Lectures, Events, Tours, and Mini-Courses   

It is likely there is a meaningful and functional interrelationship between religion or spirituality (R/S) and the quality of an individual’s health. This OLLI mini-course will provide the best scientific information on the effect of R/S on mental and physical health. We will discuss the interesting and unexplainable testimonies that suggest there may be something beyond our understanding. The information discussed will be applicable to all faiths.

Bruce Rabin, MD began his study of immunology in 1958. In his professional career, he served as a tenured Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and as Medical Director of the Division of Clinical Immunopathology and the Healthy Lifestyle Program for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center until his retirement in 2017. He has an MD degree and a PhD in Immunology.

Tour the noteworthy art collection of the 140 year old Duquesne Club. The works in the collection are by well-established, recognized artists. Traditional oil-on-canvas paintings account for the majority of the club's collection. The collection comprises 250 works of art by more than 200 artists. David Gilmore Blyth's ten paintings, installed in the library, are among the club's most treasured possessions. Part of the collection is representative of the Pittsburgh region, emphasizing its bold and vibrant industrial past. Western art, an exciting and animated area of importance, is distinguished by the club's single most important piece, Charles Marion Russell's When Shadows Hint Death. The Duquesne Club's portraits include many of its founders and leaders who brought growth and prosperity to Pittsburgh. Through the years, local landscapes (perspectives and views) and local artists became a strong focus of the collection.

Please Note: this tour is for members only. There is a nonrefundable fee of $10. Registration deadline is April 29, 2025.

Transportation is on your own. The Duquesne Club is located at 325 Sixth Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15222

We will do a deep dive into The Beatles’ most famous album. We will explore it musically, lyrically, and socially. We will also discuss the technology that created this masterpiece. 

Stephen Schultz, teaching professor emeritus of music history at Carnegie Mellon University, was called "among the most flawless artists on the Baroque flute" by the San Jose Mercury News and "flute extraordinaire" by the New Jersey Star-Ledger. He plays solo and principal flute with the Philharmonic Baroque Orchestra and Musica Angelica. He performs with other leading early music groups and as solo, chamber, and orchestral player, Schultz appears on over 60 recordings. 

How do we protect our leaders? Our infrastructure? Our executives? Former Secret Service agent, federal training expert, and critically acclaimed novelist, J.J. Hensley takes you through the worlds of physical security, protective intelligence, and personnel security.

J.J. Hensley is a former special agent with the U.S. Secret Service and has served 25 years in various roles in the U.S. government, including having served in the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, and the Department of Justice. He is also the author of seven novels and multiple short stories.

This lecture will examine the origins of the Hill District as an African American community, its economy and culture, how it grew and changed over time, and the impact of the urban renaissance programs of the 1930s through the 1960s.

Please Note: Because this lecture is open to the public, registration will be through this link:  https://pitt.zoom.us/meeting/register/4uTge92lRVypHa-rGDOQ-g

Jared Day, PhD, taught U.S. history at Carnegie Mellon University for 16 years. His areas of specialization are U.S. and European political, urban, and cultural history as well as Pittsburgh history, African American history, and world history. He is the author or co-author of several books, including (with Joe Trotter) Race and Renaissance: African Americans in Pittsburgh since World War II. He currently lives in Windham, CT.

20th ANNIVERSARY KEYNOTE LECTURE and DESSERT RECEPTION

It is fashionable to argue that the mainstream media is either dead or irrelevant. It is neither. While newspapers have been bloodied by economic and political forces, vital, democracy preserving journalism is still with us in other forms. Still, civic engagement is harder than ever.

Please Note: Registration deadline is June 2, 2025

Tony Norman was an award-winning columnist, associate editor and feature writer for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for over three decades. He now freelances for several internet platforms including Pennsylvania Capital-Star, PublicSource and NEXTpittsburgh. He also writes a Substack called The 1960 Project.

EVENT TIMELINE:

12:15 p.m. - Doors open

12:30 p.m. - Welcoming remarks and 20th Anniversary recognition 

1:00 p.m. - Tony Norman lecture and Q & A (@1 hour)

Dessert, coffee, tea to follow

Parking registration is for guaranteed all day parking at Soldiers and Sailors parking garage.

Event Date: Monday, June 9th, 2025

Price: Nonrefundable fee of $10

Deadline to register for parking:  June 2, 2025

Please Note: You will pull into Soldiers and Sailors garage and pull the ticket from the machine to enter. You will receive your parking voucher at the event. Please take your voucher to the attendant at the garage to validate your parking.

Join us to learn more about Pitt’s Neighborhood Commitments, the University’s flagship place-based community partnerships. The commitments, focused in Homewood, the Hill District, and Greater Hazelwood neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, provide long-term commitments of staffing, infrastructure, and coordination to facilitate mutually beneficial collaborations between Pitt and the local community. Note: This talk will take place at the Hill District Community Engagement Center, 1908 Wylie Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

The presentation will be led by Heidi Ward, Director, Greater Hazelwood Neighborhood Commitment (learn more: cec.pitt. edu/people/heidi-ward); Vernard Alexander, Director, Community Engagement Center in Homewood (learn more: cec. pitt.edu/people/vernard-alexander); and Kelly Protho, Director, Community Engagement Center in the Hill District (learn more: cec.pitt.edu/people/kelly-protho).

Join Paul Selvaggio, the conservation photographer for the Pittsburgh Zoo & Aquarium, as he shares some of his favorite photos, experiences, and stories captured over the past three and a half decades. Paul's photographs have helped to tell and celebrate the incredible stories of the Zoo. Additionally, Paul, with his dynamic photography and often humorous delivery, will also share some local and international experiences of the Zoo’s conservation efforts and his assignments.

Paul Selvaggio served as the Zoo's creative director, their first graphic designer, and as the Zoo’s volunteer photographer for over 3 decades and built the Zoo’s award-winning Creative Services Department. In 2021, Paul took on a new role as the Zoo’s first conservation photographer. He now dedicates his time supporting the Zoo’s mission with his photography and videography both locally, nationally, and internationally.

NASA's latest great flagship observatory, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), was built in part to reveal the earliest moments of cosmic history. In the few years, JWST has enthralled scientists and the public alike with beautiful observations of the Universe. The astronomical community has set distance records and demonstrated that galaxies and black holes formed even more rapidly than we had ever expected. This talk will highlight some of the exciting results from the UNCOVER program in Pandora's Cluster. The UNCOVER program is part of the James Webb Telescope initiative aimed at uncovering insights about the early universe.

Rachel Bezanson, PhD, is an observational astronomer, whose expertise is in the formation and evolution of the largest galaxies in the Universe. She got her bachelor's degree at Barnard College, her PhD at Yale University, and joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 2017, where she is now an associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

The tragic events of October 7, 2023, produced global protests from both sides. This has resulted in renewed studies of the origins of continuing antisemitism. Then, as now, religious convictions were not separated from cultural traditions, social conventions, and politics. The gospels are being re-evaluated in attempts to separate literary polemic (negative attacks against opponents) that were used to claim that Jews persecuted and executed the first Christians. Is there any historical evidence for the charge that remains fundamental to Christianity for 2,000 years?

Rebecca Denova, PhD, is senior lecturer emerita in religious studies at the University of Pittsburgh. She regularly teaches courses on the history of early Christianity (her specialty), ancient religions in the Mediterranean world, and several topics related to ancient popular religion and society.

OLLI at Pitt, within the Office of Engagement and Community Affairs, has a unique opportunity to view its work through the paradigm of community engagement. OLLIs at several universities are similarly situated. This session will consider the unique context of OLLI as a part of the community engagement and outreach landscape in higher education, welcoming senior engagement and outreach leaders from different universities to provide their thoughts on the opportunities provided by this positioning, particularly as we consider OLLI of the future. The panel will close with thoughts about the future of community-engaged OLLIs, welcoming a provocative perspective on the potential for co-generational learning and social impact.

Please Note: This lecture will be hybrid. There will be two separate registrations: one for online and another for in-person. Please be sure that you have registered for the correct modality.

Lina Dostilio, EdD, is Vice Chancellor, Office of Engagement and Community Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. She sets and advances the University's community engagement agenda and catalyzes community-facing efforts across the University, including place-based engagement efforts, engaged scholarship, strategic partnership development, and community affairs. She is also an associate professor of practice within the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy in the School of Education. Her research explores the community engagement professional in higher education and hyperlocal, place-based engagement.

This lecture will deconstruct basic concepts about how dopamine and the brain work, and how these relate to our daily lives. We will cover diverse theories in science and in mainstream culture about dopamine function, ranging from reward and addiction to Parkinson’s disease and motor control. Where do all these wide-ranging theories and misconceptions come from? We will also discuss fundamental scientific experiments and observations that have shaped these views.

Please Note: This lecture will be hybrid. There will be two separate registrations: one for online and another for in-person. Please be sure that you are registered for your desired modality.

Helen Schwerdt, PhD, is researching how to build and apply tools to understand how different modes of neural signaling underlie our everyday behavior. She is especially interested in the neural circuits involved in motivation and learning, and the role of dopamine in these behaviors in health and disease. She received training in biomedical and electrical engineering, and neuroscience.

OLLI at Pitt, within the Office of Engagement and Community Affairs, has a unique opportunity to view its work through the paradigm of community engagement. OLLIs at several universities are similarly situated. This session will consider the unique context of OLLI as a part of the community engagement and outreach landscape in higher education, welcoming senior engagement and outreach leaders from different universities to provide their thoughts on the opportunities provided by this positioning, particularly as we consider OLLI of the future. The panel will close with thoughts about the future of community-engaged OLLIs, welcoming a provocative perspective on the potential for co-generational learning and social impact.

Please Note: This lecture will be hybrid. There will be two separate registrations: one for online and another for in-person. Please be sure that you have registered for the correct modality.

Lina Dostilio, EdD, is Vice Chancellor, Office of Engagement and Community Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh. She sets and advances the University's community engagement agenda and catalyzes community-facing efforts across the University, including place-based engagement efforts, engaged scholarship, strategic partnership development, and community affairs. She is also an associate professor of practice within the Department of Educational Foundations, Organizations, and Policy in the School of Education. Her research explores the community engagement professional in higher education and hyperlocal, place-based engagement.

This lecture will deconstruct basic concepts about how dopamine and the brain work, and how these relate to our daily lives. We will cover diverse theories in science and in mainstream culture about dopamine function, ranging from reward and addiction to Parkinson’s disease and motor control. Where do all these wide-ranging theories and misconceptions come from? We will also discuss fundamental scientific experiments and observations that have shaped these views.

Please Note: This lecture will be hybrid. There will be two separate registrations: one for online and another for in-person. Please be sure that you are registered for your desired modality.

Helen Schwerdt, PhD, is researching how to build and apply tools to understand how different modes of neural signaling underlie our everyday behavior. She is especially interested in the neural circuits involved in motivation and learning, and the role of dopamine in these behaviors in health and disease. She received training in biomedical and electrical engineering, and neuroscience.