Membership and Dues 2008
Membership in Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt is open to all with an interest in continuing to learn. Members participate by determining the curriculum, selecting instructors, recruiting new members, and planning extracurricular activities.
Dues are payable each term at $80 per term for fall and $60 per term for winter. This entitles a member to take any or all of the courses offered on Vanderbilt’s campus as well as off-campus locations. Persons registered for any term will be included on the membership list and receive all mailings for that year.
Scholarship assistance is available
Please direct inquiries to:
Norma Clippard
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt
Phone: 322-5569; Fax: 343-1145
Email:norma.clippard@vanderbilt.edu
OR
Watt Crockett , President
4250 Lindawood Dr.
Nashville, TN 37215
Phone: 298-3948
E-mail: papacrockett@aol.com
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Vanderbilt
Winter 2008
Schedule of Classes
January 7 — February 13
Class size is limited so please register by December 24
Mondays |
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January 7, 14, 21, 28; February 4, 11
Location: Belcourt Theatre, 2102 Belcourt Avenue
Parking: Complimentary parking is available adjacent to the Belcourt Theatre
9:30 a.m. –12:00 noon
Shakespeare Films
Ann Jennalie Cook Calhoun, Professor Emerita of English, Vanderbilt University
Every other week class members will see a made-for-the-movies version of a play by Shakespeare – Taming of the Shrew (comedy), Othello (tragedy), and Richard III (history). During the weeks between screenings, clips from other productions will show how Shakespeare changes, depending on the historical context, the casting, the director’s choices, and the intended medium. Participants will learn to “read” various presentations with a more sophisticated set of critical expectations.
Tuesdays |
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January 8, 15, 22, 29; February 5, 12
Location: First Amendment Center, 1207 18th Avenue South
Parking: Parking directions will be sent with registration acknowledgements
9:30 – 10:45 a.m.
21st Century Business Ethics
Bart Victor, Cal Turner Professor of Moral Leadership, Vanderbilt University
Business ethics in the 20th century focused on defining the relationships between business and other institutions like the law, government and religion and settling on the details of employment and fiduciary obligations, while witnessing grand tragedies like Bhopal and the Ford Pinto. In the 21st century, however, the nature of business ethics has shifted its focus to global challenges such as freedom, the future and peace. Notably, the first business person to win any Nobel Prize was Muhammed Yunus, a Bangladeshi banker (and Vandy grad) who last year was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work with the Grameen Bank. This course will explore the many ethical issues confronting business this century.
11:00 a.m. – 12:15 p.m.
The First Amendment in the 21st Century
Gene Policinski, Vice President and Executive Director of First Amendment Center
Our course will explore the application and future of the five First Amendment freedoms – religion, speech, press, assembly and petition – in modern American society. The class will review current law and Supreme Court cases, while also providing an opportunity to discuss issues like the Internet, terrorism and privacy.
Wednesdays |
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January 9, 16, 23, 30; February, 6, 13
Location: St. George’s Episcopal Church, 4715 Harding Road
Parking: Parking directions will be sent with registration acknowledgements.
9:30–10:45 a.m.
The Southern War of Independence, 1861-1865
Sam McSeveney, Professor of History, Emeritus, Vanderbilt University
The course will deal briefly with sectional conflict and the secession crisis (1860-61), and then focus on the ensuing war on both battlefronts and home fronts. The effects of the war, which changed significantly as it wore on, particularly with regard to slavery, will be treated. Wartime coverage should provide at least an introduction to postwar Reconstruction.
11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
How Nashville became “Music City”
Robert K. Oermann, Author
Noted author and media personality Robert K. Oermann will survey the developments over the past 200 years of Nashville's history that led to its becoming world renowned as a music center. The formation of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the founding of the Christian music-publishing business, the importance of the Grand Ole Opry, the establishment of Music Row and the explosion of country music's popularity in the 1990s will be among the many topics covered during these informative and entertaining sessions.
Spring 2008 Schedule of Classes
March 10 - April 28
Class size is limited so please register by February 25.
Mondays |
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March 10, 17, 24, 31; April 7, 14, 21, 28
Location: St. George's Episcopal Church, 4715 Harding Road
Parking: Complimentary parking at church on the Belle Meade Blvd. side
9:00 - 10:30a.m.
Great Decisions 2008: Foreign Policy Discussion Group
Ben Adams, Member, Discussion Leader
The class will discuss timely foreign policy issues using the Great Decisions 2008 briefing book of the Foreign Policy Association. Topics will include Iraq, European Union, Blacklisting Enemies, Russia, US Defense Policy, Latin America, China, and Foreign Aid. Cost of the briefing book is $18 and can be paid with your registration.*Great Decisions 2008 will have eight sessions.
March 10 - April 14
10:45a.m. - 12:15p.m.
Religious Themes in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson
Victor Judge, Lecturer, Vanderbilt University Divinity School
The nineteenth-century American poet Emily Dickinson remarked, "A wordis dead when it is said, some say. I say it just begins to live that day." In the lecture series "Religious Themes in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson," we will examine how Dickinson's words about life, love, death, eternity, and God continue "to live" today and are incarnated in contemporary questions about the human condition.
Tuesdays |
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March 11, 18, 25; April 1, 8, 15
Location: The Commons on Vanderbilt's campus
Parking: Parking directions will be sent with registrationacknowledgment.
9:30 - 10:45a.m.
Myth and the American Family in the Movies
Jeff Stein, former VP of production for features in Hollywood, is a founding faculty member of the Watkins College Film School Storytellers have used the metaphors of mythology throughout the ages to explain the contradictions of our lives. In the guise of entertainment, great movies have become mass cultural sermons that work these metaphors in the backs of our minds. Using clips from such 20th century masterworks as Our Town, Rebel Without a Cause, American Beauty, and more, the program unveils the intricate interrelationship between history, psychology, mythology and spirituality at play in movies about families that have "moved" Americans through the decades. This entertaining and provocative course covers many of the concepts elaborated in Stein's recently published book: Life, Myth, and the American Family Unreeling: The Spiritual Significance of Movies for the 20th Century.
11:00a.m. - 12:15p.m.
Deciphering Your Family History
Bob Duncan, County Historian and Director - Maury County Archives
While it is true that the study of genealogy has become America's great pass-time, it has also created a creeping miasma of misinformation, ill-considered opinion and death leaps of logic; all caressed with alayer of hair-brained fabrications and damnable lies. This course is about the demystification of the history of your family. You will learn how to de-fuse genealogical land-mines, and move forward triumphantly into moments of clarity. We will discuss non-traditional sources, oral tradition, genealogical sportsmanship and hybrid vigor.
Wednesdays |
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March 12, 19, 26; April 2, 9, 16
Location: Dyer Observatory
Parking: Parking directions will be sent with registrationacknowledgment.
9:30-10:45a.m.
The Milky Way, Galaxies, and the Large Scale Structure of the Observable Universe
Arnold M. Heiser, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, Emeritus
"Via Lactea", the Milky Way, is just one of the many nebulous celestialobjects that populate our visible sky. We will see how we have beenable to learn the nature of our Milky Way Galaxy; its contents, itsdimensions, its formation and evolution, and its place among the othergalaxies in the observable universe. The rest of the many, manyobserved galaxies are found to have a variety of shapes and forms. They also have different sizes and distances, as well as having contents that probably are a result of their different evolutionary stages. Along the way, we will discuss active galaxies, like quasars; galaxies with super-massive black holes; the "dark matter" believed to be in galaxies; and how galaxies populate the large scale structure. Finally, we shall outline the "Big Bang" scenario and then try to elucidate the further evolution and possible future of the observable universe.
11:00-12:15p.m.
The Dragon Has Two Tongues: An Introduction to Anglo-Welsh Literature
Marc K. Stengel (writer and translator from the Welsh)
In the English-language world, the country rather, the Principality ofWales enjoys unusual status. Since Tudor times, it is officially abi-lingual nation bearing two distinct identities: the one, Welsh; theother, British. What Wales is certainly not is an English place, and for this reason the literature written in English by Welshmen and Welshwomen is generally lost within the creases of history. For the Welsh-speaking Welsh, Anglo-Welsh literature seems altogether alien and superfluous; to the Anglo-Saxon world-at-large, Welsh concerns at first appear narrow, exotic, obscure. But the Welsh Dragon does indeed speak with a stinging, forked tongue; and this lecture series will attempt to introduce an English readership to a rich and provocative body of writing rarely credited for its hidden treasures.
Thursdays |
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March 13, 20, 27; April 3, 10, 17
Location: The Commons on Vanderbilt's campus
Parking: Parking directions will be sent with registrationacknowledgment.
9:30 - 10:45a.m
Investigative Reporting: An Insider's Guide
Willy Stern, Journalist
Taught by a veteran reporter, this course will uncover what actuallygoes on behind-the-scenes in the preparation of investigative reportingprojects in American newsrooms today. Ever wonder how, exactly,investigative reporters dig up all that information? Ever wonder aboutthe ethics of these journalists who pry for a living? The answers, wewill soon see, are anything but black and white!
11:00a.m - 12:15p.m.
Manifest Destiny and the Mexican War
Tim Johnson, Professor of History, Lipscomb University
The decade of the 1840s was a period of westward expansion. John L.O'Sullivan, editor of the Democratic Review, called it an age ofManifest Destiny in referring to what many Americans believed to be aGod-given right to possess the entire continent. Many believed that our destiny as a nation depended on our ability to push the western border of the United States all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The attempt to do so led to a diplomatic conflict with England over the Oregon Country, and a war with Mexico that resulted in the transfer of a sizeable portion of the continent to the United States. This course will focus on the events leading up to the Mexican-American War: the Oregon Question, the annexation of Texas, and the Rio Grande border dispute. We will then look at the three primary theaters of the war: California, Gen. Zachary Taylor's conquest of northern Mexican, and finally Gen. Winfield Scott's campaign in central Mexico.
TO REGISTER
For registration or further information, please call 343-0700 or e-mail norma.clippard@vanderbilt.edu.
LUNCH & LEARN
Members meet once a month for lunch with a speaker who discusses a topic of interest. Guests are welcome. A box lunch may be reserved or members and guests may bring their own lunches. Reservations are required.
For further information or reservations,
please call 343-0700 or e-mail at norma.clippard@vanderbilt.edu.