Case Western Reserve University
EN-12: Continuing Education

PAINTING IN THE OUTDOORS Pat Sigmier, Local Artist Fridays, September 7–28 10 a.m.–2 p.m. In this course, we will explore painting with watercolor on location at Case Western Reserve University’s Squire Valleevue Farm. This is an ideal venue for painting outdoors using direct observation of the natural light, shadows and ever-changing atmosphere. The changing season brings new colors of autumn to our palettes. The course includes demonstrations and group critiques as well as individual instruction. Each student will work at his/her own pace. Bring a bag lunch. Squire Valleevue and Valley Ridge Farms AMERICAN AIDS Clayton Koppes, Professor of History, Oberlin College Wednesdays, September 5–October 17 No class: September 19 1:30–3:30 p.m. HIV/AIDS is one of the most significant epidemics— perhaps the most salient—in American history. Approximately 700,000 people have died of the disease; 1.2 million people are infected today, about half of them age 50 or older. HIV/AIDS disproportionately impacts communities of color and people with limited resources. The disease exposes many of the fault lines in American society while also highlighting extraordinary political and cultural resistance and resilience. This course explores the cultural, political and experiential aspects of the history of HIV/AIDS in America, from the days of terror in the 1980s and ‘90s to the remarkable, if not unproblematic, survival stories of people living with HIV over the past 20 years. Landmark Centre—Beachwood A DECADE OF TURMOIL AND TRANSITION: THE 1960s Jim Lane, Leader-Teacher for Off-Campus Studies Thursdays, September 20–November 8 10–11:30 a.m. Put on your bell-bottoms and grab your granny glasses, tie-dyes and beads! Let’s do a little back-to-the-future time travel to the seminal decade of the 1960s. Using a compilation of articles originally published in The New Yorker, we will re-examine the confrontations over civil rights, economics, Vietnam and lifestyles. We will review the tragedies of the all too common assassinations and the problems and promises of psychedelics and protests. We will re-experience the highs of Telstar and Apollo 11 and the lows of poverty in The Other America and the damage echoed in The Silent Spring. And we will review our fascination with the entertainment and cultural icons of the era. Book: The 60s: The Story of a Decade (Henry Finder, editor), The New Yorker Landmark Centre—Beachwood WORLD HISTORY AS TOLD BY SALT Ted Smith, Leader-Teacher for Off-Campus Studies Thursdays, September 20–November 15 No class October 11 10:30 a.m.–noon A unique historical perspective centering on a mineral, a rock, a spice. Prevalent today thanks to modern geology, salt was one of the world’s most sought-after commodities, a substance so valuable it served as currency and influenced trade routes and establishment of cities. Salt provoked and financed wars, secured empires, inspired revolutions. We will explore how salt changed economies, science, politics, religions and food. Book: Salt, a World History, Mark Kurlansky Breckenridge Village WALKING THROUGH NATURE Jay Abercrombie, Field Biologist, formerly with the Geauga Park District Wednesdays, September 12–October 3 No class September 19 10 a.m.–noon This field seminar provides a close look at the plants, wildlife and geology of Squire Valleevue Farm. On field trips into the forest and meadows, we will observe and discuss habitats and their inhabitants as they transition to fall and prepare for winter. No strenuous hiking is involved, but participants should be able to maintain an active pace over generally moderate but occasionally hilly or wet terrain. Squire Valleevue and Valley Ridge Farms THE INESCAPABLE WILDERNESS: LOST IN AMERICAN FICTION Shelley Bloomfield, Instructor of Lifelong Learning, Case Western Reserve University Tuesdays, September 4–October 9 1:30–3:30 p.m. For our greatest 19th-century writers, wilderness emerged as a rich source for stories about the American experience. Across a century rife with bloody conflicts, psychic tatters, factories that signaled the end of an agrarian past, and cultural exposure that created new insecurities, how wilderness is depicted in our greatest works alters dramatically. We will discuss passages from the work of Cooper, Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Twain, James and Wharton to understand the American writer’s fascination with the possibilities of wilderness: from wandering in a prelapsarian Eden, to sailing through watery wastelands, to suffering in a cruel and deadly wilderness of class distinctions, the figure of the American flung—often alone—into a hostile setting becomes a powerful expression of something endlessly interesting in the American character. Landmark Centre—Beachwood TWO MEMOIRS OF THE AUSTRALIAN OUTBACK Phyllis Asnien, Leader-Teacher for Off-Campus Studies Tuesdays, September 18–November 6 10–11:30 a.m. A masterpiece of scene and memory is the author’s retelling of her girlhood spent on an isolated sheep farm in the grasslands of Australia. She faces an eight-year drought and compromised female destiny until she makes her way to America. Jill Ker Conway became the first woman president of Smith College. All they share in common is the Australian Outback, but Anne Baxter, an Academy Award-winner and granddaughter of Frank Lloyd Wright, writes skillfully of her being swept off her feet by Randolph Galt, a man constructed in the Frank Lloyd Wright mold. She follows him to a massive sheep station, spending many days in isolation while her husband tends to his 37,000 sheep. The reader will uncover the secret of the book’s title. Books: The Road from Coorain, Jill Ker Conway; Intermission, Anne Baxter Lakewood United Methodist Church RACHEL CARSON: THE GENTLE SUBVERSIVE Cheryl Wires, Leader-Teacher for Off-Campus Studies Thursdays, September 20–November 8 10–11:30 a.m. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring is among the most controversial and consequential books in American history. Learn why she is a heroine for all seasons. Biographer Mark Hamilton Lytle calls her a “gentle subversive,” a female scientist who reluctantly challenged the 1960s male-dominated establishment regarding pesticide use. The fierce debate she sparked a half-century ago inspired the rise of the environmental movement and still resonates in policymaking today. Harvard naturalist Edward O. Wilson updates Carson’s concern with the human-nature dynamic. Books: The Gentle Subversive, Mark Hamilton; Half-Earth, Edward O. Wilson; selections from Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring Middleburg Heights Church PERCEPTIONS OF CLEVELAND Nina Gibans, Cultural Consultant Monday, December 10 After four years of small group discussions, public surveys, seven public discussions and sifting through personal experience and memory, the book A Sustainable City: Soul of Cleveland (Bosh Publications) emerges, with 150 images, some never seen before. This session will show how and why it evolved with hands-on engagement and PowerPoint. THE PHYSICS OF CLIMATE CHANGE John Ruhl, Professor of Physics, Sustainability Advisory Committee Member, Case Western Reserve University Tuesday, October 2 Tinkham Veale University Center, Ballroom A/B— Case Western Reserve University LET THERE BE CHEAP AND EFFICIENT LIGHT: FROM QUANTUM MECHANICS TO BETTER LIGHT BULBS Kathy Kash, Professor of Physics, Case Western Reserve University Tuesday, October 30 Tinkham Veale University Center, Ballroom A/B— Case Western Reserve University WASTE AND RECYCLING IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY OR WHY YOU CAN’T ‘WISH-CYCLE’ YOUR WAY TO SUSTAINABLE WASTE MANAGEMENT Diane Bickett, Executive Director, Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District Thursday, August 30 7 p.m. The things that get thrown out are becoming a bigger problem both because of expense and environmental damage. Diane Bickett will tell us about the trends in public policy, the economics of landfills and recycling efforts and how we can limit the damage that we are doing to our planet. Fairview Park Library Free and open to the public AMERICAN LANDSCAPE PAINTING: WILDERNESS, PROGRESS AND AMERICAN IDENTITY Henry Adams, Ruth Coulter Heede Professor of Art History, CWRU Thursdays, February 1–April 19 1:30–3:30 p.m. This course explores the shift from the view of the early 19th century, which saw wilderness as something threatening, which should be destroyed, to the view of the late 19th century, which saw wilderness as something to be protected and something that provided psychological relief from the pressures of modern life. Landmark Centre—Beachwood MARGARET MEAD: THE FAME AND SHAME OF AMERICA’S MOST CELEBRATED SOCIAL SCIENTIST Alanna Cooper, Director of Jewish Lifelong Learning, CWRU Monday, April 23 With her 1928 publication of Coming of Age in Samoa—an account of female adolescent sexuality—Margaret Mead became one of America’s most celebrated social scientists. But after her death, her work was exposed as a hoax. What are the implications for how the field of cultural anthropology has developed and how human nature is broadly understood? OPPORTUNITY CORRIDOR—WILL THE OPPORTUNITY BE REALIZED? Steve Litt, Plain Dealer, Art, Architecture, Urban Design and City Planning Reporter Wednesday, February 21 7–8:30 p.m. The Opportunity Corridor provides a connection between West and East sides, through neighborhoods that would benefit from economic renewal. It has been condemned, extolled and now is being realized. But what will it do in reality? CWRU, Tinkham Veale University Center Free and Open to the Public BIRDS AND BREAKFAST Timothy O. Matson, Curator and Head of the Department of Vertebrate Zoology at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History Fridays, May 4–June 8 | 6:30 a.m.; breakfast 8:30–9 a.m. Explore the bluebird trail, watch busy bobolinks or be rewarded with a rare sighting of Henslow’s Sparrow. May and June are busy months for birds. A continental breakfast will be available at the Pink Pig following each morning’s activities. Squire Valleevue Farm—meet in the Greenhouse parking lot FIBERS AT THE FARM: SILK PAINTING FOR EVERYONE! Peggy Wertheim, Local Surface Design Artist Tuesdays, May 8–May 29 | 1–4 p.m. Discover, create and explore the exciting techniques of batik and silk painting inspired by the natural beauty of Squire Valleevue Farm. Limited enrollment. Squire Valleevue Farm—The Honey House WOMEN IN POLITICS: HOW TO GET MORE WOMEN TO RUN FOR OFFICE IN OHIO Karen Beckwith, Flora Stone Mather Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, Case Western Reserve University Nina Turner, President, Our Revolution, former Ohio State Senator, Cleveland Councilperson Wednesday, May 16 | 7– 8:30 p.m. Women make up over 51% of the voting electorate, and yet men still far outnumber women in elected office in Ohio and across the country. This forum will explore options for increasing the number of women who run and hold elected office, particularly in Ohio. Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library, 2345 Lee Rd., Cleveland Free and open to the public This forum is co-sponsored by: Case Western Reserve University Siegal Lifelong Learning Program; Cleveland.com/Plain Dealer; League of Women Voters-Greater Cleveland; plus Heights, Lakewood and Cuyahoga County Library systems. HOW TO REDUCE GUN VIOLENCE IN CLEVELAND Moderator: Peter Krouse, Cleveland.com Date and Time TBA. Experts will discuss the history, present and future, of attempts to reduce gun violence in Northeast Ohio. Case Western Reserve University-Tinkham Veale University Center 11038 Bellflower Rd., Cleveland Free and open to the public FROM CHALLENGES TO OPPORTUNITIES: RETHINKING DISABILITY IN OLD AGE Eva Kahana, Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Elderly Care Research Center at CWRU Jeffrey Kahana, Associate Professor of History and co-director of the Center on Aging and Policy at Mount Saint Mary College Tuesday, August 7 | 7 p.m. There is a growing challenge of large numbers of older adults maintaining independence and living satisfying lives in spite of frailty as they reach very old age.Jeffrey and Eva Kahana will offer personal, legal, social and policy perspectives on meeting late life challenges posed by disability. Their 2017 book, Disability and Aging: Learning from Both to Empower the Lives of Older Adults (Lynne Rienner Publishers) has received acclaim both in the field of gerontology and disability studies.

This information covers Fall 2018, Summer 2018 and Spring 2018,