We’re excited to offer a fresh lineup of engaging courses designed for lifelong learners—and now, no membership is required!
One flat fee of $25 gives you access to all Summer 2025 courses.
Friends and family are welcome to join—feel free to invite others to learn with you!
In-Person and Online Courses
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You can download the Summer 2025 Course Catalog and follow the instructions inside to register by mail.
If you have questions or need assistance, please email us at linecregister@gmail.com.
We look forward to learning with you this summer—bring a friend!
Mondays, 10 am–12 pm | July 7 and July 14
Location: Lyons Center, New England Collece
Instructor: Maura MacNeil
This two-week writing workshop will instruct participants on how to express themselves effectively about places and their experience with places that are meaningful to them. The first session will provide writing prompts from which participants will write about a place or places of their choice. The second session will be a round-table discussion of participants’ writing based upon the prompts and of their achievement in expressing themselves through the written word.
Maura MacNeil is a Professor of Creative Writing at New England College. She is the author of three poetry collections, and her poetry, prose, and critical writing has been published and anthologized in numerous publications over the past three decades. She is on the roster of the NH Humanities to-Go program with her interactive writing program: Family, Memory, Place: Writing Family Stories.
Monday, 10 am–12 pm | July 21
Location: Lyons Center, New England College
Instructor: Dick Hesse
This one-day class will review the Supreme Court’s 2024-2025 term and will include a discussion of the most significant cases before it.
Dick Hesse is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Professor Emeritus of the University of New Hampshire Law School where he taught state and federal constitutional law and international human rights. He has been involved in several cases before the US Supreme Court.
Tuesdays, 10 am–12 pm | July 8 – July 29
Location: Zoom
Instructor: Sarah Traphagen
1788 was a scandalous year in New England. One Boston woman, Fanny Apthorp, committed suicide following an affair with her brother-in-law that produced an illegitimate child. Another woman, unmarried Elizabeth Whitman, perished at the Bell Tavern in Danvers after giving birth to a stillborn baby. Their seduction stories inspired America’s first novel, William Hill Brown’s The Power of Sympathy; or, The Triumph of Nature (1789), and a bestselling novel in its time, Hannah Webster Foster’s The Coquette; or, The History of Eliza Wharton (1797), respectively. We will read the novels and discuss the scandals’ circumstances, post-Revolution historical context, early American social roles and womanhood, as well as the texts’ cultural and literary influence.
Sarah Traphagen received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Florida. Her areas of expertise are American literature, history, and Civil War medicine. She has published in The Journal of Military Experience and The Journal of Working-Class Studies. She has taught at the University of Florida and in college preparatory schools. Currently, she is at home with her son.
Tuesdays, 1:30 pm–3:30 pm | July 8–July 29
Location: Lyons Center, New England College
Instructor: Glenn Stuart
We begin with a sonnet describing “…new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.” We end with a rhyming sestet describing the “glooming peace” that has now dawned in Verona. In between is a play filled with some of Shakespeare’s most soaring, beautiful verse and most enduring and memorable characters – Romeo and Juliet of course, but also Friar Lawrence, the Nurse, Tybalt, and Mercutio. If time permits, we will view both the 2010 Shakespeare’s Globe production directed by Dominic Dromgoole and the 2018 Royal Shakespeare production directed by Erica Whyman.
Glenn Stuart is a Professor of Theatre Emeritus at NEC, where he taught for 38 years, designed 125 theatre and dance productions, and was the founding director of the Open Door Theatre. He holds an MA in Theater from State University of New York, Albany. For a full list of his productions, see the full bio at LINEC.org.
Wednesdays, 10 am–11:30 am | July 9–July 30
Location: Lyons Center, New England College
Instructor: Stephen Elgert, MD, MS
This four-week course is a broad survey of the physiology of aging and the syndromes (pathology) associated with getting older. This could include looking at the cardiovascular, neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and urological systems and how each system may be affected by various pathologies peculiar to aging bodies. The class can be steered to relevant topics requested by attendees, although we will not be discussing individual diagnoses.
Stephen Elgert is a retired family physician with added qualifications in geriatrics. He also has a Master’s Degree in Quality Improvement from Dartmouth. He is married with three grown children and two granddaughters. Steve likes to hike, bike, sail, and do DIY projects.
Wednesdays, 1:30 pm–3 pm | July 4, July 2, and August 6
Location: Tucker Free Library, Henniker
Instructor: John McCausland
LINEC’s popular novel group is currently reading books selected from Britain’s prestigious Booker Prize lists. The group meets on the first Wednesday of each month, and new members are always welcome. The class meets informally around a table in the Henniker library, sharing their reactions to the works selected and connecting their themes to issues in our lives and world today. The June selection is Orbital, the 2025 winner, by Samantha Harvey. The July selection is Heat and Dust, the 1975 winner, by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. For August, the group will read The Sellout, the 2016 winner, by Paul Beatty.
John McCausland has taught LINEC courses on the Bible, Chaucer, and the American novel. An Episcopal priest and one-time lawyer, he loves history, literature, theology, teaching, and learning.
Wednesdays, 10 am–12 pm | July 10–July 31
Location: Lyons Center, New England College
Instructor: Don Melander
This four-week course will consider Mike Pride’s book Northern Voices: Forty Years on the Poetry Beat (2024), in which the late editor of The Concord Monitor discusses the poets Frost, McNair, Kumin, Hall, Kenyon, and Simic.
Don Melander is a Professor of English Emeritus at New England College (NEC), where he served as a professor of literature and humanities for over 50 years. At times he was Director of the British campus of NEC in Arundel, Sussex. He holds a PhD in American Literature from Syracuse University.
Fridays, 10 am–1 pm | July 11–August 1
Location: Science Building, New England College
Instructor: Don Melander
This four-week course continues last summer’s anthology of Clint Eastwood movies, this time as cinematic warrior. Films to be screened and discussed are Where Eagles Dare (1968), The Outlaw Josie Wales (1976), Firefox (1982), and Heartbreak Ridge (1986). Three of these films were directed by Eastwood. Where Eagles Dare was directed by Brian Hutton and starred Richard Burton and Mary Ure along with Eastwood.
Don Melander developed and taught a course at NEC called “Literature as Film, Film as Literature.” In the 1980s he and a colleague in history team-taught period courses in American culture in which they explored the possibilities of using movies as cultural “texts.” During the last decade of his career at NEC Don taught the film course for the Communications program.
