Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College
Summer 2024 Course Schedule by Course Type
Summer 2024 General Information
See Course Schedule by day
See as printable .pdf
See the Summer Osher Online course offerings from the OLLI National Resource Center
2024 Summer Semester Course Schedule by Type
-- Click on the course names below for full descriptions and instructor bios. --
In-Person Courses: Hands-on Learning
Instructor: Ben Nickley |
Learn how to find and identify many of the
amazing birds that inhabit the forests, fields and ponds of the Berkshires.
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Instructor: Len Gray | his course will include four hikes of easy and moderate trails in the Berkshires to explore behaviors and impacts of beavers in our local ecosystems. CLOSED - AT CAPACITY |
Instructor: Ilene Richard | Learn to observe more carefully and translate what you see onto the page. Lessons will build on techniques and concepts such as perspective, grey scale and composition. CLOSED - AT CAPACITY |
Instructor: John Gould | The purpose of this course is to improve one’s writing by considering options of expression. We will be examining various syntactical choices writers can make to express themselves.
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Instructor: Elaine Sohn |
Learn dances from around the world - Greece,
Israel, Romania, Macedonia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Italy, Ukraine, and others. We
will also do some American line dances. No partners are necessary.
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Instructors: John and Katherine Kidd | In the Berkshires, several of the lower peaks have rocky knolls called 'cobbles'. We will hike six Berkshire cobbles, experiencing beautiful views along sections of the Appalachian Trail. CLOSED - AT CAPACITY |
Instructor: Elizabeth Dillman | This class will be a series of four 5-6 mile day hikes on the Appalachian Trail. You must have, in the last few months, hiked this distance and be capable on hilly, rocky terrain. CLOSED - AT CAPACITY |
Instructor: Maggie Barkin | Members of this course will participate in theater activities as we turn Deadly Gamble, a non-fiction account of a shipwreck and subsequent trial, into a play. |
Instructor: Noel StaplesFreeman |
The course will provide a foundation for understanding and performing African rooted dance styles. It's an excellent way for participants to get acquainted with the basics.
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Instructor: Laycolaion Freeman | This course will teach active older adults of all abilities basic self-defense, situational awareness and personal safety tips in a safe and supportive environment. The techniques and exercises are adjusted accordingly to ensure safety and effectiveness. |
In-Person Courses: Classroom-style Learning |
Curator: Tom Hodgson | Do you want to get behind the headlines and consider critical issues and key races for governor, Senate and House seats in 2024? If yes, join us for this discussion-based class. |
Instructors: Richard Matturro, Bob Reiss, Kate Sontag and Steven Somkin | You begin with a blank sheet and an inspiration, but how do you get from there to the finished work of art: a poem, a play, a short story, or a novel? Four local authors will talk about how they became writers and the creative process by which an imaginative spark takes final shape in words. |
Instructors: Ellen Croibier and | Each week we will feature well-known local figures and ask how they achieved success in their careers, whether their gender had an impact on their work partners, clients and customers, and what advice they would give to young women today. |
Curator: Katherine Kidd *class on 7/16 will be held 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
Location: Hybrid - Zoom and in-person at BCC | Study the
history of the Harlem Renaissance and the pioneering work of the authors,
musicians, and visual artists of the period. Consider how questions raised by
key players in the Harlem Renaissance about African-American identity and place
in US society resonate today.
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Instructor: Gerol Petruzella | In this course participants will use philosophers' and others' writings - and sometimes genAI tools themselves to address some of the deepest ethical questions we're suddenly being compelled to answer, as a society, with the explosive growth of generative AI, from commerce to the arts to education to the military to health care. |
Instructor: Kenneth Bechis |
Explore our solar system,
galaxy and beyond. There
will be beautiful imagery, videos, and minimal math but lots of BIG NUMBERS!
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Instructor: Stacy Wallach | This course is the second part of the spring 2024 course of the same name. Topics will include the impact of emerging technologies in the 1920s, the forewarnings of the economic collapse to come, modernist architecture and the sudden emergence of skyscrapers, the standardization of office work, people and politics of note, and much more. |
Instructor: Don Barkin |
Poems
about others make us doubt our judgments and sift the soil of our own nature.
We’ll read poems about the old and young, people at work and in love, and of
course the dead.
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Instructor: Bonnie Bien | We will take a deep dive into New York Fashion Week - the nuts and bolts. All aspects of preparing for a show will be discussed. |
Facilitator: Thomas Merchant | This course will explore the multifaceted landscape of education in China, delving into pedagogical style, societal goals, and evolving educational paradigms. |
Instructor: Peter Podol | One of the world’s most often performed living playwright, Fernando Arrabal of Spain, was a finalist for a Nobel prize in literature. In this course we will see his finest film, study interviews with him, and read his most important play. |
Online Courses: Zoom |
Curator: Tom Hodgson
| Do you want to get behind the headlines and consider critical issues and key races for governor, Senate and House seats in 2024? If yes, join us for this discussion-based class. |
Instructors: Phil Brown, Frank Gunsberg, John McComish
| Today's Headlines is a moderated discussion course that provides an opportunity to voice your opinions on national and international issues. This class counts as two courses. |
Instructors: Ellen Croibier and |
Each week we
will feature well-known local figures and ask how they achieved success in
their careers, whether their gender had an impact on their work partners,
clients and customers, and what advice they would give to young women today.
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Instructor: Richard Eason | This course will look at the history of China and its global role. |
Curator: Katherine Kidd | Study the history of the Harlem Renaissance and the pioneering work of the authors, musicians, and visual artists of the period. Consider how questions raised by key players in the Harlem Renaissance about African-American identity and place in US society resonate today. This class counts as two courses. |
Instructor: Ralph Pearson |
Hudson
River School painters took landscape art to new heights in the mid-nineteenth
century. The course provides considerable background for visits to artists’
homes currently maintained as historic sites in the Hudson Valley of New York
State and the Hudson River School Art Trail.
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Instructor: Lou-Ellen Barkan | We all have stories to share, including that one special story we've been meaning to write. In this workshop, participants will use the art and craft of storytelling to transform their personal story into one that connects with readers. |
Curator: Shirin Nash | Professors and medical doctors will explore the frontiers of science in physics, astronomy, and medicine during the 1920s. This class counts as two courses. |
Instructor: Stacy Wallach | This course is the second part of the spring 2024 course of the same name. Topics will include the impact of emerging technologies in the 1920s, the forewarnings of the economic collapse to come, modernist architecture and the sudden emergence of skyscrapers, the standardization of office work, people and politics of note, and much more. |
Facilitator: Thomas Merchant |
This course
will explore the multifaceted landscape of education in China, delving into
pedagogical style, societal goals, and evolving educational paradigms.
|
Instructor: Martin Weinstein | This course will cover the key aspects of domestic and international relations in the Western Hemisphere, including immigration, trade, investment and politics with a special focus on the 2024 elections across the Hemisphere. |
Instructors: Hank Gold & Peter Bluhm | Join us to discuss science news appearing in the Tuesday “Science Times” section of The New York Times, plus magazines and journals. |
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Please note that you must be an OLLI at BCC member and have created a login account to register for classes online. How to create a login account. You can register by phone from 9:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. Eastern at 413.236.2190.
OLLI: the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Berkshire Community College |
