February 2022
Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China by Xiaolu Guo
**This Great Books class will be held virtually over Zoom** featuring Marc Cohen, Teaching Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography —Nine Continents presents a fascinating portrait of China in the 80s and 90s, how the Cultural Revolution shaped families, and how the country's economic ambitions gave rise to great change. —Audible.com —Guo is a bolder, angrier and more ambitious figure than her forebears. —The Times (UK) —Vivid—and funny....Nine Continents shows…
Find out more »China
featuring Donald Santacaterina, Doctoral Candidate in Philosophy This hybrid lecture series will travel around the world to explore topics of current interest. Lectures will be held 4:30–6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Your registration fee of $20 ($15 for GAA) lets you attend in person at Flyleaf Books or virtually via Zoom. A Season Pass to all 8 lectures is available for $120 ($90 GAA). This series has long been our forum for “topics in the news,” and we continue that…
Find out more »The Age of Atlantic Revolutions, 1775-1800
A Distinguished Scholar Seminar featuring Lloyd S. Kramer This seminar will examine the revolutionary upheavals that spread across the Atlantic world in the late eighteenth century, creating independent nations and advocating new conceptions of human rights that continue to influence the modern world. Each session will focus on specific events, ideas, and leaders, with particular attention to the American and French Revolutions. These revolutions challenged traditional political hierarchies and claimed to represent the sovereignty of national populations. We’ll look at…
Find out more »Nine Continents: A Memoir In and Out of China by Xiaolu Guo
**This Great Books class will be held virtually over Zoom** featuring Marc Cohen, Teaching Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Autobiography —Nine Continents presents a fascinating portrait of China in the 80s and 90s, how the Cultural Revolution shaped families, and how the country's economic ambitions gave rise to great change. —Audible.com —Guo is a bolder, angrier and more ambitious figure than her forebears. —The Times (UK) —Vivid—and funny....Nine Continents shows…
Find out more »Russia
featuring Graeme Robertson, Professor of Political Science This hybrid lecture series will travel around the world to explore topics of current interest. Lectures will be held 4:30–6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Your registration fee of $20 ($15 for GAA) lets you attend in person at Flyleaf Books or virtually via Zoom. A Season Pass to all 8 lectures is available for $120 ($90 GAA). This series has long been our forum for “topics in the news,” and we continue that…
Find out more »The Sufferings of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
featuring Gabriel Trop, Associate Professor of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures One of the most important works of German literature that greatly influenced the rise of the Romantic movement —Based on Goethe’s unrequited love for Charlotte Buff, it is the first great “confessional” novel and turned Goethe into one of the first international literary celebrities. —Gildan Media Corp —Goethe’s themes of unrequited love, the pain of rejection, deepening despair, and their tragic consequences are as relevant today as when…
Find out more »Cash Transfers in Africa
featuring Sudhanshu Handa, Kenan Eminent Professor of Public Policy This hybrid lecture series will travel around the world to explore topics of current interest. Lectures will be held 4:30–6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Your registration fee of $20 ($15 for GAA) lets you attend in person at Flyleaf Books or virtually via Zoom. A Season Pass to all 8 lectures is available for $120 ($90 GAA). This series has long been our forum for “topics in the news,” and we…
Find out more »NO FEAR: The Extraordinary Life & Talent of Nina Simone | Thurs. Feb. 17 (6-7:15 pm) via Zoom
A FREE virtual program as part of Carolina K-12’s William Friday Virtual Education Initiative “I’ll tell you what freedom is to me: no fear.” Prodigy. Pianist. Songwriter. Singer. Activist. Nina Simone. Born Eunice Kathleen Waymon in Tryon, North Carolina on February 21st, 1933, Nina Simone is an icon of American music and one of the most extraordinary artists of the twentieth century. Her activism during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s earned her the title of “Singer of the…
Find out more »The New Politics of the 21st Century
It has become increasingly clear to many in America and throughout the world that the political norms of the 20th century no longer accurately describe conditions on the ground. Severe polarization, public distrust of institutions, racial unrest and reckoning, and an accelerating climate crisis, among many other factors, have changed the way we think about and conduct politics today. How do we make sense of this change? What are the important issues we should confront? Can our democracy meet these…
Find out more »The Sufferings of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
featuring Gabriel Trop, Associate Professor of Germanic and Slavic Languages and Literatures One of the most important works of German literature that greatly influenced the rise of the Romantic movement —Based on Goethe’s unrequited love for Charlotte Buff, it is the first great “confessional” novel and turned Goethe into one of the first international literary celebrities. —Gildan Media Corp —Goethe’s themes of unrequited love, the pain of rejection, deepening despair, and their tragic consequences are as relevant today as when…
Find out more »Mexico
featuring Cecilia Martinez-Gallardo, Associate Professor of Political Science This hybrid lecture series will travel around the world to explore topics of current interest. Lectures will be held 4:30–6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Your registration fee of $20 ($15 for GAA) lets you attend in person at Flyleaf Books or virtually via Zoom. A Season Pass to all 8 lectures is available for $120 ($90 GAA). This series has long been our forum for “topics in the news,” and we continue…
Find out more »Sacred Sites Across Cultures and Time
People all over the world and through the ages have imbued physical spaces with spiritual significance. This seminar will take us back in time to explore a variety of sacred sites, their meanings, and how people used or engaged with them. We will learn about medieval pilgrimages, travel to Byzantine-era synagogues, and examine the fascinating monuments of Mesoamerica with our scholars. Join us for this exploration of the idea of the “axis mundi” in its many manifestations and for a…
Find out more »March 2022
Alcestis by Euripides
featuring William H. Race, George L. Paddison Professor of Classics Emeritus Euripides' earliest surviving classic is a profound meditation on human mortality —Alcestis is a rarity, a tragedy reversed. With typical Euripidean irony, a superman triumphs where a god fails. —Booklist —The theme of Euripides' Alcestis blends the primitive folk-tale of the self-sacrificing bride, Alcestis, and of Heracles' heroic struggles with the ogre Death, with a morality tale of "virtue rewarded," in this case twice rewarded. —Liverpool University Press —One of…
Find out more »Ecuador
featuring Gabriela Valdivia, Professor of Geography and Assistant Dean, Honors Carolina This hybrid lecture series will travel around the world to explore topics of current interest. Lectures will be held 4:30–6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Your registration fee of $20 ($15 for GAA) lets you attend in person at Flyleaf Books or virtually via Zoom. A Season Pass to all 8 lectures is available for $120 ($90 GAA). This series has long been our forum for “topics in the news,”…
Find out more »Institutions, Rights, and Society: A Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Exploration
In collaboration with the DUKE/UNC Philosophy, Politics, and Economics Program First created at Oxford University in the 1920s, the field of Politics, Philosophy, and Economics (PPE) cultivates unique interdisciplinary perspectives on ideas that shape our socioeconomic and political world. In collaboration with Duke/UNC PPE program, we have organized a seminar that features scholarship on contemporary issues from the perspective of three different disciplines. We will learn about education systems and the political activism of children from Alexandra Oprea (political science),…
Find out more »Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
**This Great Books class will be held virtually over Zoom** featuring Lauren Jarvis, Assistant Professor of History A modern classic by Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee —Waiting for the Barbarians, J. M. Coetzee’s third novel, which won the James Tate Black Memorial Prize, is an allegory of the war between oppressor and oppressed. —Penguin Books —"J.M. Coetzee’s vison goes to the nerve-center of being. What he finds there is more than most people will ever know about themselves, and he conveys…
Find out more »Japan
featuring Morgan Pitelka, Professor of History and Professor and Chair of Asian Studies This hybrid lecture series will travel around the world to explore topics of current interest. Lectures will be held 4:30–6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Your registration fee of $20 ($15 for GAA) lets you attend in person at Flyleaf Books or virtually via Zoom. A Season Pass to all 8 lectures is available for $120 ($90 GAA). This series has long been our forum for “topics in…
Find out more »Acting like Animals: Lessons (and Laughs) about being Human from Aesop, Aristophanes, and the ancient Greeks
Join Dr. Al Duncan, Assistant Professor of Classics at UNC Chapel Hill, as he explores how these ancient Greek writers used animals in their work in order to illuminate human morality and character. This event is a part of the "Humanities on the Road" Series, and will be hosted by Wayne Community College.
Find out more »Waiting for the Barbarians by J. M. Coetzee
**This Great Books class will be held virtually over Zoom** featuring Lauren Jarvis, Assistant Professor of History A modern classic by Nobel Laureate J. M. Coetzee —Waiting for the Barbarians, J. M. Coetzee’s third novel, which won the James Tate Black Memorial Prize, is an allegory of the war between oppressor and oppressed. —Penguin Books —"J.M. Coetzee’s vison goes to the nerve-center of being. What he finds there is more than most people will ever know about themselves, and he conveys…
Find out more »Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
featuring Stephanie DeGooyer, Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature A masterpiece of suspense, a classic of nineteenth-century Romanticism and Gothic horror, and the prototype of the science fiction novel —More than 200 years after it was first published, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has stood the test of time as a gothic masterpiece—a classic work of horror that blurs the line between man and monster. —Bantam Classics —Frankenstein is four stories in one: an allegory, a fable, an epistolary novel, and an autobiography,…
Find out more »Caribbean Plantation Tourism
featuring Tanya Shields, Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies for Women's and Gender Studies This hybrid lecture series will travel around the world to explore topics of current interest. Lectures will be held 4:30–6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Your registration fee of $20 ($15 for GAA) lets you attend in person at Flyleaf Books or virtually via Zoom. A Season Pass to all 8 lectures is available for $120 ($90 GAA). This series has long been our forum for…
Find out more »Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
featuring Stephanie DeGooyer, Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature A masterpiece of suspense, a classic of nineteenth-century Romanticism and Gothic horror, and the prototype of the science fiction novel —More than 200 years after it was first published, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has stood the test of time as a gothic masterpiece—a classic work of horror that blurs the line between man and monster. —Bantam Classics —Frankenstein is four stories in one: an allegory, a fable, an epistolary novel, and an autobiography,…
Find out more »India
featuring Sara Smith, Associate Professor of Geography This hybrid lecture series will travel around the world to explore topics of current interest. Lectures will be held 4:30–6:00 pm on Wednesdays. Your registration fee of $20 ($15 for GAA) lets you attend in person at Flyleaf Books or virtually via Zoom. A Season Pass to all 8 lectures is available for $120 ($90 GAA). This series has long been our forum for “topics in the news,” and we continue that…
Find out more »April 2022
Literary Couples
A Dialogues Distinguished Scholar seminar featuring Beverly Taylor Writers are often thought of as lonely souls who sacrifice their personal lives to dedicate themselves to their art, but many find love and companionship—and sometimes with other writers! Join distinguished scholar Beverly Taylor as she explores two marriages between giants of 19th century English literature: the Shelleys (Mary and Percy Bysshe) and the Brownings (Elizabeth Barrett and Robert). Participants will learn about their personal histories, their relationships, and how their marriages…
Find out more »The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
featuring Kimberly J. Stern, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature An astounding novel of decadence, debauchery, and secrecy from one of Ireland’s greatest writers —Oscar Wilde's only full-length novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a lasting gem of sophisticated wit and playfulness, which brings together all the best elements of his talent in a reinterpretation of the Faustian myth. —The Guardian Bookshop —This timeless tale of Gothic horror and fable, reveling in the unabashed hedonism and cynical wit…
Find out more »The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
featuring Kimberly J. Stern, Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature An astounding novel of decadence, debauchery, and secrecy from one of Ireland’s greatest writers —Oscar Wilde's only full-length novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray is a lasting gem of sophisticated wit and playfulness, which brings together all the best elements of his talent in a reinterpretation of the Faustian myth. —The Guardian Bookshop —This timeless tale of Gothic horror and fable, reveling in the unabashed hedonism and cynical wit…
Find out more »Poems by Robert Frost
featuring George Lensing, Mann Family Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus The only writer in history to have been awarded four Pulitzer Prizes and commonly regarded as America's greatest poet —"Frost has bequeathed to his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding.” —John F. Kennedy —Robert Frost was the most emblematically American of poets, a forthright advocate of both the art and craft of verse who was recognized and cherished as few other…
Find out more »New Perspectives on French Art
A Dialogues seminar TOPICS & SPEAKERS The Changing Makeup of the Parisian Art World (and Art Market) in the 18th and 19th Centuries Kathryn Desplanque, Assistant Professor of 18th and 19th Century European Art Claude Monet's Reception in the US After World War II Alexis Clark, Teaching Assistant Professor of Art History, North Carolina State University New Perspectives on French Art A panel discussion with all speakers TIME AND TUITION 9:00 am-12:30 pm, Saturday, April 23. The tuition is…
Find out more »Poems by Robert Frost
featuring George Lensing, Mann Family Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus The only writer in history to have been awarded four Pulitzer Prizes and commonly regarded as America's greatest poet —"Frost has bequeathed to his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding.” —John F. Kennedy —Robert Frost was the most emblematically American of poets, a forthright advocate of both the art and craft of verse who was recognized and cherished as few other…
Find out more »The Lesser-Known Theaters of World War II: Scandinavia, Burma, and New Guinea
A Distinguished Scholar Seminar featuring Gerhard L. Weinberg TOPICS Scandinavia Burma New Guinea ........ Gerhard L. Weinberg is the William Rand Kenan Jr. Professor of History Emeritus. He is an internationally known expert on all aspects of World War II and author of numerous books, including the comprehensive, award-winning masterwork A World at Arms: A Global History of World War II. TIME AND TUITION 9:30 am-3:00 pm, Saturday, April 30. The tuition is $125 to attend in person or…
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