LIFELONG LEARNING COURSE

Cleopatra VII (69-30 BCE), the last ruler of Ptolemaic Egypt, was a key powerbroker during a period of political change with enduring repercussions for the western world. Ever since, Cleopatra has been deliberately memorialized as a dangerous woman, as a manipulative deployer of “feminine wiles” whose perverse understanding of power doomed her regime to failure and death. This course will probe the evidence to create a portrait of a more authentic, more complicated queen, one of many ruthless and powerful women who followed in the wake of Alexander the Great, establishing patterns of female leadership in the bloody, competitive Hellenistic World.

Science fiction at its best confronts us with situations so new and outside our ordinary ways of thinking about the world that it is a natural source of puzzlement and questioning. In this course, we will wrangle with a range of philosophical questions prompted by both classic and recent stories from Star Trek. Can artificial beings (like Data, or Voyager’s Doctor) really count as people in the same way that biological beings (like humans, Vulcans, and Klingons) are? When Riker gets split in a transporter accident, which of the two resulting people – or neither – is really Riker? When Picard is assimilated into the Borg as Locutus, is he still also Picard? Is Kirk right to insist that he – that we – need pain and struggle in our lives? And is Spock right to claim that “Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”? Join us to discuss these philosophical queries and more!

This news-literacy course will help you make sense of a world that is fast overheating, figuratively and literally. Lectures will examine how the media cover conflicts in different parts of the world.  As tower of babble with a catchall label, the news media can confuse us as much as it informs. While delivery systems are evolving at an accelerating rate, the essence has not changed since Caesar’s letters from Gaul. What matters is the message. Despite wondrous new ways to disseminate information, we often get it wrong at the speed of light. 

Video clips will be included to show exemplary televised reportage, and our class lectures will include lively discussion. We will also have guest appearances—in person or via Skype—of seasoned reporters working abroad as well as talks with unsung, underpaid “locals” who risk their lives to get the story straight.

This course provides an overview of Irish history from prehistoric times until Brexit. We will proceed chronologically because this is the only way to make sense of the fascinating history of Éire which is heroic and tragic in equal measure. The course will explore the different influences on Ireland and its people – from Christian missionaries to English settlers. Starting with prehistoric Ireland, we will move on to the medieval period and the Norman conquest. Next, we will discuss early modern Ireland (1600-1800) which was probably the period of greatest upheaval in the history of the island. The consequences of the early modern period were felt all throughout the nineteenth century which saw Catholic emancipation, famine, and the Home Rule movement. This ultimately led to the Two Irelands of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and the current Brexit complications.