History and Culture   

The Oxford English Dictionary named “brain rot” the word of the year in 2024, only one of many new words added to the OED along with an entirely new Dictionary of African American English in development (publication expected in 2027). If you missed the fun we had in my previous study group on the dictionary in 2022, now’s your chance to join in. We will consider the ways that the dictionary does or does not offer authoritative guidance on usage and “correctness” with some review of commentary on the dictionary by UM linguist Anne Curzan; Anne served on a dictionary advisory board. We will review the history of dictionaries in English, and update developments at the OED in Oxford. The larger issues of authority and standards will be the focus in the second half of the course, but we should have time for reruns of a fun exercise and a round of the Dictionary Game too.

Alice Horning is retired from Oakland University where she taught linguistics and writing for more than 30 years.

This two-session book study takes us on a vivid journey through the 1960s, guided by An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin. The book offers a unique insider’s view of the decade, as told through the experiences of Dick Goodwin—speechwriter for JFK, LBJ, Eugene McCarthy, and RFK—who was present for many pivotal events, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the shaping of LBJ’s “Great Society,” a term he coined himself. The story is also a personal one, chronicling the decades-long partnership between Dick and Doris, two committed political thinkers and activists. Their shared passion for history and reform animates this account of a transformative era. We’ll reflect on both the personal and political forces that defined the '60s and shaped the nation. Please read the book—or at least the first half—before our first session.

Barb Cherem spent five decades teaching in P-12 and higher education. A passionate history enthusiast, she recently led book studies on The 1619 Project, American Nations, and Combee. This current book has quickly become one of her favorites.

Join me in exploring Ann Arbor’s SmartTours, which celebrates the Bicentennial of the city’s founding in 1824. With 15 tours and 177 sites across the city, each tour site is accompanied by a photograph and narrative that highlights its significance to Ann Arbor. In this study group, we’ll cover four of these walking tours. Instead of relying on smartphones to read the narratives, I’ll provide the story and point out the buildings and sites as we walk. This is a great opportunity to understand the rich history of buildings you may have passed by many times. To participate, you should be capable of walking at least two miles. Please note, the first class will be held in a classroom, but be prepared to start walking on the first day! These walks will feature both previously covered routes and new ones.

Will Hawk retired from the information technology industry after 35 years. He is currently a dedicated volunteer with OLLI and enjoys using his tech expertise to help seniors with everyday tasks. A lifelong learner, Will has a wide range of interests, including hiking and yoga.

Please join me in exploring Ann Arbor’s Smart Tours which celebrates the Bicentennial of the founding of Ann Arbor in 1824. In all, there are 15 tours of Ann Arbor with 177 tour sites. Each tour site includes a photograph and narrative describing its significance to Ann Arbor. In this study group we will attempt to cover 4 of these walking tours. Instead of trying to read your smartphone as we walk these tours, I will provide the narrative and point out the building/site that is being referenced on the tour. Please join me as we walk around Ann Arbor and understand the significance of buildings that we have passed by many times. You should be capable of walking a minimum of two miles before embarking on these tours. *Note the class meets at the Michigan Union for only the first class. Be prepared to walk on the first day of class. These will include previous walks as well as 2 new walks.

Will Hawk has been a member of OLLI for seven years and is always looking for new adventures. Will has volunteered for many OLLI committees and currently serves as Study Group Co-Chair.

Please join us for an exciting day at the Detroit Auto Show. We will take the D2A2 bus from the Blake Transit Center in Downtown Ann Arbor and then ride the People Mover to the fourth floor of Huntington Place. From there we will ride the elevator down to the entrance of the Auto Show. Please come to the planning meeting for this event where we will decide the length of time spent in Detroit and well as the important question of where to eat lunch. All questions will be answered at the planning meeting. Auto Show admission and D2A2 round trip price are included. Please note that there will be a fair amount of walking with this trip and the cost of lunch is not included.   

Will Hawk has been a member of OLLI for seven years and is always looking for new adventures. He has led many study groups and is currently Co-chair of the Study Group Committee.

Join us for an exciting day trip to Detroit, leaving from the Blake Transit Center on Fifth Ave in downtown Ann Arbor at 8:30 a.m. After arriving in Grand Circus Park, we will hop on the Qline to the Detroit Historical Museum. The Detroit Historical Museum brings Detroit’s vibrant history to life with interactive exhibits, engaging displays, and family-friendly experiences that celebrate the city’s industries, culture, and stories. After a late lunch, we’ll decide whether to explore more of the city or head back to Ann Arbor. The cost of lunch is not included in the class fee. The trip will be broken down into two sessions: a planning meeting, and then the adventure itself. Be prepared for at least two miles of walking throughout the day. The bus will return us to the Blake Transit Center in Ann Arbor. Please join the planning meeting to discuss the length of the trip plus the important selection of where to eat lunch.

Will Hawk has been a member of OLLI for seven years and is always looking for new adventures. He has led many study groups and is currently Co-chair of the Study Group Committee.

Whether you want your grandchildren to learn your story or wish to interview others, join us in learning how to prepare the person you want to interview, develop the right set of questions using the Biographical Data sheet, and manage difficult moments that may arise in the interview. Also learn how to select the right recording equipment, save your recording in a transcript, and, if you choose to, save your transcript in an archive.

Jim Cameron is the president of the Michigan Oral History Association and received the Historical Society of Michigan’s History Hero Award for 2023. He is the author of Voices Over the Valley and Tales Come Alive! Matt Jones is the Director of the EMU Center for Oral History Research (COHR), an entity at EMU. Andrew Schneider is a Great Lakes Maritime Historian and Historic Preservationist. He has master’s degree in Historic Preservation and currently works at the Henry Ford Museum.

Growing older has given many women a chance to travel all over the world, discovering new places and cultures, meeting new people, and finding new ways to contribute to the global community. At a time when many in this country are turning away from the rest of the world, travel is a way to bring us together. In this study group, we will read some great travel writing by women, but our focus will sharing our own experiences as women travelers.

Meta Mendel-Reyes is a former labor organizer and professor who's been an activist since the sixties. You're as likely to find her at a march in Detroit or in a classroom with other OLLI members.

This course focuses on events leading to U.S. involvement in Vietnam culminating in an avoidable war with 58,000 Americans dead and 2-3 million Vietnamese. There will be a discussion of the French colonial era, the rise of Ho Chi Minh, South Vietnamese politics, and questionable U.S. policy decisions and conduct of the war. Considerable time will be spent examining lost opportunities to avoid this war.

Ed Linz, a 1965 graduate of the Naval Academy, is the author of eight books, including a novel, works on the Great Depression and the Vietnam War, and most recently, three children’s books. He holds advanced degrees from Oxford University and George Mason University.

Please join me in exploring the Michigan Firehouse Museum. Encompassing over 26,000 square feet, the Museum is an educational treasure trove that includes an original 1898 firehouse and modern, multilevel exhibit display area. Walking through the restored firehouse, visitors can see fire engine steamers replete with horses ready to go on their way to a fire. The large, modern addition offers 25 changing exhibits of antique fire trucks and early fire rigs, multiple displays of historic artifacts including tools, equipment, memorabilia, and the largest collection of fire truck bells in the country!

Will Hawk has been a member of OLLI for seven years and is always looking for new adventures. Will has volunteered for many OLLI committees and currently serves as Study Group Co-Chair.

Before she died in 1974, Felicia Bornstein Lubliner wrote about her internment in ghettos and concentration camps in Nazi-occupied Poland, powerful stories shedding light on her experiences and indomitable spirit, telling a story that Rabbi Dennis J. Eisner described as “deeper than a number—6,000,000—giving us a human touch in the midst of inhumanity.” Her son, Irv, will share excerpts from her book, Only Hope: A Survivor’s Stories of the Holocaust. You will learn about the Holocaust through his mother's eyes, as well as how he, the child of two survivors of Auschwitz, was impacted by his parents' experiences.

Irv Lubliner, professor emeritus at Southern Oregon University, published his mother’s Holocaust-themed writings and has spoken about them to numerous adult education programs throughout the country, including 86 OLLI campuses.

This walking tour meets at the Detroit Observatory and concludes on the Diag.

1398 Ann St Ann Arbor, MI 48109

The first teach-in. Lawsuits. Nazi resistance. U-M has long been home to campus activism, and this walking tour will allow you to see historically significant locations on campus where you will learn about protests on campus. Over the course of 1.5 hours, we will cover women’s activism, the legacy of the Treaty of Fort Meigs for Native students, the Black Action Movement, anti-Vietnam War activism, and more. While this tour will emphasize the 1960s and 1970s on campus, we will also go back in time to the founding of U-M and explore more recent instances of activism. Join us to learn about U-M’s role as a leader for student protests.

This tour was adapted from a public history course at U-M.

We will read and discuss the instructor’s recently published literary memoir (same title as the course) which includes watching a video of the play, REMNANTS, which has been performed on more than 300 stages worldwide and the script of which is in the book. Other topics include how survivors confront their own deaths, how survivors contend with the losses they endured, and what we have assumed about the loss of survivors themselves. Copies of the book will be provided to the participants at no cost.

Hank Greenspan has been writing and teaching about his collaborations with Holocaust survivors for over fifty years. His work in this area is considered seminal.

The Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive holds one of the nation’s largest collections of community cookbooks, typically published by churches, temples, and other organizations. Early community cookbooks offered opportunities for women to develop organizational and business skills, from selling advertising space to copyediting, while raising money for charitable causes. Titles like Buckeye Cookery and The Settlement Cookbook transcended their initial scope & purpose to become household titles, but hundreds more community cookbooks remained known only in their own small towns. Nonetheless, they provide valuable historical evidence of community foodways and community organization. Join Special Collections Research Center Curator Juli McLoone for a short introductory lecture, followed by hands-on exploration and an opportunity to explore these unique documents of cooking & community.

Juli McLoone is a Curator in the University of Michigan Library Special Collections Research Center, where she builds collections and provides instruction and outreach for a wide range of print and archival materials from the 18th to the 20th centuries. One of her principle areas of focus is the Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive, which focuses on the history of food & drink in America from the 18th-20th centuries.

From 1870 through 1945 Vienna was one of the cultural, political, and social centers of Europe. In this study group we will view and discuss some of the more important and intriguing international trends in so many fields that began in this queen city of the Danube. We will accomplish this through illustrated presentations, group discussions, and remembrances of figures all the way from the inventor of the Sacher Torte to Harry Lime.

Rudi Lindner taught history at the university level for nearly sixty years. He claims to be the last of the Habsburg Jews.

Using personal stories and lots of pictures, travel with Terri Wilkerson to a pipeline protest in the middle of North Dakota and back to Michigan where she learned of an increasingly serious threat to our own waters - Line 5, a now 72-year-old, decaying pipeline which is in the worst place to be in the Great Lakes, the Straits of Mackinac. Learn about broken indigenous treaties, how non-violent protests matter, and the hidden, ticking time-bomb called Line 5. If there is time/interest, Terri will also share some de-escalation techniques for tense times.

Terri Wilkerson is a leader in the Crossroads Group/Sierra Club. She focuses on shutting down Line 5, encouraging civility, and inspiring people to eat more tasty whole foods/less meat. Terri spent 5 months in the largest non-violent protest camp opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline.

The Bentley Historical Library serves as the home of the University of Michigan's archives as well as archives documenting life in the state of Michigan. During this session, we'll talk about how our staff identifies and preserves untold stories from across the state and how you might contribute to future research. In honor of women's history month, we'll share how archival collections at the Bentley illuminate the lives of a few notable women of science. Following the session, we will take a behind the scenes tour of the Bentley's facilities and participants will have a chance to consult with archivists.

Speaker Meghan Courtney is the Associate Director for Public Engagement at the Bentley Historical Library.

Entering the Museum is like stepping back in time to visit a family in an original 19th Century Ypsilanti home. You can pretend to be their guests in the Informal Parlor, share the preparation of a meal with a wood stove, do the laundry without electricity, and imagine an overnight stay without indoor plumbing. For the adventurous historian, visiting the Archives will be an opportunity to explore over 200 years of Ypsilanti heritage. Search and discover exciting facts about your family, home or business.

Will Hawk has been a member of OLLI for seven years and is always looking for new adventures. Will has volunteered for many OLLI committees and currently serves as Study Group Co-Chair.