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NEW!
(HUMN092)
Instructor: William Walker
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Day of the Week: Th
Times: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Dates: 9/5/2024 - 10/3/2024
Number of class sesssions in this course: 5
Fee: $50.00
Course Location: R.R. Smith Center for History and Art - Upstairs Lecture Room
Location Address: 22 South New St Staunton, VA 24401
Limit: 12
Course Description:
When Joni Mitchell’s “Songs to Aging Children Come'' appeared in 1969 many of us could barely imagine the psychological angst that would accompany the process of aging and the prospect of death. However, the concerns that Joni cited are pressing realities and subjects of earnest debate. Modern poets offer insight, advice, and comfort to what Edmund Spencer called “mutability,” the inevitability of old age, decline, and death. This course will explore modern poems, exhibiting a wide range of religious and atheistic postures, that address these critical topics. Participants will be asked to read the poems and discuss them during class sessions in a strictly ecumenical manner.
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(HUMN007)
Instructor: Stephen Kennamer
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Day of the Week: Th
Times: 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM
Dates: 10/24/2024 - 12/5/2024
*No class session scheduled during the week of Thanksgiving
Number of class sesssions in this course: 6
Fee: $60.00
Course Location: R.R. Smith Center for History and Art - Upstairs Lecture Room
Location Address: 22 South New St Staunton, VA 24401
Limit: 35
Course Description:
The most common view among scientists and philosophers is that moral truth does NOT exist – only moral opinion. Our ethical "absolutes" merely reflect our emotions or attitudes of approval or disapproval. Darwinian fundamentalists and evolutionary psychologists argue that any behavior we call moral is really just a selfish gene expressing itself. Self-styled "realists" equate morality with expediency. This course examines the phenomenon of morality: its origin and development, how we arrive at our personal morality, why systems of morality may be in fact immoral, and whether the trajectory of the universe implies or supports any particular ethical stance.
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NEW!
(HUMN094)
Instructor: Shelley Bryant
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Day of the Week: Tu
Times: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Dates: 9/3/2024 - 10/15/2024
Number of class sesssions in this course: 7
Fee: $70.00
Course Location: R.R. Smith Center for History and Art - Upstairs Lecture Room
Location Address: 22 South New St Staunton, VA 24401
Limit: 35
Course Description:
One needs to know only the most rudimentary principles of a competitive sport to see sports as symbolic of life’s obstacles and its triumphs. We will examine two books that do just that: Sacred Hoops, a basketball memoir by Phil Jackson, and The Legend of Bagger Vance, a novel about golf by Steven Pressfield. These two books not only shed insight into the nature of competitive sports but, more importantly, serve as superb examples of the difference between the Western and Eastern worldviews. What we will see is that taking the best from both is not only possible but worthy of consideration in both the personal and political spheres of activity.
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NEW!
(ASC1)
Instructor: Aubrey Whitlock
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Day of the Week: Th
Times: 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Dates: 9/5/2024 - 9/26/2024
Number of class sesssions in this course: 4
Fee: $55.00
Course Location: The Staunton Innovation Hub - Classroom
Location Address: 32 N. Augusta Street Staunton, VA 24401
Limit: 20
Course Description:
This course will offer students introductory historical and contemporary context for each of the four plays in ASC’s fall repertory of The Importance of Being Earnest, Macbeth, The Merry Wives of Windsor, and Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. Each interactive, discussion-based class meeting will focus on one of the titles in the season. Topics covered will likely include: history of the play and its author, performance and production choices ASC’s actors and directors might be making about the plays, and current events and themes in conversation with our production. All participants in the course will receive a discount code for purchasing tickets to the ASC fall production of their choice.
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NEW!
(HIST143)
Instructor: James Sofka
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Day of the Week: Th
Times: 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM
Dates: 10/24/2024 - 11/14/2024
Number of class sesssions in this course: 4
Fee: $40.00
Course Location: R.R. Smith Center for History and Art - Upstairs Lecture Room
Location Address: 22 South New St Staunton, VA 24401
Limit: 35
Course Description:
This course examines several models by which major world powers create and manage international order. Drawing on both theoretical and historical illustrations, we will examine enduring concepts such as the balance of power, bipolarity, and attempts to regulate international relations through formal diplomatic structures and informal “rules of the game.” While individual nation-states rise and fall with the passage of time, these methods have proven resilient and perennial in international relations and past practice can have predictive value for the future. For example, one currently popular analysis of the U.S.-China relationship calls itself “The Thucydides Trap”—examining 21st century international relations through the prism of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta 2500 years ago. For this reason, a thorough understanding of these concepts and historical patterns is essential to gaining a broader perspective of international relations and the ebb and flow of power on the global stage.
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NEW!
(SCSC035)
Instructor: Margaret Heubeck
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Day of the Week: Tu
Times: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Dates: 9/10/2024 - 10/8/2024
Number of class sesssions in this course: 5
Fee: $50.00
Course Location: R.R. Smith Center for History and Art - Upstairs Lecture Room
Location Address: 22 South New St Staunton, VA 24401
Limit: 24
Course Description:
This course is designed to empower participants with skills to bring back America's political center. We will examine the causes, effects, and consequences of the lack of civil discourse in our political and social lives and brainstorm strategies to bridge the divide between left and right.
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NEW!
(HUMN091)
Instructor: John Mason
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Day of the Week: W
Times: 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM
Dates: 9/4/2024 - 10/9/2024
Number of class sesssions in this course: 6
Fee: $60.00
Course Location: R.R. Smith Center for History and Art - Upstairs Lecture Room
Location Address: 22 South New St Staunton, VA 24401
Limit: 25
Course Description:
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) was one of the most original and controversial thinkers of the 20th Century. Her 1951 classic, The Origins of Totalitarianism, examined how the two great evils of Nazi Germany and the Stalinist Soviet Union came about. In this course we focus on Arendt's concepts of political and public freedom and how the loneliness and rootlessness of people make them susceptible to propaganda, lies, tribalism and racism. Arendt was writing about the 'dark times' of the 1930s and 40s, but her insights have much to tell us about why Western societies today are so vulnerable to illiberal and authoritarian forces.
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