Register for Spring Courses Now!

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Our Spring 2019 Course Catalog is now available on the website for viewing and/or downloading.  We are offering 22 courses, in the arts, humanities, history, current events, and science, most meeting weekly during weekday mornings for 90 minutes.  The special Introductory Spring registration fee is $30/person which covers all Spring (January – April) courses that a member enrolls in (except occasional charges for a book or materials).  [Current members who joined in the Fall 2018 are paid-up for the rest of the academic year.] Our “Who We Are” statement describes our philosophy that emphasizes SHARED learning and course MODERATION by volunteer members.

Here are the relevant links:

SPRING 2019 Course Catalog (for downloading) including Course Schedule and Descriptions

SPRING 2019 Course Schedule (to view on your screen)

SPRING 2019 Descriptions of Courses (to view on your screen).  For additional information (about some courses) that was added since the catalog was published click HERE

SPRING 2019 Membership/Registration Form for downloading and mailing (also included in the Catalog)  Note: If you don’t have a printer, just put your answers to all the questions on a piece of paper and mail it with your check.

SPRING 2019 General Information

[Current members who have already paid for the 2018-2019 year can use our SPRING 2019 On-Line Course Registration for Currently Paid-Up Members]

Please note that our course enrollment period for Spring courses is short: it ends on December 29th so that allocation of courses to classrooms at our new site in Southern Village can be based on reasonably accurate course enrollments.

If you have any questions, use our Questions form and we’ll get right back to you.

Looking forward to seeing you at Shared Learning!

 

Public Lecture: N.C. Politics–Today & Tomorrow: Rob Christensen

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The Shared Learning Association of Chapel Hill is honored to present a talk by Rob Christensen about current and future North Carolina politics.  With the mid-term election almost upon us, his talk could not be more timely.  It is scheduled for Friday, October 26th at 11 a.m. at our current meeting location: Expand Church, 114 Weaver Dairy Rd. (corner of Erwin).

Mr. Christensen has covered North Carolina politics for 45 years at the News and Observer in Raleigh and is perhaps the most qualified non-partisan commentator on this topic in the entire State.  His book, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics, was published by UNC Press in 2008, and won an award as the best of work of non fiction in the State that year. His new book, Branchhead Boys, is scheduled to be published by UNC Press in the spring.

This talk, like all others in the Gray Lindgren public lecture series, is free and open to the public.  Please join us!

For further information, download the flyer <-HERE.

Public Lecture: U.S.’s Russia Policy

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On Friday, Sept. 28th, at 11 a.m., Jack F. Matlock, former U.S. Ambassador to Russia gave a powerfully convincing talk to a packed audience at Shared Learning’s first Gray Lindgren Public Lecture of this academic year.  The title of Dr. Matlock’s address was Our Russia Policy: What is it? What Should it Be? but most of the talk focused on the end of the Cold War, the end of Communism in the Soviet Union, and the breakup of that country.  Matlock is the author of Reagan & Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended.

For further information, download the flyer <-HERE.

Our Lindgren Lectures are free and open to the public.  We hope you joined us!

 

Fall Catalog Updates

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A few updates to the Fall Catalog.

Four courses are now closed to new enrollment–Discover Unfamiliar Languages, Plays: Reading and Discussing, Controversies: How Democracies Die, and Beginning Spanish.   Waiting lists are established for all courses that are full and we will alert you if a space has become available for you.

Also, if you are looking for History & Nature of the Universe, II in the menus referring to this course’s webpage it is going by a new title: Fun in the Physical World

February Public Lecture: The Storied South, Prof. Wm. Ferris

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On Friday, February 23rd, at 11 a.m., Shared Learning was proud to host Professor William Ferris, Senior Associate Director of the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC Chapel Hill, who gave our February Gray Lindgren Public Lecture at our Association’s meeting location, Expand Church, 114 Weaver Dairy Rd., Chapel Hill.

Professor Ferris’ lecture was based on his book, The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists, a fascinating set of interviews with 26 of the most luminous artists and thinkers in American culture — from Eudora Welty, Pete Seeger, and Alice Walker to William Eggleston, Bobby Rush, and C. Vann Woodward.

Dr. Ferris described to us how he chose subjects and conducted one-on-one interviews, over the past forty years, with such outstanding cultural representatives of the American South; how storytelling is viscerally tied to southern identity; and how the work of southern and southern-inspired creators has shaped the way Americans think and talk about the South.

Like all of our Lindgren Public Lectures, Dr. Ferris’ talk was free and open to the Chapel Hill area community. We invite you to taste the intellectually invigorating and socially inviting climate that has characterized our organization since its founding by retired UNC faculty members nearly 40 years ago.

Spring 2018 Course Catalog Published

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Information about Shared Learning’s Spring 2018 semester–the course schedule, course descriptions, and registration forms–have been posted on the new Shared Learning website: http://sharedlearning.us. Newly joining members and those returning from previous years can complete the Registration Page of the Spring 2018 Course Catalog and mail it in.  Current members who have already paid their 2017-2018 registration fee may submit their selected courses by email or using an on-line form.  Look at the items under the menu choice “SPRING 2018 Courses” for more information.

Classes begin Jan 8th and end April 20th.  Spring break is March 12-16.

Lindgren Lecture: Islam and Democracy: Can They Co-Exist?

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On Friday, October 27th, at 11 a.m., retired U.S. Ambassador to Turkey, W. Robert Pearson, discussed the probability that Islam and democracy could co-exist in the Middle East. Ambassador Pearson, currently a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, also described the current political situations in both Turkey and Syria and answered questions about those issues and about current policies and operation of the U.S. State Department.

Ambassador Pearson served as Ambassador to Turkey from 2000 to 2003 and was Director General of the Foreign Service from 2003 to 2006, winning two national awards for revitalizing American diplomacy. From 2008 to 2014 he was president of IREX, an international development NGO, basic in D.C., that focused on education, civil society development and independent media, spearheading its expansion to more than 125 countries.

Our Lindgren Lectures are free and open to the public and are held at our meeting location, Expand Church, 114 Weaver Dairy Rd., Chapel Hill 27514.

Free Public Lecture: “The Center is Not Holding:…Our Political Divide”

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Friday, Sept. 22nd, at 11 a.m., our first Lindgren Lecture of the 2017-2018 year was presented by Jonathan D. Weiler, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Curriculum in Global Studies, UNC Chapel Hill. Dr. Weiler’s talk was titled The Center Is not Holding – Nature and Origins of our Political Divide. This is a return visit to Shared Learning for Dr. Weiler who talked to us several years ago from his book Authoritarianism and Polarization–a fascinating look at how child-rearing values are related to political ideology and are increasingly associated with political party preference. He continues to work in the area of Americans’ political beliefs and it will be exciting to hear about his new research.