MCLA Announces Summer Classes
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This summer’s offerings in the classroom will include a Thursday night course in the Pittsfield Intermodal Center on family violence, which runs May 26 to July 2. This class will examine violence within contemporary American families through the lenses of gender, culture and age. Emphasis will be on the physical and sexual abuse of women and children. Participants will explore theory, research and solutions from the fields of social work, psychology and feminism.
Beginning on May 18, a class on the neuroscience of sleep and dreams will be offered on the MCLA campus. This course, which runs Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through May 29, will provide a critical analysis of current scientific research in psychology, biology and chemistry as participants examine the basic processes involved in sleep and dreaming.
Those interested in the 1960s may want to take an online course on that era. This class, which runs July 6 to Aug. 13, will look at the cultural shift from privilege to revolution in the 1960s. By analyzing a mix of primary and secondary sources, students will break apart the political and cultural upheavals, understand their origins and the impacts they had on the decade.
Other online courses to be offered this summer will include those in anthropology, business administration, economics, history, philosophy and women’s studies.
In “Women, Movies and MTV,” students will examine sociological and social work accounts of The lived experiences of women in American society, including special populations such as survivors of rape, spouse abuse, incest and mental illness. These accounts will be compared to historical and cultural depictions of women in movies and MTV. Students also will examine the images of women in film as a powerful form of cultural conditioning. The course runs May 18 to 29, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“The Sociology of Food” introduces the emerging field of the sociology of food and examines the cultural meanings of food production, distribution, preparation and consumption. Topics include food and the construction of identity, food choices, food movements (vegetariansim, organic farming, slow food, etc.), work in the food industry, food controversities (genetically engineered food, E. coli, etc.), family and sexual relationships, eating disorders, fast food, globalizing markets and others. It runs June 1-11, Monday through Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
For more information about registering for summer courses and a full list of classes, contact the registrar’s office, 413-662-5216, or go to www.mcla.edu.
