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

Shawn Gaffney

Signum Tutorials Program • SPACE Preceptor

Student of the ancient world, speculative fiction, language/linguistics

Shawn Gaffney holds Masters degrees in Linguistics (Boston College) and Egyptology (New York University) and last year completed a Masters in Language and Literature from Signum University. [see full bio...]

Current and Upcoming Modules

February 2026

Highlighted Modules

Series of 7
Non-Sequential Series

All Modules

Ancient Egyptian Mages

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
An examination of who used magic in Egypt, with an emphasis on characters within literary genres and known professions. This includes the story of Khufu, the Nubian sorcerers, the use of Shabtis, and later stories, including Lucian and the inspiration for Fantasia. This also includes priests, heale...

Constructed and Fictional Languages in Science Fiction

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
The use of fictional languages in science fiction from the good to the bad. This includes fully constructed languages, references to constructed and foreign languages, as well as misuse or misunderstandings of language change. How these subtle points contribute to or detract from world building. Thi...

Egyptian Book of the Dead

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
This module would be an introduction to the Egyptian Book of the Dead without presuming a knowledge of Egyptian Hieroglyphs. We would read about and discuss the origins, transmission, context, and look closely at some different examples.

Egyptian Demons

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
Introduction to the non-god, non-human, entities in ancient Egypt. Demons were guardians, messengers, and performed other duties, usually as intermediaries between the gods and men. We will consider the category of “demon”, their roles, descriptions, and how they changed over time in the Egyptian wo...

Egyptian Hieroglyphs for Beginners Series of 7

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
The Hieroglyphics series will present students with a basic understanding of Egyptian hieroglyphs, grammar, and knowledge about how to proceed with further study. In this series of 4 modules, we will discuss how to translate steles that you are likely to encounter in museums, as well as their cultur...

Geology of Fictional Worlds

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
This course introduces the student to the various aspects of geology and how they can relate to worldbuilding and mapmaking. This includes continents, plate tectonics, mountains, water, glaciers, planetary patterns, the distribution of rock types and natural resources, natural disasters and weather...

Introduction to Ancient Magic Non-Sequential Series

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
This is the Landing Page for Prof. Shawn Gaffney's series exploring Ancient Magic. Introduction to Ancient Magic: The Earliest Magic provides a short survey of the earliest known magical texts and objects, including the Pyramid texts, Sumerian exorcism spells, and objects used in dif...

Introduction to Historical Linguistics/Language Change

Lecture-based Low intensity
Why do people increasingly find Shakespeare challenging to read? Why do we translate Beowulf? How did Latin become Spanish, Italian, French, and other languages? Languages change over time. They are affected by internal and external factors. Many of these changes are recorded, and some fairly...

Introduction to Language Classification and Families

Lecture-based Low intensity
How do we group and categorize languages? What does it mean that two languages are related? What is a parent language? Which languages are more closely related and which are not? Some languages are genetically related, meaning they have a common origin, while others are typologically similar, in th...

Introduction to Language Contact

Lecture-based Low intensity
Languages come in contact with each other all the time and have done so throughout history. Many of the patterns that emerge from language contact have been studied and can provide some explanation for what happens. Why do English and Spanish drive out some languages? What happens when one language,...

Introduction to Morphology

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
Morphology is the study of how words are formed and the meaning in their constituent parts. In this module we will explore English morphology first, to build up a vocabulary of useful terms and ideas, and then move on to other languages, both familiar and rare. We will examine different strategies t...

Introduction to Phonetics

Lecture-based Low intensity
Phonetics is the study of speech sounds (and, in the case of sign languages, how gestures reflect their own meaning). We will explore how sounds are made and heard. Our goal will be to understand the IPA, or International Phonetic Alphabet, how to listen to and write out English, as well as to exp...

Introduction to Phonology

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
Phonology is the study of how languages organize their sounds. Each language has its own rules or constraints on what sounds they use, what combinations of sound are allowed, and how sounds change in different environments. This module will first look at some of the patterns of English but will the...

Introduction to Sociolinguistics

Lecture-based Low intensity
Sociolinguistics explores how society uses language. This includes how we view a “standard dialect”, how different groups of people or demographics use language differently from that dialect, how languages varies over geographic regions, and how we use language to create identity or exclude. We will...

Mesopotamian Demons

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Medium intensity
Demons have played a significant role in ancient cultures beyond just Egypt. Mesopotamia has its own set of liminal entities that reside somewhere between gods and man, with their own responsibilities and roles. This class will explore the features of these beings, including where they are first see...

The Other in the Ancient Egyptian World

Mixed Lecture/Discussion Low intensity
The Egyptians had a complex view of non-Egyptians. They were both threatening enemies but also potential Egyptians. This course will look at how the Egyptians viewed and depicted the other, the role of the other, and the change in many cases, of other to countryman. This will include a survey of art...

Weird Languages

Lecture-based Low intensity
Many people do not realize the variety of language structures and strange language phenomena that exist in the world's languages. This class will introduce a number of features that can be found across the globe. These include object agreement, verbs that necessarily encode the shape of items, ergat...