Community Classroom Series:
Spring 2009
The William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education, described since its early days as the “citizen’s classroom,” offers the public a variety of short courses—the Community Classroom Series.
Each course costs $50 and meets weekly for two-hour sessions at the Friday Center, UNC-Chapel Hill's premier facility for continuing education. The Friday Center offers free parking, easy access, and comfortable classrooms. Class sizes are limited, so register early. To request a printed brochure, e-mail fridaycenter@unc.edu.
Courses
- Authentic Happiness — This class is full.
- Organic Gardening for the Southern Garden — This class is full.
- Write Your Life — This class is full.
- Retirement Planning Today™— This class is full.
- Lincoln, Douglass, Douglas, and Obama — This class is full.
- The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
- Applied Improv: Creativity and Communication
- Aesthetics: Beauty in Art and Nature
- What Makes the South Southern?
- Movie Musicals of the Golden Age
- The Secret, Fact or Fantasy
- Write Your Life: The Sequel — This class is full.
- The Basics (and More) of Digital Photography — This class is full.
Authentic Happiness
Both sections of this course are full. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please call us (800-845-8640 or 919-962-2643) or fill out the printable registration and mail or fax it to us.
- Wednesdays, 7-9 pm, March 11, 18, 25, April 1. Course #2534
- Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, April 14, 21, 28, May 5. Course #2547
Based on the most popular course ever taught at Harvard, this course investigates the question, “How can we help ourselves and others—individuals, communities, and society—become happier?” The course includes a review of recent experimental results in positive psychology that provide some answers to this question. It also examines how we can promote human flourishing. The main issue for most of us is: Just how good are we willing to have it? This course is presented in a workshop format, with frequent class participation and collaboration.
The course is taught by J. B. (Ben) O’Neal, formerly Distinguished Professor of communications and signal processing at NC State University and currently professor emeritus. O’Neal is a member of the Academy of Outstanding Teachers and recipient of the R. J. Reynolds Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Extension.
Organic Gardening for the Southern Garden
This course is full. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please call us (800-845-8640 or 919-962-2643) or fill out the printable registration and mail or fax it to us.
Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, March 17, 24, 31, April 7. Course #2535
This course will provide an overview of organic gardening techniques specifically tailored to our local soils and climate. We will discuss what organic and sustainable gardening is and consider the benefits of gardening this way. Participants will learn techniques to successfully grow vegetables, flowers, grasses, and other ornamentals in harmony with natural systems. Our focus will be on the characteristics and challenges unique to Southern gardens throughout the calendar year.
Ashley Mattison is co-owner of Fifth Season Gardening Company and an avid organic gardener. She has delivered numerous lectures on organic and sustainable gardening, and is a former English teacher.
Write Your Life
This course is full. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please call us (800-845-8640 or 919-962-2643) or fill out the printable registration and mail or fax it to us.
Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, March 17, 24, 31, April 7. Course #2536. Enrollment is limited to 20.
A famous writer once said, “Listen to your life; all moments are key moments.” In this fun and supportive—yet challenging—class, learn how to draw on the “material” of your life to write and revise whatever you wish to work on, including stories, memoirs, novels, poems, or plays. Working individually, in small groups, and one-on-one with the instructor, take your initial writing and develop and polish it so it is ready for publication. This class is guaranteed to inspire your creativity.
Instructor Richard Krawiec has published numerous books, one of which was nominated for a National Book Award. His young adult biography on Yao Ming was cited as one of the “40 Best” books of 2004 by the Pennsylvania Librarians Association. He has received Creative Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the NC Arts Council.
Retirement Planning Today™
Both sections of this course are full. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please call us (800-845-8640 or 919-962-2643) or fill out the printable registration and mail or fax it to us.
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Wednesdays, 7-9 pm, March 18, 25, April 1. Course #2537 — This class is full.
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Mondays, 7-9 pm, April 13, 20, 27. Course #2544 — This class is full.
This course combines essential life planning concepts with more traditional retirement planning strategies. The days of the “normal” retirement are over. Today’s retirees and those retiring in the next generation will face uncertainties and challenges never seen before. We will consider questions such as: How will inflation negatively affect your portfolio and financial goals? Will your pension or Social Security be there for the rest of your life? How will new tax laws impact your retirement income? Do you have a plan to cover the staggering cost of long-term care? Is your estate plan updated to take advantage of current estate tax laws? Are your assets allocated in a manner in which they will last through your life expectancy and support your lifestyle goals? Bring your questions to this exciting and eye-opening class.
James R. Miller is a Certified Financial Planner and member of the Financial Planning Association of the Triangle. In addition to managing a private wealth management practice in Chapel Hill, he has taught numerous courses such as this at local schools and universities over the years. Currently, he is the financial writer for Carolina Parent magazine. His specialties include retirement income planning, investment management techniques, and estate planning.
Lincoln, Douglass, Douglas, and Obama
This class is full.
Mondays, 7-9 pm, March 23, 30, April 13, 20. Course #2538. CEUs will be awarded.
The year 2009 is both the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln and the year when a US Senator from Illinois has become our first African-American president. An investigation of the sixteenth president’s association with his day’s unofficial president of black America, Frederick Douglass, as well as his famous rivalry with the presidential aspirant and another Illinois US Senator, Stephen A. Douglas, seems timely. Also topical and featured in this course is a commentary on the Lincoln/Obama comparisons made by the media.
Robert Porter has taught Afro-American Studies at UNC-Chapel Hill for two decades. He has won numerous teaching awards and is a veteran instructor for the Community Classroom Series.
The Films of Alfred Hitchcock
Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, March 24, 31, April 7, 14. Course #2539. CEUs will be awarded.
This course will explore the films of Alfred Hitchcock, a keen observer of the human psyche. We will examine his evolution from a British noirest to an American icon of movie-making by viewing and discussing film clips from a dozen or more of his movies.
Instructor Kimball King is professor emeritus of English and adjunct professor of dramatic art at UNC-Chapel Hill. King began and co-lectured one of the first film criticism courses in the United States in 1965. His books and articles have focused on American, British, and Irish dramatic art.
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Applied Improv: Creativity and Communication
Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, March 24, 31, April 7, 14. Course #2540. Enrollment is limited to 22.
Applied Improv uses the principles and techniques of improvisational theater to improve creativity and communication skills in non-theatrical settings. In a safe and playful environment, participants explore and develop their existing talents, overcoming barriers to dynamic communication and full engagement in the creative process. This is not a lecture series, but a laboratory in which students experiment with new skills and principles and are encouraged to expand their comfort zones. Business and other “real life” applications of course material are discussed.
An improvisational-theater professional for over twenty years, Greg Hohn has taught applied improv at UNC’s Kenan-Flagler Business School since 2000 and in Duke’s Theater Studies Department since 2008. He has also delivered applied improv programs for academic institutions, corporations, and organizations throughout the United States and internationally. He has taught improv to MFA candidates in UNC-Chapel Hill’s drama department and teaches artistic entrepreneurship at UNC-Chapel Hill. Greg has been a member of Transactors Improv since 1989 and has served as its director since 1996.
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Aesthetics: Beauty in Art and Nature
Wednesdays, 7-9 pm, March 25, April 1, 15, 22. Course #2541. CEUs will be awarded.
What is aesthetics? Why does aesthetic experience matter to us? How does it involve sensation, perception, feeling, emotion, taste, imagination, the intellect? What is the connection between art and aesthetics? Do we experience beauty differently in art than in nature? Does beauty exist out there at all, or only in the eye of the beholder? We will propose answers to such questions using illustrations from nature and the visual arts, with special attention to photography.
Robert Vance is an emeritus professor who taught philosophy for UNC-Chapel Hill for thirty-five years. Along the way he acquired an MFA in studio art. His sculptures and photographs have been exhibited widely and have received many awards. His writings focus on the intersection of art and philosophy.
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What Makes the South Southern?
Wednesdays, 7-9 pm, March 25, April 1, 15, 22. Course #2542. CEUs will be awarded.
What makes the South southern? Is it slavery, the Civil War, and segregation? Is it the accent, the heat, and the religion? Is it sweet tea, grits, and barbeque? Where does the South begin and end? These questions still make for heated discussions today even though many distinctive traits associated with the South have disappeared. Its life is no longer marked by the nation’s worst poverty or a rigid, cruel system of race relations. Yet some parts of “southern-ness” linger on in politics, food, music, and religion. We will explore these questions by examining the South’s unique history and culture as well as its transformation over time.
Instructor Annette Cox holds a doctorate in US history from UNC-Chapel Hill and recently completed The Carolina Story, an extensive online museum about the history of the Chapel Hill campus. She has also published a study of Chapel Hill’s Cornelia Phillips Spencer.
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Movie Musicals of the Golden Age
Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, March 31, April 7, 14, 21. Course #2543. CEUs will be awarded.
Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly: Hollywood studios fought tooth and nail for the greatest stars and to outdo the Broadway competition. Moving from the urbane wit of the Astaire-Rogers Shall We Dance (1937) to the zany but sublime parodies of Singin’ in the Rain (1952), touching on the war-time anxieties of Anchors Aweigh (1945) and the postwar reconstruction in Annie Get Your Gun (1950), we shall examine just how these great musicals work in terms of entertainment and, yes, even serious musical drama.
This course is taught by Tim Carter, David G. Frey Distinguished Professor of Music at UNC-Chapel Hill. He has published widely on the operas of Monteverdi and Mozart, and his latest book, Oklahoma!: The Making of an American Musical, was recently published by Yale University Press.
The Secret, Fact or Fantasy
Mondays, 7-9 pm, April 13, 20, 27, May 4. Course # 2545
This is a women’s discussion group on exploring the hugely popular philosophies of The Secret, manifesting your heart’s desire through intention and the law of attraction. We will take an in-depth look at what this new revelation is, both pro and con, and how it relates to our own lives and how we can make it work for us! We will consider new age authors such as Deepak Chopra, Esther and Jerry Hicks, Elizabeth Lesser, and Martha Beck.
Claudia Donovan-Burbage has touched her toe in many different waters. She has always let her dreams lead the way. She started out as a professional dancer in New York City, which led to owning her own theatre company. Then she was off to the business world as entrepreneur of a successful online design company. Feeling the desire to share what she has learned, Claudia has created and produced The Red Tent Seminars, which inspire and motivate other women to create their heart’s desire in the second half of their lives.
Write Your Life: The Sequel
This course is full. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please call us (800-845-8640 or 919-962-2643) or fill out the printable registration and mail or fax it to us.
Mondays, 7-9 pm, April 13, 20, 27, May 4. Course # 2546
This course is for people who have taken a previous session of Write Your Life, or who have taken at least one writing class, and wish to develop their memoir, novel, or stories for publication. Focus will be on technique and development of whatever it is you are working on. You do not need to have a finished manuscript, but you need to have an idea of what it is you want to write about, and at least ten pages of a draft. This class will be interactive and supportive, stimulating and fun.
Instructor Richard Krawiec has published numerous books, one of which was nominated for a National Book Award. His young adult biography on Yao Ming was cited as one of the “40 Best” books of 2004 by the Pennsylvania Librarians Association. He has received Creative Writing Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the NC Arts Council.
The Basics (and More) of Digital Photography
This course is full. If you would like to be placed on the waiting list, please call us (800-845-8640 or 919-962-2643) or fill out the printable registration and mail or fax it to us.
Tuesdays, 7-9 pm, April 14, 21, 28, May 5. Course #2548. Enrollment limited to 15.
This course introduces the principles and techniques of digital photography, including the types of settings available to you, how to compose for more interesting images, depth of field and composition, and lighting situations that can be challenging and how to properly set your camera to handle them. Participants should have their own digital camera with the ability to shoot in manual mode and a basic knowledge of how your camera works.
Meg Daniels holds a BFA in photojournalism from the Rochester Institute of Technology and an MS in adult and community college education from North Carolina State University. Currently, Meg is working as a full-time professional freelancer specializing in documentary photography and its role in adult meaning-making, portraiture, and stock photography. She also teaches at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro.
Registration
Registration is closed.
If you have special needs to accommodate a motor or sensory impairment, please indicate your needs on the registration form.
UNC-Chapel Hill uses an alternative to the Social Security number called the Personal ID (PID) to aid in keeping records for students and participants. If you do not have a PID, you will be required to enter your birthdate and gender so that we can assign you a PID. We appreciate your cooperation.
The University of North Carolina maintains a policy of equal educational opportunity.
Cancellation and Refunds
Full refunds will be given to registrants who cancel in writing one week prior to the first class meeting. No refunds will be made after that date. Substitutions are welcome.
Location
Courses are held at the Friday Center, which offers ample free parking. The Friday Center is located approximately three miles east of the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, just off Highway 54 East (Raleigh Road). The Center is a short distance from Interstate 40 (from Raleigh, I-40 exit 273A; from Greensboro, I-40 exit 273). See Directions to the Friday Center.