Study Groups

Study Groups, 2012

2012-Spring

iPad Redux: How to Get the Most From Your iPad

Facilitator: Sharon Michalove
Description: Do you wonder how your iPad could be used to make you more productive or bring more entertainment into your life? Do you want more options for reading, creating sideshows, and planning trips? Are you mystified by the thousands of options that are available to iPad users? Each of the four-session study groups will explore the iPad beyond the basics. We will look at different applications and learn some cool iPad tricks. Each session will be devoted to a different aspect of iPad use. This will be a hands-on study group and participants must bring their own iPad to each session.

More than a Pirate: Other Good Films by Johnny Depp

Facilitator: Don Francisco
Description: Johnny Depp is one of the most versatile and unpredictable actors currently working in films. He tries, and usually succeeds, to not duplicate a character from one film to another. Often his characters are misunderstood, freakish outcasts from society with flamboyant and colorful characteristics. He says he will accept a role on his terms and that seems to work frequently. The Pirates of the Caribbean was not expected by Disney to be very successful but, partly due to Depp’s characterization of Jack Sparrow, the movie and Johnny Depp have gained star stature. The following films have been chosen to show Depp’s versatility: Donnie Brasco, Sleepy Hollow, From Hell, Secret Window, Don Juan DeMarco, Public Enemies, Nick of Time and Finding Neverland. The group will also view interviews with Depp done by Patrick Stoner.

Part I - Understanding the Health Care System

Facilitators: Bob Gillespie, Sallie Miller and Chuck Van Vorst
Description: This is the first in what is envisioned to be a series of three study groups for OLLI members who are interested in exploring the issues and complexities of our health care system. In this session, we will explore national health care systems of Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, and Japan by examining their differences in financing, outcomes, quality, and costs. The health care system in the United States will be studied by a summary level examination of its provider structure, financing, insurance structure coverage, outcomes, quality, and costs.

Aging Concerns: Let’s talk about what no one talks about

Facilitator: Judith Braunfeld
Description: We will discuss both positive and negative issues related to aging. Some examples include euthanasia, long-term care insurance, becoming a care giver, fear of death, fear of dependence and re-locating to be near children. A list of issues to be discussed will be developed on the first day of the group. Judith will provide reading materials to the group based on the discussion topics. This is a repeat of the study group that Judith facilitated on this topic and is not a sequel. Please don’t sign up if you have already attended this study group.

“The Undying Past:” A Historical Fiction Discussion Group

Facilitator: Fred Christensen
Description: “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” (L.P. Hartley) The best historical novels and stories provide us with interesting characters, absorbing plots, and a vivid awareness of the similarities and differences between past ages and our own, not just with modern attitudes in fancy costume. This group will read and discuss some good examples. The readings are in a marvelous 1961 anthology, The Undying Past, edited by Orville Prescott. It’s a collection of 46 short stories and chapter-length self-contained extracts from novels, arranged in chronological order from prehistory to the American Civil War. Along with providing items by Kipling, Dickens, Scott, Tolstoy, and Joseph Conrad, this collection will take you into the worlds of Mary Renault’s Athenians, Frans Bengtsson’s Vikings, Zoe Oldenbourg’s Crusaders, H.F.M. Prescott’s Tudors, C. S. Forester’s Royal Navy, and A. B. Guthrie’s mountain men. These will certainly provide material for discussion….as will your suggestions of equally good works written in the last half century!

New Yorker Discussion Group

Facilitator: Cheri Sullivan
Description: Each week we will discuss a few selections from recent issues of the New Yorker magazine. The focus will be on the articles, with occasional forays into fiction, cartoons, poetry, or other aspects of the magazine. Participants will help make the selections and everyone will be asked to lead the discussion of one or more articles. (Because we hope to spend most of our time in discussion, leaders will be encouraged to simply come with a few questions that will encourage member comments – extensive preparation will not be necessary.) One week will be dedicated to watching video presentations from the most recent New Yorker Festival, which is an annual event hosted by the magazine and featuring New Yorker staff. We welcome all OLLI members and invite those who may be new to the New Yorker to join the fun and discover why the magazine has inspired such devotion in its readers.

Macintosh Computer Beginners

Facilitator: Robert Davis
Description: The goal of this study group is to assist Macintosh users in understanding basic OSX operations, basic utilities and efficiently organizing their computers. The Lion (OS10.7.3) operating system will be used for demonstrations. We will progress through an outline of topics and then spend remaining time on any things of special interest to the group. The outline will include the Menu Bar, the Dock, Finder windows, Launchpad, TimeGrab, Disk Utility, Time Machine and others. Due to the numerous differences between the various versions of software, participants who can bring their own computer will profit the most. We will have power strips to provide connections for iMacs.

Unicorn Hunt by Dorothy Dunnett

Facilitator: Sharon Michalove
Description: Fifteenth-century history comes alive in the novels of Dorothy Dunnett. In volume 5 of The House of Niccolò series, Nicholas vander Poele will move from Bruges to Scotland and then on to the Tyrol, Mamluk Egypt, and the Sinai playing the trading games he excels at while trying to cope with the tragedies in his life.
The group will discuss chapters of the novel each week and the facilitator will bring in historical background and field questions.
You do not need to have read the previous books in the series to participate in this group.

New Yorker Magazine

Facilitator: Jerry Soesbe
Description: The New Yorker provides a unique mix of articles and reviews on current topics, literature, and the arts. This study group is designed for readers of The New Yorker who want to get together to discuss articles from the magazine. In an effort to assure a broad range of topics, members will be encouraged to choose and lead the discussion of one or more articles during our 8-week session.

PLAY DATES: Reading Plays Aloud

Facilitators: Nancy Tepper and Jean Weigel
Description: Plays are meant to be shared, to be spoken, and to be heard. So in this informal group we will read each play at home and together study some background about the playwright and the play’s production history. Then—without costumes, make-up, or a set—we’ll create the characters by reading their lines aloud. After the “curtain call” we’ll discuss the play, the characters, and the process. No experience is needed to share in the fun. Your participation will depend on you. We plan to focus on four or five plays, using one meeting or two for each play. Reading aloud will be two-thirds or three-fourths of our activity at meetings, with discussion for the rest of the time.

HOLLYWOOD GOES TO WAR: Eight Views of World War II through the Camera Lens

Facilitator: Frank Chadwick
Description: The group will watch eight films made during World War II about the war, and discuss what they show about America’s view of the war as it unfolded. The movies are: Bataan (1943), Sahara (1943), The Moon was Down (1943), The North Star (1943), Five Graves to Cairo (1943), A Walk in the Sun (1945), Gung Ho! (1943) and The Way Ahead/The Immortal Battalion (1944)

TED Talks – Ideas Worth Spreading

Facilitators: Cheri Sullivan and Denise Taylor
Description: The nonprofit organization TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) is committed to the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and quite possibly the world. Since 1984, TED has invited exceptional thinkers, innovators and artists from around the world to present their projects and ideas to exclusive audiences through its biannual conferences. Fortunately for TEDsters everywhere, the best talks (usually 18 minutes or less) are now available to everyone, free and online. With more than 1,000 videos in the TED clearinghouse and new ones added every week, the talks range from fascinating, beautiful, heart-wrenching, and funny to practical, profound, wondrous, and even life-altering. In this study group, we’ll watch several TED talks each week and discuss the ideas they present. The facilitators will choose the talks but encourage suggestions and feedback from group members. Talks are shown with English language subtitles for those who may have difficulty hearing audio recordings.

Café Socrates

Facilitator: Elizabeth (Beth) Felts
Description: Café Socrates is an idea that has been sweeping across America. It is a discussion group that meets once a week and shares ideas about a topic. Group members will take turns presenting topics that they have researched. The discussion is structured in such a way that everyone gets to share their insights throughout, yet no one is interrupted, so that we can really listen to each speaker, without thinking “what am I going to say next?” Beth has found that her opinions sometimes change because of the persuasiveness of another.
Format and policies or rules will be presented at the first meeting and members will choose topics for discussion after a sample topic is discussed. Topics are wide-ranging and may include the philosophical, news worthy, or other deeply thought-provoking ideas. Examples include: global warming, forgiveness, the power of words, where is science taking us, gun control, what is beauty and who defines it, wisdom, why are we here, should drugs be legalized, goal setting after retirement, is god required for spirituality, constitutional amendments, euthanasia, how do we form moral values, etc.

Elizabeth I

Facilitator: Ann Russell
Description: The group will view the 1970s BBC production of Elizabeth R, starring Glenda Jackson, which was reasonably accurate. There are six episodes and we will watch one each week. Ann will provide background on the characters and other information. She will also suggest books, online classes and articles for those who want more background.

Twentieth Century International Short Stories Discussion Group

Facilitator: Paula Watson
Description: For this exploration of the 20th century short story we will read selections from The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology. Conventional, experimental, allegorical, fabulist, surreal, and political stories are all represented in this collection by writers from all over the world. Halpern writes of the short story: “we need its singular purity and magic, its devotion to the crucial—though often eccentric and enigmatic—moments in human life. “ And, as we have found in previous discussion groups, quoting Proust, “each reader reads only what is within himself,”—which is what makes our conversations so stimulating. We will read two or three stories each week.

British Short Story Mysteries

Facilitator: Dick Helfrich
Description: The group will discuss three or four stories each session from The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, editor, Maxim Jakubowski, Volume 8, 2011. Group members will be asked to volunteer to facilitate a session.

Late Stories by William Maxwell: A Quiet Midwestern Voice
Facilitators: Pauline Cochrane and Mary Ellen Dorner
Description: During the first session, we will read three Improvisations (#1, 5, and 19) from his collection entitled “William Maxwell: Later Novels and Stories (The Library of America). Then we will keep reading, and discussing other improvisation and short stories as the group chooses what to read next. We will let Maxwell guide us: boyhood life in a small town (his was Lincoln, IL); the fragility of human happiness; stories that “need air around them, need thinking about, to find both an explicit and an un-spelled-out meaning to life”. We will also try to arrange to view these writings in archival form, complete with corrections when we visit his archives that are at the University of Illinois!

2012-Early Summer

Nostalgia in Film

Facilitator: Chris Catanzarite
Description: Movies can open a window to the past, allowing the characters (and filmmakers, and audience members) to look back on earlier times. Those deeply nostalgic memories of the past can be a source of comfort or, sometimes, distress. They can present an idealized portrait of past times when the present seems too complicated. They can remind us of youth, long-lost people and places, hopes and dreams. They can also allow the filmmakers to capture the way we were – and the way we wish we would have been. Films will include My Favorite Year (Richard Benjamin, 1982), Avalon (Barry Levinson, 1990), Peggy Sue Got Married (Francis Ford Coppola, 1986), Radio Days (Woody Allen, 1987), Meet Me in St. Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944), Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950), and Dirty Dancing (Emile Ardolino, 1987).

New Yorker Discussion Group

Facilitator: Don Pilcher
Description: Each week we will discuss a few selections from recent issues of the New Yorker magazine. The focus will be on the articles, with occasional forays into fiction, cartoons, poetry, or other aspects of the magazine. Participants will help make the selections and everyone will be asked to lead the discussion of one or more articles. (Because we hope to spend most of our time in discussion, leaders will be encouraged to simply come with a few questions that will encourage member comments – extensive preparation will not be necessary.) We welcome all OLLI members and invite those who may be new to the New Yorker to join the fun and discover why the magazine has inspired such devotion in its readers.

Writer’s Café

Facilitator: Frank Chadwick
Description: This group will provide a chance for writers to meet informally and discuss the craft and business of writing. All levels of commitment and experience are welcome, from professional to hobby to hobbyist. All genres are welcome, including fiction, poetry, memoir, inspirational, romance, etc. You will have an opportunity to share your writing and have it critiqued if you wish. Frank will provide guidelines for critique at first session.

New Yorker Magazine

Facilitator: Jerry Soesbe
Description: The New Yorker provides a unique mix of articles and reviews on current topics, literature, and the arts. This study group is designed for readers of The New Yorker who want to get together to discuss current articles from the magazine. Members will be encouraged to choose and lead the discussion of one or more articles during our 7-week session.

Twentieth Century International Short Stories Discussion Group #1

Facilitator: Paula Watson
Description: For this exploration of the 20th century short story we will read additional selections from The Art of the Tale: An International Anthology. Conventional, experimental, allegorical, fabulist, surreal, and political stories are all represented in this collection by writers from all over the world. Halpern writes of the short story: “we need its singular purity and magic, its devotion to the crucial—though often eccentric and enigmatic—moments in human life. “ And, as we have found in previous discussion groups, quoting Proust, “each reader reads only what is within himself,”-- which is what makes our conversations so stimulating. We will read two or three stories each week.

Two Would-Be Queens

Facilitators: Sharon Michalove and Ann Russell
Description: In this study we will read two historical novels, Queen by Right by Anne Easter Smith and Queen of Last Hopes by Susan Higginbotham. These books highlight the lives of the women behind the men in the early years of the Wars of the Roses. By reading the novels simultaneously we can discuss how Margaret of Anjou and Cicely Neville have been presented over the centuries. By the end we hope everyone will have a better understanding of this tumultuous period in English history and how women's reputations can be molded by different writers to present very different views. The facilitators will lead the discussion and fill in historical background.

Twentieth Century International Short Stories Discussion Group #2

2012 - Late Summer

Submarines

Facilitators: Robbie Russell and Ted Vaughan
Description: We will use the movies of various aspects of submarine use from World War II to the present. There are eight episodes and we will watch one each week. Ted Vaughan will provide background on the movies and other information. The movies are: Das Boot Part I; Das Boot Part II; The Enemy Below; The Hunt for Red October; K19; Run Silent Run Deep and Crimson Tide.

Part II - Understanding Health Care in US, Illinois, and Champaign County

Facilitators: Bob Gillespie, Chuck Van Vorst, and Sallie Miller
Description: This is the second in a series of three study groups for OLLI members who are interested in exploring the issues and complexities of our health care system. Study Group I was a global, top-down oriented review of the health systems of five developed countries with an overview of the health care structure in the United States. In this session, we will continue to explore understanding health care in the United States primarily through a discussion of the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act. But, the primary focus of the sessions will be more ‘bottoms-up’ by examining Champaign county (along with some state level comparative statistics) through discussions about the role of public health, provider structures and the health care needs of its disadvantaged population. It will build upon the first session in which we examined national health care systems in other developed countries, but feel free to sign up for this session even if you were not in the prior session.

Old Worlds, New Worlds: First Contacts after 1492 in Film

Facilitator: Fred Christensen
Description: The early encounters between Europeans and the native peoples of the Americas were important, dramatic, often poignant or tragic. Several excellent films have captured the spirit of those times and places. This Group will watch and discuss the following movies: “Cabeza de Vaca” (shipwrecked Spaniards on the coast of Texas, 1533), “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” (Spanish conquistadors on the Amazon, 1560), “The New World” (Jamestown and Pocahontas, 1607), “Black Robe” (French and Hurons in Canada, 1634), and “The Mission” (Spanish Jesuits in Paraguay, 1760).

Investment Discussions

Facilitator: Jeff Kirby
Description: The goal of this study group is to offer a roundtable for OLLI members who actively manage their finances to discuss investment opportunities. Jeff’s interest is centered in US stocks but group members could also discuss investing in foreign stocks, bonds (US, commercial, and municipal), mutual funds, commodities, EFTs, real estate and other topics. During the first session Jeff will offer his approach to investing in US Common Stocks by discussing investment objectives, sources of information and evaluation criteria. Group members will be asked to facilitate other sessions of this study group. This is not an investment club but only a place to discuss how to select and evaluate investment alternatives. Each participant would be expected to bring his or her current specific investment candidate and be prepared to discuss how they made the “buy” decision.

The New Yorker Magazine

Facilitator: Jenifer Cartwright
Description: This study group is ideal for new or longtime readers of The New Yorker Magazine who want to discuss articles with others. Members meet for 90 minutes weekly to discuss selections from current issues. Participants have the option of researching and leading articles chosen for discussion.

"I Love to Ride My Bicycle!"

Facilitator: Sharon Michalove
Description: We will watch and discuss six weeks of bicycle movies including such classics as "The Bicycle Thief," "Breaking Away" and "A Sunday in Hell." You do not need any bicycling experience but watching these movies might inspire you to clean up that old bike quietly rusting in the corner of your garage.

Writer’s Café

The Best Mystery Short Stories of 2011

Facilitators: Bev Herzog and Tim Smith
Description: The group will read and discuss stories published Best American Mystery Stories 2011, editor, Harlan Coben, series editor, Otto Penzler. This year’s volume includes twenty stories by Lawrence Block, Brendan DuBois, Loren D. Estleman, Beth Ann Fennelly and Tom Franklin, Ed Gorman, Richard Lange, S. J. Rozan, Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins, and others. Group members will be expected to read approximately 70 pages per week, or three to four stories. The book includes a brief biography of each author and commentary from the authors about their story which was included in this collection. Group members will be asked to volunteer to lead a session, including researching the authors of the week’s stories and developing study questions.
Reading materials and source: Best American Mystery Stories 2011, editor, Harlan Coben, series editor, Otto Penzler. This is available in paperback and in Kindle and Nook formats.

Werner Herzog Documentaries

Facilitators: Teresa Prussak-Wieckowska
Description: Herzog is a legendary German filmmaker once hailed by Francois Truffaut as the most important director alive. … Werner Herzog has built a body of work that is one of the most vital in post-war European cinema. (“Herzog on Herzog” by Paul Cronin) In recent years, people have become more aware of Herzog’s skills as a documentarian, but look at his career more closely, and you’ll see that his fascination with the non-fiction form goes back to the very beginning. No one has done more to promulgate the deeper truth that every fiction film has an element of documentary, and all documentaries are constructed fictions. Herzog’s docs show an appreciation for imagination, poetry, adventure, and most of all — how documentaries at their best can be an expression of one artist’s vision of the world. (‘The Cinefamily Newsletter”)
We will watch and discuss the following: Jag Mandir 85min(1997), Bells from the Deep 60min(1993), Little Dieter Needs to Fly 71min(1997), Wheel of Time 80min(2003), Location Africa 86min(1987) or Land of Silence and Darkness 82min(1971), I Am My Films 92min(1978)

William Maxwell — Two Novels

Facilitators: John Lansingh Bennett, Pauline Cochrane and Mary Ellen Dorner
Description: As a follow-up to the Spring 2012 William Maxwell Study Group, we will read and discuss two highly praised novels (So Long, See You Tomorrow and The Folded Leaf) by this Lincoln, Illinois, native. Interspersed with readings and discussion, we will organize a trip to Lincoln, site of so much of Maxwell’s fiction and memoirs, and we hope to arrange a visiting lecture by Barbara Burkhardt, his literary biographer and editor of the forthcoming Conversations with William Maxwell.

2012 – Fall

Examining Education: focusing on some of the big debates in American education

Facilitator: Elizabeth Goldsmith-Conley
Description: The American public educational system extends to every corner of our country, shapes the nature of our citizenry, and can determine our future. It is a bipartisan issue that has been a major concern of the last three presidential administrations. This study session will cover eight key issues: 1) Who should be responsible for public education? 2) How is and how should education be funded? 3) What are the Common Core State Standards and how will they impact curriculum? 4) How accountable are teachers for student achievement? 5) What should be the role of standardized testing in our schools? 6) Should No Child Left Behind be reauthorized? 7) Are charter schools the solution to failing schools? 8) How can we educate effective teachers?

Self and Non-Self: The Immune System and Autoimmune Diseases

Facilitator: Mary Severinghaus
Description: Next to the nervous system and the workings of the brain, the immune system is said to be the most complex and poorly understood. While we’ve long known that the basis of immunity is the ability of our bodies to recognize and attack foreign invaders such as bacteria and viruses, the genetic basis for this is still being unraveled. The Human Genome Project has shown that we humans have a total of only about 20,000 genes: not the previously estimated 100,000. How is the human immune system able to potentially produce millions of different antibody proteins given this apparent paucity of genetic information? And why do things so often go awry with the immune system? In particular, why does this complex system so often begin making antibodies against our very own cells, resulting in debilitating autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythmatosis, and even diabetes? Why is it that the incidence of these illnesses seems to be increasing at a more and more rapid rate?
To explore these questions, this group will begin with a review of immunology. The first session will include an introductory presentation about the immune system by Janie Frye, who received her MS in immunology from the University of Illinois a number of years ago under the late Dr. Rod MacLeod. We will then take a look at what autoimmune diseases are and explore a number of them in depth. We will also read about and discuss the exciting new research in the area of immunology, the genetic basis of autoimmune diseases, and new ideas for their treatment.

Passion for the Arts Films

Facilitators: Jenifer Cartwright and Linda Mickey
Description: We’ll watch films that show passion for a variety of art forms—music, dance, painting, writing, architecture, film-making… and more! Our list includes: Diva; The Fall; Frida; High-Fidelity; The Red Shoes; Sideways; Stranger than Fiction; Vicky Cristina Barcelona. Please note that, whenever possible, we will show the film with subtitles.

Part III - Exploring Innovation and Structural Change in the US Health Care System

Facilitators: Bob Gillespie, Chuck Van Vorst, and Sallie Miller
Description: This is the third in a series of three study groups for OLLI members who are interested in exploring the issues and complexities of our health care system. Study Group I was a global, top-down oriented review of the health systems of five developed countries with an overview of the health care structure in the United States. Session II continued to explore health care in the United States primarily through a discussion of the implications of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Affordable Care Act and a ‘bottoms-up’ examination of Champaign county health care structure. This study group’s discussions will be based on the book The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Health Care with an interactive dialogue among all participants with the input and guidance from the three facilitators in order to give form, context, perspective and factual information to the process. The facilitators will use additional information to increase the group’s understanding. While “personal opinions” will be the norm for most interaction, there will be an emphasis on building our conclusions based on objective data, research and empirical evidence. You do not need to have participated in the previous two sessions in the series to participate in this group.

Contemporary American Short Story Discussion Group

Facilitator: Paula Watson
Description: We will again explore the contemporary American short story as an art form and a source of reading pleasure, this time using the Scribner’s Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction. The stories in this book were all written after 1970, some by writers who will be quite familiar to you, others perhaps not so well known. Why do we come back time and again to read short stories? They are of course a manageable assignment week to week. Perhaps a more compelling reason is that as one writer has said they are “hand grenades of ideas. When they work, they hit, they explode, and you never forget them.” Let’s spend some unforgettable time together reading and discussing two or three stories per week.

Films of the Coen Brothers

Facilitator: Dick Helfrich
Description: The group will watch and discuss films produced by brothers Joel and Ethan Coen. The facilitator will offer three films from 1987 – 2000 and three from 2001 – 2010. The group will determine the last two films by vote of the remaining films. The Coen Brothers’ films include: Blood Simple; Fargo; The Big Leboswki; O Brother; Where Art Thou?; No Country for Old Men; True Grit and Raising Arizona.

Elementary Apple iWork instruction

Facilitator: Bob Davis
Description: The group will explore the Apple suite of software called iWork. (This software is purchased, not included, in the Apple package.) It includes Pages (word processor), Numbers (spread sheet) and Keynote (presentation). Sessions will be tailored to the needs and wishes of the group. No previous experience with iWork is necessary as we will proceed slowly so that no one is left behind. The first session will begin with some basic Apple computer orientation.

To Lie with Lions by Dorothy Dunnett

Facilitator: Sharon Michalove
Description: Fifteenth-century history comes alive in the novels of Dorothy Dunnett. Volume 6 of The House of Niccolò series covers the years 1471-73. Nicholas vander Poele, having recovered his son from his wife Gelis, will travel from Scotland to Iceland, playing the trading games he excels at while trying to cope with the tragedies in his life. The group will discuss chapters of the novel each week and the facilitator will bring in historical background and field questions. You do not need to have read the previous books in the series to participate in this group.

New Yorker Magazine

Facilitator: Pauline Cochrane and Jenifer Cartwright
Description: This study group is ideal for new or longtime readers of The New Yorker Magazine who want to discuss articles with others. Members meet for 90 minutes weekly to discuss selections from current issues. Participants have the option of researching and leading articles chosen for discussion.

The One-Volume World: From H. G. Wells to Jared Diamond

Facilitator: Fred Christensen
Description: In today's world it's more important than ever to understand other cultures as well as our own. Many historians have made the attempt to tell the stories of all the world's peoples in a single volume. Each selects themes that help to explain humanity's diversity—themes like the essentials of human nature, the idea of progress, the impact of the environment, and the role of religion in shaping society. H.G. Wells, Jared Diamond, E. H. Gombrich, William McNeill, J.M. Roberts and others have examined the cultures, religions, and societies of Islam, China, India, Africa, Europe and elsewhere. You're invited to read any one or more of these thought-provoking books, and to discuss their (and your) ideas. The range of discussion topics is almost limitless.

Films of the Anti-Nazi Resistance

Facilitator: Frank Chadwick
Description: The group will watch and discuss eight films about the resistance movement against the Nazi occupation of Europe, specifically in the countries of Norway, France, Yugoslavia, Poland, and the Soviet Union. Films will be a mix of US-made films and films made in the country studied.
The films are: 1. Norway, an American wartime perspective: The Moon is Down (USA, 1943) 2. Norway, a post-war view: The Heroes of Telemark (British, 1965) 3. France, Hollywood's take: The Train (USA, 1964) 4. France, a resistance veteran's take: Army of Shadows (French, 1969) 5. Yugoslavia, as they saw themselves: Battle of Naretva (Yugoslavian/International, 1969) 6. Poland, the first film about the Warsaw Uprising: Kanal (Polish, 1956) 7. The Soviet Union, a Soviet view of the partisans in Byelorussia: Come and See (Soviet, 1985) 8. The Soviet Union, a western view of the partisans in Byelorussia: Defiance (USA, 2008)

TED Talks: Ideas Worth Spreading

Facilitators: Cheri Sullivan and Denise Taylor
Description: (TED) is something like the World Economic Forum might be if capitalism were replaced as the world's dominant ideological system by, say, optimism. Since 2007, “TED Talks” has explored the powerful convergence of Technology, Entertainment and Design by providing an online repository of short, videotaped talks by some of the world’s most creative minds. From leading neuroscientists, biomedical pioneers, and oceanographers to performing artists, philosophers, activists and athletes, TED is an accessible—and free--platform for broadcasting new ideas. Over the last year or so, as the organization has grown, references to TED and TED Talks have become ubiquitous in the mainstream media.
In this study group, offered for the fourth time, we will view and discuss a variety of TED talks selected by the facilitators each week. In advance, participants will receive e-mail links to these talks; however, no advance preparation is required for any session. We also will check out other components of the TED family of resources, including TED Prize competitions, youTube offerings, books and educational materials.

No Denying: Delawareans Bear Witness to the Holocaust

Facilitator: Don Francisco
Description: No Denying is a 5 disc set of DVDs that contain testimonies given by Holocaust Survivors, Righteous Gentiles (or about them) and Liberators of the camps, all of whom live in the state of Delaware. In each meeting we would watch portions of these discs and discuss the survivors and what they say and what they could teach the world today.
During the first session we will be viewing the film “In Darkness” which is based on a newspaper feature piece about the experiences of the woman who started the Holocaust Education Committee. It was written by the woman’s son, who is a friend of Don Francisco’s. The last session will be an appearance by the Producer of the DVDs, Steve Gonzer, either in person or via Skype

Portrayals of Teaching in Film: Realism or Fantasy?

Facilitator: Cleora and Steve D’Arcy
Description: Each week the study facilitators will provide background on a film that portrays teaching and learning through a story about a teacher and her or his students. After viewing the film, class members will participate in a guided discussion that includes questions about the film’s depiction of the educational system, of teachers, of students and of their interactions. Films that depict teaching and learning from the late 19th century through the early 21st century, that have a male or a female teacher, and that are set in a high school or a college will be compared. We know that there are a lot of former (and some current) teachers among the OLLI membership, and believe that they would enjoy both the films and the study group discussions. Films are: Goodbye, Mr. Chips; Mona Lisa Smile; To Sir, With Love; The Paper Chase; Stand and Deliver and Larry Crowne.

Introduction to Ancient Persia and Modern Iran

Facilitator: David Zell
Description: The average American seems to know little about the nation of Iran. This study group provides an introduction to the character of present-day Iranians by taking a look at their ancient history and a brief look at the modern Iran, emphasizing the 20th Century. The Persian Empire represents a landmark time in World History, during which, for the first time, a single power united all the lands from Egypt, Greece and Thrace to Mesopotamia, Central Asia, and all the way to India. We will selectively look at various aspects of the Persian legacy, mainly that of the Achaemenid Period from 559 – 330 B.C.E., stressing the evolution of stereotypes about the Persians and the sources upon which we rely for ancient Persian history. Other topics to be addressed include: Rethinking the Persian Empire, The Real Women of Ancient Persia, Ancient Persian Commerce and Banking, Superpowers and the Middle East from 1890’s – 1979 (with emphasis on Iran), the Flirtation with ‘Democracy’ during the 1950’s and A Critical Look at Hollywood’s Vilification of Middle Eastern People.

Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, Part 1

Facilitators: Bev Herzog and Tim Smith
Description: The group will read and discuss stories published in the first half of Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, editor, Tony Hillerman, series editor, Otto Penzler. Amazon describes this as “offering the finest examples from all reaches of the genre, this collection charts the mystery's eminent history from the turn-of-the-century puzzles of Futrelle, to the seminal pulp fiction of Hammett and Chandler….”
Group members will read and be ready to discuss to two to three stories, totaling approximately 50 pages, each week. Group members will be asked to volunteer to lead a session, including researching the authors of the week’s stories and developing study questions. The book includes a brief biography of each author and commentary from the authors about their story which was included in this collection.

Writers’ Cafe

Eudora Welty’s Short Stories

Facilitators: John Lansingh Bennett and Linda Coleman
Description: Participants in a recent study group on William Maxwell, exploring relationships that arose from his editorial work at The New Yorker, became fascinated by what we discovered of the Southern writer Eudora Welty, recipient of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Literature, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the French Legion d'Honneur. Her short fiction is well worth getting to know, thus we decided to create a fresh study group on this topic. Neither prior knowledge of Welty’s work nor involvement in the previous group on Maxwell is a prerequisite for this study group.
Novelist Anne Tyler writes of Welty, "She remains for me the model for how all writers ought to be." Such highly regarded stories as "The Hitch-Hikers," "Why I Live at the PO," "A Worn Path," "A Still Moment," and "June Recital" are readily available in area libraries, in inexpensive copies of The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty, and in the Library of America volume Eudora Welty: Stories, Essays & Memoir. (We might note in passing that Welty was the first living author selected for inclusion in the vaunted Library of America series.)

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