Spring 2025 Courses Begin Monday, March 17th
HILL will be offering four six-week courses during the Spring 2025 term. All courses will be offered in-person at the Delmar Reformed Church located at 386 Delaware Avenue, Delmar. The Monday-Miles Davis and Wednesday Inequality courses will also be offered via Zoom. Registration for these two hybrid courses includes access to both formats.
Please note: While we do our best to provide Zoom delivery, that delivery will be dependent on properly functioning equipment.
Registration Fee is $45 per course.
Please register no later than March 12th.
Spring 2025 Courses
Mondays A.M.
East Asian Civilization
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.
Available in-person only.
Class meets March 17, 24, 31, April 7, 21, 28*
*NOTE: There is no class on April 14th.
Time: 10am - 12pm
Mondays P.M.
In a Silent Way: The Music of Miles Davis
Instructor: Seton Hawkins, Director, Public Programming, 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.
Available in-person and on Zoom. Zoom delivery will be dependent on properly functioning equipment.
Class meets March 17, 24, 31, April 7, 21, 28*
*NOTE: There is no class on April 14th.
Time: 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Tuesdays, P.M.
The Life and Work of Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women
Instructor: Billlie Franchini, Director of Institute for Teaching, Learning, & Academic Leadership (ITLAL), University at Albany
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.
Available In-person only.
Class meets March 18, 25, April 1, 8, 15, 22
Time: 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Wednesdays, P.M.
Inequality in America
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?
Available in-person and on Zoom. Zoom delivery will be dependent on properly functioning equipment
Class meets March 19, 26, April 2, 9, 16, 23
Time: 1:30pm - 3:30pm
Registration and Fees
Registration is required for each individual in order to attend a course. There is a $45 fee for each course selected.
Use the following link to display the registration form and, once you have completed the form, be sure to click on submit:
Registration Form
After you submit the completed registration form you will immediately receive a confirmation email.
This email will contain information on the total amount due and how to make your payment. The email will also include a Zoom link for access to each hybrid course you selected. In addition, the email will contain a link to a materials folder for each course you have selected. Materials provided by the instructor will be placed in the respective materials folder once classes have begun.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Please store the confirmation email containing your links where it can be easily found at the start of classes. Clicking on the course links will give you Zoom access to the hybrid courses you have chosen.
Please register no later than March 12th.
Zoom
HILL will not be able to provide technical support but directs you, if needed, to Zoom endorsed sites such as support.zoom.us. Or you can type Zoom Help Center in your browser.
HILL Phone
For questions not related to Zoom, or if you have registered and not received a confirmation email, you may leave a message on the HILL phone: 518-368-7029. A volunteer will return your call.