Fall 2016 OLLI Catalog

PEER-LED CLASSES (Omnilore)
(PAC) The Pacific Ocean: A Biography
The Pacific Ocean – it consumes “almost one entire hemisphere,”
occupies 64 million square miles and measures 10,000 miles from
Panama to Palawan.
Come learn the enthralling story of the Pacific and its role in the
modern world. The Mediterranean shaped the classical world; the
Atlantic connected Europe to the New World; the Pacific Ocean
defines our tomorrow. With China on the rise, so, too, are the
American cities of the West coast: Seattle, San Francisco, and the
towns of the Silicon Valley. We’ll explore those, and travel the Bering
Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal,
and to islands and archipelagos in between. We’ll observe the fall
of Manila’s dictator, visit aboriginals in Queensland, and spend time
imprisoned in Tierra del Fuego, the land at the end of the world.
We’ll trek down the Alaska Highway, then to the isolated Pitcairn
Islands, to both Koreas. Join us on this marvelous trip.
Common Reading:
Pacific: Silicon Chips and
Surfboards, Coral Reefs and Atom
Bombs, Brutal Dictators, Fading
Empires, and the Coming Collision
of the World’s Superpowers
by Simon Winchester (October 2015)
(RAD) Listening In:
Radio and The American Imagination
Radio brought us together as a nation in the ‘30s and ‘40s. It conveyed
a sense of what was happening, rather than what had happened.
We had a role in completing the picture, in giving meaning
to the broadcasts. Radio required us to use our imagination, not
only as individuals, but as a nation. Our goal will be to listen to a
selection of recorded programs representing different types of listening:
news, thrillers, drama, comedy, and sports. Some recordings
will be historic, such as Orson Welles, War of the Worlds or FDR’s
fireside chat on the eve of war with Japan. Others will be episodes
from favorites such as Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy; Jack
Benny; Amos ‘n’ Andy; The Lone Ranger; Dimension X and The
Shadow.
Presentations might include: history of radio development; how we
use radio; how radio shaped our ethnic, racial, and gender stereotypes;
what makes listening appealing and understandable, such as
sound effects.
Common Reading:
Listening In: Radio and the
American Imagination
by Susan Douglas (February 2004)
Fall 2016 | www.csudh.edu/olli | 310-243-3208 39