Reading Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms

Register Now for Reading Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms

Price: $60
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Location: To be determined
Instructor(s): Mark Cirino, PhD

We will read Ernest Hemingway’s great war novel, A Farewell to Arms (1929), over the course of five classes. We will read it for the power of the prose, the profundity of its ideas, its investigation into character, its historical scope, and its meditation about love. We will also discuss how this novel demonstrates Hemingway’s writing style and his techniques for making this narrative so timeless. It is also likely that we might extend our discussion to consider how artists transmute their personal lives into their work. We will also observe the contemporary relevance of this 96-year-old novel, and how Hemingway’s notions about war and government and leadership might apply to our current moment.

Knowledge of Hemingway (or World War I or American literature) is completely unnecessary. If you are curious, that will be sufficient. Even slow readers should not feel intimidated: by reading this novel over five weeks, there will be an average reading load of only fifty pages per week. I will also provide reading questions in advance of each class to focus your reading and our class discussion.

Although any edition of A Farewell to Arms is acceptable, Dr. Cirino recommends the inexpensive paperback to be published by the Norton Library in June 2025 (which he edited, introduced, and annotated). [ISBN: 978-1-324-05942-4]

Materials/readings: A Farewell to Arms, by Ernest Hemingway (Norton Library)

Dr. Mark Cirino received his PhD at the Graduate Center-CUNY. Of his eight books about American literature as writer or editor, his most recent is One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art (2022), with Michael Von Cannon. He serves as the General Editor for Kent State University Press's “Reading Hemingway” series, for which he wrote the volume on Across the River and into the Trees (2016) and co-edited Reading Winner Take Nothing (2021) with former UE student Susan Vandagriff. He has edited an edition of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (Norton, forthcoming in May 2025), which he hopes to develop into his next CLUE offering. Dr. Cirino also hosts the popular Hemingway Society-sponsored podcast, One True Podcast.

The Witches

Course Full

Time: 9:00 a.m.
Location: Room 203, University Library
Instructor(s): Danielle Williams

In 1692, fourteen women, five men, and two dogs were killed for witchcraft. The hysteria that gripped the Massachusetts Bay Colony continues to grip the imagination of the United States. Why were 19 people killed? Why does the terminology continue to be bandied about? What can we learn from the witch trials and how can we avoid falling to the hysteria again?

Materials/readings: The Witches by Stacy Schiff, ISBN: 9780316200592

Danielle Williams has been a librarian at the University of Evansville for 24 years. She has taught many sections of FYS, Major Discovery, and CLUE classes. She has a fascination with history and women’s issues.

The Age of the French Revolution & Napoleon

Course Full

Time: 11:00 a.m.
Location: Room 203, University Library
Instructor(s): Casey Harison, PhD

This course examines the origins and progress of the French Revolution and era of Napoleon Bonaparte, ca. 1789-1815. Many assessments of Western and World history consider the French Revolution to signify the start of the modern era of human history. The Revolution was intensely politicized and so, predictably, is its history. Even today, one might judge the political persuasion of a French or European person by his/her feelings on the Revolution. Napoleon overturned many (not all) of the accomplishments of the Revolution as he transformed France from a republic to an empire that stretched from England to Russia. This was a remarkable era of politicization, war and cultural change; of fascinating personalities and enduring principles—like human rights—that are still with us today.

Materials/readings:

• The French Revolution: A Very Short Introduction by William Doyle (Oxford University Press, 2020) — required
• Napoleon: A Very Short Introduction by David A. Bell (Oxford University Press, 2018) — required

Dr. Casey Harison has a PhD in history from the University of Iowa (1993) and taught in the history department at the University of Southern Indiana from 1992 to 2022, before retiring as a full professor. He has published books and articles in French and Atlantic history and have taught a variety of courses in modern (seventeenth century and later) European and World History, including courses on the topic of this proposed class. He previously taught a Fall 2024 CLUE class. His scholarship, along with a link to full CV, can be found at Academia.edu.

Bird Lovers

Course Full

Time: 2:00 p.m.
Location: Room 100, Koch Center
Instructor(s): Sharon Sorenson

The Bird Lovers' Class is intended to increase enthusiasm for birds and birding by aiding class members in identifying, locating, attracting, and appreciating birds. The class will help members learn to:

• Identify bird species by focusing not on color but on silhouette and key unique body parts—head, beak, feet, wings, tail
• Use birding resources, both print and apps, to track down identities, compare similar species, determine seasonal ranges and migratory routes, and learn birds' songs
• Identify habitat attractive to various bird species in order to find exciting birds, recognizing what lives in grasslands, wetlands, woodlands, and edges where habitats merge
• Recognize particulars of bird habitat that provides food, shelter, water, and nest sites and nest materials, and apply those particulars to both locating and attracting birds
• Describe select bird behaviors--what birds do, why and when, including especially, migrating, breeding, and molting
• Improve conditions to make the yard bird friendly, especially with year-round water sources and native plants, whether in pots on the patio or in ground

Materials/items:

• Beginning with the first session, class members should have loaded on their cell phones the app called "Sibley Birds, 2nd edition," available for both Android and iPhone from your app store. Price is $19.99. We will use it at most class sessions, exploring its many capabilities.

Sharon Sorenson has been a passionate birder since an early age and has gardened for birds for over 35 years. She's authored 23 books, including Planting Native to Attract Birds to Your Yard and a broader reference Birds in the Yard Month by Month. Her newest book, How Birds Behave, shares a year-long record of what she saw (and photographed) birds doing in the yard with explanations of why they were doing so. Recipient of the prestigious Earl Brooks Award for the Advancement of Conservation of Natural Resources in Indiana, Sorenson wrote a biweekly "For the Birds" newspaper column for 23 years, presents regular birding and bird habitat lectures, and for 15 years has taught a popular monthly birding class for the public. She posts regularly about birds, bird habitat, and native plants on Facebook at SharonSorensonBirdLady.

Reading Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night

Course Full

Time: 9:00 a.m.
Location: Room 203, University Library
Instructor(s): Mark Cirino, PhD

We will read Shakespeare’s delightful yet problematic play over the course of five classes – one act per class – and discuss the play’s unforgettable language and characters, the rich situations, and the challenging themes Shakespeare introduces to this comedy. In addition to guided discussion and close reading, we will also consider moments from various cinematic adaptations of the play. Our goal is to make the play accessible to non-specialists and increase everybody’s appreciation of Shakespeare’s genius.

As with our previous Shakespeare classes, this class is designed for those who might have had previous frustration with Shakespeare, or who might even be intimidated by the very name “Shakespeare.” Whether you have read this play long ago, or never even heard of it at all, this course aspires to be valuable and enjoyable and aims for you to become more comfortable reading Shakespeare’s sublime work.

Any edition ofTwelfth Night is acceptable. Dr. Cirino recommends an inexpensive paperback copy with accompanying notes, such as the Folger Shakespeare Library or Signet Classics. He will be using the Pelican Shakespeare edition from Penguin [ISBN 978-0140-714890].

Materials/readings: Twelfth Night, William Shakespeare (any edition)

Dr. Mark Cirino received his PhD at the Graduate Center-CUNY. Of his eight books about American literature as writer or editor, his most recent is One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art (2022), with Michael Von Cannon. He serves as the General Editor for Kent State University Press's “Reading Hemingway” series, for which he wrote the volume on Across the River and into the Trees (2016) and co-edited Reading Winner Take Nothing (2021) with former UE student Susan Vandagriff. He has edited an edition of Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms (Norton, forthcoming in May 2025), which he hopes to develop into his next CLUE offering. Dr. Cirino also hosts the popular Hemingway Society-sponsored podcast, One True Podcast.

Gender Studies 101: Is Gender a Piece of Cake?

Course Full

Time: 11:00 a.m.
Location: Room 203, University Library
Instructor(s): Sara Petrosillo, PhD

This title, taken from the course textbook’s first chapter, is a play on the rise of “Gender Reveal Parties” and the ease or unease people feel surrounding discussions of gender. Is gender an easy thing to talk about? Not always, and that’s okay. This class will work through such questions as: What is the difference between biological sex and gender identity? What is the history of pronoun usage and how do pronouns relate to identity? What about non-binary and transgender identities—how long have they been around? We will read Kathryn Bond Stockton’s book Gender(s) and some supplementary texts to survey the history of gender from early European and pre-western American peoples to today.

Materials/readings: Gender(s) by Kathryn Bond Stockton, the MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series, 2021, ISBN: 978-0-262-54260-9

Dr. Sara Petrosillo received her BA in English and Italian Literature from Colby College, and her PhD in English from the University of California, Davis. Her scholarship focuses on medieval literature and feminism and her first book is about the cultural influence of falconry on medieval reading practices, Hawking Women: Falconry, Gender, and Control in Medieval Literary Culture (2023). She is currently working on a book about medieval transgender stories and a book about the language of women’s reproductive health. She teaches British Literature, World Classics, Renaissance, the Romantics, and medieval literature. She also directs and teaches classes in the Gender, Women’s, and Sexuality Studies program. She received UE’s Exemplary Teacher Award in 2021.

Evil and the Human Condition

Course Full

Time: 1:00 p.m.
Location: Room 203, University Library
Instructor(s): Terry Cooper, PhD

This interdisciplinary course examines one of the most complex and difficult issues to explore in theology philosophy, religious studies, and psychology – the dynamics and nature of evil. This course explores various definitions of evil as it investigates what has often been identified as “natural” and “moral” evil. It raises the knotty problem of theodicy, or how an all-loving and all-powerful God can allow such enormous cruelty to occur in our lives. It also raises the question of how human beings can do such inhumane and cruel things to each other. The course knowingly “bites off more than it can chew” as it acknowledges that wrestling with this issue of the darker dimensions of life - even when we may not find a satisfactory, final answer - is an important part of what it means to be human.

Materials/readings: Evil: Satan, Sin, and Psychology by Terry D. Cooper and Cindy K. Epperson, September 2, 2008 — required

Dr. Terry D. Cooper is a psychotherapist and psychoanalyst, and holds three earned doctorates from Vanderbilt University, St. Louis University, and the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles. The author of eleven books and two dozen articles in professional journals, Dr. Cooper has won several teaching awards. He has made the major focus of his academic and clinical life the bridging of mental health concepts with key themes in the Judeo-Christian tradition. He has conducted nearly 500 programs in various churches in the St. Louis area, as well as being the keynote speaker for national and regional groups interested in the themes of spiritual growth and development. Dr. Cooper’s book, Religious Thought and Modern Psychologies (2004), co-authored with University of Chicago Professor Don Browning, won a Templeton Award as one of the 200 most significant dialogues between religion and the social sciences. He has also appeared in two national televised documentaries on the psychology of evil.

Painting with the Masters: Gustav Klimt

Course Full

Date: Feb 12, 19, 26 and Mar 5
Time: 1:00-3:00 p.m.
Location: Room 122, Koch Center for Engineering and Science
Instructor(s): Michelle Peterlin

This class will begin with an art history lesson on Gustav Klimt. We will study his technique and break it down step by step. We will discuss the impact of WWII on his patrons and models. We will work on one painting for the entire session.

Materials: Acrylic paint, 8x10 or 10x12 canvas, palette, brushes

Michelle Vezina Peterlin is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where she studied under legendary painters John Grillo and Leonard Gongora and received a degree in painting. She was born and raised in Gardner, Massachusetts. Currently, she resides with her husband in Evansville, Indiana. She has been a professional artist for over 30 years and currently exhibits her work throughout the United States.