Lifelong Learner Seminars

Wednesdays, September 4, 11, 18, 25

Leader: Paul Gardner, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Luther College

Description

“This is the most important election of our lifetime.”  I used words like this in the syllabus of every election seminar I taught (2008, 2012, 2016, 2020).  Maybe history has finally caught up with my hyperbole.  Regardless, please join me for conversations about America’s presidential and congressional elections.  In each session, we will alternate between a ground-level look at campaigns, polling, a presidential debate, swing states, America’s unique electoral college, and a view from 30,000 feet about why this election IS “the most important election of our lifetime.”

Wednesdays, February 5, 12, 19, 26

Leaders: Karla Brown, retired English professor, Hawkeye Community College & part-time Vesterheim employee and Birgitta R. Meade, retired science teacher and on Faculty, Education/Environmental Studies, Luther College

Description

The 200th anniversary of Norwegian immigration to America in 2025 presents an opportunity to deepen our knowledge of the realities the earliest settlers in Winneshiek County faced.  Karla and Birgitta have ancestors who were some of the first settlers to the area in 1850, and their families preserved lots of artifacts and information about what they went through that bring their story to life.  

Birgitta’s great-great-great-grandfather emigrated in 1848 and settled north of Calmar in the spring of 1850.  He later became friends with Reverend U.V. and Elisabeth Koren and was one of three to incorporate Luther College.  Karla’s great-great-grandfather and sister joined him in Calmar in the fall of 1850.  This seminar will cover:

• life in Norway before immigrating
• how land became available in Winneshiek County
• the ocean voyage and the way west from New York
• the start of local churches and the Norwegian-Evangelical Lutheran Synod
• realities for pioneer women, and the founding of Luther College

Wednesdays, March 5, 12, 19, 26

Leader: Nancy Barry, Emerita Professor of English, Luther College

Description

In 1959, a family of four was victim to a cold-blooded murder in the town of Holcomb, Kansas, and the writer Truman Capote decided he would research and write about the crime in what was then a new style of journalism. In Cold Blood was serialized in The New Yorker magazine fifty years ago in 1965, and went on to be published in book form that became a bestseller.

In this seminar, we will read Capote’s book and discuss the controversies embedded in its style, including Capote’s narrative choices in writing about this harrowing crime. We will also discuss the ethical implications and the legacy embedded in this type of nonfiction writing, which by the 21st century is ubiquitously known as true crime nonfiction novels.  

Note: The book is not gruesome, but it portrays a terrible crime on the page. We will not spend much time on the murderous details, but participants should know what they’re in for!