The University of St. Thomas Selim Center for Learning in Later Years has scheduled three single-session programs that will be held on the university’s St. Paul campus this summer.
The programs are free and offered in part to celebrate the center’s 40th year at St. Thomas. The center offers an extensive calendar of spring and fall semester short courses and educational programs that are tailored for those 50 and older.
No registration is required for the summer programs. Each will be held in Woulfe Alumni Hall on the third floor of Anderson Student Center, located at the corner of Summit and Cretin avenues.
The summer programs are:
“The Seductive Quality of the Music of Film” will be presented from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 5.
Dr. Christopher Kachian of the St. Thomas Music Department will discuss the purpose of film music and techniques that composers and directors employ to keep viewers entranced.
Kachian heads the Guitar Studies Program at St. Thomas and has given more than 500 performances in Japan, China, Africa, Cuba, Costa Rica, Peru and throughout Europe and North America.
“Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb” will be presented from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 19.
The programs begins with Stanley Kubrick's funny and thought-provoking 1963 film and ends with a discussion on the making of the film, its impact 50 years ago and its relevance today.
The discussion will be led by filmmaker James Snapko, who has taught film studies and filmmaking at St. Thomas since 2002.
“Psychology and Aging” will be presented from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 17.
Dr. Ben Denkinger of the Augsburg College Psychology Department will examine how our thinking, memory, socialization and acquired knowledge changes in the course of normal, healthy aging. In particular, he will discuss how different forms of intelligence and memory stay stable or fluctuate as we age, as well as some of the approaches to managing and accommodating these expected changes.
Denkinger is a cognitive and biological psychologist who specializes in age-related changes in memory and the perception of time.
