November 2026 Modules

Have you wanted to write a story but didn't know how to get words onto a blank page? Once the words were there, did you wonder how to find out if those words affected your reader the way you meant them to?

In this SPACE module, we will look at where ideas for stories come from. We will take our ideas from our thoughts to the page. Then we will learn, in a supportive community using the Collaborative Feedback method, how to ask for and receive the feedback our stories need to thrive.

Note: For more information about the Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE, please check out our video here.

Death is life's only certainty, and yet, no subject has inspired more diverse, profound, and contradictory answers across human history. Beginning with an examination of our own psychological defenses against death, this module then takes you on a global tour of how the world's great religious and philosophical traditions have grappled with mortality, giving you the opportunity to sit with the living practices of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. We will ask: What happens when we die? How should we grieve? Is fear of death rational? And perhaps most importantly, can confronting our finitude actually teach us how to live more fully? Finally, we will turn to a discussion of near-death experiences, the human quest for immortality, and the ultimate philosophical question: If we could achieve immortality, would we actually want it?

Designed for curious adult learners with no prior background in religious studies or philosophy, this course welcomes anyone processing personal grief, seeking to understand the beliefs of neighbors or colleagues, or simply lying awake wondering what it all means. All viewpoints are respected; you need not be religious or irreligious to participate, only open-minded and willing to reflect. By the end, students will be able to articulate core beliefs about death across major traditions, compare diverse approaches to dying and grief, analyze philosophical arguments about the fear of death, and reflect personally on how global wisdom has shifted their own assumptions.

*Note: This module contains potentially disturbing material, but it is handled with respect and academic sensitivity.

Because this course deals directly with death, dying, and the rituals surrounding the end of life, students will encounter:

1. Descriptions of corpses and burial practices, including discussion of cremation, excarnation (exposure of bodies to the elements), mummification, and traditional washing and shrouding rituals.
2. Graphic imagery from religious traditions, such as the Buddhist Bardo Thodol (Tibetan Book of the Dead), which includes vivid descriptions of the dissolution of the body and encounters with wrathful deities; Hindu iconography of the goddess Kali and Yama, the god of death; and Islamic teachings on the "trial of the grave" and the torments of hell.
3. Discussions of suffering and grief, including the emotional and psychological realities of losing loved ones and the process of mourning across cultures.
4. References to violence and sacrifice in religious and historical contexts, including crucifixion in Christianity, animal sacrifice in various traditions, and the ethical complexities of killing in war and capital punishment.

*Importantly, this course is NOT designed to be sensational or gratuitous. All material is presented in an academic, comparative, and respectful framework. The goal is understanding, not shock. Graphic descriptions are provided for cultural and ritual context, not for their own sake. Students are never required to view images or videos that would be considered disturbing; all content is delivered through lecture and discussion. Students who anticipate difficulty with any of these topics are encouraged to speak with the preceptor ahead of time. Accommodations such as advance notice of specific content or alternative reflection assignments can be made.

This hybrid module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Lecture 1: Fear, Denial, and the Search for Meaning in Death
	Discussion 1: Discussion about Lecture 1 material
Week 2	Lecture 2: Judgement and Paradise: The Abrahamic Traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
	Discussion 2: Discussion about Lecture 2 material
Week 3	Lecture 3: Rebirth and Impermanence: The Dharmic Traditions of Hinduism and Buddhism
	Discussion 3: Discussion about Lecture 3 material
Week 4	Lecture 4: Near Death Experiences, Immortality, and Why Death Gives Life Meaning
	Discussion 4: Discussion about Lecture 3 material

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Immerse yourself in the profound dialogues of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth", a philosophical and metaphysical exploration of love, mortality, and hope within the legendarium of Middle-earth. This class invites you to delve into the intricate conversations between Finrod, an Elven king, and Andreth, a wise-woman of the race of Men. Their discourse investigates the depths of human (and Elven) existence, examining the divergent perspectives on life, death, and the overarching destiny of their worlds.

Throughout this course, we will dissect the rich layers of Tolkien’s narrative, uncovering the symbolic and thematic significances that make "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" a cornerstone of his mythopoeic work. Together, we will work on a comprehensive analysis of the text, contextualizing it within Tolkien's broader legendarium and drawing connections to his other works. Our aim will be to gain a deeper understanding of the philosophical questions posed by Finrod and Andreth, and how these reflect Tolkien’s own views on faith, despair, and redemption.

Whether you are a seasoned Tolkien scholar or a passionate enthusiast of his world, this class offers an opportunity to engage with one of the most profound and lesser-known dialogues in Middle-earth, enriching your appreciation for Tolkien's genius and the enduring legacy of his work.

Immerse yourself in the profound dialogues of J.R.R. Tolkien's "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth", a philosophical and metaphysical exploration of love, mortality, and hope within the legendarium of Middle-earth. This class invites you to delve into the intricate conversations between Finrod, an Elven king, and Andreth, a wise-woman of the race of Men. Their discourse investigates the depths of human (and Elven) existence, examining the divergent perspectives on life, death, and the overarching destiny of their worlds.

Throughout this course, we will dissect the rich layers of Tolkien’s narrative, uncovering the symbolic and thematic significances that make "Athrabeth Finrod ah Andreth" a cornerstone of his mythopoeic work. Together, we will work on a comprehensive analysis of the text, contextualizing it within Tolkien's broader legendarium and drawing connections to his other works. Our aim will be to gain a deeper understanding of the philosophical questions posed by Finrod and Andreth, and how these reflect Tolkien’s own views on faith, despair, and redemption.

Whether you are a seasoned Tolkien scholar or a passionate enthusiast of his world, this class offers an opportunity to engage with one of the most profound and lesser-known dialogues in Middle-earth, enriching your appreciation for Tolkien's genius and the enduring legacy of his work.

Did you grow up hearing a beloved poem? Have you ever wanted to recite a cherished fragment of a story?

This is a workshop for those who wish to honor the stories and poems they love by committing them to memory. You choose the text in the language of your choice—be it a series of poems in English, a story, or a favorite passage in a language you’re studying—and join a group of like-minded folks on a journey to memorize and learn to recite the literature that they cherish.

Whether you share the recitation with us in class or challenge yourself to make a recording you can be proud of, the goal remains: To take the literature we love from the page and learn to carry it in the heart.

C.S. Lewis is one of the most prolific and influential writers of the 20th century. And yet, in his early career as an Oxford don, he viewed himself as a failed poet. Moreover, his most canonical and transformational writing happened during the most stress-filled periods of his life. This short course allows students to peek into the writing life of C.S. Lewis. Our goal is to see through the lines of printed text by visiting the letters and archival remains of Lewis in a virtual setting. Most of C.S. Lewis's papers remain undigitized and unpublished, available only locally at archives in North America and England.

As Professor Brenton Dickieson has visited these archives, he is able to invite students to appreciate C.S. Lewis's writing life by looking at the way that he consciously and unconsciously built his literary career. This course is for writers who are developing their own habits and literary life-prints, as well as folks who are curious about C.S. Lewis's life beyond the biographies and bestselling books.

We are not doing text close readings, but looking at the “paratextual” information available to us: writing drafts, letters, diary entries, manuscripts and typescripts, title, and the like.

Week 1: Lewis: Pen, Ink, Paper
• C.S. Lewis’s Single-jointed Self-Conception as a Writer
• What Lewis Says about his Writing Habits
• Legendary Bonfires, Stuffed Dolls, and American Suckers: A Story of Lewis’s Papers and Manuscripts
• The Screwtape MS. Story: Part 1

Week 2: Leaves, Bombs, Stains
• The Screwtape MS. Story: Part 2
• “Villainous Handwriting”: Charlie Starr’s Lewis Handwriting and Rough Draft vs. Fair Draft
• Reconsidering the Lindskoog Affair with Manuscript Evidence of “The Dark Tower”

Week 3: Joy, Theft, Death
• “The Quest of Bleheris”: Lewis’s Teenage Novel

Week 4:
• Is it True that Lewis Wrote in a Single Draft?
• A Grief Observed
• Tumbling Through the Wardrobe: The Discovery of Narnia
• Arthurian Torso
• A New Sketch of Lewis’s Writing Process(es)

Note: This course includes a significant amount of visual material on the screen. Please contact the SPACE team if you have visual accessibility requirements and we will do everything we can to accommodate.

In this module we will explore the formation and development of early Buddhist traditions, focusing on the life of the historical Buddha, the Deer Park Dharma Discourse, the formation of the Sangha (Buddhist monastic community), and the foundational teachings of the Four Noble Truths, the Three Marks of Existence, and the Chain of Dependent Origination.

This module dives into K-Pop Demon Hunters as both a pop culture phenomenon and rich site of critical inquiry. Blending fandom, performance, media industries, K-Pop culture, aesthetics, and myth, the course asks: what does it mean when idol culture meets demon lore? How do K-pop’s global circuits of production and fandom intersect with anime conventions, East Asian mythologies, and transnational media flows? Students will study the series as text, brand, and cultural event—moving beyond hype to examine the structures, production practices, and myths that make it compelling.

The module combines accessible theory and film analysis with lively discussion, close reading, and collaborative analysis. Guest scholars in East Asian Studies and Anime Studies will offer focused perspectives on mythology, media mix strategies, and cross-cultural adaptation.

This class is rigorous but playful—an experiment in taking fun seriously, and there's no need for any experience in any of these areas to take this course.

*Note: Please make sure you watch the film before this module starts.

This course is an examination of Susanna Clarke's Piranesi. It details the multi-layered influences and implications of the novel. This mystery/fantasy novel plunges readers into the strange world known only as “The House”, a flooded labyrinth of statues where the narrator Piranesi lives. The course details the multimodal connections of Clarke’s novel from the artwork of Giovanni Battista Piranesi (1720-1778) to C.S. Lewis’s world of Narnia.

Through lecture, discussion and supplemental readings, this module is designed to give students a solid basis to understand and analyze Clarke’s engaging and fascinating story. While a copy of the novel will be required for the course, all supplemental readings will be provided.

We will look at labyrinth mythology and Greek philosophy, surrealism, and dream logic. This class is intended for anyone interested in reading and exploring the intricacies of fantasy, especially those who love a good mystery!

The module will follow an 8-session structure as shown below:

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Session 1: Introduction to Portal Fantasy, Susanna Clarke, Piranesi art and Novel.
	Session 2: The Labyrinth in fiction. Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages1-39.
Week 2	Session 3: Surrealism and dream narratives. Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 39-82.
	Session 4: The Allegory of the Cave. Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 85-122.
Week 3	Session 5: C.S. Lewis Influence and Connections. Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 125-170.
	Session 6: Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 173-217.
Week 4	Session 7: Assigned reading overview. Read and discuss pages 217-245.
	Session 8: Discussion of Complete Novel.

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humor.”

Let’s finish the year by savoring two of Dickens’ Christmas tales!
A Christmas Carol is a beloved classic for a reason. Bitter and lonesome, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge loathes Christmas and everything to do with it. Three ghostly visitations will show Scrooge the error of his ways, taking him on a transformative journey toward redemption.

Published one year later, The Chimes is one of Dickens’ lesser-known Christmas stories. A poor man, the elderly Toby ("Trotty") Veck is convinced he and his family deserve their wretched condition. Is there any point giving his blessing for his daughter Meg to marry? A vision brought on by goblins invites him toward a gentler and more merciful understanding of the world, reminding him of the power of love at the turning of the new year.

Together, these two Christmas novellas give readers hope in the face of poverty and despair.

In this series, we’re going to read different stories in Spanish and talk about them. Every month there will be a new selection of stories: we might read fairy tales, children’s stories, poetry, or fragments of famous Latin American and Spanish authors depending on the students’ language level.

During each class, we will read a fragment, practice the pronunciation, clarify grammar and meaning, and discuss the stories.

Since this isn’t a sequential series, students can join any month. Before each module in the series begins, the preceptor will send a questionnaire to check students’ language level.

(*Note: Upper Beginner knowledge of Spanish is required. )

The poem Beowulf offers a unique window into life during the late Roman Iron Age, but how does the archaeology of the period support the poem’s portrayal?

This module will analyze notable scenes and locations from Beowulf and compare the poem with archaeological evidence. For example, how do the excavations at Sutton Hoo and Oseberg burial mound provide greater context for Scyld’s ship burial? How can the archaeological record at Lejre in Denmark give us a clearer glimpse of life at Heorot? And how do Neolithic and Bronze Age burial mounds align with the dragon’s mound in the poem’s dramatic conclusion?

Join us as we explore how archaeology and philology together can deepen our understanding of the past.