Virtual Italian Language Lessons Begin – Winter 2021/22

Please note: this series will be held online. For more information about the virtual platform, see below.

Italian Language Classes are back at the Cleveland History Center! This virtual series of basic Italian Language Classes will be taught by Serena Scaiola, a native speaker of Italian with many years of teaching experience at all levels in several local universities.

Beginner/Intermediate Italian: This 8-week, Saturday morning course is designed for individuals with no previous knowledge of Italian, or for those who were exposed to the Italian spoken language but need to refresh. It is intended to give basic skills in reading, listening and speaking, with a focus on developing comprehension and communication skills. The fundamental elements of grammar, phonetics, and syntax will be introduced by using a functional situation approach. A part of each lesson will be dedicated to real situation exercises, grammar drills and consolidation of the material, deepening of concepts through cultural readings, conversations, role games, listening, and reading exercises. No matter what the motivation is – personal interest, upcoming travels or researching your genealogy – learning Italian will make any experience much more fun and engaging!

Advanced Italian: This 8-week, Saturday afternoon course is designed for individuals who have already taken Beginner Italian, or have a very basic knowledge of Italian language. These classes will build on the concepts taught in the Beginner level and will utilize many of the same learning tools and strategies.

Schedule:

Beginner/Intermediate: Saturdays, Feb. 12 – April 19, 2022 | 10:00-11:30am
- No class on Sat., Feb. 19
Advanced: Saturdays, Feb. 12 – April 19, 2022 | 12:00-1:30pm
- No class on Sat., Feb. 19

Location: This course is online only and will be delivered via Skype. After you register, your instructor will send instructions on how to join the class virtually.

Pricing:

General Registration: $140
WRHS Member Registration: $120

SUGGESTED MATERIALS: Italian Grammar (Quickstudy: Academic) by Inc. BarCharts; Italian Verb Conjugation Card (Foreign Language Verb Conjugation Cards) by Marcel Danesi. Both available on Amazon.

Registration for this course is now open! Please see below to register.

Virtual Italian Language Lessons Begin – Fall 2021

Please note: this series will be held online. For more information about the virtual platform, see below.

Schedule:

Beginner/Intermediate: Saturdays, Sept. 18 – Nov. 6, 2021 | 10:00-11:30am
Advanced: Saturdays, Sept. 18 – Nov. 6, 2021 | 12:00-1:30pm

Location: This course is online only and will be delivered via Skype. After you register, your instructor will send instructions on how to join the class virtually.

Pricing:

General Registration: $140
WRHS Member Registration: $120

SUGGESTED MATERIALS: Italian Grammar (Quickstudy: Academic) by Inc. BarCharts; Italian Verb Conjugation Card (Foreign Language Verb Conjugation Cards) by Marcel Danesi. Both available on Amazon.

Registration for this course is now open! Please see below to register.

Virtual Italian Language Lessons Begin – Spring 2021

The Cleveland History Center is taking its Italian Language Class series online! This series of basic Italian Language Classes will be taught by Serena Scaiola, a native speaker of Italian with many years of teaching experience at all levels in several local universities.

SCHEDULE:

Beginner/Intermediate: Saturdays, April 24 – June 12, 2021 | 10:00-11:30am

Advanced: Saturdays, April 24 – June 12, 2021 | 12:00-1:30pm

LOCATION: This course is online only and will be delivered via Skype. After you register, your instructor will send instructions on how to join the class virtually.

PRICING:

General Registration: $140

WRHS Member Registration: $120

SUGGESTED MATERIALS: Italian Grammar (Quickstudy: Academic) by Inc. BarCharts; Italian Verb Conjugation Card (Foreign Language Verb Conjugation Cards) by Marcel Danesi. Both available on Amazon.

Registration for this course is now open! Please see below to register.

Online Course Begins | Whose History Gets Saved?

WRHS Online Course | Whose History Gets Saved?

Course Description:

Our knowledge of the past, of history, depends on a number of things, including the historians, authors, filmmakers, and museum staff who create a narrative about a person, a time, a place, or an event. But ultimately those narratives rest on the evidence available to them – among them, documents, objects, oral histories, and increasingly digitized data. This three-week online class will focus on those sources and raise a number of questions as to how they survive and come to be used.

It is not a simple story, but one resting on the ability to create a source, the serendipity of its survival, the biases and viewpoints that lead to its preservation, and the manner in which individuals choose to interpret it. This is not a simple story, but one that raises many questions: questions about authority, intent, capacity, politics, funding, and changing viewpoints about the past. This course will be both lecture and discussion – indeed, discussion will be critical to debating and understanding how we come to know history.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Wednesdays, March 31; April 7 and 14

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: John Grabowski, PhD, Krieger Mueller Chief Historian

Pricing:

Course Registration | $60

WRHS Member Registration | $50

How to Register:

To register, please see below. This course will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, your confirmation will include a link that will allow you to join the course, as well as all necessary login information and instructions.

Online Course Begins | Black Agency and Black Activism: Cleveland, Ohio, c. 1820-2020

WRHS Online Course | Black Agency and Black Activism: Cleveland, Ohio, c. 1820-2020

Course Description:

In recent decades, educators, journalists, authors, and elected officials have frequently joined others in struggling to understand citizens’ growing activism and public protests against police violence, inadequate health care, political disfranchisement, and violations of the economic and civil rights of Black citizens. Many of these same individuals have also enjoyed some measure of success in helping to address these concerns. While the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag and related Twitter feeds are relatively new, in Cleveland, Ohio the aforementioned struggles have a long and carefully documented history. This online course will provide participants with opportunities to consider the long view of Black Agency and Black Activism, from the Antebellum Era to the 21st Century (c. 1820 – 2020). Course activities will focus on the work of John Malvin, Charles W. Chesnutt, Mary Brown Martin, L. Pearl Mitchell, Carl Stokes, Sarah J. Harper, Black Lives Matter (Cleveland), leaders of area churches, and other groups and individuals.

This four-session course is designed to coincide with the 50th anniversary celebration of the African American Archives Auxiliary (“Quad A”) of the Western Reserve Historical Society. Master teachers and Quad A members Beverly Lloyd and Margaret Peacock have agreed to give brief presentations on Kwanzaa during the session focusing on Black Cultural Nationalism in the 1960s and 1970s. The list of suggested readings will include works by Samuel W. Black, Regennia N. Williams, Marvin A. McMickle, Todd Michney, A. Grace Lee Mims, Leonard Moore, Nishani Frazier, and other scholars and artists whose published works are based in part on materials in the African American Archives.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Thursdays, April 29; May 6, 13, and 20

Time: 6:00-7:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: Regennia N. Williams, PhD, WRHS Distinguished Scholar of African American History and Culture; and other guest presenters.

Pricing:

Course Registration | $60

WRHS Member Registration | $50

How to Register:

Registration will close at 12:00pm on Thurs., April 29. If you need to sign up after registration closes, please email Whitney Stalnaker, Public Programs Manager, at wstalnaker@wrhs.org.

Virtual Presentation | Who Names the Neighborhood? A Question of Identity

Presenter: John Grabowski, PhD, WRHS Senior Vice President, Research & Publications; Krieger Mueller Historian

About This Program

Cleveland’s neighborhoods have, and have had, an intriguing series of names – from Kamm’s Corners to Dutch Hill and Little Italy and now to Hingetown. Some names have been around for over a century, others are new. Neighborhood identity is something many take for granted, yet the story of names and name changes for areas within the city opens a deeper story. Who, for instance, gets to choose the name – the people who live in the area, or city officialdom? Why, when and how have the identities of neighborhoods been altered simply the ascription of a new name? When did the original “organic” borders of neighborhoods become straight lines on a map? This session will explore the history of Cleveland’s neighborhoods by looking at the broader story of their identities over time and the manner in which name changes have been influenced both by shifting demography, politicians, developers, and urban planners.

Registration

Price: $15 general admission / $10 WRHS member admission

You may register using the options below. This event will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, you will be sent a confirmation containing your purchase receipt and all necessary login information.

Virtual Italian Language Lessons Begin – Spring 2021

DATES & TIMES:

Beginner/Intermediate: Saturdays, February 6 – March 27, 2021 | 10:00-11:30am

Advanced: Saturdays, February 6 – March 27, 2021 | 12:00-1:30pm

LOCATION: This course is online only and will be delivered via Skype. After you register, your instructor will send instructions on how to join the class virtually.

SUGGESTED MATERIALS: Italian Grammar (Quickstudy: Academic) by Inc. BarCharts; Italian Verb Conjugation Card (Foreign Language Verb Conjugation Cards) by Marcel Danesi. Both available on Amazon.

Registration for this course is now open! Please see below to register.

Would you like to purchase lessons as a gift? Contact us at education@wrhs.org or call 216-721-5722 x1502 for help!

Virtual Italian Language Lessons Begin – Fall 2020

Beginner Italian: This 8-week, Saturday morning course is designed for individuals with no previous knowledge of Italian, or for those who were exposed to the Italian spoken language but need to refresh. It is intended to give basic skills in reading, listening and speaking, with a focus on developing comprehension and communication skills. The fundamental elements of grammar, phonetics, and syntax will be introduced by using a functional situation approach. A part of each lesson will be dedicated to real situation exercises, grammar drills and consolidation of the material, deepening of concepts through cultural readings, conversations, role games, listening, and reading exercises. No matter what the motivation is – personal interest, upcoming travels or researching your genealogy – learning Italian will make any experience much more fun and engaging!

Intermediate Italian: This 8-week, Thursday morning course is designed for individuals with previous exposure to Italian language, those who want to brush up on their skills, intermediate level speakers and/or returning students with previous experiences at the Beginner level. These classes will build on the concepts taught in the Beginner level, and will utilize many of the same learning tools and strategies, while gradually introducing new elements of the language. (May be taken simultaneously with the Beginner level class, or the Advanced level class.)

DATES & TIMES:

Beginner I: Saturdays, September 26 – November 14, 2020 | 10:00-11:30am

Intermediate: Thursdays, October 1 – November 19, 2020 | 10:00-11:30am

Advanced: Saturdays, September 26 – November 14, 2020 | 12:00-1:30pm

LOCATION: This course is online only and will be delivered via Skype. After you register, your instructor will send instructions on how to join the class virtually.

SUGGESTED MATERIALS: Italian Grammar (Quickstudy: Academic) by Inc. BarCharts; Italian Verb Conjugation Card (Foreign Language Verb Conjugation Cards) by Marcel Danesi. Both available on Amazon.

Registration for this course is now open! Please see below to register.

Online Course Begins – Cleveland: Many Peoples, One City

This course has been postponed. Please check back soon for an updated schedule.

Course Information

Title: Cleveland: Many Peoples, One City

Course Description:

We came to Cleveland as immigrants from foreign countries and migrants from other parts of the United States, often to search for work but also to escape oppressive conditions elsewhere or to reunite with families.

We settled here to raise our families and pursue our careers, and we came to call Northeast Ohio home. Yet while we have found common ground, we also celebrate our differences and remember our connections to the homes of our ancestors. This course will examine the diverse ethnic and religious communities of our region with special attention to the inter-racial and inter-ethnic relationships that have both shaped our community and hindered its development.

Students will examine the histories of the migrants to the region and their efforts to build organizations to serve their social, cultural, and political needs while fitting in to the community around them. The mutual aid organizations and cultural societies founded in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to meet the needs of Cleveland’s new residents fostered a separation from the larger community even as they encouraged integration into an American society made up of a bewilderingly diverse array of immigrants. While greater Cleveland is a diverse community, the region’s continued racial and ethnic segregation presents difficult challenges to future development. Students will consider both what unites us as residents of Northeast Ohio and also what divides us, using the events of the past as a guide to understand the present moment. The goal is to learn more about our neighbors.

Note: Any readings recommended for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: TBD

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: Sean Martin, PhD, Associate Curator of Jewish History

Pricing:

Course Registration | $75

WRHS Member Registration | $65

How to Register:

To register, please see below. This course will be held through the Zoom platform. When you register, we will email you a link that will allow you to join the course, as well as all necessary login information and instructions.

Online Course Begins – Golden Doors & Border Walls: An Overview of Immigration to the United States

Course Information

Title: Golden Doors & Border Walls: An Overview of Immigration to the United States

Course Description:

We often refer to ourselves as a “nation of immigrants,” yet the question of who should come to America and who is capable of becoming an “American” has often clouded that more hopeful characterization of our nation.

This six-session course will examine the history of immigration and migration to what is now the United States from the time of the first peoples to the present. Students will examine the shifting patterns of global immigration and migration to North America, and particularly Northeast Ohio, over time and examine, in detail, the historical issues and events that created those patterns. Central to this examination will be a focus on the evolution of laws and policies, both within and outside of the U.S., that sought to regulate or stop the flow of immigrants and which also challenged the right of those already in the U.S. to become citizens.

Xenophobia, the fear of the stranger, has been ever present in this history. How and why it occurred at different times is central to understanding American immigration history. Equally present over time was the conception of the United States as a “refuge” – a place welcoming all who sought safety, liberty, and opportunity. One session of the course will be fully devoted to the way we have come to remember and to celebrate this aspect of the national experience. The core purpose of this course is to challenge the participant to consider whether this concept reflects reality – either then or now.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Thursdays, July 9, 16, 23, and 30; Aug. 6 and 13

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: John Grabowski, PhD, WRHS Senior Vice President of Research & Publications and Krieger Mueller Historian

Pricing:

Course Registration | $75

WRHS Member Registration | $65

How to Register:

Virtual Italian Language Lessons Begin

Beginner Italian: This 8-week, Saturday-morning course is designed for individuals with no previous knowledge of Italian, or for those who were exposed to the Italian spoken language but need to refresh. It is intended to give basic skills in reading, listening and speaking, with a focus on developing comprehension and communication skills. The fundamental elements of grammar, phonetics, and syntax will be introduced by using a functional situation approach. A part of each lesson will be dedicated to real situation exercises, grammar drills and consolidation of the material, deepening of concepts through cultural readings, conversations, role games, listening, and reading exercises. No matter what the motivation is – personal interest, upcoming travels or researching your genealogy – learning Italian will make any experience much more fun and engaging!

Advanced Italian: This 8-week, Saturday-afternoon course is designed for individuals who have already taken Beginner I Italian, or have a very basic knowledge of Italian language. These classes will build on the concepts taught in Beginner I and will utilize many of the same learning tools and strategies.

DATES & TIMES:

Beginner Italian: Saturdays, June 27 – Aug. 22 | 10:00-11:30am

Advanced Italian: Saturdays, June 27 – Aug. 22 | 12:00-1:30pm

NOTE: Classes will not meet on Sat., July 4.

COST: $120.00 | WRHS members $100.00

LOCATION: This course is online only and will be delivered via Skype. After you register, your instructor will send instructions on how to join the class virtually.

SUGGESTED MATERIALS: Italian Grammar (Quickstudy: Academic) by Inc. BarCharts; Italian Verb Conjugation Card (Foreign Language Verb Conjugation Cards) by Marcel Danesi. Both available on Amazon.

Online Course Begins – Cleveland: The Evolution of a City

Course Information

Title: Cleveland: The Evolution of a City

Course Description:

Books, blogs, and websites relating to Cleveland’s history seem to be increasing every day. Many are focused on topics that have wide appeal because they are already embedded in the public consciousness or link to popular memory. Millionaires Row, the triumphs and fiascos of local sports teams, and the multiple heritages that make up our cosmopolitan region are good topics and enjoy a good market. They certainly are not unimportant historically, but all too often their deeper complexities are overlooked.

This four-session course is designed to provide an overview of Cleveland’s history that places many of its iconic moments, places, and people into a broader and more complex context, a context that is revealed in professional scholarship relating to Cleveland. Here too, the number of works by both local and national scholars is increasing and serve as an important complement to the “usual” history of our community. New books by Mark Souther, Todd Michney, Jonathan Wlasiuk, and Nishani Frazier provide important new perspectives on issues ranging from race and urban decline to suburbanization and nineteenth century environmental degradation. This course will introduce you to them and to a city with a history that has consequence well beyond its boundaries and our shared memories.

Note: Readings for this course are suggested but not required. This course will not involve any written assignments.

Schedule: Thursdays, June 4, 11, 18, and 25

Time: 12:00-1:30pm (a brief break will be included)

Instructor: John Grabowski, PhD, WRHS Senior Vice President of Research & Publications and Krieger Mueller Historian

Pricing:

Course Registration | $60

WRHS Member Registration | $50

How to Register: