Cornell's Adult University - School of Continuing Education and ...

Please register for one course per person per week.
Week 4 July 31–August 6
Politics on Trial:
From Anarchist to Suffragist to Dictator
Glenn C. Altschuler and Faust Rossi
For good or ill, and perhaps inevitably, politics often enters the courtroom.
In a brand new version of their now legendary CAU “Great
Trials” course, Cornell Vice President Glenn Altschuler, the Thomas
and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies, and Faust Rossi,
the Samuel S. Liebowitz Professor of Trial Techniques, will focus on
the Haymarket Trial and the trials of suffragist Alice Paul, Tokyo Rose,
Angela Davis, Oliver North, and Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega.
All of these proceedings raise issues that are less about the wrongdoings
of the accused than illustrations of the political forces that shaped and/
or determined the verdicts, putting those politics and the justice system
themselves on trial. Glenn and Faust will allow plenty of time for warm
discussion and debate, so come prepared to engage!
New York and the Iroquois:
Historical Roots of Contemporary Conflicts
Jon W. Parmenter
The Finger Lakes region surrounding Ithaca was within the homelands
of the Iroquois people—the Haudenosaunee, or “people of the longhouse”—when
Europeans first arrived in North America. Unlike many
areas of the eastern United States, New York remains home to thousands
of indigenous peoples, members of the Iroquois League (consisting of six
allied nations: Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, Senecas, and
Tuscaroras), who in recent years have begun to assert their sovereign
nationhood in new and challenging ways. Cornell, Cayuga Lake, and
their environs provide a wonderful setting for this course that explores
the historical background of such current conflicts as land claims, casino
gaming, taxation, and border-crossing rights. Jon Parmenter, associate
professor of history and author of The Edge of the Woods: Iroquoia,
1534-1701 (2010), will enrich our understanding of these clashes by
illuminating their complex origins.
Evolution, Creationism, and the History of the Earth
Warren D. Allmon
The evolution vs. creationism “debate” is frequently seen as little more
than a side-skirmish in the larger culture wars. But it is much more than
that. It challenges substantial portions of many fields of modern science.
It is also both central and symbolic to the wider controversy about the
meaning, role, and practice of all fields of science in modern society.
With dynamic Warren Allmon, geologist, paleontologist, naturalist, and
director of Ithaca’s Paleontological Research Institution, we will explore
the varied landscape of modern creationism—mostly in America—and
discuss not just why it isn’t science, but also why so many people think
that it is. We’ll spend much of the week in the classroom, but we’ll also
take opportunities to see and touch the abundant physical evidence of
the history of Earth at both the Museum of the Earth and on a walk
through a local gorge.