The Humanities Institute for Lifelong Learning (HILL) offers opportunities for adult education to residents of the Greater Capital District of New York. HILL provides six-week Fall and Spring semesters with courses taught by distinguished faculty from across the region.
Fall 2026 Courses Begin
Monday, October 5th
HILL will be offering three six-week courses during the Fall 2026 term. All courses will be offered in-person at the Delmar Reformed Church located at 386 Delaware Avenue, Delmar.
Please note: All three courses will be offered in-person only.
Registration Fee is $45 per course.
Please register no later than September 30th
Fall 2026 Courses
Mondays, P.M.
Alfred Hitchcock and the Construction of the Thriller
INSTRUCTOR: Jim de Seve, Senior Artist-in-Residence and Director of Film Studies, Union College.
“I enjoy playing the audience like a piano,” Hitchcock once remarked. The psychologically troubled director of over fifty films knew when he moved from silent film title card artist to director, he needed to learn what chords and notes would set his audiences on edge, while also delighting them. Hitch, as he was known, set about creating methodical rules of production that would earn him the title, Master of Suspense.
This course will explore Hitchcock’s cinematic evolution. Hitchcock named his theory of visual storytelling “pure cinema.” Film, he insisted, is constructed not only through dialogue or plot but by the precise arrangement of images. We will discuss the narrative and cinematic techniques Hitchcock used to build suspense and analyze the cinematic innovations he either originated or refined. Among the films we will examine are The 39 Steps (1935), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), and Psycho (1960).
The course will also consider the psychological dimensions of Hitchcock’s work, examining how recurring preoccupations with control, voyeurism, and culpability informed both his storytelling and his formal choices, as well as implicating his audience in a kind of shared perversion.
Available in-person only
Class meets October 5, 12, 19, 26, November 2, 9
Time: 1:30 – 3:30
Tuesdays, P.M.
“A Delightful Musick:” Concert Life in Early America
INSTRUCTOR: Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz, Director and Violinist, Musicians of Ma’alwyck
This course will examine what music was available to Americans from the 1730s until the early 1800s, including a look at the Old American Company, itinerant musicians, performance venues, music in the early American home, and more. The trajectory of music in America is a fascinating one, with musicians of the Catholic church establishing themselves in Charleston, gentlemen’s orchestras forming in Annapolis and other towns along the eastern seaboard, and British theater singers and instrumentalists looking for a “refreshing” of their careers in America. A rich mosaic of musical offerings, informed by taste in London and Europe, drives American taste and perceived refinement. You may find it surprising that even as we fought the British we couldn’t get enough of their culture.
Available in-person only
Class meets October 6, 13, 20, 27, November 3, 10
Time: 1:30 – 3:30
Wednesdays, P.M.
“A People’s Contest”: A Social and Political History of the American Civil War Era
INSTRUCTOR: Melinda Lawson, Union College Emeritus
This course will explore the extraordinary story of the American Civil War, with a particular focus on the lived experiences of the people who were there and why they made the choices they did. This is not a military history. We will begin with an overview of slavery and the coming of the war, from the Constitutional Convention to John Browns’ raid, then turn to the war itself, discussing such issues as:
- The secessionist mindset: 75% of southerners were not slaveholders. Why did they vote to leave the Union and form their own nation with slavery as its “cornerstone”?
- The soldiers’ experiences: who were they, why did they volunteer, and what conditions did they encounter?
- The role and experiences of African Americans, enslaved and free
- Lincoln’s evolution and the changing meaning of the war
- Women and the war
- The Confederate nation: wartime exigencies, conflict, and change
- Dissent on both homefronts
- The war’s death toll, which scholars now estimate at 750,000 soldiers and 50,000 civilians: how it got so high and its impact on the homefront
- Lincoln’s assassination and the extraordinary three-week 1700-mile funeral train
- The triumphs and tragedies of Reconstruction
Available in-person only
Class meets October 7, 14, 21, 28, November 4, 11
Time: 1:30 – 3:30
Registration and Fees
Registration is required for each individual in order to attend a course. There is a $45 fee for each course selected.
NOTE – With our new registration system, payment can be made by credit card or check.
If you pay by credit card, your registration confirmation will be emailed to you immediately. If you pay by check, you will receive an email noting your course selection and providing instructions on how to make your payment. You will receive an additional email confirming your registration once your check has been received.
Links to Materials Folders will be emailed to paid, confirmed registrants approximately one week before classes begin.
Use the following link to display the registration form.
Please register no later than September 30 2026.
HILL Phone
For questions, 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.
HILL Email List
If you are on our email list, you will also receive email notification. If you are new to our program and would like your name and contact information to be added to our email list, please click on the link below and provide the requested information.
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Thank you for your interest in HILL.
The Humanities Institute for Lifelong Learning (HILL) 