Spring seminars to engage participants in literature, music, history and more

By JENA WITTKAMP
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- The Dead Sea Scrolls, the USA Patriot Act and the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein are just some of the topics participants can explore through upcoming University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill "Adventures in Ideas" weekend seminars.

The Program in the Humanities and Human Values, a unit of UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences, sponsors the spring series featuring eight new topics and three encore seminars of the most popular previous topics.

The seminars, open to the public, are co-sponsored by the General Alumni Association. Tuition ranges from $95 to $140. Slightly reduced prices are available for participants who sign up before Jan. 23; scholarships are offered to teachers and 50 percent discounts are available to "first-timers."

"Last semester was the best ever for the Adventures in Ideas seminars at Carolina, and we’re looking forward to seeing old friends and meeting new ones at our seminars next spring," said Wayne J. Pond, the program’s associate director.

The seminars are:

• "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire," Jan. 23 and 24. Dr. Richard J.A. Talbert, William Rand Kenan Jr. professor of history and adjunct professor of classics, will lead this encore seminar on the birth of the Roman Empire, what strategies made it successful and whether or not it truly fell or simply evolved into something new. The program is sold out; to be placed on a waiting list, e-mail name and phone number to human@unc.edu.
  
  
• "King Lear," Jan. 30 and 31. This seminar will examine William Shakespeare’s greatest tragedy in social and theatrical contexts with Dr. Ritchie Kendall, associate professor of English, and David Hammond, professor of dramatic art and artistic director of the PlayMakers Repertory Company. The seminar also features a Friday evening performance of the play at PlayMakers Repertory Company.
  
  
• "The Gulag," Feb. 6 and 7. An estimated 18 million Soviet citizens passed through the labor camps between 1929 and 1953, and an estimated 4.5 million never returned. Dr. Donald Raleigh, professor of history, and Dr. Madeline Levine, Kenan professor of Slavic literatures, will examine the history of the camps and their effect on contemporary Russian literature.
  
  
• "The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Manuscripts: Rediscovering Ancient Judaism and Christianity," Feb. 13 and 14. From the perspectives of archaeology and history, this encore seminar invites participants to rediscover ancient Judaism and Christianity. The seminar will be lead by Dr. Jodi Magness, Kenan distinguished professor for teaching excellence in early Judaism, and Dr. Bart Ehrman, Bowman and Gordon Gray professor and chair of the department of religious studies.
  
  
• "Winston Churchill," Feb. 20 and 21. This encore seminar will examine the life and career of Winston Churchill, a man The Atlantic magazine deemed "the greatest Englishman" upon his death in 1965. Dr. Richard A. Soloway, Eugen Merzbacher professor of history and interim dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and Dr. Gerhard Weinberg, William Rand Kenan Jr. professor of history emeritus, will lead the seminar.
  
  
• "African-American Writers, the South and the Revelations of Scholarship" or "The Scary Mason-Dixon Line," March 19 and 20. Dr. Trudier Harris, J. Carlyle Sitterson professor of English, will lead this analysis of African-American writers and their relationship to the South and to contemporary literature. Her latest book is "Summer Snow: Reflections from a Black Daughter of the South."
  
  
• "Rodgers and Hammerstein on Broadway, 1943-1949," March 26 and 27. Dr. Tim Carter, David G. Frey distinguished professor of music, will lead this music-filled journey through the Hollywood and Broadway exploits of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II.
  
  
• "Seamus Heaney: Culture, Politics and Poetry," April 2 and 3. Along with several of his colleagues, Dr. George Lensing Jr., Bowman and Gordon Gray professor of English, will lead a seminar about the Nobel Prize-winning Irish poet’s life and work.
  
  
• "Politics and Civil Liberties in Wartime America," April 16 and 17. UNC experts in history and law will discuss civil liberties in the context of the Civil War, World War II, the Cold War era, McCarthyism and the post-Sept. 11 world. The faculty will be: Dr. Richard H. Kohn, professor of history and chair of the Curriculum in Peace, War and Defense; Dr. William Barney, professor of history; Dr. William E. Leuchtenburg, William Rand Kenan Jr. professor of history emeritus; Eric Muller, associate professor of law; and Gene Nichol, Burton Craige professor and dean of the School of Law.
  
  
• "God, Religion and Evil: A Small Seminar," April 30 and May 1. Dr. Warren Nord, director of the Program in the Humanities and Human Values and lecturer in the philosophy department, will lead a discussion on the relationships among God, religion and evil.
  
  
• "Inside Islam: History and Personal Perspectives," May 14 and 15. This seminar seeks to enrich participants’ understanding of Islam by examining the Middle East, India and South Africa through the lens of history, scholarly analysis and personal experience. Four professors representing three universities will lead the seminar: Dr. Akram Khater, associate professor of history and director of international programs, N.C. State University; Dr. Charles Kurzman, assistant professor of sociology, UNC; Dr. Sarah Shields, associate professor of history, UNC; and Dr. Ebrahim Moosa, associate research professor of religion and co-director of the Center for the Study of Muslim Networks, Duke University.

The weekend seminars begin mid-afternoon Fridays, with that day’s program usually ending by 9 p.m. The seminars resume Saturday at 9 a.m., lasting until mid-day. For full instructor and course descriptions, click on http://www.adventuresinideas.unc.edu and then "current programs."

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(Wittkamp, of Raleigh, graduates this month from UNC, having majored in women’s studies and journalism and mass communication.)

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu