NEWS

By LANITA WITHERS
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- Classes on the history of ragtime, the Internet’s impact, 20^th-century communism, political speech and more will be part of the spring Community Classroom Series offered through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education.

All courses begin in April and will be held at the Friday Center, located about three miles east of the UNC campus. The fee is $100 for each course. No admissions or entrance requirements apply. Enrollment is limited and will be on a first-come-first-served basis. Courses in the series are:

• "Paging Through Aging: Reflections on Aging Through Literature," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, April 3 to May 1. By 2025, almost one in five Americans will be 65 or older, and literature regarding this age group will increasingly become a new frontier for writers. This class will study literature with fully dimensional aged characters, including works by Pearl S. Buck, Eudora Welty and Wallace Stegner. Instructor: Robert Wallace.
  
  
• "American Culture in the Era of Ragtime," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays, April 7 to 28. This interdisciplinary course will explore American culture in the first two decades of the 20th century. Music, film, literature and photography will figure prominently. Instructor: Dr. Joy Kasson, chair of the Curriculum of American Studies at UNC.
  
  
• "History and Memory in the South After the Civil War," 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays, April 7 to 28. The class will explore the ways in which various groups of Southerners have represented their past. Participants will critically analyze representations of the past in civic celebrations, literature, historic preservation sites, tourist destinations, music, film and popular culture. Instructor: Dr. Fitz Brundage, William B. Umstead professor of history at UNC.
  
  
• "Shaping the Story: A Workshop in Fiction Writing," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays, April 7 to May 12. This workshop will focus on writing a short story. In the process, the class will explore how the best dialogue comes not only from how characters speak, but how they listen. Instructor: Paul Mihas, an award-winning editor, teacher and book reviewer.

• "Latino Literature in the United States," 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays, April 7 to May 5. The Hispanic population has increased by more than 128 percent since 1990. The class will study works from different literary genres that deal with the complex issue of Hispanic identity within the United States. All readings and discussions will be in English. Instructor: Betsy Sandlin.
  
  
• "Pop Music and the Sixties," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays, April 7 to 28. This class will explore the relationship between popular music and culture in the United States and England in the 1960s. Musical groups, technology development, civil rights and the counterculture will be highlighted. Instructor: Dr. John Covach, an associate professor in the UNC music department.
  
  
• "Visual Images and Scientific Knowledge," 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, April 8 to 29. This course will focus on the interaction of science and the visual arts in Western Europe during the scientific revolution between 1600 and 1850. Natural history, as well as biological and medical sciences, will figure prominently. Instructor: Dr. Mary Sheriff, Daniel W. Patterson distinguished term professor in the UNC art department.
  
  
• "Political Speech: How to Get Your Point Across," 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesdays, April 8 to 29. Participants will learn how to communicate their point of view effectively in fewer than three minutes. Instructor: Kathy Maboll, interim director of the Oral Communication Program at UNC.
  
  
• "Reconnecting with Family and Community History: An Oral History Workshop," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, April 8 to 29. This workshop will provide comprehensive training to anyone interested in designing and implementing an oral history project. Also considered will be oral history’s special contribution to historical understanding. Instructor: Joe Mosnier, associate director of the UNC Southern Oral History Program.
  
  
• "The Holy War for God: Warriors in Judaism, Christianity and Islam," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesdays, April 8 to 29. Using Karen Armstrong’s book, "The Battle for God," class instructor Rev. Jim Smalley will lead participants as they try to gain a better comprehension of major conflicting views and values of life found among Christians, Jews and Muslims. Smalley is a UNC alumnus and has a master of divinity degree from Vanderbilt University.
  
  
• "The Stage Musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, April 9 to May 7. The music of this creative duo revolutionized Broadway and provided important historical and social documentary from a time of major change for America and the world. "South Pacific" is playing at Duke University in April, and discounted group-rate tickets are available to class members who register by March 6. Instructor: Dr. Tim Carter, the David G. Frey distinguished professor of music at UNC.
  
  
• "The Ethical and Social Impacts of the Internet," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, April 9 to May 7. Privacy, copyrights, virtual communities and anonymity on the Internet will be discussed in depth from the perspectives of a computer scientist, two journalists and a law librarian. Instructors: Jeannie Walsh, Deb Aikat, Lolly Gasaway and Paul Jones.
  
  
• "Reading and Writing Poetry of Transformation," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, April 9 to May 7. This class will focus on readings that will act as a springboard for writing original poems. Participants will write their own works. Instructor: Margaret Rabb, award-winning poet.

• "Communism in the Twentieth Century," 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, April 9 to May 7. The class will discuss the rise and fall of communism as a system of belief, government, economics, and a cultural and value system. Instructors: Steven Levine, the associate chair of the UNC department of international studies; and Jonathan Weiler, adjunct assistant professor in the UNC Center for Slavic, Eurasian and East European Studies.
  
  
• "Dynamic Mathematics in the Modern World," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Thursdays, April 10 to May 1. Cryptography, national security, and modeling of atmospheres and oceans are among the topics to be discussed. Instructors: Drs. Karl Peterson, Sue Goodman, Tom Brylawshi and Rick McLaughlin, all faculty members in the UNC department of mathematics.
  
  
• "Hog Farms, Tobacco, and Wal-Mart: North Carolina’s Economy," 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays, April 23 to May 14. Hog farms, the Carolina Panthers, tobacco, Wal-Mart and traffic jams on Interstate 40 are all part of the N.C. economy, and their impact will be discussed. Instructor: Dr. Patrick Conway, economics professor at UNC.
  

For more information, call (919) 962-2643 or (800) 845-2640, e-mail mmorriso@email.unc.edu or click on www.fridaycenter.unc.edu/cni/ccs.htm.

- 30 -

(Withers is a senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication from Reidsville.)

Friday Center contact: Mary Morrison, (919) 843-4483 or mmorriso@email.unc.edu