Books - Spring 2008

Book List for Classes

Adventures with Great Ideas: The Emotions	Lincoln's Melancholy: Pain, Pen & Power
Bridge: Intermediate Play	Masterpieces of European Art
Deadly Detectives in Literary History	Revisiting Occupied France in Fact & Fiction
How Presidents are Made: The Electoral College	Science & Religion: Enemies, Strangers or Partners?
Human Behavior & Neurobiology: Are We Hardwired?	Unraveling the Causes behind the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Islam from Mohammed to Osama	Wagner’s Ring Cycle & the Norse Myths
Jane Eyre, Victorian Rebel	Yes, You Can Draw!

The links above will take you to the book selections for each course

Adventures with Great Ideas: The Emotions
	Recommended reading: True to Our Feelings: What Our Emotions Are Really Telling Us, Robert C. Solomon. "We live our lives through our emotions," writes Robert Solomon, "and it is our emotions that give our lives meaning. What interests or fascinates us, who we love, what angers us, what moves us, what bores us--all of this defines us, gives us character, constitutes who we are." In True to Our Feelings, Solomon illuminates the rich life of the emotions--why we don't really understand them, what they really are, and how they make us human and give meaning to life. Emotions have recently become a highly fashionable area of research in the sciences, with brain imaging uncovering valuable clues as to how we experience our feelings. But while Solomon provides a guide to this cutting-edge research, as well as to what others--philosophers and psychologists--have said on the subject, he also emphasizes the personal and ethical character of our emotions.
	Recommended reading : What is an Emotion; Classic and Contemporary Readings, Robert C. Solomon. Utilizing sources from a variety of subject areas including philosophy, psychology, and biology, editor Robert Solomon provides an illuminating look at the "affective" side of psychology and philosophy from the perspective of the world's great thinkers.
Bridge: Intermediate Play
	Recommended reading: Bridge: The Club Series, Audrey Grant. If you want to learn to play bridge the correct way, at your own pace, and have fun while doing it, then this is the book for you.
Deadly Detectives in Literary History
	Required reading: The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories (Oxford Books of Prose), Patricia Craig (Editor). This is expensive new but can be easily be bought second hand through Amazon Marketplace. Beginning with the Conan Doyle era, this collection moves chronologically past Christie and Sayers to P. D. James and the present moment. Most of the 33 stories follow the Sherlock Holmes formula: a plethora of clues and a solution by ratiocination. No hard-boiled detectives or seedy characters can be found because, as Craig (The Lady Investigates) informs us in her introduction, such types never took root in the English detective story--British readers evidently prefer the urbanity of the drawing-room settings roamed by upper-class sleuths.
	Recommended reading: Bloodhounds of Heaven: The Detective in English Fiction, Ian Ousby.
	Recommended reading: Sherlock Holmes: Selected Stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and S. C. Roberts. This volume includes Silver Blaze, The Speckled Band, The Sign of Four, A Scandal of Bohemia, The Naval Treaty, The Blue Carbuncle, The Greek Interpreter, The Red-Headed League, The Empty House, The Missing Three-Quarter, and His Last Bow.
	Recommended reading: Curtain, Agatha Christie. One of Christie's most ingenious stories. A tour de force. (Newsweek) Outrageously satisfying...in this one [Christie] has brought off the bluff to end them all.
	Recommended reading: Foul and Fair Play: Reading Genre in Classic Detective Fiction , Marty Roth. Foul and Fair Play is an examination of classic detective fiction as a genre - an attempt to read a wide variety of texts by different authors as variations on a common and relatively tight set of conventions. Mary Roth covers the period from the "prehistory" of detective fiction in Edgar Allan Poe, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. G. Wells up to the 1960s, which marked the end of the classic period.
How Presidents are Made: The Electoral College
	Recommended reading: April 1865: The Month that Saved America, Jay Winik. "What emerges from the panorama of April 1865 is that the whole of our national history could have been altered but for a few decisions, a quirk of fate, a sudden shift in luck."
Human Behavior & Neurobiology: Are We Hardwired?
	Recommended reading: The Ethical Brain, Michael S. Gazzaniga. Wonderfully nourishing food for thought, tackling some of the toughest ethical issues of our time with vigor, intelligence and insight.
	Recommended reading: Hardwired Behavior: What Neuroscience Reveals about Morality, Laurence Tancredi. Behind the bad moral choices that sent Martha Stewart to prison, Tancredi discerns abnormal functioning of the brain. Indeed, much of what traditional morality has condemned as greed, lust, or sin looks like impaired neurobiology to this psychiatrist-lawyer, who locates the foundations of an ethical conscience in healthy genetic coding and properly balanced mental chemistry.
	Recommended reading: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Steven Pinker. A three-year-old toddler is "a grammatical genius"--master of most constructions, obeying adult rules of language. To Pinker, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology psycholinguist, the explanation for this miracle is that language is an instinct, an evolutionary adaptation that is partly "hard-wired" into the brain and partly learned. In this exciting synthesis--an entertaining, totally accessible study that will regale language lovers and challenge professionals in many disciplines--Pinker builds a bridge between "innatists" like MIT linguist Noam Chomsky, who hold that infants are biologically programmed for language, and "social interactionists" who contend that they acquire it largely from the environment.
	Recommended reading: Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior, Jonathan Weiner. In the words of Jonathan Weiner, "Time, love, and memory are ... three cornerstones of the pyramid of behavior." While some find it difficult to view humans as mere machines, molecular biologists maintain that most behavior is genetically based. Even skeptics and opponents agree that molecular biology may well change the way we all live in the 21st century. Little-known outside this exploding field, Seymour Benzer, his mentors, and his generations of students have studied the common fruit fly, Drosophila, and discovered genes that seem to have some influence upon our internal clock, our sexuality, and our ability to learn from our experiences.
Islam from Mohammed to Osama
	Required reading: Islam, Karen Armstrong. "The picture of Islam as a violent, backward, and insular tradition should be laid to rest," says Karen Armstrong, bestselling author of Muhammad and A History of God. Delving deep into Islamic history, Armstrong sketches the arc of a story that begins with the stirring of revelation in an Arab businessman named Muhammad. His concern with the poor who were being left behind in the blush of his society's new prosperity sets the tone for the tale of a culture that values community as a manifestation of God.
	Recommended reading: Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet , Karen Armstrong. In a meticulous quest for the historical Muhammad, Armstrong first traces the West's long history of hostility toward Islam, which it has stigmatized as a "religion of the sword." This sympathetic, engrossing biography portrays Muhammad (ca. 570-632) as a passionate, complex, fallible human being--a charismatic leader possessed of political as well as spiritual gifts, and a prophet whose monotheistic vision intuitively answered the deepest longings of his people.
	Recommended reading: What Everyone needs to know about Islam , John Esposito. Georgetown professor Esposito has written an excellent primer on all aspects of Islam. The question-and-answer format allows readers to skip ahead to areas that interest them, including hot-button issues such as "Why are Muslims so violent?" or "Why do Muslim women wear veils and long garments?" In his answers, which are anywhere from a paragraph to several pages long, Esposito elegantly educates the reader through what the Qur'an says, how Muslims are influenced by their local cultures, and how the unique politics of Islamic countries affects Muslims' views.
	Recommended reading: Introduction to the Study of the Holy Qur’an, Maulana Muhammad ‘Ali .
Jane Eyre, Victorian Rebel
	Required reading: Jane Eyre, Charlotte Bronte. An orphan girl's progress from the custody of cruel relatives to an oppressive boarding school culminates in a troubled career as a governess. Jane's first assignment at Thornfield, where the proud and cynical master harbors a scandalous secret, draws readers ever deeper into a compelling exploration of the mysteries of the human heart.
	Recommended reading: The Letters of Charlotte Bronte, Margaret Smith. These letters give an insight into the life of a writer whose novels continue to be bestsellers. They reveal much about Charlotte Bronte's personal life, her family relationships, and the society in which she lived. Many of her early letters are written with vigour, vivacity, and an engaging aptitude for self-mockery. In contrast, her letters to her 'master', the Belgian schoolteacher Constantin Heger, reveal her intense, obsessive longing for some response from him. Other letters are deeply moving, when Charlotte endures the agony of her brother's and sisters' untimely deaths.
	Recommended reading: The Life of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskell. 'It is in every way worthy of what one great woman should have written of another.' Patrick Bronte Elizabeth Gaskell's The Life of Charlotte Bronte (1857) is a pioneering biography of one great Victorian woman novelist by another. Gaskell was a friend of Charlotte Bronte, and, having been invited to write the offical life, determined both to tell the truth and to honour her friend.
	Recommended reading: Charlotte Bronte: A Passionate Life , Gordon Lyndall. In this eloquent revisionist biography of English novelist Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855), Gordon (Shared Lives) argues that she hid a passionate nature beneath the facade of a dutiful Victorian woman. She and her sisters Anne (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) and Emily (Wuthering Heights) penned fiction and poetry during Yorkshire evenings at the Haworth Parsonage where they lived with their dictatorial father.
Lincoln's Melancholy: Pain, Pen & Power
	Required reading: Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness, Joshua Wolf Shenk. Davidson delivers a fine performance in this exploration of Abraham Lincoln's depressive nature and its influence on his political life. From boyhood through assassination to legacy, Shenk probes all chambers of the 16th president's troubled heart. Davidson's voice is perfectly complementary for such historical and intimate matter, offering up an inviting rocking-chair-by-the-fire feel.
	Recommended reading: Patriotic Gore, Edmund Wilson. The period of the American Civil War was not one in which belles lettres flourished but it did produce a remarkable literature which mostly consists of speeches and pamphlets, private letters and diaries, personal memoirs and journalistic reports. Has there ever been another historical crisis of the magnitude of 1861-65 in which so many people were so articulate?
	Recommended reading: Lincoln’s Sword, The Life & Writings of Abraham Lincoln, Douglas L. Wilson. It is Lincoln's very deliberate, painstaking, multidraft process that Wilson seeks to document. Readers deeply immersed in Lincoln trivia will find Wilson's intricate forensics inviting. Others, nurturing a more casual interest, will fast find themselves drowned in details of subtle variations between drafts of Lincoln's various major addresses, all so carefully dissected in order to reveal the mechanical, trial-and-error process that lay behind Lincoln's soaring eloquence.
	Recommended reading: Team of Rivals, Doris K. Goodwin. The life and times of Abraham Lincoln have been analyzed and dissected in countless books. Do we need another Lincoln biography? In Team of Rivals, esteemed historian Doris Kearns Goodwin proves that we do. Though she can't help but cover some familiar territory, her perspective is focused enough to offer fresh insights into Lincoln's leadership style and his deep understanding of human behavior and motivation.
	Recommended reading: Lincoln’s Quest for Union: A Psychological Portrait, Charles B. Strozier. In Lincoln's Quest for Union, Charles Strozier gives the most probing account available of Lincoln's inner life--from the time he was a young man in Illinois, just finding himself, through his ascent to the presidency when he guided the nation and articulated for the country the meaning of the Civil War.
Masterpieces of European Art
	Recommended reading: The Judgment of Paris - The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism, Ross King In 1865, no painter in France was more reviled than the 33-year-old Édouard Manet. The critics compared his brushwork to the action of a floor mop and judged his infamous "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe," which features a naked woman picnicking with two clothed dandies, "a shameful open sore." The public laughed at anything he hung on the wall.
	Recommended reading: The Yellow House, Martin Gayford. Van Gogh's reputation in the public imagination has been made as much by his descent into madness as by his art. Detailing the final year of his life and the "Studio of the South" in which Gauguin and Van Gogh painted side by side, Gayford brings the art back into focus. Explications of the works illuminate the collaboration—similar subjects find very different treatment by two entirely different temperaments. Yet their influence on each other is everywhere—a story that Van Gogh recommends to Gauguin finds its way into a painting; Van Gogh uses the jute canvas that is Gauguin's material of choice.
	Recommended reading: A Basic History of Western Art, 7th ed., H. W. Janson and Anthony Janson.
Revisiting Occupied France in Fact & Fiction
	Required reading: Suite Francaise, Irene Nemirovsky. Celebrated in pre-WWII France for her bestselling fiction, the Jewish Russian-born Némirovsky was shipped to Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, months after this long-lost masterwork was composed. Némirovsky, a convert to Catholicism, began a planned five-novel cycle as Nazi forces overran northern France in 1940. This gripping "suite," collecting the first two unpolished but wondrously literary sections of a work cut short, have surfaced more than six decades after her death. The first, "Storm in June," chronicles the connecting lives of a disparate clutch of Parisians. The second, "Dolce," set in 1941 in a farming village under German occupation, tells how peasant farmers, their pretty daughters and petit bourgeois collaborationists coexisted with their Nazi rulers. In a workbook entry penned just weeks before her arrest, Némirovsky noted that her goal was to describe "daily life, the emotional life and especially the comedy it provides." This heroic work does just that, by focusing—with compassion and clarity—on individual human dramas.
	Recommended reading: We Only Know Men: The Rescue of Jews in France During the Holocaust, Patrick Henry. Henry writes clearly and forcefully in this important new book. In just about every chapter, one can sense a strong personal commitment to recognize the courageous, altruistic activity of the rescuers and to inspire others to prevent recurrence of genocidal evil in the present and future.”
Science & Religion: Enemies, Strangers or Partners?
	Required reading: When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?, Ian G. Barbour. We're closing in on the 150th anniversary of Darwin's Origin of Species, but clearly not closing in on any resolution of the debates that the book stirred up between science and religion. In this slim volume, physicist and theologian Ian Barbour summarizes his own decades-long accumulation of knowledge in these two arenas. Writing with clarity and a scientist's eye for organization, Barbour takes on the scientific and theological significance of the big questions: the big bang, quantum physics, Darwin and Genesis, human nature (the question of determinism), and the relationship between a free God and a law-bound universe. In each chapter, Barbour recognizes four possible ways of responding to the dilemmas posed by these topics: conflict, represented by Biblical literalists and atheists, both of whom agree that a person cannot believe in both God and evolution; independence, which asserts that "science and religion are strangers who can coexist as long as they keep a safe distance from each other"; dialogue, which invites a conversation between the two fields; and integration, which moves beyond dialogue to explore ways in which the two fields can inform each other. Barbour notes that his own sympathies lie with dialogue and integration.
	Recommended reading: In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion, Atran, Scott. This ambitious, interdisciplinary book seeks to explain the origins of religion using our knowledge of the evolution of cognition. A cognitive anthropologist and psychologist, Scott Atran argues that religion is a by-product of human evolution just as the cognitive intervention, cultural selection, and historical survival of religion is an accommodation of certain existential and moral elements that have evolved in the human condition.
	Recommended reading: Finding Darwin's God: A Scientist's Search for Common Ground Between God and Evolution, Miller, Kenneth R. Miller, professor of biology at Brown University, believes firmly in evolution. He also believes in God-a belief not widely shared among scientists. Here he sets out to offer thoughts on how to reconcile the conflict many people see between the two positions. Evolution, he says, is a story of origins; so too is the Judeo-Christian creation story. "The conflict between these two versions of our history is real, and I do not doubt for a second that it needs to be addressed. What I do not believe is that the conflict is unresolvable."
	Recommended reading: The Many Faces of God, Jeremy Campbell. Readers who recognize Newton and Bohr as pathbreaking scientists may be surprised to learn what they--and other laboratory mavens--have asserted about God. In a provocative and much-needed investigation, Campbell illuminates the ways in which science has recast the meaning of religious faith. Readers see how science first emerged in the seventeenth century as a new mediator between God and his people, so testing traditional religious authorities.
	Recommended reading: The God Delusion, Dawkins, Richard. Richard Dawkins, in The God Delusion, tells of his exasperation with colleagues who try to play both sides of the street: looking to science for justification of their religious convictions while evading the most difficult implications—the existence of a prime mover sophisticated enough to create and run the universe, "to say nothing of mind reading millions of humans simultaneously." Such an entity, he argues, would have to be extremely complex, raising the question of how it came into existence, how it communicates —through spiritons!—and where it resides.
	Recommended reading: Science and Evidence for Design in the Universe, Behe, Michael J., Dembski,William A., and Meyer, Stephen C. As progress in science continues to reveal unimagined complexities, three scientists revisit the difficult and compelling question of the origin of our universe. As mathematician, biochemist, and philosopher of science, they explore the possibility of developing a reliable method for detecting an intelligent cause and evidence for design at the origin of life. In the process, they present a strong case for opening and pursuing a fruitful exchange between science and theology.
	Recommended reading: Bridging Science and Religion, Ted Peters & Gaymon Bennett.
Unraveling the Causes behind the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
	Recommended reading: A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East, David Fromkin. "Wonderful...No book published in recent years has more lasting relevance to our understanding of the Middle East."
Wagner’s Ring Cycle & the Norse Myths
	Required reading: Wagner's Ring: Turning the Sky Round, M Owen Lee. In a concise, beautifully shaped style, Lee summarizes the plot and analyzes each opera musically and psychologically while also examining the mythological roots and the meaning this work can hold for today's audience. The result is a readable critical essay that celebrates its subject and makes one eager to hear the operas. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries with strong music collections.
	Recommended reading: Penetrating Wagner’s Ring, John DiGaetani.
	Recommended reading: The Wagner Operas, Ernest Newman. Reading the details of the often complex backgrounds of the operas, as well as what goes on in the opera itself, should immeasurably enrich the listener's opera-going experience, even in this age of the surtitle. And an appreciation of the range and cogency of Wagner's musical and dramatic genius, which this book offers, will serve to balance the unflattering portrait of Wagner the human being that dominates today's thinking about the Master.
Yes, You Can Draw!
	Recommended reading: Drawing Made Easy, David Sanmiguel. Simple, methodical instructions in proportion, perspective, shading, and blending, along with detailed sequential illustrations, provide a thorough grounding in the basics. You’ll master the techniques—and render drawings like a virtuoso. “Emphasizes color and the digitally driven style of most modern texts: it is heavy on...illustration....A good volume.”

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Course Descriptions - Spring 2008

REGISTRATION IS OPEN FOR THE SPRING 2008 TERM
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ACADEMY OPEN HOUSE

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 4:30-6:30 pm
$5 (both first-time and prospective members are free)
Location: Three Fountains Clubhouse, 3280 S. Oneida Way (NOT at the church!)

Kick-off the spring term with a party. Sip, nibble, and chat. Schmooze with facilitators and fellow Academics, and pick up any hand-outs you’ll need to get ready for your first classes. (Can’t make it? We’ll mail anything you miss.) Bring along friends and neighbors to join the fun and find out what the Academy is all about.  There may still be openings in a class that strikes their fancy.  A note of caution: long before last term’s open house, five classes filled.  Members waiting to enroll that evening were disappointed

COURSES

 

Academy courses are divided into the following categories: Science & Health, Social Sciences, Fine Arts & Humanities, Food for Thought, and Building Skills.

 

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SCIENCE & HEALTH

EVOLUTION, INTELLIGENT DESIGN, Part 2
The Courts

Thursdays, 10 am – 12 noon
8 weeks, Feb. 21 – Apr. 10 (with a 9th week if there is interest)
$65, includes a source book of 163 pages
Lectures, discussion
No prerequisite

This is the second half of a two-part course that examines the conflict between evolution and intelligent design, but even if you missed the first part and have no science background, you’ll have no problem with the ideas covered in this course. We’ll be focusing on key state and federal court cases that have dealt with the teaching of evolution, creationism, and intelligent design in our public schools. We’ll trace the history of the successive arguments developed by religious fundamentalists to block the teaching of evolution in the United States and examine the standards used by the courts to decide whether a given law violates the Constitutional prohibition against endorsing a religion.

Recommended reading:
Teaching about Evolution and the Nature of Science (1998).  You can download it free at www.nationalacademies.org/evolution/.

Instructor:
Lawyer, paleobotanist, and retired Southern Illinois University professor Larry Matten has a passionate interest in defending the modern theory of evolution against the claims of intelligent design.

HUMAN BEHAVIOR & NEUROBIOLOGY, Part 2
Are We Hardwired?

Thursdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
9 weeks, Feb. 28 – Apr. 24
$70, includes additional Part 2 handouts
$20, Notebook for new participants with reference materials and timely articles from Part 1
Illustrated lectures with Q&A and discussion
No prerequisite

If you ever wanted to know what really makes you tick, this is the course for you. With a hundred billion nerve cells, two million miles of axons, and a million billion synapses, the human brain is the most complex natural or artificial structure on earth. Although we inherit some factors that shape our brain, our environment and our actions play important roles in its functioning. Beginning with a brief review of last term’s topics, we’ll continue taking a wide-ranging look at the anatomy and physiology of the nervous system, the hormones used by the brain, ideas on evolution and behavioral genetics, and ethology (animal behavior) to try to reach an understanding of the very complex factors that influence the way we live our lives.

Required reading:
Michael S. Gazzaniga, The Ethical Brain (Dana Press, 2005) (Buy from Amazon).

Recommended reading:
Another good book: Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Penguin, 2003), paperback (Buy from Amazon).

Instructor:
Bennie Bub is a South African neurosurgeon board certified in three different specialties on three continents. After immigrating to the US in 1976, Bub practiced in Denver as an anesthesiologist for more than twenty years before founding a successful database company, from which he has retired to indulge his love of music, travel, and reading.

AGING & SEXUALITY

Thursdays, 10 am – 12 noon
4 weeks, Mar. 27 – Apr. 17
$25 (nonmembers $35)

Join us to talk about how our aging bodies respond to sexual desires. Classes will focus on such topics as physical attraction, touch needs, illnesses and disabilities, verbal and nonverbal communication, and changing expectations. Class input is valued and important as a means for examining these issues. This class is all about defining and communicating your personal values about sexuality, not therapy or a course in how-to. Class size limited to 12.

Facilitators:
Caroline Bliss-Kandel, RN, BSN, and Joseph Kandel, Ed.D., have facilitated classes for older adults for many years and have learned the skill of open and comfortable communication.

SOCIAL SCIENCES

THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE
How Presidents Are Made

Tuesdays 10 am – 12 noon
8 weeks, Feb. 26 – Apr. 15
$65, includes numerous handouts
Lectures, discussion

Nothing in our political system is more generally misunderstood or under fire than the way we elect our presidents. In this course we’ll look at the history of the United States through the lens of the Electoral College and examine the way our political parties came into being and have evolved. We’ll see what part our founding fathers’ opinions of political parties played in the creation of the Electoral College, how the college was first used, and how it was affected by the passage of the Twelfth Amendment. We’ll take a close look at several notable elections, including the disputed 2000 election, and see what roles the Electoral College, political parties, and the popular vote play in determining the President of the United States. You’ll have a chance to ponder the “what ifs” of American political history and may perhaps end by agreeing with Thomas Jefferson, who said, “If I must go to heaven with a political party, I would prefer not to go.”

Recommended reading:
Jay Winik, April 1865: The Month That Saved America (Perennial, 2001) (Buy from Amazon).

Instructor:
Dick Young is a political activist and history buff who is earning a Masters in history forty years after taking his law degree at the University of Michigan. Young has taught this course at various Elderhostels and the continuing education programs of several universities.

THE DILEMMA OF IMMIGRATION

Wednesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
4 weeks, Feb. 20 – Mar. 12
$40, no book to buy, numerous timely handouts
Lectures, discussion

Immigration has become a hot-button issue of the 2008 presidential election campaign. Hillary Clinton was pilloried for her defense of Gov. Elliot Spitzer’s plan to require illegal immigrants to have drivers’ licenses. Tom Tancredo says he won’t run for congress again now that he has successfully taken his “send ‘em all home” message to the nation as a presidential candidate. Are today’s immigrants different from those of the past, as some claim? Is America ready to turn its back on its 250-year history as a nation of immigrants? Can we afford to absorb all the new arrivals, authorized and unauthorized? Can we afford to turn them away? We’ll review the history of American immigration and immigration laws past and present. We’ll also compare relative rates of assimilation and changing attitudes toward immigrants. Finally, we’ll look at the economic impact of immigration and weigh its costs and benefits.

Recommended reading:
Most books on this subject are out of date. Instead of a book, numerous readings and a list of recommended websites will be distributed at the first meeting.

Facilitator:
For those who missed it the last time around, economist Jim Kneser repeats this lively and highly popular investigation into one of today’s hottest topics.

ISLAM FROM MUHAMMAD TO OSAMA

Tuesdays, 10 – 12 noon
Tuesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm - FILLED
8 weeks, Feb. 26 – Apr. 15
$65, includes photocopies of lecture notes
Lectures, discussion

How much do you really know about the Islamic faith and the Muslim people? Here’s your chance to explore the history of Islam from its seventh-century beginnings to the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We’ll study the life of Muhammad and discuss the Holy Qur’an, both of which are widely misunderstood in the Western world. We’ll explore the similarities and differences among the three great monotheistic religions—Islam, Christianity, and Judaism—and examine the implications and consequences of the long political history between Islam and the West. At least one Muslim guest will provide some insight into the struggle faced by the American Muslim community in the wake of 9/11.

Required reading:
Karen Armstrong, Islam (Random House, 2000) (Buy from Amazon).

Also recommended:
John Esposito, What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002) (Buy from Amazon).

Facilitator:
Teaching is a passion for retired “technocrat” Walt Meyer, who has presented a series of classes on Islam for members of his Lutheran church on two occasions.

UNRAVELING THE CAUSES BEHIND
THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT

Wednesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
4 weeks, Mar. 19 – Apr. 9
$35, includes photocopied handouts
Lectures, video, Q&A

For many, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a central issue in the political debate about achieving peace in the Middle East. Now is your chance to delve into this complex problem with an expert who has chaired a Middle East study group in Denver for the past sixteen years and who is now a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Israel in the Middle East, Graduate School of International Studies, University of Denver. You are sure to come away from these lectures with a clearer idea of the meaning of Zionism, the Middle East refugee problem, and the reasons for the close relationship between the United States and Israel, as well as a better understanding of the issues involved in the media’s treatment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Recommended reading:
David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Emire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East (Owl Books, 2001), paperback (Buy from Amazon); first published in hardback in 1989 as A Peace to End All Peace: Creating the Modern Middle East, 1914-1922.

Facilitator:
A native of South Africa, Herzl Melmed grew up in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and lived in Israel from 1965 to 1976, during both the Six-Day and the Yom Kippur Wars. Since immigrating to Colorado in 1976, he has been active in the local community and currently chairs ActionIsrael, a grassroots group of Christian and Jewish supporters of Israel.

THE BLUES
A Story of Migration & Transformation

Tuesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
8 weeks, February 19 – April 8 FILLED
$70, includes three-ring notebook and lots of photocopies
Music, video, mini-lectures, discussion

This class is FILLED. The blues, heart and soul of American popular music, was born on the Mississippi Delta in the early twentieth century and through successive decades shaped genres as diverse as jazz, country and western, rock and roll, soul, and hard rock. Set against the backdrop of turbulent social change, this course explores the wonderfully complex narrative of the influence of the blues as sung by the great women blues legends—from Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holliday to Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin. We’ll examine the relationship between the transformative influence of the blues and the parallel physical and social migration of Blacks out of the oppressive rural South. As we explore how a people and their history came to be manifest in a completely new and unique genre of music, we’ll try to assess the effect of both the music and the history on today’s mainstream culture. FILLED

Instructor:
After retiring from a career in commercial real estate law, Connie Hyde has returned to her roots as a student of literature, music, and art at Duke University. She is fascinated by the people and ideas that have shaped our world and the way that literature, music, and art interact with history and politics.

HOW TO THINK LIKE AN ECONOMIST & WHY YOU SHOULD

Wednesdays, 10 am – 12 noon
8 weeks, Mar. 5 – April 23
$75, includes a book’s worth of current articles + lecture notes
Lectures, Q&A, discussion

Each day the media assaults us with news of trade deficits, inverted yield curves, liquidity crises, fiscal policy concerns, a weakening dollar, and other issues about which we know we should be concerned but are unsure why. Economics sounds intimidating, but it really isn’t. Gregory Mankiw, who teaches economics at Harvard, describes it as the study of “how people choose to lead their lives and how they interact with one another.” This course focuses on the essential principles of economics—the basics of what you really need to know—with a minimum of charts and graphs and a maximum of examples from today’s headlines. Find out why economics is now the most popular major at Ivy League universities. Gain economic literacy, not a migraine, from this lively class that’s accessible to all.

Instructor:
After a career in private equity, Jim Kneser, one of the Academy’s founders, has turned his attention to educating adults about the important role of economic principles in everyday life and public policy debates.

NEW DISCOVERIES IN MEMORY & LEARNING

Wednesdays, 10 am – 12 noon
4 weeks, Feb. 20 – Mar. 12
$35, includes lecture printouts
PowerPoint lectures, discussion

What’s in a brain? No one really knew until 1991, when scientists began to study healthy human brains. This course will focus on the most recent discoveries about brain biology, how memory works, and the importance of meaning and emotion in learning. But there is still much more to discover about the physical workings of the brain and consciousness. What should we be doing to keep our brains healthy? How does all this information affect how we live our lives? Get your brain engaged, and learn about how you learn and remember information.

Instructor: After thirty years of classroom teaching, Sandy Stolar became intrigued by how the brain actually learns. Today she is a trainer for Translating Brain Research into Classroom Practice and a member of the “Brainy Bunch,” a national group that studies brain research.

FINE ARTS & HUMANITIES

ADVENTURES WITH GREAT IDEAS
The Emotions, Part 1

Take your pick: Tuesdays, 10 am – 12 noon FILLED
                         Tuesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm FILLED
10 weeks, Feb. 19 – Apr. 22
$75, includes copious handouts
Video, lectures, discussion

Feeling jealous, happy, or anxious? Discover what the world’s great philosophers and writers have to say about your emotions. We will examine the ways in which our passions define us, move us, play havoc with our hearts and brains, and give meaning to our human experience as rational beings. As we learn how anger, fear, love, charity and mercy, pride and humility, jealousy, pity and envy, and joy and sorrow affect our lives, we’ll take a look deep into ourselves. This course is part one of a two-part series that provides an intellectual framework with which we can reflect upon our humanity as individuals, as members of society, and as part of the cosmos. Join this great intellectual adventure.

Required reading:
Photocopied materials

Recommended reading: Robert C. Solomon, ed., What is an Emotion: Classic and Contemporary Readings, 2d ed. (Oxford Univ. Press, 2003) (Buy from Amazon).

Instructor:
Jim Hartmann rose from deputy state historian to president of the Colorado Historical Society and gubernatorial-appointed state historic preservation officer during his thirty years with the society.

SCIENCE & RELIGION
Enemies, Strangers, or Partners?

Wednesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
8 weeks, Mar. 5 – Apr. 23
$60, includes photocopies
Discussion

Whether you agree or disagree with Albert Einstein that “science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind,” you’re sure to enjoy this lively investigation into the question of whether science and religion are mutually exclusive. Stephen Jay Gould posited a “non-overlapping magisteria” with the magisterium of science covering the empirical realm—what the universe is made of (fact) and why it works the way it does (theory)—while the magisterium of religion extends over questions of ultimate meaning and moral value.  Richard Dawkins criticizes this stance as “a purely political ploy to win middle-of-the-road religious people to the science camp.”  We’ll consider extremes as well as middle grounds in the areas of astronomy and creation; quantum physics; evolution and continuing creation; genetics, neuroscience, and human nature; and God and nature.

Required reading:
Ian G. Barbour, When Science Meets Religion: Enemies, Strangers, or Partners? (Harper San Francisco, 2000) (Buy from Amazon).

Also recommended:
Scott Atran, In Gods We Trust: The Evolutionary Landscape of Religion (Oxford Univ. Press, 2002) (Buy from Amazon).

Facilitator:
Retired public school teacher Sherma Erholm holds a Master’s in communication theory and psychology.  As a learning junkie, she has facilitated adult courses in such diverse subjects as futurism, China, Iran, evolution, and the U.N.

DISCOVERING A FORGOTTEN COMPOSER
Théodore Gouvy

Tuesdays, 10 am – 12 noon
10 weeks, Feb. 19 – Apr. 22
$70
Lectures, discussion

Immerse yourself in the life and music of little-known nineteenth century French composer Théodore Gouvy with maestro Robin McNeil.  Close friend to Liszt, Berlioz, Bizet, Brahms, Schumann, and Mendelssohn, Gouvy was well-known and highly respected in his lifetime. His repertoire even includes several works commissioned by the New York Philharmonic in the 1860s.  We’ll give Gouvy the hearing he deserves and try to understand why once-popular greats sometimes get overlooked in a crowd.

No required reading

Instructor:
Retired professor of piano, musicologist, author of book and concert reviews, and executive director of the Denver Philharmonic Orchestra, Robin McNeil dislikes retirement and continues to give private lessons.

WAGNER’S RING CYCLE &
THE NORSE MYTHS

Thursdays, 10 am – 12 noon
8 weeks, Mar. 6 – Apr. 24
$70, includes numerous handouts and the use of performance videos for home viewing
Lectures, discussion

Why is Richard Wagner one of the most beloved and despised composers of the past hundred and fifty years, and why is his “Ring cycle” considered the greatest of all operas?  In this second of three courses on Norse mythology, we’ll focus on Wagner’s four-part operatic cycle, The Ring of the Nibelung, which weaves the disconnected legends that we studied last term into a dramatic narrative whole.  You needn’t have taken the first course in the series, however, to enjoy this class fully. We’ll examine Wagner’s life, the historical context in which the operas were written, and the way in which he combined the ancient myths and sagas into a musical masterpiece. We’ll view video performances of most of the operas outside of class and spend our time together delving deeply into the background and esthetic features of this controversial work of art.

Required reading:
M. Owen Lee, Wagner's Ring (Limelight, 1988) (Buy from Amazon).

Also recommended:
Ernest Newman, The Wagner Operas (Princeton Univ. Press, 1991) (Buy from Amazon). Extended bibliography will be available at the first class meeting.

Instructors:
Hardly a Johnny one-note, economist Jim Kneser indulges his lifelong interest in music by facilitating courses showcasing some of his favorite composers.  Retired high school English teacher Carol Anthony is a longtime fan of J.R.R. Tolkien with a passionate interest in Norse-English-Germanic mythology and culture.

MASTERPIECES OF EUROPEAN ART, Part 3
Looking with Fresh Eyes

Thursdays, 10 am – 12 noon
8 weeks, February 21 – Apr. 17, no class Apr. 10
$60, includes bound copies of lecture outlines
Video lectures, slide presentations, discussion
No prerequisite

This is the final part of a course designed to give you the tools you need to look at works of art with greater understanding. Even if you missed parts one and two, you’re bound to relish Professor William Kloss’s illustrated DVD lectures showing you how to get inside an artwork and savor it to the fullest. We begin with the seventeenth-century Dutch masters, then move on to the reigning French classicists Poussin and Claude before turning to the Spanish baroque with El Greco and Velazquez. It’s on to Versailles to review Fragonard and other eighteenth-century French masters before catching up with the giants of neoclassicism and nineteenth-century romanticism—David, Goya, Ingres, Delacroix, Constable, and Turner.  We’ll study French realism from Daumier to Courbet and the birth of impressionism with Manet and Monet. We’ll focus on Degas, Renoir, Pissarro, and Cézanne, then move on to cubism and early modern painting and sculpture, ending with Seurat, Matisse, Rodin, Brancusi, Kandinsky, and Picasso.

Recommended reading:
Ross King, The Judgment of Paris: The Revolutionary Decade That Gave the World Impressionism (Walker & Co., 2006) (Buy from Amazon).

Facilitator:
A devotee of art museums at home and abroad, Laura Pardee has long been fascinated by European painting, sculpture, and architecture. Her firsthand experience adds a personal dimension to your virtual tour with art historian William Kloss. Fred Pardee enjoys providing technical support to Laura’s richly illustrated course.

WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM PREHISTORIC ART

Thursdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
2 weeks, Apr. 17 and Apr. 24
$15
Illustrated lectures, Q&A

What prompted humans to start making paintings and sculpture that we now value as art?  Learn what distinguishes the Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures of our distant ancestors, and see how these differences play out in the earliest works of art known to us. These lectures will explore the various theories that try to explain the “function” of late Old Stone-Age cave paintings and the huge stone constructions raised by New Stone Age communities: do they testify to magical or religious practices, or were they merely decorative?  We’ll revisit well-known sites such as Lascaux, Altamira, and Carnac, as well as lesser-known marvels like Chauvet, Peche Merle, Gavrinis, and Newgrange.

Lecturer:
An experienced scholar and lecturer in the arts and sciences, Henry Claman is a semi-retired professor of medicine at the CU Medical School, where he directs the Medical Humanities Program.

DEADLY DETECTIVES
The Detective in Literary History

Wednesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm FILLED
5 weeks, Feb. 20 – Mar. 19
$40, includes plenty of handouts
Discussion, lectures, video
Filled

This class is FILLED. Are fictional detectives elementary, my dear Watson? Not exactly. This course tracks famous sleuths from the golden age of detective fiction as they solve classic literary puzzles. Not only does the class offer a great mental workout, it explores the enormous variety of early twentieth-century detective figures, their predecessors (notably Sherlock Holmes), and some successors. Did you know that while Arthur Conan Doyle’s portrait of a vaguely scientific, god-like detective provoked a series of rejections of the Holmesian model, the ultrascientific R. Austin Freeman kept a personal laboratory to craft forensic solutions that would really work? Even though the authors worked at some distance from reality, the class will unearth issues that are critical to real detective work, such as lying, forgery, witness testimony, not to mention the character and creativity of the detective. Join this investigation into renowned detective characters and their creators, including Poe, Doyle, Sayers, Simenon, Christie, and others. Filled

Required reading:
Patricia Craig, ed., The Oxford Book of English Detective Stories (Oxford Univ. Press, 1990) (Buy from Amazon). (2 or3 stories from this book per class; available used at Amazon Marketplace)

Recommended reading:
Ian Ousby, Guilty Parties: The Mystery Lover’s Companion (Thames and Hudson, 1997).

Instructor:
Irene Gorak holds a Ph.D. in nineteenth-century literature from UCLA. A native of Britain, she taught English in British high schools, and later, worked as an adjunct professor of Gothic, women’s literature, and detective fiction at the University of Denver.

REVISITING OCCUPIED FRANCE
IN FACT & FICTION

Wednesdays, 10 am – 12 noon
3 weeks, Feb. 20 – Mar. 5
$25
Discussion, mini-lectures

Six decades after being penned by the Auschwitz-bound novelist Irene Némirovsky, Suite Française has found its rightful place on the bestseller list.  The first two parts of what was intended to be a five-novel cycle only recently resurfaced and have been published together as a “suite” that details, in the author’s own words, the chaotic “daily life, the emotional life, and especially the comedy” of a France overrun by Nazi forces.  Delve into this gifted novelist’s light-hearted evocation of a bitter time, written as it was being lived, and savor its rich mixture of history and imagination.

Required reading:
Irene Némirovsky, Suite Française (Vintage, 2007) (Buy from Amazon).

Facilitator:
Trained as a geologist, Donna Barrow is an avid reader whose Stanford English professor would, Donna says, “turn many shades of red” if she knew her former student was leading a book discussion.  Not to worry, Donna will deal with the novel’s historical aspects and has enlisted former professor of literature Connie Platt and music specialist Robin McNeil to address its other features.

LINCOLN’S MELANCHOLY
Pain, Pen & Power

Thursdays 1:30 – 3:30 pm
6 weeks, Feb. 21 – Mar. 27
$45, includes handouts
Discussion, video

How did suffering and depressive tendencies lend brilliance to one of our greatest presidents? Based on the book Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled his Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk, this courseexplores the paradoxical argument that Lincoln transformed his private misfortunes into rigorous public performance. Shenk’s provocative psychobiography provides the framework for exploring Lincoln’s verbal and literary genius, as well as his use of presidential power. Was Lincoln a tyrant, as some claimed, exceeding his constitutional authority, or was he simply a man at war with himself? Did his personal psychic pain contribute to the difficult decisions he made for the “house divided”? We’ll examine how polarizing elements played out in Lincoln’s mind and helped plot a course that saved the nation.

Required Reading:
Joshua Wolf Shenk, Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled his Greatness (Houghton Mifflin, 2005) (Buy from Amazon).

Recommended Reading:
Doris K. Goodwin, Team of Rivals (Simon & Schuster, 2005) (Buy from Amazon).

Instructor:
Educated at Williams College, Oxford, and Harvard, Douglas Wilson taught literature for more than thirty years at the University of Denver before his retirement. He has published works on Wordsworth, Coleridge, Keats, and Shakespeare.

JANE EYRE, VICTORIAN REBEL

CANCELLED
Tuesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
7 weeks, Feb. 19 – Apr. 1
$55, includes photocopies
Discussion, mini-lectures, video film clips

THIS CLASS WAS CANCELLED. What makes Charlotte Brontë’s romantic Victorian novel about a naïve young woman who finds love as a governess on the lonely moors of England a good read in an age flooded with bodice rippers?  What gives this tale of an orphan girl its richness and depth?  And how did Brontë’s life experience influence her writing?  We’ll explore these questions and other controversial questions as we read the novel in segments of about 75 pages each session.  You should come prepared for the first class meeting with book in hand and chapters 1-8 under your belt. Cancelled.

Required reading:
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (Penguin, 2006) (Buy from Amazon). Other editions with notes are okay, but discussions will be easier to follow if all participants can be on the same page.

Recommended reading:
Lyndall Gordon, Charlotte Brontë: A Passionate Life (W.W. Norton, 1996) (Buy from Amazon).

Facilitator:
Retired English teacher Liz Aguilar has visited the family home of the Brontë sisters and walked the Yorkshire moors described so vividly in their novels.

WRITING YOUR LIFE STORIES

Tuesdays, 10 am – 12 noon FILLED
8 weeks, Feb. 19 – Apr. 8
$60, includes three-ring notebook, paper, and photocopies
Interactive workshop environment

Whether you’re nineteen or ninety, you have stories to tell and wisdom to share. This course gives you the support and inspiration you need to start compiling a permanent collection of your real-life stories to share with family and friends or simply to enjoy for yourself. Jump-start your memory with innovative and engaging activities that help you recall long forgotten events. This is the perfect opportunity to begin writing. FILLED

Facilitator:
Kathy Boyer, a retired teacher, has conducted Life Stories workshops for libraries, summer camps, churches, community centers, and the Academy. She also works with individuals to record their memories on audio tape.

MAKING POETRY PART OF YOUR LIFE

Wednesdays, 10 am – 12 noon
3 weeks, Mar. 19 – Apr. 2
$20
Discussion, mini-lectures

Who has time for poetry in today’s hectic world?  Find out how reading and writing poetry can enrich your life. We’ll take a look at a wide variety of poets—including, among others, Sara Teasdale, William Wadsworth, Robert Frost, A. E. Houseman, Carl Sandburg, Countee Cullen, Oscar Wilde, Joyce Kilmer, and Shakespeare.  We’ll discuss the steps taken in writing a poem and how poetry can change the way you look at life and your surroundings, things you may otherwise take for granted.  Through an understanding and love of poetry, we can learn to love life and the uniqueness of its expression in nature, language, interpersonal relationships, and even tragedy.  Come prepared to share your favorite poems—your own or those of others.

Facilitator:
Retired lawyer Ted Borrillo is also a published poet who has already made poetry a rewarding part of his life.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

EXPERTS & ENTERTAINERS

Wednesdays, 12:15 – 1:15 pm
10 weeks, Feb. 20 – Apr. 23
Academy members $40 series, $5 each (1 free)
Nonmembers $10 each
BYO Lunch
Sign up for as many or as few as strike your fancy.

Members: join us for one free lecture.  Lois Martin, founding editor and publisher of the Aurora Sun and an Academy member, has put together an appetizing array of experts and entertainers for this noon-hour lecture series. Pack a lunch, gather your friends, and join your fellow Academics for this weekly buffet of new ideas. You can find out more about the speakers at www.academyLL.org, by clicking on Facilitator Profiles.

A) Feb. 20.  “The Paranoia of Governments.”  Retired social worker Ann Stone explains how the diagnoses that apply to personal disorders can also apply to ruling bodies. She believes several countries are trapped in a paranoid foreign policy cycle.

B) Feb. 27.  “Signals and Secret Passages on the Underground Railroad.”  The long and complex story of the Underground Railroad was one of the greatest civil rights efforts in this county. It became a legend powered by beliefs and compassion. The story will be told by Sandy Sweeney as she talks about the origin of the movement to abolish slavery and the journey on the Underground Railroad.

C) March 5.  “How To Be Cool When Ordering Wine.”  Gordon Dickerson is a registered wine sommelier and director of the International Wine Guild.  He tells how to know and order the best (but not necessarily the most expensive) wines for every occasion.   He currently teaches this very specialized science at Metro.

D) March 12.  “The Prodigal Son” by Garrison Keiller.  Four players from the Unitarian Universalist Reader's Theatre present this funny, but thoughtful, one-act play.  Directed by Jo Hehnke.

E) March 19.  “Watch Your Mouth: The Power of Words.”  The Rev. Don Scheuer—former Congregationalist minister and Cherry Creek high School teacher—has, according to the Rocky Mountain News, specialized in hugs and handshakes for his entire life. Learn how to “watch your mouth.”

F) March 26.  “What's Wrong (and Right) with Denver's Court System.”  The Honorable Larry L. Bohning is currently assigned to the criminal division of the Denver county courts. Judge Bohning helped revise Denver’s criminal court system and will talk about the changes he proposed for making the court more workable.

G) April 2.  “Facts and Myths about Female Hormone Replacement.”   Dr. Herzl Melmed, who has worked and trained in five countries around the world, will clarify and demystify the issues surrounding hormone replacement.   His thirty years of gynecological practice at Swedish Medical Center have included many post-menopausal women. 

H) April 9. “Why Everybody Lost the Civil War.”  Dr. John Slocum will explain how the malpractice of medicine was the cause of the huge number of deaths during America's Civil War. 

I) April 16. “Cultural Patrimony: Whose Art Is It?”  Mark Addison taught grad-level art history courses at CU for ten years before his recent retirement. He’ll share his thoughts about the long history of plunder that marks the amassment of huge public collections in the world’s capitals.

J) April 23. “Tribes, Traditions & Trouble.” Dr. Kevin Evans, a Denver dentist, has recently returned from living with and studying several Egyptian tribes with fellow religious lay leaders.  He’ll talk about why tribal customs make it so hard for various Middle Eastern people to understand each other.

BUILDING SKILLS

YES, YOU CAN DRAW!

Thursdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm FILLED
8 weeks, Feb. 21 – Apr. 10
$60 (nonmembers $70), includes the book
$45 (nonmembers $55) for those repeating the class
Leader: Retired art teacher Diane Carrick

This class is FILLED. Guaranteed: You can draw.  Drawing helps us appreciate the charm, harmony, and beauty of real forms and offers a rare opportunity for originality in a world that grows more and more conventional every day. Using the book Drawing Made Easy by David Sanmiguel (Sterling Publishing Co., 2000) (Buy from Amazon), you’ll explore such drawing skills as proportion, shading, and perspective.  By practicing between sessions, skills increase rapidly.  Past participants are welcome to return in order to hone skills learned last fall.  Bring a drawing pad, pencil, and kneaded eraser. FILLED

BRIDGE: INTERMEDIATE PLAY

Tuesdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
8 weeks, Feb. 19 – Apr. 8
$50 (nonmembers  $60 or $10/day)
Resident experts: bridge enthusiasts Donna Barrow, Judy Brand, Sally Kneser, Lynne Pettyjohn

Bridge is more than a pastime.  It’s a passion.  Players return to the table time and time again for the mental challenge, the competition, and the company of others who share their love of the world’s greatest card game.  The spring bridge offering is for intermediate players who understand basic bidding and are able to play comfortably.  There will be no formal instruction, just four wandering advisors.  Come alone or bring your own partner or group. To learn more about Negative Doubles, click here. To make flash cards in order to practice the Negative Double, click here.

CHESS

Thursdays, 1:30 – 3:30 pm
8 weeks, Feb. 21 – Apr. 10
$40 (nonmembers $50 or $10/day), includes handouts
$20 for a book’s worth of copies, required only for new beginning students
Instructor:
Larry Matten, avid chess player, elementary-school chess coach

Learn the game of kings (and queens). Both new and continuing players are welcome.  Continuing participants can play games or listen in while the weekly lesson about basic moves and strategies is given to the beginning players, who don’t need to know a thing about chess to sign up for this class. For the more advanced, there will be chess problems to solve. Learn the algebraic notation for record keeping during a game. Recreate and follow games played by chess masters. Opening moves and defenses will be discussed, as well as end-game strategies. As beginners advance, we’ll introduce variants such as speed chess and team chess.  Chess boards and pieces will be provided.

Course Registration

Registration is open. Tell your friends!

Please use the Registration Form to register for courses. Simply open the file, print it, fill it in, and mail it with your check to the address at the bottom of the form.

These classes are FILLED: Adventures with Great Ideas-am session (pm still available) and Islam from Mohammed to Osama-pm session (am still available). This class is CANCELLED: Jane Eyre, Victorian Rebel. But there are plenty of other wonderful choices!

If you would like to have a physical form mailed to you please send us your address information from the Contact Page.

It is NOT possible to register online as we need your check in order to hold a place in a class.

Divertimenti Leaders - Spring 2008

Divertimenti Leaders

 

Bil Buhler (Pottery Tour & Workshop) was born and raised in central Idaho. He received his Masters degree from DU in Computer Science, when he first fell in love with Denver. He lived in Seattle and Chicago before moving to Denver twenty plus years ago. After retiring from computer programming his avocation as a potter became a primary focus. He thinks he should have made that switch much sooner because he’s having so much fun with his creations.

Diane Carrick (Yes, You Can Draw!) taught junior high school art classes for eight years in Ohio. She has published poetry in Windows to the Soul, and her art work and articles about art have appeared in 5280 and elsewhere. She enjoys taking Academy classes and teaching art to small groups in her home. She’s currently in the process of writing her life story as she charges on to another adventure.





Bridge nut and art groupie Sally Kneser (Intermediate Bridge Review, Learn to Facilitate) is always ready to learn something new and help teach others. “I love to learn, and it’s so much more fun with friends around.” Sally is a Life Master in bridge and enjoys explaining the basics to others. As the Academy’s Director, Sally tackles operational and tactical issues in running the nonprofit. While volunteering with the Junior League, Sally chaired several committees, including the Facilitators. When not enjoying herself at the bridge table, she attends two book clubs and stops to smell roses in her gardens.

Before founding The Lab, Adam Lerner (Belmar Lab Field Trip) was the Master Teacher for modern and contemporary art at the Denver Art Museum. Prior to coming to Colorado in 2001, he was the curator of the Contemporary Museum, Baltimore. He received his doctorate from the Johns Hopkins University and his masters from Cambridge University and he was a Fellow at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (1997-8). Since the early 1990s, Lerner’s scholarship has focused on the relationship between art and the public. Lerner co-edited the book Reimagining the Nation including his own essay on nineteenth century sculpture and French nationalism. He wrote his dissertation on early twentieth century American monuments, emphasizing the career of Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of Mount Rushmore.

Larry Matten (Chess: Beginners & Intermediate) started teaching chess three years ago when his Rotary club volunteered to help Englewood Elementary School students learn the game. Rotary is sometimes like the military. Larry volunteered without realizing that he was to become the chess teacher and the chess program. Teaching and explaining the basics of chess to 9-11 year olds was an experience that Larry loved. He arranged for interschool tournaments and organized a traveling trophy to go to the victor. Although not the best player, Larry has learned the rules and strategies by teaching them. He has had a lot of fun, teaching "youngsters" and looks forward to even more fun teaching “oldsters”. Larry is a retired professor (Plant Biology from Southern Illinois University) and a retired lawyer (specializing in Elder Law).

Patricia Palmer (Express Yourself with Art) grew up in the Arkansas Delta, attended college at the U. of Arkansas, majoring in art and English, and then moved to Denver last August to be near family. In Arkansas she taught public school art briefly. Then she taught both painting and drawing for adults and children at the Arkansas Art Museum. As a producing artist, she has entered and won purchase prizes in several juried shows including Small Works on Paper and Emerging Artists at the U of Arkansas, Fayetteville. Her work is in the permanent collections of the U. of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, and the Fort Smith Convention Center. She works mainly in pastel and acrylic with an expressive style, whether representational or non-representational. She loves to teach and especially enjoys helping others learn to see the beauty in our world and ourselves with awe and wonder and to express that beauty in an honest and personal way.

Lynne Pettyjohn (Intermediate Bridge Review) came from Akron, Ohio to attend the University of Colorado. She graduated from CU and then became a high school English teacher. Her stamina is confirmed by the fact that she taught English in the Denver Public Schools for 32 years. After retiring she joined the Assistance League of Denver which is a nonprofit volunteer organization. Her hobbies include bridge, gardening, golf, and hiking.

Dr. Kaycie Rosen, (Food as Medicine) owner of the Golden Naturopathic Clinic, LLC, is a Naturopathic Doctor who focuses on providing comprehensive, holistic care to her patients. Dr. Rosen received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado at Boulder and her medical schooling at Bastyr University in Washington state. Before starting the Golden Clinic, she worked in Anchorage, Alaska doing primary care medicine. She specializes in blood sugar and cholesterol regulation, autoimmune disease, hormone balancing, and head and neck disorders. The Clinic is in downtown Golden, and can be reached at 303.273.0866, or online at http://www.goldenholisticmedicine.com

Facilitator Profiles - Spring 2008

Check out the wonderful people who are involved with the Academy: OUR SPRING 2008 COURSE FACILITATORS

(Listed alphabetically)

Liz Aguilar, Born into a family of educators, at age ten Liz Aguilar (Jane Eyre, Victorian Rebel) announced her intention to become a teacher. After receiving an MA in English with an emphasis on literature, she taught English, speech and drama along the way until retirement and still works as a sub. Long a lover of literature, she developed a passion for English literature which led her to visit many literary sites in Britain including the family home of the Bronte sisters, who stand high among English novelists. Walking the moors so vividly described in their writings was a distinct thrill. Liz is excited about presenting a course on JANE EYRE which has been highly acclaimed since it was first published. She believes that this novel, like all great literature, gives the reader insights into the human condition regardless of differences in time or place.

Carol Anthony (Wagner’s Ring Cycle & the Norse Myths) retired recently from teaching high school English where she had the pleasure of teaching many Advance Placement courses. She is a passionate reader and has many interests, some of which might seem a little odd: evolutionary biology, World War II, mythology, especially in relation to the Third Reich, genetics in relationship to ethnic and linguistic analysis of the human family, historical mysteries, the Roman Republic, the history of language(s), feminism and goddess worship, European and near Eastern mythology, Holocaust denial, Medieval and Old English literature and language, and forensic science. “My husband no longer is annoyed at the constant arrival of packages of books sitting on our front porch; he's resigned to it. He's also resigned to my addiction to what he calls my "dead body" shows on cable TV, but refuses to be subjected to them anymore.” Carol adds, “What especially interests me is how one subject connects to other subjects.” She has been singing with the Northland Chorale for about 17 years.

Donna Barrow (Revisiting Occupied France in Fact & Fiction) is a discriminating reader who loves to explore beyond the page. She is a demon at locating background and supplemental information in order to flesh out her knowledge of a subject. Her background is as a geologist but she has many other interests, too. Donna is an avid gardener. She designed and served as the de facto project manager for a ten acre landscaping project at her church. An avid bridge player, Donna has assisted with the Academy's Intermediate Bridge class for several terms, where participants eagerly sought out her opinions on difficult questions.

Ted Borrillo (Making Poetry Part of Your Life) is a retired attorney. He was Chief Deputy District Attorney in Denver, taught criminal procedure and constitutional law at the DU Law School, and was a defense counsel in his private practice of law. He has had an abiding interest in the criminal justice system resulting from his interest in the Bruno Hauptmann trial and his execution for the kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby. Hauptmann lived in the Bronx not far from Ted’s home. Ted has visited Flemington, New Jersey, the site of the trial, the cell where Hauptmann was kept, and has spoken with David Wilentz, the prosecutor of Hauptmann. He has taught at the Colorado Police Academy and at the National College of District Attorneys in Houston.

Kathy Boyer (Writing Your Life Stories) has conducted Life Stories workshops for libraries, summer camps, churches, community centers, and with the Academy. As a child, Kathy developed a love of the personal story as she listened to adults recall the tales of their childhood. Now a retired teacher, Kathy works with individuals to record their memories on audio-tape. As a workshop facilitator, she offers inspiration and ideas to groups of people who want to begin a written collection of their own short stories.

Judy Brand (Bridge: Intermediate Play) loves to play games of all sorts. She is familiar with most bridge conventions, but jokes that she likes to play by the seat of her pants. Her instincts and aggressive bidding average more winners than losers. She will boldly take you where you've never gone at the bridge table. Judy is currently taking the chess class at the Academy where she is hoping to translate some of her bridge skills into chess moves so that she can at least keep up with her eleven-year-old grandson. On the tennis court and ski slopes she still rules!

Bennie Bub (Human Behavior & Neurobiology, Part 2) is a South African neurosurgeon who is board certified in three different specialties on three continents.  His teaching career began when, as a medical student, he taught physics at a technical college in return for free car maintenance courses.  After receiving his MD at the University of Cape Town he became a general surgeon gaining his Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in the UK.  Having been captivated by the complexities of the brain, he then began his neurosurgical studies in London at the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases and Epilepsy.  Thereafter he became a Teaching and Research Fellow at Harvard College as well as a resident in the Harvard Neurosurgical Service at the Boston City and Massachusetts General Hospitals.  Concurrently, he studied violin performance in the Boston Conservatory of Music under Reuben Gregorian.  This Boston sojourn was followed by completion of his neurosurgical certification at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.  Then began his years of busy neurosurgical private practice simultaneously teaching as Senior Lecturer in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Cape Town.  During this period he founded the first multidisciplinary clinic in South Africa for the management of intractable pain.  Immigration to the USA in 1976 was followed by training and board certification in Anesthesiology.  He then joined a practice in Denver from which he retired after more than 20 years.  In the early nineties he was founder and CEO of a successful database company, which provided credentialing of physicians for health insurance companies.  Since retirement he has indulged in his love of music, travel and voracious reading, all the while striving to stay au courant with the neurosciences.

Diane Carrick (Yes, You Can Draw!) taught junior high school art classes for eight years in Ohio. She has published poetry in Windows to the Soul, and her art work and articles about art have appeared in 5280 and elsewhere. She enjoys taking Academy classes and teaching art to small groups in her home. She’s currently in the process of writing her life story as she charges on to another adventure.

Henry Claman (Prehistoric Art and What It Might Mean) is a partly retired Professor of Medicine at the CU Medical School. “I grew up eight blocks from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the culture blew in the living room window.” He has an A.B. from Harvard College (Philosophy) and an M.D. from NYU. He has been on the CU medical faculty since 1961, and he is a Distinguished Professor. He has made many, many art history and scientific presentations. His book, Jewish Images in the Christian Church: Art as the Mirror of the Jewish-Christian Conflict, was published in 2000. It is a crash course in medieval art and discusses Jewish-Christian relations as reflected in that art. He is the director of the new Medical Humanities Program at the CU Medical School.

A career public school teacher, Sherma Erholm (Science & Religion: Enemies, Strangers or Partners?) holds a bachelor's degree in speech and music, and a master's in communication theory and psychology.  As a “learning junkie', she now enjoys going outside her fields of expertise to research and facilitate discussions in widely varying subjects.  She has taught music and communication theory in public schools and has facilitated adult courses of interest, not necessarily in her field of expertise, e.g., futurism, China, evolution, the U.N. and others.  Other fun for her consists of travel which emphasizes the local culture, singing with the Alpine Chorale, gardening, mountaineering, paleontology, and skiing.

Dr. Kevin Evans (Tribes, Traditions & Trouble), a Colorado dentist, has traveled to the Middle East 4 times, twice to Egypt where he has nurtured his love for ancient history and early myth and religion. He has maintained contacts with friends in Egypt for a number of years. He and his wife, Linda, recently returned from Egypt where they were able to visit many sites and visit with people the normal tour tourist may not have access to. He will give a brief history of Egypt, its religions, and the variety of people that create this vibrant Ethnic Egypt.

A teacher, scholar, and lover of English literature, Irene Gorak (Deadly Detectives in Literary History) taught English to British high school students and later, as an adjunct professor, courses on Gothic, women’s literature, and detective fiction at DU.  She has a PhD in nineteenth-century literature from UCLA.  Irene taught the popular Agatha Christie course in the spring of 2007.

Jim Hartmann (Adventures with Great Ideas: The Emotions) received his B.A. degree in the humanities from Regis College and M.A. degree in history from the University of Colorado at Boulder. After a three-year stint in radio-television, he began a thirty-year career at the Colorado Historical Society, beginning as deputy state historian and ending as president of the Society and gubernatorial appointed state historic preservation officer for the State of Colorado. After retiring from those positions, he was appointed executive director of Four Mile Historic Park where he remained for five years.

Connie Hyde (The Blues: A Story of Migration & Transformation) spent her college and graduate days immersed in literature, but, after a final year in the rare book room at Duke University library with 16th century folios, decided that her intellectual life needed more human dynamic. She spent the next several decades practicing commercial real estate law (and raising children, who, according to Connie, taught her more about the psychology of negotiation than all the law books in the world). Recently retired, Connie has returned enthusiastically to her first loves of literature, history, politics, music and art (and, of course, gardening). “I am fascinated by the people and ideas that have shaped our world and the way that literature, music, and art interact with history and politics. The modern world is so complex and perilous that we, as thoughtful adults, have to be alive to the historical currents that brought us to the present.”

Joseph Kandel (