Lectures, Events, and Mini-courses   

This creative writing workshop helps you refocus, reimagine, and reinvigorate your life through writing from prompts and discussion designed to employ imagination and insight. Participants can write in any genre they wish, and no writing experience is necessary. The course will give you the space and encouragement you need to enhance your creativity and your life. Writing tools and ideas to continue your work in class and inspire further discovery will be offered.

Charles Darwin was far from the first person to defend the idea that new species originate by a natural evolutionary process. Why did Charles Darwin succeed in convincing his fellow naturalists when many before him had failed? Based on a decades-long study of his private notebooks and correspondence, this lecture will describe the methods of inquiry that lie behind Darwin’s brilliant presentation of the theory of evolution by natural selection presented in On the Origin of Species.

James G. Lennox, PhD, is a professor emeritus of history and philosophy of science, University of Pittsburgh. He has published widely on Aristotle, Charles Darwin, and evolutionary biology.

Why do we have the Electoral College and how does it work? This talk will explore its history and the elections (including 2016) when the popular vote and the Electoral College results diverged. We will also consider various proposals for reform.

Susan B. Hansen, PhD, is professor emerita of political science at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the author of four books and numerous articles on American politics and public policy. She has taught graduate and undergraduate classes on American politics and women and politics at Pitt, and since retiring has taught Osher courses at both Pitt and Carnegie Mellon University.

Currently there is an intense focus on Israel’s political leadership. But how does the Israeli political system really work? How are elections triggered and how does the Prime Minister get replaced? This lecture will describe how the Knesset functions, how elections are handled, how the courts, the laws and the demographics make Israel so politically unusual, and why Israel is politically the opposite of an apartheid state.

Rabbi Danny Schiff, DHL, is the Foundation Scholar at the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh and the founder and president of MOJI, the Museum of Jewish Ideas. He is the author of several books and articles, particularly in the field of Jewish law and ethics. He splits his teaching year between Jerusalem and Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh’s Kaufmann family was known locally, nationally, and internationally for being tastemakers and trendsetters. The Fallingwater home and its collection of fine and decorative art are an example of the Kaufmanns’ avant-garde tastes and willingness to take a risk supporting Frank Lloyd Wright’s visionary idea. During this lecture, learn more about each member of the Kaufmann family and their legacies as tastemakers of Modernism.

Amy L. Humbert manages the school and outreach programs at Fallingwater and has been employed in the education department since 1986. She is a second-generation employee of the Western PA Conservancy.

To many Americans, the Catholic Church appears to be in a state of urgent crisis, stemming from revelations of clergy sexual abuse. In addition, a right-wing faction of bishops have emerged to oppose the approach and policies being put forward by Pope Francis. Using data from a variety of non-partisan sources, this lecture will examine the potential future of the American church, including declining numbers of priests and nuns, growing defections of lay Catholics to the religiously unaffiliated, shifting racial and ethnic patterns, and ideological divisions.

Paula Kane, PhD, received her degree from Yale University and is the John and Lucine O’Brien Marous Chair of Contemporary Catholic Studies and Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. Among her publications are the books Separatism and Subculture: Boston Catholicism 1900-1920, and Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America.

By early 1947, full-scale wars were raging in China, Indonesia, and Vietnam, with growing guerrilla conflicts in Korea and Malaya. Within a decade, almost all of the countries of South, East, and Southeast Asia that had been Japanese conquests or European colonies experienced wars. These resulted in the deaths of 2.5 million combatants and millions of civilians. This lecture will provide a comprehensive military history and analysis of these shockingly violent conflicts that forever changed the shape of Asia and the world as we know it today.

Ronald H. Spector, PhD, is an emeritus professor of history and international relations at George Washington University. He is an award-winning scholar of modern military history and has taught at the National War College and the U.S. Army War College. He has taught as a visiting professor in universities around the world.

As a follow-up to OLLI courses offered in spring 2024, this lecture will take a mid-summer look at the four criminal cases brought against former President Trump. We will review the status of the cases, ongoing developments, and the possible future course of these cases as the 2024 presidential campaign heats up. One topic of our discussion likely will be how the U.S. Supreme Court chooses to resolve the presidential immunity defense raised by former President Trump (the Supreme Court should have announced their decision on this issue by the time of our discussion).

Tom Allen, JD, is a lawyer who practiced with a large global law firm for over 40 years before his retirement. Early in his career, Allen was a trial attorney with the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department. Allen obtained a BA from the University of Michigan and a JD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 

Experience a virtual coast-to-coast tour of ten of America's best Jazz Age towers, not only in New York and Chicago, but in other places that might surprise you. See these buildings from a bird's-eye view with dazzling drone photography, peek inside at their grand lobbies, and discover how each building came to be through the stories of the people who built them.

Mark Houser is an author, professional speaker, and award-winning journalist who shares stories of the men and women behind America's great antique skyscrapers. His new project, the Highrises Collection, features nearly 200 landmark buildings across America, combining Mark's writing with drone scan compositions by digital artist Chris Hytha.