feel empathy for characters in such odd circumstances? Are we reminded of times our own lives felt absurd?
Week 6
Swim: “Gooseberries” and “A Swim in a Pond in the Rain” (32 pages)
Tenth: “Victory Lap” (26 pages)
These stories use different techniques to help us see the different points of view of various characters, and we will study how the authors help us feel we know these very different people. Both stories are concerned with the nature of happiness and how to do good in the world. Both authors make unusual choices as they get us thinking about that (and likely debating it.)
Week 7
Swim: “Alyosha the Pot” and “The Wisdom of Omission” (32 pages)
Tenth: “Home” (34 pages)
The main characters in these two stories are somehow separated from those around them, and are trying to figure out how to connect, or not. Both authors hold back information we wish we had, creating interest and tension by making us fill in the blanks. We will discuss how that can engage or frustrate us. Can we empathize with people who seem so different from us? Can we understand the choices they make? Is that practice for the real world?
Week 8
Swim: “We End” (8 pages)
Tenth: “Tenth of December” (36 pages)
We will conclude with Saunders’ final observations in A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, and then read the title story of his book. That story addresses the overriding themes the authors have addressed throughout the course. How does a person live well in such a challenging world? Where do courage and kindness come from? Can we change? What is the nature of love? Because it is George Saunders writing, the story is filled with internal dialogues that are both funny and sad, and nothing comes easy.
We will then have time for an overview of the course. Did it make any sense to read such different kinds of stories together? Are the people of 19th century Russia and 21st century America living lives too dissimilar to permit helpful comparison of their personalities? Can we discover anything about human nature from such disparate approaches to storytelling? Have we learned anything to enhance our reading experience?
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, and the songwriting of Paul Simon.
pbailey@stlawu.edu
Overview: In 1988, Woody Allen, Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese collaborated on an anthology of short films, New York Stories, all set in Manhattan. Scorsese’s “Life Lessons” and Allen’s “Oedipus Wrecks” will constitute dramatic/comedic prolegomena for this class focused on cinematic projections of NYC. Of course, many of America’s greatest directors have situated their films in New York City, often making the city a silent but highly prominent character of their plots. How have they depicted and visualized the city? How does Manhattan impinge upon its residents and affect their choices? In addition to discussing New York Stories, we will watch and analyze eight full-length films—movies by Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Sidney Lumet, Spike Lee, Otto Preminger, John Schlesinger, Joan Micklin Silver, and Scorsese—the course constituting a kind of filmic Cubist approach to New York City.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: We will consider one film per week, commencing with a grueling cinematic evocation of the era of the Civil War and concluding with erotically-fixated Manhattanites at the close of the 20th century. Before each class I will distribute handouts about each film, providing historical context, production details, and excerpts from reviews. These documents will inform but not limit our discussions, which will seek to clarify the dramatic tenor of the films’ images of New York while attempting to fathom their screenwriter’s/director’s thematic cinematic intentions. All course films are available on Amazon Prime for a maximum of $3.99 per movie.
Week 1: Martin Scorsese, Gangs of New York
Week 2: Joan Micklin Silver, Hester Street
Week 3: Otto Preminger, Laura
Week 4: Sidney Lumet, Bye Bye Braverman
Week 5: John Schlesinger, Midnight Cowboy
Week 6: Woody Allen, Manhattan
Week 7: Spike Lee, Do the Right Thing
Week 8: Stanley Kubrick, Eyes Wide Shut
Jon Olson is a retired U.S. Navy commander. After earning his B.S. in history from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1990 he spent his 21-year career as an active-duty naval intelligence officer (with a specialization in Human Intelligence) and lengthy operational experience in military and intelligence operations. He earned an M.A. in National Security and Strategic Studies from the U.S. Naval War College in 2004 and a Master of Public Affairs from the Humphrey School at the University of Minnesota in 2018. jonolson1967@gmail.com
David Sauer is a retired CIA officer who served as chief of station and deputy chief of station in multiple overseas command positions in East Asia and South Asia. He graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College with a B.A. in chemistry and earned an M.A. in security policy studies from The George Washington University.
sauerdm66@gmail.com
Overview: This course covers the U.S. Intelligence Community, how intelligence supports national security policy development, and how intelligence is applied to execute strategy in pursuit of policy objectives (specifically, implementation of national security and foreign policy initiatives). Studying the structure, processes, procedures, oversight, and capabilities of the Intelligence Community will enhance students’ understanding of how intelligence supported or failed policymakers in national security decision-making, including the areas of diplomatic and economic cooperation and engagement, and security challenges ranging from deterrence to conventional war.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: In four two-hour sessions, retired CIA Senior Intelligence Service executive David Sauer, and retired Commander Jon Olson, U.S. Navy, a career intelligence officer, will take students through a detailed study of how the U.S. Intelligence Community is organized; differences between how civilian-led and DoD-centric intelligence agencies, offices, and commands function; how the intelligence community is funded; and how intelligence operations are carried out in support of national security interests. We’ll have in-depth discussions of intelligence oversight, legal frameworks for intelligence, and intelligence collection methodologies. There is no required reading but for added background students may wish to read the suggested sections below from Mark Lowenthal, Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy, CQ Press; Ninth edition (June 7, 2022). Though the paper edition is very expensive to purchase new ($129), it is available via bookfinder.com for 60-day rent at $52.02 or via Kindle for as little as $43.26. Earlier editions—less current—are available used via bookfinder.com in the $30 range.
Course Schedule
Suggested reading before Week 1: Chapters 1-4
Week 1: In this first week we’ll dive right in to learn why countries maintain intelligence agencies and run operations. We’ll look at how the US Intelligence Community is organized, and we’ll look at the intelligence cycle to better understand how policymakers guide intelligence community operations, and how they use finished intelligence to make national security decisions.
Suggested reading before Week 2: Chapters 5, 6, 9, and 15
Week 2: During this week we’ll take a deeper dive int the various intelligence collection disciplines, we’ll look at how intelligence analysts produce finished intelligence products, and we’ll consider, more deeply, the relationship between career intelligence professionals and policymakers. Finally, we’ll take a brief look at foreign intelligence services in a compare/contrast assessment.
Suggested reading before Week 3: Chapters 7, 8, 10, and 13
Week 3: This week’s session will be spent looking at the importance of counterintelligence as a partner operation to all of the collection disciplines, but perhaps most importantly as a partner to Human Intelligence (HUMINT) operations. We’ll also look at the role Covert Action plays in American national security, how oversight and accountability function to ensure the U.S. Intelligence Community operates within the legal, ethical, and moral boundaries of American society.
Suggested reading before Week 4: Chapters 11, 12, and 14
Week 4: In this final session, we’ll consider the challenge of collection, processing, and analyzing intelligence linked to both nation states and transnational issues. David Sauer and Jon Olson will provide anecdotal tales from their respective careers in how their work impacted these intelligence functions and objectives. The class will also cover intelligence reform, what led to the latest significant reform, and we’ll consider other reforms that may be needed to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the U.S. Intelligence Community.
Ron Rodman is Dye Family professor of music, emeritus, at Carleton College, where he taught courses in music theory, aural skills, music fundamentals, film and television music, and electroacoustic music. His scholarly writing includes authorship of Tuning In: American Narrative Television Music, published in 2010.
rrodman@carleton.edu
Overview: The American film musical is a distinct genre that resulted from adapting the technology of the cinema to the tradition of American musical theater. It deserves a study separate from film or theatrical studies. What the film musical lacks in the “liveness” of the theatrical stage, it more than makes up for in spectacle, thanks to camera angles, lighting, costumes, sound design, choreography, and location settings that the cinema makes possible.
During this course, we will examine the film musical genre for its narrative, cinematic, and musical structures, but we will also read studies from scholars on how these films reflect the values of American society from their respective periods on various issues both social and aesthetic. As we will see, even though film musicals typically seek to project utopian visions of life through song and dance, storylines often reveal contentious issues of American society, and in many cases, how the utopian vision is venerated or undermined by personal or cultural roadblocks.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Each week we will watch one featured film and read a critical work on that film for discussion. For each online class period, the first half of class will deal with a particular topic ancillary to the featured film, and the second half will feature a discussion of the film and the reading of the week. We will begin the course with some basic vocabulary that we can use as tools for later discussions, including some musical terms and study a theory of narrative structure of classic film musicals. We will then take a quasi-chronological journey through the film musicals repertoire from the 1920s to the present, watching selected movies, and reading commentary about each film.
Readings will come from Rick Altman’s book, The American Film Musical (Bloomington: Indiana University Press; 1987), and other sources as pdfs via email (see syllabus below). Films will be viewed independently, and most films can be found on Amazon Prime Video (Little Mermaid on Disney+) for rental between $3–$5 each. Some films can be found on Hoopla, free with a valid library card. Students are free to search for films on other streaming resources. Excerpts from films will be shown in class.
Week 1: The Narrative Structure of the Film Musical. Case Study: The Music Man (1962).
Read: Altman The American Film Musical, Chapters 1 and 2; Watch: The Music Man.
Week 2: Early Musicals (1920s and 1930s). Case Study: Singin’ in the Rain (1952).
Read: Alon (2017): “It’s Raining Films,” Literature and Film Quarterly, 45/3; Watch: Singin’ in the Rain.
Week 3: Duos and Dual-Focus. Case Study: Shall We Dance?(1937).
Read: McFadden: “Shall We Dance?: Gender and Class Conflict in Astaire-Rogers Dance Musicals,” Women’s Studies (2008) 37/6, p. 678–706; Watch: Shall We Dance?
Week 4: The Golden Age (Utopia or Dystopia?). Case Study: Oklahoma!
Read: Aiken: Filmer, Rimmer and Walsh: “Oklahoma!: Ideology and Politics in the Vernacular Tradition of the American Musical.” Popular Music V18/3 (Oct., 1999), p. 381-395; Watch: Oklahoma! (1955).
Week 5: Dancers and Choreography. Case Study: West Side Story (1961).
Read: Biesen: “Dark Musical Melodrama: From Young at Heart to West Side Story,” in: Music in the Shadows: Noir Musical Films, pp. 134–144; Watch: West Side Story.
Week 6: The Black Musical. Case Study: The Wiz (1978).
Read: Martin (2021) “Blackbusting Hollywood: Racialized Media Reception, Failure, and The Wiz as Black Blockbuster,” Journal of Cinema and Media Studies, Volume 60, Issue 2, pp. 56–79; Watch: The Wiz.
Week 7: Animated musicals: Disney. Case Study: The Little Mermaid (1989).
Read: Roberta Trites: “Disney’s Sub-Version of Andersen’s The Little Mermaid.” Journal of Popular Film and Television, Vol18/4 (WI 1991), p. 145-152; Watch: The LittleMermaid.
Week 8: The 21st Century: Modernism, Postmodernism, Remakes (& does Altman’s dual-focus theory still hold true?). Case Study: La La Land.
Read: Gabbard: “La La Land is a Hit, But is it Good for Jazz?” Daedalus , Vol. 148, No. 2, (Spring 2019), p. 92-103; Watch: La La Land (2016).
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 is deep into the process of restoring her Arts and Crafts home.
barbjevans@aol.com
Overview: This course, a blend of two classes previously taught in 2011 and 2019, will trace the roots of the Arts and Crafts Movement from its beginnings in Europe to its blossoming in America. Homes that in the U.S. were designed from established European styles evolved to the architecture we see around us every day. Frank Lloyd Wright was a leader in this movement in his quest for an American architecture. He built on the work of European thinkers. The Roycroft Colony reflected the philosophy of elevating American craft workers. Roycroft launched Gustav Stickley, who published This course, a blend of two classes previously taught in 2011 and 2019, will trace the roots of the Arts and Crafts Movement from its beginnings in Europe to its blossoming in America. Homes that in the U.S. were designed from established European styles evolved to the architecture we see around us every day. Frank Lloyd Wright was a leader in this movement in his quest for an American architecture. He built on the work of European thinkers. The Roycroft Colony reflected the philosophy of elevating American craft workers. Roycroft launched Gustav Stickley, who published The Craftsman magazine. Louis Sullivan’s Chicago firm hired several young architects who shared a vision for this new architecture and published in The Craftsman. Frank Lloyd Wright branched out from that firm in a long career that would see him lead and promote home design from Craftsman to Prairie and beyond. Purcell and Elmslie and associates became another hub of like-minded architects who settled in Minneapolis. We will explore how these ideas bloomed in the developing Northfield area.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: We will read selected philosophy and writings of the major players in the movement. We’ll also learn about and view the various elements that evolved as part of this movement and that live today in Neo Arts and Crafts architecture. Influences of the Arts and Crafts Movement are all around us. Participants who have toured Frank Lloyd Wright buildings (or others in these categories) will have a chance to share their experience with the class.
Text: We will use Northfield: The History and Architecture of a Community, published by and available at the Northfield Historical Society for $5.
The instructor will provide selected readings to the class in print or online.
Tours: We may visit a few homes based on availability and weather. Participants will provide their own transportation to those locations as needed.
Tentative Session topics:
Week 1: Introductions and a brief overview of the Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe.
Week 2: John Ruskin and the philosophy and other leaders behind the Arts and Crafts Movement in Europe.
Week 3: Arts and Crafts with Louis Sullivan, E. Hubbard, and Stickley (The Bungalow) comes to America.
Week 4: Louis Sullivan and the Chicago School: Frank Lloyd Wright’s connection to the Arts and Crafts movement. Japanese Influences.
Week 5: Craftsman homes and the progression to Prairie School with Stickley, FLW, John Howe, and Purcell and Elmslie. Progressive thought: Purcell & Elmslie. Northfield homes.
Week 6: Frank Lloyd Wright in Mason City and Racine. Prairie to Organic. Northfield Prairie and Organic homes from 1908-1950.
Week 7: Usonian homes: FLW designs of Willey, Red Rock, Bernard Schwartz. Brodersen and Warn in Northfield (SMSQ Architects).
Week 8: Notable buildings by FLW: Falling Water and The Guggenheim Museum. Participants share.
Margaret Bass is associate professor of English, emerita, at St. Lawrence University. She has traveled extensively in the Caribbean. She was a Fulbright Dissertation Fellow at the University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica, and she received a research fellowship from the Organization of American States to study in St. Lucia.
kennyslu2000@gmail.com
Overview: In this class we’ll examine Caribbean life and culture in ways we’re unable to experience on vacations to the region. The authors we’ll study were born into nations that were claimed as properties of Britain and lived to experience a long fight for national independence. We’ll examine four remarkably different accounts of living in the Caribbean under British rule: Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place; V. S. Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas; Orlando Patterson’s The Children of Sisyphus; and Derek Walcott’s Another Life.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Jamaica Kincaid’s A Small Place is a scathing critique of growing up in Antigua under British rule. V.S. Naipaul identified as a British writer, but he was born and bred in Trinidad. Many Caribbean writers rebuke and disparage Naipaul because he rejects, mocks, and disassociates from all things Caribbean. He’s a brilliant writer, and we’ll read his sole Caribbean novel: A House for Mr. Biswas, published just as Trinidad was on the eve of independence from Britain. Orlando Patterson’s The Children of Sisyphus is a classic portrayal of life in the Jamaican “Dungle,” an area characterized by abject poverty and constant struggle. Patterson writes in the language of the poorest of the poor in Jamaica. We would be remiss if we didn’t read the Caribbean’s only Nobel laureate: St. Lucian, Derek Walcott. While many of Walcott’s poems are autobiographical, Another Life is his acknowledged autobiography.
All four books are available through bookfinder.com at $10 new and $5 used, $12 new and $5 used; $20 new and $10 used; and $35 new or used ($12 on Kindle) respectively. The first two will most certainly be available in public libraries.
Week 1: Read for discussion: “Britain and The Caribbean”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zjyqtfr/revision/8
Week 2: An Insider’s View: Read A Small Place
Week 3: Read: https://www.vanderbilt.edu/lapop/news/031820-Jamaica-springer.pdf
Read Epigraph, Intro. and Chaps. 1-10, The Children of Sisyphus
Week 4: Complete The Children of Sisyphus, Chaps. 11-23.
Week 5: Life in the middle-class: Read Another Life
Week 6: Read: nwig-article-p169_1.pdf and https://cers.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/97/2013/05/Racialisation and_Trinidad_and_Tobago_Josephine_Lutchman.pdf.
Read A House for Mr. Biswas, Part 1
Week 7: Read A House for Mr. Biswas, Part 2
Week 8: Read A House for Mr. Biswas, Epilogue. Course summary
Gary Wagenbach, professor emeritus of biology at Carleton, is a field ecologist and SCUBA diver who taught, as one of his subjects, marine biology on nine off-campus programs studying coral reefs. Locations included Bermuda and Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
gwagenba@gmail.com
Overview: The EPA notes that “Coral reefs are among the most biologically diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth. An estimated 25 percent of all marine life, including over 4,000 species of fish, are dependent on coral reefs at some point in their life cycle.” Estimates suggest 500 million people rely on healthy reefs every day. Through readings, underwater video, aerial and satellite photography, and some computer-generated models, we will explore coral reefs in some accessible detail. Let’s do some ecologically oriented discovery and science!
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Gary will provide perspective and guidance for each class. A combination of observations, questions, and readings will help explore these intricate and often puzzling, very large living marine systems, coral reefs. Students will be asked to purchase or obtain two books: The Secret Life of Corals: Sex, War, and Rocks That Don’t Roll, by David E. Vaughan (available through bookfinder.com new or used for less than $27) and Coral Reefs: A Natural History by Charles Sheppard (available through bookfinder.com new or used for less than $17). Other readings and video URLs will be sent via e-mail. Student capacity to view videos before/after class is essential in support of learning.
Week 1: Off to Australia and Heron Island Research Station, U. Queensland
– Virtual introduction to corals and coral reefs
– Underwater videos, aerial photography, trying our hand at explanations
– Life requirements of corals. Vaughan Chap. 6, and Sheppard Chap. 1
Week 2: Reefs and corals—where on the planet?
– Mapping and overview of occurrence in many locations
– A challenge—make comparisons of Pacific and Caribbean reefs. What criteria?
– More detail on examples. Sheppard Chaps. 2-3
– Darwin (1831-1836) explored Keeling atoll—origins and structure. Sheppard Chaps. 2-3. Darwin’s search for explanations (supplemental reading)
Week 3: Reefs and corals of the Caribbean oceans—apply criteria to make comparisons
– Do Darwin’s hypotheses apply to Caribbean and Bermudian reefs?
– Further description of reefs in the region
– Status report on Pacific and Caribbean coral reefs
– Diseases observed—Sheppard pp. 158-59, Vaughan Chap. 6
Week 4: “Sex, War, and Rocks that Don’t Roll” Part II by Dr. David Vaughan
– Sex and bundles of joy (reproduction—details recently discovered). Vaughan, Chaps. 9-11
– Corals have weapons and use them. Vaughan, Chap. 12
Week 5: Deeper understandings of corals and coral reefs
– Shifting baselines: What are our reference points for what we think we know about coral reefs? Research by ecologist Dr. Jeremy Jackson https://youtu.be/qvrlhVPHmBo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shifting_baseline
– Exploring symbiosis/microbiome—recent research corals/humans
– Disease—corals, people and Koch’s postulates on causality (handout & URLs)
– Reef fish and sea urchins—Causality +/–
Week 6: People depend on coral reefs. Many examples: from fishing to tourism …
– Selected examples. Sheppard Chaps. 4-6. More reef fish = high quality reefs
– Recap of Jeremy Jackson research & perspectives
Week 7: 500 million years of geologic history. Vaughan Chap. 15, Sheppard pp. 94-95
– Five periods of extinction
– Corals are still here/hope for the future. Vaughan Chaps. 17-24, Sheppard pp. 218-221.
– Restoration projects, e.g., Florida’s Mote Marine lab. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b58kFFDlmRE&t=133s
– 60 Minutes program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy9gMnIJc8k
– Netflix (Chasing Coral) https://youtu.be/aGGBGcjdjXA?si=RJ5_S6lG5if9MZXZ
Week 8: Discussion of selected examples/issues
– Students and Gary choose examples from readings or other sources. Advice for decision makers/managers. Applying new knowledge
– One such: “2 million tires were dumped into the (Florida) Ocean, What Happened After 50 Years …”; a good or bad action? https://youtu.be/kfPTSHWWvww?si=KPHYUyMLl5kjKGv3
Judith Nelson is a master teacher of dance with over 35 years of experience. She danced with the José Limón Dance Company, appeared on PBS in Dance in America, and toured the U.S. and Europe as a solo artist and in musical theatre. Judith has taught a wide range of dance courses at colleges and community programs across the country, including Auburn University, Carleton and St. Olaf. MFA: University of Arizona; BFA: University of Utah. judithnelson@me.com
Overview: Cultivate joy and enrich your mind, body, and spirit through the power of dance, one of the liberal and performing arts! We will practice safe, accessible, brain-compatible dance technique and alignment, including the BrainDance, for improved balance, strength and flexibility. We will creatively explore fundamental dance concepts that encourage self-awareness and expression, and also build community. And we will have fun! Please wear comfortable, non-restrictive clothing and bare feet or soft, flexible dance shoes.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Brain-Compatible Dance Education is a structured methodology for teaching dance using a five-part class format and strategies that create an environment in which the brain is ready, willing, and able to learn. Developed by Anne Green Gilbert, renowned dance educator and author, this holistic approach allows participants the opportunity to become personally knowledgeable about dance, critical thinkers, innovative creators, successful collaborators, and respectful responders. Participants are given the opportunity to learn dance skills and also to develop their own creative ideas and voices through movement explorations, improvisation, and choreography. Brain-Compatible Dance Education supports joyful and transformative learning and self-expression!
During our eight-week session, we will explore the core dance concepts underlying the primary categories of time, space, and energy. We will follow the five-part class format. Following an opening meditation/visualization, we will warm up with the BrainDance, a series of eight developmental movement patterns that help to organize the brain, strengthen neural pathways, energize the body, and reduce stress. We will continue with a creative exploration of a dance concept, then basic dance technique including a dance combination, followed by creating simple, short choreography, usually done in small groups. We will end with a review, reflection and cool-down.
Each class will focus on a different dance concept or two. Examples include shape, pathway, level, tempo, rhythm, balance, flow, movement qualities, and many others. A large assortment of creative prompts and choreographic springboards will be offered over the course of the session. Examples include mirroring, shadowing, shaping, use of props such as stretchy bands, movement based on visual art, choreographic structures such as canon, chance-dance, ABA form, and many other ideas! We will also make time to view videos of dance performance and discuss them. The class will give participants the tools to enjoy and appreciate dance performance, while expressing themselves freely in a no-judgment zone focusing on the joy of dance.
There is no detailed week-by-week syllabus, as I will assess and address the needs and interests of the students from week to week to select the weekly concepts and activities within the consistent structure of the five-part class format. No required reading. There is no outside homework other than personal reflection and an occasional suggested video.
All genders are welcome! Dance is for everyone!
Ed Langerak is professor emeritus of philosophy at St Olaf College, where he taught for 40 years. He has taught eight Elder Collegium courses on such topics as the role of religion in public life, mortality and the meaning of life, and topics in ethics.
langerak@stolaf.edu
Overview: Aging, like life itself, can be beautiful, but it can also be hard and what makes life hard can be amplified by aging. Infirmity, loneliness, grief, failure, and injustice can threaten to make life seem absurd. What have philosophers said that might provide hope for seeing it as worthwhile, if not fulfilling? Although we will not ignore theological contributions to this discussion, we will emphasize what various secular philosophers have contributed, including ancient ones such as Aristotle and the stoics, and modern and contemporary ones, such as Thomas Nagel and Susan Wolf.
Course Materials and Class Schedule: Our main text will be Life is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way by Kieran Setiya (Penguin Random House (Riverhead Books), 2022, ISBN 9781529153378). I will ask Content Bookstore to order some new copies; used and new copies can be purchased for as little as $12 online at bookfinder.com. Setiya’s website is http://www.ksetiya.net/,where he has links to his podcast and Substack, etc. Other writings will be provided either by email attachments or by free hard copy. This will be a discussion-oriented course; weekly emails will provide some context and suggest questions worth discussing.
Organizing this course around Setiya’s book elevates breadth over depth; any one of his chapters could be developed into a separate book. Sacrificing depth for breadth can, of course, be unhelpful, but life is short and sometimes it is helpful to engage an overview of the darker side of the human condition.
Week 1: Philosophy is hard; can aging help? A selection (provided) from David Maitland’s Aging: A Time for New Learning. Are you more open to new ideas than you were when you were younger? Do you find yourself exploring questions as much as answers? What have you learned (or looked for) that makes you want to take a course like this?
Week 2: Infirmity. Setiya, Preface, Introduction and Chapter 1.
Week 3: Loneliness. Setiya, Chapter 2; Valerie Tiberius, “The Value of Others.”
Week 4: Grief. Setiya, Chapter 3; selections from Epicurus and Epictetus.
Week 5: Failure. Setiya, Chapter 4; selections on life as narrative.
Week 6: Injustice. Setiya, Chapter 5; selections on “Why be moral?”
Week 7: Absurdity and meaning. Setiya, Chapter 6; selections from Nagel and Wolf.
Week 8: Death and Hope. Setiya, Chapter 7; selections on life before death.