Language & Culture   

In this course, we will consider how science fiction has indexed and investigated both social hopes and social anxieties. Lectures will survey: 1) the genre’s gothic origins and growth in dime novels and "pulp" magazines; 2) the Golden Age and New Wave of the mid-20th century; and 3) cyberpunk and the contemporary. Each week will offer historical context, deep dives on key texts, and critical frameworks for interpreting science fiction in relation to technology and society.

If you've always dreamed of learning to speak French but found it too fast to understand, or been frustrated in the process, this class is for you. We will begin by gentle and slow pronunciation and work up to full sentences, and finally dialogues, taking it easy, and making a lot of room for questions so you can build confidence and comfort in your speech process. It's never too late to follow your dreams to speak and communicate in French. We will enjoy some virtual regional travel too!

Suggested reading: Rick Steve's French for Travel

 

 

 

This course will trace the history of greed from King Midas to cryptocurrency and the economic meltdown of 2008.  We will look at the creation of money and banking, the mechanisms that made greed extraordinarily possible.  With the discovery of the Americas and the European addictions to  sugar, cotton, and tobacco arose the possibility of wealth beyond  the dreams of avarice. Europeans and eventually the Americans will embrace greed with a wholesale  willingness to treat people as  property, and distant lands as untapped wealth.  Finally, we will look at greed in its ultimate form: power and the lust for conquest, as exhibited by Genghis Khan, Alexander the Great, Napoleon, and Adolph Hitler. America will manifest this craving in Elon Musk and others for whom money is irrelevant. 

Suggested Reading: Michael Lewis, "Panic, The Story of Modern Financial Insanity" John Cassidy, "Dot.con: The Greatest Story ever Sold".

 

With the Trump administration’s focus on the Western Hemisphere, Cuba has returned to the forefront of US policy, as it has intermittently since at least the nineteenth century. The two countries have a shared history that helps to explain the ongoing struggle between them. My course will explore the tangled, intimate history between these two antagonists as a prologue for what is unfolding now on the island and in Washington, with an emphasis on Cuba refugees who have come to the US since 1959.

What languages are spoken in Europe? The first ones that come to mind are the large national languages like French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian. But there are over 400 languages currently spoken on that continent, and in this course we will explore some of lesser-known tongues. In doing so, we will discover some stunning, if rarely-visited, destinations across Europe and will learn about the history and culture of different groups inhabiting the continent.