(All lectures are free to the Penn State Community and the public.)

Please remember to register for each lecture separately using the links below. All in-person lectures will take place at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) located at: 100 Innovation Blvd., Outreach Building, Rooms 121 G&H, University Park, PA 16802.

The spring schedule for the series is as follows:

January

"Zen" – Principle and Practice

January 27, 2026
9:00 – 10:30 a.m., Zoom only

This lecture will consider Zen Buddhism and Buddhist practices.

Instructor: Kenji Uchino, Emeritus Professor of Engineering, is a practitioner of Zen Buddhism and an educator interested in imparting the principles of Zen Buddhism and Buddhist practices to the public.

Dr. Uchino is one of the pioneers in "piezoelectric actuators." He is an Academy Professor at the Emeritus Academy Institute for Electrical Engineering and the Founding Director of the International Center for Actuators and Transducers, Materials Research Institute. Dr. Uchino was a Professor of Electrical Engineering and Material Science and Engineering and a Distinguished Honors Faculty member of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State. He was also Associate Director (US Navy Ambassador to Japan) at The US Office of Naval Research – Global Tokyo Office from 2010 till 2014 and the Founder and Senior Vice President & CTO of Micromechatronics, Inc., State College, PA from 2004 till 2010.

Location: On-line via Zoom
Registration Link: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/6q48yds/lp/1ca14d09-5dc2-4b94...

February

The Academic Integrity of Using AI to Review Research

February 10, 2026
1:30 – 3:00 p.m., Zoom only

Optional Workshop: Scientific Knowledge at Your Fingertips: Using Artificial Intelligence to Review Research

February 17, 2026
1:30 – 3:00 p.m., Zoom only

Every research project and almost every scholarly paper begins with a literature review. The use of bibliometric expert systems and new generative AI tools is pervasive as researchers increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to search databases and cluster articles, and new GenAI “readers” can point to large databases of articles and produce summaries in seconds. The process of conducting literature reviews and the quality of the results obtained will vary according to the AI tools a researcher employs, and academic integrity remains a paramount concern. This research evaluates the process, quality, rigor, and trustworthiness of the results obtained when using AI review tools and contemplates their impact on the advancement of scientific knowledge.

The optional workshop on Tuesday, February 17th will demonstrate how you can use an AI tool to search, organize, analyze, and synthesize scientific research articles AND whether you can trust what you find.

Instructor: Denise Potosky, Academy Professor and Professor Emerita, Management and Organization. Prof. Potosky is a Fulbright laureate and international scholar whose research balances applied measurement with theory development to address key questions regarding the role, use, validity, equivalence, and impact of digital tools and technology-mediated processes. This presentation follows two research methods events, an expert panel symposium and a professional development workshop, that Dr. Potosky organized and facilitated at the Academy of Management meetings in Copenhagen, Denmark, in July 2025.

Location: On-line via Zoom
Registration Link: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/wpjzwuz/lp/0978752b-b9a1-450f...

March

Bridewealth Payments in Ghana: Marriage Prestations and Women’s Marital Autonomy

March 27, 2026
2:30 – 4:00 p.m., In Person and via Zoom

This talk will provide the conceptual background for bridewealth payments, payments associated with marriage in many sub-Saharan African settings, and argue that it is precisely such payments that undercut women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy within marriage.

Instructor: Francis Dodoo, Academy Professor and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Demography & African Studies. Dr. Dodoo has worked in the areas of gender, power, and sexual decision making; demographic and health outcomes associated with urban poverty; and inequality among Africans in the diaspora. He continues to write on bridewealth payments and women’s sexual and reproductive autonomy in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as on urban poverty and health issues in the region.

Location: Penn State Outreach Building, Rooms 121 G&H, 100 Innovation Blvd., University Park, or Online via Zoom
Registration Link: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/j57nwcr/lp/27c13ca8-9789-49e1...

April

Recovering Lost Voices: Yiddish Women’s Literature in Translation

April 27, 2026
2:00 – 3:30 p.m., Zoom only

Just as feminists took upon themselves the goal to recover lost writing by earlier women authors, so Jewish women academics in the 1990s undertook to discover their own lost “treasures,” writing by their Jewish women forebearers that was unknown, untranslated, and unpublished in book form. A trove of translated novels, stories and poetry is the result of their efforts. This lecture will introduce the audience to the lives and literature of several of these recovered Yiddish writers. What can we gain from this literature? Insight into different worlds of commune, shtetl and ghetto; the pleasure of reading a newly discovered body of literature; and most of all, the satisfaction of viewing female characters (represented by women authors) as people with complex identities and resilient natures.

Instructor:  Dr. Lois Rubin, Emeritus Associate Professor of English at Penn State New Kensington, taught literature and composition there for thirty-one years. She also published articles on women writers and edited and contributed to the collection, Connections and Collisions: Identities in Contemporary Jewish-American Women’s Writing. Since retiring, she has taught literature courses for OLLI’s at the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie-Mellon University. In 2024, a grant from the Pitt Jewish Studies Department enabled her to study women writers at the YIVO Archives in New York.

Location: On-line via Zoom
Registration Link: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/fzq9gsr/lp/debad863-1946-40bb...

We invite the Penn State community and the public to join us for these thought-provoking discussions as part of our ongoing commitment to academic engagement and the exchange of ideas.