(Chelsea Update would like to thank Joan Gaughan for the information in this story.)
The Chelsea Adult Learners Institute winter/spring semester opens with a four-part, Zoom course beginning on Wednesday, Feb. 15 when Moe Bidgoli examines US-Iran Relations.
Beginning with missionary activities in the early nineteenth century and continuing into the aftermath of the termination of the nuclear deal in 2018, Bidgoli will consider how the country of Omar Khayyam and Cyrus the Great that once fascinated Americans, and with whom we had a warm friendship, became America’s so-called “state sponsor of terrorism.”
Bidgoli is new to Chelsea’s ALI, but not to adult learning since he has also been involved with Ann Arbor’s OLLI. For 35 years, he was a professor of computer science and information systems and enjoys reading history, traveling, gardening and pickleball.
Last semester, when Peter Van Hoek showed us how our courts work, the reaction drew comments like, “It was interesting and fun. I learned things that I never knew… Clarified facts vs. what we hear on TV law programs… A clear description of how our court system operates…”
This semester, beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 21, his two part in-person and Zoom class on the Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to the Constitution will show us how cases related to those amendments are actually adjudicated.
Van Hoek received his J.D. from Wayne State Law School and has served as staff attorney at the Michigan State Appellate Defender Office, as well as serving as adjunct professor of law at the University of Michigan, Wayne State and Cooley Law Schools.
He has also argued a case before the United States Supreme Court.
So you thought Calamity Jane, Annie Oakley and Belle Starr were typical of the women who settled the American west?
Susan Nenadic’s three-part, in-person class on 19th Century American Women, beginning on Thursday, Feb. 23, will offer an entirely different perspective that may more closely resemble the more prosaic. but possibly more significant, experiences of your great grandmother.
She will cover the criminals and women in legitimate occupations and consider women’s physical as well as mental health. She will also stress the importance of education that then opens up professions to women.
Nenadic is known to ALI for her enlightening vignettes of cemeteries in Paris and Chicago. She has published two books and is working on a third, and also heads a non-profit, Friends of Amoru, which she founded to build a school in Uganda.
Registration for ALI classes is by mail only. The catalog with registration form is available for download on the website, www.adultlearnersinstitute.org as well as at local libraries and various other locations in the area.
Mail completed registration forms to: Adult Learners Institute, P.O. Box 134, Chelsea, MI 48118. Registration fee is $10 per semester and the class fees range from $10 to $35.
If you have questions, please call the office at (734) 292-5540 or visit the ALI web site: www.AdultLearnersInstitute.org.
