Share your opinions in any of our upcoming current events and politics discussion groups and expand your knowledge of national and international issues through expert-led lectures. New in-person and online sessions begin the week of March 19, 2023.

Let's Talk Current Events: Topics in the News offers stimulating conversation with a group of curious, well-informed and friendly news junkies. Alfred Hunt leads online Wednesday morning sessions (Course 11766) and Thursday morning sessions (Course 11777) that resume this coming week. Edward Ginsberg runs the in-person Tuesday morning sessions (Course 11785) that begin on March 28, 2023.

Ginsberg will also introduce Moral Dilemmas, Case Studies in Justice, Ethics, and Morality (Course 11901), a five-week morning class beginning on Monday, April 24, 2023. Modeled after Harvard political theorist Michael Sandel's famous socratic course and companion book, Justice: What's the Right Thing to Do?, this discussion class will tackle a different moral dilemma each session and examine all angles of complex real world scenarios in which the answers are not clear and decisions have dramatic consequences. Case studies to be pondered include the case for cannibalism in a lifeboat, "ownership" of Baby M. in the free market economy, and crashing the stage in response to odious free speech.

David Cheney returns to the faculty this term to lead a brand new Foreign Affairs Discussion Group (Course 11760). In the span of eight Wednesday afternoon sessions spread out over three months, students will have the opportunity to engage in lively debate with fellow foreign affairs enthusiasts. Students will receive an article or two before each class to help inform the conversation. Topics may include US-China relations, whether the International Monetary Fund and World Bank are still relevant, and the Middle East, twelve years after the Arab Spring.

Cheney will also be lecturing on the subjects of Gross National Happiness: Rethinking What a Healthy Economy Means (Course 11759) on Wednesday evening, April 26, 2023, and on The New World Order: Will the US Lead It? (Course 11897) on Wednesday morning, May 31, 2023.

New to SAS, chemical engineer Peter Spitz will begin a two-week afternoon conversation about Global Warming Mitigation: What is Being Done? (Course 11789) starting on Wednesday, May 17, 2023. Examine the progress or lack thereof in controlling the sources of carbon dioxide emissions that have been contributing to the rise in atmospheric temperature and ocean levels.

Also this spring is the next installment of World Politics with Ralph Buultjens (Course 11892) in the evening of Thursday, May 18, 2023. Tune in to hear what the renowned professor and media commentator has to say about whatever is making headlines at that time.

All upcoming classes are listed in our Printer-Friendly, Interactive Version of our Spring/Summer 2023 Catalog. New classes are added regularly.