Summer 2023 Osher Observer

Steve’s Look Ahead

We hope you have enjoyed the spring program of on-campus and online lectures organized by your volunteer Curriculum Committee,  We are pleased to welcome many new members to Osher this quarter and look forward to getting to see you on-campus or online.

Our summer quarter begins on July 10 and is an eight-week quarter, Monday – Thursdays, concluding on August 31. Master Class I features architectural historian and Osher favorite Diane Kane, PhD, lecturing on the History of Concrete, the Mongrel Material.  Master Class II returns SDSU lecturer Richard Carrico to Osher to discuss the History of the American Indians from a “First Peoples’ Perspective.”  

During the summer we take a brief break from our program of academic lectures and feature workshops addressing issues of interest:  Educational Technology professor Jacki Montierth, founder of Wiseboomer.com, returns for two workshops on passwords and spam, and traveling with your digital devices.  From the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park, we will have three workshops on using your smartphone camera, editing and sharing your pictures, and social media, pros and cons. 

We have also scheduled two on-campus-only programs: a screening and discussion by Cinema Society founder Andy Friedenberg of the Finnish film Elina: As if I Wasn't There, and a book talk and signing by our colleague doctor and historian Eddie Goldberg, discussing his book Presidential Health Matters. We are inviting all members to bring a friend or family to these two programs and introduce them to Osher.  

Our lectures in Humanities, International Relations, Law and Society, and the Social Sciences feature a wide range of topics.  Highlights this quarter are: Women, Life, Freedom: An Uprising in Iran; and New Challenges and Opportunities in India, by Professor Achyuta Adhvaryu , the inaugural director of the new 21st Century India Center at UCSD.  Cal Western Law Professor Glenn Smith returns for his highly-anticipated annual review of the Supreme Court’s 2022-2023 term. Professor Justin Brooks will update us on the Innocence Project. 
 In Medicine, among others, we will have lectures on the Effects of Hearing Loss on Cognition, and Kidney Stone Prevention and Treatment.  In Science, highlights include a discussion of the potential of small modular nuclear reactors to replace coal, and lectures by prominent local scientists, Professor Ethan Bier on Real World Applications of the gene-editing CRISPER technology, and Professor Catriona Jamieson, on using microgravity in space for biomedical research and stem cell manufacturing.  

We will again be informed by our Osher Presenter colleagues, our dedicated small seminar leaders, and Osher Theater World performers and directors. Feel free to share your views with your colleagues on current events in our bi-weekly moderated Town Hall discussions.

The above is just a sample of the marvelous winter program assembled by your volunteer Curriculum Committee. Full descriptions of the curriculum and online events can be found throughout the summer catalog.  

If you have any recommendations for speakers, or would like to be an Osher Presenter, please send me an email: ssclarey62@gmail.com. 

Steve Clarey
Chair, Curriculum Committee