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May 2019 Mini-Courses

MAY MINI-COURSES FOR 2019
A new pricing structure and new scheduling.

Each course is $75 per person.
Registration will open in February 2019. Please call the Alumni Relations office at 614-823-1650 if you have questions.

Chinese Painting: Seeing Culture in Art

Meets for five days - May 6-10, 2019
Time: 9:30 a.m - 12 p.m
Where: TBD

Course Description:  This mini-course focuses on the close study of the Chinese painting tradition. We will discuss aesthetic principles and how the art reveals tenets of Confucian and Daoist thought.  Special consideration will be given to hand scrolls and works in The Frank Museum of Art and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

Instructor Biography:  Janice Glowski serves as Otterbein's Museum and Galleries Director. An art historian, she specializes in Asian Art History and museum studies and curatorial practices, which she teaches at the university.

Hollywood's Rapid Fire Romances: Screwball Comedies of the 1930s and 40s

Meets for four days - 10, 13, 15, 17 May, 2019
Time: 1:30 p.m - 4:00 p.m
Where: TBD

Course Description:  Do words matter? Comedians and silent films could certainly make us laugh; Chaplin, Keaton, and Harold Lloyd (among others) were witty physical comedians who displayed great nuance…but once sound arrived, and dialogue came to the movies…all bets were off. It was what people SAID and how they said it that mattered!  As movies came of age in the 1930s, Hollywood comedies were off to the races!  Literally.  Fast talking films were great pieces of verbal choreography.  The masters of that genre:  Cary Grant, Roz Russell, Katherine Hepburn, William Powell, Spencer Tracy, Jean Harlow, Barbara Stanwyck, et. al. could deliver zingers staccato!  With attitude.  Directors like Howard Hawks encouraged improv—so jack be nimble/jill be quick!  For the first time…language was not only celebrated—it was celebrated Full Speed Ahead; scripts (which displayed great equality for male and female roles), demanded agility and intelligence! Sex didn’t matter as much as the rapid-fire comeback.  Language—especially smart-alec dialogue—became the medium of love.

Screwball Comedy was Hollywood's answer to the Depression Era.  As Pauline Kael once said about these comedies, they present "Americans' idealized view of themselves--breezy, likable, sexy, gallant, and maybe just a little harebrained.”  We'll watch/discuss three classic examples of this quintessential American form of anarchy:  His Girl Friday, The Philadelphia Story, and Bringing Up Baby.  And talk about how they talk!  And talk.  And talk. 

Instructor Biography:  Candyce Canzoneri was born and reared in Memphis, Tennessee.  She received her B.A.from the University of Mississippi, and her Masters (MFA) from The Ohio State University [first Creative Writing Thesis at OSU].

Her teaching credits include Fiction Writing both at Ohio State (14 years) and The Pontifical College Josephinum.  In addition, she has done Fiction workshops at Thurber House, Otterbein College, Capital University, and for the Institute for the Advancement of Arts in Education.  She served two years as Fiction Editor of The Ohio Journal.  She has been an Adjunct Professor/Senior Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at Otterbein University since 1999.

Candy has been fascinated by disruptive comedy since she attended her first theatre performance at age 10:  a Memphis Little Theatre production of Arsenic and Old Lace.  After which, she saw the Frank Capra film, and continued on down the merry road to total immersion in Screwball Comedy, and has taught classes in the genre at Otterbein. 

The Life and Teachings of
Jesus

Meets for five days -  May 20-24, 2019
Time:  1:30 p.m - 4:00 p.m
Where: TBD

Course Description:  The Christian tradition is a product of communities of faith. This course seeks to identify the raw materials and the distinctive features of those early communities, specifically the conversations that the gospel writers of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John describe.  The first task is to be historically informed; the second task is to hone critical and analytic skills that will assist judgments and decisions about religious matters that are rooted in the canonical New Testament gospels as well as non-canonical writings such as the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Judas.   A distinction between the historical Jesus and the Christ of faith will be central to the discussion.  Other topics of study include biblical scholarship, historical concerns and theological interpretations surrounding the figure of Jesus, and modern challenges to traditional religious faith and practice.

Instructor Biography:  Glenna S. Jackson is professor and chair of the Religion and Philosophy Department at Otterbein University. Her Ph.D. in religious studies is from Marquette University. Glenna has been active in the United Methodist Church as a director of religious education, organist, hand-bell choir director, director of music, and former dean of the West Ohio Conference Lay Ministry Academy. She has served as visiting scholar in Israel-Palestine, Cameroon, Lebanon, Cairo (Egypt), Africa University in Zimbabwe, and The University of Pretoria in South Africa and is an external examiner for Ph.D. dissertations at the University of Sydney (Australia) and the University of Pretoria (South Africa). She has also participated in the Bible of the Poor project in Finland. Glenna serves on two editorial boards and is active in the Westar Institute, the Society of Biblical Literature, the International Society of Biblical Literature, and the Catholic Biblical Association. Her current research is focused on parable parallels in Africa as well as women in religion and the historical Jesus. She has published two books, “Have Mercy On Me”: The Story of the Canaanite Woman in Matthew 15.21-28 and with Paul A. Laughlin, Remedial Christianity: What Every Believer Should Know About The Faith But Probably Doesn’t!, along with many book chapters and articles. One of the highlights of Glenna’s teaching opportunities is traveling with students to the continent of Africa where they have participated in building schools in both Rwanda and Malawi. Glenna is married to Gary Jackson, they have four children and ten grandchildren. Among her favorite activities are water-water canoeing in Wisconsin, rollerblading, and biking.