OLLI-UA Offerings

This class explores the lives and music of four women who made lasting contributions to American cultural history: Elizabeth Cotton, Hazel Dickens, Peggy Seeger, and Lydia Mendoza. Their work spans a variety of genres, from the acoustic country blues of North Carolina, the mountain and union traditions of West Virginia, the urban folk music of the East Coast, and the Tejano canciones of South Texas. All were notable instrumentalists as well as singers and songwriters. In our own OLLI “tradition” of interactive classes in music history, each week we’ll sing many of their songs together. You may be surprised to learn that you know some of them already!

Instructor: Kevin Gosner

Kevin is Associate Professor of Latin American History at the University of Arizona, where he teaches classes on Colonial Spanish America, World History, and Historical Concepts and Methods. The author of Soldiers of the Virgin: The Moral Economy of a Colonial Maya Rebellion, his research examines the impact of the Spanish conquest and colonial rule on indigenous communities in southern Mexico and Guatemala. His interests also include music and popular culture, and natural history.