COURSE MEETS IN PERSON AT THE CONCORD CENTER
Humanity confronts four existential risks. Each has the potential to extinguesh our species, or leave survivors to struggle in an increasingly brutal competition for increasingly scarce resources: a deadly pandemic, nuclear war, global warming, and tyrannically regulated AI. How likely are these, and what must be done to protect ourselves? Class discussion will be facilitiated.
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Having lost most of its French Empire in 1204, the Plantagenet kings of England unleashed a fitful but persistent campaign of recovery and reconquest, now against a new French dynasty... the Valois. What had been a conflict between budding nation-states now devolved into a dynastic struggle for the crown of a united kingdom of England and France, formally known as the 100 Years War. Between 1337 and 1453, the smaller and weaker Kingdom of England continually punched up against the larger and stronger Kingdom of France, fighting and winning some of the greatest battles of the Late Middle Ages, but ultimately retiring to their island to prepare for the next round. They just couldn't quit one another.
ZOOM COURSE
Why was Picasso’s "Guernica" key to art history? How did Parker’s “Ornithology” upend jazz? This course studies eight early 20th century icons across disciplines: painting, music, poetry, &c. Rather than a rushed survey of “isms,” this deep dive approach to pioneers like Stravinsky, Faulkner and more shows modernism as a whole, while focusing on favorite “classic moderns."
Coffee will be a lens on climate change, social life, health, North–South dynamics, social and economic justice, tourism, and slavery. We will trace coffee from planting and processing through shipping and, ultimately, the drink in our cups. We will explore coffee’s history, its shift from elite beverage to everyday staple, and research on health, farmer income, and climate resilience. The instructor will share experiences from coffee farms around the world, discuss different brewing methods, and demonstrate how coffee is brewed.
Instructor: Robert Thurston
Robert Thurston, PhD, is Emeritus Professor of History at Miami University (Oxford, Ohio). He earned a BA in History from Northwestern University and a PhD in modern Russian history from the University of Michigan. His writing spans twentieth-century Russian/Soviet history, witch hunts (Europe and Salem), the body in the Anglosphere (1880–1920), and coffee as an economic and social force. A devoted coffee educator, he has opened a roastery and coffee shop and has visited coffee farms from Asia to South America.
Osher Online classes are held via Zoom and are not recorded.
We will discuss Lorraine Hansberry’s play, A Raisin in the Sun, that powerfully addresses housing discrimination in the mid 20th century. We will uncover the many darkly funny and insightful moments in this play and see the beauty of her writing. I will use Imani Perry’s biography of Hansberry (Looking for Lorriane) to show how the complexities of the playwright’s life are reflected in her writing.
Reading of the play and biography are optional (not required).
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CAL STATE EAST BAY OLLI