The new year is just over the horizon, brimming with possibility, and OLLI will be right here to help you embrace that possibility by offering 11 new courses starting in January 2023. Each course will take place either in person — in Norman, Oklahoma City, or Sooner Station — or online via Zoom and will explore a topic in film, health, history, political science, or religious studies.
Each OLLI course is led by one of OU’s top professors and typically runs for four to six weeks, meeting for about two hours at a time. OLLI courses offer seniors an experience similar to traditional OU courses while providing an opportunity to engage with fun, educational, and inspiring concepts with people of a similar age.
OLLI courses tend to fill up quickly, and many are known to sell out, so be sure to sign up soon to reserve your spot. For information about course availability, please contact OLLI directly at (405) 325-3488.
January 2023 Senior Seminars
Introduction to Chinese Culture
Paul Bell
Tuesdays
January 17–February 21
9:30–11:30 a.m.
Online (via Zoom)
This course will provide a six-week introduction to Chinese culture and how that culture affects how Chinese think and interact with others. A Chinese person’s sense of identity is based on shared cultural beliefs and practices that have developed over 5,000 years, largely free of Western influence. This common cultural heritage confers on distinctive ways of perceiving themselves, their relationships with others, and their relationship with the world around them. It makes Chinese holistic thinkers who view everything in terms of relationships in a constantly changing balance between opposites.
In this course, we will examine the various components of Chinese culture, including reading, writing, and thinking in Chinese characters, a syncretic system of beliefs, the centrality of the family, filial piety and respect for ancestors, personal relationships based on human feelings and a sense of mutual obligation, dialectical thinking, and a Sino-centric world view. We will also look at examples of Chinese art, poetry, and literature as reflections of the Chinese outlook on life.
Religion and Society in the Modern Middle East – Part III
Gershon Lewental
Tuesdays
January 17–February 21
1–2:30 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
Critical to understanding the modern Middle East is an appreciation of the role that religion has played in the societies of the region since Antiquity. In this course, we will examine the way that religion has functioned in the modern Middle East, beginning by examining the political decline of Islamic states and the rise of Western powers that ultimately led to the destruction of the Ottoman Empire. We will then explore the myriad ways in which Middle Eastern thinkers, societies, and states have attempted to respond to modern challenges vis-à-vis traditional religious identity.
Specifically, we will explore two case studies — Turkey and Iran — whose developments reflected the broader path from religion to secularism and back to religion again. We will conclude by noting the persistent interplay between religion and political rule, highlighting concepts that have been continuous since ancient times. This is the final course of a three-part series that has covered the ancient Near East and mediæval Islamic world, but each course is designed as a standalone unit and requires no previous knowledge.
Bruce Goff: Creativity Through Sketching
David Boeck
Tuesdays
January 17–February 7
9–10:30 a.m.
In-person | Sooner Station
This is a course that engages sketching and graphics along with verbal narrative as a method for problem-solving. There will be drawing activities, as well as design and problem-solving assignments.
This course is developed around Bruce Goff’s methods for teaching creative problem-solving. There will be a look at Goff’s architecture and his creative design process to design his residential projects.
Jesus and Gospel Literature
Jill Hicks-Keeton
Wednesdays
January 18–February 15*
1–2:30 p.m.
Online (via Zoom)
*Class will not meet on Wednesday, February 1.
We will dive into portrayals of Jesus of Nazareth in gospel literature, including stories in and beyond the Bible, with further attention to Jesus in popular culture. In addition to four regular instructor presentations, a “bonus” conversation will be offered for any participants who want to discuss “Jesus Christ Superstar,” the hit musical that is traveling to OKC in February 2023.
Communication in the Middle Ages
Susan Caldwell
Thursdays
January 19–February 23
1:30–3:30 p.m.
In-person | Norman
How was information imparted to people during the Middle Ages? Spoken information could be presented in a public meeting on a square, or in a sermon in a church, and spread by word of mouth among neighbors and in group situations like pilgrimages. Much epic poetry was sung. There were also written presentations in, for example, chronicles and liturgical writings, printed laboriously by hand and often decorated profusely on treated animal skins called parchments, some of which we will study. But who had access to these costly, precious manuscripts? And how many people could actually read?
Because the third of the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20:4) prohibits the making of “any graven image or the image of anything in the heaven above, the earth beneath, or the water under the earth,” the early Church Fathers were wary of images. Yet no doubt because of the plethora of images in the ancient world, the early Christian catacombs and places of worship presented many images in painting, mosaics, and even sculpture. In the late eighth century, in answer to the Greek iconoclastic controversy, images were justified under Charlemagne as useful to educate the illiterate and to beautify churches. By the Gothic period, sculpted images covered building exteriors while their interiors were filled with the color, light, and imagery of stained-glass windows.
How did people read these images, and what happened to the spread of ideas with the invention of printing?
Hey, You! Yes, YOU! Let’s Discuss, Cuss, Dissect, and, If You Want, Diss America’s Four Estates: Legislative, Executive, Judicial, and (of course) the Media
Cal Hobson
Mondays
January 23–February 13
1–3:30 p.m.
In-person | Norman
In 2023 America, who is in charge? Who just thinks they are? Who is gaining power, and who is losing it? Do any, some, or all of the four elements of governance deserve our respect or rejection? If respect, how did they earn it, and can they keep it in a horribly divided citizenry? If rejection is your answer why, how and when did you come to that unfortunate conclusion, and is there anything the topics of this seminar can do to regain your trust, confidence, and loyalty?
Our four sessions will be attended by journalists, judges, executives, and politicians. Together, we will listen to their facts and opinions, while doing our best to separate one from the other. Hard-hitting questions, politely posited, are not just welcomed but expected, and as your humble host, I’ll provide you with electronic handouts expertly prepared by OLLI assistant and OU graduate student Sarah Bowen.
As for our director, Chris Elliott, he’s in charge of everything else, but especially the taste and timeliness of our coffee, plentiful parking, and room temperature.
Is That a Tiger in the Boat? Magical Realism in Film
Betty Robbins
Tuesdays
January 24–February 28
1–4 p.m.
In-person | Norman
The artistic and critical perspective of magical realism has inspired cultural treasures in painting, literature, and film around the globe, and increasingly in American cinema and TV productions. Sensuous, enchanting, exotic, and always imaginative, magical realism allows readers and viewers an expansive experience in the mystery of life behind the surface reality of everyday life.
This course will screen films from Germany to Central, South, and North America. Course members will examine the specific cinematic and narrative elements used in six films to dramatize the exotic depths of desire and of soulful being endemic to the magical realist approach. Discussions will center on how and to what purpose these films may be disrupting and transgressing ontological, political, generic, and geographic boundaries.
How to Talk to College Students
Geoffrey Layton
Wednesdays
January 25–February 15
10–11:30 a.m.
In-person | Sooner Station
Unfortunately, news about young people, particularly today’s college students, can be disturbing at best, especially to adults who have been working in the “real world.” This leads to questions and concerns and even to less than positive feelings about “what’s going on with today’s college students?”
The purpose of this course is to get beyond the headlines and learn how to talk to college students. As someone who has either attended or taught at 13 different colleges and universities (and several high schools), I will be leading an exploration into today’s college classrooms and the students who inhabit them, examining some of the intellectual foundations of academic life and what it’s like to be a college student on today’s campus. We will study some of the key terms and philosophies that underly much of today’s academic enterprise (for example, math and physics can actually have a lot in common with language and literature!) such as post-modernism, deconstruction, and anti-foundationalism, ideas that have become a driving force behind much of what is seen as academic and cultural turmoil.
At the end of this course, you should have a much greater appreciation of what it means to be a college student today – even to the point of wanting to have a conversation with them (including your own children and grandchildren!).
U.S.-Russia Relations and Ukraine
Rob Andrew
Wednesdays
January 25–February 15
9:30–11:30 a.m.
In-person | Norman
This class offers an overview of U.S.-Russia relations over the past 200+ years with an in-depth look at Cold War tensions and the contentious relationship since the “re-emergence” of Russia from the post-Soviet morass in the Putin era. The course will also review the current state of the relationship in relation to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
How to Talk to College Students
Geoffrey Layton
Thursdays
January 26–February 23
10–11:30 a.m.
In-person | Norman
Unfortunately, news about young people, particularly today’s college students, can be disturbing at best, especially to adults who have been working in the “real world.” This leads to questions and concerns and even to less than positive feelings about “what’s going on with today’s college students?”
The purpose of this course is to get beyond the headlines and learn how to talk to college students. As someone who has either attended or taught at 13 different colleges and universities (and several high schools), I will be leading an exploration into today’s college classrooms and the students who inhabit them, examining some of the intellectual foundations of academic life and what it’s like to be a college student on today’s campus. We will study some of the key terms and philosophies that underly much of today’s academic enterprise (for example, math and physics can actually have a lot in common with language and literature!) such as post-modernism, deconstruction, and anti-foundationalism, ideas that have become a driving force behind much of what is seen as academic and cultural turmoil.
At the end of this course, you should have a much greater appreciation of what it means to be a college student today – even to the point of wanting to have a conversation with them (including your own children and grandchildren!).
Architecture of Faith – India and Asia
Sam Callahan
Thursdays
January 26–March 16*
2–3:30 p.m.
In-person | Norman
*Class will not meet on February 23 or March 2.
This course will examine the histories and architectural expressions of religious architecture in Asia and India. Beginning with the influences of animistic and primeval worship practice and place, this course will explore the development and evolution of worship and the built environment from eighth century BCE to the 19th century CE.
