In each of the five periods the Curriculum Committee tries to include classes on some aspect of art, literature, history, science, and political or social sciences as well as creative and physical activities.
Writing, hiking, and bookbinding are among the six non-Friday sessions.
Some of the highlights:
History and current affairs
In new angles for history buffs, Rev. Mark Isaacs will be back with a lecture course on American history through stamps. The Poughkeepsie Perspective will combine lectures and a walking tour to address the social and economic transformation of our nearest city, including an address by Mayor Robert Rolison. And moving from the regional scene to the international, former US diplomat Donald Westmore will help try to answer the question Is Diplomacy Dead? in a course that stresses a comparison between US and Japanese foreign policy. On Saturdays, labor and social justice expert James Rogers will take students through the various views and interpretations of the First Amendment.
Art, music, literature and film
A series on How Art Happens begins this fall with a course on the origins of art among early humans, led for the second time by art historian Rudy Hellenschmidt. Great American Songwriters will look at lesser known composers of the past through the eyes of music critic Warren Boroson. Having completed five parts of the Opera as Politics course, presenter Chuck Mishaan is returning with a reprise of semester one, with new material. A multi-presenter course on Women in Music looks at composers, jazz musicians, theorists and conductors. In two other courses, students will examine Chekov’s short stories, and deconstruct the film, Casablanca.
Religion and philosophy
Representatives of the major faiths will stop in weekly to talk about Hope and Optimism according to their religious viewpoints, including Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Catholicism, and Unitarianism.
Science and medicine
The third chapter of the course Advances in Medicine, led by Dr. Michael Weinstock, will take the form of “a mini-medical school” focusing on current concepts in diagnosis and treatment of disease. The popular Bard Masters of Math and Science will return with multiple presenters and topics as disparate as chimpanzees, climate change and mathematical perspectives on philosophical questions.
Business and economics
Historian Mark Lytle will lead an in-depth look at how consumer advertising has evolved and continues to impact culture in Advertising: the American Way of Life. And the Rhinebeck CENTER for Performing Arts founder, economist Andrew Weintraub is back with his economic (not political) view of basic economics.
Hands on creative activities
Courses that engage active learning and participation include The Musician in You in which presenter Nathan Brenowitz promises to bring out students’ hidden talents for music making, even among those who have never picked up an instrument. Photographer Lauren Piperno returns to expand visual language skills with the second part of her Act of Seeing photography course aimed at amateurs to experts. How to use your phone and computer to create documentary videos will be led by LLI member Gary Miller.
Painter and poet Anique Sara Taylor will lead students in exploring the interplay between writing and art through Pen, Ink and Poetry. Students can even try their hand at writing, drawing, or enacting fairy tales to mine their own deeply personal riches with writer Patty Kane Horrigan. And the preservation librarian for the Met in New York City, Mindell Dubanksy, will give a workshop on bookbinding.
Movement and walking tours
For those who like to move and get around, LLI is again offering Therapeutic Yoga, Tai Chi and walking tours of campus. LLI members in the hiking class will tackle five nearby Catskills trails, beginning with the easiest, during the term.
Please consult the course catalogue, published July 20, for fuller descriptions, presenters’ titles, and times. It promises to be a rich seven weeks at Bard.
For more information
Please consult the course catalog, published July 20, for fuller descriptions, presenters’ titles, and times. It promises to be a rich seven weeks at Bard.
You can link to all LLI catalogs at Membership>Current Members>Catalog Archive.
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