Course Descriptions
Field Education
Clinical Pastoral Education
This course is for Starr King students engaged in part-time or full-time Clinical Pastoral Education. Participate in ministry to persons in crisis and engage in individual and group reflection. Didactic sessions draw together theoretical material from theology, the behavioral sciences, and pastoral care. Students learn to integrate theological understanding and knowledge of behavioral science with pastoral functioning. Upon completion, a written evaluation from the program supervisor will be placed into the student’s permanent file. Discuss CPE with your advisor and then faculty. Final evaluation from CPE supervisor needs to be sent to faculty by the last day of the semester to receive credit. Students are responsible for applying for and securing a place in a CPE program. Please check the SKSM Student Handbook for more information.
CPE is taken for variable credit (between 1-10 credits).
Relates to SKSM Threshold 5 and MFC Competency 2.
Session
January Intersession 2020
Instructors
Course Type
Field Education
Location
No Location
Course ID
FE 4012
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
1-10
Community Field Work
Field work describes an involvement in community work for up to 15 hours a week with the ongoing support of a mentor. Community Field Work includes work in gender, racial and economic justice, queer activism, disability advocacy, immigration issues, environmental responsibility, civil liberties protection, HIV response, youth at risk, peace building, participating in a fundraising campaign for a non for profit or grassroots organization, chaplaincy, teaching and more. Students should discuss the field work opportunity with their advisor before making arrangements with the professor. Student and community mentor will discuss and sign a learning agreement at the outset of the field work experience. Midterm and final student/mentor evaluations will also be required by midterm and the end of term. All forms are available on the SKSM website. Please see Student Handbook and Contextual Education Handbook for more information.
This field work is taken for variable credit (between 0.5-5 credits)
Relevance for specific SKSM thresholds and MFC competencies varies according to the nature of a student’s field experience.
Session
January Intersession 2020
Instructors
Course Type
Field Education
Location
No Location
Course ID
FE 4061
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
0.5-5
Congregational Field Work
Fieldwork is an opportunity to put into action the theory learned in the classroom. Working in a congregation
gives the student a chance to develop their unique pastoral voice while navigating complexities of a congregation’s history, culture, systems and ethos. Fieldwork placements may include: teaching a religious education class for children or adults, working with a youth group, serving on a pastoral care team, participating in a stewardship campaign and more. Evaluation is based on Zoom conversations with professor, midterm and final evaluations. This course is for M.Div. students. Depending on the focus of the Field Work, your project may relate to Starr King thresholds 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8 and MFC requirements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. This is taken for variable credit (between .5-3 credits)
Session
January Intersession 2020
Instructors
Course Type
Field Education
Location
No Location
Course ID
FE 4051
Faculty Approval Required
Yes
Units
0.5-3
Immersion
No courses found
Intensive
Befriending the Bible
This course is designed to serve as an introduction to the Bible for persons who are curious about biblical literature but who do not identify any given canon as authoritative for their spiritual practice. It is suitable for candidates for ordained UU ministry, non-Christian religious progressives, seekers, and skeptics. Participants will learn the origins, development, and content of Israelite/Jewish and Christian texts and will identify both theological and academic methods of interpretation. Utilizing the metaphor of “befriending” the Bible, students will explore how these scriptures have both supported and hindered emancipatory social change, and will consider methods of engaging this complex anthology in their personal lives and spiritual communities.
Relevant for SKSM Thresholds 1, 3, and 6; MFC Competency 3.
Session
January Intersession 2020
Dates
1/21/20 – 1/25/20
Instructors
Course Type
Intensive
Location
Starr King Campus (Oakland, CA)
Days
T / W / Th / F / Sa
Time
9:00am-5:00pm
Course ID
BS-4072
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
3
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ChI Spiritual Traditions 1
Global Spiritual Traditions 1: for joint-program students participating in Chaplaincy Institute (ChI) modules as part of the Interfaith Studies Certificate. The first of a two-part series that introduces students to ChI’s core philosophy and learning approach as well as an introduction to World Religions and/or spiritual paths that have their origins in earth-centered, indigenous practice (Africa, Pagan, First Nation and other indigenous worldviews), as well as ancient Eastern philosophy and belief systems (Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism). While engaging with the world’s knowledge, beliefs, traditions, scriptures, and practices, the ChI curriculum incorporates lecture, dyad/small group work, various art modalities, and site visits to deepen our many ways of learning and integrating new awareness.
This course is only for students who have been admitted to the SKSM-ChI joint program and is not available to other SKSM students or to students from other GTU schools. This course does not count toward residency requirements. Meets Feb. 19-23 + additional online coursework. Relevant for SKSM thresholds 1, 2, and 6; MFC competency 3.
Session
January Intersession 2020
Dates
1/21/20 – 1/25/20
Instructors
Course Type
Intensive
Location
Off-site
Days
M / T / W / Th / F
Time
9am - 5pm
Course ID
HR 1100
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
3
Counter-Oppressive Media
This course will present an overview of developing a counter-oppressive popular media and technology framework that includes films, TV shows, comic books, video games, music, weblogs, streaming services, social network platforms, and other forms of infotainment. It will also foster discussion about the ways in which different forms of media are utilized both to reify and counter stereotyping, hegemony, discrimination, technology framework to disseminate content that works to counter oppression(s).
Course format and evaluation: seminar intensive, with final presentation and paper or media project that employs this media and intended audience: all degree programs.
Relates to Thresholds: Witness & Work, Educating for Wholeness & Liberation, Thea/ology in Culture & Context. Relates to MFC: Social Justice in the Public Square, Leads the Faith into the Future.
Prerequisite: ECO Core Intensive (RSFT 1017)
Session
January Intersession 2020
Dates
1/13/20 – 1/17/20
Instructors
Course Type
Intensive
Location
Starr King Campus (Oakland, CA)
Days
M / T / W / Th / F
Time
9:00am-5:00pm
Course ID
HRRS-2040
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
3
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ECO Core Intensive
Educating to “Create Just and Sustainable Communities that Counter Oppressions” (“ECO”) is a core goal of Starr King’s M.Div. and M.A.S.C. degree programs. In this required core intensive, M.Div. and M.A.S.C. students work together to form a framework for counter-oppressive spiritual leadership. We will ask: how can spirituality, ministry, and religious activism respond to the multiple and intersecting realities of injustice, suffering, and oppression in our lives and our world? What models of justice and sustainable community invite our commitment? Drawing on Unitarian Universalist and multi-religious sources, we will explore how in the midst of a world marked by tragedy, sorrow and injustice there remain abiding resources of beauty and grace that nourish resistance, offer healing and call us to accountability and community building. Reading and writing assignments to be completed before the course. Final paper. This course has a special focus on economic and racial justice addressed intersectionally. Relates to Thresholds #2,5,7 and 8 and MFC Competency #4. Please take within your first year.
Session
January Intersession 2020
Dates
1/13/20 – 1/17/20
Instructors
Course Type
Intensive
Location
No Location
Days
M / T / W / Th / F
Time
9:00am-5:00pm
Course ID
RSFT-1017
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
3.0
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Introduction to Preaching in a Cross Cultural Context
Introduction to Preaching in a Cross Cultural Context: This non-lectionary, thematic preaching course embraces counter oppressive ministry through worship and the arts. Hands on learning will combine the sharing and peer review of brief homilies with exercises aimed at identifying your authentic preaching voice. Each student will also deliver two full-length sermons in class. Questions of how to make our worship services more relevant in today’s culturally shifting world will be explored through thea/ological study of homiletics through a liberatory lens and an engagement with issues of cultural appropriation and misappropriation in Unitarian Universalist liturgical practice. Students from all traditions welcome.
Pre-requisites: ECO core intensive or equivalent. Relates to Starr King thresholds 1, 2, 6 and 7, and MFC Competency 1. This course is high residency only. [10 max enrollment; Auditors excluded]
Session
January Intersession 2020
Dates
1/21/20 – 1/25/20
Instructors
Course Type
Intensive
Location
Starr King Campus (Oakland, CA)
Days
T / W / Th / F / Sa
Time
9am-5pm
Course ID
HMLS 4075
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
3
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Multireligious Intensive
Multireligious Intensive: Amidst the Blessing of the Ancestors weaves teachings on organic multireligiosity from Ibrahim Baba (Dr. Ibrahim Farajae) with practices of ancestor reverence and healing. According to Ibrahim Baba, organic multiregliosity “interrupts practices of considering religions as monolithic, rigidly-separated traditions in conflict with one another [and] rather understands them as having complex and constantly-morphing relationships in successive generations and in ever-widening geographical and cultural contexts.”
This intensive focuses on embodying multireligiosity in personal practice, tending multireligiosity in spiritual leadership and public worship, and engaging multireligiosity toward countering oppression and cultural (mis)appropriation. The intensive also engages embodied practice around ancestor reverence and healing – in spiritual lineage and family / blood lineage – as a way of anchoring multireligious expression, countering oppression, and aligning to blessing. Each day of the intensive combines conceptual exploration of multireligiosity, embodied practice of counter-oppressive devotion and tending work in ancestral lineage ritual and repair. Course texts include multi-media selections from Ibrahim Baba, readings by Adrienne Maree Brown on intersectionality and emergent strategy, and Ancestral Medicine by Daniel Foor. Prior to the intensive, students are expected to complete select readings as well as to submit a reflection paper on personal experiences of multireligiosity and ancestral tending. At the completion of the course, students submit a second reflection paper weaving their learnings and experiences in the intensive.
This course relates to SKSM Thresholds 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and MFC Comps 1, 3, 4
Session
January Intersession 2020
Dates
1/6/20 – 1/10/20
Instructors
Course Type
Intensive
Location
No Location
Days
M / T / W / Th / F
Time
9:00am-5:00pm
Course ID
ISD-1400
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
3
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SKSM Symposium
Starr King’s 8th Annual Symposium, will be held January 11th, 2020.
This urban retreat is an annual gathering of entire student body, faculty, staff, trustees, and friends for a day of learning, ritual, celebration, food, music, community-building and service. The academic course is required for all SKSM students: M.Div candidates must register for at least two Symposia and MASC students for one. Students who have completed their Symposium academic credit are welcome to attend the event without registering for course credit.
Symposium registration is a two (2) step process: (1) Enroll for the Symposium as a course through Populi to ensure course credit AND (2) Complete a separate event registration form on the SKSM Symposium web page. In order to obtain credit, students must read all required readings before Symposium, participate fully in the event, and complete the reflection paper, which must be submitted to your advisor.
Session
January Intersession 2020
Dates
1/11/20 – 1/11/20
Instructors
Course Type
Intensive
Location
No Location
Days
Sa
Time
9:30am-5:00pm
Course ID
IDS-4205
Faculty Approval Required
No
Units
.5
Sociology of Religion
What does religion do? What can religion show us about the history, culture and context of a group or population? How is religious experience shaped, transformed and reconfigured in society? This course introduces the ways in which social scientists have analyzed religious beliefs, practices, rituals and culturals as social phenomena. Using a counter-oppressive framework, students will analyze religion in the context of institutions, politics, community and other social structures. Students will learn classic and contemporary theories and approaches to the sociological study of religion and develop their own informed questions for further research and intellectual inquiry. Assignments include student-led discussion of readings, a community-based engagement activity and a visual religious culture projects.
Prerequisite: ECO, multi-religious intensive, or prior course in sociology. Week-long intensive, 9AM-4PM with 1-2 evenings field trips. High residency.
Relates to Thresholds 1 and 3, MFC competency 6.
Session
January Intersession 2020
Dates
1/6/20 – 1/10/20
Instructors
Course Type
Intensive
Location
Starr King Campus (Oakland, CA)
Days
M / T / W / Th / F
Time
9:00am-5:00pm
Course ID
RS-4310
Faculty Approval Required
No
Course Size
6 – 25
Units
3
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Online
No courses found
Residential
No courses found
Residential Hybrid
No courses found
Thesis/Final Project
No courses found