GCU’s McAuley Institute Pays Tribute to Women’s History Month with Women in Film

Celebrate Women’s History Month with an exploration of the role of women in cinema. Georgian Court University’s McAuley Institute for Lifelong Learning (MILL) offers a four-session course to discuss women in films from around the world with an emphasis on political, religious, cultural, and social issues. This course will be led by instructor Lisa Festa, Ph.D., GCU associate professor of art history.

Dr. Festa, who teaches a similar world perspectives course for GCU undergraduates, explains that the curriculum evolved from wanting to show young Americans that women have been in some difficult situations, noting that the need for this recognition is not limited to the young.

“Spin the globe, pick a country, pick a century, and let’s see how women were treated,” says Dr. Festa. “In some cases, I would argue that it was how they allowed themselves to be treated. Today, we would not allow ourselves to be treated in the ways we see in these films.”

The course has four Monday sessions in March; each will focus on two movies that participants should watch independently prior to the discussion:

•    March 4: The Piano (1993, New Zealand) & Whale Rider (2002, New Zealand)

•    March 11: Swept Away (1974, Italy) & Kadosh (1999, Israel)

•    March 18: Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2011, China) & Like Water for Chocolate (1992, Mexico)

•    March 25: The Joy Luck Club (1993, China) & Memoirs of a Geisha (2005, U.S., set in Japan)

“The film pairs have common threads, so the students will learn to look at them through the lens of other characters that lived in different countries in different eras,” says Dr. Festa.

Each session will take place from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. on GCU’s Lakewood campus and costs $20 per session per MILL member and $45 per session per non-MILL member. Annual MILL membership is just $25. As each session is priced individually, participants can choose all or certain preferred sessions.

The class is one of more than more than 25 courses and programs for adults ages 50 and above offered by the MILL program in the Spring 2013 semester. Combining social interaction and learning without tests or homework, MILL offers social events for members and courses in subjects ranging from golf, T’ai Chi Chih®, and holistic home remedies to Twitter 101, Einstein, and the Korean War.

Pre-registration is required for all courses and may be done online at alumni.georgian.edu/mill. Registration forms for mailing and a complete schedule of all courses can be found at www.georgian.edu/mcauley. Room information for all MILL courses will be provided upon registration. For more information, please contact Alice Velez, MILL program specialist, at 732.987.2201.

About the McAuley Institute for Lifelong Learning at Georgian Court University
The McAuley Institute is a community education program designed for adults, ages 50 and above, who have a passion for learning and want to foster successful aging through continued education and socialization. MILL members also attend social networking events and invitation-only activities with headline guests who appear at GCU throughout the year. MILL sponsors for the 2012–2013 academic year include the Florian J. Lombardi Foundation Inc. and Creative Financial Group of New Jersey. Learn more about the McAuley Institute for Lifelong Learning by contacting Alice Velez, MILL program specialist, at 732.987.2201 or avelez@georgian.edu. Registration forms and detailed course listings are available online at www.georgian.edu/mcauley, and online registration is available at alumni.georgian.edu/mill.