History & Current Events   

In 1932 Aldous Huxley created an imaginary future to examine the benefits and liabilities of living in a eutopia based on peace, prosperity, and stability. Does the quest for happiness conflict with liberty, knowledge, and progress? Join this learning through conversation seminar as we explore a future world order organized according to the alleged principles of Henry Ford. Published 92 years ago, Huxley's masterpiece confronts many of today's national and global issues.

We will consider the bloody revolution in Algeria in 1954 to 1962 against the French colonial power. The rebellion brought death or displacement to 9 million natives, exiled 1 million colonists, brought Camus to despair, delivered a bomb to Sartre's apartment, returned de Gaulle to power, and destroyed the Fourth Republic.

This class will examine the art and architecture of later South Asia (India and Pakistan) from the time of the introduction of Islam in 711 CE to the present. We will consider the social, religious, and political context for the various monuments. Special focus will be given to the Mughal Dynasty and the culture that influenced the creation of Taj Mahal.

Chico State's tradition of academic excellence goes back more than 130 years. With over 850 faculty members and 13,000 students, the University's teaching and learning community is thriving. Discover the imagination, cutting-edge research, and expertise that flourishes in our own backyard!

A scintillating review of current themes in the media will be discussed in each class. Class members present a topic, discuss it, then open the floor for discussion and debate. Poetry, literature, scientific discovery, and educational progress are examples of the issues addressed. Special guests are welcome to present.

American folk music experienced a commercial revival from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. Its roots in support of the labor movement, and later embrace of anti-war protest songs, earned many performers the label of "communist pinkos." Other performers, however, cultivated a clean-cut, down-home, all-American image. We will explore the history of this dichotomy, then play and sing the songs known collectively as "folk music." Bring your instruments, your voice, and your curiosity. Leave your inhibitions at home and be prepared to have a good time!

"Great Decisions" is the Foreign Policy Association's public education program about US foreign policy and global affairs issues. We will cover four of the Foreign Policy Association's topics and add some additional topics that are of interest to the class.

Join us for history and a hike. We will be treated to viewing the Jonesville Hotel with a local historian and resident. We will then hike in the meadows near the creek in Jonesville for about 5 miles at roughly 5500' elevation. Be prepared for uneven ground.

Join us for two outdoor adventures, each approximately 1-3 miles on flat, even surfaces, as we explore interesting spaces in our community. We'll meander at a leisurely pace learning about the flora, fauna, history, and other highlights in the areas we are visiting. Participants should be comfortable walking at least a mile and standing for about two hours.

W.B. Yeats, in his essay "The Celtic Element In Literature," spoke of visions of a world expressed by people who "believed that trees were divine, and could take a human or grotesque shape and dance among the shadows." Once a powerful people who dominated much of Europe, the Celts were reduced to a few small groups after the Roman invasions. However, their mythology survived, thanks largely to the efforts of medieval Irish and Welsh monks who wrote down the stories.

Since the 2008 Great Recession the United States has faced three separate, but overlapping, crises: stagnant economic growth, accelerating domestic political polarization, and geopolitical challenges to its post-World War II hegemonic status. This class will examine how the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have addressed and/or contributed to those crises. The class will conclude with a focus on how those crises are affecting the 2024 presidential election.

Located at the corner of Fifth and Salem Streets, the Stansbury Home was built by Dr. Oscar Stansbury, a local physician, in 1883. Owned by the City of Chico since 1976, it is operated by the Stansbury Home Preservation Association as a historic house museum. This tour will include Dr. Stansbury's office, with its display of the tools used in his practice, as well as rooms used by the Stansbury family with original interiors and furnishings intact.

This is one part of a three-term presentation of David Blight's online Yale University class. Four broad themes are closely examined: the crisis of union and disunion in an expanding republic; slavery, race, and emancipation as a national problem, personal experience, and social process; the experience of modern, total war for individuals and society; and the political and social challenges of Reconstruction.

The class will present a brief history of the disposal of trash through time, regulations affecting the disposal of trash, and the history of the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility (landfill). Learn about the recycling and diversion of wastes from the landfill, landfill operations, monitoring, amounts of waste disposed, as well as effects of disasters, electrical power generation, equipment used, and the future of landfill and related topics.

The class will present a brief history of the disposal of trash through time, regulations affecting the disposal of trash, and the history of the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility (landfill). Learn about the recycling and diversion of wastes from the landfill, landfill operations, monitoring, amounts of waste disposed, as well as effects of disasters, electrical power generation, equipment used, and the future of landfill and related topics.