Welcome to SPACE, our adult continuing education program which offers interactive monthly courses for personal enrichment! Learn more here.

Dr. Faith Acker

Signum MA Faculty • SPACE Preceptor

Faith Acker first joined Signum in 2011, serving as a preceptor for the inaugural course “The Great Tales: Tolkien and the Epic.” She has precepted for several additional Tolkien courses as well as Latin I and II, and is co-lecturer for “Shakespeare and the Middle Ages” and sole designer of “The Life and Times of the English Epic.” She was invited to join Signum’s Strategy Council in 2021 and also serves as Signum’s Curriculum Coordinator. [see full bio...]

Current and Upcoming Modules

January 2026

Highlighted Modules

Non-Sequential Series
Series of 12

All Modules

Babylon 5: Who Are You?

Discussion-based Medium intensity
The first of the two essential questions raised in Babylon 5, “Who are you” demands that listeners and respondents consider the nature of their own mortality and personhood, delving deeply into their multifaceted identities. This four-week seminar explores the responses to this question as gi...

English Sonnet Readings

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
This module will explore a range of English sonnets, some familiar and some more obscure, looking at the wordplay of all and exploring the contexts and reception of these poets or their authors where known. In the second half of the month, we will also explore the versatility of the sonnet form, loo...

His Dark Materials in Context Non-Sequential Series

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Medium intensity
Sir Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is widely regarded as a modern classic, has been described by The New Statesman as “the most ambitious work since The Lord of the Rings,” and has been adapted onto stage, radio, and screen. The series is also deep and complex, drawing from a rich array...

Intermediate Latin Translation: The Vulgate Psalms

Discussion-based Medium intensity
Designed for students who have completed an introductory Latin textbook and wish to explore real Latin texts at a gentle pace, this class will walk students through a selection of Psalms from the Latin Vulgate, adapting the quantity of texts and homework to meet the needs of the enrolled students. W...

Latin Readings for Advanced Beginners

Discussion-based Medium intensity
When the weight of grammatical forms and memorization would benefit from time to practice and process, the Latin Readings for Advanced Beginners modules offer respite from the regular Latin in a Year program on an ad hoc basis. As appropriate to their skill levels, Latin in a Year students (other sc...

Latin Readings for Advanced Beginners (continuing)

Mixed Lecture/Discussion
This module offers a series of Latin readings that review material covered in many traditional Latin I courses (including Signum's own Latin I graduate course and the first five Latin in a Year SPACE modules). Students will read selections from selected textbooks and Latin readers and attempt two sh...

Latin Readings for Advanced Beginners 1

Mixed Lecture/Discussion
This module offers a series of Latin readings that review material covered in many traditional Latin I courses (including Signum's own Latin I graduate course and the first five Latin in a Year SPACE modules). Students will read selections from selected textbooks and Latin readers and attempt two sh...

Latin for Beginners Series of 12

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Medium intensity
Designed for absolute beginners as well as past Latin scholars who want to review at relative leisure, Signum’s 12-module Latin in a Year series surveys core Latin grammar and basic classical vocabulary. Each month, students will tackle new grammatical concepts and paradigms, learn new vocabulary, a...

Level Up Your Term Paper(s): Preparing for Conferences

Mixed Lecture/Discussion
Do you have a general idea or old class paper that you’d like to refresh for an academic conference? This module is for individuals who are interested in turning a past or current research project into an abstract (proposal) and script or outline for a 20-minute conference paper. Bring some past wri...

Reading John Donne’s Holy Sonnets

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
Renaissance clergyman John Donne was a prolific scholar and poet. His verses follow many different poetical forms and vary widely in tone from the solemn and devout to the seductive and sensual. In this module, we will study Donne’s Holy Sonnets, a sequence of poems that blend meditations on ...

Such an Odyssey! Non-Sequential Series

Discussion-based Low intensity
This 6-module series will work slowly through the 24 books of Homer’s Odyssey. Each week we will read one book of the Odyssey aloud together, comparing editions and language and then discussing translation choices, plot development, character and setting descriptions, and overall themes. With two ho...

Sunshine, Fleas, and Desperate Pleas: Eight Amorous Verses by John Donne

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
Although a priest, Renaissance poet John Donne was on paper a playboy, a quality the first publishers of his poems sought to downplay by censoring scandalous words, leaving some verses out of the collection, and placing the raciest poems they included near the end of the volume. While the publishers...