Tuesday
Spring 2012
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Basic Italian I
Day: 8 Tuesdays Time: 1:15-2:45 p.m. Dates: 3/6 to 4/24 Location: Room 204, 3rd Fl. McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Irene L. Roman Description: This course has a traditional language-learning approach with emphasis on basic Italian grammar, vocabulary, and the essential construction and pattern of the language. Emphasis will be placed on listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills. Students will be required to very actively participate in class. Completion of limited defined assignments will be required between each class session. Prerequisite: OLLI Course – Introduction to Italian and Italy
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Tai Chi for Beginners (Tuesday Section)
Day: 10 Tuesdays Time: 10:30-11:30 a.m. Dates: 3/13 to 5/15 Location: Beacon Fitness Center, 1st Fl. McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Sifu Huan Zhang Description: Tai chi chuan is an internal Chinese martial art embodying Taoist philosophy, and accordingly is extremely beneficial for good health. It is also a method of relaxation, used for increased focus and concentration. Benefits include stress reduction and better concentration, as well as improved flexibility, strength, an enhanced immune system, balance, memory, circulation, and coordination. Limited to 15 participants. This course is co-sponsored by the Confucius Institute at UMass Boston.
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LGBT Reflections on Life and Aging
Day: 5 Tuesdays Time: 10 a.m. -11:30 a.m. Dates: 3/13 to 4/10 Location: Room 204A, 3rd Fl. McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Alice Fisher Description: In a comfortable, safe setting, LGBT participants will reflect on or review their own lives – coming out, transitions,relationships, losses, joys – which will be the basis, along with relevant articles, poetry and videos, for talking about what constitutes successful aging in the LGBT community. Sharing experiences in pairs and as a class, we will also look at what resources we need as individuals to achieve our own successful aging goals and to insure the continued building of an LGBT senior community. We will also discuss what societal factors and messages block the achievement of successful aging goals for enjoying more comfortable, healthier older years. This course is open to everyone regardless of orientation.
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Introduction to Playwriting
Day: 6 Tuesdays Time: 10-11:30 a.m. Dates: 3/20 to 4/24 Location: Room 204, 3rd Fl. McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Nina Morrison Description: Always wanted to write a play? This course will teach you the fundamentals of playwriting in just six weeks. No experience with writing or performance is required. Writing exercises will explore theatrical elements such as character, dialogue, conflict and plot. Students will be exposed to contemporary theatre forms, techniques and genres. Hear your work read out loud by classmates, and get a chance to act in your fellow student's work.
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Intermediate Computer Training
Day: 6 Tuesdays Time: 1:30-3 p.m. Dates: 3/13 to 4/17 Location: White Lab, 3rd Fl., Healey Library, Umass Boston Facilitator: Jack Bowes Description: This is a second-level computer course; students should be familiar with how to search and how to navigate the desktop with a mouse. Participants will learn how the web browser can be used with some popular search engines to search for relevant topics on the web, receive personal e-mails, and visit interesting websites. A word processor will be used to create documents such as letters and holiday invitations and to perform mail merges. A spreadsheet product will be used to create worksheets such as budgets or address lists. This is a hands-on course where students will learn the topics while working on computers in a lab environment. Limit to 12.
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The Political Economy of International Migration
Day: 5 Tuesdays Time: 1:15-2:45 p.m. Dates: 3/20 to 4/17 Location: Room 204A, 3rd Fl. McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Phillip Granberry Description: One of the most important, yet least understood policy debates in the United States is immigration. This course examines theoretical reasons that explain migration and how interventions to shape the stock and flow of migrants have not only limited success but may even contribute to greater numbers of unauthorized migrants in the country. Here is a printable article you may read in advance. Please click on this link to view the article.
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Good Poems: A Poetry Workshop
Day: 6 Tuesdays Time: 1:15-2:45 p.m. Dates: 3/20 to 4/24 Location: Room 612, 1st Fl., McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Bill Valentine Description: The workshop will provide a supportive group for OLLI members who want to share their love of poetry. Together we will read the poems of 20th century American poets. For those who want to share their own poems, there will be workshop time, so we can help each other perfect our own writing. There will also be exercises offered that can help the participants find ways to write and craft new poems. (Limit of 12)
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Non-Jewish Victims of the Third Reich (Video Conference Class)
Day: 4 Tuesdays Time: 1:15-2:45 p.m. Dates: 4/3 to 4/24 Location: Presentation Room 3, Lower Level, Healey Library, Umass Boston; Cordage Park. Plymouth & Hingham Public Library via video conference Facilitator: Janet M. Lemus Description: Few events in history touch us emotionally with the same impact that we feel about the Nazi state. From 1933-1945 the Nazi Government reigned with a terrifying force that swept away all opposers and those they deemed unfit. Besides the staggering loss of 6 million European Jews, there was the assault on other groups seldom heard of. Focusing on their experience will give a voice to those often forgotten.
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Kafka’s Fun-House Mirror: Five Reflections
Day: 5 Tuesdays Time: 1:15-2:45 p.m. Dates: 4/3 to 5/1 Location: Room 616, 1st Fl., McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Andrew Boelcskevy Description: Kafka is one of the most original and disturbing writers of 20th-century world literature. We recognize ourselves in the stories Kafka tells, but as in a fun-house mirror. These stories distort, even turn upside down, our everyday world, revealing the underlying fears, desires, aggressiveness and self-delusions – usually barely recognized, often suppressed – which govern our perceptions and actions. In this course, we will discuss five of Kafka’s most significant stories in their literary, cultural, and where appropriate, biographical context: A Country Doctor, Metamorphosis, In the Penal Colony, A Hunger Artist, and the parable Before the Law. For the first meeting of the course, participants are requested to read A Country Doctor and to introduce us to Kafka’s troubled life and ground-breaking works, the “Introductory Outline.” Click on the following links for printable copies of the stories: Introductory Outline and "In the Penal Colony" "The Metamorphosis" "A Hunger Artist" "A Country Doctor" "Before the Law" Excerpt
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Your State House: What Goes on Under the Golden Dome? (Online Course)
Day: 5 Tuesdays Time: 4 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Dates: 4/3 to 5/1 Location: anywhere in the world with the Internet connection Facilitator: Jerrilyn Quinlan Description: Have you wondered what really goes on in the Massachusetts State House on Beacon Hill, how the state budget process operates, or why it takes so long for a bill to become law? Have you wondered what lobbyists do to influence the process, or how you can make a difference? This online course will give you a little better understanding of state politics, as we cover those and other related issues of interest to the class. We’ll discuss the structure and function of the General Court of Massachusetts, also known as the State Legislature, looking at how the two legislative branches work both jointly and independently. We will also explore who lobbyists are and what they do. This course will help you develop an understanding of, and appreciation for, the power of advocacy and how it influences the outcome of proposed legislation. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn about your legislative representatives and how best to communicate with them on issues that are important to you.
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Exploring the Boston Harbor Islands—On Land, Sea and the Islands, Part I (Tuesday Section)
Day: 6 Tuesdays Time: 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. for classroom meeting (4/17); Please read description for full details of dates and trips. Dates: 4/17 to 5/22 Location: Classroom meeting (4/17) in Room 0011A, 11th Fl., Healey Library, Umass Boston. All boat rides originate at Fox Point Dock (between McCormack and Wheatley buildings facing the water). The bus trip departs from in front of the Campus Center, UMass Boston Facilitator: Suzanne Gall Marsh Description: The Boston Harbor Islands National Park Area is a stone's throw from UMass Boston. The beauty of the islands surrounds the campus and beckons discovery. Each of the park's 34 islands is an integral part of New England's pre-history, history, present, and future. Archaeologists have established that they were used or inhabited by humans at least 8,000 years ago. Because of their rich heritage and combination of natural, cultural, and historical resources, they are designated as a National Park Area by Congress, and as an Archaeological District on the National Register of Historic Places. This six-week course includes one classroom meeting with a guest speaker: Joanne Riley, UMass Boston’s Archivist, an introductory boat tour of the Boston Harbor Islands, and two boat rides with guided tours for explorations on Thompson Island and Spectacle Island. There will be field trip by bus to Deer Island and a guided tour of Fort Independence on Castle Island. Due to popular demand we also offer this course on Friday; sign up for either day. Limit to 35 participants per class. We will travel on the UMass Boston vessel M/V Columbia Point, an all-weather, 110-passenger, 64-foot U.S. Coast Guard certified vessel. To defray charter costs, upon registration, participants are required to pay $80 for three boat trips and one bus trip. This course is not appropriate for OLLI members using wheelchairs or other mobility aids. Participants should be able to board a boat and walk unassisted on uneven ground—rugged paths and trails. Plan to bring a picnic lunch and water.
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The Role of Black Americans in American History
Day: 6 Tuesdays Time: 10 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Dates: 5/1 to 6/5 Location: Room 204A, 3rd Fl., McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Jon Rice Description: This course looks at the role of Black Americans in the history of America from Emancipation through the 1980s. We will look at the development of the American culture created with the considerable input of African Americans, and at the subculture which Black Americans created, its character, its potential, and its potential weaknesses. We will examine issues of class, economics, color, and gender in a variety of geographic settings that make up the Black experience in the U.S. We will do some role-playing, some hands-on, and look at some primary sources and discuss what the varied information might infer.
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Policing the Internet: Regulating the New Frontier
Day: 5 Tuesdays Time: 10 a.m. -11:30 a.m. Dates: 5/1 to 5/29 Location: Room 204, 3rd Fl., McCormack Hall, Umass Boston Facilitator: Lauren Martin Description: The invention of the Internet has drastically changed society and the way we live our daily lives. As the Internet grows, so too do the laws around it. Questions arise like, “Who owns the Internet?”, “What authority should the government have?”, and “Should the Internet be free?” This course aims to bring students up-to-date on today’s major Internet debates. The course will explore: intellectual property, net neutrality, Internet censorship, and similar issues. The content will be presented for a general (not tech-savvy) audience. Be prepared to learn both sides of each argument and converse with the class on these hotly debated and politically relevant topics.
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Globalization: Who is Winning and Who is Losing? (Video Conference Class)
Day: 5 Tuesdays Time: 1:15-2:45 p.m. Dates: 5/1 to 5/29 Location: Presenation Room 3, Lower Level, Healey Library, Umass Boston; Cordage Park. Plymouth & Hingham Public Library via video conference Facilitator: Michael Keating Description: Globalization is a term that has emerged to describe a whole range of changes in global society and global economics. Everything from the outsourcing of America's manufacturing sector to the global financial collapse has been laid at the feet of globalization. But what is it really, and who is behind it? Is it good for the world's poor or is it just another way for the global super-powers to impose their will? This course will examine the roots of globalization which can be found throughout world history but we will pay particular attention to the post World War II period and the behavior of organizations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization. We will consider the impact of globalization on poor countries as well as rich ones and we will discuss the way that globalization will need to be managed in the future to promote economic equality, environmental stewardship and social justice. The suggested reading is Development and Social Change by Philip McMichael.
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Exploring the Boston Harbor Islands, Part 2 – (Section 1, Tuesday)
Day: 4 Tuesdays Time: 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. Dates: 6/5 to 6/26 Location: All boat rides originate at Fox Point Dock (between McCormack and Wheatley buildings facing the water). Facilitator: Suzanne Gall Marsh Description: We will travel to different islands than in the Part I course. These will be four-hour trips to allow for longer travel time to each island and two hours walking/exploring the islands. We shall visit Georges Island with historic Fort Warren, a National Historic Landmark, as well as Lovells, Grape and Bumpkin Islands. Upon registration participants are required to pay $100.00 for the four boat trips to help defray charter costs. You do not have to take Part I prior to taking Part II. Limited to 35 participants. We begin boarding at 9:45 and leave at 10:00 sharp! Bring lunch and water for all trips. Wear comfortable walking shoes and dress in layers. Allow plenty of time for parking if you drive to the UMass Campus. Our trips go rain or shine. The boat has an enclosed cabin with tables, chairs, and a restroom.
