Continuing Education

Six weeks: Apr. 29 through June 10*
Mondays, 7 to 9 p.m.
$400

In this six-week memoir workshop, we will strive to create writing about our lives that resonates with a broad group of readers, to find a tone that is neither sentimental nor gunning for vengeance, to make our stories matter beyond the fact that these things happened to us or someone we know. In the first half, we will focus on short, directed writing assignments that aim to access compelling biographical material and begin the work of crafting it into a narrative. We will also discuss readings from authors such as Mary Karr, David Sedaris, Tony Earley, and Margo Jefferson to inspire and instruct us. In the second half, participants will workshop their memoir pieces, and the session will culminate with an in-class public reading of revised work.

Bliss Broyard is the author of the highly acclaimed memoir, One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life-A Story of Race and Family Secrets, which examines the choice of her father (author and New York Times literary critic, Anatole Broyard) to hide his racial identity, and the impact of this revelation on her own life. Her stories and essays have been anthologized in It Occurs to Me That I Am America: New Stories and Art,  Best American Short Stories, The Pushcart Prize, The Art of the Essay, and others. She has written for The New York Times, NewYorker.com, The Believer, The Guardian, Elle, Time, and many other publications. She is a Founding Advisor of Stories at The Moth and her stories have been featured on the Moth Radio Hour and in the Moth anthology All These Wonders: True Stories about Facing the Unknown.

*Class will NOT be held on Monday, May 27 (Memorial Day).

Six weeks: Apr. 29 through June 10*
Mondays, 7:30 to 9:30 p.m.
$300

This workshop will focus on the use of music, film, and visual art to generate poetry and narrative - and set a tone in your work. We’ll do this largely by watching film clips by David Lynch, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Wong Kar-wai, reading poetry by Kim Hyesoon, Anne Sexton, Srikanth Reddy, and Mary Oliver, as well as look at visual art by Faith Ringgold, Gustav Klimt, Hieronymus Bosch, Takashi Murakami, and Hilma af Klint.

Joanna C. Valente is the author of Sirs & Madams (Aldrich Press, 2014), The Gods Are Dead (Deadly Chaps Press, 2015)  Marys of the Sea (The Operating System, 2017), Xenos (Agape Editions, 2016), Sexting Ghosts (Unknown Press, 2018), and No(body) (Madhouse Press, 2019); she is the founder of Yes, Poetry and the senior managing editor for Luna Luna Magazine.  Joanna has spoken or lectured at Sarah Lawrence, AWP, and Brooklyn Book Festival, and many other events.  Her work has been featured in Brooklyn Magazine, VICE, The Brooklyn Rail, and The Huffington Post, among other publications.

*Class will NOT be held on Monday, May 27 (Memorial Day).

Three weeks: Apr. 30 through May 14
Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
$150

We have all been children but childhood remains mysterious to us adults. While psychology and education offer many theories about childhood, philosophy offers another avenue to explore the nature of childhood as experienced and perhaps challenge some of these established views. This three week seminar will offer participants the opportunity to think about the child from a philosophical perspective: how do children experience the world around them? Are children capable of more than we assume? Or we ask too much of children? What rights should children have? And how are children genuine philosophers from whom we can learn? We will discover ways to engage young children in rich philosophical discussions through the use of children's literature and materials designed for philosophy with children and young people.

Wendy Turgeon, Ph.D., is the executive dean for academic affairs on the SJC Long Island campus and a professor of philosophy at St. Joseph’s College. She is the chair of the American Philosophical Society Committee on Precollege Instruction in Philosophy and on the board of PLATO, an organization that supports philosophy for children and young people.

Four weeks: Apr. 30 through May 21
Tuesdays, 7 to 9 p.m.
$200

The goal of this class is to introduce and guide students to work in collage. We will explore a variety of provided materials including: vintage magazines, books, cardstock, Mulberry paper, paints, and any personal materials participants would like to incorporate into their artwork. At the end of the course, participants will have the opportunity to showcase finished work in a campus gallery group show, with family and friends.

Sabra Embury is a visual artist whose collages have appeared in publications, galleries and group shows.  A writer and former lit critic, she has published fiction, interviews and essays in VICE, Los Angeles Review of Books and The Believer.  Her belief is that “it's crucial right now to stop looking at what others are doing and creating from that space, and that it's time to do something all your own.”

Three weeks: Apr. 10 through 24
Wednesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
$150

One hundred years ago, the world experienced the most scientifically and technologically advanced war to date. The First World War was marked not only by industrial and technological innovation; we also saw a flu outbreak that swept around the globe, the beginnings of the industrial use of bacteria in the chemical industry and the first carefully planned covert use of biological weapons. In this three-week seminar, we will consider the importance of science and technology during World War I, with particular emphasis on microorganisms, microbiology and the long-term effects that the events of a century ago had on history and science.

Michael Hanophy, Ph.D., is the executive dean for academic affairs on the SJC Brooklyn campus and a professor of biology.  He is also a Fellow of the Science Teachers Association of New York State, and a member of the Center for the History of Microbiology/ASM Archives Committee of the American Society for Microbiology.