Emeritus Academy Lectures   

This course is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.

Wodehouse is generally considered the greatest humorist in the English language of the twentieth century. Over a 70-year writing career, he created more than 4,000 characters, including Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves. He wrote novels, short stories, plays, libretti, and lyrics for musical comedies in collaboration with some of the greats, including the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter. He was also painfully shy. Liberace, of course, was a great popular pianist and entertainer, known as “Mr. Showmanship.” He was anything but shy. It appears that these two geniuses never met or communicated in any way. Yet there was indeed a connection between the two that Rains unearthed a couple of years ago. It involved World War II, Nazi Germany, internment, defamation, and litigation. Also, humor of course.

This course is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.

Wodehouse is generally considered the greatest humorist in the English language of the twentieth century. Over a 70-year writing career, he created more than 4,000 characters, including Bertie Wooster and his man Jeeves. He wrote novels, short stories, plays, libretti, and lyrics for musical comedies in collaboration with some of the greats, including the Gershwins, Jerome Kern, and Cole Porter. He was also painfully shy. Liberace, of course, was a great popular pianist and entertainer, known as “Mr. Showmanship.” He was anything but shy. It appears that these two geniuses never met or communicated in any way. Yet there was indeed a connection between the two that Rains unearthed a couple of years ago. It involved World War II, Nazi Germany, internment, defamation, and litigation. Also, humor of course.

This course is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.

Fruit flies (Drosophila) are not just an annoying problem in your kitchen but have served as a model system for the study of biological systems for more than 100 years, leading to 10 Nobel Prize winners in genetics, development, immunity, and circadian rhythm. This lecture will examine how fruit flies have contributed to our understanding of how chromosomes evolve through genome biology. The lecture will segue into a discussion of how direct-to-consumer DNA tests can help us understand our personal genealogical history.

This course is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.

Fruit flies (Drosophila) are not just an annoying problem in your kitchen but have served as a model system for the study of biological systems for more than 100 years, leading to 10 Nobel Prize winners in genetics, development, immunity, and circadian rhythm. This lecture will examine how fruit flies have contributed to our understanding of how chromosomes evolve through genome biology. The lecture will segue into a discussion of how direct-to-consumer DNA tests can help us understand our personal genealogical history.

This course is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.

Luis Alberto Sánchez, Peruvian author, lawyer, politician, and professor, carried on a voluminous correspondence with fellow Peruvian diplomat, lawyer, and journalist Manuel Seoane Corrales through nearly forty years of political and personal endeavors. The letters stand as a testament to the growth and development of these important political activists and to the temporal, cultural, and spatial milieu in which they are written. They present a multilayered portrait of aprismo that is not available in conventional histories of the party. This course will review selected letters and highlight themes that surfaced as the volatile political situation swirled around and between them.

This course is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.

Luis Alberto Sánchez, Peruvian author, lawyer, politician, and professor, carried on a voluminous correspondence with fellow Peruvian diplomat, lawyer, and journalist Manuel Seoane Corrales through nearly forty years of political and personal endeavors. The letters stand as a testament to the growth and development of these important political activists and to the temporal, cultural, and spatial milieu in which they are written. They present a multilayered portrait of aprismo that is not available in conventional histories of the party. This course will review selected letters and highlight themes that surfaced as the volatile political situation swirled around and between them.

This course is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.

Architects are tasked with designing spaces to accommodate people and the things they do within buildings. There are, however, buildings that benefit from containing spaces no one ever occupies. The Recreation Building, “Rec Hall,” on the University Park campus is such a building, and this helps to explain why it is so popular as a place to watch Penn State’s athletes compete.

This course is offered in partnership with the Penn State Emeritus Academy as part of Explorations: The Penn State Emeritus Academy Lecture Series.

Architects are tasked with designing spaces to accommodate people and the things they do within buildings. There are, however, buildings that benefit from containing spaces no one ever occupies. The Recreation Building, “Rec Hall,” on the University Park campus is such a building, and this helps to explain why it is so popular as a place to watch Penn State’s athletes compete.