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• B10. Thomas Merton: Contemplative Monk or Catholic Activist

  • Start
    10/31/2024
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  • End
    12/12/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    Briarwood, 65 Briarwood Circle, Worcester, MA
  • Spaces left
    5

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  Participants will investigate Thomas Merton’s life. Topics will include his varied writings and his influences in American literary circles.  His writing is influenced by his conversion to Roman Catholicism, his vocation to the priesthood, his entrance into a monastic community, and his untimely death during the Vietnam War.  An emphasis will be on his anti-war poetry and personal journals.

  On 12/5/2024, the class will be meeting at St. Joseph's Abbey  at 167 North Spenser Road in Spencer, Massachusetts 01562.

  

  Instructor: Tom Brennan graduated from The Catholic University of America with a degree in Physics. He taught physics and mathematics in secondary schools. After he attained graduate degrees in Education from Fordham University and Computer Science from Pace University, he taught at Mercy College, St. Thomas Aquinas College, and the City University of New York. He was a book editor for a computer science journal, has published fiction and poetry, compiled a research book on writing and has written a memoir. He previously taught a WISE course on Robert Moses.  He studied Merton’s writings in college at the Catholic University during the early 60’s and received a degree in Theology from Manhattan College in1969.

   

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• B1. The Lives and Times of Great Composers - Part 2

  • Start
    11/04/2024
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  • End
    12/02/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom only

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  This course will focus on a variety of musicians, exploring their lives and the historical times in which they lived. These musicians will be separated by geography and perhaps many years, but the relationship they will share is their great contribution to the history of music composition, as well as their intriguing personal life stories. Over the two Fall sessions we will examine musicians from the 1600s to modern day. Students will be treated to playlists that they can use to create their own “mix tapes” of these incredible composers. We will be covering Mozart, Chopin, Gershwin, Gustav Holst, John Williams, Duke Ellington, and others in Session B. 

  Recommended Reading: None

  

  Paul Buono began as a classical pianist, discovered jazz in high school and then moved to New York City to hone his skills, somehow managing to play with masters such as Wynton Marsalis. He played a variety of gigs, taught in the NYC public school system, and then worked as a musical director for Princess and Cunard Cruises, traveling to exotic locales such as Bora Bora, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Alaska. Paul earned his law degree and passed the MA bar before returning to NYC to work as an attorney in the intellectual property field, but found himself pulled back into the music scene. He served as the musical director for Javier Colon, the Season 1 winner of "The Voice" on NBC, and toured with Maroon 5 on their 2012 "OverExposed World Tour" throughout North, Central, and South America, performing for audiences as large as 35,000. Paul performs regularly and teaches at various universities and online, including at Assumption University where he is the jazz band director. Paul also works as a musical director for Music Management, a Boston agency that produces a variety of musical installations.

  
  

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• B2. Maryse Condé’s Windward Heights

  • Start
    11/04/2024
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  • End
    12/02/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    In Person - Kennedy 119 at Assumption University
  • Spaces left
    50

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  With the publication of Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead and Percival Everett’s James, which revisit masterpieces by Charles Dickens and Mark Twain (David Copperfield and Huckleberry Finn), the concept of postmodern versions of beloved classics has generated a certain amount of critical attention, as if the phenomenon of literary revisions were a new and previously unheard-of enterprise. Yet Maryse Condé’s La Migration des Coeurs, in which the native of Guadeloupe transposes the plot and characters of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights from Yorkshire to the Caribbean, was published nearly thirty years ago. While the francophone version of the British classic augments the essential concerns of the original by including themes of race and gender, while also underscoring the complexities of multicultural society and modern perspectives on the psychology of abuse, Condé is on record as regarding her work a tribute to Brontë, recalling that Wuthering Heights inspired her with passionate admiration when she first read it at the age of fourteen. In this course, we will read Windward Heights, the English translation of Condé’s La Migration des Coeurs.

  Required Text:

  Maryse Condé, Windward Heights, trans. Richard Philcox, (Soho Press, 2003).

  Background Reading—Recommended, not required:

  Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights (any edition).

  A.O. Scott, “‘James,’ ‘Demon Copperhead’ and the Triumph of Literary Fan Fiction,” NYT, April 22, 2024.

  

  Lillian Corti earned a doctorate in Comparative Literature at the City University of New York in 1984 and has taught at various institutions, including Queens College, Tulsa University and the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where she was on the faculty of the English Department and a member of the Women’s Studies Department for many years.

  
  

  
  

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• B3. The British Invasion – Sans the Beatles

  • Start
    11/04/2024
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  • End
    12/09/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    In Person - Kennedy 119 at Assumption University
  • Spaces left
    23

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  On February 9, 1964, the Beatles burst onto the American music scene with their appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show.  What followed was not only the huge success of the Fab Four in the US, but an invasion of many, many other groups and individual artists who dominated the American pop music scene for more than a decade. 

  Incredibly, many are still active!   Some of these performers include The Rolling Stones, The Who, The Dave Clarke Five, Herman’s Hermits, Rod Stewart, Al Stewart, The Kinks, The Zombies, Dusty Springfield, Donovan, The Moody Blues, Peter and Gordon, Petula Clark, and Tom Jones – just to name a few. 

  This course will highlight the music of these, and many other artists and their memorable music, presented in videos over the course of 5 weeks.

  

  Joe Corn spent most of his professional career as a working electrical engineer. He has taught in the NYC school system, Springfield Technical Community College (SPCC) and Penn State University and worked as a technical instructor for Moore Products Co. Since joining WISE 13 years ago, he has taught courses in both technology and music.  Joe is a past president of WISE.  He and his wife Bobbi reside in Grafton.

  
  

  
  

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• B4. The Art of Islam

  • Start
    11/05/2024
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  • End
    12/10/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom only

  Register

  The rich visual and material histories of the Islamic peoples encompass many cultures and regions as diverse as Spain, Africa, the Middle East. Central Asia and the Americas. This introductory course selectively explores Islamic art and architecture from the lifetime of The Prophet Muhammad (d. 632) until ca. 1800. This course will feature architectural sites, including major mosques, and the signficance of the manuscripts, especially the Qur’an (Koran). We will also discuss the disinclination towards the representation of figural art (aniconic art) that has fostered the development of superb calligraphy, arabesques and geometric art forms and, at times, has resulted in iconoclasm.

  Optional Reading:   Islamic Arts by Bloom, J. and Blair, S. Phaidon Press (buy used)   

  

  Dr. Barbara Beall is a Professor Emerita and former Chair of the Department of Art, Music and Theater at Assumption College. As a Visiting Professor at Clark University, she taught African as well as Islamic Art and Architecture. She completed her doctorate at Brown University in the Department of the History of Art and Architecture and her publications in Art History include articles, reviews and the book, Understanding the Art Museum.

  
  

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• B5. Immigration Battles: Want to be more informed?

  • Start
    11/05/2024
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  • End
    12/10/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    In Person - Kennedy 119 at Assumption University
  • Spaces left
    15

  Register

  Immigration is a complex and politically “hot” topic.  As a nation of immigrants, we all have an immigrant family story. How do you compare your immigrant heritage to today’s recent arrivals?   In this course, we’ll briefly discuss the history of US immigration policy, and then focus on the current state of the US immigration system.  Topics of discussion include refugee categories, criteria for asylum       seekers and criteria for deportation; DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (aka “Dreamers”); how the US immigration system compares with other countries; and the underlying rationale for different political positions.  Join us if you are interested in learning more, so that you can take an informed position on immigration policy. 

  

  Jean Sifleet is a retired business attorney and CPA.  During her business career, she worked in corporate management, consulting and private practice.  In retirement, she served as an Access to Justice Fellow and worked with the Mass Law Reform Institute on immigration and law reform issues.  She has taught numerous courses for WISE and welcomes participant discussion of the issues.

  

  
  

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• B8. American Art of the 1930’s

  • Start
    11/06/2024
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  • End
    12/11/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom only

  Register

  Against the backdrop of the Great Depression, we’ll explore the variety of art created over one the most productive periods in American history, the 1930s.  Following the Stock Market crash in 1929, Alfred Stieglitz opened his largest gallery to date, An American Place, and continued to exhibit the works of Georgia O’Keeffe, John Marin, Charles Demuth, Marsden Hartley, Arthur Dove and Paul Strand, as well as his own photographs. Edward Hopper continued to paint his stark scenes of New York City. With the New Deal and the WPA, hundreds of artists across the country created murals, easel  paintings, sculptures, and graphic arts that gave hope to Americans through the Depression.  We’ll study the Regionalist work of Grant Wood and Thomas Hart Benton, along with the work of Precisionists Charles Sheeler and Joseph Stella. Abstract art will be seen in the work of artists such as Hans Hoffman, Mark Rothko, and Arthur Davis. 

  

  Martha Chiarchiaro has brought art history to life for more than 30 years. She received her master’s degree in the history of art from Williams College and has taught a variety of classes at the Worcester Art Museum, Worcester State University, WISE, and other cultural organizations. As noted on her Seeing History website, Martha looks forward to sharing her enjoyment of the history and highlights of art museums around the world.

  
  

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• B9. A Beatles Musical History Tour - From Liverpool to Abbey Road, Part 2

  • Start
    11/06/2024
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  • End
    12/11/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    Zoom only

  Register

  We explore the history and music of The Beatles in a multi part series which incorporates lecture, audio, and video. In Part 2, the Beatles open their third U.S. tour before a world record crowd at NYC’s Shea Stadium in August 1965. That Fall they release Rubber Soul. 1966’s Revolver, released just before their final tour, showed even greater studio experimentation, sophisticated songwriting, and an expanded repertoire of musical styles:  “Love You Too” (all Indian instruments), “Eleanor Rigby” (strings), and “Tomorrow Never Knows” (tape loops). These songs were never publicly performed. Part 2 concludes with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”. 

  Participation is encouraged with discussions, polls, etc. There are suggested readings for enrichment and playlists accompanying each session.
  

  Optional Reading: Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, Revised Edition, Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic (Kindle or Paperback)

  

  Gene Shwalb graduated from Oberlin Conservatory of music where he studied piano and cello. He received his M.Ed. from UMass Boston in online learning design and is currently their Principal Learning Designer.  He edits the Music Museum of New England website: MMONE.org. Gene recently returned from a Beatles tour of Liverpool and London sponsored by the Fab 4 Masterclass. He is also proficient on synthesizer, bass, and guitar.

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• B11. Asia and the British Mystery Writer

  • Start
    11/07/2024
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  • End
    12/12/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    In Person - Kennedy 119 at Assumption University
  • Spaces left
    17

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  The mystery novel often lets armchair detectives examine not just crimes,   but also foreign cultures, crucial historic moments and even implicit cultural biases. Ruth Rendell makes the case for all those claims in her 2012 novel, Speaker of Mandarin. England’s Inspector Wexford begins the novel as a tourist in 1980’s China. He both sees and misperceives that country in ways that color his investigation of a crime back home. Rendell’s deceptively accessible mystery serves as an entry point to a far weightier text also set in Asia: Graham Greene’s The Quiet American. Written in 1955, Greene’s novel follows investigative journalist Thomas Fowler who reports on the end of French Colonialism and the beginning of American involvement in Vietnam. Ahead in time from both Greene and Rendell, Colin Coterill imagines an Asian amateur detective, the elderly Laotian coroner Siri Paiboum. Coterill’s novel, The Coroner’s Lunch, published in 2017 is set in 1978, three years after American forces left Vietnam.  Siri, a rationalist who has visions, represents both ancient and modern Laos.  Hampered by post-war political and economic conditions, Dr. Paiboum uses his skills to solve a complex murder. We will conduct a parallel investigation of all three novels.

  Required Readings =>

  Graham Greene, The Quiet American  (any edition)

  Ruth Rendell, Speaker of Mandarin  (any edition)

   Colin Coterill, The Coroner’s Lunch  (any edition) 

  

  Helen Whall received her Ph.D. from Yale University, specializing in Shakespeare and the English Renaissance. Since retiring from The College of the Holy Cross, she has taught numerous courses for WISE ranging from Shakespeare and Modern Drama to Detective Fiction.

  

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• B12. The Chevron Doctrine Runs Out of Gas: The Roberts Court’s Agenda to Curtail the "Administrative State."

  • Start
    11/07/2024
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  • End
    12/12/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    In Person - Kennedy 119 at Assumption University
  • Spaces left
    35

  Register

  The New Deal gave rise to the birth of the modern federal regulatory regime. Prompted by economic and social dysfunctions from decades of unchecked expansion of corporate power, FDR’s legislative agenda created new agencies with responsibilities to regulate many parts of society. As federal regulatory power expanded, the oversight of agency action became a focus of Congress and the courts. In the 1970s, a conservative backlash developed, with calls for restrictions on what was perceived by business interests as excessive and burdensome regulation. In recent years, a markedly conservative Roberts Court has issued major decisions that have curtailed the power to implement federal laws. This course will examine the birth and expansion of the federal regulatory regime, how agencies operate through rulemaking, the framework of judicial review of agency action, the Chevron doctrine of deference to agencies’ interpretations of laws, the conservative assault on the “administrative state,” and recent landmark decisions of the Roberts Court, including the abandonment of the Chevron doctrine.

  Optional Reading =>

  The Chevron Doctrine: Its Rise and Fall and the Future of the Administrative State, Thomas W. Merrill (Harvard Univ Press 2022)

  

  John S Ross, III holds law degrees from Yale University, The University of Virginia School of Law, and New York University School of Law, and served as Adjunct Professor of Law at Washington and Lee University School of Law.  He has taught numerous courses in the WISE program on constitutional law, the Supreme Court and other topics.  He also facilitates the WISE Supreme Court SIG.

  
  

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• B13. The Past, Present and Enigmatic Future of AI

  • Start
    11/08/2024
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    10:00 AM
  • End
    12/13/2024
  •  
    11:30 AM
  • Location
    Zoom only

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  In November 2022, ChatGPT upended the ways that we thought about education, work, politics, and, oh, so much more. The future arrived, and we weren’t ready. Dr. Frankenstein’s monster could write college papers, create illustrations and, eventually, videos, and soon converse with us with an unsettling familiarity.

  This course will take us back and push us forward. With a particular focus on the lives of seniors, we’ll discover how to use these new AI products to help us in our own creative endeavors and see how current AI products are used in politics, education, business, and medicine.

  Throughout the course, we’ll discuss our hopes and fears for ourselves and for the generations to come.

  

  Karl Hakkarainen is a long-time WISE instructor who has taught courses on technology, history, journalism, music, and law. He is a great example of life long learning. 

  
  

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• B14. Celebrating Worcester Authors

  • Start
    11/08/2024
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  • End
    12/13/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    In Person - The Willows, 101 Barry Rd, Worcester, MA 01609
  • Spaces left
    49

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  We will read three very different books, all by Worcester authors, which reflect the diversity of the Worcester community.  Part Yankee [not those Yankees], part immigrant, part Irish Catholic and part academic, Worcester is a unique city which often feels like a small town. Perhaps you live in your grandparents’ house.  Or maybe you never left after coming to study at Clark or Holy Cross or WPI or Assumption University??? 

  The WAM, The WooSox and the Ecotarium are just a few of Worcester’s hidden gems as are native sons like Abbie Hoffman and Stanley Kunitz. Carol Goodman Kaufman raised her family here. We’ll get to know these writers and explore more of literary Worcester in the process.

  Required Readings

  Steal This Book , Abbie Hoffman , ISBN978-0-306-84717-2

  The Wild Braid, Stanley Kunitz , ISBN 978-0-393-32997-1

  The First Murder, Carol Goodman Kaufman, ISBN 978-1956851755                

  Marcia Tannenbaum, B.A. and M.A. Simmons University, English Language and Literature 1967, 1969 Juris Doctor, University of Connecticut School of Law, 1980.  Marcia moved to Worcester in the summer of 1992 and has practiced Family Law and Mediation here for 30 years.  She is a longterm WISE Instructor; was an adjunct professor at Nichols College for 10 years and at the Univ. of Hartford before leaving Connecticut. 

  
  

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• B15. Humor 102

  • Start
    11/08/2024
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  • End
    12/13/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    In Person - Kennedy 119 at Assumption University
  • Spaces left
    35

  Register

  In Humor 102, we will continue our deep dive into comedy by exploring political humor, funny movies, ads that sell and make us laugh, comedy-variety shows from television, and some of my own stuff.  The goal is an appreciation of all types of humor.

  

  Joe Fusco is a Worcester Humorist/Stand-Up Poet. He writes a monthly column for Worcester Magazine and is featured at various bookstores, coffee shops, libraries, clubs, and breweries in Worcester County.  He hosts the Poetry Extravaganza at Redemption Rock Brewery and the Richard Fox Poetry Series at Root and Press Cafe and Books.  He just finished ‘Humor 101’ at WISE to thunderous accolades!

  
  

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• B6. Unraveling Chromosomes

  • Start
    11/12/2024
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  • End
    12/10/2024
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  • Schedule
    5 sessions
  • Location
    In Person - Kennedy 119 at Assumption University
  • Spaces left
    31

  Register

  The role of DNA in carrying our genetic information is universally appreciated, but less attention is paid to chromosomes that carry the genetic information. In each human cell, 2 meters of DNA is highly compacted and organized by RNA and proteins into 46 distinctive microscopic chromosomes. The dynamic organization of chromosomes controls which genes are expressed at which time(s) and in which cells. The precise organization of DNA into chromosomes is essential to inheritance and plays an important role in gender determination.  In this course, we’ll discuss the structure and inheritance of chromosomes, as well as epigenetics, the processes that control gene expression throughout our lives.  

  

  Clare O’Connor is a cell biologist who received her Ph.D. from Purdue and led a research lab at the former Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury from 1984-1995. From 1995 to 2017, she was a professor in the Boston College Biology Department, where she taught     both introductory and advanced courses in genetics and molecular cell biology. Since retiring in 2018, she has taught several WISE courses in these same subject areas.

  
  

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