When you join OLLI, you join a community.
Our peer learning environment offers lively discussion during and after class and an opportunity to forge new friendships. Beyond OLLI's study groups is a wide range of extracurricular activities that also provide meaningful intellectual and social engagement. Guest lecture series, book groups, social outings, holiday parties and more enrich the OLLI experience.
Academic Enrichment
OLLI Noontime Lecture Series
Held at lunchtime or the end of the day on both campuses. Past guest lecturers have included acclaimed theater critic and Chicago Tribune Sunday Culture columnist Chris Jones, former U.S. ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder, editorial cartoonist Scott Stantis, poet Ed Roberson, civic leader Andrea Zopp, polar explorer John Huston and Nobel prize-winning economist Roger Myerson.
Emerging Scholar Series
Premiering in winter 2019, this new series has been extremely popular. Northwestern graduate students in history present their research on a variety of subjects. Each lecture is followed by a short question and answer session. Past topic have included: Objects & Identity in the U.S. Colonial Empire, 1898-1959; Industrialization Along the U.S. Mexico Border and Its Political Backlash; and Economic Voter Intimidation and the Crisis of Workplace Democracy in the Late Nineteenth-Century U.S.
Outside OLLI
Discover and experience Chicago's spectacular music offerings first hand! Enjoy free enrichment opportunities on both campuses that explore a variety of musical genres. Past events have included guest lectures, interactive workshops and attendance at dress rehearsals and performances for the Shen Yun Symphony Orchestra, Lyric Opera's Bel Canto, the Apollo Chorus's Handel's Messiah, and Too Hot to Handel: the Jazz-Gospel Messiah.
Discussion Series
Inside OLLI
Enjoy lively discussion over refreshments as OLLI's members share their talents or unique experience. These special events, held on both campuses, have showcased OLLI's talented and eclectic members, including writers, photographers, judges, and doctors.
OLLI Cafe Society
A discussion series held on the Evanston campus based upon topics and readings recommended by the Chicago Humanities Society
OLLI Talks Books
Take part in lunchtime, book discussions held on the Evanston campus. Bring your brown bag lunch to campus and savor the exchange of ideas.