Search results for

For many, Auschwitz is emblematic of the Holocaust. It signifies terror, atrocity, cruelty, and ultimately death. But like all horrors, it has an origin. More than that, it was a horror created by humanity: it had guards, doctors, and even some prisoners who supported the terror. This two-part lecture will unearth the history of Auschwitz. It will consider the origins of the camp, examine its different subcamps, describe life for the inmates, and attempt to recognize what can happen when racism and hatred are embraced by a society.

Jason Hensley, PhD, teaches religious studies at a private school in Los Angeles. He is a fellow of the Michael LaPrade Holocaust Education Institute of the Anti-Defamation League, a member of Civic Spirit's teacher education cohort, and the award-winning author of 10 books. His work has been featured in The Huffington Post as well as the BBC, and he has served as the historical advisor for a Holocaust documentary.

Inspired by the recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this lecture explores the art of the Tudor Dynasty in England. The Tudors made themselves relevant and powerful with paintings, tapestries, and even clothes. Covering their century-plus reign—118 years, from the ascent of Henry VII in 1485 to the death of Queen Elizabeth I in 1603, the lecture will explore the representations of power and majesty of the Tudor Kings and Queens.

Katherine E. Zoraster is an Art Historian and a Professor of Art History at several local colleges specializing in Western art from the Renaissance to the 20th century. She graduated with a double major in English Literature and Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Following her undergraduate degree, she received a Master’s Degree with Distinction in Art History from the California State University at Northridge.

In addition to the courses Katherine teaches for other lifelong learning programs, she also works as an Adjunct Professor of Art History at Moorpark College and an Art History Instructor for the full-time program at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Arts. Katherine also serves as a commissioner for the Burbank Cultural Arts Commission and volunteers at the Burbank Animal Shelter. In her free time, Katherine is an avid runner and travels extensively.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) and Alexander Pope (1688-1744) were two of the most important British authors in the early 18th century, known especially for their satires– a literary form that uses humor to critique vice or folly. Swift was the author of Gulliver’s Travels and the infamous essay “A Modest Proposal,” in which he proposed that the poor in Ireland should eat their children to survive the potato famine; Pope authored the mock-epic “The Rape of the Lock” and the poems “An Essay on Criticism” and “An Essay on Man.”

Recent generations of readers/scholars have characterized Swift and Pope as misogynists, as women were often targets of their satiric wit. But during their lifetimes, literacy rates for women were slowly on the rise, especially in the aristocratic classes, and in the 1730s, a pair of “good frienemies,” Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762) and Anne Ingram, Viscountess Irwin (1696-1764), wrote poems mimicking the men’s forms and refuting their critiques, one with sharp humor and the other with powerfully logical argumentation.

In Part I, we will look at Swift’s poem “In a Lady’s Dressing Room” and Montagu’s parodic takedown entitled “The Reasons That Induced Dr. Swift to Write a Poem Called the Lady’s Dressing Room.” In Part II we will discuss Pope’s “Epistle 2. To a Lady (Of the Characters of Women” and Irwin’s more earnest and finely crafted response entitled, “An Epistle to Mr. Pope: Occasioned by his ‘Characters of Women.’” Each lecture will briefly introduce the social and political context and relevant biographical details of the respective authors.

Dr. Allix Wee received her Ph.D. in English from the University of Minnesota in 2004, specializing in British literature from the Victorian and Modernist periods. A literary historian at heart, Dr. Wee has conducted extensive research in the archives of the British Home Office exploring that government's history of literary censorship, work that encompasses her ongoing commitments to gender and sexuality studies. Her most recent publications focus on teaching literature and gender in the context of the Lutheran educational mission. She has also taught Ancient Greek literature, environmental literature, and young adult literature, and designs all her courses to hone students' critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Before coming to Cal Lutheran in 2008, Dr. Wee taught at several strong private liberal arts institutions in the Midwest where she grew up, including Carleton College in MN, Denison University in OH, and Grinnell and Luther Colleges in IA.

AI is all over the news today, and its short term impacts have not been trivial. Google rolled out an AI product that made a factual error, and its parent company stock price dropped 9%, temporarily wiping out $100B of market value. And there are a myriad of risks beyond factual errors, with a mix of probability and consequences. Much has been made of the fact that over 100 million people have tried ChatGPT in its first two months of public exposure. And that's just one product, in one branch, of a range of new products called Generative Artificial Intelligence!

So, is it time to crawl under a rock? Will some machine come looking for me one day soon, because I disrespected the potential of AI systems? What are the newly arriving benefits or risks of these technologies? What frameworks can we use, as business and society leaders, to think through the coming tradeoffs? We'll talk about work, jobs, risks, benefits, privacy, security, existential threats, weapons gone rogue, and the like. We'll also talk about regulation, and the proposed 6-month "pause" on new AI development to provide time to get "guardrails" around AI products. And without a doubt, the landscape of what we know and plan for today will be different in August, in June, and likely even tomorrow!

Paul Witman (Ph.D.) is a Professor of Information Technology Management, in California Lutheran University’s School of Management. His research interests include social networking for non-profits, information security, usability, health care information, and electronic banking and finance. Prior to joining Cal Lutheran, Dr. Witman served as Director of Integration Engineering for Digital Insight Corp. and as Director of Global Delivery Systems at Citibank. He earned his Ph.D. in Information Systems and Technology from Claremont Graduate University.

Inspired by the French Art Deco style, the architects and designers of American Art Deco interpreted the style in an exuberant display of stylized geometric and floral elements drawn from sources as varied as the discovery of King Tut’s tomb to innovative modern industrial design. From New York to Los Angeles, the sleek aerodynamic styles of the 1920’s and 1930’s Art Deco era infused modern design with an elegant and sophisticated flair. The course will explore the influential factors and chic forms of Art Deco in architectural design, interior decor, furniture, and decorative objects.

Eleanor Schrader is an award-winning educator, lecturer, and author. She lectures worldwide on art and architectural history, and leads art and architecture tours throughout the world. She has been named a Distinguished Instructor at UCLA Extension, where she teaches history of architecture, interior design, furniture, and decorative arts. She is also Professor Emeritus of Art and Architectural History at Santa Monica College. She has done graduate work in fine and decorative arts at Sotheby's Institute in London and New York. She has served as a Design Review Commissioner for the City of Beverly Hills and currently serves on the Board of Directors of the John Lautner Foundation.

At the start of the 20th century, the art scene in New York severely lagged its European counterpart. Within forty years’ time, New York had become the center of the art world. The crucial event that kickstarted this shift was the 1913 Armory Show, the most important art exhibit in the history of the United States. More than a quarter of a million Americans visited the show and its 1,300 works by avant-garde artists, before the show traveled on to Chicago and Boston. This two-part lecture will take an in depth look at this unprecedented and revolutionary exhibition that changed art in America.

Katherine E. Zoraster is an Art Historian and a Professor of Art History at several local colleges specializing in Western art from the Renaissance to the 20th century. She graduated with a double major in English Literature and Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles. Following her undergraduate degree, she received a Master’s Degree with Distinction in Art History from the California State University at Northridge.

In addition to the courses Katherine teaches for other lifelong learning programs, she also works as an Adjunct Professor of Art History at Moorpark College and an Art History Instructor for the full-time program at the Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Arts. Katherine also serves as a commissioner for the Burbank Cultural Arts Commission and volunteers at the Burbank Animal Shelter. In her free time, Katherine is an avid runner and travels extensively.

Tomato soup, mashed potatoes. Wall papering over masterpieces. Glued protestors. Museum mayhem. Has warfare come to the corridors of art exhibitions? Why is art the target and is this form of action acceptable? What could justify damage to the world’s cultural heritage? UNESCO Blue Shield Emblems signal the protection of cultural heritage during war. Must we now offer that level of protection to museums?

This lecture will highlight the history of art vandalism and examine the recent surge in incidents. Most importantly, we will identify the organizations and their silent partners funding these actions.


Christine Maasdam holds a Master in Humanities and a B.A. in Cultural Geography. Her art studies include The Courtauld Institute of Art in London, The Smithsonian Early Enrichment Center in D.C. and Post Graduate studies in Antiquities Trafficking and Art Crime at the University of Glasgow. She is a graduate of the Art Crime Investigation Seminar led by Robert Wittman, founder of the FBI's National Art Crime Team. Christine is a member of the International Foundation for Cultural Property Protection and holds a certificate from Trident Manor on Protection of Cultural Venues. Christine received Sotheby’s certification on Determining Value: An Appraiser’s Perspective. She has spent over a decade as a LACMA docent and is an active volunteer at the City of David archaeological dig in Israel.

Employment law firm LightGabler is presenting a free employment law webinar, “There Must Be Fifty Ways to Leave Your Employee: Handling Employee Terminations.” The webinar is Wednesday, May 31 from 10:30 a.m. to noon.

California is an at-will employment state, and yet it also has the highest number of wrongful termination cases in the nation. Avoiding employee lawsuits (even when they are frivolous) requires that employers effectively and lawfully handle employee terminations.

In this webinar for employers, supervisors and human resource professionals, LightGabler employment law attorney Karen L. Gabler will discuss how to prepare for, execute, and then manage the aftermath of employee terminations.

Reservations are required. Attendance is limited to no more than two logins per company. Login instructions will be provided upon registration and again via email the day prior to the webinar. To register, go to https://www.lightgablerlaw.com/seminars.

For more information about LightGabler, visit www.LightGablerlaw.com or call 805-248-7208.

Ever since French director Gaston Melies shot his 1912 Western short, ‘The Ghost of Suphur Mountain’ in Santa Paula, Ventura County has been a popular destination for filmmakers. In this lecture we will reveal the rich history of Ventura County’s most popular locations including Ahmanson Ranch/Upper Las Virgenes Canyon (which appeared in “Gone With the Wind,” “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Pineapple Express”), Simi Valley (“Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “Babylon”), Moorpark (“The Clonus Horror,” “The Fabelmans”), Ventura (“Little Miss Sunshine,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator”), Lake Sherwood & Hidden Valley (“North by Northwest,” “Memoirs of a Geisha,” “Seabiscuit”), Oak Park (“Tumbleweeds,” “Of Mice and Men”), Montclef Ridge (“Spartacus,” “Wuthering Heights”) and the county-adjacent city of Westlake Village (“80 for Brady”). Rarely seen photos and film clips will accompany the lectures.

A Southern California native, Harry Medved has served as the PR lead for Fandango, Yahoo!, Warner Bros. Online and the Screen Actors Guild. Prior to creating the “Lost and Found” travel column for the Pasadena Star-News, he co-authored the popular movie books The Fifty Worst Films of All Time, The Golden Turkey Awards and Hollywood Escapes. He lives in the Conejo Valley with his wife Michele and family.

Launched on Christmas morning 2021, and after a 1-million-mile journey and a six-month commissioning process, the Webb Telescope began full operations in the Summer of 2022.

And already the telescope has provided amazing insights and upended the accepted models of the early universe. A review of the JWST, its capabilities, most recent observations and what lies ahead for the flagship space telescope will be discussed.

Christopher Mick is the Education and Outreach Director for the STEAM educational nonprofit, Space St. Croix. Space St. Croix’s mission, Connecting Kids to the Cosmos, brings Space-themed STEAM programming and teacher support materials to all Hudson, WI. area public, private, and home school students.

Christopher is a NASA Solar System Ambassador, Space Station Ambassador with the ISS National Lab, member of the NASA Museum & Informal Education Alliance, and an Aerospace Education Member with the Civil Air Patrol. He is a blogger for the Space Science Institute, through their StarNet Library website, and recently served on the Education Advisory Board for Infiniscope (2019). Christopher was named an International Teacher Liaison in 2022 by the Space Foundation, in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and was a judge for the National Space Society’s, Space Settlement Contest and the NASA Space Apps Challenge – Brescia, Italy.

He lives and works in Hudson, Wisconsin.