1

In his Nobel Prize lecture, Chinese writer Mo Yan told of how his mother sold her wedding jewelry to be able to buy him a four-volume history of China. How fortunate we are that, for us, learning never comes down to such a wrenching choice. Choice at Collegium is more surfeit than sacrifice. This fall, with new courses and, for the first time, several more classes on Friday, we offer more choices than ever. We even have a class on Mo Yan!

Fall 2013

WEDNESDAYS October 9, 16, 23, 30

November 6, 13

FRIDAYS October 11, 18, 25 November 1, 8, 15

GET the lowdown on legendary criminal court cases.

IMMERSE yourself in the grit and glitter of the Gilded Age.

DELIGHT in discovering little-known women sculptors.

ENJOY listening to beloved classics of American musical theater.

DELVE deeply into the psyches of Shakespeare’s unforgettable figures.

LEARN the actual dimensions of the global energy crisis.

EXPLORE that astonishing machine, the human body.

INVESTIGATE the “isms” that marked the Civil Rights Movement.

TAKE a fresh look at the biblical book of Exodus.

CHECK OUT the ramifications of our “whistle-blower” laws.

PROBE the perplexities of the America-Africa relationship.

FOLLOW in the footsteps of Odysseus as he wends his way home.

INHABIT the world of others through tales told in prose or poetry.

2

WEDNESDAYS October 9, 16, 23, 30 • November 6, 13

All classes will be held in the Knollwood Center unless otherwise noted.

9:10 – 10:25 am

Exploring Our Bodies—Again! What Is Bone Marrow?

Leader: Iris Cook, PhD, Collegium board member, WCC professor 40+ years

and Biology Department chair, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor

It’s hidden away, but so important. How does our bone marrow keep us healthy — and what happens when it doesn’t? This biologic “niche” is being studied by “everyone,” and that includes us! We will look at the cells found in our bone marrow (red cells, white cells and platelets) and find out how they help us (or hurt us). The discussion will also touch on bone marrow transplants and when they are used. Join us for another exploration of our bodies. Come learn, laugh and love. #84012

Crime in America

Leader: Henry S. Dogin, LLB, former prosecutor, criminal defense lawyer, immigration judge, lecturer for the Department of Justice

Are you riveted by true crime trials? Court cases centering on celebrities? Police testimony exposing politicians, missing persons, deception and deceit? Then this is the class for you! It begins with the first recorded murder trial in America, in 1799, when Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton were the attorneys for the accused. We also review famous cases from the Gilded Age, the Roaring Twenties and the Depression. Lizzie Borden, Sacco and Vanzetti, Carlo Ponzi, Bonnie and Clyde and others come alive in the classroom. #84013

Poetry in a Changing World: The Romantic Interlude

Leader: Jerry Tanklow, Collegium member, retired academic high school English Department chair, poetry teacher

Against the background of a world in ferment — the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution were seismic events with global repercussions — Blake, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats and Shelley produced work that not only survived their eras but defined them. We will read their

3

poems to examine their similarities and differences and discuss how their work reflected the times they lived in. Please bring a copy of English Romantic Poetry: An Anthology (Dover Thrift Editions, Stanley Applebaum,

editor), to the first class. #84014

Introduction to The Odyssey by Homer: Part 2

Leader: Stephen Sherman, retired banker, self-taught student of ancient Greek

Explore the world of Homer’s The Odyssey with the aim of bridging the cultural gap between us and the ancient Greeks. Picking up with the second half of the epic tale (Books 13-24), the class will discuss various themes. The primary theme of family (fathers and sons, husbands and wives) dominates the story and provides the main tension of the plot. We’ll look at the context of ancient Greece, the element of ambiguity in Homer’s epic, the character of Odysseus, and the problems of language and translation. We’ll use Robert Fagles’ translation, covering 2-3 books a week. #84015

10:25 – 10:45 am

Coffee, Cookies and Conversation

10:45 am – 12:00 noon

Nobel Prize Winner Mo Yan: China’s Peasant Storyteller

Stirs Up a Storm

Leader: Linda Ching Sledge, PhD, professor emerita of English at WCC and former Abeles Endowed Chair for Global Literature, instructor of modern Chinese literature, author of award-winning historical novels

Why is Mo Yan, the Nobel Prize winner for Literature, revered at home and abroad but vilified by dissidents and even branded a “communist stooge” by some western intellectuals, including Salman Rushdie? This class will read several of Mo Yan’s most politically controversial short stories and follow the author’s dexterous and dangerous dance with Communist censors to uncover his scathing critique of the corruption in contemporary Chinese society that is cleverly hidden in his fiction. Class discussion will touch upon China’s many warring constituencies and the debate over who best represents China to the modern world. Please read Mo Yan’s moving Nobel Prize lecture before the first class. A copy will be included in your enrollment confirmation packet. #84016

4

Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Trade Unionism and

Pacifism: How They Made and Unmade the 20th

Century

Civil Rights Movement

Leader: Charney V. Bromberg, civil rights worker in Mississippi, 1964-67, target of failed Klan death plot, first person whose arrest was investigated by the FBI as possible violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, retired director of nonprofit organization

In this follow-on to last season’s spell-binding civil rights class (but not contingent upon it), an activist who fought in the trenches in the U.S. South reconstructs actual scenarios involving key figures and events of the Civil Rights era and beyond. We examine The Movement’s underlying ideologies and debates in an attempt to define and better understand its triumphs and failures and the reasons underlying both. Once again, despite our awareness of the outcome, expect the tension to be palpable. As events continue to show, anyone who thinks that the complicated struggle for racial equality is a relic of the past should make a beeline for this class. A suggested reading list and handouts will be provided. #84017

The Gilded Age

Leader: Mary Lou Walker, 27 years teaching high school social studies, Outstanding Teacher Award from SUNY Albany School of Education

All that glitters does not deliver equally on its promises. Step back with us into the Gilded Age, the storied era following the Civil War and continuing into the early 1900s. Gain a new perspective in this overview of a time of widespread excess, when the “entitled” rich flaunted their wealth and while an “undeserving” underclass endured dire poverty and rampant crime. In a nation experiencing tremendous economic and population growth, life was deemed “cheap” and work conditions were not a priority; protests were squashed unmercifully. We will discuss the history and culture of the era and examine their lasting impact. A reading list will be provided. #84018

Short Stories Long on Truth

Leader: Greta Cohan, Collegium member, WCC professor emerita of English and former Carol S. Russett Chair for English

This ever-popular short-story class continues its literary perambulations through new stories in a search to divine the glimpse of truth — that momentary enlightenment, the realization we didn’t know we sought — that fine writers give us. Joseph Conrad saw the writer’s task as making us hear,

5

see and feel through the power of the written word. Our journey considers also what the author omits, which is often as significant as what is included, as well as explores, as Conrad said, “the secret spring of responsive emotions.” An anthology and stories will be assigned. #84019

12:00 noon – 12:45 pm

Lunch: Bring your own or order a box lunch in advance.

12:45 – 2:00 pm

Forming England, Part II: The Rise to Superpower,

1603-1900

Leader: Richard Rose, PhD, Collegium board member and retired professor

Delve into the grand, engrossing and unique amalgam of landscape, people and events that led England by the end of the 19th century to mature into the most powerful nation on earth. The second of a three-part course, this class begins with the arrival of the Stuarts on the throne, soon to be deposed briefly by Oliver Cromwell, and concludes with the reign of Victoria, the last of the Hanovers. What are the political and economic forces responsible for England’s growing hegemony during this panoramic period, and how did they foster change in English society? #84021

The State of the Art of …

Leader: Arthur Goldstein, Collegium board member, long-term investment advisor

6

Exploring the Book of Exodus: A Fresh Perspective

Leader: Michael Malina, LLB, retired attorney, author of a commentary on the Book of Genesis

Take a new — perhaps deeper — look at the Book of Exodus. This class will explore the text in light of current scholarship and traditional interpretation. Although the traditional interpretation is primarily Rabbinic, we shall also touch upon Christian views, particularly of the Ten Commandments. We will discuss the nature of God in Exodus compared with the picture painted in Genesis, and the controversial issue of Israel’s “chosenness” in a monotheistic context which posits one God for all people. Please bring a copy of the Bible with you to class. #84023

Conversations about Shakespeare: The Merchant of

Venice and King Lear

Leaders: Elaine Sanders and Lowell Ackiron, Collegium members and Shakespeare devotees committed to facilitating lively conversation among peers

Parent-child conflict, loyalty, treachery, madness, sexuality, anti-Semitism: the hot buttons Shakespeare presses in these two masterpieces are ageless. Freud wrote extensively about both plays. Literary critic Harold Bloom wrote about both the plays and Freud. In a famous interview (Paris Review, Spring 1991), he contended, “What we think of as Freudian psychology is really a Shakespearean invention…Freud is merely codifying it.” We will consider Freud’s opinions as we form our own. Expect animated discussions! Please read the first three acts of The Merchant of Venice beforehand and bring a copy of the play to class. #84024

2:00 – 2:20 pm

Coffee, Cookies and Conversation

2:20 – 3:35 pm

A la Carte

Leader: Jerry Leitzes, Collegium member, retired retail owner, and Don Levin, Collegium member and retired principal, public relations agency

Treat yourself: become more medically savvy, legally aware and technologically in touch — all while being delightfully entertained. Steve Rosenblatt, retired global sales and business manager at IBM, will enlighten us on our future given the relentless pace of technology. Doug Wilson,

7

former producer of ABC’s Wide World of Sports, will recount the human dramas behind the cameras in the high-stress world of competitive sports. Next, a panel of distinguished cancer physicians from White Plains Hospital — Dr. Caren Greenstein, radiologist; Dr. Sunny Mitchel, breast surgeon; Dr. Julie Monroe and Dr. Randy Stevens, radiation oncologists; and Dr. Sara Sadan, medical oncologist — will discuss radiology, surgery, rehabilitation and nutrition in “Cancer: Beyond the Headlines.” A range of legal issues facing New York’s criminal justice system will be addressed by former Brooklyn deputy DA Hillel Hoffman. Leaping from crime to Time, Barry Seaman, the magazine’s former White House correspondent and senior editor, will part the partisan/PR fog to give us an insider’s take on the Reagan White House. In “Reinventing Yourself,” former noted ad agency vice chair and chief creative director John Nieman will reveal how he developed six careers! #84025

Women Sculptors: An Absence Carved in Stone?

Leader: Natalie Schifano, EdD, adjunct assistant professor of Art Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, artist

This course is a survey of woman sculptors through the ages. It is the third in a series on women artists and focuses on work by female sculptors in all media, from the Renaissance to the present. The class will answer the question: Have there been any — or many — important woman sculptors? Are there many of note today? If the reply is affirmative, to what should we attribute their general lack of recognition? We will look at the artists’ production and discuss it in the context of their lives and the tastes and mores of their time. #84026

The Energy Puzzle

Leader: George Garland, DBA, former executive director of the World Energy Forum, specialist in hazardous waste management and energy for the EPA, UN and other organizations; independent consultant in Haiti

What is the cheapest, least polluting and potentially largest source of energy in the U.S.? Is there a future for sustainable energy? What would it take for the 1.3 billion people on the planet without electricity to have power by 2034? Who can one trust for energy information? Learn the answers to these and other highly charged questions about one of the pressing issues of our times — the energy crisis. Led by an energy expert with decades of global experience, this class will help you hone your skill in sorting fact from fiction, the significant from the trivial, and make informed decisions about the future of our planet. #84027

8

Short Story Selections, Twice Told

Leader: Greta Cohan, Collegium member, WCC professor emerita of English and former Carol S. Russett Chair for English

“Like a vitamin pill, a good short story can provide a compressed blast of discerning intellectual pleasure, one no less intense than that delivered by a novel” (William Boyd, The Guardian, Oct. 2, 2004). In a repeat of last spring’s Short Story — New Selections, we will enjoy that pleasure anew in rereading stories to understand how form reveals meaning and how authors use the writer’s tools to make sense of truth as they see it, or more precisely, as they seek it. Please obtain Scribner’s Anthology of Contemporary

Short Fiction, 2nd edition (Williford & Martone, editors). #84028

FRIDAYS

October 11, 18, 25 • November 1, 8, 15

All classes will be held in the Knollwood Center unless otherwise noted.

9:00 – 9:30 am

Coffee, Cookies and Conversation

9:30 – 11:30 am

The Africa-America Relationship: A Problematic Process

Leader: George Keteku, PhD in political science, adjunct professor, SUNY Purchase and WCC, African and Middle East studies

In sharing their hopes for the future of Africa, the continent’s political elites quote a local proverb: “All animals with aspirations follow the blueprint drawn by the elephant.” The elephant, in this case, is the United States. Although this proverb is largely complimentary, it nevertheless hints at the complex and problematic relationship between the peoples of Africa and the U.S. and at the impact of the elephant’s actions (American foreign policy) on Africa. This course spotlights the critical connections and flashpoints in the U.S.-Africa relationship, from geography to geopolitics, from Peace Corps volunteers to foreign aid, and from conflicts and interventions to Hollywood (Black Hawk Down) to faith in the American model as a way to “save” the continent. #84029

9

Vienna to Broadway: Music That Moves My Soul, Act II

Leader: Ed Pressman, Collegium board member, retired business executive, lecturer and seminar leader in American history, political science and music

This class will continue to hear and analyze masterworks of music that affect us deeply. We will begin with classics from 19th century Europe, a period of change that gave birth to Romanticism. Music became more lyrical, more dramatic and, best yet, more accessible to the average person. We’ll feature Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5. Then we’ll move on to a growing and changing 20th-century America. How did Broadway composers use musical theater to introduce timely issues, raise our social consciousness and help us feel the struggles of the “common folk?” Such works as Carousel and Pajama Game will be discussed. Expect a few surprises, too! Sit back, listen, participate and enjoy. #84030

11:30 am – 12:30 pm

Lunch: Bring your own or order a box lunch in advance.

12:30 – 2:00 pm

Seeing the World Anew with Mapping Technology

Leader: Tim Alexander, geographer and marine scientist, specialist in satellite telecommunications and imaging in support of NOAA, NASA and other organizations and in merging GIS systems with management tools for new applications

Like silent fireworks mercifully shorn of their noise, this course takes off on a visual trajectory that will explode your perceptions of the physical and spiritual worlds through stunning bursts of images, maps, illustrations, metaphors and graphic stories. Beginning with maps as representation and measurement, the class soars to views of Earth and the Solar System from space and then observes spatial displays of graphic information and even of humor. It journeys along the imagery of Hopi geodesy, aboriginal walkabouts and Namibian wadis, and sees poetry and fiction brought to life. We conclude with how “geographic thinking” may be entering a new era of enhanced learning. #84031

10

COLLEGIUM BOARD

David Oestreich, Chair Clare Ahern, Vice Chair

Claire Copen, Secretary Jack McLaughlin, Treasurer

Lorain Levy, Curriculum Chair

Iris Cook, Sharon Dittelman, Arthur Goldstein Edward Pressman, Richard Rose

Edith Landau Litt, Founder

Myrna Silverman, Brochure Editor Judith Kelson, Ann Rubenzahl, College Liaisons

Special Advisors for the College

Joseph N. Hankin, President

Eve Larner, Vice President and Dean, External Affairs

Collegium is planned and powered by volunteers. We are grateful to the administration of Westchester Community College for the generous

use of its facilities and the support of its staff.

12:30 – 3:00 pm (or later)

In the Library Media Theater

Cinema Fridays: Story to Screen II and Films about Film

Leader: Leslie Oster, Collegium member, retired teacher of film and literature

By popular request, the class will view four more short stories that became good films. They address the theme of perception and reality. Do the film characters experience “reality” or merely their own, possibly altered, perception of events? What is the reality of the story for us, the audience, as we watch it unfold on screen? We’ll also take a look at the techniques the filmmaker has used to either convince or flummox us. Field of Dreams, Blow Up, Memento and The Swimmer will challenge us with these questions. The last two films, a Woody Allen gem and Cinema Paradiso, will explore film itself. Please read “Shoeless Joe Jackson Comes to Iowa” (in Adaptations: From Short Story to Big Screen, Stephanie Harrison, editor), available discounted online, for the first class. #84032

11

HOW TO REGISTER

Returning members who attended in fall 2012, winter 2013 or spring 2013 may register:

Online: starting Mon., Sept. 9 at 9:00 am (see About Online Registration below).

In person: starting Wed., Sept. 11 at 9:00 am at Knollwood Center.

By phone: starting Wed., Sept. 11 at 9:00 am by calling 914-606-6748 or 6793.

All others may register in person or by phone starting Wed., Sept. 18 at 9:00 am.

Tuition is $200 for the Wednesday program, $120 for Friday, $260 for both days, plus a $5 non-refundable registration fee. Registrants will receive confirmation of enrollment no later than Sept. 25.

About Online Registration

Returning members can register online from any computer with Internet access. It’s the fastest way to lock in your requests. Please note the following:

Online registration is available only to returning Collegium students as specified above.

Instructions for how to register online are available at www.sunywcc.edu/collegium. We recommend that you download and print these instructions before beginning the online registration process.

Course numbers needed for online registration follow each course description.

Wednesday membership number is 84002; Friday membership number is 84003.

Need online registration assistance? Phone 914-606-6535 or email collegium@sunywcc.edu.

Are you a returning member who would like a Collegium volunteer to guide you through online registration in person? Call 914-606-6535 for a Sept. 9 or Sept. 10 appointment and location.

12

Val

hall

a, N

ew Y

ork

10

59

5

FA

LL

20

13

WE

DN

ES

DA

YS

O

cto

ber

9,

16

, 2

3,

30

• N

ove

mb

er 6

, 1

3

FR

IDA

YS

O

cto

ber

11

, 1

8,

25

• N

ove

mb

er 1

, 8

, 1

5

New

C

ourses!

More C

hoic

es!

Exp

an

ded

Prog

ram

on

Frid

ays!