FALL FOCUS Community-Based Climate

Change SolutionsJoin us for a new initiative! This fall we’re offering six courses looking at a critically important issue from multiple perspectives — artistic, literary, cine-matic, and scientific.

• Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape (Jamey Stillings/Art)

• Climate Success: Three Stories of Local Action from Around the World (Tom Miller/Film)

• Protecting Our Relations: Climate Change Adaptation (Susannah Howard/Science)

• Saving the Earth One Farm at a Time (Jo Ellen Jacobs/Science)

• The Land Witness Project: Climate Storytelling from Rural New Mexico (Nancy Singham and Stefi Weisburd/Science)

• The Trail to Kanjiroba: Environmental Anxiety and the Beauty of Earth (William DeBuys/Science)

CORONAVIRUS PROTOCOLS

RENESAN may need to be flexible and adapt semester operations as COVID-19 guidelines evolve. The following policies are therefore subject to change. RENESAN is prepared to return to online courses if required by the state Department of Health.

In-person Courses

• Vaccinations are encouraged. We strongly recommend that students attend in-person courses only when they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

• Masks are required for all instructors, students, and staff. Face cover-ings must be worn securely over the nose and mouth at all times while indoors. Fully vaccinated instructors may remove masks while teaching.

THURSDAY LECTURES

In-person & Online!Our popular Thursday lectures are back with a twist — you can enjoy all of them online and many in person. As always, they span a wide range of fascinating subjects, from Biblical prophets and the Brontë sisters to cabooses and climate change. Register for the full series and save 25%!

• Ottoman Turkey and the 1915 Armenian Massacre: Was It Genocide? (K. Paul Jones/History)

• The Trail to Kanjiroba: Environmental Anxiety and the Beauty of Earth (William DeBuys/Science)

• Whatever Happened to Cabooses? (Fred Friedman/History) • Mikado Madness (Mark Tiarks/Music)• The Super-Sad, True Story of the Mythic Brontë Family

(Randy Perazzini/Literature) • Prophetic Wisdom for Contemporary Challenges

(Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev/Philosophy)• Understanding the Western Genre (David Morrell and Johnny D. Boggs/Film) • Jewelry in New Mexico (Andrew Connors/Art) • The Bones of St. Nicholas (William Tabbernee/Archaeology)• Light Pollution: Why and How to Stop It (Jim Baker/Science)

ARCHAEOLOGY

Fascinating Archaeological Mysteries (Creve Maples) Explore a variety of enigmatic and provocative archeological objects, such as the mysterious, inscribed disc that’s 2,500 years ahead of its time, a dinosaur carved on the wall of an ancient Cambodian temple, and a 500-year-old map that theoretically couldn’t exist.

The Bones of St. Nicholas (William Tabbernee) Learn the true story about St. Nicholas, the original “Santa Claus,” by exploring the archeological remains of the church where he served as bishop until his death in 326 C.E. and a newly discovered church on St. Nicholas Island, just off the coast of Turkey.

ART

Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape (Jamey Stillings) The class leader’s long-term photography project, Changing Perspectives: Renewable Energy and the Shifting Human Landscape is a look at art and activism from an aerial perspective.

Happy Birthday Bauhaus (Barbara Arlen) Celebrating the 102nd birthday of the Bauhaus, this image-dominated course will illustrate how an experimental German school founded in 1919 influenced most of our global vision of the visual arts.

Philip Guston: Controversy Through the Love of Painting (Barbara Arlen) Explore the work of Philip Guston, who abandoned abstraction in part because it felt unimportant in the face of Vietnam, Civil Rights, and the assassination of Martin Luther King.

Jewelry in New Mexico (Andrew Connors) Join the Director of the Albuquerque Museum to explore how Native, Hispanic, Japanese, west African, Scandinavian, French, north African, and other traditions have influenced the jewelry of New Mexico.

CURRENT EVENTS

Mid-Day Current Events Discussion (Group participants) Join a free-wheeling, wide-ranging discussion of the week’s events in our city, state, nation, and world, and add your viewpoint to the group’s perspectives.

Fact or Fiction: The New Yorker (Group participants) This participant-led discussion group meets every other week for thought- provoking conversations about the legendary magazine’s current fiction and non-fiction articles.

Female-led Peacemaking in Israel and Palestine (Manzar Samii) Learn about the unique methodologies used by Tomorrow’s Women to facilitate binational peacemaking through work with teenage women in Israel and Palestine.

The Biden Team Resets American Foreign Policy (Todd Greentree)In its first months, President Biden’s foreign policy teams have done much to undo the Trump administrations belligerent nationalism; now can they meet the many global challenges that still remain?

CULTURAL STUDIES

The Brazilian Amazon (Vannetta Perry) Explore the flora, fauna, and folklore of Brazil’s Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetlands, home of the South American jaguar and the Pantaneiros, cowboys whose rugged, isolated life exists alongside them.

Indian 101 or 500 Years in 5 Minutes (Laura Harris) Laura Harris, a citizen of the Comanche Nation, will move class participants away from stereotypes and bias toward a positive and realistic understanding of contemporary Indigenous peoples and modern tribal governments, with an emphasis on New Mexico tribes and Pueblos.

The Lands of the Maya (Vannetta Perry) A presentation filled with the vibrancy of the Yucatan – its peoples, flora and fauna, music, and history of the Maya.

Cuba: Then and Now (Vannetta Perry) This lecture will explore Cuba and how its physical and social isolation have led to its evolution as the most distinctive country of the Americas.

Transgender Cultural Fluency (Adrien Lawyer) Gain a better understanding of what it means to be transgender, clarify common misconceptions about transgender people, become familiar with the challenges they face, and learn ways to be a strong advocate for transgender people.

FILM

The Movie Industry on the Brink (Paul Lazarus) Paul Lazarus is an entertainment attorney, screenwriter, film producer, and studio pro-duction head who will examine the impact of the pandemic on the movie industry of today and project changes in its future.

Thirty Years in the Wonderfully Weird World of TV (Harry Werksman) An Emmy-nominated producer and writer introduces you to the weird and wonderful world of television, which is not like anything anyone imagines.

Paul Thomas Anderson’s Films: Intersecting Disorder and Harmony (William “Bud” Cox) Discover whether it is possible for chaos to coexist with harmony, in Anderson’s movies, anyway, including Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Punch-Drunk Love, and There Will Be Blood.

Documenting Climate Success (Tom Miller) Documentary filmmaker Tom Miller shares an in-depth look at communities in Finland, Nicaragua, and the Caribbean, and how these communities are creating tailored, local solutions for a global problem.

Pride and Prejudice: From Novel to Film (Tony Jackson) By studying the novel and two different film adaptions, participants will gain a better understanding of Austen’s masterpiece and the relationships between literature and film as kinds of storytelling.

The Land Witness Project: Climate Storytelling from Rural New Mexico (Nancy Singham and Stefi Weisburd)Rural New Mexicans tell their stories of struggle and change in the face of deepening climate and ecological devastation, while challenging us with their vision of a less extractive, more regenerative, and just future.

Understanding the Western Genre (David Morrell and Johnny D. Boggs) Two Western movie experts will explore one of the few truly American film genres and how it dramatized what happened when westward expansion collided with the frontier.

HISTORY

Weimar Germany, 1919-33: Politics, Culture, and Catastrophe (Mark Davis)The Weimar republic faced revolution, hyperinflation, insurrections, violence, and the Great Depression, yet also produced a cultural flowering in architecture, film, music, literature, and painting second to none.

Ottoman Turkey & the 1915 Armenian Massacre: Was It Genocide? (K. Paul Jones)Was it genocide? Understand the controversial actions of the Ottoman Turks toward their Armenian subjects before and during World War I.

The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family (Bettye Kearse) Hear a lost family history as told by a woman who is a writer, a retired pediatrician, and the great-great-great-great-granddaughter of an enslaved cook and President James Madison.

Judgment at Nuremberg & Tokyo: A New Look at the International Military Tribunals After World War II (K. Paul Jones) International military tribunals after WWII evoked accusations of victors’ justice, plus controversies regarding the participation of the Soviet Union, the American deploy-ment of atomic bombs, and the legitimacy of an international court.

Whatever Happened to Cabooses? (Fred Friedman)Those little red cars constitute microcosms of railroading history.

Mao Zedong’s China (Donald Gluck) Mao Zedong was a secondary figure at the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921 but by his death in 1976 he could truly be called the principal architect of the People’s Republic of China.

Ancient Greek Geography (Duane W. Roller) Examine the development of geographical theory, the role of sailors in understand-ing the world, and how vast distances were measured in a pre-industrial environment.

American Economic Turning Points (David Rubenstein) Examine 145 years of decisive turning points in American history, from the 1876 Presidential election, with its highly disputed results, to the similarly disputed election of President Biden.

Miriam, Mary, and Mary: Holy Women, Complex Lives (Rev. Talitha Arnold) Three women whose stories were first told in the patriarchal cultures of their time; three women whose stories still inspire, challenge, and raise questions.

A Room of Her Own (For a Mathematician) (George Duncan) This course highlights the accomplishments and obstacles hurdled by twelve mathematicians who are women, from the 4th century CE to some of today’s leaders at Carnegie Mellon, Yale, and NASA.

LAW

The Supreme Court Speaks… (Richard Briles Moriarty) The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions were ideologically varied, although the Court made a definite right turn, as this in-depth analysis by a lawyer who has tried cases before the Court will show.

...and the State Responds (Panel) A panel of legal experts analyzes the impact of U.S. Supreme Court decisions on New Mexico and predicts the effects of new (or repealed) state laws on such issues as abortion, election practices, and cannabis regulation.

Giving Teeth to The New Mexico Bill of Rights (Matthew Coyte and Richard Briles Moriarty) Is everyone entitled to meaningful civil rights protection? Explore unanswered questions about the New Mexico Civil Rights Act with two experienced civil rights litigators.

Race and the Law (Sonia Gipson Rankin) Explore the historical and contemporary relationship between race, law and society, analyzing the law as a reflection of social, economic, and political structures, and an ideological instrument of societal control and social change.

LITERATURE

Journeying with Ralph Ellison’s The Invisible Man (Darryl Lorenzo Wellington) Examine the themes of invisibility, double consciousness, and the approaches of African American humor, satire, and code-switching that culminate in The Invisible Man, with Santa Fe’s newest Poet Laureate.

Bloomsbury’s London: Howards End and Mrs. Dalloway (Ed Walkiewicz) Explore the various strategies and techniques that “Bloomsbury Group” members E.M. Forster and Virginia Woolf used to depict and critique London in their superb novels Howards End and Mrs. Dalloway.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Stephen Bellon)Enter Shakespeare’s primeval world of the forest, where, thanks to the mischief of Oberon and Titania, danger, confusion, and enchantment rule, and conventionality holds no sway.

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s: New Voices, New Visions (Gregory Jay) Together we will examine the roots of many contemporary cultural issues and discuss how learning about the Harlem Renaissance can reframe today’s debates.

The Super-Sad, True Story of the Mythic Brontë Family (Randy Perazzini) How the brilliant, tragic Brontë sisters came to write their famous books is a story stranger than fiction and as gripping as any of their novels.

Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence and Its Messages for Today (Sally D. Trigg) Wharton’s masterful, almost-perfect novel tells a quietly devastating story of status, desire, marriage, independence, and commitment.

Aleksandr Pushkin’s Eugene Onegin (Robert Glick)Discover why Pushkin’s verse novel Eugene Onegin, which Dostoyevsky called “that immortal and unequaled poem,” is a masterpiece in a class with the greatest works of world literature.

MUSIC

Transformations in Bach’s Sacred Music (Thierry van Bastelaer) Everything always ends well in Bach’s musical world, no matter how desperate they may look at the beginning.

Lecture-recital: Eastern European Women Composers (Natasha Stojanovska)Discover the music and the life stories of unjustly neglected Eastern European women composers from the 20th century in this lecture-recital by a scholar-pianist who’s a widely recognized expert in the field.

Mikado Madness (Mark Tiarks)The Mikado wasn’t just a hit operetta by Gilbert and Sullivan, it was merchandising juggernaut for decades and has been adapted to feature stars like Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Groucho Marx, and Monty Python’s Eric Idle.

The Masks of Orpheus (James M. Keller & Mary Springfels) Every era has fashioned an Orpheus, the musical virtuoso, for its own time, finding in him a reflection of its own relationship to music.

PERFORMING ARTS

Sondheim’s First Ten Musicals (Mark Tiarks) An in-depth exploration of Stephen Sondheim’s first ten Broadway shows, from his early successes with West Side Story and Gypsy to the incredible trio of Company, Follies, and A Little Night Music, produced over a four-year span.

What Does a Director Do, Anyway? (Richard Block) Learn what a stage director actually does and how different points of view on the same play can yield a wide variety of results in performance.

PHILOSOPHY

Prophetic Wisdom for Contemporary Challenges (Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev) Though Biblical prophets lived in a time of a growing economic and social polariza-tion, their thinking shaped many of the liberation movements of recent times.

The History of Evil (Michael Nutkiewicz) What is evil? Have people always agreed on its meaning? We’ll discuss the history of thinking about evil, from the 18th century to today.

SCIENCE

Anatomy You Can Use: The Cardiovascular and Digestive Systems (Bob Hinton) Learn about the body’s construction as you explore the workings of the heart and the organs of digestion.

Saving the Earth One Farm at a Time (Jo Ellen Jacobs) The “Biggest Little Farm” offers hope for how humans can regain balance with nature and help mitigate climate change.

Braiding Ethnobotany, Indigenous Knowledge, and Climate Change (Susannah Howard) A scientist and member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation leads this course focused on the lessons to be learned from the ground-breaking book Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants.

The Climate Crisis: How Technology and Investment Can Prevent Catastrophe (Steven Rudnick) Examine the new technologies that are necessary to maintain a livable world as we know it.

Severe Weather: Hurricanes, Hailstorms, and Tornadoes (James E. Kemper) Learn why the United States is a favorite location for hailstorms and tornadoes, and examine the origin, structure, and history of hurricanes.

Light Pollution: Why and How to Stop It (Jim Baker) Review the various policies, technologies, and public perceptions with which the City of Santa Fe will contend as citizens increasingly advocate to back the night sky.

The Trail to Kanjiroba: Environmental Anxiety and the Beauty of Earth (William DeBuys)Join author William DeBuys to explore his just-released book, which examines how we can deal on a personal level with the dual environmental challenges of a warming climate and species loss.

TRIPS

Evening Under the Stars (Jim Baker) RENESAN’S traditional star party returns, as participants tour the night sky, using both naked eyes and telescopes, at the leader’s home near Eldorado.

FALL 2021 LECTURE SPONSORS

Sandy Fitzpatrick in memory of Jim Fitzpatrick.•

Jerry Sabloff in recognition of Margie McGregor’s long-term leadership of RENESAN.•

Donna Encinias and Lib O’Brien in recognition of Karen Kleeman.•

Margie McGregor in memory of Lois Rudnick.•

George Duncan, Doris Francis, and Lib O’Brien in honor of Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev.

RENESAN is an independent, nonprofit, academically focused institution dedicated to the belief that everyone can learn, explore, evolve, challenge their beliefs, broaden their horizons, and expand their knowledge and intel-lectual capacity at any age.

Our mission is to provide a balanced and dynamic curriculum of courses, lec-tures, and trips focusing on classic and contemporary works from the fields of art, cultural studies, history, literature, music, performing arts, philosophy, political science, current events, and science.

We strive to be inclusive, welcoming, and accessible to all members of the Santa Fe and Northern New Mexico communities.

1200 Old Pecos Trail , Santa Fe, N

M 87505

505-982-9274

Registration Begins Wednesday, A

ug. 25Courses Begin W

ednesday, Sept. 8 Renesan.org