It’s Summertime, Summertime, Sum-Sum-Summer Time
The temperatures are rising, the days are getting longer, and vacation is approaching. And at the Osher program, it’s time for new courses – registration for our June session is open this week.
Here’s a link to the summer catalog https://www.wm.edu/offices/auxiliary/osher/coursecatalog.pdf. It’s chockfull of new and interesting courses, along with some golden oldies you may not have been able to take in the past. For the small sum of $35.00 (less than the cost of dinner out with a friend), you can register for up to five courses (out of 36 course offerings). Most of them are offered in person, but there are a few via Zoom or Blackboard.
Here are some of the new course offerings:
Notorious & Noteworthy: Williamsburg’s Pre-Restoration Era
The history of the town of Williamsburg didn’t stop with the Virginia state capital moved to Richmond in 1780 and pick up again with the Rockefeller-funded restoration in the 1920s. Over the 150 years between these two events, the town experienced the same events as the rest of the country – economic ups and downs, the Civil War, Jim Crow, industrialization – with the same types of disruptions and uncertainty. In this class, the instructor (a long-time Williamsburg resident and journalist) will share his lifelong fascination with his town.
American Prometheus? Robert Oppenheimer
Just in time for this summer’s release of the film Oppenheimer (starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., and Florence Pugh), this class will look at the role this brilliant and charismatic physicist played in the development of the atomic bomb and the subsequent political controversies he confronted.
The Leviathan Poltergeist at Bacon’s Rebellion
This crossover course offering examines Bacon’s Rebellion (Virginia, 1676) in the context of Sir Thomas Hobbes’ perspective on the natural state of conflict between individuals competing for survival. It will be interesting to see how this instructor is able to weave these threads together. The instructor is an accountant a degree in economics and with graduate work in higher education and liberal arts.
Musical Recipes: Comparing Pop and Classical “Ingredients
In this class, the instructor will focus first on “Pop Song Recipes: how Five Common Ingredients are Mixed.” Then he will turn to look at classical music. He employs the metaphor of a shopping mall and says that composers have to decide which “store” of melodic motifs is going to be developed in their music. The instructor has advanced degrees in music and is a retired public school music teacher.
Social Justice Artists Take Aim
This class will focus on Francisco de Goya, often regarded as the least of the Old Masters and the first of the moderns. The instructor will use Goya’s work to talk about the many ways artists take aim at social justice. The instructor is a docent at the local Muscarelle Museum of Art and a former program public television executive.
To Mourn Well is to Live Well
This course offers us a reminder that the loss of a loved one throws us into a turmoil of shock, fear, and disbelief. This course will offer reflections on the grieving process as well as suggestions for dealing with loss, either personal or communal. The instructor is an ordained minister and pastoral care specialist who has focused on grief support.
We have two new classes focusing on the works of specific authors:
The Irish Author Claire Keegan
In Pursuit of Domestic Happiness: the Work of Laurie Colwin
In both of these classes, the instructors will engage class members in a discussion of the themes of the books and their meaning for the lives of their readers.
The Time is NOW to Write Your Novel!
The class makes the point that it is easier than ever to write your novel. Word processing and online publishing make it more doable than ever before. The instructor (an attorney) has published a five-book mystery series based in Old Town (Alexandria, Virginia).
The Gospel of Mark and the Messianic Secret (via Zoom)
This in-depth study of the least well-known of the four canonical Gospels is different from the other Gospel texts in many ways. This class focuses on one difference, the “Messianic Secret” – the question of who Jesus really was. The instructor, a retired businessman, has studied this topic for over 15 years and has offered courses on it at the Osher program at George Mason University in Northern Virginia.
Jesus in the Qur’an
In today’s world, the two largest religious faiths – Christianity and Islam – seem, well, worlds apart. In this class, the instructor will analyze what the Qur’an has to say about Jesus and its relevance to interfaith dialogue. The instructor has a Ph.D. in theoretical physics and has studied Islamic sciences under a number of scholars.
Weed Killers in Our Food: Facts to Consider (Zoom)
This course will examine the controversy over Roundup (and its imitators) the most-used herbicides on the planet. It will explore several sides of the ongoing debate, with opinions from government, industry, and scientific community, and ecological groups. The instructor is retired from a banking and insurance career and teaches Osher classes on notable environmental figures from that era.
Common Trees of Coastal Virginia
Members of this class will spend two class sessions in lecture and then will go on a field trip through William & Mary’s College Woods for the third class session. The class will meet in the Keck Lab, an environmental field laboratory on the shore of Lake Matoaka on the William & Mary campus.
Breaking the Enigma Code: How Was It Done?
This class will combine a discussion of codebreaking with the history of World War II to help understand both why the Enigma code was considered unbreakable and how the Allies (with a team led by computer pioneer Alan Turing) broke the code. The instructor has a Ph.D. in economics and has taught Osher classes on a wide range of topics, including film, theater, music, and mathematics.
Creative Crafting with a Cricut Cutting Machine
Members of this class will learn all about a Cricut machine while creating three projects they can take home with them. Cricut machines and all crafting supplies will be provided with a $10.00 fee to cover the costs. The instructor is a retired high school biology and chemistry teacher who has time in retirement to dedicate to her passions – her grandchildren and crafting.
Your mind needs a break from your daily life. Take a class – or two, or five – and challenge yourself, stretch your understanding, make or reconnect with friends, and feel that good sense of accomplishment as your sip your sunset glass of wine at the end of a day.