RENESAN SPRING 2017: A SAMPLER

BELOW ARE SOME OF THE CLASSES, LECTURES, AND EVENTS OFFERED BY RENENSAN THIS WINTER AND SPRING.

IMMIGRATION IN LITERATURE AND FILM Instructor: Lois Rudnick

Tuesdays, Feb. 14-28, 3:15-5:15 p.m. Discussion-driven class about the films Hester Street,

The Namesake, and El Norte, as well as assigned readings on 20th- and 21st-century refugees and immigrants to the U.S. SHAKESPEARE’S THE TAMING OF THE SHREW Instructor:

Stephen Bellon Wednesdays, Feb. 1-8, 1-3 p.m. A close reading of the play about willful women that emphasizes authorial intent. Maybe we don’t like what Shakespeare was trying to say — but what was he trying to say? BOB DYLAN: HOMER, GINSBURG, OR JEREMIAH? Instructor: Lib O’Brien Thursday, March 2, 10 a.m.-noon He won the Nobel Prize in Literature, setting off an international argument about who should or should not receive this award, and for what. This lecture looks at Dylan’s literary influences as well as his own perspective on his craft. A NEW POETRY OF CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE Instructors: Deborah Wimberly and Rick Beaubien Wednesdays, March 8-29, 10 a.m.-noon A postmodern take on surviving traumatic childhoods, as explored in the poetry of four close friends: Elizabeth Bishop, Randall Jarrell, John Berryman, and Robert Lowell. WEST COAST JAZZ Instructor: Mark Davis Tuesdays, March 14April 4, 10 a.m.-noon Principal performers of early 1950s West Coast jazz are explored through music and performance films as students consider regional influence on musical development. GLOBAL WARMING: CURRENT AND PREDICTED EFFECTS, ADAPTATION, AND MITIGATION Instructor: Steven Rudnick Tuesdays, March 28April 11, 3:15-5:15 p.m. Are we past the point of no return on climate change, or can destruction of the environment still be mitigated by changes to human behavior and locating new energy sources?