Division of Continual Learning
MALS Program - Summer 2006 Courses
Each seminar carries three academic credit hours.
Modern Problems of Belief
MLS610A
CRN: 50610
Online course
May 17-June 20
Ben Ramsey, Ph.D.
Click here for syllabus.
The Contemporary World
MLS 610-81D
CRN: 50611
Online course
May 17-June 20
Jeff Jones, Ph.D.
Click here for syllabus.
Film and the American Dream
MLS620A
CRN: 50612
Mondays & Thursdays, 5:45-9:30
May 18-June 19
Triad Center, 7900 Triad Center Drive, Greensboro
Chris Poulos, Ph.D.
Click here for syllabus.
Simple Living in a Complex Age
MLS 620B
CRN: 50613
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:45-9:30 pm
May 23-June 20
Triad Center, 7900 Triad Center Drive, Greensboro
Charlie Headington, Ph.D.
Click here for syllabus.
Click here for book list.
A field trip to Levering Orchard on Sunday, June 11, 3-9 pm is one of the class meetings. This is an integral part of the course and students should save this date.
Second Summer Session: June 22-July 28
Louis Armstrong: American Music and Culture
MLS 610C
CRN: 50614
Mondays & Wednesdays, 5:45-9:30pm
June 26-July 26
Triad Center, 7900 Triad Center Drive, Greensboro
Stephen Ruzicka, Ph.D.
Click here for TENTATIVE syllabus
Creating Family Stories
MLS610D
CRN: 50615
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 5:45-9:30
June 22-July 27
Triad Center, 7900 Triad Center Drive, Greensboro
Tony Fragola
Click here for book list
The Reel World: Contemporary Issues on Screen
MLS 610E
CRN: 50616
Online Course
June 22-July 28
Jeff Jones, Ph.D.
Click here for syllabus
Modern Problems of Belief
MLS610A
CRN: 50610
Online course
How do you see the world? A hostile place, full of threat? A natural and complex machine? A place of wonder held in God’s hands? Philosophers and scientists agree that “the world” is a place both “out there” and “in here”—that our ideas about the world shape how we experience it. This course looks at modern western views of the world and at new ideas that are challenging the ways we traditionally view, understand, and indeed create the world. We will explore religious and philosophical models of nature and human nature, the self and its environment, the supernatural, psyche, and spirit. Readings include Annie Dillard’s For the Time Being, James Hillman’s Revisioning Psychology, Caronline Myss’s Anatomy of the Spirit, Ken Wilbur’s A Brief History of Everything, and others.
May 17-June 20
Ben Ramsey, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at UNCG. He holds an M.Div. and a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York. His current research interests are in spirituality and politics. Ben is currently the Campus Coordinator for the Democracy Project, a four-year national project sponsored by the New York Times and the American Association of State Colleges and Universities.
The Contemporary World
MLS 610-81D
CRN: 50611
Online course
This course will examine contemporary global issues with a focus on the post-World War II period, from the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945, to the complex, high-tech, evolving world of today. We will, as much as possible, view changes in the postwar period from the point of view of those undergoing them, including students in this course. Everyone has an “historical consciousness,” an understanding of the way the world became what it is today. The main purpose of this course is to introduce students to alternative ways of interpreting history by weighing the merits of differing points of view. We will examine the world by regions with a number of themes in mind: the Cold War; the rise and fall of communism; nationalism; de-colonization/neo-colonialism; the international economy; racial, ethnic, and religious conflict; the rise of terrorism; gender; class; and environmental issues. You should take from the course the skills to critically appraise varying historical arguments and to clearly express your own interpretations.
May 17-June 20
Dr. Jeff Jones (Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is an Assistant Professor of History. His specific area of research is Russian-Soviet history and he is interested in 20th century global history.
Film and the American Dream
MLS620A
CRN: 50612
Ah, the American Dream! We live by it. We seek it. But ...what is it? What are the premises—conscious and unconscious—of this cultural ideal? How has this ideal shaped our culture? How has it evolved over the years? What has Hollywood done with it? In this seminar, we will focus on a collection of films that can be understood as reflecting on the evolution of the “American Dream” as it developed through (roughly) the latter half of the twentieth century and into our current century. We will focus our attention on the evolution of this guiding myth of American culture by critically watching and discussing several important films that offer us a glimpse into our culture’s changing self-conception. Along the way, we will explore the cinema as a powerful cultural medium that both reflects and re-shapes our collective imagination and the trajectory of our shared cultural history. We will also read scholarly attempts to make sense of the complex medium of cinema and its relationship to American ideology, especially as they relate our understanding of cinematic texts to matters of social class, economic “progress,” and achievement. Finally, we will strive to increase our collective cinematic literacy.
Mondays & Thursdays, 5:45-9:30
May 18-June 19
Triad Center, 7900 Triad Center Drive, Greensboro
Chris Poulos has a doctorate in Human Communication Studies from the University of Denver. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at UNCG. An ethnographer and philosopher of communication, he teaches courses in relational communication, dialogue, rhetoric, and film studies. His writing has appeared in Qualitative Inquiry, American Communication Journal, Southern Communication Journal, Cultural Studies: A Research Volume, and in the book, 9/11 in American Culture.
Simple Living in a Complex Age
MLS 620B
CRN: 50613
With all our wealth, we want more. With all our timesaving devices, we’re out of time. With so many choices, we feel trapped. As long as the stock market rocks, we’re secure, when it falls, the Dream fades. That, at least, is how it feels. And if it’s bad for us, what about the less affluent nations and the natural world? What happens to the rest of the world when their fates are wrapped around western tourism and multinationals. Voluntary simplicity, an ancient ideal, is built around the riddle that less is more. In our times it has new applications. It not only is a means to rein in our appetites and nurture inner contentment. It is a practical tool for adapting to change, deciphering societal ills, living within the carrying capacity of the earth, and rebuilding communities. We will read thoughtful books, discuss important issues, try on voluntary simplicity and write.
As part of the course on June 11, we are going to the Levering Orchard to pick cherries and eat a potluck meal with Frank Levering and Wanda Urbanska. We can carpool, leaving at 3 pm and returning late at 10 pm (or leaving the orchard at 9 pm). Be sure you can make this trip when signing up for the course.
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:45-9:30 pm
May 23-June 20
Triad Center, 7900 Triad Center Drive, Greensboro
A field trip to Levering Orchard on Sunday, June 11, 3-9 pm is one of the class meetings. This is an integral part of the course and students should save this date.
Dr. Charlie Headington teaches a variety of courses at UNCG and in the community. Most of them encourage people to examine themselves and society, and make constructive changes in how they think and live. He likes to garden, walk, cook, be with his family, and learn Italian.
Louis Armstrong: American Music and Culture
MLS 610C
CRN: 50614
Louis Armstrong—“Satchmo” to those who loved and admired him—is arguably the most important musician that the United States has ever produced. This is true whether you argue on the grounds of Armstrong’s role in creating America’s unique improvisational music, jazz, or his role in popular music. But it’s also true that Satchmo’s life and career were intimately linked to the most important social and cultural issues of early 20th century America. In this seminar we will explore Louis Armstrong’s life and the emergence of jazz in the 1920s and 1930s. Recordings, films, and biographical material will give us a foundation. Books such as The Creation of Jazz by Burton Peretti and The Jazz Revolution: Twenties America and the Meaning of Jazz by Kathy Ogren will help us to understand social and cultural issues. Readings ranging from the Transcendentalists to Langston Hughes will help us to see Louis Armstrong and the jazz story in terms of such themes as individualism, confrontation with the wilderness, the frontier, and modernization.
Mondays & Wednesdays, 5:45-9:30pm
June 26-July 26
Triad Center, 7900 Triad Center Drive, Greensboro
Dr. Stephen Ruzicka, Ph.D., University of Chicago, is Associate Professor of History. His interests as a classical historian focus on periods of cultural change. He is the recipient of the 2000 Alumni Teaching Excellence Award.
Creating Family Stories
MLS610D
CRN: 50615
Did your Grandpa Willy run a speakeasy during Prohibition? Did you or someone in your family experience a great loss? Do you remember a family event that changed your life? Are there family traditions and memories that you want to preserve? All of us have family tales we don’t want to lose, that would make a great story if just wrote them down.
This seminar will give you the tools you need to turn these family histories and personal events into engaging fiction or memoir. You’ll start by reading fiction based on family histories, including Professor Tony Fragola’s Feast of the Dead, a collection of short stories that integrate family history, myths, dreams, and family accounts into a fictionalized narrative structure. Then you will gather photographs, artifacts, letters, mementos, memories, impressions, images, family interviews, and your own memories to create a story or memoir you and your family can treasure in the years to come.
Tuesdays & Thursdays, 5:45-9:30
June 22-July 27
Triad Center, 7900 Triad Center Drive, Greensboro
Tony Fragola is Professor of Broadcasting /Cinema. He has written and directed short films and published scholarly articles on European directors. He has received several merit awards for teaching and has served as a faculty mentor for the North Carolina Teaching Fellows.
The Reel World: Contemporary Issues on Screen
MLS 610ECRN: 50612
Online Course
This course will focus on contemporary global issues in the post-World War II period through film. Although the Contemporary World course is not a prerequisite, we will use the lessons and other information from that course as background to examine the issues and themes raised therein via a wide variety of US and foreign films as our source base. This is not a film course per se, as we will not emphasize issues of art, cinematography, or the directing involved in making the films we view. Rather, we will use film as our window unto the world, examining the historical context of the films themselves as well as reviews and articles about our selected films to emphasize and critique the varying interpretations of history as presented on the big screen.
June 22-July 28
Dr. Jeff Jones, Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, is an Assistant Professor of History. His specific area of research is Russian-Soviet history and he is interested in 20th Century Global History.
Dangerous Minds: The Psychology of Terrorism
MLS 620C
CRN: 50617
Online Course
Unquestionably, terrorism is now a motivating force in contemporary society. Like all horrific crimes, the act begins and ends with the individual. In this class we will attempt to examine the psychological forces and processes that underlie terrorism. Because we cannot separate individuals from the society to which they belong, it is essential that we begin with an examination of cultural, political and economic conditions that appear to make terrorism more likely. Terrorists are an extremely small part of any given culture—what personality or psychological differences may predispose these individuals to be involved in such activity?
The class will also focus on psychological factors of those outside the terrorist groups; we shall explore many questions. What, psychologically, leads to the perception of terrorist vs. freedom fighter? Does terrorism work? What economic or political levels might alleviate the motivation for terrorism? Might we be able to identify individuals who are especially likely to become involved in such activities? What can we do to change the perception of those individuals who support terrorist acts? Lastly, what psychological reaction is best for deterring future terrorist activities?
June 22-July 28
Todd McElroy, Ph.D. University of North Carolina at Greensboro, is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Appalachian State University. His research interests include social judgment, social cognition, decision-making, personality, laterality influences, and regret. Dr. McElroy’s research has been published in numerous journals and he is active in several professional organizations.
Questions? Call Julee Johnson, Master of Arts in Liberal Studies Coordinator, (336) 334-4597; or Kathleen Forbes, Director of Liberal Studies, at (336) 334-4599.
The University of North Carolina at Greensboro is committed to equality of educational opportunity and does not descriminate against applicants, students, or employees, based on race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, or disability.