Your BCLIR Curriculum Committee is pleased to announce the Fall 2008 schedule of classes for Lifelong Learning at Brown. The classes listed here will be held on the Brown University campus, probably in the same room where we have met for the past several semesters, Josiah's. Classes will begin the week of September 29-October 3 and end the week of December 8-12. Convocation is tentatively set for September 18.

The accompanying class listings are brief summaries only: the complete descriptions will be available online at the Brown/SCS website July 1. Registration will be as it was this past Spring, online. Arrangements will be made for those without computer access. Coordinators' email addresses will be given on the Brown/SCS website. If you wish more information about a listed class before July 1, please refer to your BCLIR membership list for contact information; or, you may contact me after June 15.

In addition to these listed classes, BCLIR will sponsor a Poetry class, to be held on Tuesday Afternoons, at a local (Providence) venue to be announced. Other off-campus classes may also be held; notification will be online and by mail for those without computer access.

We thank all coordinators, the Curriculum Committee, and the many others who have worked so hard to ensure the success of the organization, and look forward to a rewarding, stimulating Fall program.

Meanwhile, enjoy the summer!

Lynne Harper
Chair, LLL at Brown/BCLIR Curriculum Committee
(lcharper13@yahoo.com)
401 751-8361

DO WE NEED A SECOND CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION?

Monday Morning, 10:15 - 12:15
Coordinators: Bill and Patricia Cole

This course will explore some of the constitutional amendments described in our text,
A More Perfect Constitution by Larry J. Sabato (available in paperback at the end of July). Participants will act the part of convention delegates: discussing, debating and voting on the proposals.

Suggested Summer Reading: (all available in libraries or bookstores)
A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution by Carol Berkin
Decision in Philadelphia: The Constitutional Convention of 1787, by Christopher Collier
Revolutionary Characters: What Made the Founders Different by Gordon S. Wood
Unruly Americans and the Origin of the Constitution by Woody Holton (paperback available in Oct.)

ENJOYING SHORT STORIES

Monday Afternoon, 1:30 - 3:30
Coordinator: Thomas Wilson
Assistant Coordinator: Sheela Percelay

The years 1950 to 2000 have been called "The Golden Age of American Short Stories". What better way to partake of this golden age than to read and enjoy and discuss works from The Best American Short Stories of the Century? Editor John Updike notes that these stories from our text are the very best of the best.

Optional summer reading not from our text:
Past Masters: Anton Chekhov (The Portable Chekov), Melville (The Portable Melville), Hawthorne
(Twice-Told Tales), Poe (The Portable Poe)
Contemporary Masters: Tobias Wolff (Our Story Begins), Richard Ford (Rock Springs), Steven Millhauser
(The Barnum Museum), TC Boyle (TC Boyle Stories).

ANIMALS R US: WHAT ANIMALS CAN TEACH US ABOUT OURSELVES

Tuesday Morning 10:15 - 12:15
Coordinators: Carol Crowley and Bruce Foresman

We humans tend to feel both smug and snug in our perceived position at the top of the evolutionary tree. However, research in the area of animal behavior and intelligence, beginning with Konrad Lorenz' classic, King Solomon's Ring, shows that some of our arrogance may be misplaced: we have much to learn from and about the so-called 'lower' forms of living things. Class members will research and present their findings of some of the surprising - humbling - work in this enlarging field.

Suggested Summer Reading:
By Jane Goodall: In the Shadow of Man (1988); Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey (1999); The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for the Animals We Love (2002)

FEAST OF PERFORMING ARTS

Tuesday Afternoon, 1:30 - 3:30
Coordinators: Barbara Ruttenberg, Stephanie Sullivan, Carol Smith, Marilyn Quesenberry

Come whet your appetite and taste the talents of performing artists in our community. We will invite directors, performers and other professionals involved in dance, theatre, and music to talk with us about their vision and process in developing their programs and/or companies. Most of our sessions will include a guest for the first hour, followed by an interactive panel discussion the 2nd hour.

Summer 'Reading List":
Don't stay home and read. Go to the Berkshires and engage with dance, theatre, and art in a lovely setting. Get your creative juices flowing and come to class refreshed and revitalized!

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON

Wednesday Morning, 10:15 - 12:15
Coordinators: Carol Robinson and Dick McWhirter

What kind of world will the next President face? In this course we will identify, discuss and debate major issues facing the international community. For example, what's going on with Chavez and Venezuela, how will the politics of the Gaza Strip play out, will environmental issues in Asia overwhelm the world, what will be the effect of conflicting claims on the Arctic, and others may be covered. Source material will be selected to reflect a world-view of the discussion issues. We will have a predetermined list of subjects with the flexibility to adjust to events as they arise/erupt around the world. The syllabus will be held open at least until August so read up on world issues, register early and send us your suggestions for an emerging topic.

(UN)WELCOME STRANGERS? IMMIGRATION IN AMERICA

Wednesday Afternoon, 1:30 - 3:30
Coordinators: Laura French and Carol Gjelsvik

Immigration is certain to be a major issue in this election year. Do we have an immigration crisis? Are there any good solutions? What conditions have spurred people to leave everything behind? What have immigrants given to this country? How has Rhode Island, in particular, been affected? These are just a few of the many questions to be discussed in this class as we try to discover why so many Americans, themselves mostly immigrants or their descendants, are uneasy about present-day immigrants.

Suggested Summer Activities/Books:
Movies and Books: "The Joy Luck Club", "The Namesake", "El Norte"
Short Stories: The Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri; Breath Eyes and Memories, Edwige
Dandicat
Novels: How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, Alvarez; "They Take Our Jobs" and 20 Other Myths
about Immigration, Aviva Chomsky

WHERE SHALL WISDOM BE FOUND? - AN ADVENTURE FOR THE MIND AND SPIRIT

Thursday Morning, 10:15 - 12:15
Coordinators: Midge Gordon and Linda Jackim

Using Harold Bloom's book of the same title as a framework for this study, we will explore our individual sense of wisdom by comparing the writings of Western Canon, adding our own perspectives to the various, even contrary, forms of wisdom that have shaped our thinking. A few to consider on this adventure are: Job, Plato, Sappho, Hypatia, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Ayn Rand, George Sand, Virginia Wolf and Susan Sontag. Creative presentations using such forms as debates, film clips, etc. will make these writers come alive.

ART, LITERATURE, AND MUSIC OF THE MODERNIST PERIOD (1860 - 1960):
THE HERESY OF THE AVANT-GARDE

Thursday Afternoon, 1:30 - 3:30
Coordinators: Peter Ciccariello, Frankie Raben, and Lynne Harper

This interdisciplinary class will study those artists, such as Cezanne, Picasso, Joyce, Eliot, Schoenberg, and Stravinsky, who led the "Modernist" movement that began near the end of the 19th Century and whose impact is still noticeable today. What were the forces that destroyed many of the conventions of the past? Whose slogan was "Make it new"? Do these same conditions exist today?

VIVA VIVALDI!

Friday Morning, 10:15 - 12:15
Coordinators: Sonya Gray and Liz Berger

In this class we will hear and discuss some familiar and unfamiliar music of Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) and his Italian baroque contemporaries: concerti, operas and sacred music. Vivaldi's Venice, the development of the violin and other relevant topics will also be included.

Suggested Summer Activity:
Listen to some music, not only of Vivaldi, but also of Corelli, Albinoni, Domenico Scarlatti

VIKINGS TO SCANDINAVIANS: TERRORISTS TRANSFORMED

Friday Afternoon, 1:30 - 3:30
Coordinator: Don Harper

We will study the religion, customs, organization and technical advances of these people in our quest to answer the question: How did the Vikings evolve from ruthless raiders to peaceful domesticated societies that consider food, shelter, education and health care to be basic human rights?

Suggested Summer Reading:
Kristin Lavransdatter, Sigrid Undset (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1928)

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