Lifelong Learners Institute

The Lifelong Learners Institute offers open courses for the community independent of Canisius University degree programs. Our instructors come from a wide range of academic disciplines to give our courses a broad cross-section of knowledge, experience, and experience. No papers or tests are given! Just much good discussion!

Classes meet weekly for six weeks and are limited to 16 students. Cost is $60. Questions? Contact Yvonne Widenor at 716-888-2531.

Spring 2024

Boundaries of Wisdom: Reading Ancient Texts

Tuesdays, January 30 to March 5
12:00 – 1:00 PM EST
via ZOOM

This six-week course will consider what several ancient texts — The Poetic Edda, Beowulf, and writings from medieval mystics — teach us about negotiating the challenges life presents us in our own time. We shall discover that in our common and shared humanity, the boundaries in which our ancestors and us met/meet life’s challenges become blurred. We are after all not so different. Instead, we can find wisdom in their approaches to war, hatred, injustice, and even climate change!

Wk 1: The Epic of Gilgamesh

Wk 2: Excerpts from The Poetic Edda

Wk 3: Beowulf

Wk 4: Christine de Pizan, The Book of the City of Ladies

Wk 5: Hildegard von Bingen, The Greening of the World

Wk 6: St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis and the Care of the Earth

Johanna Fisher is an adjunct professor in the Department of English and Co-Director of the Women & Gender Studies Program at Canisius University. Professor Fisher has taught courses such as Romancing the Grail, High Adventures and Chivalrous Knights and The Quest in Medieval Literature for over 20 years. She has also taught German and German literature courses with an emphasis on the contemporary era. She is originally from Bayern, Germany and lives there part-time when not teaching at Canisius.

2023-2024 Semester

To Hell & Back: Reading Dante’s “Il Inferno”

Johanna Fisher (English)

The Power of Myth: Opening to the Mystery of the Universe

Johanna Fisher (English)

2022-2023 Semester

From Odysseus to Harry Potter: The Evolution of the Hero

Robert J. Butler (English)

2021-2022 Semester

Witches & Wives: Women in the Middle Ages

Kara Larson Maloney (English)

A Brief History of Byzantium

Jeff Brubaker (Classics)

2020-2021 Semester

The Plague in Medieval Literature

Johanna Fisher (English)

Arthur: The Once & Future King

Kara Maloney (English)

The Crusades

Jeff Brubaker (Classics)

Tempters & Temptresses: The Medieval Romance

Johanna Fisher (English)