Spring Registration
Online Registration for Fee-Based Lectures
Spring 2025
- The OLLI spring session runs from April 1 to May 8.
- OLLI registration opens on Wednesday, February 19, 2025.
- Please register for OLLI courses by Friday, March 28, 2025 at olli.sonoma.edu/registration or by phone by 5:00 p.m., Monday - Friday.
- ONLINE (ZOOM) classes: Registered students will receive email with class Zoom link the day before class starts. Please save the link that you receive. The Zoom link you receive will be the same link used for the duration of the course.
- IN PERSON classes: Registered students will receive an email the day before class starts with course location, directions, and parking information. There is a $6 daily parking fee at the SSU campus.
- Course materials are available at: olli.sonoma.edu/course-materials
Download the Registration Form
Online or Hyflex Class Participants
If you are enrolled in a Hyflex or online course, you will receive an email the day before the class starts with information to attend in-person or through Zoom. If your class starts on a Monday, you will receive your class Zoom link on Friday. Please contact us at 707-664-2691 or olli@sonoma.edu if you have any problems accessing Zoom. Thank you.
Love and Transformation
Andy Wallace
Tuesdays, April 1-May 6, 10 am-12 pm
Location: Stevenson 1301 - Hyflex*
The course introduces students to the new science of love, and its implications for human well being. Each week we will explore a different 'face' of love through lecture, discussion, small group interactions and fun experiential exercises. Weekly themes will focus on such natural qualities like kindness, compassion, self-compassion, generosity, and acceptance. Course combines scientific and philosophical explanation with direct experience.
Facism in Films
Barbara Spear
Tuesdays, April 1-May 6, 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Location: Darwin 103 - Hyflex*
Despite the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II, fascism is still a potent force today. In this course, we’ll examine dramatic, musical, and comedy films from the 1940s through current times showing how fascism has negatively affected people’s lives. Jack Benny uses humor to trap Czechoslovakian Nazis. Gary Cooper fights a fascist takeover of America. Angela Lansbury has plans to appropriate the United States government. Liza Minnelli sings her way to an Oscar in a German nightclub. Scarlett Johansson’s son talks with “Hitler” while she gives sanctuary to a Jew. Sandra Huller and family live happily next door to a concentration camp. We’ll discuss these and other films relative to present-day prejudices and activities of neo-Nazi organizations.
The Beatles
Ritchie Unterberger
Wednesdays, April 2-May 7, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Stevenson 1301, Hyflex*
An in-depth overview of the history of the Beatles, the most popular and influential rock group of all time. Using both common and rare recordings and video clips, the course will trace their artistic evolution from the dawn of their career in the early 1960s through their breakup about a decade later. The development of the numerous styles they pioneered and mastered will be explored in detail, from the relatively simple Merseybeat of their first recordings through the folk-rock, hard rock, psychedelia, and progressive art rock they delved into as the 1960s progressed. The Beatles were among the most important agents of social change of the twentieth century, and the course will also examine their massive effect on the popular music and culture of their era.
Baseball
Mick Chantler
Thursdays, April 3-May 8, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Location: Stevenson 1301, Hyflex*
Like everything else, the world of sports evolves constantly. Football today looks quite different from the days that Red Grange ran wild on the gridiron. Basketball scarcely resembles the game of 1960 when Wilt Chamberlain was averaging 50 points a game. And baseball is no exception. In the last twenty-five years the sport has undergone a dizzying series of changes that have left some fans scratching their heads in wonderment: “bullpenning,” “the pitch clock,” “the Ghost Runner” are terms that didn’t exist just a decade ago. And yet, the fundamental appeal of the game remains the same to its millions of fans. In this course we will examine the theme of “change and continuity” in the Grand Old Game.
Six Lectures on French Art
Christian Quintin
Thursdays, April 4-May 8, 1:30 pm - 3:30 pm
Location: Darwin 103, Hyflex*
This series of presentations will address the Art of France through the centuries with hundreds of high resolution images of art works and the other splendid curiosities left to us. Starting with the Middle Ages, its richly illustrated illuminated manuscripts, tapestries and stained glass to the artistic and cultural movement of the Renaissance with its pleasure castles, portraits and landscapes to the explosion of colors and individual styles of the Impressionists marking the dawn of the 20th century. It will then take you on a tour of the heart of France, its villages and castles, their art and history including the Duchy of Burgundy to the St Denis Basilica in Paris where resides the tombs of dozens French Queens and Kings. It will end with the Province where I was born and know best, Brittany, with its sea faring tradition, its last queen, Anne de Bretagne and its beautiful landscape loved by Gauguin.
A Brief History of the Wife
Heidi Chretien
Monday, April 7-April 21, 1:30 - 3:30 pm
Location: Darwin 103, Hyflex*
Since ancient times, the term Wife has carried with it certain definitions, obligations and limitations. Not only did it define the female member of a marriage union but it also implied what was seen as a woman’s “natural” destiny and thereby proving her worth as a moral human being. The wife’s role was to be submissive and to provide her husband with sex, children and housekeeping. This short class will examine the definition and understanding of wife as it evolved from Ancient Greece to the Present time; as Wife was transformed from Property to co equal partner.
Stories behind songs from Spain and Latin America
Lindajoy Fenley
Friday, April 4-April 18, 10 am-12 pm
Location: Stevenson 1301, Hyflex*
There’s more to a song than words or musical elements. This class highlights many stories behind popular Spanish-language songs – stories filled with mystery, romance and even scandal. Take the internationally popular Bésame mucho for example. It’s likely you’ve heard it, but did you know it was written by a Mexican girl who said she had never been kissed or that it cost a Brazilian government official his job? We’ll delve into songs such as Guantanamera (Cuba), Gracias a la vida (Chile) and Alfonsina y el mar (Argentina). Come and enjoy the songs and the stories behind them. Speaking Spanish is NOT necessary to take the course.
* Hyflex - Combines in-person, online, synchronous and online asysnchronous learning. You can attend the lecture in-person, live through Zoom, or watch the recording later.