Winterim 2020 Course Offerings

Instructor: Kenneth Hyams

• Thursday Morning
• 9:30 – 11:30 AM

Each hour we will explore the music of one of these extraordinary jazz musicians: Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Nina Simone, Dinah Washington, Blossom Dearie, Carmen McRae, and Peggy Lee. We’ll spend most of class time listening to their music. But also, we’ll discuss something of the life and lore of each musician.

No text required. No class limit.

Instructor: Stephen Porter

• Thursday Morning
• 9:30 – 11:30 AM

The class is a survey of personally selected 20th century sculptors including, among many others, Constantin Brancusi, David Smith, and Henry Moore. We will cover their work and importance in the development of modern sculpture.

No text required. No class limit.

Instructor: David Greeley

• Thursday Morning
• 9:30 – 11:30 AM
• Class Limit 20

Ever been to a pub quiz? Popular in the UK, it’s a fast moving quiz where each team is presented with ten or more written questions about a particular subject. One round might be matching Maine authors with books, another about geography, another on identifying birds. No questions about TV or sports; these are not your standard trivia questions. Many rounds will feature Maine subjects. The class will make up teams of several each, rounds will be scored with a winner each day. Just for fun, you learn stuff, and there will be a prize for the winning team each session.

No text required. Class limit 20.

Instructor: Howard Torrey

• Thursday Morning
• 9:30 – 11:30 AM
• Suggested Reading

We will survey recent studies on the intelligence of birds starting with the amazing language skills of Irene Papperberg’s parrot, Alex. We will then discuss skills such as navigation and nest building in light of debates about conscious vs. genetically programmed behavior. Much time will be devoted to the corvids (jays, crows, and, especially ravens). These birds gather their tools before they can use them, demonstrating behaviors which suggest consciousness and intelligence. They also follow carnivores such as wolves and polar bears to share in their kills; they may actually lead those carnivores to prey or dead carcasses. We will view a number of videos showing the skills of these birds.

No class limit. It is suggested that students acquire and read the following book before the first class: “Alex and Me” by Irene Papperberg available for $4.50 from World of Books, $8 from Amazon.

Instructor: Juliet Baker

• Thursday Morning
• 9:30 – 11:30 AM
• Required Text

In 1876, four years before her death, Mary Ann Evans, a brilliant mid-nineteenth century British scholar, translator, journalist, poet, and celebrated novelist (under the pseudonym of George Eliot), completed “Daniel Deronda” her seventh and final novel. The protagonist, Daniel, serves as the novel’s moral beacon, although he does suffer as the ward, not the heir, of an aristocrat. He anxiously wonders about his real parentage. Gwendolyn, a beautiful, witty, and quite selfish young woman, while attracted to Daniel, marries a wealthy aristocrat, even when she knows that to do so is morally wrong. One expects a rich narrative, a dramatic survey of wealth, family embarrassment, romance, social malfeasance, perhaps even adultery, who knows?

But there is so much more. Eliot launches a second plot through which she explores Judaism and its faithful, a peoples who too often had been caricatured, degraded, and sentimentalized by British Christians and writers. Mordecai, a kind of Jewish prophet, befriends Daniel, familiarizing him with the Diaspora, the longing for a Jewish homeland, and the very beginnings of Zionism. Eliot’s research is theologically and historically solid. With an eye toward realism and toward a finer, more universal morality, Eliot resolves her novel in an initially unexpected manner. In this four week course we will review the novel while discussing George Eliot’s (Mary Ann Evans’, Marian Lewes’, Mary Ann Cross’) troubled and impressive life.

No class limit. Required Text: George Eliot ”Daniel Deronda.” Ed. Graham Handley. Oxford University Press. New Edition 2014. 978-0-19-968286-7: Amazon Kindle $7.55 with same pagination as paperback, $6.50 -$11.11.

Instructor: Jim Owen

• Thursday Morning
• 9:30 – 11:30 AM

This class will explore how we fall in love with boats, as children and as adults. We will review how songs, books, movies, poetry, and art, as well as seeing beautiful or interesting boats, all impact how we feel about boats. Since loving boats also involves being on them and using them, we will focus on the instructor’s experience with transatlantic crossings, but especially with kayaks and sailboats. We will explore what kinds of boats can be seen here along the coast. Finally we will talk about local resources related to boats including the Wooden Boat School, the Maine Island Trail Association, The Penobscot Marine Museum, and resources right here in Belfast Harbor.

No class limit. No required text.

Instructor: Sara Shute

• Thursday Morning
• 9:30 – 11:30 AM

Can ethical theory provide a touchstone for moral questions? Yes, says Aristotle (and the Stoics), with “virtue ethics.” Yes, says Immanuel Kant, with the categorical imperative. Yes, says J.S. Mill, with utilitarianism. Virtue ethics, Kant’s categorical imperative, and utilitarianism are the main competing ethical theories. We will examine and critique each of these in turn. In contrast to all three, we will consider what pragmatist Richard Rorty (1931-2007) has to say about ethical theory itself. He doesn’t believe it can provide a touchstone for much of anything. Rorty believes ethical theory is a misguided and fruitless search for a timeless, ahistorical authority to subject ourselves to. We will consider his rationale for this.

No class limit. No required text.

Instructor: Rebecca Jessup

• Thursday Morning
• 9:30 – 11:30 AM
• Class limit 30

Latin, as we all know, is the basis for all Romance languages, from Italian to Romanian. It’s the language of great poets and writers, from staid Cicero to raucous Petronius. You may have studied it back in school. We will review by reading Latin–some from the Vulgate (Bible in Latin), and some from ancient sources, both prose and poetry. And we’ll have a very good time doing it!

Class limit of 30. No required text.