University College at Fairfield University offers the intellectually curious who are over age 50, an opportunity to spend the first full week of June indulging that curiosity with intellectual enlightenment. Lifetime learners will take five full days of three courses that begin on Monday, June 7 and run through Friday, June 11. Professors Aaron Perkus, William Abbott and Victor Deupi will shed light on "Shakespeare's Villains," "Politics, Society and Religion in Tudor-Stuart England" and the fundamental issues that shape today's debates on architecture: "History & Modernity."

Classes begin every morning at 9:15 a.m. and end at 3 p.m., offering just enough time to assemble like-minded folks for two one-and-a-half hour classes prior to lunch; enjoy a brown-bag or light lunch purchased from Jazzman's Café, all accompanied by coffee, tea and dessert (provided Monday through Thursday); and step into the final slot to examine the impact of history on the future of our cities, public space and public art.

In Dr. Perkus' Shakespearean villains lectures, he will ferry the class for safe passage through a discussion of the likes of Iago ("Othello"), Lady Macbeth ("Macbeth"), Claudius ("Hamlet"), Don John ("Much Ado About Nothing") and Shylock ("Merchant of Venice").

Dr. Abbott's class will explore the development of England from 1485 to 1688, as it went from feudalism to a constitutional and parliamentary state. The period of focus begins with medieval Roman Catholicism and follows the inevitable scattering of different religious denominations as the society grew from an agricultural society into a mercantile empire. According to Dr. Abbott, the history of Tudor-Stuart England is truly the history of our own nation, as the fundamentals of our state and society were laid down with the crucial turning points of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Dr. Deupi's course takes a hard look at modernity vs. tradition and the building of monuments and other public structures.

Tuition for this one-week course is $212. For more information, visit www.fairfield.edu/ll .

Posted On: 05-18-2010 10:05 AM

Volume: 42 Number: 296