A class of one's own

UVA’s founder believed it was never too late to learn. With enrollment deadlines passed and classes underway, that may not necessarily feel true. However, we can’t help but stare longingly at this year’s course offerings and plot ways to infiltrate a few compelling classes. Here are some that piqued our curiosity.

 

Instructor: Anselmo Canfora

Witness firsthand what the Architecture School can do with a $2.5 million grant intended for re-designing housing opportunities in Southside Virginia. The Virginia Tobacco Commission Indemnification & Community Revitalization awarded the grant, which was created to promote new jobs in former tobacco communities.

 

Instructor: William Bennett

Bennett’s recent collaboration with students and community members, called “Byron’s Telescope,” received local and national attention, and promises to help viewers “witness the beauty, terror, death and resurrection of life.” A good reason to get your hands dirty.

 

Instructor: Deborah Roach

Roach’s interest in researching human aging leads to two questions. “First, how universal is aging?” asks Roach on her website. “Secondly, if a species is identified that can escape aging, what unique biological features allow it to do so?” Have the answers? If not, this could be a good way to find ’em.

 

Instructor: William Shobe

Shobe, co-designer of the U.S.’s first carbon auction, and an EPA grant recipient, teaches this course on “the origins of environmental problems,” as well as how we currently quantify and regulate them. Topics include “air and water pollution, climate change, the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, and sustainable development,” according to UVA’s Economics Department.

 

Instructor: Lisa Russ Spaar

The Guggenheim fellow’s seminar on ecstatic poetry is solely for “serious makers and readers of poems,” according to the English Department’s website. The course “will explore the poetics and poetry of fervor—erotic, visionary, psychosomatic, negative, religious, mystical,” and features work by authors from Sappho and Dickinson to Whitman and Ginsberg.

 

Instructor: Peter Onuf

A host of the award-winning show “BackStory with the American History Guys” takes on Charlottesville’s patron saint. The course description promises to delve into titillating information about “various controversies surrounding Jefferson, including his relationships with women, and his attitudes and actions toward blacks, slavery and Native Americans.

 

Instructor: Alon Confino

Confino, recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for his Holocaust studies, teaches this course on “a historical problem of history and of memory.” The seminar promises to analyze its two namesake issues “as well as their diverse causes, transnational aspects, and links to human rights history.” 

 

Instructor: David Sheffler

Ever wanted to use a three-dimension printer to create some pretty heavy machinery? Take Sheffler’s course on jet engine design. Popular Mechanics Online took note of the unique hands-on experience offered by both the class and its technology; so should you.