2022 Summer Term

Try us out this Summer!!  $25 is all it costs!

Take one or all the courses!
We want you to join the conversation.

All courses are online using Zoom except for the Andres Institute of Art trip.
We send you the Zoom links in your email after you register. Please check your junk mail and accept emails from LINEC.

American Poetry

Mondays, July, 11 – 25 | 10 AM – Noon

Instructor: Don Melander

American Poetry focuses on David Budbill’s collection of poems-of-place Judevine, set in the Northeast Kingdom.  David used to come to NEC for a few days in July/August to do a reading and workshop with our Summer Seminar students.  Several performances of the play Judevine have been performed at NEC.  David Budbill’s book Judevine is available on both Powell’s and Amazon.

Don Melander is a Senior Professor of Humanities, retired, at New England College where he taught mostly literature and writing for 45 years.  For the last decade he has served as dramaturge for the Open Door Theater.  He holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Syracuse University; his dissertation is on the 20th-century American poet, Wallace Stevens.

The American Presidency, Part One

Mondays, July 11 – 25 | 1 – 3 PM

Instructor: James L. Walsh, PhD

This course explores the origins and purpose of government generally and the way in which the founders of the American republican experiment chose to deconstruct the various structures employed by nation states since the Classical period. In this summer series, we explore the origins of representative government, the formation of the US Constitution, and the first experiments in republican federalism. Or is that a federalist republic?

• July 11 Origins
• July 18 the Constitutional Convention
• July 25 POTUS revealed

Professor James L. Walsh has been studying and teaching American History for more than 30 years. He earned an MA and PhD in American history from the University of New Hampshire and has taught at UNH, U-Mass, Tufts, and for 23 years at New England College in Henniker. He is the author of “Satan Among the Sons of God”: The Creation of the Loyalist Enemy, 1774-1784.

Let’s Plan a LINEC Travel Course

Tuesdays, July 5 – 26 |10 AM – Noon

Facilitator:  Eric Simon

At New England College, Eric Simon has led many educational travel courses that focus on biodiversity to destinations such as Belize, Guatemala, Cuba, the Amazon, Tanzania, the Galapagos, and Patagonia. The purpose of this seminar is to consider possibilities for a LINEC trip. If you are interested in joining the trip, or even if you would just like to make suggestions, come join the discussion. Signing up for this course DOES NOT mean that you are actually going on the trip, and there is NO OBLIGATION of any kind associated with this seminar. Let’s have fun dreaming and scheming of possible travel opportunities! Information on an actual travel opportunity (if one is forthcoming) will be announced separately.

Eric J. Simon, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Biology and Health Science at New England College, in Henniker, New Hampshire. He teaches introductory biology and tropical marine biology with a field component in Belize. Dr. Simon received a B.A. in biology and computer science and an M.A. in biology from Wesleyan University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from Harvard University. Dr. Simon is the author of a widely used series of college biology textbooks with nearly 3 million books in print.

American Novel Reading Group

Wednesday, July  13 | 1 – 3 PM
NOTE: Different date than usual.

Leader: John McCausland

The American Novel Reading Group is rounding out its fourth year. The group selects novels from various lists of “100 best,” and has read works ranging from the early 19th century up though our present one. Hard books, easy books, fun books, controversial books — the common denominator is only that they be good books. Discussion is always lively, gently facilitated by the group leader. Our July selection is Richard Ford’s, “The Sportswriter.”  Ford has won a number of prizes, including the Pulitzer and Library of Congress. “The Sportswriter” is the initial volume in a trilogy centering around Frank Bascombe, a failed novelist turned sportswriter who undergoes an existential crisis following the death of his son. Ford’s style has been compared with Hemingway, Cheever and Updike. Please come to the class having read the novel.

John McCausland is an Episcopal priest, now retired, who has taught LINEC courses on the Bible, Chaucer and the American novel. He loves history, literature, theology, teaching and learning.

Composer Amy Beach

Wednesday, July 13 | 10 AM – Noon

Instructor:  John Gfroerer

Amy Beach was born September 5, 1867 in Henniker, New Hampshire.  At age 17 she had her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.  In 1897 her Symphony was premiered by the BSO, the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. Beach became a national symbol of women’s creative power and was the dean of American women composers.  We explore her story by viewing his documentary with film producer John Gfroerer. 

John Gfroerer is the owner of Accompany Video Production.   In addition to “Composer Amy Beach”, he has produced over 40 documentaries, which have been seen on Maine and New Hampshire Public Television. Topics include a history of the New Hampshire Presidential Primary, life in New Hampshire during World War Two, and several profiles of communities along the Maine coast.

Visit the Andres Institute of Art

Wednesday, July 20, rain date July 27  10 AM – ??

Guide:  Institute docent and Fran Philippe

The Andres Institute of Art is located on the former Big Bear Mountain ski slope in Brookline, NH.  It was started in 1998 by owner/innovator, Paul Andres and master sculptor John M. Weidman.  Since the first International Sculpture Symposium in 1999, at which world-wide sculptors create a piece to remain on the institute grounds, more than 100 pieces are now on site.  Please bring a lunch, sunscreen, bug deterrent and have appropriate foot wear for uneven woods trails. Carpooling can be arranged or meet up at the Institute at 10 AM.

Film Seminar

Fridays, July 8 – 29 | 10 AM – Noon

Leader:  Don Melander

This term we begin the first of four seminars on Alfred Hitchcock.  In this course, we discuss:

• The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934)
• Rebecca (1940)
• Saboteur (1942)
• Shadow of a Doubt (1943)
• Lifeboat (1944)
• Spellbound (1945)
• Notorious (1946)

All films are available on YouTube. Please come to class having viewed the film at home.

Don Melander often makes reference to films in his teaching of literature.  Since 2010 he has taught a Communications course on movies and film directors.  Although he has no formal training in film, he has been ‘reading’ serious films as serious literature since 1958.