September 2026 Modules

Join Dr. Irina Manea on an amazing journey through Ancient Scandinavia, a true "laboratory" for investigating the development of human societies from the melting of the ice sheets to the dawn of the medieval world.

In this module, we'll explore together how a barren land, freshly exposed by retreating glaciers around 13,000 BC, was pioneered by resilient hunter-gatherers and eventually transformed into the seat of powerful Norse kingdoms. We begin with the Late Paleolithic foragers and hunters who settled the Norwegian coast by boat with remarkable speed, covering over 2,000 km in just a few centuries. We walk the road to farming, leading to a landscape defined by tens of thousands of megalithic tombs and the mastery of polished flint technology. Reaching the shining Nordic Bronze Age, we discover a period of expansive dynamism where an elite warrior class funded a spectacular culture of gold and bronze by monopolising the international amber trade and financing long-distance sea voyages. From the Tollense Valley battlefield to the ritual weapon sacrifices found in Danish bogs, we witness the formation of "central places" like Uppåkra and Gudme in the Iron Age, multifunctional hubs where powerful rulers controlled trade, religion, and the military centuries before the first true towns appeared.

Although best known for its Viking Age, Scandinavia boasts an enormously rich prehistory well worth investigating.

Week 1: Deep prehistory
Week 2: The first farmers: Neolithic Scandinavia
Week 3: Of art and war: the Nordic Bronze Age
Week 4: Secrets of the Iron Age

This sixth-month programme consists of six individual learning modules, and each module entails eight lessons spread over four weeks. The focus of these modules is three-fold.

The modules introduce, in a relaxed and stepwise manner, the essential grammar of the Latin language— from the basics of noun declensions (Module 1) to the uses of the subjunctive (Module 6). Grammar is not an end in itself but helps us to understand texts in a more accurate manner and to become more fluent. The grammar which you will learn roughly follows the order prescribed by Shelmerdine’s Introduction to Latin (second edition only), which will serve as textbook throughout the modules.

Across six modules, your Latin vocabulary will grow to roughly 2,000–3,000 words. The preceptor will also tailor, to an extent, the vocabulary you learn in accordance with your specific subject interests (see below).

We will learn to enjoy reading basic Latin texts, including adaptations of original Latin texts (as your level increases), modern texts and literature in Latin (such as The Hobbit or simply daily news), and tailored texts which I will create according to your own interests (whether philosophy, art, Tolkien-based, science, or anything else really).

In a given week, the basic idea is for the first lesson to be more instructional, focused on explaining key grammatical constructions, while the second lesson will take the form of a workshop, where we will translate passages together and discuss any issues, and where the preceptor can help answer questions from homework assignments. Depending on the class’s interests, we can also divide into groups.

Note: "Basic Latin" does not involve translating English into Latin (so-called ‘prose composition’) or learning how to speak Latin (oral communication). Both of these are higher-level competencies, which you might encounter in intermediate or advanced Latin courses.

Key grammatical topics by module (not exhaustive):

• Module 1:
  • Basic parts of speech, introductory syntax, nouns and cases, present-tense verbs, adverbs and prepositions (Shelmerdine, Chapters 1–4)
• Module 2:
  • Adjectives, functions of the cases, imperfect and future tenses, noun declensions, personal pronouns, verb conjugations (Chapters 5–8)
• Module 3:
  • Verb conjugations, demonstrative pronouns, case usage, perfect-system tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future perfect), subordinate clauses (Chapters 9–12)
• Module 4:
  • Relative pronouns and clauses, passive voice across tenses, more complex sentence structures, additional noun declensions (Chapters 13–16)
• Module 5:
  • Participles, relative clauses (continued), interrogative pronouns, infinitives, indirect statements, irregular verbs (Chapters 17–20)
• Module 6:
  • Comparison and degree, deponent verbs, additional irregular verbs, introduction to the present subjunctive and its uses (Chapters 21–24)

We will meet to blend learning, discussion, and playing games with reading, appreciating, and commenting on one another’s work as it is submitted for peer review. Writers are encouraged—but never required—to submit new pieces in any state of draftiness or readiness up to 2,000 words each week for peer reading and feedback. Our Collaborative Feedback method, developed here at Signum University, asks us to comment at the author's comfort level through a structured reader (not editor) response. We gather to encourage the story that the author wants to tell. Our philosophy of kindness first might just turn around your previous experience of writing groups.

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

This course explores how fantasy worlds are created across literature, film, and games. The foundational idea is Tolkien's concept of subcreation and the idea of the "secondary world". Through lectures and discussion of excerpts from other books and articles about world building, we will explore what fantasy worlds are, how they are built, and the cultural and importance of these worlds. Through examination and discussion of fantasy texts excerpts we will explore how these concepts apply. We will look at excerpts from Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Phillip Pullman’s The Golden Compass, and N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season, but no previous knowledge of these stories will be necessary for the course.

This module is intended to be accessible to anyone interested in reading, watching, or playing fantasy and those who compose it themselves. Its primary drive is to give students a deeper understanding of the genre, its roots, and its capacity as a narrative device.

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

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Session 1: What is a Fantasy World? (Tolkien and the Secondary World). Exploring Tolkien's idea of subcreation and what makes fantasy world feel real.
	Session 2: How world are built. How setting, history, and internal logic shape immersive fantasy worlds.
Week 2	Session 3: Different Ways Fantasy Worlds Work. Exploring how fantasy can operate in different modes and structures.
	Session 4: Fantasy and Reality. How Fantasy Relates to the real world and what it reveals about it.
Week 3	Session 5: Why fantasy matters. The cognitive and imaginative value of fantasy and why we engage with it.
	Session 6: Case study- The Fifth Season. Examining how modern fantasy builds complex and original worlds.
Week 4	Session 7: Case study- The Golden Compass: Looking at world building across literature and adaptation.
	Session 8: Case Study- The Lord of the Rings: Examining generational story telling through myth, fantasy, and multimedia adaptation.

Unlock the secrets of medieval buildings—real and imagined! Step into a world of soaring cathedrals, fortified castles, sacred wells, and the fantastical architecture of Chaucer’s imagination.

In this course, we’ll explore how medieval structures were built, used, and imagined, learning to “read” their stories, symbolism, and hidden messages. From dramatic sieges to miraculous springs, from intricate stained glass to impossible fictional spaces, you’ll gain the tools to explore medieval architecture on your own, uncovering the stories that these remarkable buildings have been telling for centuries.

Course Outline:

Week One
• Session 1: The Temple of Solomon and Heavenly Jerusalem
• Session 2: A church for Saint James in the Field of Stars
Week Two
• Session 3: Under Siege
• Session 4: Chaucer’s murals and the Italian Trecento: Chaucer's The Knight’s Tale
Week Three
• Session 5: Chaucer’s The House of Fame
• Session 6: Reading Stained Glass at Chartres
Week Four
• Session 7: Sacred Wells and their Shrines
• Session 8: Reading St. Mary’s Church in Iffley, Oxfordshire
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Quite a few people have heard of Karl Marx and Marxism, but far less have ever stopped to learn what Marxism is really all about. Is it simply an economic theory, or a political movement? Is it a philosophy of history, or just a critique of capitalism? Why has it shaped revolutions, labor movements, academic disciplines, and political debates across the world for more than 150 years? For some, it represents the dream of economic democracy and liberation from exploitation. For others, it evokes authoritarianism, failed states, and political repression.

This introductory course explores the foundations of Marxist thought in a clear, simple, and accessibly grounded way. Through four pre-recorded lectures and four discussion sessions, students will learn and discuss the core concepts developed by Karl Marx and later Marxist thinkers, including ideas like class struggle, historical materialism, exploitation, alienation, ideology, revolution, and socialism. The course will also provide an introductory examination of how Marxists understand capitalism, why they believe economic systems shape society and politics, and how Marxist ideas evolved through labor struggles, anti-colonial movements, and debates within the socialist tradition itself. We will end through looking at how Marxism has touched other disciplines beyond economics, culminating in a critique of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings through the lens of Marxist literary criticism. No prior background in philosophy, economics, or political theory is required or needed, just your curiosity.

The module approaches Marxism through historical and scholarly analysis rather than political advocacy. Students will critically examine Marxist ideas, their historical development, and their influence on contemporary debates.

Whether you are sympathetic to Marxism, skeptical of it, or simply interested in understanding one of the most important intellectual movements of the modern world, this course will provide the tools to think critically and historically about capitalism, socialism, and the future of human society.

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

Outline	8-Session Structure
Week 1	Session 1: The World of Karl Marx: History, Class, and Struggle
	Session 2: Discussion Session 1
Week 2	Session 3: Capitalism and Exploitation
	Session 4: Discussion Session 2
Week 3	Session 5: Revolution, the State, and Socialist Transitions
	Session 6: Discussion Session 3
Week 4	Session 7: Marxism Beyond Marx: Sociology, Literary Criticism, and The Lord of the Rings
	Session 8: Discussion Session 4

This module explores the fourth book in the series: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020).

Series Outline:

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 Suzanne Collins.

In this hybrid series, each week will include one lecture and one live discussion. The lectures will examine the inspirations behind, allusions in, and questions posed by that month's novel. In live discussions, participants will share their insights on, interpretations of, and reactions to the story. Together we will consider why this series has spoken to so many readers and explore how its messages remain relevant today.

Students will be asked to read one book over the course of each month in whatever format they choose. All of these novels are available in print, ebook, and audio format.

(Warning: The Hunger Games series include descriptions - for a young-adult audience - of substance abuse, physical abuse, violence, and death.)

Series Outline:

• Module 1: The Hunger Games (2008)

• Module 2: Catching Fire (2009)

• Module 3: Mockingjay (2010)

• Module 4: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (2020)

• Module 5: Sunrise on the Reaping (2025)

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.

While the idea of establishing an ‘actual’ utopia has been disparaged since the first half of the twentieth century from socio-political perspectives (e.g. the failed age of ideology from 1917-1945), literary and related cultural narratives have a long history of imagining and representing utopia (also paradise, the golden age, etc.). These utopias often function to criticize the problematic social norms and climates of their times as well as providing progressive imaginings for a better future, often based on certain ideals or virtues. In this module, we go on a chronological tour of different representations of utopia, including: the paleolithic utopia of hunter-gatherers (e.g. as discussed in Harari’s Homo Sapiens) (before 10,000 BC), the Bronze Age utopia of Minoan Crete (4000-1400 BCE), Plato’s mythical island of Atlantis (ca 400 BC), the pastoral utopia of the Roman poet Virgil (ca 40 BC), the New World utopia of Sir Thomas More (1516), the Enlightened, reasoned utopia of Robinson Crusoe (1719), Tolkien’s fantasy utopia of Númenor (ca 1940), and more.

Fairy Tales enchant us; they remind us to take a fresh view on daily life; and while many Andersen's tales are filled with sorrow, their beautiful and vivid imagery never ceases to amaze us. We will examine the works of Hans Christian Andersen from the perspective of creative writers, learning from this timeless storyteller. In one meeting, Pilar Barrera will lift up Andersen’s tales which demonstrate different themes or specifics of his craft. Then students work on their own stories, learning by experimenting with Andersen’s techniques. In the following meeting, Sparrow Alden will facilitate a workshop-style discussion of our original tale-telling work; we'll encourage one another as writers and appreciate one another as readers, then the cycle repeats. Our goal is to complete the month with a deeper appreciation for the tales we all love and a folder with one to four good drafts of original tales.

Course Outline:

Week One
• Session 1: Intro to Andersen’s Classic Tales
• Session 2: Writers’ Workshop
Week Two
• Session 3: Andersen’s Tales of Personification
• Session 4: Writers’ Workshop
Week Three
• Session 5: Andersen’s Larger than Life Themes
• Session 6: Writers’ Workshop
Week Four
• Session 7: Andersen’s Darker Side
• Session 8: Writers’ Workshop
*Note: For more information about the supportive Collaborative Feedback Method in SPACE Creative Writing, please check out our video here: Collaborative Feedback Method .
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“And there abide the ghosts of those that may not rest; and there wander the dwarfs and the mountain-dwellers, the dealers in marvels, the givers of gifts that destroy Houses…”

Over two months, let’s read The Roots of the Mountains by William Morris!

Ensconced at the roots of the mountains, the peaceful Dalemen are craftspeople, woodsmen and shepherds. Only the restless Face-of-God dares to roam beyond the safe confines of his village. In the wilds, he soon discovers his world is far from safe, as the Huns are poised to invade Dale and cast its people into slavery.

Taking up his sword alongside the beautiful Sun-Beam, Face-of-God vows to protect his folk at any cost. Only by bringing together the disparate tribes of the Dale do they have any hope of victory.

William Morris returns to the world of wights and shield maidens. An epic of bravery and sacrifice, imbued with a deep love of Norse myth, Morris revives the medieval romance tradition where true love endures against terrible foes.

Beer has been humanity’s traveling companion since before the dawn of agriculture. For millennia, this simple beverage has evolved alongside us, serving as wages and currency, as a source of safe and stable food and drink, as a spiritual stimulant and oath-sealant, and as a spark for industrial and scientific development. Each of these and other uses are accompanied by stories: tales of individuals, communities, and countries whose fortunes rose and fell alongside beer. It is truly humanity's drink: from the lowliest serf to the greatest kings, it has followed and filled us.

This module includes two cords: along with learning the history entwined with this beer, we will also explore the craft of homebrewing. As we learn about its various components, we gain an applied-scientific understanding of their purposes and dive deep into the cultures that helped discover their uses. You will gain practical knowledge of how to create delicious beers in your own home, with tips and tricks from an experienced home and professional brewer. The final "project" of each module is to create a style-appropriate beer from a menu of culturally-specific recipes.

(Note: While this is a single SPACE module, it is intended to be run as a new course each time, with a different cultural focus and therefore new menu of recipes.)

Although they were never completed in his lifetime, JRR Tolkien wrote what he considered his three "Great Tales" of the Elder Days and intended them to be a significant part of his wider Silmarillion. These Tales are The Tale of Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin, and The Fall of Gondolin. Some parts of these Tales can be found within the published version of The Silmarillion, but the more recently available individual books provide additional and extensive details for each story.

In this course, we will have a ‘read-along’ discussion of The Fall of Gondolin. Each session we will consider our close reading of a section of the story, examining Tolkien’s use of language and narrative structure, as well as exploring ideas about what each Tale tells us about Tolkien’s secondary world.

Access to a copy of The Fall of Gondolin will be necessary, and you may find having a copy of The Silmarillion very useful.

Although they were never completed in his lifetime, JRR Tolkien wrote what he considered his three "Great Tales" of the Elder Days and intended them to be a significant part of his wider Silmarillion. These Tales are The Tale of Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin, and The Fall of Gondolin. Some parts of these Tales can be found within the published version of The Silmarillion, but the more recently available individual books provide additional and extensive details for each story.

In this course, we will have a ‘read-along’ discussion of The Fall of Gondolin. Each session we will consider our close reading of a section of the story, examining Tolkien’s use of language and narrative structure, as well as exploring ideas about what each Tale tells us about Tolkien’s secondary world.

Access to a copy of The Fall of Gondolin will be necessary, and you may find having a copy of The Silmarillion very useful.

Although they were never completed in his lifetime, JRR Tolkien wrote what he considered his three "Great Tales" of the Elder Days and intended them to be a significant part of his wider Silmarillion. These Tales are The Tale of Beren and Lúthien, The Children of Húrin, and The Fall of Gondolin. Some parts of these Tales can be found within the published version of The Silmarillion, but the more recently available individual books provide additional and extensive details for each story.

In this course, we will have a ‘read-along’ discussion of The Fall of Gondolin. Each session we will consider our close reading of a section of the story, examining Tolkien’s use of language and narrative structure, as well as exploring ideas about what each Tale tells us about Tolkien’s secondary world.

Access to a copy of The Fall of Gondolin will be necessary, and you may find having a copy of The Silmarillion very useful.