The 2025-26 Explorations lecture series will be hosted by The Penn State Emeritus Academy, and the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) at Penn State and will showcase the ongoing intellectual contributions of Penn State’s esteemed emeritus faculty. Through this series, retired faculty members share their groundbreaking research, creative projects, and unique perspectives with the wider Penn State community and beyond.
A highly visual performance-oriented excursion into the early 20th century origins of rock ‘n’ roll in the music of Black America.
Jerry Zolten has had an extensive career writing about, promoting, and producing American roots music. His collaborations include projects with Robert Crumb, Jack White, Van Dyke Parks, and Grammy-winners The Fairfield Four and the Dixie Hummingbirds. Among his best-known works are the NPR documentary Time to Lay it Down: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, the book Great God A’Mighty! The Dixie Hummingbirds (Oxford University Press, 2022), and the documentary film How They Got Over/Gospel Quartets and the Road to Rock ‘n’ Roll (currently streaming on HBO MAX).
This lecture considers Poe in Richmond in 1836; with relevant selections from Richard’s book, Edgar Allan Poe: A Life.
Richard Kopley has written books on Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. His approach involves a blend of close reading, source study, and archival research. Richard has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Poe Studies Association and has served as a Fulbright Specialist and a Virginia Humanities Fellow. At Penn State, he was associate head of the Department of English for the Commonwealth campuses—later the discipline coordinator for English campus faculty.
Learn how ground freight transportation safety has evolved in the US and where it is likely to go in the future. The discussion is based on past work experience in rail and trucking research and a recent Transportation Research Board consensus study into changes to rail operations. Peter Swan spent ten years working in the rail industry and devoted twenty-five years to transportation research and participation in the Transportation Research Board (part of the National Academies). He recently participated in a consensus committee, which studied the effects of longer freight trains.
