Intersession & Spring 2024 Courses
Introducing our Intersession and Spring semester course offerings! As always, we have exciting new options as well as returning favorites. Check out the full line-up of courses below!
While exploring Starr King, you can take any of these classes as a Special Student before you are fully enrolled. If you successfully complete the class and decide to enroll in one of our certificate or degree programs, this Special Student course will transfer. Spots for Special Students are limited and on an as-available basis. Learn more about registering as a Special Student here.
Intersession: January 8 – 26
Early Registration: November 6-17, 2023
General Registration: January 2-5, 2024
Late Registration: The first day of the course if there is no pre-work
- Beginner’s Meditation Workshop
- Multi-Religious Core Intensive: Amidst the Blessing of the Ancestors
- Speaking the Truth to Change: Preaching in A Changing World
Spring Semester
Early Registration: November 6-17, 2023
General Registration: January 16-26, 2024
Late Registration: January 29 – February 9, 2024
- 19th Century Roots of UU Prophetic Witness
- Advanced Topics in Creating Counter-Oppressive Content (New! Just added!)
- Advanced Topics in Gender & Religion
- Advanced Topics in Meditation
- Advanced Topics in Rituals (New! Just Added!)
- Advanced Topics in Spiritual Practices/Depth Psychology (New! Just Added!)
- Depth Psychology for Chaplains
- ECO Core
- Engaging Moral Injury (New! Just Added!)
- Introduction to African Religions (New! Just Added!)
- Introduction to Ethics: Theory and Application
- Multi-Religious Dialogue (New! Just Added!)
- Power, Organizations, and Movements
- Queering Ecclesiology and Rites
- UU Liturgy and Worship Arts
- UU Theologies
- White Supremacy and Religion (New! Just Added!)
Scroll down to learn more about each course!
Intersession
Beginner’s Meditation Workshop
Dr. Som Pourfarzaneh
Mondays, January 8-29, 5:00 – 6:30 pm PT
This online synchronous course will introduce basic meditation techniques with an emphasis on self-care. Participants will learn foundational elements of sitting meditation, including correct posture and body alignment, followed by methods for progressive relaxation and mindfulness of the breath. The series will also offer tools for setting up a daily practice and a brief introduction to moving meditation. Learn more!
Multi-Religious Core Intensive: Amidst the Blessing of the Ancestors
Taya Mâ Shere
Monday-Friday, January 22-26, 9:30 am – 3:30 pm PT
This online synchronous 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. Learn more!
Speaking the Truth to Change: Preaching in A Changing World
Rev. Leslie Takahashi
Monday-Friday, January 22-26, 2:30 – 5:00 pm PT
The world of faith and spiritual exploration is changing in almost every way and in the middle of this, those in ministry need to be able to compel, inspire, comfort and care. One of the main tools for this is speaking, known as preaching in many faith traditions. This half-credit course will explore the ways this form is changing and how we speak to people from different generations, backgrounds and experiences. Learn more!
Spring
19th Century Roots of UU Prophetic Witness
Rev. Dr. Meg Richardson
Asynchronous Online
This asynchronous online course will locate the roots of Unitarian Universalist Prophetic Witness in nineteenth century social justice concerns: abolition, education, prison reform, utopian communities, suffrage, temperance, humane treatment of animals, civil disobedience, and poverty. We will also explore the nineteenth Unitarian and Universalist influence on Biblical Criticism, literature, philosophy, music, and art. Learn more!
Advanced Topics in Creating Counter-Oppressive Content
Dr. Som Pourfarzaneh
Mondays, 2:10 – 3:00 pm PT
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 content. It will serve as a container for student work on creating and disseminating content that counters oppression is its various forms. Learn more!
Advanced Topics in Gender & Religion
Dr. Ashley London Bacchi
Every Other Wednesday, 2:10 – 5:00 pm PT
This synchronous online course will explore ancient and modern constructions of gender and how that impacts an understanding of sacred texts, not only in questions of translation and gender performance but in the pressing need for safe inclusive spaces. Learn more!
Advanced Topics in Meditation
Dr. Som Pourfarzaneh
Second Mondays, 5:00 – 6:30 pm PT
This online synchronous course will build upon the basic foundations of meditation and introduce methods for developing concentration, encouraging self-care, and taking one’s practice into the workplace to be of best benefit to one’s self and others. The series will offer tools for strengthening an existing daily practice and resources for further learning and discovery. Learn more!
Advanced Topics in Rituals
Taya Shere
Day and Time TBD
This seminar style course will be developed in collaboration with the research interests of the participants, and is structured as a supervised independent study/SKIL. Class meets monthly – time TBD among registered participants – for feedback, check-in and accountability support. Each student will develop their syllabus and reading list and course of study with the instructor’s guidance, and the entire class will be a resource for one another and benefit from the collective learning. Learn more!
Advanced Topics in Spiritual Practices/Depth Psychology
Rev. Dr. Pamela D. Hancock
Day and Time TBD
This online synchronous course is a peer group seminar for students seeking deeper engagement with specific spiritual practices (such as a deep dive into a particular method of interest) or Depth Psychological topics (such as Active Imagination or shadow work). Like a SKIL, students develop unique learning arcs and outcomes in partnership with and approved by the instructor within the first two weeks of the term. Learn more!
Depth Psychology for Chaplains
Rev. Dr. Pamela D. Hancock
Thursdays, 9:40 am – 12:30 pm PT
This course is intended to provide the psychological grounding for those going into Chaplaincy to understand the complexity of the human condition. Topics included will be: the religious function of the psyche, ego development, and psychological issues that may arise when ministering to people. Learn more!
ECO Core
Dr. Shannon Frediani
Wednesdays, 2:10 – 5:00 pm PT
In this synchronous online course, students work together to form a framework for counter-oppressive spiritual leadership. 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. Learn more!
Engaging Moral Injury
Rev. Dr. Gabriella Lettini
Asynchronous Online
The concept of moral injury strives to address the deep spiritual wounds experienced by many – as perpetrators, victims, or witnesses, – in the context of war, violence and injustice. In this interdisciplinary seminar, we will critically engage different definitions of moral injury related to the spiritual wounds of war and military occupation, and explore the uses and the redefinitions of moral injury in relation to other issues involving systemic violence and oppression, addressed intersectionally. Learn more!
Introduction to African Religions
Rev. Keyona Lazenby
Thursdays, 2:10 – 5:00 pm PT
This introductory synchronous online course explores indigenous and traditional African and African diasporic religions and spiritual traditions, focusing on how indigenous epistemologies move beyond the spirit, mind, and body paradigm to foster the “Sacred Hospitality” relationship between human, non-human species, Mother Earth, nature, and the elements. Learn more!
Introduction to Ethics: Theory and Application
Rev. Dr. Megan Visser
Mondays, 9:40 am – 12:30 pm PT
This online synchronous course is designed to introduce students to the study and practical application of ethics (moral philosophy). Content is focused on historical and cultural foundations of ethical theory and the application of ethics to address current and historical events and situations. Learn more!
Multi-Religious Dialogue
Dr. Som Pourfarzaneh
Wednesdays, 2:10 – 5:00 pm PT
This online synchronous course will present a framework for the practice of multi-religious dialogue, drawing upon contemporary texts and student experiences to understand interfaith engagement as non-binary and non-exclusive. Students will be encouraged to share their multi-religious perspectives to foster discussion about ways in which to engage in interfaith work among and between different traditions and understand dialogue from a variety of perspectives. Learn more!
Power, Organizations, and Movements
J. Tyson Casey
Mondays, 2:10 – 5:00 pm PT
The rationale of this synchronous, online course is to engage the interdependence of internal and collective power in contributing to organizations, movements, regeneration, and liberation. The course will explore specific approaches to social change through various perspectives of power, organization, and movement. This includes the phenomena that contribute to and are perpetuated by interlocking patterns of domination. Learn more!
Queering Ecclesiology and Rites
Dr. Hugo Cordova Quero
Asynchronous Online
Across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, we are witnessing the emergence of queer faith-based communities in very dissimilar contexts and with very different histories. Exploring the way that these communities address issues of ecclesiology and rites would help students to explore the ways that our global village is moving in terms of the intersections among religion, gender, and sexuality. Learn more!
UU Liturgy and Worship Arts
Rev. John Buehrens
Thursdays, 9:40 am – 12:30 pm PT
This online synchronous course introduces students to the history, theory, and practice of Unitarian Universalist liturgy, worship, and rites of passage with an emphasis on worship in emerging multicultural, multigenerational, mutually liberatory congregations. Topics include weekly worship services and annual congregational celebrations as well as weddings, memorials, child dedications, and other rites of passage. Learn more!
UU Theologies
Rev. John Buehrens
Asynchronous Online
The purpose of this asynchronous course is to introduce the student to the distinctive theological heritage and theological perspectives present within Unitarian Universalist traditions and congregations, and to equip students to begin to think and write theologically in the context of post-modern religious communities. Especially oriented to students who identify as Unitarian Universalists, this course will encourage participants to form a practice of engaged theological thinking within the context of Unitarian Universalism’s particular perspectives, resources, limits, and possibilities. Learn more!
White Supremacy and Religion
Rev. Rebecca Ann Parker
Tuesdays, 9:40 am – 12:30 pm PT
Religion has been and continues to be a primary energizing force for white supremacy. In this synchronous online course for MASC, MDiv, Chaplaincy students and Community Members, we will study the religious underpinnings of white supremacy and the contemporary rise of Christian Nationalism. Learn more!