In-Person Courses   

Is Barbara Stanwyck the greatest actor of the 20th century? This class will explore Stanwyck’s range and longevity by viewing and analyzing five films. We begin with one of the most daring dramas of the brief pre-code era, and end with the better of the two Hollywood movies that go by the name Titanic. In between, we will try to capture that amazing range, from screwball comedy to Gothic noir to one of the saddest, most poignant Christmas movies ever made (don’t worry, there is a happy ending).

Increased life expectancy, an emphasis on active aging, and the coexistence of many generations have opened uncharted territories to all ages. Consequently, new possibilities of configuring and combining present experiences, memories, desires, projects, and legacies have become available, particularly to older adults. The main goal of this course is to offer tools and stimuli that will allow participants to reexamine their life paths in a creative way and learn how to move fluently across life stages. Following many suggestions and prompts (songs, objects, readings, and paintings), participants will create short written texts, which will be shared and commented on.

Playwrights do many things. They philosophize, entertain, reflect on current events, and break new ground. This course will deal with recent plays that have become headliners, award winners, and critical successes. We will study how they work, how they differ from earlier forms, and whether they deserve their accolades. Mostly we will get close up, imagining staging and acting, to bring them to life in the stages of our minds. Members will prepare for class by reading the plays and coming to class ready to dig in.

Dracula is the vampire who has dominated our imaginations since his creation in 1897; when asked to picture a vampire, most think of a tall, dark haired aristocratic man wearing evening dress and a long black cape. But what of the vampires that came before him? Bram Stoker, the author of Dracula, openly noted the influence of a vampire novella written by his fellow Irishman, Sheridan Le Fanu, called Carmilla. This course will explore various genres to examine vampires' origins in Eastern European Orthodox folklore to its Western Gothic transformations. Along the way, we’ll meet a couple of historical vampires: Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Bathory.

Poverty is a serious problem for all racial groups in America. In this course, each week will feature a different recent book on poverty conditions, causes, and solutions. The books are White Poverty (Barber and Wilson-Hartgrove), Poverty, By America (Matthew Desmond), Injustice of Place (Kathryn Edin et al.), Poverty in the Pandemic (Zachary Parolin), and Broke in America (Goldblum and Shaddox). The class will be asked to read each week’s book or at least a book review and participate in the discussion.

NOTE: This course will be hybrid, meeting in the Community Engagement Center in Homewood and on Zoom.

From reading The Heart is a Lonely Hunter and The Member of the Wedding, participants will learn much about McCullers and her themes. McCullers explores the immense complexity of love in all its permutations and combinations, long before gender diversity became a culture wars battleground. She takes us into the lives of literary characters not typical of the time, including the deaf and non-verbal, alcoholics, and cross-dressers. Without becoming preachy, McCullers shows Black characters attaining dignity in the face of an abusive system, basing her narratives on growing up in Columbus, Georgia long before the Civil Rights Movement.

The course will be a lecture series on the challenges to making foreign policy today and will consist of five talks followed by discussion. The topics may change since they depend, in part, on current events, but they could include: why foreign policy is harder to make today; where ambassadors come from, where they go, and why they still matter; intelligence and foreign policy; the evolution of conflict and the impossibility of effective peacekeeping; the Iran nuclear deal and what it says about how foreign policy is made; and why it is hard to have a treaty with anyone anymore.

Even though the upcoming election is a re-match of the 2020 candidates, its importance to the future of America is unprecedented. This course will explore the timely topic of what constitutes a democracy by identifying the hallmarks of a democratic system and determining their status in current-day America. The course will include an international perspective, comparing the political systems of other countries around the world with that of the United States. The last week of the course will consider election results and their potential scenarios.

This course will explore domed structures through history, from the ancient world to the present. Each of the lectures will present two or more domes, looking into not only their structure and construction, but also who built them and why. The zoom lectures will be richly illustrated with photos and diagrams. Comparisons of the 10+ structures will be made regarding size (plan and volume) and construction methodology. All the domed structures in the course are extant (except one) so lectures will include current photography and current uses.

Ekphrastic poetry is inspired by a work of art, either real or imagined. It can be a poem about the beautiful subject of a portrait, the thoughts of a dog in a landscape, a child outside the frame of a picture, or a plum in a still life sink. In this course, we will discuss the interrelation between the artist and the artwork, and the poet and the poem. Some of the artists we will look at include O'Keefe, Rembrandt, Brueghel, and Klimt; the poets include Sasha Pimentel, I.A. Fanthorpe, May Swenson, and W.H. Auden. To conclude the course, students who wish to write an ekphrastic poem will have the chance to present it and the artwork on the last day of class.

In this course, students will learn, examine, and practice a special few of the over 60 types of poems. Students will practice tools essential to poetry, understanding that these techniques improve all writing. Specific forms to be covered include clerihew, couplet, triplet, quatrain, limerick, rap, rondeaux, and sonnet.

NOTE: This in-person course will take place at the Community Engagement Center in Homewood.

The world has long been dominated by capitalism. But mainstream debates about current global inequalities and environmental dangers often avoid mentioning it altogether or exclude the extensive scholarship that looks critically at its class dynamics and their relation to contemporary concerns. We will explore what this excluded scholarship can offer, especially when it is used expansively to engage the interplay of class and other inequalities, the cultural, political, and ecological dimensions of these relations alongside their economic ones, and the significance of capitalism’s repeated crises.

This course, appropriate for members of any level, begins by teaching the basic figures used in English country dancing and practices them in the context of beautiful historic and modern dance compositions. Members will explore the grace, elegance, and playfulness of this dance form (think of Pride & Prejudice). No partner or experience necessary. Participants will regularly switch partners in our dance sessions. Be prepared for physical, mental, and social stimulation! The focus will be on dancing and enjoying moving with the music.

Despite one director’s tongue-in-cheek dismissal of foreign cinema (“I make movies. Leave filmmaking to the French!”), we will discuss films that indeed include foreign locations, subtitles, and boast as being some of the best movies ever made. We will consider how foreign films differ from their American counterparts in style, tone, sensibility, and more.  NOTE: OLLI members needn't have taken Foreign Films to enjoy Foreign Films: Part 2, whose new round-up will include La Strada, A Man and a Woman, The Vanishing, Rashomon, and The Seventh Seal.

Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird can enthrall, educate, change, and yet always remains relevant. Its appeal comes from lively, iconic characters, Harper Lee’s understanding of humanity, and her brilliant choice to offer a child’s point of view. By reading an average of six chapters per week, we will see with Scout’s innocent eyes bigotry and racism, friendship and loyalty, and truth and secrets revealed. Whether reading this novel for the first time or enjoying a reread, members’ epiphanies and appreciation can increase with reflection and discussion of this acclaimed American masterpiece.

In our quest for approval during the first half of our lives, we often conform to expectations. Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist, stated that beginning in the second half of our lives there arises a deep calling to develop the "undeveloped" parts of ourselves—a journey toward wholeness. Those who take the journey to discover their authentic selves experience an awakening, a rebirth, a freedom. This course will provide an overview of Swiss psychologist Carl Jung’s work on the psyche and self, discovering why in the second half of our lives we experience a calling to develop our undeveloped selves.

Once looked upon as simply a writer of fantastic adventures, J.R.R. Tolkien is increasingly acknowledged as one of the 20th century’s most important literary figures, one who used the genre of fantasy to examine important issues of religion and morality. In this course, we will examine Tolkien’s key works as well as some other writings and discuss his influence on fantasy and popular culture. The course is ideal for long-time Tolkien fans who want to explore his works in more depth, as well as those who have never read him and are curious.

It's easy to imagine an actor with Paul Newman's looks launching a Hollywood career. But the star's decades-long staying power doesn't stem from looks alone. Newman's acting chops have let him pick fascinating roles and characters driven by complex impulses, making for unforgettable performances. We'll watch and discuss a varied sampling of his work, including The Hustler, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Hud, Hombre, and The Color of Money.

What did it mean to be a "follower of the Christ" in the Roman Empire in the first century? This course undertakes a close reading of the letters of Paul the Apostle (as our primary evidence), drawing upon critical methods of analysis in modern New Testament and historical interpretation. Paul is often described as the true "founder" of the religion of Christianity, and we will explore the way in which his writings came to influence the later Church. We also survey the cultural context of his communities and the ways in which this culture may have contributed to Paul's thinking, specifically in relation to "salvation," women, and the role of the early Christians as citizens of the Empire.

 

Do the current presidential election and primary campaigns seem to be particularly nasty, negative, and even scary? How do they compare with campaigns of the past? This course examines presidential campaigns from the beginning of the Republic to the present, including the process of picking presidential candidates.

NOTE: the time on this class has been changed from the original time in the catalog. It is now 11:00am-12:40pm. If you do not wish to remain in the class, please contact Osher@pitt.edu.

This course will start with an examination of the factors that led to the appearance of tall buildings in American cities. Among those factors were the use of new materials such as iron and steel, new technologies such as the passenger elevator, and, finally, the economic pressures which made tall buildings practical. The remaining sessions will cover skyscraper development in chronological order: the late-19th and early-20th century, the period between the two world wars, mid-20th century, and recent trends.

Classical music history swings like a pendulum between simplicity and complexity. The intricate musical fabric of the Baroque era was followed by the simplicity and balance of Classicism, quickly moving forward to expressive Romanticism and beyond. This balance mirrors the way we communicate, dress, and live. We will travel classical music history’s winding road, interpreting the simple and complex sights along the way.

Laughter. Curiosity. Play. That is improv! Imagine that for 90 minutes, everything you say or do will be absolutely right—you cannot make a mistake. Games and scenes are inspired by your life experiences or made up on the spot. “Yes, and” means you agree with whatever suggestion your partner offers, then add something of your own to move the action forward. You make your partner look good. Your partner does the same for you. Everyone shines. You leave refreshed with the sound of laughter to brighten your day.

Do you want to stretch your creativity in fun new ways? This hands-on art course will have you experimenting with collage, drawing, music, and writing on the edge of your imagination. Discover unusual approaches guaranteed to have you looking at yourself and your world with new eyes. No previous experience necessary—just a willingness to play!

What do we mean by the American Dream? Has the concept changed from its historical ideas to 21st century ones, and what does that imply about our contemporary lives? In Arthur Miller's All My Sons and Thornton Wilder's Our Town, we explore conflicting views about what that iconic phrase means to us now. We will read, analyze, and discuss the motifs in the plays, the dramatists' perspectives, and how they may or may not resonate with our own reactions.

It was once thought that our Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic forbears (the peoples emerging from the last Ice Age) foraged around in small hunter-gatherer bands for thousands of years until the discovery and practice of agriculture. Agricultural surpluses then led to cities, social classes, and writing. An anthropologist and an archeologist have written a book, The Dawn of Everything, that puts together evidence from their disciplines to create a revised picture of our pre-history. They see much more experimentation and social self-awareness in early peoples than pre-historians have hitherto assumed in these ‘primitive’ peoples.

This course will analyze the intersection between politics and economics and how they affect both elections and markets alike. How do our political choices affect our economic reality, and vice versa? What roles can public institutions like Congress or the Federal Reserve play in maintaining and growing our economy? What roles should free market companies have in shaping the political arena? We will analyze both history and current events in the lead-up to the 2024 elections and try to understand how these critical choices can alter our lives and our nation.

Traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and herbal prescriptions, has been in continuous use in the world from 3,000 years ago to the present day. In the West we know it mainly by its technologies: acupuncture, cupping, massage, and herbs, but the real magic lies in its theories and philosophies about health and the role of humans in the universe. This course explores the theory and practice of Chinese medicine and how to apply this knowledge to understanding your own health.

This course offers a deep dive into the fundamentals of the Internet, tailored for adults 50 and older. Members will explore the evolution of the Internet, from its architecture and network structures to the latest in Web 4.0 and 5G technologies. Emphasis will be on practical applications in education, digital citizenship, and safe online practices. Interactive sessions will cover essential concepts, the role of cloud computing in education, and the impact of artificial intelligence on future learning. No prior technical experience is required, making this an enriching journey into the digital age.

The United States has historically been both a nation of immigrants and a nation wary of them. This course will explore the history of immigration to the United States, paying close attention to the paradoxes and ironies that have defined that history since the nation’s earliest days. We will trace changing migration patterns, examine the development of citizenship as a social and political construct, explain changes in immigration policy over time and their (intended and unintended) consequences, discover the roots of nativism, and assess the struggle for immigrants’ rights.

Starting even before 1939, World War II can be considered the first truly multi-media war. A major element of that were movies made not only to entertain but to send messages overly and subtly to the opposing sides’ populations of how to understand and react to the conflict. We will explore the propagandistic work from both the Allies and the Axis, the use of “shorts” from cartoons to documentaries, and full-length films which created ideals of heroes, motivations to fight, and expectations of facing loss.

 

This course involves walking through parks.

In this course we will walk in the city parks and discuss the wild edible plants we find. These include fruits like Kousa dogwood, crabapple and hawthorn; nuts such as acorn, black walnut and ginkgo; root vegetables like burdock; and leafy plants and mushrooms.

 

The course will explore the ways race and gender affected the experience of American women during the Great Depression (1929-1942). Women were both among those most affected by the economic crises and among those offering creative responses in areas ranging from politics and economic relief to the creative arts. It is a period of great contrasts and contradictions, but from this period came many of the institutions and structures that continue to shape American life.

We all have something to express while we still have the chance. These can be a letter or remembrance to family or relatives, a message to a teacher or friend, or maybe an open hand to someone with whom you’ve lost contact. Maybe you just want to write something creative and meaningful for yourself. In this course, you will identify and create a written piece (or pieces) to ease the itch to say what you want to say before it is too late. Join us in a refreshing and safe space spiced with a bit of philosophy, psychology, spirit, humor, and community.