Course Schedule – Spring 2025 / Old Courses
The courses listed below were offered in previous semesters.
Click on any title to view the related course page.
HARLEM RENAISSANCE
Coordinators: Richard Byrd, Stuart Parker
The Harlem Renaissance was a period of great change in America, and in the African-American community in particular.
HEALTH AND MEDICINE
Coordinators: Karen Cullen, Bob Gottfried, Donna Ramer
We have already encountered several medical issues throughout our lives and, as we continue our journey through the “back nine,” we will continue to meet familiar and new medical challenges.
HISTORY OF GERMANY
Coordinators: Caroline Thompson, Steve Allen, Linda Downs
The German people have a long and complex history that has had a profound impact, both good and bad, on all of Europe and on the world. This three-term course examines this political, religious, and cultural history from the time of The Holy Roman Empire in 800 CE up to the current day.
HISTORY OF MEDICINE
Coordinators: Karen Cullen, Donna Ramer, Michael Wellner
We interact with the medical world all the time, from our daily vitamin pill, to annual check-ups, to the occasional surgery or perhaps even treatment for a serious illness.
HOUSE OF MIRTH
Coordinators: Patricia Geehr, Arlene Curinga
Edith Wharton, the first woman to win a Pulitzer, is known for depicting the “tragedies and ironies” of life among members of the middle class and aristocratic New York society in the 19th and 20th centuries. We will read The House of Mirth, her first literary success. Through themes of gender, class, love, and friendship, Wharton depicts the destructive results of the pursuit of wealth and misplaced values that are still evident today. Recommended text: Scribner, paperback edition 2020.
HOWARDS END
Coordinators: Lynnel Garabedian, Sandy Kessler
E. M. Forster was a distinguished writer of novels, short stories, and essays whose career spanned several decades. During the fall semester the class will read one of his acclaimed novels, Howards End. Forster’s book sensitively explores conflicts of class and culture, politics, human relationships, and personal responsibility in a pre-World War I society that questions traditional English values as three families struggle to understand each other.
HUCKLEBERRY FINN
Coordinators: Lynnel Garabedian, Sandy Kessler
All American Literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. Ernest Hemingway famously declared in 1935. “It’s the best book we’ve had.”
INDIE FILMS
Coordinators: Howard Salik, Marian Friedmann, Bobbie Gold, Brenda Zusman
For Questers who love movies, “Indie Films” is a perfect fit. If you’ve seen a movie that is worthy of class discussion, email us with details.
INVENTIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD
Coordinators: Pete Weis, Jim Brook
This course continues with that which has become familiar in our everyday lives, for better or worse. The history of these inventions, as well as the impacts on our lives and on our planet, will be presented. And new this semester: inventions by women.
INVISIBLE MAN BY RALPH ELLISON
Coordinators: Lynnel Garabedian, Sandy Kessler,
This semester we will consider Ralph Ellison’s novel “The Invisible Man” (1952), which deals with the problems of race relations and Black identity in the United States.