OLLI at Ringling College Spring Semester: March 11-May 3, 2024

Registration is open for the 2024 spring semester at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Ringling College, which offers noncredit educational opportunities for adults to pursue new interests, expand intellectual horizons, and enrich their lives. The semester, which runs March 11-May 3, 2024, features more than 50 courses, workshops, lectures, and special presentations covering a wide variety of topics, including arts and entertainment, history, music appreciation, health, literature, philosophy, religion, and science. Semester highlights include Intersection of African and European History: Science, Pseudoscience, and the Invention of Race; Help! I Think I’m a Caregiver; Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy; Holistic Health: The Healing Power of Humor; and Tennessee Williams and The Glass Menagerie. Classes are offered at Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota; and online via Zoom. To register, or for more information about becoming an OLLI member, visit www.OLLIatRinglingCollege.org or call 941-309-5111.

Course highlights of the spring 2024 semester include:

Intersection of African and European History: Science, Pseudoscience, and the Invention of Race

This course, presented from a Euro-American perspective, looks at the evidence of Africa as a global culture before Europe’s “Age of Exploration.” Examine the intersection of the slave trade with the development of the scientific method in the 17th century and how the slave economy changed Western science, creating a race pseudoscience that perpetuates destructive racial stereotypes.

The Amazing Human Body: How Does it Really Work?

Have you ever really thought about how your body works? How do our eyes see, our ears hear, our muscles move, and our hearts beat? Take an up-close look at some of the body’s amazing design features and consider how they allow us to accomplish the things we do every day, even if sometimes we don’t accomplish them quite as well as we used to.

Opera is For Everyone

Opera has been captivating audiences for more than 400 years, and stage director Martha Collins believes this is because opera is compelling stories told through timeless music by emotional singing. Known for her lively and engaging talks, Collins, director of education at the Sarasota Opera, will lead an exploration of the extraordinary and compelling world of opera and the reasons for its enduring popularity.

Help! I Think I’m a Caregiver

This course begins with defining the types of caregiver scenarios and allows students to identify and share their caregiver scenarios and journeys. Presented in a lecture format, there will be hands-on learning activities and self-reflecting assignments. Walk away with tools and a foundation that builds confidence and even joy in the journey ahead.

Intelligence and U.S. Foreign Policy

United States foreign policy consists of the strategies we use to protect our international and domestic interests and determines the way we interact with other state and non-state actors on the global stage. Intelligence informs those strategies and offers insights on how effective those policies may be. After a brief look at early American history, this class will trace U.S. foreign policy since World War II and examine how the intelligence community interacts with the government to protect and enhance our national security.

Holistic Health: The Healing Power of Humor

Humor is a magnet connecting humans, and laughter serves as a universal language. Humor and laughter have well-researched health benefits – but just what is humor? This workshop will define humor; explore the psychological, biological, and social benefits of humor and its “offspring,” laughter; discuss types of humor; and experience the therapeutic value of humor through interactive exercises.

How AI is Changing Work and Learning Experiences

Generative AI presents major opportunities for positive changes in the way people learn, work, and thrive. While there are risks as usual with any new technology, there are major benefits as well. This course will look at how the generative technology from Google and OpenAI is changing the design, content, and delivery of classroom courses as well as informal learning experiences.

Tennessee Williams and The Glass Menagerie

This session covers Tennessee Williams’ early life and his family relationships that inform the characters and the plot development of his iconic memory play The Glass Menagerie. Discuss what makes this a memory play, what inner turmoils the playwright addresses through his characters, emotional dependencies, the creative process, the struggle for emotional independence, and racial and sexual bias in the pre-war period in the American South. The instructor will read scenes aloud and reveal important dynamics between Amanda, Tom, and Laura Wingfield that reflect Williams’ own relationships with his controlling mother, his alcoholic father, and his mentally ill sister.

CONNECTIONS, the documentary film series, returns for the spring term. American Symphony, March 12, 2:30-4:30 pm, is an intimate love story that follows Jon Batiste as his musical career peaks while his life partner, writer Suleika Jaouad, undergoes a bone marrow transplant. On April 9, 2:30-4:30 pm, OLLI presents a double feature of two award-winning shorts: The Elephant Whisperers and The Last Repair Shop. Films are shown at the Ringling College Museum Campus; general admission is $15 each.

OLLI at Ringling College offers four lectures during the spring semester: Toward a Better Constitution, on April 3, 2:30-3:30 pm; Technology, the Individual and Society: What Do Advanced Technologies Such as Artificial Intelligence Portend for the Individual and for Society?, on April 12, 1-2:30 pm; Plastics and Human Health, on April 17, 1-2:30 pm; and A Generational Look at Election 2024, April 29, 2:30-3:30 pm. General admission is $15 each.

Additionally, OLLI presents two free special presentations during the spring semester: Laughter Yoga and Difficult Conversations, on March 21, 2:30-3:30 pm; and Tidewell: Know Us Before You Need Us, on March 26, 2:30-3:30 pm. Pre-registration is required.

To register, or for more information about becoming an OLLI member, visit www.OLLIatRinglingCollege.org or call 941-309-5111.