About OLLI Fall Courses:

OLLI courses meet for either four or eight weeks. Fall 2023 courses will be offered in two formats: in-person or hybrid. For our hybrid courses, members will register to participate either in person or online. Members should register for the in-person format if they expect to attend the majority of classes in person. The online component of the hybrid courses will be offered via Zoom. Both in-person and online registrants will receive the Zoom link in their confirmation letter to use when attending online.

In-person courses will have capacity limits, and so interested students are encouraged to register early. Courses with low enrollment may be cancelled on August 21, 2023. Early registrations will help avoid cancellations!

We are pleased to present these descriptions of our Fall courses, arranged by subject area.

 CONTEMPORARY ISSUES

Approaches to Peace
Paul Diehl
Tuesdays, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
September 5 through September 26 (4-week, Session I)
Location: OLLI Osher Classroom
This is a 4-week course that meets during the first half of the semester.

Human history is often written in terms of war as the central event that shapes all aspects of life, but peace arguably influences human existence as much as war does. This course offers an introductory survey of the various approaches to peace. It begins by looking at the different kinds of peace from a variety of perspectives. Then two sections of the course are organized according to the major distinction between “negative peace” (the absence of war or violence – conflict management) and “positive peace” (justice, dispute resolution, reconciliation – conflict resolution). Mechanisms to achieve both kinds of peace are explored.

Instructor: Paul F. Diehl is Henning Larsen Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Ashbel Smith Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Texas-Dallas, where he was Associate Provost and Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. He is past President of the Peace Science Society (International) and past President of the International Studies Association. Diehl is the author or editor of 26 books and the author of two hundred articles, book chapters, and essays on the causes of war, UN peacekeeping, and international law. He has received ten campus and national awards for his teaching, including LAS Dean’s Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching and the University of Illinois Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Conversations Exploring Structural Racism
Joycelyn Landrum - Brown
Tuesdays, 1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
September 5 through October 24
Location: Illinois Classroom

This course will provide an opportunity to explore the topic of Structural Racism using short topic-based video clips, experiential activities, and the dialogue process. It has become clear that it is difficult to have a constructive conversation unless participants have a shared understanding of the conceptual definitions and a factually informed “brave” space is created for exploration and collaborative-meaning making conversations. Opportunities will be provided to build an understanding of the historical and contemporary barriers to improving race relations as we work together to explore and seek to understand the complex ways that structural racism maintains racial inequities and creates marginalization experiences.

Instructor: Dr. Joycelyn Landrum-Brown was trained as a clinical/community psychologist, and earned her Ph.D. in 1984. She worked for many years as a therapist on college campuses around the country. Her passions include preventive mental health, Intergroup Dialogue, and Intergroup Relations. She retired from the University of Illinois in 2021 after 20+ years training and supervising students and staff to facilitate dialogues on culturally sensitive topics. She also helped design curriculum and implement diversity and social justice training and workshops on request. In that role, her duties included co-supervising and overseeing the intergroup dialogue courses (EPSY203) and teaching courses on Exploring Cultural Diversity: EPSY202) and 8-week dialogues on topics like “Being White in a Multicultural Society.”

Aging in the 21st Century: Changes, Choices, and Constraints
Evelyn Reynolds
Thursdays, 5:00 - 6:30 p.m.
September 7 through Ocotber 26
Hybrid: Illinois Classroom & Zoom

In this course we will explore some of the most significant changes that impact the lives of those 50 years and older, the new or different choices that must be made, and the constraints to personal and collective progress and well-being. A famous quotation by Vladimir Lenin states that "There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen." We now are living in a world in which things seem to be in constant fluctuation. Major and minor social, political, and economic changes are common from week to week, let alone months or years. Differences in age-group experiences have become more pronounced, but the ties that unify and bind us all have become a lot stronger.

Instructor: Evelyn Reynolds is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois where she has taught for 13 years. She is an activist, engaging in a variety of social justice and anti-imperial efforts internationally. She has spoken about racial and social issues on numerous television and radio broadcasts, such as NPR's WILL and France 24 News. She wrote a popular article featured in The Huff Post that connects aging with the unique experiences that Black Americans face throughout the lifespan. Evelyn is also a textbook author, editor of A Sociology Reader: Foundational Concepts for the Introductory Student, and author of an upcoming textbook titled Introduction to Sociology: The Essentials.

Changes in Journalism: From Disruption to Reinventing the News
Brant Houston
Fridays, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
October 6 through October 27 (4-week, Session II)
Hybrid: OLLI Osher Classroom and Zoom Webinar
This is a 4-week course that meets during the second half of the semester.

This course, based on the book Changing Models for Journalism, will recount what happened to American journalism but quickly move to how news is being reinvented by independent journalists, how technology and open data are being used, and how to find newsrooms you can trust. Much more has changed in the last three years as the pandemic accelerated new directions in news and this course will also offer ways to keep up with the changes.

Instructor: Brant Houston is a professor and the Knight Chair in Investigative Reporting at the University of Illinois. He is the author of The Investigative Reporter’s Handbook and Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide. He served as executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors, an association of 5,000 members, for more than a decade and was an award-winning journalist at daily newspapers and more recently at nonprofit newsrooms. He is a co-founder of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, which has more than 180 nonprofit newsrooms as members. He has taught numerous well-received courses at OLLI, with students noting the wealth of journalistic resources he includes in his exceptional presentations.

 FILM STUDIES

Irish Film
Sandy Camargo
Mondays, 1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
September 11 through October 27
Location: Osher Classroom

Ireland, like every other country except possibly the United States, explicitly uses its national cinema as an expression of, exploration of, and advertisement for its national identity. Establishing a coherent national identity has not been an easy process for Ireland. We will look at Irish films with the aim of discovering what issues the Irish see as central, as worthy of display, and as problematic. We will look at the relationship between these film representations and actual political ideas and social practices, as well as the Republic of Ireland’s relationship to Northern Ireland and the United Kingdom. We will also see how Ireland negotiates its economic and industrial relationship to the 800-pound gorilla of the film world: Hollywood.

Instructor: Sandy Camargo retired as a Senior Lecturer in English and Adjunct Professor of Cinema Studies at UI in 2021, after 18 years of teaching film studies at UI (plus 13 years before that at the University of Missouri). She has taught courses on film analysis; film style; genre theory; crime films; teenpics; film in Australia, Britain, Canada, and Ireland; countercultures in the movies; the films of 1999; and American film since the 1950s.

The Universal Horror Film: The Birth of a Genre
Chuck Koplinkski
Wednesdays, 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.
September 6 through October 25
Location: Osher Classroom

While often discarded and overlooked, the horror films made at Universal Studios from 1931-1948 not only created the foundation of the genre, but tapped into many of the societal fears of the day. This course will chart the development of these movies and the genre as well as their cultural impact.

Instructor: Chuck Koplinski has been a film critic for over 25 years, writing for various independent newspapers in the community. He currently reviews films for The News-Gazette, The Illinois Times, and WCIA-TV. Chuck is a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Chicago Film Critics Association. This is his 16th offering at OLLI.

Classic American Novels on Film and Television
John Frayne
Fridays, 1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
September 8 through October 27
Location: OLLI Osher Classroom

Over the past century, the American film industry has shown considerable interest in the classics of American literature. After many adaptations in the silent era, the 1930s and 1940s saw fiction by Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck make their way onto the silver screen. This course will offer a series of representative films, and ask the question, “Why do some American writers translate well onto film, and others do not? ( examples: Hemingway, yes, Faulkner and Fitzgerald, no)

Instructor: John Frayne was from 1965 to 1997 Professor of English, Comparative Literature, and Film Studies at UIUC, and is now an Emeritus Professor. He specialized in Modern British Literature and Film Studies. From 1985 to present, he has been radio host on Saturdays (formerly also on Sundays) at radio station WILL-FM, where he hosts “Classics of the Phonograph,” and Opera Broadcasts. Since 2000, he has been classical music critic for the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette. In recent years, he has volunteered at the Champaign Public Library's FriendShop, serving on the Board and the FriendShop committee.

 HISTORY

History and archaeology combine to tell this story of first contacts between civilizations. Half a century after Columbus, two rival Spanish forces under Francisco Vasquez de Coronado and Hernando de Soto marched through the American Southwest and Southeast, searching in vain for gold and glory. They found pueblo-dwelling cultures in the Southwest (the heirs of ancient Chaco Canyon), moundbuilding Indian chiefdoms of the Mississippian culture in the Southeast (the heirs of ancient Cahokia). The Spanish and Indian cultures were radically different in many ways, strangely similar in others. Instructor-made films will show the fascinating archaeological sites along the Spanish routes— from Hawikuh and Pecos pueblos in New Mexico to Tallahassee, Etowah, Moundville, the Parkin site and others in the Southeast. Last given in 2012 and now updated, this class will portray both dramatic and historic events and ancient Native American ways of life.

Instructor: Fred Christensen is a former history instructor at the University of Kentucky and assistant professor of military science at the University of Illinois. He teaches noncredit classes for OLLI and other venues, in five areas of history and archaeology: Britain, Germany, early America, Israel/the Holy Land, and military history in general. Fred is the current president of the East Central Illinois Archaeological Society. This is his 32nd OLLI course since 2008.

The Pacific War
John F. X. McCord
Mondays, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
September 11 through October 30
Hybrid: Illinois Classroom and Zoom Webinar

The Historian John Keegan described WWII as not so much a world war but many regional wars each with their own causes. This course looks at the largest naval war in history spanning 1/2 the earth's surface primarily between the U.S. and Japan. It was a war neither wanted at the time but neither avoided. It was not a clear result of the last global war, but rather from decades of rising tensions between two rising Pacific powers dating back to the 19th Century and it was a war involving untested weapon systems and military ideas that would shape the coming decades.

Instructor: John McCord has taught four previous OLLI courses. He is a former Naval Officer who served in cruisers and destroyers before serving as a war planner for a Theater Command and later an instructor at Officer Candidate School. He has been studying military and naval history from his time as a Midshipman at the Naval Academy to present, and applied that learning while serving in the Navy. Among other accomplishments, e developed plans for the transfer of naval properties to Panama in accordance with the Panama Canal Treaties which became the basis for the overall plans.

The John F. Kennedy Assassination: After 60 Years
William Van Hagey
Tuesdays, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
October 3 through October 24 (4-week, Session II)
Hybrid: Illinois Classroom and Zoom Webinar
This is a 4-week course that meets during the second half of the semester.

In this course, lectures will examine the facts of the 1963 assassination of President Kennedy, including a review of the history of the various investigations and the controversy concerning testimonial and scientific evidence presented in the case. Also considered will be alternate theories of the possibility that there was a conspiracy at work.

Instructor: Adjunct Professor Van Hagey received his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Illinois. He clerked for Chief Justice Robert C. Underwood of the Illinois Supreme Court following graduation. He then joined Chadwell & Kayser, Ltd., a large corporate and trade regulation law firm in Chicago, becoming an officer there. He later formed his own firm, Van Hagey & Bogan, Ltd., specializing in intellectual property and trade regulation litigation throughout the United States. He is a former chairman of the Franchise Advisory Board in the office of the Attorney General of Illinois. Long active in University affairs, Professor Van Hagey was president of the College’s Board of Visitors. He has served as a director on the boards of the University of Illinois Alumni Association, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Alumni Association, and Japan House, the Japanese cultural center. He served as visiting assistant dean for alumni and development at the College in 1992-1993, joining the adjunct faculty in 1993. He is also a director of Prairie Rivers Network, the Illinois affiliate of the National Wildlife Foundation, and served on the first board of the Land Conservation Foundation. Professor Van Hagey offers a unique seminar on practical problems for lawyers investigating and evaluating facts, using the assassination of President John F. Kennedy as the research problem.

Daily Life in Imperial Rome
Bruce J. Walker
Tuesdays, 3:30 - 5:00 p.m.
September 5 through October 24
Location: OLLI Osher Classroom

This course will highlight interesting facets of what life was like during the Roman Empire. The emphasis will not be focused on emperors, the wars, or political conflicts but life for the commoners in Rome mostly in the 2nd Century C.E. The course will integrate the recent archaeological findings along with current and past historians' views. Class lectures will be designed for a general audience.

Instructor: Bruce Walker has taught in secondary education for nine years and college instruction for almost 30 years. He has taught at Parkland College, Lake Land College, and Illinois State University, and he was voted teacher of the year in 1978 in secondary education and nominated for instructor of the year at Parkland College in 1995. He has personally traveled to over 50 countries including Italy several times.

Colonial Mexico: Sprain, the Americas and the Creation of a New World
Janice Jayes
Thursdays, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
September 7 through October 26
Hybrid: OLLI Osher Classroom & Zoom

The Viceroy of New Spain ruled for three centuries over a territory that stretched from Central America to the Caribbean to Florida and to California. This class looks at the conquest years, the creation of new cultural and economic patterns in the Americas, the rebellions and religious competitions, and the violent independence wars of the 1800s.

Instructor: Janice Jayes wrote her dissertation on Mexico-United States cultural Relations and remains mystified by the general lack of US knowledge of the fascinating history of Mexico. She teaches at Illinois State University. She has taught at OLLI many semesters and regularly receives excellent evaluations.

World War II and the early Cold War
Chris Butler
Fridays, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
September 8 through October 27
Hybrid: OLLI Osher Classroom & Zoom

The course will look at the devastating consequences of WWII, the process of how we turned from allies to adversaries with Russia, analyze how Cold War crises were resolved in general, look specifically at the Berlin Airlift and Korean War, and then cover the post~Stalin era. Final lectures will look at nuclear war policies and end with a look at American culture in the 1950s and 60s.

Instructor: Chris Butler taught world history for 42 years (1979-2021) at University High School in Urbana, in the course of which he developed a system of 250 cross-referenced flowcharts on world history from prehistory to 2000. He further developed this into a 1760-page pdf of his lectures into an illustrated and hyperlinked text for his students. He won numerous teaching awards, most notably the Beveridge Family Teaching Award in 2000, the only K-12 teaching award given by the American Historical Association. This is his third semester teaching an OLLI course.

 LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY & MUSIC

The Evolution of Tap Dance through its Performers: Past and Present
Robin Goettel
Mondays, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
September 11 through October 2 (4 week, Session I)
Hybrid: Illinois Classroom & Zoom
This is a 4-week course that meets during the first half of the semester.

Meet the most iconic tap dancers of all time, from the early 20th century to the present, through captivating film clips showcasing their extraordinary talent. Learn how tap dance evolved as a significant American dance form. Discover numerous tap dance styles, both in film and in live theater. At the end of each class, students will learn simple tap steps from the comfort of their chairs through demonstrations by the instructor.

Instructor: Robin Goettel has studied and performed tap dance for 45 years from her 20’s to the present, most recently learning from professional tap dancer Yuka Kameda, who teaches at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, NY. She received excellent instruction from Christine Rich, Cindy Pipkin-Doyle, and Alicia Engelhardt, performing in numerous dance recitals. At Wiley Elementary School, Robin taught an after-school enrichment class for children for three years called “Tap Happy Feet.” She has also enjoyed practicing other forms of dancing since high school, including modern dance, jazz, folk dance, and Zumba, and has a passion for researching the history of dance, especially the tap dance genre. Robin's knowledge about teaching older adults will create a safe environment to learn the basic dance steps and short routines. She has taught tap dance to mature adults for three years at the Urbana Park District, the Mettler Center, and at Clark-Lindsey Village.

This course focuses on Jewish-American literature through the lens of Nicole Krauss, whose work brings out a range of contemporary Jewish experiences across diverse historical times and geographical spaces. How do the worlds she constructs differ from or resonate with Jewish literary landscapes you are familiar with? Does Krauss’s work shed light on experiences you or people you know have shared? Does it offer connections with universal experiences of loss? Throughout the course we will read closely and be attentive to the structures of the novels, the tonalities and shifts in the writing styles, we'll look at metaphors, similes, and other tropes, we'll analyze the rhythm of the sentences and the larger meanings embedded in the texts.

Instructor: Brett Ashley Kaplan directs the Initiative in Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies at the University of Illinois where she is a professor of Comparative and World Literature. She publishes in Haaretz, The Conversation, Salon.com Asitoughttobemagazine, AJS Perspectives, Contemporary Literature, Edge Effects, and The Jewish Review of Books. She is the author of Unwanted Beauty, Landscapes of Holocaust Postmemory, Jewish Anxiety and the Novels of Philip Roth, and Rare Stuff (a novel). Her edited collection, Critical Memory Studies: New Approaches is forthcoming from Bloomsbury, and she is at work on a co-edited collection (with Anthony Mordechai Tzvi Russell and Sara Feldman) entitled Blewish: Contemporary Black-Jewish Voices. She is also writing a second novel, Vandervelde Downs, about the recovery of Nazi-looted objects found in a Vietnamese Refugee Center in provincial England. Please see brettashleykaplan.com for more information.

Gone but Not Forgotten: Jazz Greats We've Lost This Year
Jenelle Orcherton
Tuesdays, 4:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
September 6 through September 27 (4-week, Session I)
Hybrid: Illinois Classroom & Zoom
This is a 4-week course that meets during the first half of the semester.

Several legendary music greats have passed recently, and so have created space to reflect on and experience the impact their music has had and continues to have on the new and the established jazz listener.

The World's of Mark Twain
Bruce Michelson
Tuesdays, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
October 3 through October 24 (4-week, Session II)
Location: Osher Classroom
This is a 4-week course that meets during the second half of the semester.

This course will explore the Mark Twain that almost nobody knows: his travels and sojourns in America, Europe, and around the World, his home-life in Connecticut and Upstate New York; his many failed attempts to get rich; and strategies, critical reappraisals, and luck by which he became an American legend.

Seeing Dance: Understanding the Body in Motion
Jan Erkert
Wednesdays, 3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
October 4 through October 25 (4-week, Session II)
Hybrid: Illinois Classroom & Zoom
This is a 4-week course that meets during the second half of the semester.

This four-week course is an introduction to seeing and appreciating the art form of dance. This course will be based on dance performances from the Dance at Illinois and a KCPA guest artist/ company that will be presented in Fall 2023. Ideally, the 4 weeks will coincide with DAI October Dance, October 12-14. The KCPA dance production tbd. Participants will learn how choreographers weave together bodies, movement, light, staging and sound to create meaning. During class sessions, I will interview guest choreographers and dancers from the productions to unveil the intimate collaboration that occurs between choreographers, dancers and designers. Participants will also playfully explore the choreographic process by creating a solo on me –by directing and developing the movement, choosing the costumes, sound and staging.

The Scarlet Letter: A Romance
Parley Ann Boswell
Thursdays, 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
September 7 through October 26
Hybrid: Osher Classroom & Zoom

In the decades since we might have read The Scarlet Letter as students, the text of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short novel (1850) has not changed, but we have certainly changed. Reading The Scarlet Letter in 2023 might surprise us. Hawthorne’s rich, compelling, and engaging masterwork not only left an indelible imprint on subsequent American literature, but the novel seems shockingly relevant now. We will begin with some of Hawthorne’s earlier short tales that anticipate The Scarlet Letter, and then we will make our way through this profound “tale of human frailty and sorrow.”

Instructor: Parley Ann Boswell graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign just months after Francis Ford Coppola’s masterpiece "The Godfather Part II" was released. Now Professor Emerita of English, at EIU she taught Film Studies and American Literature—from colonial through early 20th century—for thirty years. She has been teaching OLLI courses at U of I since 2018 to excellent reviews.

The Enlightenment
Willis Goth Regier
Fridays, 1:30 – 3:00 p.m.
October 13 through Novemer 6
Location: Osher Classroom
This is a 4-week course that meets during the second half of the semester, beginning one week later than most second session courses.

In the years between 1650 and 1789, Europe produced a flurry of genius that transformed its culture, politics, and society. Science made rapid progress in biology, astronomy, and optics. Philosophy asserted its independence from theology. Learned societies developed. Scholarly journals debuted. Refugees fled religious persecution, opposition to slavery intensified, and nations doubted whether kings were ordained by God. This was the Enlightenment. This course will survey the Enlightenment from Descartes to the Federalist Papers, highlighting its major figures and accomplishments. It will examine the controversies that heated the pursuit of happiness, freedom, and equality before the law.

 SCIENCE AND MEDICINE

Discovering and Learning from Nature Biological and Bioinspired Materials
Iwona M Jasiuk
Mondays, 9:30 -11:00 a.m.
September 11 through October 2 (4-week, session 1
Hybrid: Osher Classroom & Zoom Meeting
This is a 4-week course that meets during the first half of the semester.

This course first provides an overview of biological materials and structures. Plants and animals have evolved over billions of years to utilize materials for their desired functions efficiently. Natural materials like bone, cork, and wood are porous, making them lightweight and impact resistant. Also, biological materials are multifunctional, adaptive, and self-healing. Engineers are highly interested in such impressive characteristics and use bioinspiration to design new materials and structures for various technological applications. The course will also discuss examples of such bio-inspired materials and structures, including those from Instructor’s research.

Instructor: Iwona Jasiuk is a Professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and a Health Innovation Professor at Carle Illinois College of Medicine. She received her Ph.D. in theoretical and applied mechanics at Northwestern University. Before joining the University of Illinois, she held faculty positions at Michigan State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Concordia University in Montreal. At Illinois, she has affiliate faculty positions in Bioengineering, Aerospace Engineering, Civil and Environmental Engineering Departments, Institute for Genomic Biology, and Beckman Institute. Her research is in the mechanics of composite materials, nanomaterials, and biological materials, focusing on bone. She published over 160 journal papers and over 60 conference papers.

The origin of life on Earth is one of the great mysteries of science. What were the conditions onearly Earth that allowed the first life forms to arise? What was their molecular make-up, and howdid that change over time to arrive at the complexity of life forms we know today? We will look atthe current thinking about how life first started, and how it evolved from its rudimentary beginningsto cellular life. How did the forces of evolution initially serve to foster the development of multipleways to garner energy and sustenance from the environment (“chemical evolution”)? How did thoseforces change once lineages were established (“Darwinian evolution”)? We will look at the originsof the extant domains of life (Bacteria, Archaea and Eucarya), with their distinguishing molecularmake-ups and the early interactions between and within domains that resulted in the variety of lifeforms on Earth.

When Day Turns to Night: America's Upcoming Solar Eclipses
David Leake
Wednesdays, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
September 6 through September 27
Hybrid: Osher Classroom & Zoom

Instructor: Dave Leake has been sharing the sky since 5th grade. He retired as the director of the William M.Staerkel Planetarium at Parkland College in 2019 after thirty years of service, both under the domeand in the classroom. He is currently the president of the Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society.Dave now works part-time for the News-Gazette and WDWS/WKIO radio where he has written aweekly sky column since 2006 and now writes and records a weekly "Eye on the Sky" segment forradio. You may see him on WCIA as one of the "Whys Guys."

Music and the Brain
Cathrine Blom
Wednesdays, 1:30 - 3:00 p.m.
September 6 through September 27 (4-week, session I)
Location: Illinois Classroom
This is a 4-week course that meets during the first half of the semester.

Instructor: Cathrine Blom earned her Ph.D. in musicology at the University of Illinois, where she also earned a B.A. in psychology with a minor in music. She also has a working background in physics, participating in Norway on analysis of CERN experiments prior to coming to the U.S. At Illinois, she co-taught the primary introductory music classes for majors several times, and received an honorary mention for the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award in the College of Fine and Applied Arts. Her OLLI courses on both music and science topics are highly regarded; one recent student noted, “She made a very difficult topic much easier to understand.”

Medical Errors: How Healthcare May be Harming you
Nestor Ramirez
Thursdays, 11:30 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
September 7 through October 27
Location: Illinois Osher Classroom

Instructor: Born in Bogota, Colombia. Medical School and Internship in Bogota. Rural physician in the jungle area of southeast Colombia for 7 years. MPH in The National School of Public Health in Medellin, Colombia. General Pediatrics Residency at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and LeBonheur Children's Medical Center, and a fellowship in Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at the University of Tennessee Regional Medical Center all in Memphis, Tennessee. Started as a neonatologist in 1986, first in Champaign, then in Springfield and later in Chicago, until 2016. Was a physician reviewer for Blue Cross/Blue Shield until October 2017. Retired from active practice, but remain involved in organized medicine at the county, state and national levels. Was President of the Illinois State Medical Society (2017-20.18), President of the Champaign County Medical Society (2019). President of the Champaign West Rotary Club (2021-2022). Have taught several courses and given individual lectures at OLLI since 2019.

 WELLNESS

Tap Dance for Beginners: The Basic Steps and Exploring Tap History
Robin Goettel
Mondays, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
October 16 through November 6
Location: Blue Classroom
This is a 4-week course that meets during the second half of the semester, beginning one week later than most second session courses.

Learn the basic steps of tap dance and simple combinations. During the first 45 minutes, you’ll warm up the muscles of your legs and feet; then we'll practice the foundational footwork and leg movements associated with this enjoyable dance form. The last 45 minutes of each class will be spent reviewing the evolution of tap dance. We'll look at how it all started and its transformation into the contemporary tap of today. Entertaining clips of famous hoofers will be shown. (tap shoes not required)

Instructor: Robin Goettel has studied and performed tap dance for 45 years from her 20’s to the present, most recently learning from professional tap dancer Yuka Kameda, who teaches at the Mark Morris Dance Center in Brooklyn, NY. She received excellent instruction from Christine Rich, Cindy Pipkin-Doyle, and Alicia Engelhardt, performing in numerous dance recitals. At Wiley Elementary School, Robin taught an after-school enrichment class for children for three years called “Tap Happy Feet.” She has also enjoyed practicing other forms of dancing since high school, including modern dance, jazz, folk dance, and Zumba, and has a passion for researching the history of dance, especially the tap dance genre. Robin's knowledge about teaching older adults will create a safe environment to learn the basic dance steps and short routines. She has taught tap dance to mature adults for three years at the Urbana Park District, the Mettler Center, and at Clark-Lindsey Village.

Slow-Flo Yoga: The Philosophy and the Practice Jan Erkert
Wednesdays, 9:30 - 11:00 a.m.
September 6 through October 25
Location: Blue Classroom

This course is an introduction to yoga history, philosophy, and practice of the eight limbs of yoga, rooted in the ancient Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Participants will learn the postures (asanas), meditation practices, and breathing techniques (pranayama) as a springboard for playful explorations of stability and ease, breath and flow, and joy and limitations. These embodied activities build strength and flexibility as well as cultivate increased concentration, focus and mindfulness. Participants who prefer to practice on a mat, should bring a yoga mat. For those preferring not to practice on a mat, modifications on a chair will be provided.

Instructor: Jan Erkert is an embodied practitioner, educator, author/writer, and choreographer. She is Professor Emerita and former Head of the Department of Dance at University of Illinois. As Artistic Director of Jan Erkert & Dancers she created over 70 works that garnered national and international awards. Throughout her career, she has researched and taught dance, vinyasa yoga, kinesiology, and somatic practices, receiving an Excellence in Teaching Award from Columbia College, and a Leadership Award from University of Illinois. Certified by Yoga Alliance (500 Hour RYT) her classes emphasize efficient movement practices, movement flow, and our collective capacity for joy.

An Introduction to Tai Chi and Qigong Fundamentals
Mike Reed
Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
September 6 through October 25
Location: Illinois Classroom

Tai Chi Form - a series of movements performed slowly and in sequence. We will learn an 8- movement form which mirrors common everyday movements and was designed to reinforce healthy body mechanics and to promote clear mind/body connection. 2) Moving Qigong - the word qigong translates roughly as "energy exercise." This group of basic movements has developed over millennia to improve general health and well being. Their relative simplicity helps beginners to develop an inward focus connecting mind and body. Exercises specifically for balance are included in this category. 3) Static Qigong - This practice would more easily be recognized by Western audiences as meditation or mindfulness. This exercise will be practiced in both sitting and standing positions. Learning to relax and sit or stand quietly is the foundation of the first two practices. This course has been a popular mainstay of OLLI’s wellness curriculum for more than a decade. It is intended both for students who are new to tai chi and those who have taken it at OLLI or elsewhere in the past.

Instructor: Mike Reed has been studying and practicing Tai Chi and Qigong since 1998. He has shared his experience and understanding of these practices as follows: classes at OLLI since its inception, initiated a program at Savoy Recreation Center, and instructed senior research participants at a UIUC Department of Kinesiology study.

Instructor: Kim Green has been practicing yoga and meditation since the 1990s. She has studied yoga for bone health and aging extensively and enjoys teaching a variety of yoga styles, self-myofascial release, and meditation. She has a particular interest in teaching yoga for healthy connective tissues (including the bones). Kim teaches group yoga and self-myofascial release classes, workshops, and themed courses, and works individually with private clients. She is a Certified Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200; currently pursuing RYT-500), as well as a Certified Level II Reiki practitioner.

Art and Creativity in Healing
Patty Pyrz
Wednesdays, 5:30-7:00 p.m.
October 4 through October 25 (4- week. session II)
Location: Blue Classroom

This course will celebrate the creative process of artistic rendering and the healing benefits onecan gain practicing and encouraging their artistic abilities. The focus upon the process of artful engagement will be emphasized versus the importance of the final product. We will investigate your artistic talent by creating without assumptions and expectations while exploring certain healing aspects of one’s own experience of creative expression. Making visual an imagined idea or promptcan be a powerful boost in self-awareness and self-worth, as well as stimulate hidden feelings. Discover how self-expression through art grows from a place of confidence, trust and truth and provides a means to convey experiences and feelings of your inner world. We will explore these processes each week through art journaling/collage, mindful doodling, meditative drawing andneurographic art. Registrants will need to provide a limited number of their own course materials.

Instructor: Patty Pyrz has been an artist since childhood and has more than 20 years of teaching experience working with students from ages 6 to 80 yrs old. She has taught art workshops/classes for Springer Cultural Center, Parkland Community College, Clark Lindsey Retirement Community, PureBeingWellness/Healing Center, and UIUC’s Campus Wellbeing Services. Ms. Pyrz currently serves on 40 North Champaign Arts Council and currently teaches K-8th at St. John’s Lutheran School. Ms. Pyrz has a Bachelor’s Degrees in Liberal Arts and a Master’s Degree in Exercise Physiology/Wellness from the University of Central Florida.