Course Descriptions
Fall 2026 Course Descriptions
9:00 – 10:30 AM
COURSE 101
Nicholas Nickleby: Charles Dickens Discovers His Power
Helen Heineman, PhD
Dickens’s preeminent contribution to the English novel was his description of social or educational ills. He combined the horror of life in the Yorkshire schools with grotesque comedy. Within a year of publishing Nickleby, many of those Yorkshire schools were closed. His use of exaggeration in the novel helped accelerate public awareness and reform. At the same time, he created great characters; Mrs. Nickleby, the Infant Phenomenon, Wackford Squeers, and the brothers Cheeryble. He once said, “What a thing it is to have power.” He could make a place famous just by describing it. The activities of imagined people became as real as those of anyone living in the world. He had seen the horror and filth of London and populated it with hundreds of figures, from a land that was half real and half fictional. He saw comedy everywhere as well as tragedy. Mrs. Nickleby was the comic favorite, always having difficulty in remembering what she is talking about. There is no one source for Dickens’s humor. He was the quickest, always to see the ludicrous aspect of any situation. Nothing was excluded from his humor, even his work as a social reformer. The notes of his tragedy are inseparable from the wellsprings of his humor
Dr. Heineman will be referring to the Wordsworth Classic (1998) edition of Nicholas Nickleby, by Charles Dickens.
Week 1: Chapters 1-16
Week 2: Chapters 17 – 32
Week 3: Chapters 32 – 48
Week 4: Chapters 49 – End
COURSE 102
A Concise History of Western Classical Music
Harold Rosenbaum
This course tells the history of Western Classical Music from ancient times to the present. It discusses the formation and evolution of musical genres including opera, symphonies, and concertos (and more), plus the circumstances which led to the creation of these works. Musical demonstrations will highlight and display excerpts of many of these works, and will demonstrate the evolving styles which composers from each period first abided by, and then expanded, thus changing history, and influencing others to do the same. This course will be delivered in lecture format with demonstrations and opportunities for questions and answers.
Week 1: From Antiquity through the Renaissance – The Golden Age of Polyphony
Week 2: The Baroque Period: Simpler Music, Birth of Opera, Unique Styles and Contributions of Monteverdi, Handel and Bach
Week 3: The Classical Ideal: Clarity, Balance and the Rise of the Middle Class and the Individual Voice.
Week 4: The Romantic Period Through Modern Times
10:45 AM – 12:15 PM
COURSE 103
The 2026 Midterms: What Should We Expect?
David Smailes, PhD
The 2026 midterm elections have been influenced by a number of political and social forces which have already begun to shape the results we are likely to see on Election Day. In this course, we will examine how the historical context of this election year, the influence of money and lobbying on the various races, the reshaping of the political landscape through redistricting or “gerrymandering, ” the divisions within the two major parties and threats to the democratic process itself have all come together to make 2026 a unique moment In the life of our country.
1:15 PM – 2:45 PM
COURSE 104
Drawing with Light: Photography’s First Century
Jessica Roscio, PhD
Photography is a medium that was centuries in the making. The ability to reproduce a life-like image—without the use of a pencil, ink, or brush—seemed almost magical. A curious mix of art and science, photography offered new ways of seeing that transformed the nineteenth century. This course will cover the first monumental decades of the photographic medium, from Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre’s announcement of his invention of the daguerreotype in 1839 to the Kodakers at the turn-of-the-twentieth century. We will look at the rise and importance of the portrait studio, the beginnings of landscape and war photography, and the remarkable ways the camera brought the wider world home.