OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING INSTITUTE

OLLI Winter Course Descriptions, Student Photographs

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) is a program that recognizes learning has no age limits. Courses cover a wide variety of educational topics, and do not include tests or grades. Students enroll simply to enrich themselves. For more information on OLLI, or to enroll in a class, visit the website at http://www.sonoma.edu/exed/lifelong/default.html.

Photos featured on this page were taken by Don Whistler, a student of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. His photos capture buildings such as the Schulz Information Center and Stevenson, surrounded by the foliage that makes our campus such a pleasant place to work, learn and live.

Winter 2009 courses are as follows:

Monday: World History, "From the Silk Road to Globalization: How Trade Shapes the World"

Travel with age-old traders of silk and spices to the modern day transportation of oil across Central Asia; see how disease and despotism accompanied trade, how tribes and nations were influenced by commerce and capitalism; examine various legacies of this drive for trade, and how commerce has shaped religion, politics and culture in both ancient and modern times.
Instructor: Gloria Neumeier, M.A.

Monday: Music and Film, "Jazz on Film and Video"

Learn about the role of jazz in American culture and experience the music more deeply; view documentaries, footage of performances, encounters with jazz musicians in rehearsal, recordings, and daily life, animation that depends on jazz for its mood, and excerpts from feature films--all showing how filmmakers and musicians see the "jazz life".
Instructor: Len Lyons, Ph.D.

Tuesday: Writing, "The Art and Craft of Memoir"

Read short memoirs, both poetry and prose, to jog memories and explore this important genre of writing; look, revise and share personal memoirs; no previous experience of writing memoir required.
Instructor: Fran Claggett, M. A.

Tuesday: Art and History, " Art of the Italian Renaissance"

Study the art of Giotto's frescoes, Masaccio and Mantagna's paintings, and Donatello's sculpture; culminate with Michelangelo's brooding work for the 16th century Papacy.
Instructor: Heidi Chretien, Ph.D.

Wednesday: History and Culture, "An Image of our Soul: A History of Sicily at 230 Years per Hour"

Travel more than three thousand years through the history of Sicily; conclude with the mass movement of Sicilians to America, and the fantasy Sicily of Francis Ford Coppola and Al Pacino. Instructor: Douglas Kenning, Ph.D.

Wednesday: Sociology, "War, Peace and the News Media"

Look at the counterpoints between past and current media, politics and public diplomacy over a period of five decades; study how the media sets the news agenda and demonizes the "other"; observe how presidents, their political allies and the press have repeatedly led this country to war using slanted or "spun" information; draws heavily on the instructor's book, "War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death".
Instructor: Norman Solomon

Thursday: Biology, "The Tree of Life: The Biological Revolution Since Darwin"

Aim to define the evolutionary relationships of Earth's organisms and learn about the four recent advances in Biology that enhance our ability to conduct research efficiently and collect data in great numbers.
Instructor: Bernie Goldstein, Ph.D.

Thursday: Medical Science, "Balancing Act: Medical Ethics in an Era of Biotechnology"

Cover the theory, history and applications of modern bioethics, its fundamental assumptions such as patient autonomy, informed consent, and fairness doctrines; examine how these principles shape medical decision-making and ethical/legal challenges posed by dramatic but expensive medical innovations and the spiraling costs of health.
Instructor: Michael Thaler, M.D.