A Sampling of Educational Programs
at Lasell Village

A rich array of course offerings -- from history and politics to literature, criminology and alternative healing and medicine -- have earned the Village its international reputation as a unique living and learning community. Some of the courses in which our residents enthusiastically participate include:

Contemporary Issues in International Relations
An intergenerational Lasell College and Lasell Village course held at Lasell Village

This course examines the basic concepts and major contemporary problems in international relations.Topics such as the Middle East, East-West relations, and deterrence versus disarmament, human rights and third world countries are discussed. Surveys of the major theories and approaches to international relations are included.

Course Leader: Professor Joseph Aieta, M.A., Professor of History at Lasell College . holds two Master of Arts degrees from Brandeis University, one in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, the other in Politics, and has taught in the Humanities program at Lasell College for more than 30 years. 

Our Foreparents, Ourselves: Facing Life's Difficult Challenges
and Finding Renewal
How do we find joy even when life hands us some tough challenges? How do we move from sadness and isolation to reconnection and renewal? In this class, participants use a psychological lens to explore the stories of women from the Hebrew Bible including Hannah, Ruth, and Naomi. They journey with them as they grapple with loss, jealousy, fear, and illness and move to a place of connection, emotional growth, and spiritual sustenance. Together, the class explores the psychological meaning of these ancient stories for today's men and women. No previous knowledge of the Hebrew Bible is required.

Course Leader: Marsha Mirkin, Ph.D. is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Lasell College and a scholar at the Brandeis University Women's Studies Research Center. A well received author, she speaks nationally on psychological understandings of Biblical foreparents as well as about other issues in psychology.

Lovers of Literature
This course is for all lovers of literature, writers and readers alike. In it, participants discover and enjoy the nuances of fine writing. Words, sentences, paragraphs, and techniques of narration that include dialogue, detail, and gesture are discussed and examined along with many of the essential techniques of fine prose writing. The class reads and discusses sections of Reading Like a Writer weekly as well as pieces by various writers. Short writing assignments are included along with each reading.
 
Course leader: Pauline Briere, M.A. holds Masters’ degrees in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University and in Education from Boston College. She is a fiction writer.

Crucial Court Cases in American History
A study of our American History helps to locate the source of the guidelines that shape the way we live. Throughout the world lifestyles are regulated by rules (laws) -- statutory and religious. Statutory rules are created by manmade decisions. This class examines some of the decisions made in America that have been made into law by our courts and have influenced our American History (i.e. free speech, abolishment of slavery, woman’s suffrage, etc.) What were the issues involved? Examining how the times, society and prejudices influenced these decisions involves the 10-week course. 

Course leader: Lasell Village resident, Mark Aronson, graduated from Harvard with an A.B. in Applied Science. He has led courses such as The Age of Discovery, 1450-1650; Presidential Couples; Understanding the Bill of Rights and Famous Crimes in American History at Lasell Village and at the Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement for the past 10 years.

The Healing Power of Mindfulness: Cultivating Greater Presence and Balance
of Mind and Heart Across the Life-Span
Just as we can get our bodies into better shape through physical exercise, we can get our minds, thoughts, emotions and relationships into better shape by practicing greater awareness of what goes on in these domains of our lives. This is the power and the promise of mindfulness -- present moment, non-judgmental awareness. Mindfulness can be brought to any life circumstances with great potential health benefits. Jon Kabat-Zinn, offers this introductory workshop in the cultivation of mindfulness, and its practical applications to dealing with the joys and challenges of life, or what he calls (after Zorba the Greek) “the full catastrophe” of living. 

Course Leader: Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. is Professor of Medicine emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and founding director of its renowned Stress Reduction Clinic and Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society. He is the author of numerous scientific studies investigating the clinical benefits of mindfulness, and of several best-selling books on health, medicine, and mindfulness. He was a recipient of the Bravewell Collaborative’s Pioneers in Integrative Medicine Award for 2007.

Pottery – Hand Building
Soft, moist clay is plastic, pliable and easily formed into sturdy pottery pieces. This course focuses on developing an understanding of forms in clay and the techniques of constructing ceramic pieces. We look at hand building techniques such as making coils, slabs and pinch pots, so various pieces such as bowls, platters, vases, boxes, animals and sculptural pieces can be formed. Each class begins with a demonstration and careful examination of hand built samples. Select pieces are bisque fired, glazed and glaze fired.
  
Course leader: Claire Anderson currently teaches pottery in her Auburndale studio as well as Newton Community Education. She taught pottery at the Mylalista Art School, Reykjavid, Iceland. She attended art classes at the Museum School, M.F.A. Boston, MA and Wellesley College. Claire Anderson attended Harvard University, M.A.T in Reading and received her B.A from the University of Michigan, Honors in French.

Criminology
In this course, contemporary criminological theories are analyzed and evaluated with an emphasis on the social construction of crime, criminal offending, and victimization. Theories of crime are distinguished from theories of criminality. Assessments of theoretical advances, including theory integration and general theories of crime are examined.

Course Leader: Jennifer Drew, Ph.D is Assistant Professor or Sociology at Lasell College.

American Revolutions and Revolutionary Thought
This course analyzes many types, facets, and styles of revolution, including political, cultural, and scientific meanings of the concept. The readings are taken from literature as well as from history and the social sciences.

Course Leader: Dennis Frey, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of History at Lasell College.

Reflections: An Interfaith Journey to Istanbul
In July 2007, Father Walter Cuenin traveled to Istanbul where he lived with Muslims, Jews, and Christians together for 10 days studying and working to repair mosques.
Fr. Cuenin offers participants a sense of that city which is the crossroads of Asia and Europe. He offers a perspective of what was once one of Christianity’s greatest centers, to today: a city with the Muslim faith and a small but vibrant Jewish community.

Course Leader: The Reverend Walter Cuenin is the Catholic chaplain at Brandeis University. He was ordained a priest at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican in 1970. He received a Doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Gregorian University in Rome. He has served in parishes in North Andover, Lexington, Marlborough and was the pastor of Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton until 2005. Also active in interfaith dialogue, he has served as the President of the Newton Clergy Association and is a founding member of the Boston Priests’ Forum.

The Ecstatic Heart of Poetry 
Do happy poems exist? Are poems with a positive message worth reading? This course will examine the celebratory side of poetry. Particpants read works by Rumi, Ghalib, Federica García Lorca, Vallejo, Neruda, Emily Dickinson, and others. Handouts are distributed each week. Participants will be asked to read and discuss the poems the following week and may choose to respond with either their general impressions or by writing a poem of their own inspired by their reading. No prior knowledge of poetry necessary!

Course leader: bg Thurston is a former systems analyst and a graduate of Vermont College’s MFA in Writing Program. She teaches poetry at a variety of continuing educations programs and her work has been widely published. Her chapbook, Saving the Lamb, was released in 2007 and her full-length collection, Nightwalking, will be published this year.

LECTURES

The Birds and the Bees: A Salute to Spring
Spring is famously the season of new life, when animals of all sorts are busy launching the next generation. But how do they do it? This course looks in on some astonishing strategies that bees and birds have developed to solve the challenges of parenthood. In the first session, we pay a close-up video visit inside a hive of honeybees, where the whole community shares the project of perpetuating the colony. Our next trip
takes us around the globe with peerless naturalist David Attenborough where we visit birds as diverse as pelicans and finches, grebes and gulls and storks, to learn how they practice parenting. 

Our final stop finds us peeking inside the nest box of a devoted pair of Barred Owls in a New England woods. Special video cameras and microphones let us watch as the owls’ three eggs are laid and the downy chicks hatch, then grow from white fuzz balls to gawky owlets, eventually emerging to the branch outside their nest to contemplate the wide world –- and to prepare to make their way in it. 

Course Leader: Maya Ruettger-Cruciana is a naturalist and popular lecturer whose focus is on introducing adult audiences to our magnificent native wildlife, LIVE and up close. Her programs explore in depth the skills, the senses, and the places in our ecosystem filled by the hawks and owls, amphibians, reptiles and mammals who are our neighbors in New England. Maya is an alumna of the Yale Law School and Yale Divinity School who has been living with and teaching about native wildlife for the past 16 years. She worked for seven years as a Teacher Naturalist for the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Today Maya shares her home with a growing ensemble of non-releasable wild animals kept under federal and state permits for education -- from tiny rare turtles and frogs to a diverse company of owls both large and small.


Medicine and Dentistry: Perspectives in Art and History
We look at fine art in a broad spectacular sweep from the Pharaohs of Egypt through classical civilization of the Mediterranean to the present day and explore a very interesting question through the eyes of the artist: Where is the dividing line between scientific and pre-scientific medicine? 

Course Leader: Gary R. Login, D.M.D., D.M.Sc., graduated from Harvard University School of Dental Medicine where he also completed postgraduate work in oral pathology. He is an Assistant Professor of Oral Pathology at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. 


The Wolverine Jazz Trio
John Clark and company, on the clarinet, banjo and tuba, will perform popular songs from the 1920s, 30s and 40s, along with commentary and discussion.