Welcome to SPACE, our adult continuing education program which offers interactive monthly courses for personal enrichment! Learn more here.
Dr. Amy H. Sturgis
Signum MA Faculty
•
SPACE Preceptor
Investigating the past, the future, and the shadows
Amy H. Sturgis earned her Ph.D. in Intellectual History from Vanderbilt University and specializes in Science Fiction/Fantasy/Gothic and Indigenous American Studies
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Current and Upcoming Modules
January 2026
February 2026
March 2026
April 2026
Highlighted Modules
Non-Sequential Series
Non-Sequential Series
All Modules
Hangsaman by Shirley Jackson: Exploring a Gothic Campus Mystery
Mixed Lecture/Discussion Medium intensity
Shirley Jackson is rightly celebrated as a master of Gothic storytelling thanks to her most well-known novels such as The Haunting of Hill House (1959) and We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962). In recent years, however, her earlier novel Hangsaman (1951) has received new at...
Last Seen Wearing by Hillary Waugh: Discovering a Turning Point in Crime Fiction
Mixed Lecture/Discussion Medium intensity
Last Seen Wearing (1952) by Hillary Waugh is hailed by genre scholars as the first acclaimed “police procedural” novel, a pioneering work of crime fiction that shifted the focus from the lone single detective to investigative team members and their process. Paving the way for modern police pr...
The Hunger Games Book Club (Series of 5 Hybrid Modules) Non-Sequential Series
Mixed Lecture/Discussion Medium intensity
What lessons do the Capitol and Districts have to teach us? What warnings should we heed? What road leads from here to Panem? Over the course of five months, participants in these SPACE modules will read and discuss a modern classic of dystopian storytelling, The Hunger Games series by Suzann...
The Secret History by Donna Tartt: Unpacking the “Whydunit” Mystery
Mixed Lecture/Discussion Medium intensity
The Secret History, the 1992 debut novel of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Donna Tartt, has its own secret history, including an origin story at an actual college campus and inspiration from a real-life missing person case. The celebrated novel opens with the murder of a Classics student by hi...
Haunting Tales Non-Sequential Series
Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
This is the Landing Page for Dr. Amy H. Sturgis's Haunting Tales series:
Module 1 explores the context and inspirations of the Gothic horror classic, The Haunting of Hill House (1959), by Shirley Jackson. We will consider its popular and critical receptions, its place in Shirley Jack...
Meet The Last Man
Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
One of the most relevant novels you could read right now was written almost two centuries ago. Mary Shelley’s The Last Man asks what it means to be human while living in unprecedented times. This 1826 classic of apocalyptic science fiction considers the implications of a global pandemic, a ra...
Rebellions Are Built On Hope: A Star Wars Series Non-Sequential Series
Mixed Lecture/Discussion Medium intensity
Over nearly half a century of storytelling, Star Wars has challenged audiences to find their own agency and power in the face of injustice and tyranny. The Star Wars works Andor (2022, 2025), Rogue One (2016), and A New Hope (1977) fit together to provide a story o...