Georgetown Learning Community – Course Descriptions

The Gospel According to Luke: The Poor, Secular Culture and the Universal Gospel

Dr. Anthony Tambasco

Professor of Theology Emeritus

Tuesdays, September 30; October 7, 21, and 28 (No Class session on October 14)

10:30 am – 12:00 pm ET on Zoom

Registration closes at Noon on Friday, September 19

After a brief description of the literary genre of a gospel and a presentation of the interdependence of three gospels, classes will be devoted to Luke’s special purposes.  The course will show how Luke’s revised view of the end-times leads him to stress the importance of this life on earth with its politics and economics and will lead to Luke’s emphasis on good news for everyone, especially Gentiles, the poor, women, and other marginalized people.  Luke’s purposes will be highlighted especially by comparisons with the Gospels of Mark and Matthew.

Anthony Tambasco is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown and was chair of the department for six years. He also taught in Graduate Liberal Studies and was Associate Dean in the School of Continuing Studies for five years.  He authored five books and edited three on biblical topics, including the Bible for ethics and social justice.

Populations, Epidemics, and Ecology: Mathematical Approaches

Dr. Hans Engler

Professor of Mathematics Emeritus

Mondays, October 6, 13, and 20

11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET on Zoom

Registration Closes at Noon on Friday, September 26

Aging populations, spreading epidemics, invasive species such as spotted lanternflies that destroy some ornamental plants regularly make the news.  Social safety nets in many developed countries are threatened by population decline.  New epidemics such as COVID-19 cause great human harm and disrupt societies worldwide.

Societies have an interest in assessing the impact of such developments.  Here mathematics plays a vital role.  For a news story, one asks questions such as: How many workers per retiree will there be in 30 years?  What percentage of a population should be vaccinated against the flu to prevent outbreaks?  Mathematical techniques aim to answer broader questions such as: What is the expected age distribution in a population with current birth and death rates?  What is most effective in controlling a threatening epidemic: Isolation, daily precautions, or vaccination?  How can an invasive insect species be controlled: by trapping, or by introducing predators, or by disrupting its reproductive cycle?

The mathematical treatment of such questions has a long history.  The famous Fibonacci sequence came out of an attempt to describe the growth of idealized rabbit populations, published by Leonardo Bonacci of Pisa in 1202.  Mathematical models for epidemics were developed early in the 20th century, as were models for competing and cooperating populations of animals and plants.  In this course, Professor Engler shall introduce some of these techniques and show insights from their study, as well as some of their limitations.  The first class session will be about the dynamics of populations, followed by models for epidemics in the second session and by descriptions of interacting populations in the last session.

Hans Engler was born in Germany and received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Heidelberg in 1981. He came to the US for postdoctoral training later that year and began teaching at Georgetown in 1984. He served as mathematics department chair in the 1990s and started two masters programs in applied mathematics and in data analytics in the following decades. He also worked for several tours as a program officer at the National Science Foundation, held guest scientist appointments at NIST and NOAA, and worked as a consultant. His scientific interests are in applied mathematics and data science, with applications in climate science. Together with Hans Kaper, he wrote a textbook on mathematics and climate, published by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics in 2013. He lives in Bethesda, MD with his wife. Together they have two adult children and a grandson.

On Macbeth

Dr. Michael Collins

Teaching Professor of English Emeritus

Wednesdays, October 8, 15, 22, and 29

2:00 – 3:30 pm ET on Zoom

Registration Closes at Noon on Friday, September 26

Macbeth is Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy, and it is also one of his most popular. It traces the violent seizure of power, the tyrannical regime that follows, and the apparent restoration of justice at the end. It is a political study but also, in its presentation of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, a moral and psychological study as well.

Class 1: Macbeth and the Critics

Class 2: Macbeth and Lady Macbeth (Act 1, Scene 7).

Class 3: Lady Macduff, Macduff, Lady Macbeth (Act 4, Scene 2/3, Act 5, Scene 1)

Class 4: Macbeth: Tragedy or Morality Play?

Participants might want to read the play before the first class and/or watch one of the many filmed versions of it.

Michael Collins is Professor in the Department of English. He is an expert on Shakespeare; British theatre since 1950; Anglo-Welsh poetry. Articles on Shakespeare (focus on performance and pedagogy), Anglo-Welsh poetry, and American literature. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from New York University and his B.A. from Fordham College. Professor Collins publications include: Editor, Shakespeare’s Sweet Thunder: Essays on the Early Comedies (Delaware, 1997).

Higher Education Landscape

Dr. Chester Gillis

Professor of Theology Emeritus and Dean Emeritus, College of Arts and Sciences

Thursdays, October 9, 16, and 23

11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET on Zoom

Registration Closes at Noon on Friday, September 26

Higher education has never been more in the news than today.  The landscape is changing from Harvard to community colleges.  Some of these changes are generated from within institutions, but most are coming from outside: the Trump administration, watch dog groups, parents, corporations, and state legislatures, to name a few. These are challenging times for community colleges, colleges, and universities. The pressure on university boards, presidents, provosts, deans, and faculty are unprecedented.

My time as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Georgetown and as Provost at Saint Louis University provided an inside view of how universities function. 

This course will examine several aspects of higher education.

Session One: Thursday, October 9

It Starts in High School

  • Grade inflation
  • Soaring Applications
  • Admissions Statistics

Session Two: Thursday, October 16

Higher Education Finances

  • Tuition, Tuition Discount, Scholarships
  • Endowments
  • Cost of running a university

Session Three: Thursday, October 23

Government Oversight/Intervention

  • Reducing state funding
  • Cutting grants
  • Limiting financial aid vehicles
  • In-State vs Out-of-State
  • Limiting visas and foreign students
  • Ignoring shared governance
  • Putting political appointees on university boards
  • Forcing university presidents out
  • Prioritizing job skills over intrinsic value of education

Chester Gillis is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies.  He is the initial holder of the Amaturo Chair in Catholic Studies and the founding director for the Program on the Church and Interreligious Dialogue at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. At Georgetown, he served as Department Chair and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, and as Provost at St. Louis University.

He is the author of A Question of Final Belief: John Hick’s Pluralistic Theory of Salvation (1989), Pluralism: A New Paradigm for Theology (1993), Roman Catholicism in America (1999), Catholic Faith in America (2003), and editor of The Political Papacy (2006).  The second edition of his Roman Catholicism in America was published by Columbia University press in 2020. He is co-editor of the Columbia University series Religion and Politics.

He received Ph.B. and Ph. L. degrees in Philosophy and M.A. in Religious Studies from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and his Ph.D. in Theology from the University of Chicago.

Understanding People Living with Alzheimer’s Disease: A Psychosocial Approach

Dr. Steven Sabat

Professor of Psychology Emeritus

Mondays, November 3, 10, and 17

11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET on Zoom

Registration Closes at Noon on Friday, October 24

In this course, Professor Sabat shall present a bio-psycho-social approach to understanding people living with Alzheimer’s disease.  There is a difference between understanding what Oliver Sacks called, “the disease a person has” and “the person the disease has”.  Most of what is presented in the mass media is concerned with the former, far less with the latter.  Alzheimer’s disease is something that is experienced by the person diagnosed as well as that person’s family and friends.  To live with the effects of this disease requires that we understand (a) the effects of the brain damage caused by the disease, (b) the perspective –the subjective experience– of the person diagnosed, and (c) how family and friends can support the person diagnosed as best they can.  In this course, Professor Sabat will introduce people in the class to these crucial areas of concern.

Steven R. Sabat has been at Georgetown University since earning his doctorate at the City University of New York, where he specialized in Neuropsychology. The main focus of his research has been the intact cognitive and social abilities (including aspects of selfhood) of people with Alzheimer’s disease in the moderate to severe stages of the disease, the subjective experience of having the disease, and the ways in which communication between those diagnosed and their caregivers may be enhanced. In addition, his interests include the epistemological basis of our understanding of the effects of brain injury on human beings. He has explored all of these issues in numerous scientific journal articles, in The Experience of Alzheimer’s Disease: Life Through a Tangled Veil (Blackwell, 2001), and in his co-edited book, Dementia: Mind, Meaning, and the Person (Oxford University Press, 2006).

Tariffs and Trade Deficits: Understanding Trump’s Economics

Dr. Stanley Nollen

Professor of Business Emeritus

Wednesdays, November 5, 12, and 19

11:00 am – 12:30 pm ET on Zoom

Registration Closes at Noon on Friday, October 24

The course is a non-partisan objective analysis of what mainstream settled economics says about how tariffs work and what causes trade deficits.  We try to cut through the fog of arguments and counter- arguments we read and hear about US international trade policy.  We leave politics out.  We don’t take sides.  We look at the events of 2025 to date, and the experience of the past.

Topics

Tariffs

  • History repeats itself
  • How high are tariffs now?  Not as high as you think
  • Who pays for tariffs?  Them or us?  Who is us?
  • Why are tariffs popular? Economic reasons
  • Do tariffs cause price inflation?
  • When are tariffs a good thing?

Trade Deficits

  • What exactly is a trade deficit?
  • Trade deficits in the US over time: Nonstop for 50 years
  • Should we care if the US has a trade deficit?
  • What causes trade deficits?  Them or us?
  • Do tariffs eliminate trade deficits?
  • Do we want a strong dollar?  Or a weak dollar?

How the Sessions Work

We make use of PowerPoint slides in the sessions, but they are few in number and mostly graphics. We want a great deal of interaction among the participants.  Professor Nollen will ask questions as well as give information.

Please speak out with your contributions.  There is no specified reading list, but we will make use of recent news about US and other countries’ trade policies and opinion articles in the press.

Professor Nollen’s field of research and teaching is international business.  He studies firms and industries in emerging market economies and has directed foreign study programs in Delhi, Bangalore, Dubai, Ho Chi Minh City, Prague, and Seoul.  He has been a visiting professor at the London School of Economics and the University of Antwerp, with Fulbright fellowships in Delhi and Prague.

His recent published research is about software and hardware industries in India and China, and about the transition of firms in the Czech Republic.  Publication outlets for his articles include the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Development Studies, International Organization, Industrial Relations, and Harvard Business Review, and books from Stanford University Press with the World Bank, and Sage.

Professor Nollen twice received Fulbright awards in Delhi and in Prague. He was an academic visitor at the London School of Economics and at Universiteit Antwerpen. Professor Nollen teaches courses in international business and in macro- and micro-economics.  He has won MBA teaching awards four times.