Registration and Fees:

Fee is $45 for each course selected.

Please go to the HILL website to register. Registration will be open on or about February 10.  Please register no later than March 12. Messages with questions about HILL courses that do NOT relate to Zoom should be left at (518) 368-7029 and a volunteer will call you back. For more information or to register, visit the HILL website (www.hillclasses.org).

MONDAYS A.M.

East Asian Civilization

Starts: Monday, March 17

Time: 10 a.m.-12 p.m.

Place: Delmar Reformed Church

INSTRUCTOR: Jenny Huangfu Day, Associate Professor of History, Skidmore College

This course explores the history of East Asia – China, Japan, and Korea – from antiquity to the 1300s. Topics include the formation of Confucianism as a state ideology, the evolution of social and political institutions, ideas and practices related to gender, family and sexuality, religion and beliefs of elites and ordinary people, and the intercultural exchanges and conflict across the region.

The first two sessions will introduce the emergence of central states and the early empires of China, including the introduction of Buddhism from the Silk Road and its integration into court culture and everyday life. Sessions three and four shift to the early cultures and state formation in the Korean peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, as well as their interactions with continental China. The last two sessions address all three regions in the late medieval and early modern period, including the formation of the Mongol confederacy, its invasion of sedentary powers, and the cultural diversity and survival strategies of the conquered populations during the Mongol occupation.

Throughout this course, we will engage with diverse sources, including philosophical texts, imperial edicts and government documents, paintings and calligraphy, ethnographic accounts, and novels and essays written by men and women across East Asia.

Class meets March 17, 24, 31, April 7, 21, 28

MONDAYS P.M.

In a Silent Way: The Music of Miles Davis

Starts: Monday, March 17

Time: 1:30 p.m-3:30p.m.

Place: Delmar Reformed Church and on Zoom (Zoom delivery dependent on properly functioning equipment)

INSTRUCTOR: Seton Hawkins, Director of Public Programs at Jazz at Lincoln Center

Over six weeks, Seton Hawkins will explore the multi-decade career of one of music’s most remarkable innovators: Miles Davis. A titan of Jazz whose career spanned multiple styles of music, a fearless performer who perpetually reinvented his style and sound, and an icon of cool in popular culture, Miles Davis has fascinated, inspired, and occasionally baffled the world of Jazz since first bursting onto the scene in the 1940s. We will delve into the many aspects of this icon.

Class meets March 17, 24, 31, April 7, 21, 28

TUESDAYS P.M.

The Life and Work of Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women

Starts: Tuesday, March 18

Time: 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Place: Delmar Reformed Church

INSTRUCTOR: Billie Franchini, Director of Institute for Teaching, Learning, & Academic Leadership (ITLAL), UAlbany

This course will offer a deep dive into Louisa May Alcott’s best-known and much beloved novel, Little Women. We will consider how Alcott drew from her own experiences, reimagined her own family, and spoke to the hopes and anxieties of post-Civil War America in that novel and its sequels, Little Men and Jo’s Boys. We will also learn more about the woman behind the novel, uncovering a fascinating life and varied literary career that offers insight into the development of American literature, culture, and womanhood. In addition to Little Women, we will consider some of Alcott’s lesser known but equally compelling works, including the collection of autobiographical stories Hospital Sketches, adult novels Moods and Work, and sensation stories including “Pauline’s Passion and Punishment” and “Behind a Mask.” Participants do not need to read any of Alcott’s work to fully engage in the course but are encouraged to read any titles of interest, especially Little Women.

Class meets March 18, 25, April 1, 8, 15, 22

WEDNESDAYS P.M.

Inequality in America

Starts: Wednesday, March 19

Time: 1:30 p.m.-3:30 p.m.

Place: Delmar Reformed Church and on Zoom (Zoom delivery dependent on properly functioning equipment.)

INSTRUCTOR: Robert Turner, Associate Professor of Political Science, Skidmore College

Americans are now living in what has been called a “second gilded age,” with higher levels of economic inequality than at any time in the past hundred years. While Americans claim to cherish political equality and democratically responsive government, the United States currently has the highest level of income inequality in the industrial world. This course will explore different aspects of inequality and address such questions as:

1. How should we think about and measure inequality: income, wealth, poverty, mobility, or opportunity? How do liberals and conservatives think differently about these questions and where do they overlap?

2. The voices of American citizens are raised and heard unequally. How significant are the disparities in political behavior- voting, news consumption, campaign contributions, and interest groups- and how do they explain the persistence of economic inequality?

3. What does the white working class want and why does it seem to hate government so much? Since the election of Donald Trump in 2016, scholars have offered a range of competing explanations in works such as Hillbilly Elegy.

4. How did the New Deal and federal housing policy create and perpetuate inequality in America? How do we see these dynamics in the Capital District?

5. How do health care and policing create and maintain economic and political inequality?

Class meets March 19, 26, April 2, 9, 16, 23