Massachusetts College of Art and Design | Continuing Education | Summer 2008 Courses

DESCRIPTION
This course explores the sources of culture through a survey of some of the literary masterpieces, from the ancient world to the 19th century. Readings include Gilgamesh, Genesis, The Iliad, Poems of Sappho, Monkey and Hamlet.

INSTRUCTOR
Joshua Cohen holds a BA from Haverford College, and an MA and PhD from Boston University. He is Professor of English at MassArt. He has been published in the Classic Record Collector.

DESCRIPTION
Of course, we will be rounding up the usual suspects: the appalling and tragic monster and his equally appalling and tragic creator, the charismatic vampire and his bevy of vamps; a commonplace fellow who wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant insect. But, more broadly, we will examine the idea of the monstrous, the shadow side of human nature and human experience that we refuse to acknowledge as our own. In addition to physical monsters, we will encounter monstrous actions (incest, murder, cannibalism), monstrous thoughts, and monstrous transformations of the soul. Our syllabus includes: "Frankenstein", Dracula, Kafka’s "Metamorphosis", John Ford’s "Tis Pity She’s A Whore", and John Gardner’s "Grendel".

INSTRUCTOR
Joshua Cohen holds a BA from Haverford College, and an MA and PhD from Boston University. He is Professor of English at MassArt. He has been published in the Classic Record Collector.

DESCRIPTION
In recent years, graphic novels (long narratives in comic book form, combining words and images) have risen from the ranks of purely popular literature to a narrative form deemed worthy of review in The New York Times Book Review and studied in college courses. The case of the graphic novel as an example of progressive integration of so-called "serious" and "popular" forms of art is only one point of interest. The graphic novel can also be studied as a direct descendent of perhaps the oldest form of non-verbal narrative, a form going back to cave paintings as picture-story. The course traces the evolution of the graphic novel from its primitive origins through its historical stages of development into the twentieth century and the conjunction of word and image in the comic strip. As a primary textbook, we will be using Scott McCloud’s "Understanding Comics".

INSTRUCTOR
Joshua Cohen holds a BA from Haverford College, and an MA and PhD from Boston University. He is Professor of English at MassArt. He has been published in the Classic Record Collector.

DESCRIPTION
Using texts ranging from the Bible and Homer’s epics to contemporary literary works, this course introduces mythological approaches to such subjects as heroism, place, time, family, and human nature.

INSTRUCTOR
Elaine Mawhinney Professor Emerita of English, Dance, and Creative Arts at Northern Essex Community College. She has designed and presented online courses since 2004 in Western Literature and Exploring the Arts. She received an AB from Emmanuel College, MA from Northeastern University and MM in Music from the University of Massachusetts. In 2007, her online course, Western Literature II, was awarded Online Course of the Year (Mass Colleges Online).

DESCRIPTION
When artists launch a joint project, what ideas are buffed-up or cut-down between visual, literary, and musical media? Three award-winning movies on outcasts and love showcase collaborative strategies. West Side Story (Wise/Robbins), its screenplay, and musical recording (Bernstein) scrawl out visual, kinetic, and cultural street dynamics. The triple plot movie, The Hours (Rudin/Fox; Hare) re-threads multiple sites of consciousness from Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway. Blade Runner (Scott) exchanges ideas with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Dick). Each film assimilates outcast identity from narratives into popularized movie culture. Creative interests in stories, cinematography, set/lighting design, casting, dancing, and musical-scoring will find a free-ranging imaginative space here.

INSTRUCTOR
Kristen Corman’s research explores how bodily, perceptual experience grounds creative thinking. Awarded the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for doctoral research on cognition and metaphoric imagery in fiction, her interdisciplinary work focuses on kinetics, embodied metaphor, and cross-modal vision and touch. These interests spring from a professional career as principal dancer in both neo-classic and modern dancecompanies. She has also trained dancers. In her academic posts, she integrates performing and liberal arts. She holds a BA from Trinity College, and a PhD in English from Boston College.

DESCRIPTION
How filmmakers achieve meaning using the expressive elements of film is the theme of this course. How to watch a well-made movie is the counterpoint. There are weekly assignments requiring students to read a film textbook, view brief essays and quizzes, and participate in on-line class discussions and chats with the professor and other students on the class website.This course introduces students to the fundamental building blocks of film art, including camera, lighting, composition, editing, acting, and script. In addition to access to the internet, students need access to a DVD player.

INSTRUCTOR
Robert Gerst is Professor of Literature and Film at MassArt. He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University, an MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD from State University of New York at Buffalo. His current areas of scholarly interest include 20th century American and European film and psychoanalytic approaches to literature and film.

DESCRIPTION
We will explore the writing of serious, artful poems. Class meetings include individual discussion of students’ work.

INSTRUCTOR
Ted Richer holds a BA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Writing honors include: Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Fellowship in Creative Writing, University of Iowa; Finalist, Playwriting, Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation. He is author of The Writer in the Story and Other Figurations.

DESCRIPTION
As an introduction to essay writing, this course will require six to eight writing assignments, concentrating on the expository and critical essay, as well as writing in the rhetorical modes and a research paper. Students will also read, discuss and write about outstanding pieces of prose, poetry, fiction, and a film.

INSTRUCTOR
Sara-Anne Beaulieu is a graduate of Roger Williams University (BFA, Creative Writing) and New England College (MFA, Poetry) and is currently adjunct faculty at MassArt and Fisher College, where she teaches rhetoric. Beaulieu is the former Program Director of Literature and Poetry for Mad Poets Cafe, a monthly poetry night that was held at the Warwick Museum of Art and hosted by Boston poet Harris Gardner. While with Mad Poets Cafe, Beaulieu worked with poets such as Don Share, Forest Gander, and Franz Wright.Beaulieu has completed a manuscript and has publications by The New York Writer Coalition (Plum Biscuit) Tattooed Highway, My Favorite Bullet, and is published in the anthology In Our Own Words.

DESCRIPTION
This course is for both aspiring writers in general, and those who want to write specifically for children. Through lectures, discussions, writing assignments and individual student projects, novice writers enter the world of children’s literature. More advanced writers or poets will have an opportunity to expand their writing skills in this exciting new genre, or continue a project they have started. In addition, the questions of author- publisher-agent relationship, publicity, royalty, and the current market will also be explored.

INSTRUCTOR
Leon Steinmetz is an author, illustrator, and painter who holds a Diploma from the Moscow Academy of Art. He has been awarded First Prize, Biennalle of European Artists and Sculptors, Latina, Italy, and CRRT Book Award for children’s book Hans Clodhopper. His children’s books have been published by major publishers in the U.S. and England.

DESCRIPTION
When did "globalization" start and what have been its driving forces? What are the historical origins of the environmental movement? How does the electoral college actually work? This is a survey course on American society, culture, and politics, with a special emphasis on "the history you never learned in school." While the course fulfills social science requirements, it deals with topics, readings, and films that should be of special interest to those who work in the creative fields (artists, humanists, and scientists), as well as anyone who seeks an informed understanding of the contemporary world and the history that has made it.

INSTRUCTOR
Michael Pak is a historian and is Adjunct Professor in Critical Studies at MassArt He earned his BA from UC Berkley and PhD from Harvard University where he is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of History.

DESCRIPTION
This course introduces students to major civilizations and cultural traditions around the world. It surveys civilizations that have existed in the Middle East, India, Far East, Europe, Africa, and America before the arrival of Europeans. The course focuses particularly on various belief systems—philosophy, religion, and spiritual traditions—that emerged from various civilizations and shaped their course of development. Included in this survey are Islam and Sufism, Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, African and Native-American spiritual traditions, and some of the forgotten philosophical traditions of the West. We will bring our survey up to date by reviewing the implications of globalization for the survival of traditional civilizations and cultural diversity.

INSTRUCTOR
Michael Pak is a historian and is Adjunct Professor in Critical Studies at MassArt He earned his BA from UC Berkley and PhD from Harvard University where he is currently a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of History.

DESCRIPTION
Think of this as a tapestry, a flying carpet: multicolored, moving through territories light and dark. We’ll read neuroscience and fiction; see films and paintings. We’ll go easy on hard science and deep into art. We’ll explore the construction of memory; recovered memory; false memory. Is memory ever true? What is the relation between memory and identity? We’ll study dream theory and dream interpretation and investigate the making of art out of dream and memory. Readings include: Sacks, Jung, Plath, Borges, Kafka. Viewings: Portions of Memento, Vertigo; deChirico, Magritte.

INSTRUCTOR
Harriet Rosenstein is a psychotherapist, teacher and writer. She holds a BS from Northwestern University, MA and PhD from Brandeis University, and MSW from Boston University. She has taught at Simmons College, Tufts University, and MIT.

DESCRIPTION
This class is a survey of the different cultures in the Pacific Islands, including New Guinea (where your instructor conducts research), Hawaii, and Samoa. We are interested in studying how Pacific Islanders today try to create meaningful lives amid the massive changes since contact with Europeans changes that include global capitalism, cash economy, tourism, Christianity, alcohol, literacy, US nuclear bomb testing, coffee, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement (whereby some native Hawaiians seek independence from the United States), and the very definition of what it is to be a person. We will also get a sense for traditional social life in these societies. Students will read articles and several books, and write essays that include a book review.

INSTRUCTOR
Eric Silverman is a cultural anthropologist at Wheelock College with several years experience studying art, culture, and tourism in a Papua New Guinean village. He has written several books, and many articles and book chapters.

DESCRIPTION
Using DVD’s, slides, lectures and discussion, this course takes a broad overview of Latin American history, beginning with the Reconquest of Spain and the attitudes toward race, religion and gender that the Spaniards brought with them to the New World. We take a look at the pre-Columbian civilizations in place before continuing with the conquest of Mexico and Peru, the colonial period, and the revolutions of the early 19th century in Mexico, Central America the Caribbean and Latin America. We follow the adventures of Pancho Villa in the early 20th century. With this historical context clearly in mind, we study the art and architecture of native and colonial artists, then José Guadalupe Posada, the engraver whose work helped to popularize the Day of the Dead, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero and Miguel Antonio Bravo. The literature portion covers writings of the conquerors and the conquered in the early 16th century, the writings of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the brilliant Mexican nun, colonial and revolutionary poetry from Spanish-speaking countries. We will sing revolutionary songs. The works of Gabriel García-Márquez , his use of magical realism, the novels of Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa will be read and discussed. Parts of the movies Love in the Time of Cholera, (based on the novel of García-Márquez) and Laura Esquivel’s novel of love and cooking, Like Water for Chocolate will be shown and compared with the novels.

INSTRUCTOR
Carol McCarthy received her ALM in Spanish Language and Literature from Harvard University in June 2007, with an award-winnding thesis on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Frida Kahlo, two Mexican feminists. She currently teaches Spanish and French at Hellenic College, and does FDA-mandated reviews of clinical drug trials as an attorney. Carol taught Advanced Placement Spanish and Honors French at the Boston Latin School for 20 years, travelling to Mexico, Spain, and Central and South America with her students. She also volunteers as a poverty lawyer at Greater Boston Legal Services.

DESCRIPTION
Over the last fifty years, an economic and social model known as neoliberal capitalism -- emphasizing market deregulation, ’free trade’, fiscal austerity, and privatization -- has swept across most of the world. This course will critically examine "corporate globalization" (as the international spread of neoliberalism is often called) and its impacts on economic development, inequality, and social conditions in the developing world. Special attention will be paid to emerging challenges to neoliberal hegemony, including alternative political and development models under construction in India and Venezuela, and the growth of transnational social movements. The course will be of interest to students interested in the nature of power and contestation in international politics and the challenges of building more inclusive and humane societies in today’s world.

INSTRUCTOR
Jake Hess has a BA in International Affairs from Suffolk University and an MA in History of Developing Countries from Brown University. He has written extensively on international politics and US foreign policy and has conducted field research in Tanzania (east Africa) and Northern Ireland.

DESCRIPTION
In recent years, graphic novels (long narratives in comic book form, combining words and images) have risen from the ranks of purely popular literature to a narrative form deemed worthy of review in The New York Times Book Review and studied in college courses. The case of the graphic novel as an example of progressive integration of so-called "serious" and "popular" forms of art is only one point of interest. The graphic novel can also be studied as a direct descendent of perhaps the oldest form of non-verbal narrative, a form going back to cave paintings as picture-story. The course traces the evolution of the graphic novel from its primitive origins through its historical stages of development into the twentieth century and the conjunction of word and image in the comic strip. As a primary textbook, we will be using Scott McCloud’s "Understanding Comics".

INSTRUCTOR
Joshua Cohen holds a BA from Haverford College, and an MA and PhD from Boston University. He is Professor of English at MassArt. He has been published in the Classic Record Collector.

DESCRIPTION
Using texts ranging from the Bible and Homer’s epics to contemporary literary works, this course introduces mythological approaches to such subjects as heroism, place, time, family, and human nature.

INSTRUCTOR
Elaine Mawhinney Professor Emerita of English, Dance, and Creative Arts at Northern Essex Community College. She has designed and presented online courses since 2004 in Western Literature and Exploring the Arts. She received an AB from Emmanuel College, MA from Northeastern University and MM in Music from the University of Massachusetts. In 2007, her online course, Western Literature II, was awarded Online Course of the Year (Mass Colleges Online).

DESCRIPTION
When artists launch a joint project, what ideas are buffed-up or cut-down between visual, literary, and musical media? Three award-winning movies on outcasts and love showcase collaborative strategies. West Side Story (Wise/Robbins), its screenplay, and musical recording (Bernstein) scrawl out visual, kinetic, and cultural street dynamics. The triple plot movie, The Hours (Rudin/Fox; Hare) re-threads multiple sites of consciousness from Woolf’s novel, Mrs. Dalloway. Blade Runner (Scott) exchanges ideas with Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep (Dick). Each film assimilates outcast identity from narratives into popularized movie culture. Creative interests in stories, cinematography, set/lighting design, casting, dancing, and musical-scoring will find a free-ranging imaginative space here.

INSTRUCTOR
Kristen Corman’s research explores how bodily, perceptual experience grounds creative thinking. Awarded the Jacob K. Javits Fellowship for doctoral research on cognition and metaphoric imagery in fiction, her interdisciplinary work focuses on kinetics, embodied metaphor, and cross-modal vision and touch. These interests spring from a professional career as principal dancer in both neo-classic and modern dancecompanies. She has also trained dancers. In her academic posts, she integrates performing and liberal arts. She holds a BA from Trinity College, and a PhD in English from Boston College.

DESCRIPTION
We will explore the writing of serious, artful poems. Class meetings include individual discussion of students’ work.

INSTRUCTOR
Ted Richer holds a BA from the University of Minnesota and an MFA from the University of Iowa, Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Writing honors include: Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Fellowship in Creative Writing, University of Iowa; Finalist, Playwriting, Massachusetts Arts and Humanities Foundation. He is author of The Writer in the Story and Other Figurations.

DESCRIPTION
This course is for both aspiring writers in general, and those who want to write specifically for children. Through lectures, discussions, writing assignments and individual student projects, novice writers enter the world of children’s literature. More advanced writers or poets will have an opportunity to expand their writing skills in this exciting new genre, or continue a project they have started. In addition, the questions of author- publisher-agent relationship, publicity, royalty, and the current market will also be explored.

INSTRUCTOR
Leon Steinmetz is an author, illustrator, and painter who holds a Diploma from the Moscow Academy of Art. He has been awarded First Prize, Biennalle of European Artists and Sculptors, Latina, Italy, and CRRT Book Award for children’s book Hans Clodhopper. His children’s books have been published by major publishers in the U.S. and England.

DESCRIPTION
Think of this as a tapestry, a flying carpet: multicolored, moving through territories light and dark. We’ll read neuroscience and fiction; see films and paintings. We’ll go easy on hard science and deep into art. We’ll explore the construction of memory; recovered memory; false memory. Is memory ever true? What is the relation between memory and identity? We’ll study dream theory and dream interpretation and investigate the making of art out of dream and memory. Readings include: Sacks, Jung, Plath, Borges, Kafka. Viewings: Portions of Memento, Vertigo; deChirico, Magritte.

INSTRUCTOR
Harriet Rosenstein is a psychotherapist, teacher and writer. She holds a BS from Northwestern University, MA and PhD from Brandeis University, and MSW from Boston University. She has taught at Simmons College, Tufts University, and MIT.

DESCRIPTION
Using DVD’s, slides, lectures and discussion, this course takes a broad overview of Latin American history, beginning with the Reconquest of Spain and the attitudes toward race, religion and gender that the Spaniards brought with them to the New World. We take a look at the pre-Columbian civilizations in place before continuing with the conquest of Mexico and Peru, the colonial period, and the revolutions of the early 19th century in Mexico, Central America the Caribbean and Latin America. We follow the adventures of Pancho Villa in the early 20th century. With this historical context clearly in mind, we study the art and architecture of native and colonial artists, then José Guadalupe Posada, the engraver whose work helped to popularize the Day of the Dead, Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo, Fernando Botero and Miguel Antonio Bravo. The literature portion covers writings of the conquerors and the conquered in the early 16th century, the writings of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the brilliant Mexican nun, colonial and revolutionary poetry from Spanish-speaking countries. We will sing revolutionary songs. The works of Gabriel García-Márquez , his use of magical realism, the novels of Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa will be read and discussed. Parts of the movies Love in the Time of Cholera, (based on the novel of García-Márquez) and Laura Esquivel’s novel of love and cooking, Like Water for Chocolate will be shown and compared with the novels.

INSTRUCTOR
Carol McCarthy received her ALM in Spanish Language and Literature from Harvard University in June 2007, with an award-winnding thesis on Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz and Frida Kahlo, two Mexican feminists. She currently teaches Spanish and French at Hellenic College, and does FDA-mandated reviews of clinical drug trials as an attorney. Carol taught Advanced Placement Spanish and Honors French at the Boston Latin School for 20 years, travelling to Mexico, Spain, and Central and South America with her students. She also volunteers as a poverty lawyer at Greater Boston Legal Services.