Spotlight on Courses and Open Courses List!
Take another look at these courses! Members may register online or call the office.
Open Course List
For a full list of open courses, click on the link below!
Spring 2025 Spoghtlight on Courses!
Click on the course titles below for descriptions and schedules.
5283: How to Tell Your Own Story (James Hagerty)
Tue 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM; 3 sessions; starting 1/14/2025, ending 1/28/2025
Cyert Hall, Osher Room A
Having written nearly 1,000 obituaries for the Wall Street Journal, Hagerty can tell you why and how to write your own story, in long or short form. Don’t leave that project to family members or friends. They lack the details and insights that only you can provide. Generalities and platitudes won’t do. You probably have told them many stories, but they weren’t taking notes and won’t get everything right. So, let’s figure out how to write at least a brief summary of what mattered most to you. Then we can consider going on to a longer story about what you are trying to do with your life, why and how it’s working out. We will discuss what to include, what to leave out, and how to make your story fun and readable. That’s right, fun. Hagerty’s motto: If obituaries can’t be fun, what’s the point of dying?
5295: Creating the Juvenile Justice Model (Gerry Florida)
Weekly - Wed 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM; 1 session; 2/26/2025
Online, zoom
During this course, Study Leader Gerry Florida will discuss Studio Blue, a resident-run art space within the confines of a Pittsburgh area detention center. Studio Blue uses art and the creative power of its residents to inspire both the detainee and the public via exhibitions and on public transportation, and through artist sales. Studio Blue offers its resident artists opportunities to give back to their communities while detained in the criminal justice system and in doing so are awarded community service credit. Through a vast and growing network of partners, Studio Blue creates cutting edge interactive projects that reach thousands in our Pittsburgh community while changing delinquency stereotypes.
5296: Criminal Justice Reform in Allegheny County (Frederick Thieman)
Tue 12:30 PM - 2:00 PM; 2 sessions; starting 2/25/2025, ending 3/4/2025
Cyert Hall, Osher Room b
In the 1960s, the American criminal justice system, albeit nestled within a society still struggling for equality, was widely seen as a model for the rest of the world. Within decades, its incarceration rates would increase sevenfold, its cost would balloon to $80 billion annually, and it would be condemned as unjust and unfair. How did this happen and why has the war on crime failed so completely? As important, a new report recently released by the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute of Politics identifies a range of racial disparities embedded within the system. This course will explore the failures of the criminal justice system, reasons behind the disparities, and how it might be reformed.
5302: The "Reel" Vietnam (L Jon Grogan)
Tue 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM; 5 sessions; starting 1/14/2025, ending 2/11/2025
online, zoom
The U.S. military has been involved in over 100 campaigns, ranging from localized conflicts to major international wars. Many of them have been dramatized in film, and depictions of war, people who fought in them, and the home front changed over time. The Second Indochina War, known in the United States as the Vietnam War, lasted from 1955 to 1975. During that period, nearly three million Americans served, 58,000 died, and thousands more were scarred for life. Public support for the war peaked in the mid-1960s but collapsed after the Tet Offensive in early 1968. This course will examine how Hollywood’s treatment of the war and its participants changed over time, reflecting America’s disillusionment with a conflict nearly nine thousand miles from its shores.
5325: Poetry 101: Rhyme, Rhythm, Structure (Laura McGinnis)
Wed 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM; 6 sessions; starting 1/15/2025, ending 2/19/2025
online, zoom
This class will look at basic elements and forms of formal poetry. While contemporary poetry is generally written in blank or free verse, there is value in knowing the basic components of structured poetry. The theme of this class, then, is “Learn the rules like a pro so you can break them like an artist” (Pablo Picasso). Writing is encouraged, but sharing what you write is always optional. There is no required reading, and no homework, but I will provide a few prompts for each class so you can continue writing between classes. If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at poetry, this is where you can start.
5327: Better Lives: American Social Legislation (Don Goughler)
Thu 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM; 4 sessions; starting 3/13/2025, ending 4/10/2025; Class Skip Dates : (No class on 4/3/2025)
Cyert Hall, Osher Room a
Individual or family misfortunes are often a result of conditions for which society as a whole is responsible. When social barriers exist on a large scale and negatively alter the individual’s or family’s life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, and when self-reliance and charity are insufficient palliatives, it becomes the responsibility of government to intervene through creating and enacting legislation. This course examines a 120-year history of social issues requiring public assistance and the processes and resulting legislation to address these issues. Cases considered will include alleviating aspects of poverty through the Social Security Act, institutionalization reform achieved by several Mental Health acts, and elder security and community support promoted by the Older Americans Act. We will also examine child welfare and housing legislation and, in each noted topical area, review conditions, process and legislative remedies, including both victories and shortcomings, of legislative strategies.
5364: Soviet Union: Revolution to Civil War (Charles Hier)
Wed 9:15 AM - 10:45 AM; 6 sessions; starting 1/15/2025, ending 2/19/2025
Cyert Hall, Osher Room b
There were many discontents in late tsarist Russia: peasants did not have enough land; workers’ unions were illegal; the middle class had no constitutional rights; and Russian soldiers were being slaughtered in WWI. These tensions led to collapse of the tsarist state in February 1917. A Provisional Government sought to lead the new Russian state, but soviets, workers’ councils contested the right of large landowners and capitalist elites to rule. A political struggle ensued resulting in the victory of the soviets. Simultaneously, a struggle within the soviets brought the Bolsheviks, one of many currents of socialism within the soviets, into leadership of the soviets. So the victory of the soviets was also the coming of the Bolsheviks to power. A terrible civil war followed in which the most powerful countries in the world intervened against the Bolshevik-led government but could not defeat it.
5374: Parents as Allies (Norton Gusky)
Thu 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM; 6 sessions; starting 1/16/2025, ending 2/20/2025
Online, zoom
School and Communities. How do they connect? It’s never been easy, but recently a group in Pittsburgh called “Kidsburgh” developed a program “Parents as Allies” that has garnered international acclaim. This course will investigate why this approach worked when other strategies failed. Each week a guest expert will highlight a case story, outline the process developed by the Brookings Institute, or provide an overview of the project. Participants will have a chance to virtually have conversations with educators who have created opportunities for community members and parents to make a difference for kids throughout the Pittsburgh region. The final session will allow participants in the course to share their own ideas for how they can make a difference in their own community.
5379: Chinese Literature and Turbulent Times (Joan Cucinotta)
Tue 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM; 5 sessions; starting 3/11/2025, ending 4/8/2025
Cyert Hall, Osher Room a
Twentieth-century China was a period of constant cultural and political eruptions that brought the end of dynastic imperial history and the rise of modernity. Chinese authors responded to this wrenching and violent evolution with explosive creativity, creating changes in language, genres, and artistic purpose. In this course, we will see the rethinking of modern Chinese literature as a product of and reaction to the various upheavals from the May Fourth New Culture Movement through the turbulence under Mao to a reevaluation of traditional values and Confucianism. Among the authors we will read are Lu Xun, Pearl Buck, Mo Yan, Ba Jin, Peter Hessler, Dai Sijie, and Gao Xinjian. We will also discuss the movie To Live based on the novel by Yu Hua.
5386: Purposeful Retirement/Intentional Design (Joan Anson)
Tue 10:45 AM - 12:15 PM; 5 sessions; starting 3/11/2025, ending 4/8/2025
Cyert Hall, Hawkins Conference Room
This course is intended for both pre-retirees and those already retired. The study leader will review the changing definition of retirement and how Baby Boomers are transforming retirement. The non-financial factors to consider when planning a successful retirement will be introduced and be the basis for discussion. This course will aid retirees in using a strategic approach to anticipate and plan for changes related to identity, time management, socialization and purpose during their post-career years. These factors, in addition to work-re-orientation and work replacement, will be the focus of discussion with the goal of refreshing one’s perspective on what retirement can mean for each individual student. Ideally, students will emerge with specific action steps to assist in developing their own personal roadmap to a satisfying retirement. Class time may also be dedicated to the unique position of those without the support of a partner or adult children (Solo Agers).