Thursday April 3-May 8, 2008

Fred McGlynn
Tragedy and the Absurd: An Examination of Ancient, Classical, and Contemporary Theories and Examples of Drama
Thursday, 9:00-10:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
Examine classical notions of tragedy in Aristotle and Nietzsche by considering works of Sophocles [Antigone and Oedipus Tyranmus] and Euripedes [Hecuba and The Trojan Women]. We will then look at some works of Shakespeare [Macbeth, Hamlet, King Lear] and consider whether these works fit Aristotle’s theory or not. Finally, we will examine the issue posed by some theorists that tragedy is no longer possible by looking at the work of George Steiner [The Death of Tragedy], Antonin Artaud [Theater of Cruelty], and Jan Kott [Shakespeare Our Contemporary]. Some attention will be given to the work of Samual Beckett [Waiting for Godot, and Endgame]. The plays are available at libraries and in paperback editions in bookstores. Fred McGlynn, Emeritus professor of Philosophy UM. Areas of
specialization: Phenomenology, existentialism, aesthetics.

Gary Hawk
Three Great Rivers Flowing to the Sea: Hebrew Prophecy, Buddhism, and Taoism in the Axial Age (900-200 B.C.)
Thursday, 9:00-10:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula

**Text book available at the UM bookstore in the general books: Tao Te Ching Ti by Steven Mitchell.

**Syllabus and handous available at the MOLLI office the week before class.   There is a reading assignment for the first class, so please stop by after March 21 to pick up your assignment. 

We live in an age of terror and assassination, genocidal conflict and self-justifying fundamentalisms that fuse religion and violence. What, if anything can counter these features of life in the 21st Century? Looking to the past for help, Karl Jaspers in The Origin and Goal of History, and Karen Armstrong in The Great Transformation identified a period in history they called “The Axial Age” (900-200 BCE). Their studies revealed pure streams of insight that might prove refreshing for our times. In this course we have an opportunity to study three primary texts of the Axial Age (The Book of Amos, The Dhammapada, and The Tao Te Ching) supplemented by careful selections from The Great Transformation that place these books in a social and historical context. Through reading and discussion we will begin to see that the deepest spiritual currents in Israel, India, and China call not for doctrine but transcendence; not for ritual but ethics; not for narrow tribal affiliations but compassion for all. Together, let’s explore how our deepest intuitions about “the way forward” have roots in the rich soil of the past.Gary W. Hawk is an adjunct assistant professor in the Davidson Honors College where he teaches Ways of Knowing, Forgiveness, and Reconciliation, and other courses. He has taught MOLLI courses two previous years. He is an amateur poet and fine woodworker. When not teaching he can sometimes be found in his sea kayak.

Joyce Hocker
Life Writing: Journal & Memoir
Thursday, 11:00-12:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
Course starts April 10
“Open Mic’ make-up class in the evening on May 9 or TBA.
Are you writing about your life? Writing helps to shape and create our lives. Whether you are new to the process or are a long-time life writer, the class will offer creative ways to keep a journal. We will read published journal entries and information on how to keep a journal. We will also explore memoir writing by reading and discussing outstanding published memoir excerpts and learning the difference between journal and memoir writing. Montana authors will be included. Joyce will offer optional writing exercises for you to complete at home, and one short in-class (private) writing exercise. The class will not be a workshop for your writing, although you will be invited to contribute brief portions of your writing, always on an optional basis. Make up session will be an “open mic” session for participants to read segments of their writing. Or you may choose something new to present from published writing. Above all, we will listen with appreciation. Joyce Hocker received a Ph. D. in Communication from the University of Texas, and a Ph. D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Montana. She was a professor of communication for fifteen years. She serves as an adjunct professor in the Psychology department at UM. She is co-author of Interpersonal Conflict (Mc-Graw-Hill, in preparation for the 8th. Ed.) Since the 80’s she has worked as a clinical psychologist and communication consultant in Missoula. For the past twenty years, she has led renewal retreats in Montana and Central America, in which personal writing is always a main feature. She has been keeping a journal for all her adult life, and is exploring memoir writing as an avocation, presenting papers for the National Communication Association Ethnography Division.

-To the Top of the Page-

Hal Stearns
Montana and the Big Sky: Some Favorite Memories & Reflections
Thursday, 11:00-12:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
Why do we love the “magic” that is Montana? We live on a land that grabs us and just won’t let go. We admire the rugged, persistent, hardworking folks that made and make this place. We are fascinated with our relatively short but rich history. The vastness of the landscape, the gripping stories of adventure and the heroes and villains captivate us. The tales and trails from Alzada to Yaak and Monida to Westby will “hook” us even more in appreciating our special homeland: Montana. Hal Stearns, a native of Harlowton with generations of ranchers, homesteaders and newsmen in his family will share the colorful and romantic and sometimes tragic sides of the past and present of our beloved Big Sky. Geography and climate, economics and politics, commentary, history, humor, headline makers and common folk all weave together in our special story. Hal Stearns holds a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and M.A. and doctorate from UM He taught for 34 years in Germany, at Sentinel High School and UM Honored as Montana’s Teacher of the Year and Outstanding U.S. History Teacher, he was a recipient of two National Endowment of the Humanities grants and was a Keizai Koho Fellow to Japan. He also served in the Montana Army National Guard for 35 year attaining the rank of Brigadier General.


Yvonne Seng
Tulips, Turbans and Betelgeuse: Islamic Cultural Heritage and the West
Thursday, 1:00-2:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
An introduction to the rich cultural heritage of the Islamic world and its influence on the West, the course begins with an overview of the cultural reach of early Islamic civilization -- from China to Spain, Africa to Russia -- and the paths of cultural exchange. It explores the westward transmission of goods and follows the spread of agriculture and agronomy, the scientific legacy of medicine, philosophy, astronomy and mathematics, and the influence of Islamic arts and architecture. The course ends with an excursion into Orientalism and how the “exotic East” captured the imagination of Western artists, such as Mozart and Delacroix. Yvonne Seng was born in Australia, Yvonne has traveled and worked widely in the Middle East. The first non-Muslim woman allowed in the religious law archives of Istanbul, she researched the lives of 16th-century women in the time of Suleyman the Magnificent for her doctoral dissertation at the University of Chicago. She has worked as an archeologist and a professor of Islamic Studies in Washington D. C. and Princeton, and interviewed religious leaders and mystics for her book Men in Black Dresses: A Quest for the Future among Wisdom Makers of the Middle East. Yvonne has written widely on the history and culture of the Middle East, was a speaker at the State of the World Forum 2000, and Named “a force for positive turbulence,” by the Center for Creative Leadership. She lives in Missoula with her husband, Rich Bechtel, a UM alumus.

Erick Greene
Evolution in Action
Thursday, 1:00-2:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
In this class we will explore some of the amazing wonders of the natural world. We will focus on my admittedly biased “top ten” list of exciting things from the fields of animal behavior, evolution and ecology. You will be introduced to classic studies, as well as recent cutting-edge advances in these fields. Finally, we will touch on the new field of Biomimicry. Since living creatures have had over three billion years of “research and development” to solve a huge variety of problems, we will investigate what we can learn from studies of animal behavior and ecology. Erick Greene is a Professor in the Division of Biological Sciences and in the Wildlife Biology Program. His research focuses on the behavior, ecology, development and conservation, especially with birds and insects. He has been awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award and The Most Inspirational Teacher Award of the University of Montana, and the outstanding Teacher Award by the Mortar Board National Honor Society.

Peter Shober
Discerning Our Spiritual Landscapes
Thursday, 3:00-4:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
In a culture where increasing numbers of people sense they are religious refugees not quite knowing where they are headed, we will explore issues of faith, spirituality, community and emerging theological movements. What role does spirituality play in our lives and how might we find the practices and language to authentically live out this mysterious part of life? While exploring some of these individual questions, we also will look at what in the world is going on with the impact of religious movements, often in conflict, as seen in a wider perspective. Peter Shober, Senior Pastor of University Congregational, United Church of Christ since 1991. Graduate of St. Olaf College and the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley.

Jeff Wiltse
America in Crisis, 1920-1952
Thursday, 3:00-4:30, Todd Building-UM Missoula
Explore America’s contested transition to modernity during the 1920s, the Great Depression, and World War II and its aftermath. Jeff Wiltse is assistant professor of history at the University of Montana. He received his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 2003. His book Contested Waters: A Social History of Swimming Pools in America, was published by the University of North Carolina Press in 2007.

Rustem Medora
Natural Mind-Altering Substances: A Historical Perspective and Their Role in Contemporary Culture and Society
Thursday, 3:00-4:50, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
Course starts April 10-runs 110 minutes
Although used historically since ancient times in communion, healing rites, divination and puberty rituals, natural mind-altering substances (often referred to as antheogens) continue to play an important role in contemporary culture and society. Lectures will describe the similarities between neurotransmitters found in the human brain and the chemicals found in plants & mushrooms. The course will cover substances found in Ayahuasca, Cohoba, Ololiuqui, Peyote, Teonanacatl, etc., The last class will be a field trip to a medicinal-mushroom farm.
Rustem Medora joined UM in 1967. He was educated as a pharmacist in India. He did his doctoral work at the University of Rhode Island in Pharmaceutical Sciences with emphasis in Pharmacognosy (drugs derived from nature).

                         Friday April 4-May 9, 2008                             

Bruce Bigley
British Romantic Poetry
Friday, 9:00-10:30, Todd Building-UM-Missoula
An in depth examination of some major poems by the English Romantic poets Wordsworth, Coleridge, Shelley and Keats, focusing on the themes of Nature, the Individual, and how these are connected through the mind. Bruce Bigley is Professor Emeritus and Former Chair of English. Teaching and Research interests in British and German Romanticism, Modern Poetry, European Drama and the Bible.

Garr Kerr
The Dead do Tell Tales: Forensic Anthropology
Friday, 9:00-10:30, Social Sciences Building, Room 250
Join in a hands-on class. Learn to distinguish human from non-human, sex, age, stature, trauma, and time since death using real bones, casts, and other remains. On the final day you will be given a case to assess to see what forensic investigators do. Garry Kerr is a UM Lecturer of Anthropology. He was voted best UM Professor in the Missoula Independent 2007 Best of Missoula, “…When people think of professors, they often think of academic types who wear tweed and write papers, and while professor of anthropology Kerr has done at least the paper writing, he’s a lot closer to Indiana Jones than Richard Leakey. He’s also died of malaria. It’s true. The guy once got a 106-degree fever traveling in Fiji and Tahiti and his heart stopped…yeah he’s got something to teach you.”

Marilyn Bruya
Yes, You Can Draw Some More!
Friday, 9:00-12:00, Location TBA
Note: This is a 5 week course, ending on May 2
The course is a continuation for prior Yes You Can Draw! students or for anyone with prior Drawing instruction.
Please attend the first class and bring supplies and Xerox handouts from the last class with you. We will begin with some review, then develop images with more complexity in composition and tone quality, more consideration of integrating shape with space, experiments with layered imagery and drawing from the imagination and more exploration of materials and surfaces. Students will be encouraged to develop their own direction.
Supplies: Do ONE of the following:
1. Returning MOLLI students bring supplies from prior class
2. New students, purchase pre-packaged supplies at a 15% discount ( apx $30.) from the Art section on the second floor of the UM Bookstore
3. OR bring a drawing board with clips, newsprint, good paper, charcoal and other supplies from any prior drawing class. You may wish to select a few additional materials according to your interests.
Marilyn Bruya, emeritus Professor of Art, received a master’s degree in painting from Mills College in California and a master’s of fine arts in painting from Bard College in New York. She then continued her education at California State University summer arts workshops and at Schumacher College in Devon, United Kingdom. During her tenure at UM, Bruya received numerous grants.

Margaret Johnson
Let’s Act
Friday, 11:00-12:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
Textbook available at the UM bookstore general section: Spoon River Anthology by Charles Aidman, conceived from Edgar Lee Master's Spoon River Anthology by Samuel French

Put all your fears of getting in front of people away. Theatrical experience isn’t necessary, but we love those who have had experience too—just bring a desire to act and a willingness to try. We will be ‘doing’ a variety of easy, fun exercises, vocal and physical, designed to put you at ease in front of an audience. We’ll begin with group activities and move towards writing our own 1-minute monologues. Margaret F. Johnson taught high school theatre for thirty-seven years. Upon her retirement the auditorium was named in her honor. She served as the Montana State Thespian Director from 1972-1992, establishing the state convention held every year in partnership with the University of Montana. She directed over 190 productions. After retirement she has kept busy acting with Missoula Community Theatre, having just finished as Mother Burnside in MAME. Her book The Drama Teacher’s Survival Guide was published in April and she was honored for her years in theatre at The Odyssee of the Stars.

Gary Bevington
A Brief Introduction to Early English
Friday, 11:00-12:30, Todd Building- UM-Missoula
Please obtain the text in advance and bring it to the first meeting. Also it may be useful to bring a small voice recorder.

Textbook available at the UM bookstore general section: Essentials of Early English Jeremy J. Smith: Routledge, 1999
The language of English texts written before 1500 are called Early English and includes two subdivisions Old English and Middle English. Using supporting materials—grammar and vocabulary—students will learn to read aloud and interpret simple Old and Middle English texts emphasizing their historical and cultural context. This is a ‘hands-on’ course relying on the active participation of students. Gary Bevington retired as professor of linguistics from Northeastern Illinois University in 1999. Since retirement he has continued teaching at NEIU, the Newberry Library, the University of Chicago, NAES College and at the University of Montana, both in the Linguistics Program and MOLLI. He spends winters on a cattle ranch in Mexico’s Yucatán peninsula where he speaks Maya with the ranch hands, Spanish with the children, Hungarian with his wife, German with visitors, and Old English with the cows.

  -To the Top of the Page-

Steven Hesla with Musical Guest Barbara Blegen
From France: The Impressionists
Friday, 12:30-2:00, Todd Building - UM-Missoula

Recommended text available at the UM bookstore general books section The Lives of the Great Composers by Harold C. Schonberg.

This course will examine the beautiful piano music of the French Impressionist Composers, notable Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel, as well as the context in which these works were composed. There will be entertaining readings, live and recorded musical listening examples, performances of representative works in the Music Recital Hall, and musical scores available for those who are able to read music. Course materials will be held on reserve at the Mansfield Library and supplemental materials will be available online. Steven Hesla has served on the piano faculty at The University of Montana since 1978. His students have been winners of competitions such as the Missoula Symphony Young Artist Competition, and state and regional winners of piano and chamber music competitions of the Music Teachers National Association. He has been a recipient of UM’s School of Fine Arts Distinguished Faculty Award, and has performed nationally and internationally at venues such as the University of Washington at Seattle, the University of Alaska at Anchorage, and the Hochschule fur Musikin Vienna, Austria. Special Guest Artist Barbara Blegen, a Missoula Native and veteran performer of Community Concerts across the United States under Colombia Artist Management, will assist the class with a variety of solo performances and shared life experience as an artist musician.


Ronald Wakimoto
Fire Management Today: U.S. vs. The Kingdom of Bhutan
Friday, 1:00-2:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
Fire management in the US and Bhutan will be compared and contrasted – policy and govt. structure, relation to people, operations, etc. Dr. Ronald H. Wakimoto is Professor of Forestry at The University of Montana, Missoula. He received his B.S. in Forestry and M.S. and Ph.D. in Wildland Resource Science from the University of California at Berkeley. He began his faculty career at the University of California, Berkeley in 1976 and has been at The University of Montana since 1982 teaching and conducting research in wildland fire management. He teaches academic courses in wildland fire management, fuel management, and fire ecology. Dr. Wakimoto currently conducts research on the effectiveness of fuel management treatments, smoke quality and quantity from smoldering combustion, and crown fire spread. In 1988 and 1989 Dr. Wakimoto was one of two academics to serve as technical advisors to the National Fire Policy Review Team following the Yellowstone events. In 1997 he gave testimony on Wildfire Policy to the U.S. House Agriculture Committee. In 2000 he gave testimony on the Montana fire-fuel situation to the U.S. House Natural Resources Sub-Committee on Forests and Forest Health. In 2001 he gave testimony to the same committee concerning the implementation of the National Fire Plan. In 2004 Dr. Wakimoto was elected a Fellow by the Society of American Foresters. In February, 2006, Dr. Wakimoto taught a 5 day short course on fire ecology and prescribed burning in Monger, Bhutan. In January, 2008, returned to Bhutan to help deliver a facilitated workshop on disaster preparedness and fire management strategy development.

Ron Perrin
America’s Democracy: A Grand Experiment
Friday, 3:00-4:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
By reflecting on the work of such representative figures as Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Walt Whitman, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Jane Adams, John Dewey, Walter Lippmann, and Martin Luther King, Jr., students will try to assess what is unique, what is noble, and what is problematic about our political culture and the American experiment with self-governance. Special attention will be given to Alex de Tocqueville’s classic study, Democracy in America. Ron Perrin, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Political Theory. He has taught for 35 years in the departments of Philosophy and Political Science at The University of Montana. He has published a book and several essays in political philosophy and ethics.

Harry Fritz
The American Civil War
Friday, 3:00-4:30, Todd Building - UM-Missoula
The Civil War is the most significant event in all American history. It marked the transition of the United States from a localist agrarian union to a modern industrial nation, and it resolved two fundamental issues left open by the Founding Fathers—whether the country was indeed a “more perfect union” or merely a league of sovereign states, and whether a nation founded on liberty and equality would remain the world’s largest slave holding republic. At war’s end, “slavery was dead, secession was dead, and six hundred thousand men were dead.” Lecture, discussion, and readings from the Mexican War to the end of Reconstruction book and several essays in political philosophy and ethics. Harry Fritz has been a professor in the Department of History at The University of Montana for 40 years. His areas of specialty include Early American History, American Military History and Montana History. Harry’s goal for his students is to bring them “right up to the morning newspaper.”

-To the Top of the Page-

Hamilton Courses

Monday & Tuesday Mar. 31-Apr. 28, 2008

Monday

Hipólito Rafael Chacón
Art and War
Monday, 9:00-11:00, Daly Mansion-Trophy room

Textbook available at the UM bookstore general section: Art & War, Laura Brandon's: IB Tauris, 2007

An exploration of theme of war and its impact on the history of art in the western world from the Renaissance to Iraq. Hipólito Rafael Chacón is Professor of Art History and Criticism in the Department of Art at The University of Montana—Missoula. He holds the following degrees: A.B. in art, Wabash College, 1985; M.A. in art history, The University of Chicago, 1987; and Ph.D. in art history, The University of Chicago, 1995. A specialist on renaissance and baroque art. He has taken students on study trips to Bolivia, Chicago, Florence, Rome, and Peru. His current research interests lie in American architectural history, historic preservation, and Montana history, including the history of its visual arts. The recipient of the Dorothy Ogg Award for Individual Contributions to Historic Preservation, he has recently completed a book on the life and work of Montana architect A.J. Gibson and has also written a Federal Report on the paintings in the historic lodges at Glacier National Park. His latest publication is “Palimpsest,” a critical essay for the Newberry Library in Chicago on the exhibition Open and Closed that focused on the tense dialogue between contemporary art and the library and archives in the post-modern era.

Lynda Skinner
Art Challenge: More Drawing
Monday, 11:30-1:30, Daly Mansion-Billiards room
No matter what your skill level is, enhance it with these user-friendly techniques! This class offers instruction in creating the illusion of distance through the use of perspective (one and two-point as well as atmospheric), the use of positive and negative space, and contour figure drawing. Bring your sketchbook, a #2 pencil, eraser and ruler for the first class. Lynda Skinner has taught art classes at all levels for the past twenty years at Hamilton High School, The University of Montana Outreach Program, Flathead Community College and Adult Education. She loves to share her passion for all art media, art history, and multicultural art gained through her education, experience and travel.

David Emmons
Marcus Daly and the Anaconda:
A Man and his Company 1841-2008
Monday, 2:00-4:00, Daly Mansion-Trophy room
This course will begin with a discussion of Ireland at the time of Daly’s birth in 1841 until his emigration in 1856. We will then deal with his early career in the Comstock, his work with the Walker Brothers in Salt Lake City, his visit to Butte in 1876 and his purchase of the Anaconda Mine, and the founding in 1891 of what became the Anaconda Copper Mining Company, the fourth largest corporation in America. I will also deal with Daly’s feud with W.A. Clark and with the changes in ACM’s fortunes from the Amalgamated takeover in 1899, Daly’s death in 1900, the collapse of ACM in 1973, the Arco buyout in 1977, and the legally tangled and on-going Superfund litigation which began in 1983.
David Emmons is professor of History Emeritus at UM. He started teaching at UM in 1967. He is the author of The Butte Irish and was the senior historical expert and consultant for Arco and the recently completed superfund case.

Tuesday

Harry Fritz
The American Civil War
Tuesday, 10:00-12:00, Daly Mansion-Hamilton
The Civil War is the most significant event in all American history. It marked the transition of the United States from a localist agrarian union to a modern industrial nation, and it resolved two fundamental issues left open by the Founding Fathers—whether the country was indeed a “more perfect union” or merely a league of sovereign states, and whether a nation founded on liberty and equality would remain the world’s largest slave holding republic. At war’s end, “slavery was dead, secession was dead, and six hundred thousand men were dead.” Lecture, discussion, and readings from the Mexican War to the end of Reconstruction book and several essays in political philosophy and ethics. Harry Fritz has been a professor in the Department of History at The University of Montana for 40 years. His areas of specialty include Early American History, American Military History and Montana History. Harry’s goal for his students is to bring them “right up to the morning newspaper.”

Esther England
Hollywood Musicals of the 50’s
Tuesday, 1:00-4:00, Daly Mansion-Trophy room
Examine five of the best musical’s from the 1950’s. 50’s musicals were the grand finale reaching musicals luscious peak. Esther England Emeritus professor of music, retired from full-time work in 2005 after thirty-six years. During her career at The University of Montana, she taught voice, directed the Opera Workshop, served as Associate Dean of Fine Arts for nine years, and received several prestigious teaching awards. For fifteen years, Esther and Professor Emeritus Bill Raoul, from the drama department, taught a course entitled, “The History of Popular Musical Theatre.”

-To the Top of the Page-